There's a show on the NBC Sports network called Caffeine and Octane which is a car lovers dream. Each week, it visits the largest car show in North America. In addition to showing some of the best car porn on TV, it profiles some of those machines and owners.
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We watch it from time to time. Then, I found out that it happens just down the street from our hotel at the Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, Georgia. On the first Sunday of the month, which is today, and it's free.
Guess what we're starting this day off with...
We wander around the large, mostly empty mall lot (early Sunday morning) and then we find it. Thousands and thousands of cars and truck. Mostly organized around type, make, or model. For example, there were a lot of Jeeps parked together as were Jaguars and Mustangs. Mostly because car clubs would show up early and park together.
This is just the outer edges. More and more vehicles make up the rings as we head towards the center. When the cars show up in the morning, the show organizers are there to cherry pick the best of the bunch. A few hundred are redirected in the center corral of the mass to be featured on the TV show.
It's both an honor and a curse to be selected...if you outside of the center, you can go whenever you want. If you're selected, you have to stay the entire show because the producers want to have a 'full' look to the proceedings and don't want cars leaving early to show empty spots.
We see many mint-condition classics, oddballs, and custom restorations. It's great fun but around the edges of the show, there a few douchebags that have to do burnouts, loud revs, and speed runs. It doesn't seem safe to be walking around out there.
After getting our fill, we leave and head back into the city for some more history lessons.
East of downtown Atlanta, in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, is Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park. It was here the civil rights leader was born, where he attended church, school, and is now interred.
There's a large parking lot on the north side of the park, across the street from the visitor's center and the current edition of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church he and his family were heavily involved with.
We start off in the visitor's center where a film on Dr. King's life is shown, along with exhibits of his efforts to secure rights for all Americans, his death, and...finally...his burial. The rustic wooden wagon that served to carry his coffin is also on display here.
Afterward, we make our way down the block to the fire station that became Atlanta's first integrated station then on to the house, a half block away, where he was born.
Tickets for the fully accessible tour are free at the visitor's center but they had already given out that day's quota.
For us, we had to be content with the exterior, walking around the porch, and into the backyard.
On the way back, we go through the pools and fountains of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Dr. King was passionate that his cause would not be violent, at the beginning of each march, hundreds of knives and other weapons were taken from marchers so that they would not be the catalyst for fighting.
This center, adjacent to the national park, is also where Dr. King and his wife are buried in a marble tomb at the center of the pond.
An eternal flame burns nearby.
Next door is the original Ebenezer Baptist Church, now part of the park. A docent deploys a portable ramp for Tim. Inside, a lift takes him up to the second floor sanctuary.
We wander around the space where King and his father preached from the pulpit. Much of the support and planning for Dr. King's efforts came from this building and this room.
Across the street, Sunday services are in full swing at the current church. You're welcome to attend but in our touring clothes of shorts and t-shirts, we limit ourselves to watching the vigorously spiritual service from the foyer where large glass windows and speakers allow visitors like us to watch from just beyond the back pew.
This visit makes a good counterpoint to a visit to the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. King was assassinated. Here, there is more of a celebration of his life than a focus on his death like there is there.
It makes for an inspirational finale to our time in Atlanta.
Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved
Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved
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