The end of the road

Allright folks, we're almost there... this is the last post from our road trip, and in one fell swoop also the last post from the States. Thanks for hanging on! (Is anyone still reading this anyway?)

Aight... this is Thursday, June 9th, and we've just woken up to a crisp clear day at the Buckhorn Inn in Gatlinburg. Srsly... I don't think I've ever had breakfast with a more stunning view.

Though the breakfast itself was also a thing of beauty... sigh.

We took the Newfound Gap road, which crosses the Smoky Mountains national park from the Tennessee side to the North Carolina side.




Once we had crossed the park, we drove through North Carolina, South Carolina, and eventually reached Savannah, Georgia, almost at the Atlantic coast. Savannah is still a major seaport, and used to be a center of cotton export. It's full of beautiful pre-civil war houses and squares shaded by old trees.

Spanish moss hangs from the trees, giving the whole city an eerie, mysterious feel. No wonder so many people think Savannah is haunted.

Despite the immense heat and humidity, people sit outside in Forsyth park, drumming the day away or participating in a knitting circle, like the ladies in the background.

This is Mercer house, the house where the murder happened on which John Berendt based his book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Savannah is full of these beautiful, lavish 19th century houses.
Though from time to time, something seems to be missing...






This was our room at Peacock house, a beautiful one-bedroom bed and breakfast run by Anthony and Mais, one of the most welcoming and authentic couples we've ever met.
In the afternoon, we stopped briefly at Bonaventure cemetery, one of Savannah's best-known attractions. What else would you expect from a self-proclaimed ghost town? But seriously, even in the broad daylight, the place feels eerie... after a quick walk, the heat and discomfortable feeling drove us back to our our-conditionad car and back on the road to Atlanta.





On Kobe's last day in Atlanta, we took a stroll in Piedmont park, my preferred spot for running in Atlanta.
We admired the size of the southern magnolias.
And the Central Park-esque view.
We had a refreshing lunch at Jason's deli... and then I took Kobe back to the airport.

On my last day in Atlanta, I decided to get my geek on and do a segway tour. Yes, it looks absolutely ridiculous... but it's fun! Ok, and it feels totally weird in the beginning to steer a machine using nothing but your balance.
One of the last stops of the tour was the Varsity, one of the very first drive-through restaurants in America. We had a few minutes to get a snack but it didn't take long to discover that the offer for vegetarians is, well... limited, if not nonexistent.

That night, Team Awesome played trivia at The Vortex, a bar where the first page of the menu is a set of all their rules, which can basically be summarized to "just because you are a customer, doesn't mean we'll be taking bullshit from you". Gulp. But we showed them Vortex people by getting a perfect score at trivia. Ha!
Boy, I'll miss Team Awesome, and Atlanta. Hope to be back soon!