Caution: Curvy Road Ahead

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

We had another wonderful breakfast cooked by Lisa, the lodge-keeper: oj, coffee, ham, eggs, biscuits and fruit. We hated to leave because we felt right at home at Falling Waters Mountain Lodge. In fact, it's hard to imagine anyone else sleeping in "our" bed. But we needed to explore other places, so off we went in the light rain. RAIN on our vacation? What the heck? 

Goodbye, Orvis heaven...

Jeff dropped me off in Ellijay to spend a few hours while he went quail hunting. I've essentially bonded with this community since I was at the photographing of the Ellijay telephone directory a couple of days ago, so it was no problem for me to hang out there and shop in the RAIN. I hit all six of the decent stores and had a delicious bowl of tomato basil soup in a cute cafe on this cold, RAINY day and still had a few hours to spare. But Jeff showed up way earlier than planned because his quail hunting expedition had been cancelled due to RAIN. He tried to trout fish in a stream he had been told about, but it was too shallow due to LACK OF RAIN. That just seemed wrong.

Too shallow and too hard to reach...bummer.

So we headed up to our next lodging at the Overlook Inn which was...well, it wasn't really anywhere in particular. Certainly there are no towns anywhere near our bed and breakfast. If we thought the last place we stayed was in the middle of nowhere, this place is even farther. We drove up windy roads, wet curvy mountain roads that wound up and up and 'round and 'round mountains in the RAIN. Yes, the foliage was more vivid the farther up we went but it became harder to see and enjoy because of the FOG. I don't do FOG. By the time we arrived at Overlook Inn, I was a nervous wreck and Jeff finally admitted he was really glad we were off that road.  In fact, we almost missed the place because the FOG was so thick. Sheesh!

Well, this place turned out to be worth the effort. It is a cozy mountain lodge with big comfy furniture, TV and a fireplace in the "council room" and our room is spacious and full of character. We couldn't see 20 yards beyond our noses, so we don't have a good feel of how great the view is...all we see is white FOG. And it continued to RAIN on our vacation. But somehow it didn't seem to matter anymore. We settled into our cozy retreat high up in the CHILLY, RAINY, FOGGY mountains in front of a fire with wifi for the laptop, books to read, a plate of cheeses, crackers and grapes and a bottle of wine.

The window at our B&B that overlooks a reportedly amazing view...

Today's view...just a bit opaque.

But we found things to keep us occupied...

Early this evening, the innkeeper placed a picnic basket on the hearth for us containing vegetables and dip, black-eyed pea salsa, croissants, the most delicious smoked trout and cookies for dessert. It continued to rain and be foggy and we didn't care. We read and napped and watched TV and ate our picnic supper and blogged and snacked on trial mix and enjoyed the cozy fire. 

And, in retrospect, we were very relieved that Jeff's quail hunt was cancelled so we didn't have to drive in the wet, foggy DARKNESS to get here later in the day.