Florida natives think the Artic Circle begins somewhere near Atlanta.

I got up relatively early this morning and headed to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield that is the site of a Civil War battlefield. Besides collecting another stamp for the passport I have a general interest in the Civil War, though not quite as much as WWII however. In the visitor center there was a nice museum of the area along with some exhibits, including one that had been set up to display old uniforms and memorabilia of locals that had been involved in various wars. There some nice hiking trails around, however I elected to take a leisurely drive to the parking area since I didn't want to do another mile hike up the mountain since I need my energy for the upcoming weekend. There were several cannon replicas through the top trail as well as interperative signs along the trails with some nice views of the distant Atlanta skyline.

Here is a second attempt at a Google Earth overlay of my hike along with pictures at various points, so again let me know how it looks. http://mblitch.googlepages.com/Kennsawhike.kmz

After finishing up the battlefield site, I decided to head over to the last of my available NPS (National Park Service) passport sites, the Martin Luther King. Jr National Historic Site. This was near the heart of Atlanta at a location near where the civil rights leader was born, grew up, and is now buried. The visitor center is a nice area that held a lot of exhibits concerning the timeline of the civil rights movement both in the south as well as abroad. Besides the stamp in the visitor center, there was also one to be found across the street a a NPS run restored firehouse. Although a tour was starting, I didn't have time to hang around and took for for the main event of the trip, the Hedon Memorial Weekend Campout.

I got in just as Jason was giving me a call, the impatient lout, so the timing seemed to have worked out fairly well. I spent the next few hours trying to organize things and assist others in getting their tents and such set up. People were filtering in throughout the afternoon and it was nice to see some old faces and even make new acquaintances. Quickly it seemed that the place was building up from a quiet private residence to party central. Everyone had their places pretty pimped out out and customized with screened enclosures, kiddie pools, signed, hanging lanterns, and various other objects getting tossed around.

Over 150 people had signed up for the weekend and with good weather predicted, it certainly looked to be a good weekend.