Coastergirl

Hi

As part of our flydrive, we are driving from Nashville to Valdosta in one day, en-route stops at some Civil War sites, then Ruby Falls and Chattannooga Choo Choo. We plan to be heading through Atlanta at 3:30pm roughly. I would like to visit the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, then also the grave of Martin Luther King Jr, and just see his childhood home from the street (I don't feel the need to take the tour inside it), and also just see the Coca-Cola headquarters from the street. Might sound a bit lame, but it's cool to me, LOL!

My questions are this: are these areas safe and how easy is it to find parking? Is the traffic bad at that time on a Wednesday (mid-December)? We intend to eat at Applebees in Stockbridge as we continue our drive south and will be there at about 4:40pm. Will this have gotten us out of the traffic issue area in time?

Thanks for any help!

Rachel

Donna

If you are traveling from Nashville to Valdosta you will be traveling south. You will get to Atlanta before Stockbridge so if you want to see the sites you mentioned plan on having lunch in Atlanta, not Stockbridge. This is better because it puts you where you want to be earlier. There are a lot of places to stop in and get a meal. The Margaret Mitchell House and MLK museum are within easy viewing distance to each other. Coca-Cola museum is downtown, and a bit farther. There should be at least street parking for the Mitchell House and parking lots for MLK and I believe Coke museum. All areas are safe in the middle of the day. You said the Coca-Cola headquarters, but I believe you are thinking about the museum downtown - it is interesting, but a tour may take over an hour or more. If you want to do the tour and all the other things you have planned try to get into Atlanta at least by 10 or 11 am. And plan to get out by 4pm to avoid a lot of bumper to bumper traffic on the way south.

Coastergirl

Thanks, Donna. I'm amazed so many people are kind enough to reply and so quickly as well. What a great place this is!

I must have not explained so well - we'll be having some lunch up nr Chattannooga, so will be having an early dinner at Applebees. Our plan is to start the tour of Margaret Mitchell House at 3pm, head over to MLK stuff then just drive by the Coke place. I'm not sure which bit we should be at for this - I just want to stand there and say "wow, so this is where they make Coca-Cola!"... where would that be? Any ideas? So, anyway, that should only take 5 mins, get a quick photo then head out of Atlanta. Had planned to leave the Coke site at 4:10pm...

I am *so* excited!! Oooh, one other thing, does street parking have pay-meters or is it free?

Thanks,
Rachel x

padams421

If you are arriving in Atlanta at 3:30, you will not have time to go to the Margaret Mitchell House, the Coke Museum and the MLK sites and get to Stockbridge by 4:40. You would have about 30 minutes for sightseeing, and that's enough time to get to one of those places.

I think Donna's point is that if you want to see all of these places, you won't be able to eat an early dinner in Stockbridge. I presume there is some reason for wanting to eat at a Applebee's in Stockbridge (perhaps you are meeting friends). If you must stick to the Stockbridge plan, then you need to choose just one of the Atlanta sites to visit.

padams421

BTW, Coke's headquarters are on 10th Street in midtown Atlanta just off I-75/85 (known locally as "the connector"). I know there are metered parking spaces within a block or so of the headquarters. It's just a tall skyscraper building with Coca-Cola written on the top.

loves_to_travel

You really don't want to try to leave Stockbridge heading south in the late afternoon. The traffic will be horrible. You need to either stay in Stockbridge until the traffic is gone or change your plans.

Coastergirl

The coca-cola place at 10th Street Midtown... is that where they bottle it? Like where it was developed?

And what sort of times do we either need to stay in Atlanta/Stockbridge until so the traffic has cleared, or how early would we have needed to clear through before the rush hour? i.e. what times do we not want to be driving during? How far south on the I-75 does the traffic tend to clog up? Thanks for the help!

Brian_in_Charlotte

Entering the Atlanta region on a weekday afternoon, you'll need at least 30 minutes (maybe more) to get to downtown or midtown. Traffic between 3:30 and 6:30 will be bad. It will take you at least a couple hours to see all the places you mention (unless you simply to a drive by of them all - then one hour). Leaving downtown during rush hour it can take an hour to get to Stockbridge.

BTW, there is no Coke made in either the headquarters or Coke museum. In fact, Coca-Cola doesn't make the beverage, only the syrup. Bottlers around the country actual mix and bottle the stuff. Coca-Cola is almost exclusively a marketing company.

If you must do a drive-by of the Coke Museum, understand that it is right in the dead center of downtown, and traffic will be bad. And you'll very likely get lost. The headquarters building mentioned above is easily viewed from the interstate.

Brian_in_Charlotte

Even on Fridays before a holiday weekend, I never thought the traffic south of Stockbridge was that bad, in fact it seemed to get better right where I-75 and I-675 meet (it does back up before this merge). I think your bigger problem is going to be between Atlanta and Stockbridge.

loves_to_travel

The traffic most afternoons is bad starting just south of Atlanta (around I-285 junction on the south side) until somewhere in Henry County. It could be bad as far down as Locust Grove, but usually just after Eagles Landing Parkway which is one exit south of Applebees.

Coastergirl

Thanks, Brian! Coca-cola - who needs it?! LOL. We are definitely going to scrap that off the list. In fact, I think that whole part of the itinerary needs some re-thinking. We aren't eating in Stockbridge for any good reason - just saw it as somewhere roughly in the right vicinity, so that can change to somewhere a couple of hours further south. The trouble is we're losing an hour that anyway, because of going from CST to EST at Chattannooga. We'll be leaving Chattannooga at 1pm EST and aim to be M Mitchell House by 3pm. The only way to see the MLK grave (and take some photos) is to abort the M Mitchell House, go straight to MLK grave then get back on I-75 by, say, 3pm and head straight south. Does this make more sense? It's a shame about missing Margaret Mitchell's house though - but I don't want to be stuck in traffic for hours and hours!

Thanks!

Brian_in_Charlotte

You could easily do a drive-by of the Margaret Mitchell house on the way to MLK (exit at 10th Street, turn left on 10th then right on Peachtree - house will be just on your right - you could stop for a quick visit to the gift shop) then MLK is about 5-10 minutes from there. I've never been there, so don't know the specifics about visiting his grave.

Just be aware that you'll drive through some fairly unsafe-appearing neighborhoods to get to MLK, but that shouldn't be a problem during the day, just make sure you know where you're going. If you get lost you can easily get into a neighborhood you don't want to be in. And be very careful about stopping and asking for directions. Don't want to deter you from vising MLK (it's very safe - run by the national park service), just have a good plan.

It should be easy to get back onto the interstate from there (just have it mapped out well).

It's not such a long way from Atlanta to Stockbridge, and unless there's a wreck, it should move fairly well, but it will be stop and go in some places. If you leave Atlanta at 4, I bet it'll take about 40 minutes.

One interesting thing about Coca-Cola: the recipe for the Coke syrup is safeguarded in the vault of SunTrust Bank headquartered in Atlanta (perhaps someone else knows exactly what building). This bank also accepted a large amount of Coca-Cola stock many. many years ago, and though this stock is now worth a ridiculous amount of money, the bank can never sell it because they'd owe too much tax on the sale. It's one reason that bank is still independent.

Brian_in_Charlotte

And if you can make it to Macon, GA, you'll have a lot better choices for dining. Perhaps someone here can recommend a good restaurant. (BTW, I'd never recommend an Applebee's as a good place for dinner). Good luck.

Brian_in_Charlotte

OK, I can't stop. Of interest about the Margaret Mitchell house is that she hated it - she called it "the dump". And I think it burned down a few times - I remember during the restoration right before the olympics, arsonists lit it up two different times. Not sure anyone was charged with it or not. We lived in the neighborhood and everytime we heard a fire truck up the hill we figured the MM house was burning again LOL.

Coastergirl

Wow! I'd never really thought about how valuable the receipe would be, but I guess so. Can you imagine being a worker in the building with the vault and having some kind of accident with a key or something. Imagine being the one who destroyed it! I'm sure they have copies somewhere, lol.

Stopping at the Margaret Mitchell House gift shop seems like a perfet solution!

I am concerned about the safety aspect of where we'll be driving, so I will need to find a good up to date street map that shows parking lots and any one-way systems etc. Unfortunately, they do not really sell them over here so I'll need to look online - which has the disadvantage that you can't really see what the detail is like on the map.

Your knowledge of Atlanta is fantastic, thanks for all the help!

Rachel

jacketwatch

I thought you were referring to Atlanta folks after yesterdays game.

Brian_in_Charlotte

You'll want to get an Atlanta map just in case, but here are your directions:

I-75 South into Atlanta. Take exit #250 which is the exit for 16th, 14th and 10th Streets (in that order). Proceed past 16th and 14th (staying to the left) and turn left on 10th. In about 1/2 mile, turn right onto Peachtree Street (not West Peachtree Street). The MM House is right on the corner of 10th and Peachtree.

To get to MLK, get back on 10th (going the same way) until it dead-ends into Monroe (you'll get a view of Atlanta's major intown park, Piedmont Park, on the left). Turn right on Monroe (which will turn into Boulevard) and take this about 1.5 miles to Auburn Ave and turn right. Once you cross Ponce de Leon on Monroe/Boulevard, it gets pretty sketchy, but this is a well travelled street and isn't a cause for concern - just don't stop for directions. The MLK Center should be right at the corner of Boulevard and Auburn Ave (449 Auburn Ave NE).

Getting back on I-75 South is easy from here, continue west on Auburn about 1/3 of a mile and you'll turn left right after going over the interstate to get back on.

This should all be very easy as you'll avoid the most confusing areas of downtown (i.e. no one-way streets). Good Luck.

Coastergirl

Am feeling much less panicky now, thanks to all for your guidance. And Brian, thanks x 1000 to you for those directions. Once we get a map I am going to highlight the roads to make sure we know what we are doing!

Thanks again!

Coastergirl

Hi all!

I am sorry if my questions somewhat contradict each other; to me it seems that in one post I say "We're doing this, and how far is it blah blah blah" and then the next post I seem to be ignoring advice and asking another question. I know that could get annoying, and I need to completely exhaust my research sources before I bother I-75, come off at exit 250 (thanks, Brian) and drive to the Margaret Mitchell House. We'll park there and visit the gift shop. Then from there we have 2 choices to arrive at the MLK site on John Wesley Dobbs Avenue:

1) go back to I-75 and head south, coming off again at and exit 248C (I think) eastwards on the GA-10, then it is very close by turning right on to Boulevard and right on to John Wesley.

OR:

2) continue on 10th Street to Monroe, which turns in to Boulevard, and go all the way down to John Wesley. (thanks Brian!)

I am just nervous of a couple of things:

a) all that getting on/off the I-75 sounds cagey and could be hard with lots of traffic

b) if we took option 2 would the streets be safe enough, you always hear about drive-by shootings etc (sorry to be paranoid)

c) the m mitchell parking lot is on crescent street, so to come back out of there and take option 2, how would we get across the traffic on 10th Street? It seems like a pretty big
road with multiple lanes etc...??

Thanks in advance, and sorry if it sounds like I am keeping on and on about the same point - I just want to be sure we're doing what's best for us!

Rach x

aileen679

From Nashville to Valdosta is over 400 miles. You are going to be really traveling to do it in 8 hours with time to eat, take rest stops and such. Traffic in Atlanta might hold you up another hour. I really don't think that you will be able to see any Civil War sites, Ruby Falls (I think it's in a cave) and the Chattannooga Choo Choo and make it to Atlanta around 3:30. Perhaps, you might want to think about what you want to see the most.

I think that I would go to Chattanooga and see what you want to. There are some great things there. (EVERYONE has to go to Rock City at least once in their lives.) Then, you may find that you need to just head on down to Valdosta and skip Atlanta. It may be late when you get there and you would have about another 250+ miles to go to Valdosta.