Atlanta GA

Click it! Trip Start Date: May 25, 2002.
Not too long after we got back from Pensacola I visited a website that had a link to the F-body Gathering Site. To my delight, the host city was Atlanta, which is a little over four hours from Columbus Mississippi, and it was to take place during the Memorial Day weekend. And once again it's on!

A couple of weeks before the trip, my wife had concerns about the comfort level in the Firebird, so, being the caring husband that I am, I figured that a good seat cushion should do the trick. I bought a thick seat cover and installed it. The only thing was now the seat was raised about two inches and two inches was added to the backrest. I couldn't fit in the car at all, but my wife said she was okay. On May 20, after work, we took a test ride to Tunica, well about ten miles north of Tunica to the Casino Factory Outlet Mall, which is about 45 miles from Clarksdale, which just happened to be closed at 7:30 p.m. My wife said she was cool with the ride. After we got back from Tunica, I removed the back seat cushion from the car and set our baby seat in it's place. It was almost a perfect fit! I figured that it would give my wife about another inch of room without making our two-year old girl uncomfortable (yes, the kids are coming with us again). The real test came when we left that Friday for Columbus, which is three hours from Clarksdale, to spend the night at her grandmother's house. This time, my wife was having problems with her knees being pressed against the glove box. Next came the question: why couldn't we take the family car, which is a 1998 Chrysler Concorde, with plenty of room, I must add. My answer: I gots ta represent! Plus this is an F-body gathering, not a family car gathering, and ain't nobody else complaining about the ride except you (I didn't tell her that last sentence).

We left for Atlanta from Columbus around 10 a.m. Saturday morning. Once we got to Birmingham Alabama, my wife was offering to drive because she was uncomfortable. No way baby! I can't even fit in the car with that chair baby! You better enjoy this rest stop! We finally made it to the ATL around 3:30 p.m. eastern time, and we went straight to the F-body Gathering, which was located at the Marriott Northwest in Marietta. Of course I didn't know how to act. My boy and I left the females (they took too long to get out of the car) and looked at almost every car in the parking lot. I wished I'd gotten there sooner because there were ladies in bikinis washing cars! The weather was almost perfect: partly sunny skies and warm temps. I saw a few first gen Camaros that I just love to death. We also saw the very flashy Police Camaro with chrome rims to look good while it protects and serves, and we saw the souped-up Carl Black Blackbirds. We also saw a couple of Birds that were in the Pensacola Southern Trans-Am Nationals: The Hot Fire Firebird, which is the red third-gen Bird with the flames on the side, and the 1992 hunter-green Formula that I just love to death. That is a smooth car dawg! Makes me wish I still had my 1991 Blubird! Also, the Fire-breathing Dragon Bird was there! Worth another picture for my photo album! My boy was happy to see that one again! I could go on for pages talking about all the cars we saw! Atfer that, we left for our hotel, which is less than two miles from the Marriott.

Click it! Then the trip went downhill for a spell. When we got to the hotel, they gave us a one-bed room (already pre-paid). We had to pay an extra 10 bucks to upgrade to a two-bed room, which was no big deal, except my credit card was being declined, and, of course, we didn't have enough cash with us, and there was no ATM in the hotel or anywhere close. The desk clerk was nice though, and let us get the two-bed room. Come to find out that we've been sending our payment to our old account number (our card was stolen a few months earlier, so we had to close that account), and the credit card company put a block on our new account because they thought we weren't sending any money. Turned out that it was a good thing we discovered the card was blocked at the hotel before we bought that 25-dollar dinner at Applebee's that we were going to put on the credit card. Eventually, we found an ATM and got some cash, then we went shopping at a local K-Mart, then we had good dinner at Applebee's, then we went to the movies and saw Star Wars II. All in all, it turned out to be a very good day.

Now the plan for Sunday was to go back to the F-body Gathering so I could take more pictures, then take the kids to the White Water park. We checked out of our hotel and went to the F-body Gathering and I took about 15 more pictures. We stayed for about an hour, then we left for White Water. When we got there, we found out that it was gonna cost 100 dollars to go swimming, plus our credit card still had the block on it. We didn't have that much cash on us either. So we walked back to the car all long-faced and bottom lips poked out. We ended up heading back to Columbus Mississippi and we made it there around 4:30 p.m. The next day, I took the seat cover off, and my wife was cool for real this time. I also visited my grandmother in West Point and went to my grandfather's grave. He was a soldier in World War II. He died back in 1990 at the age of 79. After we ate some good barbeque at my wife's grandmother's, we left for Clarksdale around 5:15 p.m. All in all, we had a good time, even when we were riding in the cramped up car! I guess the next time we'll take the Concorde. Not!!!


Beatrus Mathews, U.S. Army, Corsica Island, 1944.

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F-Body Gathering VI

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July 13, 2002
Revised: February 19, 2003