Coming from Florida we soon cross the border to Georgia. Our next destination is Savannah where we want to spend a couple of days. Apart from swamp and a lot of private islands from rich people it’s not much to see on the highway in between.

Savannah is a city with a lot of flair and nice Southern style houses. We can stay on a parking lot in the city center where we can reach all major attractions by foot. We spend two days in town and stroll thru the nice streets and parks. Also, we don’t miss a scoop of ice cream in famous Café Leopold. But to get it you must queue half an hour but it’s really worth waiting. Also we celebrate our four years on the road on the 24th of March in a nice Pub in town.   

We continue our journey on the Atlantic coast up North to Charleston in South-Carolina. The city was founded in 1671 and named after King Charles II (Charles Town). 200 years ago the city was the major hub for slave trading who all landed here and were separated in public auctions. We also see very nice Southern style buildings but slowly we are exhausted from cities and want more loneliness. On the way out we make stop at the beautiful Magnolia plantation

We skip Myrtle Beach and go direction West. With a lot of driving and several stops in National Forests and State Parks we come to Atlanta a few days later. Here, we visit one of the largest aquariums in the world with more than 31.000 cubic meter Sweet and saltwater basins and over 100.000 animals. The highlights are four whale sharks, three Beluga whales and two Mantas.

After this we make a relatively uninteresting tour at CNN and stroll thru the World of Coca Cola. Interesting enough that you must pay an entrance fee for a pure advertising campaign. Next to all this is the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. In comparison to the aquarium or the Coca Cola world there is no long queue at the entrance but the exhibition is very impressive and clearly was our favorite for that day. Then we stroll a couple of hours thru the Olympic park before we say Good Bye to Atlanta. 

With the song from John Denver “take me home country rose” we continue our journey to the North of Georgia into the Blue ridge mountains. The area is one of the most visited regions in the United States but for a West European who knows the Alps, Bavaria and the Black Forest it’s not really a highlight and looks like at home. All campgrounds are full and so we make a stop at Toccoa and stay a couple of days on a campground together with locals and old veterans who live here for longer. We had a wonderful time there and enjoyed very much the talks with all the very friendly people. Thanks again to all of you for hosting us a few days. We really enjoyed it very much. Jimi, we hope you still enjoy babysitting but find time in between to follow us on Facebook or on our homepage.

In Hendersonville we visit Brenton and Shannon who we last met 2013 in Chile. They are now married and live here with her two years old daughter Emmeline. We spend a nice evening together with Shannons parents on her farm in the mountains. Thanks again for the warm welcome and the good time. 

We make a short stop in Ashville and stroll thru town among hundreds of other tourists and park for the night at the Casino Harrah’s. It’s Saturday night and all seats in the Casino are taken. We guess that more than 2000 people are around who are all happy to lose their money with Poker, Blackjack, Roulette etc.

Near-by is the Cherokee Indian Museum where we learn a lot about the culture and the Indian life 200 years ago.

We continue to the Smoky Mountain National Park and spend a few days with hiking in the area before we go on to Nashville. 

Nashville is the heart of country music. In downtown, every bar plays live music and all bands are excellent. There is no cover charge and so it’s easy to walk from one pub to the other and enjoy the music and the atmosphere. Usually the bands start already at 10am and play non-stop till 2am. One evening we visit a country classic concert in the Ryman auditorium but we found it a little bit disappointing. The walk thru the bars with all the bands was far more interesting and much better. 

To complete our concert tour we drive on to Memphis. We stay at the Graceland RV park direct next to Graceland the former house of Elvis which was developed to a gigantic destination for tourists. A very good audio tour leads to the house and the surrounding area. After this you can see the museum with Elvis’ automobiles, ward robe, gold records and more. In the evening, we visit the Beale Street which is the tourist mile in Memphis. Similar to Nashville they have live music all over but the atmosphere is completely different and we don’t want to be here late at night.  

Now it’s enough with city sight-seeing for the time being and we continue our journey direction West. But what we experience there is then part of the next blog. Until then enjoy reading and watching the pictures and like us on Facebook.