Woke up at about 6.30 this morning which isn't too bad, time changes considering. Realised that even though there are 77 channels on the television in my room, half of them were showing infomercials and half of them were broadcasting church services which was not really that entertaining.
After a breakfast muffin, I set off for the CNN Center and the tour of the studios. It was a very slick operation, much like the station itself. The tour guide did seem to be reeling off the script by memory, but it was very interesting to see how the sequencing of the live feed happened and also to see the main newsroom from above, seeing how the whole operation fitted together. We even got to ride up the world's longest free standing escalator!
Following this, I walked over to the Centennial Olympic Park, which was the park developed to celebrate the 1996 Olympic Games. It's used as a public space now, and has some fantastic circular fountains which despite the cool weather, some children were dancing in.
There was a football game on at the nearby Georgia Dome - Atlanta versus New England. There were loads of people indulging in what I later learnt was called 'tailgating' - this is where people park up in a car park, get out the BBQ and have a few beers before going to watch the game. Virtually everyone I saw had a team shirt on - very colourful!
Caught the train up to the Margaret Mitchell House and took the tour. Mitchell lived and wrote Gone With The Wind in the house, which she referred to as 'The Dump'. She'd been working as a journalist since leaving school, and had taken about nine years to write the book. There was also a small museum with memorabilia from the making of the film.
After this museum and lunch at a cafe, I was picked up by my Atlanta colleague Dave who drove me around a couple of the lovely areas of Atlanta - lots of houses from the 30s designed in lovely open neighbourhoods. I had wondered why, when we flew into Atlanta, why so much of the city was parkland. There are a lot of parks, but also in many areas, people have huge sections with many trees. There doesn't seem to be any kind of building code, and there are a few houses that have been built more recently and really jar. Dave then drove his partner John and I out to his friend Peggy's house - Peggy lives about half an hour out of town and worked as an enamalist most of her life - she still does a little bit today, and gave me a lovely wee plate of a dogwood plant. We had a southern dinner with her and a couple of her neighbours - chicken, sweet potatoes, cornbread, green beans and collared greens. For afters we had pecan pie. It was very enjoyable, and so nice to meet local people and have a chat to them. There were lots of cardinals flying round on the property but sadly we didn't see any of the deer that live on the farm.
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