Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Friday, November 5, 2010

After a hearty breakfast of normal fruit, bacon and French toast with odd orange-flavored syrup, it was time for us to leave Overlook Inn. As we loaded the car it began to SNOW. It dropped to 30 degrees overnight and the flakes were coming down fast and furious. Big, huge wet flakes and it's only November 5th. What's with us and icky weather conditions, for crying out loud! We came to this B&B in rain and thick fog and left in unseasonably early snow. Fortunately, the roads weren't cold enough to become icy, but we were pretty glad to get down off that mountaintop.

The view out our windshield as we began our drive down the mountain...

...not as bad as the fog.

We went back through Ellijay and stopped at a barber shop on the town square for Jeff to get a beard trim since he forgot his trimmer and didn't want to show up at our function this weekend looking like a mountain man. I wish I had a soundtrack of the conversations with the two ladies working there. With their thick rural Georgia accents it sounded like a version of Steel Magnolias set in Mayberry. They discussed who in town had the most fahrwud fer this cold snap and that Bill and Carol dun broke up, about going to the annual Kudzu Festival ("girl, they serve it all kinds ah ways...they frah it, make jelly and salsa with it, they jest make ahlll kinds ah thangs with the kudzu!") and about the recent ladybug infestation "only thang worse 'en kudzu is all tham ladybugs gettin' in yer house...they come through thuh winder sill and you kin kill 'em by puttin' down a plastik strip in thuh winder sill and turnin' thuh har drawer on em'...kilz em' did."

Next we went to Blue Ridge which is way up in the north central part of Georgia, almost into Tennessee. There is a scenic train ride you can take which is about 4 hours round trip up to TN, including a stop for lunch in a cute town. It leaves Blue Ridge daily at 11:00 am and we rolled into town at 11:01 just as the big whistle announced its departure. Pooh. Guess we lingered over local gossip too long at the Ellijay barber shop.  But Blue Ridge was a really cute little town full of shops and restaurants, so we had plenty to do for a few hours. It was the kind of town where girlfriends can spend a day shopping with each other and I had neither my girls nor my friends there to enjoy such a cute shopping mecca. What's wrong with that picture?

Cute shops in Blue Ridge...

The first shop we visited was definitely the best one, according to Jeff. Unicoi Outfitters just so happens to be where my angler's trout fishing guide last Monday was from. I left him there in fly fishing heaven, checking out flies and rods and other fishing toys while I explored this quaint little town. The bad weather must have followed us, because after lunch it suddenly became colder and began sleeting. Kinda made us glad we hadn't taken the scenic train trip after all. It would have been a little hard to see the fall foliage through the rain, sleet and snow. But that weather did make it fun to shop in stores that were decorated for the holidays. And we actually ran into people we knew. We saw the other couple who stayed at Falling Waters Lodge when we were there a few nights ago. We're close friends now that we watched the election returns together while sharing trail mix. After Jeff bought a fishing hat and I bought a cute jacket, we headed out of Blue Ridge, just as the train was returning.

We drove to Atlanta in weather alternating between rain and sleet. What the heck? We met up with one of Jeff's high school friends and enjoyed a little visit with her. After we checked into our hotel, we ventured into downtown to enjoy a little soul food for dinner at Gladys and Ron's Chicken and Waffles. Jeff got the Midnight Train (as in Gladys Knight) which is chicken wings and waffles and I got fried chicken, grits, collard greens and cornbread. How southern. How delicious. How filling. How sinful.