Coming to you live this week from Florence, Alabama, we’ve had another fun-packed adventure week. We’ve been to Disney’s EPCOT centre and spent the day wandering about. Very different to the Magic Kingdom experience, in that it was far more commercial and not geared towards kiddies, but still very interesting. Of the two different parks though, Magic Kingdom won hands down.

At EPCOT, we went on the Test Track ride a couple of times but it was, when it comes down to it, a car ride at only 65mph and frankly, since you can do 70mph on the Interstate highways here, it was not much different to just winding the window down while driving a regular car. It was the best ride at EPCOT though, which gives you some idea of the rest of the park.

In the World Showcase part of the park, we learned many things, including many countries offer nothing to the world except restaurants and shopping. It was really kind of dismal to wander through the Germany section, for example, and find nothing other than the chance to buy sauerkraut or a US$6000.00 cuckoo clock that was really ugly. We were kind of hoping it would be more educational or something to say a little more about the country than that, but alas, we were out of luck.

In the “Honey I Shrunk The Audience” 3D theatre, we were surprised to find that the 3D effect worked for Di and not for Trav, since usually Di gets nothing like that to work for her due to a lack of stereo vision. Afterwards, went through an educational display about how we need to care for the environment more, which included a boat ride (Disney loves a boat ride experience!) through a glasshouse full of USDA experimental plants. So, for all the folks back at the Uni, I am still hard at work. Oh yeah. Sure.

Heading north from Kissimmee, we entered the state of Georgia and went to Savannah on St Patricks Day. We had stayed the night before in Lake City, Florida and only found out at 10:30am there that the second largest St Patrick’s Day parade in the country (biggest is in New York City) is in Savannah. We knew we’d be too late there, so went the back roads and tried to see a bit more of the Deep South. We certainly found it…

On the way across to Savannah, we suddenly happened onto the thriving metropolis that is Travisville, Georgia. Okay, so perhaps “thriving metropolis” is a somewhat exaggerated term for a place with four houses by the side of a road. Still, it was kind of exciting to find it by accident.

A few miles up the road, we found Dade County which has the claim to fame of “Home Of International Arm Wrestling Champion Andy Fuller”. Here’s something to think about - there’s an international competition for arm wrestling??? We were amused by that, but not as much as by what we found at the other end of Dade County. There, by the side of a road was a sign announcing “MUDBOGGIN TODAY”. That’s right - mudboggin. I am not leaving the “g” off accidentally. I knew we’d found gold here, so we did a quick U-turn and spun around to see the action-packed sport of mudboggin.

It turned out it was organised enough to command an entry fee, but since it was the end of the day, and everyone except for two contestants were out of the running, we got in free. Basically, for the benefit of those poor souls who have lived without seeing the glamorous sport of mudboggin, it involves high-powered pick-up trucks going as fast as they can through a muddy ditch, and trying to get to the other end in the shortest time. Due to the weather, they’d had to hose down the track to get it as muddy as possible, but it was still quite dry, so there was not a lot of boggin going on.

There was a chance to hear some great Southern dialect though, with one 10yo child being a bit annoying near his mother. Now, when either Di or I were naughty around our mothers, we used to be told “Stop It” in a firm voice, and that was all. This mother though had a different spin on how to get her young’un to behave : “You know you’d best be gittin’ outta mah face. I’ll pop yaw in the jaw and yaw be pickin’ yaw ass up offa the ground!”. I couldn’t even look at Di, since I knew once I saw her face, I’d crack up laughing and since all the men there were wearing either:

1. hunting jackets, and/or
2. confederate flag / Dixie flag decorated baseball caps, and/or
3. something that blatantly said “Don’t Tick Me Off”

: discretion was the better part of valour and we departed, giggling all the way to Savannah.

Since everyone was already drunk on green beer in Savannah, and we stood no chance of catching up, we explored it on the 18th, when it was a bit calmer. Saw the park where the famous bench was that Tom Hanks sat on during Forrest Gump. The bench is down the back of some studio lot in California apparently, but the park was familiar at least.

Left Savannah and headed east to Atlanta. Went to the World of Coca Cola there since Di believes Coke makes a perfectly adequate breakfast. Not surprisingly, a large ad for Coke and how much happier the world is since Coke exists. There was an interesting section where we got to taste all the different beverages Coca Cola makes in the USA and around the world. It was a bizarre taste sensation, where we managed to try drinks like carbonated watermelon flavoured drinks from China, and something that could best be described as “pure yuk” from Italy.

There is not a lot in Atlanta to offer the general populace to be honest, and the decision to host the Olympic Games there a few years back seemed even more like a giant bribe. Perhaps in terms of hosting major sporting events they might have been well off, but as a city, it’s horrible. Freeways everywhere, and not a touch of class in any of the buildings. From Atlanta, we made our way to the Alabama border, where we took the most convoluted route across Alabama that anyone has probably taken.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001