She'll be coming around the mountain...

On our first morning at Stone Mountain, we moved our wet tent to join sites with our neighbors. This is good, since they had all the food.

When we got to the mountain park we took the train ride around the base. It took about thirty minutes, and the entire time Meredith held her ears and closed her eyes. This was not her favorite part of the day.










They were holding pumpkin festival while we were there. Randy had a blast driving around in the little John Deer tractors they had for kids. He immediately made it his mission to chase down the other children and "bump draft" them. I was so proud as the lady in charge instructed him not to bump other kids. He then made me more proud as he did it two more times while the lady turned her back. It was a "that's my boy!" moment.

Inside a plain white tent (huge tent) was a party. Loud music, beach balls flying, crazy MC's, it was Pumpkinpalooza! Our neighbor went on stage with her daughter to play some of the games. The looser would be splashed with pumpkin guts.

Our neighbors won, so they came out clean. That made our next stop the pumpkin pie eating contest. That's when MY family got involved. Both Cari and Randy were excited about getting up there. They had three children and three adults on stage and Cari and Randy were both selected. Randy wanted whip cream on his, and he got plenty of it. Cari chose not to. Neither one of them won, but they said the pie was good. This was one of those contests where you can't use your hands, so it was face first into the sweetness.

In the evening we headed out to the carved face of the mountain to watch the laser light show and fireworks. Before it started, I went to find the bathroom. Once out on my own, it was my nature to explore. I made it back to our seats about forty minutes later. "Must have been a nice bathroom.", Cari said when she saw me.

The laser light show was sponsored by various companies. Their commercials were broadcast in laser on the side of the mountain. This commercial intro went on way too long and I started missing my TiVo.
Something magical happens when you are on vacation in a park like this. Money suddenly seems to be at endless supply. I purchased an Italian ice for $4.50. This thing was worth about $2.00, and under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't have spent that on it. But I was in a foggy vacation type mind set and got two of them.