Travel Blog: Gainesville, GA
As February 5th arrived it was a Thursday with an afternoon flight out to Atlanta to attend a wedding. Things all seemed normal until we sat on the runaway for over 40 minutes waiting in line to take off. Though in a positive light the plane was so empty we had no one between Alyson and I nor anyone in the row in front.
Once we landed we quickly realized how large the Atlanta airport was and got to work navigating train after train to land us at the rental car building. It was the first time in a long time that our destination was Atlanta normally treating Atlanta as a midpoint on some flights. So once Alyson and I got in our rental car (a tiny Prius) we set navigation for our destination of Gainesville and was looking at another hour and 40 minutes of driving.
Almost immediately I learned that Atlanta traffic is insanely busy with 8 lane highways full of bumper to bumper traffic. I couldn't believe it - this was a regular Thursday around 7pm and traffic was horrendous. Cars everywhere in constant stop and go traffic with sections of highway that forced us to go from a left exit to right exit to navigate all the way to our destination.
After a turbulent flight and exhausting night driving in Atlanta we finally arrived to our hotel (Courtyard by Marriott) in Gainesville. The first thing we noticed is how weird the shower was.
It only had a door on half of the shower which meant the bathroom naturally got a bit wet with how much splashing of water escaped. More annoying was how difficult it was to stay warm when half of the shower was exposed to the entire bathroom. There was no chance to build up a mini steam shower because it only half sealed.
The hotel though was situated in the heart of the city so we were in walking distance of plenty of food options. One of the places we walked towards was Johnny's Pizza.
We got a few small Greek salads and a bunch of different slices of pizza. The pizza was okay, but I blame ordering a single slice. I could tell the pizza by the slice is just a cheese pizza that they just reheat your customization on top of. I imagine its too difficult to keep all 15~ specialty pizzas warm to sell slices from.
As lunch was over it was time to slowly start getting ready for the wedding which was at this nearby New Holland Parlor event space. This place was insanely cool and rustic - like the ceremony space had no ceiling so you could see into the rafters. As we moved downstairs into the cocktail hour and reception we were a basement pool that had been filled in.
Unfortunately for me and mainly Alyson I was not feeling good at all requiring heavy doses of fever reducers to be a functioning human. Due to heavy medication I withheld any alcohol at the rehearsal dinner and wedding and skipped any dancing due to some pretty big muscle aches. It hurts to admit I knowingly attended some events under the weather, but we didn't travel all the way to this wedding to not attend. After getting sick on the way home from Delray to sick after arriving in Gainesville has me more sick in a few weeks than the past few years combined.
Since it was below freezing in the area and I wasn't feeling well my normal strategy of exploration and blogging was put on hold. This results in a smaller travel blog than normal.
The last morning arrived which was our early departure to the airport. Thankfully 8am on a Sunday is completely different traffic than 7pm on a Thursday in Atlanta. Our drive on Sunday was an hour even instead of nearly 2 hours on Thursday. We navigated the confusing Atlanta airport and made it to our gate with 2 hours to go. We grabbed some donuts and lunch and had a quick 64 minute flight home.
I got home quickly and wrote a not great blog while downing some Robitussin. I hate being sick with a passion and upset with myself to be sick in both January and February so far.