with photos Online at http://ournews.mobi/georgia_blog.html

Monday, December 31, 2007 8:06 PM Videos for these couple of days are at:
➢ http://ournews.mobi/LeighGeorgia.htm ~ Trip to Leigh’s last home and stadium
➢ http://ournews.mobi/crossville.htm ~ our resort hood
➢ http://ournews.mobi/album/Chris-arri... ~ Chris’ arrival in the US
➢ http://ournews.mobi/album/Georgia/in... ~ photos of trip
Leigh’s apartment
I had rung Greenleaf Apartments in Phenix City (yes that is how they spell it, this is Arkansas) a month after Leigh died. There were some papers in his belongings that included rent receipts for Apartment 1716. The person I spoke to remembered Leigh as the spokesperson for the South Georgian Waves’ players. I never got to watch Leigh play for the Dodgers. Gradually since 2003 I have been visiting places he played and leaving his baseball card. Outside of Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney the only other place I have gotten to so far has been Blue Jay Stadium in Toronto. Leigh pitched there in 2001 when the Australian Under-18 squad played the Canadian U-18 National team on the way to Edmonton for the U-18 World Series. I left the card this same time of year 2004.

We left Manhattan last Friday noon getting as far as Winchester, Virginia before driving anymore was too much. Winchester seemed like a nice town, it was nine pm, so we found a reasonable motel with a one-toothed heavily tattooed lady at the front desk.

We were on the road by eight Saturday morning, arriving in Crossville, Tennessee, a short eight-hundred fifty mile drive at five PM (about the same as a drive from Adelaide to Sydney). We had found Mariner’s Pointe Resort on the Internet and booked it for two- weeks. The place is OK though a bit dated. We don’t have wireless in our unit, two storey two bedroom with lounge and kitchen, our own levy on to the lake but it has been quite relaxing. We use the gym and spa every day as we get caught up on reading and planning future trips further a field.

Narda’s son Chris arrived from Australia a couple of days ago with fiancé visa in hand and wife-to-be with us to collect him from the Knoxville airport. (We will be back in Tennessee March 13th for their marriage in Chattanooga then on to Utrecht, the Netherlands for Spring Break). After meeting Jessica’s parents in Maryville (near the Knoxville Airport) we drove the eighty miles back to Crossville. After a few days of too much relaxation on a rainy afternoon we decided to drive to Georgia to see where Leigh last played and to Alabama to see where he last lived. Fifteen minutes after first thinking of going for a drive we were online downloading a Yahoo driving map to east-central Georgia. We arrived in Rome, Georgia by dark and the next morning we went to the stadium there. I had followed one of Leigh’s games there in early 2003 and I still have a link to the news reportage of that game on Leigh’s memorial page. We took some photos and went on to Columbus, which was home for the South Georgia Waves. As the baseball stadium was closed for winter break we could only walk around the outside and along the river near it.

We were in Atlanta by evening and stayed outside the Stone Mountain Village. The idea was that we would go to the top the next day (Sunday the 30th), however, it was raining so hard we just drove back to Crossville, a five hour drive. By the time we got home in the afternoon we had added another six hundred miles to our trip.

It is New Year’s Eve but it does not look like either of us will make it until midnight. At 10.30 I am ready for bed; no doubt it has something either to do with our age or with being in such a boring town as Crossville. Wednesday we are off to Chattanooga for a few days to help Chris and Jessie get settled in their new home. I think we will be painting and practical stuff like that along with some tourist stuff like riding the Incline Railway and going to a University