The day began at
Ria's Bluebird in Atlanta. The waiters were wearing stickers with peaches on them that had sad faces, a reaction to the elections the waiter told me. Good food.
Then I went to Stone Mountain, about 10 miles from Atlanta. It's a beautiful monument to the south's strange relationship with its own history. The actual mountain of stone has the world's largest bas relief picturing Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and of course, Jefferson Davis. Should you require a gift, go knowing they accept money from the United States, even if Davis isn't on it. Above, you can make out the carving, and to the right is a big pile of snow.
The carving was funded by one of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the KKK. It was so inspiring a place that the second coming of the KKK got off the ground there. According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong, a piece of granite from the mountain was sent to the people in charge of making a monument to Dr. Martin Luther King. Thankfully, that particular source of granite was declined.
It's fall, and the leaves were beautiful.
Now to the bridge. This was my favorite part of the park. I had this place to myself.
The park is beautiful, but it creeps me out to be in a place that openly celebrates such strange stuff. The cool waiter at RB told me that within the 85 in Atlanta, it's progressive, but anywhere else, I'm in The South. Strange.
