The Daily Motions

Confederate flags welcome visitors to base of Stone Mountain

This weekend Victor and I decided to mountain climbing again, seeing we've conquered Kennesaw mountain for than enough so far this year.  We decided to head east to try our hands at the well worn trials that lead to the summit of the infamous Stone Mountain.

Yes, the same patch of land Dr. Martin Luther King referred to in his "I Have A Dream" speech. Forever marred by it's use by Ku Klux Klan between 1915 until the rightful land owners turn the property over to the state in 1975.

The park is known for it signature carvings of confederate generals sculpted out of the mountains granite face.

So naturally being anywhere near the site causes me to feel at unease, but this is 2008...

Downtown Atlanta on the western horizon of smog

So up the mountain side we ventured.

US Geological Survey marks the mountains summit

The pumps at our local gas station are working awfully slow as the gas reservoirs dry up over the weekend.

Since my last techrage rant about Gmail's IMAP status with Windows Mobile users I'm happy to say Google has managed to resolve whatever technical glitches they had in their email servers. Serveral bloggers have indicated that images now appear correctly in emails and I'm more than happy to retact my pervious statements and once again bless Gmail as one of the best values for e-mail service (its free after all). My transition to AOL email hasn't been without fault, I learnt they have a sneaky practice of deleting mail stored on their severs have a set number of days have pasted. Not the best archival source dispite their advertised 2GB of mail storage disclaimer. So thank you Google for finally getting off your collective asses and doing what needed to be done. Well done.

The Winecoff Hotel

The historic Winecoff Hotel. Site of the worst hotel fire in this history of the United States roughly fifty years ago on a chilly December in 1946 when over 120 persons either jumped sixteen stories to their deaths, or were overcome by smoke inhalation and burnt to death in their prospective rooms with the mass of flames shot through the center staircase of the structure. The Winecoff Hotel was considered by many to be the most prestigious hotel in Atlanta, when it originally opened on October 30, 1913 it was one of the tallest buildings in the Atlantan skyline. Early building codes didn't call for skyscrapers to include fire escapes or sprinkler systems and making matters worst at the time Atlanta's fire department truck ladders could only reach the seventh floor.
In an ironic twist to save money the original architect William Lee Stoddard used flame resistant building materials on the outermost framework of the building and advertised the hotel as "fireproof" on their marketing mailings. (Sounds like the Titanic all over again.)

The Winecoff Hotel

Due of the high level of lives lost inside the building fire codes in our nation involved to their current state. After the fires were extinguished all that remained where the hollow shell of the super structure which where slowly rebuilt and and land donated to the Georgia Baptist Convention in 1967 to house the cities elderly and then repeatedly sold to various potential developers but ultimately the building remained shuttered and vacant for forty more years until 2006 when ground broke on a 23 million renovation and restoration project that once again turned the building into a boutique luxury hotel now called the Ellis Hotel after the side street the property resides on.

The site is often referred to as being the most haunted local in Atlanta with scores of witnesses having reported hearing bloodcurdling screams coming from within the building while standing outside the building at street level along with witnesses of apparitions in the windows of distraught patrons in classic attire panicking.

We intend to check ourselves into the old Winecoff Hotel for a weekend later this year...

Winecoff Fire Historic Marker

Last weekend Vic and I traveled to Gwinnett Co in Northeast Atlanta Metro to visit the gargantuan Discover Mills indoor shopping complex with over 180 retailers and 14 anchor stores. If the dizzying size isn't enough to give you a headache imagine the space crawling to the rafters with teenyboppers!

Discover Mills: The Human Zoo

Corporate cafeteria food is no better than the slop the government shoves down our throats for twelve years in public schools. I do believe this fine looking dish was suppose to be a Calzone. Instead it resembles the insides of a decomposing dog left rotting on the side of the freeway... and its everybit as appetizing.

Nasty #%@ Food!

This isn't breaking news by any means.  If you're a technology enthusiast you knew about that months ago, but I just happened the Smyrna Target shopping center where the CompUSA once held a predominate location and noticed someone left the store lights on.  The facility was been entirely gutted as you can tell.  Maybe we'll get another Fry's Electronics?  Wouldn't that be lovely.

They got it all right.

The place should be everyone's first stop when they enter Florida

Visit Florida Indeed!

Soon as you leave the Georgian border and enter Florida via I-75 south bound there'll be a large stone and glass building off the side of the road.  If you're speeding you'll easily miss it, especially if you're traveling in the fast lane.  What at first glimpse may appear as only a nicer than usual rest stop yields a unique museum of Florida heritage and one of a kind gifts.  Don't forget your free glass of orange juice for stopping by.  I miss living in Florida, if our economy picks up stream hopefully we'll be relocating back there sometime with the next 15-24 months.