The Mall and Stone Mountain

Saturday 1st May


After a long and busy week we were all feeling the need for a little of that ‘retail therapy’ which Andrea is fond of telling us about in her presentation. At 9am we were picked up from the Garden Plaza complex by Jack and shortly after dropped off at the Georgia Mall. Think the Trafford Centre only with carpet, not as much natural light but plenty of good shops. This was possibly the first time since we arrived at Manchester airport that we were able to split up and be on our own! With this new found freedom the various members of the team pottered about the Mall, some treating themselves more than others... not mentioning any names...Steve and Allison... think Apple gadgets and clothes respectively!



Roy meanwhile had put us all to shame and gone out at 8.30am to play football with local children and experience soccer coaching American style.

After a relaxing afternoon we were once again reunited and this time we were taken to a stunning natural landmark which the Georgians are rightfully proud of – Stone Mountain. Mr and Mrs Copeland were our delightful hosts for the evening.

http://www.stonemountainpark.com/

Our first engagement for the evening was to walk up this enormous lump of rock (which has a proper geological term but alas – geography was never my strong point, apologies for forgetting). However, Andy made the mistake of telling us that a good time to get up there was 20mins- a pleasant evening stroll now became a sweaty charge up the hill and the summit was taken after just 18mins. The views were spectacular, as you can see.

The girls set off up Stone Mountain

Garth makes it to the top

Closely followed by Roy

Windy at the Top

The City of Atlanta in the distance, simply stunning views!

Once we reached the bottom we jumped back in the van and went to our evening rendezvous- fireworks and laser show at the base of Stone Mountain, projected onto the famous carving of three Confederate heroes (bigger than the Mount Rushmore carvings). The Copelands produced blankets for the kids to sit on and chairs for the oldies. I daren’t tell you who was who! And like any seasoned picnicing group we found a great spot on the lawn and marked our territory. We also had a delicious picnic and some of us went for a wander around a Gulliver’s World-esque theme park.

The largest stone carving in the world (bigger than Mt Rushmore!)

The Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

At 9.30pm once the sun had set we lay back and watched the show unfold. There was a mixture of stories told from the history of Georgian music, the story of the American Civil War, an homage to all things American (mainly the military forces) and of course, the star spangled banner was sung with gusto. The laser and fireworks were amazing and the music enhanced the spectacle although the photos never do it justice – take our word for it!

Last stop at about 11pm was a roof-top bar in Lawrenceville where the group all enjoyed some tasty tap beer, except for our exotic friend Garth who sipped on an Appletini. After a long day we were all glad to get home to bed, making sure we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed for church in the morning.

By Allison

Schools and Baseball

Friday 30th April


Thankfully all team members rose again and enjoyed a buffet breakfast at the home before setting out to learn more of the school system here in Gwinnett County.

First stop was Peachtree High School which was quite something. We were met by Bonnie Driskoll, the assistant principle who guided us around the school which is the largest in the county with 3,100 pupils aged 12-18. The school was a maze of corridors with a huge dining hall at its heart. We are recognising more and more that the Georgian people are no strangers to early mornings and this is instilled in them at an early age as here at Peachtree High School the day begins at 7am. Because of the sheer size of the school lunchtimes are staggered and some eat lunch as early as 10.30am!

Bonnie escorted us outside to take a look at the ‘Special Olympics’ which is an event for Special Ed students to have their sporting talents recognised and no matter what their level of ability they will receive certificates and medals for taking part, or even attempting to take part. Unfortunately the games hadn’t yet started but it was very positive to hear of such an event and see the excitement of the pupils preparing for it.

Straight from the school we headed to the Gwinnett County Public Schools Instructional Support Centre. Here we were met by a lady named Kelly who explained that this huge converted industrial unit was the central hub for all of the public schools in Gwinnett County. The centre houses educational professionals and performs many important tasks such as controlling the air conditioning to all schools, sending out educational television broadcasts that can be accessed by the teachers and training staff how to use the new, innovative education technology such as touch pads and digital projectors. The team had great fun testing out the texting pads and had their wits pitted by the digital educator. Thankfully it appears that we are all smarter than an 8th grader!

The team enjoyed a little time to relax at the Garden Plaza before heading out the see our second baseball game. This time we saw the Gwinnett Braves (who are just one down from being pro’s). We wore our Braves T shirts (supplied by Gwinnett Rotary club – thank you) and proudly cheered them on to a comfortable victory.

By Andrea

Institutionalised - school to prison to retirement home all in one day!

Thursday 29th April

This morning we enjoyed a very welcomed light breakfast, a choice of fruit, yoghurt and Pam’s homemade granola – another great recipe that’s heading back to the UK with us.





We enjoy breakfast whilst Monkey (the dog) enjoys his sunny spot.

After yet another fond farewell our first stop was Picken’s County Middle School. We arrived to see and take part in a special assembly/event where the middle school students were showing off their skills and opportunities to prospective students from a local elementary school. We heard the choir sing, the band play, saw a video produced by the pupils and watched the cheer leaders perform. The kids seemed delighted when we were asked to ‘speak English’ and tell them a little about ourselves and why we were there. Gareth took to the stage with gusto although the team may have enjoyed the ‘performance’ a little more than the kids. Sadly, his tuneful rendition of ‘Fly me to the moon’ seemed to bemuse the school band and fell on the deaf ears of the students. He was perhaps too 'fly for a white guy'!


Bendy and energetic cheerleaders perform at the high school.

Our Rotarian guide from this point on was Chris LeMieux, the Principle of Picken’s County Middle School. He gave us brief tour and explained about the rotary-led Youthact and Interact programmes which encourage school children to set up fundraising initiatives. He then whisked us off to visit Tate Elimentary School. The Jasperians are particularly proud of this school as it is made entirely of the local marble and is one of the oldest schools in the state.





Marble school.

After a whistle-stop tour we were again on the road and due to the legendary traffic congestion found ourselves catapulted out of the truck and giving our presentation to our next host rotary club – South Gwinnett. It was lovely to see some familiar faces in the crowd as Melissa, Doug, Jeremy and Chris (the American GSE team) had turned up. Rotarian Andy Copeland was now in charge and we headed off to the Gwinnett County Sherriffs Department Direct Supervision Facility which can house up to 2744 inmates at a time. We sense this may have been a warning to the team about what sort of accommodation we might expect should we be caught taking more photos of guns in Walmart!


Restraining devices for unruly inmates on J-pod.


One highlight of this visit was to meet some of the inmates and their dogs who are part of a special rehabilitation programme. This programme means specially selected inmates are given the opportunity to learn dog training skills and care for dogs which would have been put down at the pound. These dogs arrive at the prison on the day they were to be ‘euthanised’ and are trained up by the inmates so that they may be re-homed in loving families. It seemed to be a very positive programme.

Next stop was the nearby 911 emergency call centre. This state of the art facility only opened in February and has been visited by experts from all over the world as it is at the cutting edge of technology and innovations in crisis management. The building is hurricane, tornado, ice storm and sunshine proof and the generators could keep the building powered for 14 days. That is a lot of building!

Finally we boarded the bus and within no time we were deposited at our ‘rest home’. The Garden Plaza complex is a luscious retirement home with pool, Jacuzzi, gym, pool room, internet cafe, crocket lawn and restaurant. We had a good meal then retired for the night after another exhausting but interesting day.




Andrea's final resting place, only for the weekend, mind!

Thanks to all who helped and drove us about!

Marble, cowboys and horses

Wednesday 28th April

After a hearty cowboy sleep we arose to a misty morning. Pam served up sausages and her mother’s special recipe of citrusy-gooey-slightly nutty French bread. Not sure what it was called but it was jolly nice! At 9am sharp Fred and Charlie picked us up and sped us on our way to the first engagement- shopping trip at ‘Bargain Barn’. One can purchase anything from guns to BBQ utensils, really anything a true southern American would need for a day in the woods!
Next stop was the Tate Georgian Marble Quarry where we were given hard hats and a guided tour of the open mine site. The sheer size of the place was staggering – the marble vein is said to run 2,000 ft deep and there should be enough marble to last 3,000 years (that equates to loads more tombstones)!

The girls model hard hats and marble.

Lots of machine, lots of marble.

Armed with a goodie bag filled with marble we left the quarry for lunch and gave a presentation to Jasper rotary club. The team ate up quickly because they were all looking forward to visiting Sacketts. Larry (our cowboy/lawyer/host at Ranch 74) assured us this was the place to go for the authentic cowboy attire. Andrea and Allison couldn’t resist the opportunity to try on a full cowgirl outfit (minus the gun and horse).

Daisy May and Roy Rogers work the cowboy look!

Back on the road again we drove out of town for an hour towards the starting place of the Appallacian trail. This is also the site of the spectacular Amicalola Falls – one of the biggest waterfalls in Georgia. Desperate to stretch our legs the team hiked up 426 steps to the view from the top.

View from the bottom.

View from the top.

Back at the Ranch we all got the chance to do something we put on the wish list- horse riding! Each of us enjoyed a sedate amble around the paddock sitting on authentic western saddles and were treated to Manny’s ‘trick’.

Andrea and horse.

Our fun loving guides Charlie and Frank were the eager to take us out in Jasper for Dinner. Charlie noticed how thirsty we all looked and we stopped off at a Mexican restaurant for a beer on the way...and of course a mandatory basket of spicy chicken wings. We then continued on to our dinner destination, ‘Crust’ where we devoured more massive and very tasty meals but still managed to find room for a nightcap back at the ranch.

Thanks to Charlie and Frank for taking good care of us.

By Allison

74 Ranch - Jasper County

Tuesday 27th April


For breakfast we were treated Pancakes, a half dozen different kinds of syrup as well as some tasty sausages in true American style thanks to District Governor and chef Shane.

The rest of the morning was spent relaxing around the house. Some of the team went for a run around the beautiful housing development, others played 8 ball pool and the team also took some time to refine their presentation prior to today’s afternoon engagement with the Rotary Club of Canton.

We travelled with Shane down to the conference centre for our lunch and presentation, this club would be classed as one of their medium sized clubs with around 50 members and it appeared that most had turned out in eager anticipation to hear what we had.

We conducted our presentation in our usual professional manner and afterwards to our surprise we were given each a gift bag containing a whole host of trinkets which had been put together very kindly for us by the Canton Rotary club. In fact with everyone’s generosity out here we may exceed our luggage limits, although we could use this as an excuse for not buying all our friends and family gifts!

From the Canton Rotary club we were driven up into the hills to a town called Jasper, which we were all quite excited about as we heard we were to stay at a working ranch called 74 Ranch.

seventyfourranch.com

On our arrival we were greeted at the gate by one of the owners Pam, who caught our eyes straight away as she strolled across her property in full cow girl attire, at that point we all knew we were in for an authentic time.

The lodgings that we were staying in had been lovingly restored to their original pre-civil war beauty by Pam and her husband Larry.

We were given a tour of the property, Steve, Gareth and Roy were to sleep in a well equipped ‘Bunk House’, which had its own wood fire, wash and shower facilities and if any of us were feeling up to it, a honeymoon suite!

The girls we in the main house in a tastefully decorated twin room, in fact all the rooms in the house were decorated and furnished lovingly and sympathetically to the surroundings. The rest of the house itself sits surrounded by paddocks and stables, in which we watched their horses grazing and other usual ‘horse type things’.

We got ourselves settled, made friends with the several dogs which call the ranch home then later on were taken for a meal to the Wood Bridge Inn, located just by.....a wooden bridge.

A good meal was had by all, in fact some of us tried oysters for the first time, Gareth including. However unbeknown to him at this point he’d just ingested a food which was to rendering him ‘incapacitated’ later on that evening, you can use your imagination!

The rest of team ended their evening with Larry and his guitar, in front of the wood burning fire - singing a few cowboy songs and learning some more about the confederate war history.

Canton - Evening with the District Governor

Monday 26th April

Sadly it was time to leave the lake house and we all gathered our belongings together, had a light breakfast, cleaned up the house and set off for a look at what Canton had to offer.

Our first stop was at the Funk Heritage Museum which was dedicated to the Native American Indians and we heard all about the 'The Trail of Tears' in which they were driven from their homeland by the US Federal Government between the years of 1831 - 1838.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

We then got the chance to relax at the YMCA health club where we had free run of the gym, and swimming pool before lunch which was spent in a Mexican restaurant. For the first time we had normal size meals and we didn't have to undo the buttons on our trousers before leaving our seats.

We then visited a place called The Boys and Girls Club. This was an excellent facility in which Anton Zellmann, one of our Rotarian Hosts is on the board of directors. The Club offers a supervised environment that children can visit after school and can stay right up till 8pm. It is semi structed in that the first hour must be spent doing homework and then there are optional sessions such as finance management, life skills and assisted college application workshops followed by free social time when they can make use of th many recreational facilities encompasing sport, music and art.

The Club is open to any chilren at an extremely low cost so can be utilised by families with low income.

Their Promise is -

To provide a quality developmental program that empowers metro Atlanta youth, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to become productive adults.

Check out their website at - http://www.bgcma.org/

Outside the club with Anton Zellmann and Kristine Pruss

As we were a little ahead of schedule for the day we took the opportunity to visit the local Walmart store to stock up on some cheap goodies.

Really all that we wanted to do was see a supermaket that sells guns. In the process Andrea got chastised for taking a picture of all the rifles on the wall and was sternly told to erase it immediately.

Andrea's 'Erased' picture of Rifles in Walmart

We were hosted that evening by the Rotary 6910 District Governor Shane Burr and his family and were treated to a fantastic Itallian supper. Italy has a special place in the heart for the Burr family as it's where Shane met his wife Donna and the rest is history.

A much needed rest

Sunday 25th April


The team made the most of their first opportunity to have a lie in and rose to a beautiful day, the air had cleared following the storms and the sun was glistening on lake arrowhead.

We enjoyed a little time relaxing around the house until our brunch hosts came to pick us up. Shane Burr is the district governor of 6910 and he arrived with his wife Donna and his mother, a spritely lady who had no problems with the steep hills and jumping in and out of the monster cars that everyone seems to drive.


We arrived at our brunch destination, Canton Golf Club, which was set at the top of a steep hill with yet more great views of the lush greenery surrounding us and an interior not dissimilar to that of a scene from Dallas.

We were met their by more rotary friends, old and new. Brunch was a great spread with the traditional grits and a novel omelette building bar!

Anton Zellmann from the Canton Rotary Club first in line for an Omlette

http://www.zellman.com/autobizography.htm

After declining some very kind offers of things to do, the team opted to spend the remainder of their rest day chilling out by the lake which subsequently meant sunbathing, reading, swimming and fishing, with both Andrea and Steve reeling in some prize fish whilst soaking up the beautiful Georgia sunshine.

All the fish we caught were returned safely to the Lake to fight another day.

We had a brief visit from the very generous owner of the lakehouse Mark Shultz, who kindly allowed us to stay and enjoy the serenity of the lovely lakeside location for the weekend.

After we had basked all we could bask and the sun was disapearing behind the mountains Edna arrived with Sue who had prepared our evening meal of shrimps and vegetable casserole.

We all enjoyed the delicious banquet and the chance to reflect a little more about our trip so far, all agreeing that we could happily stay in this location for much longer....but we have many more places to go, people to meet and presentations to give, so we gotta keep moving!



Andrea Wilson