Georgia, Part 3

Actual date, Saturday, December 8th.

If you ever plan to go to Atlanta, Georgia and ride the public transit system, e-mail me first.  I can save you a HUGE hassle.

Round trips on both the local buses and the local train are $5.00.  You can pay cash for the buses if you prefer, but the train requires a Breeze pass.  You have to buy one at the station before you can get through the gates to get to the train platform.

Presumably there is an easy way for Atlanta residents to find this out.  The only reason we discovered it was because after several minutes of us standing at the gates trying to figure out how to get in, an employee of the system walked over and explained it to us.  So we each had to purchase a pass, load $5.00 on it to get into Atlanta and back, and then actually get through the station to the trains.

Before all this, however, we had to catch the bus to the train station.  After we had walked five miles yesterday looking for the bus stop, we drove back to Stone Mountain Village, parked the car, and walked to the bus stop.  The bus pulled up about seven minutes later.

Ooops.  We were on the wrong side of the road.  We needed to be at the stop across the street to go into Atlanta.  This bus was coming out of Atlanta.  So we crossed the street and the next bus came by.  We got on and paid the driver.

The bus ride was probably 25 minutes long, and it dropped us off at the train station, which provided yet another 20-minute ride to the Dome, the local sports arena.  We got off the train, but couldn't get OUT of the station.  The doors wouldn't open.  We were supposed to tap our pass on a pad to get out.  Finally, due to a complete lack of other options, we did this.  Then I used one of the local pass machines to scan the card.  Instead of the $2.50 that should have been on there for our return trip, the card balance read zero.

So it cost $2.50 to take the train to Atlanta, and $2.50 to get out of the station.  We had to reload all three cards with $2.50 each to get back to the bus.  While we were doing this, another woman walked up and asked if I understood how these machines worked.  She had a handful of coins and her pass; this was the change she had received.  I explained that those were dollar coins, and that it really was valid currency.  She was quire relieved.  The only reason I know this was because not only had we gotten a bunch of the coins ourselves, but I had seen dollar coins in other places a few years ago.  I have one at home because they are such a novelty.

So, we walk up the steps into the entrance of the arena, then up the ramp to the sidewalk.  We're looking for the Coca-Cola factory, which used to be right near the train stop.

No such luck.  After asking around, we discovered that the factory was three or four blocks away.  The only way to get there is to walk.  We hiked through the Olympic memorial park, which is at least two blocks long itself, and finally find the factory.  There is a $16 admission fee for adults, $14 for senior citizens.   Then we have our bags searched at the door.  The staff does provide a wheelchair for Dad, but it's a manual.  The reason there are no photos on this entry is that I was busy pushing the wheelchair.

Mom has fond memories of this factory tour, but it's all changed, unsurprisingly.  We have a staff member show us some of the Coca-Cola memorabilia from down the ages, and then we watch a six-minute movie about living a good life.  What this has to do with creating a bottling Coca-Cola completely escapes me, other than the fact that bottles of Coke do appear in the movie.

If you want to experience the whole thing on the small screen, it's on Youtube.  Honest!  Try here.  If you figure out the point of the movie, let me know.

Then it's out the door for one of several exhibits.  One is a history of the beverage, invented by a pharmacist in 1886.  (Complete history is described here.) Another display is the actual bottling of the beverage in glass bottles that visitors take home at the end of their tour.

A lot of space is dedicated to the "secret formula" that has changed hands a few times and has been imitated but never duplicated (according to the display, anyway).  The whole exhibit is housed in a "vault," and there is a place for people to try their hand at creating "formulas" of their own.  Impossible to get to through the crowd of kids and families.

After all that, you can go upstairs and get your picture taken with the Coca-Cola Polar Bear (for a fee, of course), and proceed to the main event, sampling a variety of Coke products produced in various parts of the world.  Just for the record, we liked the "Fanta Magic" beverage produced in Estonia.  It tastes as though they're trying to make wine out of it.  There was also a peach beverage from a location in Europe that I don't remember.  I think the least favorite was the beverage from Italy.  The almost universal reaction was for people to sip, frown, grimace, and pour the rest of the sample down the disposal grill.  Mom complained she could still taste that one 10 minutes later. 

The newest taste is a gingerbread Coke that you make at home from ingredients available at select stores.  The person serving the samples didn't specify which stores those might be.

Finally, we pick up our free bottles of Coke, walk through the gift shop without buying anything (the prices were high, of course), and drop the wheelchair off at the front gate.  Then we had the walk back to the train station.

Our train took us up about three stops, then the conductor announced that the train was "out of service" and everyone had to get off.  We waited another 10 minutes or so for the next train, but since we hadn't left the platform, we could bet back on without paying a second time.

Once back at our station stop, we managed to exit by tapping the cards again.  For a wonder, it actually worked, even though we had no money left on any of them.  This has got to be one of the weirdest transportation systems on the planet.

We finished the day at a German restaurant in Stone Mountain Village called The Village Corner German Restaurant and Bakery.  Good, but expensive.

Then it was back to the hotel.  By the way, we still have the Breeze passes if anyone ever wants to use them.