Well, today was kind of bitter-sweet, as it marks the end of our west-to-east journey, but it is the beginning of a week spent with family and friends, some of whom we haven’t seen in years. We started early as usual from Just outside of Atlanta, and went to Noah’s Ark, a wildlife sanctuary in Locust Grove, Ga. Noah’s Ark is a refuge that takes in abused or neglected animals, many of them exotic, and cares for them and rehabilitates them as much as possible. So all of the animals are ‘damaged’ in some way, and some are truly heartbreaking to look upon, but they are also kept in conditions that, in my opinion, are much better than any zoo I’ve ever visited.

We got there around 11 AM, and the main habitat doesn’t open until noon, so we were only able to visit a few areas before then. The first of these was the turtle pen.

There were three things about big turtles I observed here:

1. Turtles are way cuter than you would think

2. Turtles actually hiss

3. Turtles can move quickly when they want to

After the turtles, we went to check out the gators. Only one gator was in sight, but the whole pond was full of huge tadpoles. I have no idea what critter they were from (a giant bullfrog?), but several had bodies the size of golf balls.

Next, we hit up the herd animal pen (where I actually petted and fed a few horses) and a small area with a  couple of monkeys and macaws.

We also saw a few Peacocks just roaming the compound:

Finally we got to enter the compound, and saw a really large variety of animals. Unfortunately, most were behind double fencing, so getting good pictures was all but impossible. Beth did get a few, however.

This little guy got himself stuck upside down. It looks like he was just flipped over, but shortly after this, I went over and ‘rescued’  him. He was actually wedged in, so either he wiggled himself stuck, or this is the turtle version of getting stuffed in a trashcan…

We also got to see the prize of the rescue, the ‘BLT’:

After spending about two hours at Noah’s Ark, we went to Buckner’s Family Restaurant to eat lunch. Buckner’s is a family style joint, which means they lay all of the items out on the table and you put them in your plate yourself. If you run out of something, they fill it back up. Basically, it’s a  lazy, unimaginative buffet, as it has less food items than a full buffet (10 items instead of hundreds), and you don’t have to leave your table…ever.

I found it tasty but kind of bland. Good, old-fashioned Southern cooking, which, to me, isn’t anything special. Beth thought it was wonderful, but I think she’s mostly just homesick. Beth ate like a normal human. I, on the other hand, probably bankrupted the company. I think I had 6 plates, but I wasn’t really counting. The total I put down in my tracker was: 8 chicken breasts, 2 lbs. of BBQ, 1 roll, 2 pieces of cornbread, 1 cup of Lima beans, 3 cups of peach cobbler, and 24 oz. of  Lemonade.

Our last stop before heading into Charlotte was one of my ‘interesting locations’:  The Georgia Guidestones. These mysterious structures were erected for an unknown purpose, by unknown persons. They are basically a real-life, 140-ton conspiracy theory. This is also the only place where we got car shots (sorry).

We left the guidestones around 5:15 and headed into Charlotte, where we arrived at the end of our journey at 8:30 PM.