Subject: Atlanta bound
This is the eleventh Yellowstone to Atlanta email that was originally sent out as separate emails to family members to let them know where we were, what we were doing and give tidbits about our activities. I have copied the original emails and added some pictures for viewing. The trip started in August and ended in October. This is the first of our extended stay trips in the Adventurer.
Here is our latest update from Chattanooga. We have been here for some time now. We are packing up and leaving in the morning (Tuesday) for Atlanta and the RV Rally. The last time we reported to you we were expecting a rain event. The deluge forecast did not happen here but went further west and north. We got a small sprinkling and slightly cooler temps but not major weather.
Monday has turned into laundry day it seems. Today and last Monday the laundry was done at a local Laundromat (not laundrymat as previously visited in Indiana) here in Tennessee. We are barely in Tennessee as we are almost in Georgia and Alabama too. Literally, we are almost in GA. There is a parking lot between our campsites and the Camping World store that owns the campground. Somewhere in the parking lot is the state line between GA and TN. We camp in Tennessee but renew our campground stay in the store that is located in Georgia.
Tuesday brought an opportunity for a field trip. We chose to visit a Dairy farm and take a scenic drive. The name of the Dairy farm is Mayfield Dairy Farms. Note to Brenda and Sam: it is the equivalent of the Wilcoxson brand in Wyoming. We found our way to the visitor center located in downtown Athens, TN. We signed up for the tour and free scoop of ice cream after the tour but elected to wait for the next scheduled time approximately 30 minutes later. Reason why, 100+ young school kids on their own field trip to the dairy and tour. The loudness factor was a strong influence in our decision to wait 30 minutes. This decision proved to be sound and rewarding as there were only about a dozen people on the tour and it was much more relaxed since no one had to keep up with head counts, etc.
We began our tour with a short video describing the history of the dairy operation and how it has grown into a large regional supplier today. Then each participant was supplied with a lovely hairnet to wear throughout the tour. Notice in the attached picture, the women had a lovely pink color while the men were issued red. This reminds me I was not allowed a tour of the Moon Pie facility due to health reasons. Here we are with hairnets while up close and personal to a milk and ice cream packaging facility. Moon Pie factory take notice and heed my demand; let me tour the Moon Pie factory. I have not received my invite yet so we will move on with the current narrative. But as Kenzi used to say, “I can’t like this!”
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| It is good, but there is also Blue Bell and Wilcoxson's too! Not sure which is 'best.' |
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| Lovely pink for the ladies and a nice red color for the guys. |
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| Let's not leave David out of this. Doesn't he look good in his 'red' net? |
As we move into the facility, we notice there are three different colored cartons being produced, yellow, white and clear. The yellow carton is reserved for the Mayfield brand and is designed to keep the UV light from robbing the milk of some of its natural nutrients. The white carton is for packaging other milk brands and the clear is used for chocolate, orange drink, etc. This tour of the facility and operations was very interesting and the entire packaging area is completely disassembled, cleaned and sanitized at the end of each day.
Towards the end of the tour we got to see the ice cream packaging area and told about the various flavors, which is the prelude to choosing our flavor to sample. After finishing the sample, we went and ate lunch. Reminds me of my Aunt Bettie taking me to eat when I was little. She would let me have dessert first and food afterward which is and was a big 'No-No' for my mother. She was strict about the food first then dessert policy as it would mess up our appetites. Not true! I ate as much for lunch as always even though I was already full of ice cream.
We then went for a nice drive along the Cherohala Skyway. We would have enjoyed the drive a lot more if the trees had been fully colored in their annual fall colors. They are just beginning to turn a little yellow green. There were several places to stop and look out along the way and read a few placards. The highway is a 50 mile National Scenic Byway between Tellico Plains, TN and Robbinsville, NC. We turned around and headed back before crossing into NC.
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| We could see a long way this day. |
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| It was a beautiful drive. |
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| But we were a tad early for the fall colors. |
As we drove we noticed a lake and campground up high in the mountains and decided to explore on our way back. As you know, the government shutdown has most facilities currently closed. We were driving towards the lake off the main road when I spotted a Park Ranger truck in my rear view mirror tailing us as we drove deeper into the area. Now you need to know there were no closed signs, guard shacks, roadblocks or any other method we saw to keep us out of the area or off the park road. We came to a T in the road after several miles and I was certainly relieved there was not going to be a confrontation when we turned left and he turned right. The lake was very nice looking, although totally deserted and we did see signs saying the campground was closed with a barrier to the entrance of the campground.
We returned to our own campground to rest and reflect on all that was seen. We also took the opportunity to discuss what we would try and see next. Since I cannot visit the Civil War Battlefields around here, I am relegated to non-military type locations. Somehow the discussion came around to the electric scooter I bought for Beverly. You will recall the battery would not take a charge but the charger appears to work correctly. We decided it was a fine time to seek out an Interstate Battery store and see if we can get this scooter running.
We found one in close proximity and a very nice fellow to help us. After getting the correct battery, we go back to the campground where David attaches the correct clips to the wires to hook up the battery to the scooter. (David has everything to fix just about anything with him. Which is a good thing too because I only have a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.) Lo and behold, we put the battery in and it works. You see, I know it works because the last thing I remember, before running my head into the extended awning arm and knocking myself out, was turning the throttle to make the scooter go. The tires need some air and the battery needs a full charge so we have to wait until tomorrow for a full test of the scooter’s operational abilities.
The next day, Wednesday, we take a ride over to Rock City. Now I visited here once when I was a boy (8 years old) but did not remember much about the trip other than my rotund father had a hard time navigating something called ‘Fat Man Squeeze.’ When I walked up to the ticket booth, I told the lady I did not know what I was buying a ticket for and what it would do for me, could she help me out. She said yes and proceeded to explain that Rock City is a walking tour through trails over, under and through rocks.
At this juncture in her description she paused and took a long look at the four of us and finally exclaimed that part of the tour goes through ‘Fat Man Squeeze’ but that it looked as if all of us should be okay to ‘make it’ through that part of the trail. I expressed my appreciation to her for the 'explanation and observation’ then purchased my tickets to enter Rock City.
There is a lot to the trails and it is all pretty and pretty amazing. There is a Lover’s Leap (where you actually are looking at seven states from this vantage point, although you cannot see the dotted red state lines), a swinging suspension walking bridge, a couple of caves, deer viewing area, the Fat Man Squeeze and yes, the inevitable gift shop at the end of the trail. The folks that owned the land and lived on it back at the turn of the century, laid out the trails and built the gardens along the trails for themselves but decided to share the spectacular views with the public. As part of the advertising, the owners hired a painter to paint barns in exchange for putting “See Rock City” on the roofs. After finishing the trails, we were famished and stopped at a pizza buffet before heading back to the campground.
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| Larry and David at beginning of rock trails |
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| Sophie and Larry at the Needles Eye passage |
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| This is advertising example on barns - Minus me of course |
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| Somebody is trying to knock me off the swingin' bridge |
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| and yes, it is a long way down from the bridge! |
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| Fat Man Squeeze, that's me but we all made it through |
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| Sophie in pink on lower observation level and those are people at upper level. |
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| David and Sophie at top of the trail. |
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| Larry and Beverly at end of trail in the gift shop |
Once we got back to the campground, it was time to finish prepping the scooter. After airing the tires and making sure the battery had completely charged, we called for Beverly to take it on its maiden voyage. A fun time was had by all (as you can see from the pictures) because the scooter works and is a success. We have all discovered the seat is much too small and a larger seat is a needed improvement. Just saying! Not that we would have any trouble making it through ‘Fat Man Squeeze’ or anything. The battery needs to be fully discharged three times and fully recharged each time as a ‘break-in’ of the battery. As of this writing, I am having trouble getting anyone to ride the scooter long enough to fully discharge the battery for the second time. What is wrong with these wimps? There is a weight limit for the scooter, otherwise I would just ride it myself to discharge the battery.
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| You think Beverly is having fun? |
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| I know Sophie is too. |
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| And it is David's turn. |
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| Sophie says, 'Oh my that tire is flat!' Thanks a lot! |
Now this scooter, since it is a big huge hit, is beginning to present me with some challenges. Beverly has taken such a liking to it, the larger seat notwithstanding, she is really getting into this ‘biker’ thing. She is already talking about her wardrobe and needing to acquire some ‘leathers’ to wear while riding.
Sometimes you just do not know what kind of monsters you are creating. She has even taking to handing out warnings and citations to those violating certain traffic rules in the campground and adjacent parking lot. The next thing I know, she will be wanting a bullet, a pistol and holster with a badge of some sort to wear during her rounds as she makes ‘citizen’s arrests’ ala Barney Fyffe of Mayberry. Where will it all end?
Thursday was a rest day and was fully utilized by all. Never has a nap felt so good. Friday was a ‘girls’ day out’ and a ‘guys’ day out’. Sophie and Beverly chose a huge shopping complex/mall to spend their time at looking and cataloguing possible future purchases. David and I decided to make a trip to the movies for a little entertainment. We used the iPhone app, "Around Me," to locate a movie complex. But to our dismay, when we got there we could not locate it.
Now David and I actually have pretty fair navigational abilities but were completely stumped this time. We looked at the app and it said we were 17 yards away from the movie theater but we were sitting in the parking lot of a Regions Bank. Looking around, we could not find any sign of the attempted destination. We decided to punt and look for another complex not really knowing what just happened to us. We arrived at the second choice and managed to make a 3-D showing of ‘Gravity’. We along with 2 other people, for a total of 4 viewers enjoyed the movie, popcorn and coke.
When we got back to the campground, I was so full I did not want to eat supper. So I opted for some Mayfield ‘Extreme Moose Tracks’ ice cream instead. Extreme Moose Tracks is chocolate ice cream with fudge strips and chocolate filled chocolate candy spread throughout. A true chocolate lovers’ delight.
The next morning, we departed for the Apple Festival in Ellijay, Georgia. This area in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee is known as the Appalachian foothills and there is a lot of agriculture in the area. In particular, apples are grown in the area. After last week’s fall festival, we expected much of the same for this festival although we should have known that a festival that is scheduled for two weekends in a row would be somewhat different.
We arrived in Ellijay not really knowing much about the area or where the festival is held. We found ourselves downtown and saw some activities there when we parked in the First Baptist Church parking lot adjacent to the downtown square. After roaming through the vendors booths we thought this festival was much smaller than last weekend’s festival, but we were wrong.
The festival is held in two different locations, downtown which is the original/traditional area and then at the fairgrounds. There are buses that move people between the two locations to cut down on the traffic since parking and clogged roads are issues up in the mountains. So we hopped a bus downtown to ride out to the fairgrounds and were totally surprised at the size of the affair. This is a Lion’s Club sponsored event and they should be raising a ton of money for their charitable activities.
There had to be four or five hundred craft and food vendors, two dozen kiddie type rides, over 300 cars and trucks at the ‘car show’ and the town’s population must have swelled to ten times its size. We ate lunch at the fairgrounds and I had a ‘Fried Green Tomato’ sandwich. Oh boy, it was good! It was on Texas Toast, with ranch dressing, a slice of cheese, bacon and finally fried green tomatoes. Sounds like a BLT without the L but tastes nothing like it. This is something I think would be a big hit in East Texas festivals. It is a shame we will miss the parade, it is held next weekend, since we will be in Atlanta at the RV rally. I suspect it is something to see if this weekend is any indication.
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| Apples, apples and more apples - look at all the people |
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| Beverly and Sophie - doin' their thing at the Ellijay festival |
We are taking Sunday and today to rest for the upcoming week that will be loaded with tons of stuff to do and see. Not to mention entertainment on Friday night (Beach Boys) and again Saturday night (Vince Gill); which will definitely wear us out by Monday week. So a week from today, we will head back towards Texas. They say all good things must come to an end and so our journey will too. This will be the last update until you see us sometime later in the week of the 20th. We have had a good time, seen lots of the country, shared some time with fellow travelers, visited with friends in places we have never been before and managed to enjoy each other as we did so. Since this has been so enjoyable, we are already making plans for a future trip, so stay tuned and we will see you soon.
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