Journey To Which Mountain?
After our drive down on Palm Sunday morning Daughter and I were desperately looking forward to visit that most majestic of monuments, which from this side of the Mason-Dixon has always looked so majestic and somber. We’re talking “Georgia’s most visited attraction” here, folks: Stone Mountain.
Regal.
Dignified.
Ultra-Cheesy
That picture is the only shot I could get of the actual carving (which is the whole point of the place’s existence last I checked). They charge you $10 to park and you drive in amongst all these tall obscuring pines with lots of folks walking and hiking and what not. Then you park and walk by a bunch of kiddie rides to some faux Six Flags little shopping village (which completely blocks your view of the reason you paid 10 stinking bucks unless you stand on a bench like I did and wait for all the other suckers to get out of your way and give you a clear shot) where they sell all types of total crap-ola, and the Stone Mountain stuff all has pictures of peaches and smiling children in a Disneyesque collage of hues and cable cars and a teensy-weensy blurry image in the background of, oh, STONEWALL JACKSON, ROBERT E. LEE and JEFFERSON DAVIS. They’re definitely trying to broaden the appeal beyond the original clientele. And, frankly, judging by the cross-section we saw in the lot and “village” they’ve succeeded.
In this sanitized PC Era, those three gents have definitely been relegated to the back of the bus.
There was a fun moment in the main gift shop, however. There one can buy a mug emblazoned with the “Stone Mountain” name…and the rest of the mug is done in a tied-died hippy pattern. Priceless.
But also unfortunately not dishwasher-safe, which is why we didn’t buy my Bride one.
Fun, Life | Mr. Bingley | 
April 26, 2011 8:07 am
Subscribe
did you at least walk up to the top? Its a heck of a hike and an amazing view!
Also, you were only three hours from me…hop on I-75 and come down for dinner!
No, no walking/hiking stuff for us; we got there and we were like “this is such a joke/disappointment” that we went back to Decatur and had a very very nice meal at Parker’s on Ponce.
It sorta looks like a really big Jim Beam commemorative decanter. I want that coffee mug, though.
That’s exactly what it looks like, Gary!
I’ll collect a list of folks for mugs.
good old Ponce. Many good memories from my college days.
Next time hike to the top or take the sky thing up. Well worth it.
Heck Bing, I bet you dollars to donuts that there is more than a couple guys and maybe girls with that image tattooed on their back or chest along with something like “The South will rise again.”
Hey, be glad, Bing! They could of had a “Watch water run uphill!” show.
They carved pictures on the largest free-standing block of bedrock granite in North America?
Why?
Ted Turner got there too late to buy it for Jane Fonda’s kitchen counters, mojo.
Mount Rushmore is granite. Maybe “free-standing” and “block of bedrock” are the key words here. I’ll go back to the home now, it’s time for my meds anyway.
Used to collect a plate, a shotglass and a beer mug from major historic places. Every place sells at least one of those so you can have a major collection of something.
Never heard of the Crazy Horse Memorial, mojo?
It’s just down the road from Mount Rushmore. Lots of granite around the Black Hills, maybe they’ll carve a picture of Obama there someday.
Rushmore is part of a mountain chain, as is Yosemite. Stone Mountain stands alone.
I am a rock
I am Stone Moun-wow-wow-tain
And the rock feels the pain
Of the Rebels carved in her side…
I used to collect spoons. (Those little demitasse size souvenir spoons.) In my defense, I was about 14 at the time. I do still buy charm-bracelet charms for souvenirs, as they are so lovably retro.
Stone Mountain stands alone.
In more ways than one!
“That picture is the only shot I could get of the actual carving (which is the whole point of the place’s existence last I checked).”
Ah, that’s where you went wrong, Mr. B. The whole point of Stone Mountain’s existence is to separate people from their money. I went their a few times when the family lived near Atlanta. Wunderkraut is right about the hike to the top and back in the 70s the nearby lake was pretty nice if I remember right. Those were pretty much the only high points.
Well, imagine the disappointment among those thinking it’s “Stoned Mountain.”
That might actually be the best way to enjoy it, Kate.
Or so I’ve been told.
Now that ya’ll have been to Stone Mountain; you really need to …See Rock City!
Isn’t that strange, Dr Alice?
I collect beer coolers. Since my job/contracts take me all over Australia, I have quite a collection.
In fact when I load up the beer fridge in my office, I put each Tinnie in its own cooler. (Each Block of Pure Heavenly Delight XXXX Bitter has thirty, count them, thirty, fillers for a Beer Cooler.)
Then you empty them and start again. One day when I’m sober, I’ll let you know about the problems I had with a couple of them entering Saudi Arabia.