2025 Big Truck across the Southeast, day 4

Day 4 began with a quick peek at the campsite in the morning light, making sure we weren't teetering off the side of a cliff. The results were quite satisfactory - plenty of room, and a nice overlook to boot.

There was a small network of trails from the back of each site down to the waterfront, and this was the view of Stone Mountain from two sites over.

From here -the unthinkable. Kimberly had said the night before that she wanted to hike up Stone Mountain, something that later today would become affectionately known as 'Old Mom doing young Mom things'. Since we were also trying to shoehorn in a visit to the Georgia Aquarium (45min drive each way), we agreed on hiking 'early' before it would be 100 degrees. We settled on leaving at 8:30am, so at 8:52 we rolled out of the Big Truck right on time. The trailhead parking lot was absolutely jammed, so we grabbed a quick pic and started climbing.

The walk up was hot. Really, really hot. Kimberly has exercise-induced asthma, so her decision to relive the hike she used to do when she lived here in her 20s was looking less and less exciting as we worked our way up.

She was an absolute trooper, however, and we powered through until we reached the top. These are a couple of celebratory pics once we gathered our breath.

From the top, the views were amazing. We could see down to our campsite, as well as the distant downtown Atlanta skyline.

As we headed down, Jordan's inner mountain goat kicked in, and after a moment of contemplation

she was gone

The hike down was far more enjoyable than the way up, even with the toll it takes on these old knees. What made me feel even older, however, was feeling the rage boiling up inside me with each passing hiker blasting their choice of motivational tunes from bluetooth speakers at volumes mine is unable to achieve. Mind you, I am all for music at the campfire, I would rather all my volume knobs go to eleven, and the last thing I would do is break up someone's good time due to being 'too loud'. And yet, every time someone walked by, I wanted to just show them a picture of some Airpods/Beats/Sony Walkman headphones and continue on my journey. Instead, I got to hear Jordan saying 'language' over and over as we followed a group blasting today's equivalent of 2 Live Crew. Yes, I am old. I will now take a bite of unseasoned potato salad to go with my ham bun (yes, it has a pat of butter). 

Upon completion of the hike down, this was the scene.

We then encountered this magnificant piece of signage.

I just have to know the backstory - some group of people in a conference room discussing the verdict that came down from their mysterious corporate overlords, saying "We need to put out a statement that in no way takes any position on anything, carries with it nothing of substance, serves no purpose, but consumes state and local funds - preferably on a sandwich board near a trailhead." This crack team took this directive and executed the shit out of it. The lingering question still exists - what prompted this commitment to a lack of commitment, and why did it need to be on a sign? In the words of the infamous Inigo Montoya,

Before we left Stone Mountain, Kimberly wanted to show us the Confederate relief carving into the granite, which allegedly is one of the largest tributes to a losing team since Ohio Stadium.

Back at the campsite, we took a brief respite - changed, attempted to recharge, and headed into Atlanta to check out the much-heralded Georgia Aquarium. . Other than the herds and herds of people, overlanding strollers, and toddler leashes (yep), this place seemed very promising. One of the first things we saw was a giant tank of sharks. Tough to beat that, although some have tried.

After the sharks, we encountered this diva, who has apparently recently had some work done in pursuit of the ultimate Mar-a-lago face.

Next up, we captured a thrilled Jordan, who was definitely not consumed with her penchant for rule following and concerned that the aforementioned toddler on a leash was not getting the proper preferential treatment to stand in the spot Jordan had been waiting for 10 minutes to occupy, but rather excited to see her favorite exhibit, the Beluga Whale!

From there, it was on to the Sea Dragon tank,

which of course triggered a core memory for me of seeing these ads in the back of magazines (not those magazines, I'm talking about Cracked, MAD, Four Wheeler, Hot Rod, and Circus - what any self respecting Gen Xer would read)

On to this Lamprey eel, which certainly isn't nightmare fuel, and definitely doesn't look like the Predator just went to Electric Forest.

We had one final exhibit on the must see list - the whale shark for Kimberly. We snaked our way through the masses, past the conveyor belt packed with tourists, and into the little bleacher section in front of the gigatic plexiglas viewing window. Then, it appeared out of the shadows.

Before we exited through the gift shop to snag the obligatory $9 souvenir magnet, we encountered this poor guy. As soon as I saw him, I immediately imagined his alligator mom pulling him back from the group of gators headed for the water, and slathering him from head to toe with SPF100 (where do you think this blog got it's name?) while his buddies laugh and achieve an effortless Coppertone tan and this poor bastard is already dreading the giant flakes of skin that will be laying under his desk at school the next day... Wait, we're definitely talking about the alligator here, right?

As we left the aquarium, skating out of the 5 story parking garage in only 32 short minutes, we were hoping to stop at the Atlantucky Brewery a few miles up the road. That, sadly, was not in the cards, as we realized while working our way through Atlanta sidestreets in full stop traffic. We noticed a couple of large, oiled up gentlemen that looked like the Village People had put on the wrong costumes. And then a lot more. That's when we realized that, yes, Beyonce herself was preventing us from Atlantucky, as she is holding court at Mercedes Benz arena all week.

We abandoned our plan, exited Atlanta stage left and stopped by a local joint called Tucker Brewing Company near Stone Mountain. It was the perfect nightcap before we crawled back to the campsite, all making various creaking and groaning noises from the hike straight up a hunk of granite several hours prior. The female contingent retired to their quarters, while I holed up in one of the nicest offices one could ask for.

Tomorrow - pack up, head over to Tybee Island, and put roots down for 4 days/nights, unheard of for this tribe of nomads. Cheers!