We woke up ready for a day of traveling, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed to the Robert C. Williams Institute of Paper Science & Technology located at Georgia Tech.
This nifty little museum inside of one of the buildings at Georgia Tech talks about the entire paper making process and talks about its history (especially in the United States).
From moving models, photographs, a short film, there is actually quite a bit to hold your interest in a relatively small area.
My favorite part was the wall showing different materials and what the paper from that product looks like. It's interesting to see how nice linen paper is compared to our traditional wood pulp paper of today. It's crazy to me to think that most of our paper used to be made from clothing rags! Why can't it be that way today too? Why must we destroy trees to make paper if it can be recycled and made from old clothes?
A bit of driving later, and Kris took me to Covington, Georgia. Covington is the actual location of Mystic Falls (the town from the CW's Vampire Diaries) & also has been used in filming Dukes of Hazard. Kris was able to take me around to see Mystic Grill, the facade of Elena's house (or what was once Elena's house before she burned it down), the outside of Tyler's house, and the outside of Gran's house. Cute little town.
We stopped in Madison for lunch at the TripAdvisor recommended Tequila Express Cafe. We had to wake up Adam.
This place is actually a Greek restaurant that has been decorated with part of the restaurant being a train. I saw an advertised special on their website so we were able to get a free trio sampler appetizer of their queso, beans, and Greek salsa with pita chips. Yum!
Adam did a good job flirting with the waitress, Melisa (or she felt bad about bringing him such a plain burger), as she surprised him with a huge piece of coconut cake. I sampled a bit, and it was full of earthy coconut flavor. I enjoyed the taste, but I don't like strings of coconut in my mouth so I let the boys make short work of it.
We made it to see a bronze James Brown statue in Columbia and wander around a square where I was captivated by the dilapidated brick facades of several old buildings - one of which was a Belk once upon a time.
We had to get gas for the first time. We really are enjoying the car. There was an interesting mural across from the gas station.
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| When in Georgia...Kris drinks peach soda. |
Also in the town, we made it to the Curse Pillar. Once upon a time, an evangelist who was forbidden to preach at the market cursed the market to doom, stating that only a pillar would remain. A tornado later destroyed the market leaving only the pillar. The pillar sits waiting for photographers to resurrect the tale. But linger we did not, as we had some other things to see.
One such delight was the Neverbust Chain Art, a 25 foot long chain sagging between two buildings.
Next up, the South Carolina Capitol Building. I really thought this was a special looking building. I love the material the dome was made from...simple, understated elegance.
In contrast, there was nothing understated about the World's Largest Fire Hydrant.
In the same parking lot as the hydrant stands Tunnelvision, a deceptively realistic tunnel entrance painted on the side of a building. The mural faces into the parking lot instead of the main thoroughfare to keep countless drunk drivers or idiots from driving into it.
We left Columbia, and Kris made a special detour for me to see J's Tea-riffic teapot museum in Elloree. It was, unfortunately, closed. However the awesome outside is in the shape of a teapot and seems to be a pretty hot tourist attraction. While there, another gentleman was taking photos of this awesome attraction with his phone.
Elloree is also the home of a former Army Air Force Warning Service building which we found next to the local public restroom.
Dinner was unspectacular fare at Perkins Family Restaurant in Summerville before we headed into Charleston for our free night's stay at the Comfort Suites North Charleston. This was a nice hotel that is bound to get nicer in just a few days as they finish their current renovation. We hit the unfortunate timing of getting there right when they were repaving their parking lot, so we had to park at a hotel next door and trek all of our stuff in. The new carpet is nice, the newly decorated rooms are quite nice and updated with comfortable bedding and really new televisions. The wifi was free and responsive, and the shower was hot with incredible water pressure.
They do need to learn the alphabet though.
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| Did anyone know there are two Rs in the alphabet? |
