BILOXI

Along the gulf coast is the little casino town of Biloxi, Mississippi. There are only a handful of casinos there, but the standout is actually the Hard Rock Casino. I only vaguely remember the Las Vegas Hard Rock Casino, but this one seems a lot better. Lots of stuff all over the place.

Two questions on this one. Why is Townshend wearing an American flag and why is this guitar not broken?

I would totally wear these pants.

The Beau Rivage was nice and festive.

In the morning I went jogging on the beach. The dark, overcast skies actually make for some nice images against the similarly colored sea.

Birds of a feather flock together, I suppose.

MOBILE

Mobile, Alabama is a heinous little town. Everyone there is fat and talks funny. Driving about the city, it looked as if not a single building had been built in the last three decades. All the houses had columns out in front though, which was kinda interesting. Even the little white trash houses had these wood 2X2 columns. However, I found nothing worth spending the batter power of my rechargeable camera battery on. Well, there were a few nice old plantation mansions that had been restored. Here’s one.



There were a lot of little produce stands selling “Hot Boiled Peanuts” so I figured it must be the thing to eat around here and got a bag. They’re nasty. And now they’re stinking up the car.

PENSACOLA

I had read about a place called Dinosaur Adventure Land that’s a Dinosaur activity park whose primary purpose was to prove that creationism is true. The whole concept of such a park cracked me up, so I went by to check it out, but it was closed. You can see the T-Rex on the left side.

It would appear that the kid they told to put letters on their sign happens to be British.

I went down to Pensacola Beach, but it was gray and overcast and so you couldn’t see very far. The surfer dudes seemed to be disappointed with the day’s waves too.

They did catch a few small waves on occasion.

The Gulf of Mexico. If you want to know the truth, I really can't tell the difference between it and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Christmas trees and palm trees.



I was about to leave Pensacola when I realized I was actually just blocks away from one of the largest aviation museums in the world. Lots of fun stuff there. I watched an IMAX movie about Navy fighter jets and rode in a little flight simulator.

There was some Marine stuff too.

ATHENS

The R.E.M. pilgrimage begins at Wuxtry Records, where Michael and Peter first met.

The store had a display of rare R.E.M. stuff, but alas, most of it was expensive and didn’t actually have music I didn’t already have. As you can see, they had an actual train conductor's cap that says, "Driver 8." I asked how much it was, but the guy working there couldn't find a price tag and was reluctant to sell it without knowing how much the manager wanted to sell it for. I did pick up an album of R.E.M. covers from local Athens bands.

The album was recorded at the 40 Watt Club, where R.E.M. first played and still play on occasion.

The Athens Trestle was made famous by its placement on the back of R.E.M.'s first album Murmur and is now referred to as the “Murmur Trestle.” It was going to be torn down a few years ago but was saved purely by virtue of its R.E.M. fame.

Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods, whose slogan was the inspiration for R.E.M.’s album Automatic for the People.

ATLANTA

The Atlanta Temple was rather underwhelming. I believe the figures in the display are supposed to be Mary and Joseph.



Downtown, I stopped by the CNN Center. Tickets for the tour were $12, but I got one from an Asian guy off the street for $8. It was fun to be able to look down on a broadcast currently in progress. Being above and behind, we could see read the teleprompter and see the anchor as she read from it. It was old Fredricka while I was there. There was also a room where we could see all the CNN feeds and hear the producer directing the show, saying such things as when to cut to a picture and back again.



Then I went over to check out the HRC, thinking that R.E.M. might get some kind of spotlight at this one, but all I found was this tucked away in a corner.



I walked through the underground mall and the Olympic park. By the time I got over to The World of Coca-Cola it was closed, but I’m rather skeptical that it would have been worth the $15 ticket anyways.

After that I went to see Atonement, which was only playing in one theater in the city. That’s right, one day in Atlanta, and I went to see a movie. Not entirely worth it, it was really just a souped up Nicholas Sparks-type romance.

On the way back I passed this house, owned by people who take their Christmas decoration responsibilities seriously. I think the temple should do something like this.

MYRTLE BEACH

Myrtle Beach is a vacation town unlike I have ever seen. It’s sort of a more family friendly version of Las Vegas. The main street, going for many miles before and after the city itself, is filled with shops, amusements and fun looking buildings. I came down into the city on the main road, but then left the city at its midpoint. But just for that northern half of the main drag I counted 12 miniature golf courses, all of them fancier than anything I’ve seen anywhere else. Here’s a Peter Pan themed one.

The Hard Rock Café was Egyptian themed for some reason, but pretty cool, both inside and out.

I ate at a Planet Hollywood. I had never been to one before – I hadn’t realized that it was a movie version of HRC. Lots of fun stuff. The original masks for Beetlejuice. The Princess Bride’s dress. I won’t ever eat there again though, as it’s way overpriced.

As I was leaving Myrtle Beach I saw a sign that said, “Hard Rock Park” so I had to check it out. Turns out they’re building an entire Hard Rock theme park. Here is the sign, with the “Led Zeppelin Roller Coaster” in the background. I swear I am not making this up.

They have a visitor’s center open that tells you all about the park and its different areas which will include an American Rock area, a British Rock, 70’s Rock and a Country area. It's set to open this summer.

Mt. Rockmore

The Zeppelin Hermit.