2007, February 6-10 Atlanta, Georgia
Day 1: Tuesday, February 6, 2007
We left my house at 9:00 A.M. and we are traveling to Atlanta, Georgia.
We took highway 72 to Athens, turned on to I-65 south toward Birmingham.
We stopped at Burger King for lunch in Pell City just off I-20.
I ordered chicken strips, fries, and a coke; Becky and Teresa both ordered salads.
We got back on I-20 east headed to Atlanta for 139 miles.
In Atlanta, we took exit 57 I-85, I-75 towards Chattanooga, Greenville for about 6 miles.
We were supposed to take GA-400 Buckhead, Cummings but we missed our turn off.
We arrived at Spring Hill Suites hotel in Buckhead Cummings where we were staying.
We checked into the hotel, unpacked our luggage and went to eat dinner at On The Border Mexican Grill Restaurant, located at one Buckhead Loop NE Atlanta, GA 30326(404) 816-3171. The restaurant was located across the street from Spring Hill Suites (3459 Buckhead Loop NE Atlanta, GA 30326 1 404-844-4800).
For dinner we split two Citrus Chipotle Chicken Salads; cheese dip, salsa chips, and each had lemon water to drink.
Citrus Chipotle Chicken Salad consists of the following:
Pulled chicken breast tossed in fat-free mango citrus vinaigrette with peppers, red onions, tomatoes, corn, queso fresco, and crunchy jicama.
Served atop fresh mixed greens.
After we finished eating dinner, we all went back to our room, put on our swimsuits, and went down to the first floor where we all got into the hot tub for about 10 minutes, then we each walked on the treadmill for about 20 minutes.
We went back to our room, took a shower, and fell asleep watching the television.
Day 2: Wednesday, February 7, 2007
We went to the Georgia World Congress Center to set up at the Rental Trade Show, booth number 566.
We had to go to the yellow parking area to get a parking permit before we could unload the van and we were told that we had thirty minutes to unload the van.
(The GWCC is located in downtown Atlanta at 285 Andrew Young International Blvd. NW, it is adjacent to Centennial Olympic Park, the Georgia Dome, CNN Center, and the Philips Arena.
Public transportation is serviced by the Dome/GWCC/Philips Arena/CNN Center MARTA station).
I pulled the rolling display and Becky and Teresa carried the boxes of pens, pads, brochures, packets, etc.
Teresa stayed with the booth while Becky and I went to fill the van up with gas.
Becky pumps the gas but the machine does not give her a receipt so I walked inside where I got the receipt and three bottles of water and three bags of peanuts.
Becky and I return to the Rental Show and help Teresa finish setting up the booth.
Then we walked up to the first level of the Conference Center to get badges and tickets for the uptown down-home, Atlanta at the Marriott Marquis, for tonight at 6:30 to 9:30 A.M.
Two tickets came with the cost of the booth and any additional tickets were $25.00 each and we needed one more ticket.
Teresa had rented a vendor scanner and it had to be picked up at the Freeman Center.
Our booth was on the fourth level in the Party section.
We finished setting up the booth and Teresa drove us back to Spring Hill Suites.
We dressed for the UPTOWN, DOWN HOME ATLANTA event, which was at the Marriott Marquis.
We rode the bus, which took us an hour and a half to get downtown because of an accident and the work traffic.
The bus driver carried us on a scenic route of downtown Atlanta to bypass the backed up traffic on the interstate.
He pointed out Elton Johns’ and Janet Jacksons’ homes.
He pointed out the tallest building in Atlanta, which was the Bank of America building, he also pointed out the coca-cola building and the largest Preservation Church in the US. (Cathedral of St Philip’s built-in 1846 located at Buckhead & North 2744 Peachtree RD NW.)
We arrived at the Marriott Marquis downtown Atlanta around 7:30 p.m.
There were several different all you can eat food bars and a drink bar.
I had two glasses of white zinfandel wine, and two glasses of coke. From the salad bar, I had a salad and a pecan bar with whipped cream and strawberries.
A disk jockey was over the entertainment, who kept the excitement in the air and the audience was enchanted, even the small children were dancing.
He came out dressed in women’s clothing, he had a big roll of tissue, which he started wrapping around the crowd of dancers and Teresa and I joined the crowd of dancers.
We arrived back at the hotel at about 10:30 p.m., where I took a shower.
Day 3: Thursday, February 8, 2007
We ate breakfast at Spring Hill Suites. For breakfast, I ordered waffles with strawberry syrup, almonds, and raisins.
We took the bus downtown to the Georgia World Congress Center to the Rental Tradeshow and opened for business.
We opened our booth number 5660 and we were ready for business.
Becky and I walked around to see what the other vendors had on display in the Party Show Rental area.
At 1:30, Becky and Teresa went to pass out product information in the Heavy and Light Equipment Rental area.
Instead of getting lunch, we snacked.
I ate a small carrot cake for one point, and a small box of popcorn.
We met a couple from Iowa, Loren, and Jackie; their booth was next to the restrooms.
We had to rush upstairs to purchase tickets for the Aquarium before 5:00 pm where we each paid $40.00 for our tickets and each of us was given a tote bag.
We rode the bus back to Spring Hill Suites walked across the street to On The Border Mexican Grill Restaurant where we ate dinner.
We walked back to the hotel, took a shower, and went to bed.
Day 4: Friday, February 9, 2007
In the hotel, I ate breakfast which was a muffin with an egg, sausage and drank water.
We rode the bus to the Rental Show downtown Atlanta and opened for business.
We had about sixty people come by our boot and Teresa records their information with her Freeman scanner.
We once again eat a snack for lunch of bagels, muffins, bananas, and apples.
At the end of the day, we took the Marta underground train back to Spring Hill Suites and
Jackie, Loren, rode the Marta with us.
We had never taken the Marta and were unsure of the correct directions, we met a nice young man, who was going in the same direction as us, and he was kind enough to direct us where to get on and off the Marta.
He was from New York so he was familiar with the subway systems.
We took the Marta to the first stop which was at Five Points, we got off and headed north to Spring Hill.
We had to walk up one level of stairs to get to the street.
Loren called the hotel for them to send a van, but our van had already come and gone.
Loren called the hotel again and we had to wait another fifteen minutes for the van to pick us up. The wind was blowing very hard and it was very cold.
We did not save any time riding Marta because we saw the bus go by, so traveling by the Marta was no better than traveling by bus.
We had time for a short rest break, and then we got ready to go downtown to the Georgia Aquarium where we will eat dinner and walk through the museum.
The first bus will run at 7:15 which we plan to take.
This is a Semi-formal event and there will be several different buffets to choose from.
We filled our plates two times with pasta, salads, chicken, garlic bread and a small dessert. We walked through the Museum with our friends Loren and Jackie.
We saw the Georgia Explorer, River Scout, coldwater Quest, Ocean Voyager, Tropical Diver, and the Depoe’s 3 D.
The wonder show was closed and so was the gift shop.
We walked through The Coldwater Quest where we saw Africa Penguins, Beluga Whales, sea otters, and sea lions.
In the Ocean Voyager, we saw Whale Sharks and hammerhead sharks.
In the Georgia Explorer, we put our hands in the touch pools that were filled with a wall of fish and turtles.
In the Tropical Diver area, we saw coral reefs and jellyfish.
Day 5: Saturday, February 10, 2007
The next morning we loaded up the van with all our luggage and headed to the Rental Show for our final day of displaying.
Teresa ate a sandwich for lunch and Becky and I ate snacks.
I went to the heavy and light equipment area to pass out ink pens, notepads, and business cards.
Becky stayed to condense down our boxes and she began loading the van.
We had everything loaded and left the parking lot by 2:20 P.M.
We took interstate I-85 south to I-20 out of Georgia.
We stopped in Pell City at Burger King where I order a whopper junior, fries, and coke.
Hubby was waiting at McDonald's in Killen, Al to pick me up, we arrive at 6:15 pm.
Teresa drops Becky off at her house and she drives home, to meet her husband and family for they are going out to eat dinner.
