The end is in sight.

Well, tonight I am writing from Murfreesboro TN. I may actually make it to OKC tomorrow night. I think I'll keep driving until I get home. The trip back didn't turn out the way I had envisioned it. I was going to travel the eastern seaboard. But, after saying goodbye to Mahesh, my heart was just too heavy and all the rain didn't help me any. I usually don't mind driving through rain, these past couple of days it's been tough. The rain has been heavy and blinding. So, I drove cautiously with the top up :-(. I did try to drive with the top down, the clouds looked ominous and I had to pull over and put the top up. It's no fun driving a convertible without the top down. It looks like tomorrow it will be a sunny day and I will be able to have the wind blowing through my hair.

I did go to the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. Quite a place. I was hoping to see the actual bottling plant, instead we took a tour of 'World of Coke'. It was still a lot of fun. I did taste the different types of products Coke has worldwide. The soft drink they sell in Japan tasted like it had ginger in it. The one sold in Costa Rica tasted fruity. I liked them both. At the end of the tour we were given a free bottle of Coke as a memento of our visit. I am not sure if I will drink that bottle, or just save it as a souvenir. At the end of the tour, of course you are herded towards the Coke shop. Every imaginable Coke product is available in that store. I bought some red drinking glasses. 

What I did like about the World of Coke was the employees were all very happy. They were truly happy to be working there. Unlike the workers at Graceland. All the employees were eager to help and were forthcoming with information. They all said working for the Coca Cola company was a good thing. One young man said he had been working there for the past five years. He started in high school and continued to work there through college. I think I would enjoy working at the Coke place too. When I was a child, one of my dream jobs was to work at a Coke factory along with being an astronaut and an artist. Well, one out of three ain't bad! 

The World of Coke is touted as a happy place and it really was. Everyone there had a smile on their face. It was as if they were visiting a good friend. I read about the 79 days we did without the original formula Coke. I remember those days well, I was very upset about new Coke. And was so grateful when Coke Classic became available again.

After my sojourn to the World of Coke, I started out of Atlanta during rush hour! Atlanta has to be the LA of the midwest. Six lanes of crazy rush hour traffic, what was I thinking? I think every so often I like to remind myself why I don't live in a bigger city than OKC. I drove through Georgia onto Tennessee. I am going to have to come back to this part of the country again. In the past I have always gone west, since my family lives in Vancouver British Columbia. I know the western half of the country well. I have not explored the eastern half of the country.

As I was driving the sun was setting, it was behind clouds the rays were bright and the clouds had a silver lining. It looked almost exactly like the sunset I had witnessed in Goa India, over the Arabian Sea. In a moment I was transported half a world across. If only we could be transported anywhere (like in Star Trek) in the blink of an eye, where would I want to go? Hmmm......