North Georgia

September 14: With less than 24 hours since arriving in Baton Rouge from Virginia, I was already booking a flight to Burlington, Iowa. Thinking it impossible to be more remote than that, within 3 hours, the phone rang and my trip to Burlington was canceled and I on the cell phone in traffic booking a trip to Blairsville, GA. Not knowing for sure where that place was, I relied on the travel agent to choose the best airport. She tells me, "Knoxville". "Tennessee?", I asked. "Yep, your other choices are Asheville, Chattanooga or Atlanta". "Well", says I, "that's three states and a lot of space between those towns, are you sure?". Long story short, I'm on a flight early Thursday morning, flying over the tropical storm that had just passed through Louisiana and landing right back in the middle of it. Relying on my trusty (?) Garmin GPS, I took it's advice and went blazing down the road and within 30 minutes I'm on some little road in a drizzling rain questioning the wisdom of Mr. Garmin's invention. When I tell you that road was crooked, that is an understatement. At one point, I kid you not, I looked through the trees to my right and saw a car put on it's brake lights and 15 seconds later, I met that same car in the next curve. My trip to Blairsville lasted three hours through these curves and rain and had me muttering near profanities at the thought of my travel agent and the folks at Garmin Industries.

Blairsville is a Mayberyesque town of around 700 full time citizens with an old courthouse occupying the pivot point of a roundabout. The office where I met up with Wally, the other rep, sits on the north side of it. Unfortunately, it was nearly closing time by the time I arrived so Wally and I went out scouting for a place to stay. We chose Holiday Inn Express after a quick look at couple of other motels, thinking it was the safest bet, not knowing anything about the place.

September 26: After spending the past two days in St Louis, I flew back to Georgia. Thinking it might be best to fly into Atlanta, I flew in on American this time, giving my usual rant about Delta a rest. Feeling fortunate that we arrived on time, I retrieved my bags and tried to find the rental car shuttle bus. Atlanta's signage is less than wonderful so I found myself pulling two large bags to and fro outside the terminal building. After asking and receiving bad advice from two sources, I eventually was aboard the shuttle.

Instead of driving the fastest way, Saturday morning I checked out of my Patel and took Hwy 19 north. It soon became much more scenic than Hotlanta when I began to get into the north Georgia mountains. Arriving in Dahlonegah, I checked out a couple of motels and eventually unloaded at the Super 8. Believe it or not, it had more going on for it than the Holiday Inn Express and a lot cheaper to boot.

Dahlonegah, was hosting a couple of bike rides, one 50 mile ride and a hundred miler. There was more spandex covered butts there than at the flea market in Gonzales, LA. This small college town has a pretty neat historic downtown with satellites of shops and cafes all around the old courthouse. While the main attraction was supposed to be bicycles, the tight turned roads were constantly yielding to various arays of Porches, Beemers, vintage roadsters and everything imaginable in motorcycles.

October 6 and 7: Wow! Were the natives excited about the Sorghum Festival! Complete with a canon shot to start the parade Saturday morning, Blairsville denizens turned out on the courthouse square to take in the sights of all 5 fire trucks, Boy Scouts, people on stilts, Shriners, the high school marching band and every restored Camaro or Mustang still running. True enough, in conventional terms of traveling, there isn't a lot going on for Blairsville but somewhere deep down in your soul you'll find a lot and your heart will be better for the experience.

The last 3 weeks, I decided to stay at the Seasons Inn right on the square. It's an older inn that had been bought and run by a young couple. Furnishing were spartan but nevertheless, it was fitting for my stay in Mayberry......er...Blairsville.