S A T U R D A Y 

Louisville, KY
to
Atlanta, GA

We left Louisville about 9:00am and drove down to Atlanta. The trip down was nice and smooth, although it did look like it might rain as we got near the city. Actually, that would have been a good thing, since Georgia has had a severe drought this summer, but it only sprinkled for a few minutes.

That night, we went to the Mall at Stonecrest. This two-story mall is about 20 minutes outside the city, and has a ton of stores. We spent a couple of hours just walking around and enjoying the atmosphere. I even picked up a book about the Old West at Borders.

We stayed at a Days Inn in downtown Atlanta, just south of the Georgia Tech campus. It worked fine for what we needed (one night, easy access to downtown) but I don't think I could recommend it to anyone else and certainly not for a longer stay.

S U N D A Y 

Atlanta, GA
to
Gatlinburg, TN

We got up on Sunday morning and went to church at First Baptist Woodstock. This is the church that Johnny Hunt pastors, and since he has been the pastor at the youth camp Parkwood has gone to for the past 11 years, we thought it would be nice to see him in his natural habitat, as it were.

The church is -- in a word -- huge. The sanctuary easily seats several thousand (they had more than 8,000 in worship the week before we were there, according to the bulletin), and two giant screens bracket either side of the platform, giving a clear view of song lyrics, Scripture verses, and whoever is speaking/singing at the time. It was very nicely done, and had the feel of a high-quality production.

Of course, production is nice, but not at the expense of the Gospel. Thankfully, FBC Woodstock doesn't have that problem. Pastor Hunt delivered a solid message from James 1, entitled "Can Good Come From Trials?" The only downside was that it was only Part 1 of a message and we didn't get to hear the end of it! (If you're curious, FBC Woodstock has an online archive of sermons. You can download his message there, but they only stay up a few weeks, so don't wait too long!)

After church, we stopped for lunch at a KFC, which wouldn't really be noteworthy except for the fact that this KFC had a giant metal chicken towering over the entrance. Yes, you read that right: Giant. Metal. Chicken. The picture doesn't even do this thing justice -- the eye rotated and the beak opened and closed! How come all KFC's don't have this? I'd probably eat there more often if they did. Or at least drive by more often.

Once lunch was done, it was time for some football! Actually, this entire vacation started with the NFL tickets that Tricia got me for my birthday. (What a great wife!) We got to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Atlanta Falcons in the Georgia Dome. The game was perfect for us Bucs fans, as Tampa rolled to a 31-7 win.

Honestly, it should have been 31-0. Atlanta got a touchdown with 1:20 left in the game. By that time however, there weren't too many Falcon fans left. Tricia and I were in a section near the top, and by the end of the third quarter we were pretty much alone. I was very impressed by the size of the Georgia Dome. It had three tiers, and although this game wasn't a sell-out crowd, there will still several thousand people inside. There's not much else that can compare to a live game of the National Football League in terms of sporting event.

This was my first NFL game, and it was an amazing experience! Except for a brief moment of panic when the first two concession stands we visited didn't sell nachos, the rest of the afternoon was wonderful! (Tricia did finally get some nachos...but the place I bought them didn't have jalepenos. Naturally, everyone else who brought nachos back to our section had tons of peppers. What gives, Georgia Dome concession stand lady who said they didn't have jalepenos? Why would you deny my pregnant wife her food?!)

After the game, we headed northeast to Gatlinburg. Let me just say that driving on mountain roads at night is not fun. It's only about 35 miles of road, but it's well over an hour of travel time since you have to snake back and forth (and even make an entire loop) to get through the mountains. We made it through without trouble and checked into the Best Western - Twin Islands. Then we slept.

M O N D A Y 

Gatlinburg, TN

T U E S D A Y 

Gatlinburg, TN

W E D N E S D A Y 

Gatlinburg, TN 
to
Louisville, KY