Cracker Barrel general store

Atlanta

I've been in Atlanta since Thursday visiting Kira. I probably should have updated our adventures earlier but I never seemed to get around to it and I've had a massively productive writing day today which means my eyeballs feel like they're going to drop out of my skull so this is going to be brief.

We've had a fabulous time either tooling about Atlanta running errands or hanging out around the house writing or not writing.

Two of my Clarion West Classmates have written apocalyptic stories where Cracker Barrel played a role. I did not know what Cracker Barrel is. We don't have that on the west coast. So Kira took me to Cracker Barrel (photo of the general store, above) which was completely awesome and I never have to go there again.

I tried to order a few things that I haven't seen on a menu like fried apples and turnip greens (gak!) and something called a frozen mug apple cider. The adorable server brought me a warm apple cider in a mug and a tall glass of ice and told me they were out of frozen mugs. "I had no idea what it was," I told her as I spooned ice cubes into my mug. "You could have brought me anything."

Kira had a bunch of stuff to do and the first few days we ran around. Her errands weren't in the shiniest parts of the city and my initial impression of Atlanta was that is was sort-of an armpit. In some places it looks like there was a contest to build the ugliest strip mall. There are also a ton fast food places, many of them with chicken in the name. I wish we had more time to take photos. Later we drove around some much prettier parts so I withdraw my original opinion. I will say that this is the most consistently bike and pedestrian unfriendly place I've seen in awhile.

I'm on my way home tomorrow.