After a quiet weekend in Unadilla enjoying a free weekend camping (in exchange for listening to a “pitchâ€), we began our trek north. Well, not too far north! We stopped at the Aviation Museum in Warner Robins (if you love military airplanes, this is a must!), found a Costco outside of Atlanta so we could stock up on “stuffâ€, and headed up to a Super Walmart outside of Gainesville. Early today we headed to Helen, GA – a little town in northern Georgia that about 35 years ago decided that they would become a little Alpine village. And it really seemed to have worked! Right now they are having their Octoberfest – from October 1 through November 6th! It is a very quaint town – everyone seems to have “bought into†the Alpine Village theme – and it is working very nicely. Helen is located just where the Appalachian Mountains begin. After a month amongst the cotton field and pecan orchards, it was delightful to see mountains and FALL!!! We are staying at a lovely small campground, Creekwood Resort, that is just outside of town, and are enjoying the views, the cable TV, the friendly folks, and the beautiful setting. There’s even a farm stand across the street where we got some great tomatoes (sometimes it is the little things!).
Today we went to Brasstown Bald, the highest peak in Georgia. Although it was a beautiful day, and they say you can see four states from the observation deck (and we were there), the camera was back in the car so you’ll have to take our word on that! I’ll work on getting some pictures posted that I did take.
Right now Gary is sitting outside enjoying the campfire and watching the Red Sox beat St. Louis. I don’t think he thinks it gets any better than this! =)
Category Archives: The Adventure
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Friends at Faith
Ok, so these are more “staying in one place” pictures than Travel Pictures, but I wanted to share with you some of the great folks we’ve been working with these last three weeks.
Here we are with the Dick and Sharon Brittell (our SOWER co-workers) after we did Chapel for the school. We talked about how we are all different parts (tools) of the Body of Christ. We had a great time doing it!
And here we are at the TerriLynn Pecan shelling factory – hair and beard nets and all!
And then there are our friends at Faith Christian School –
Here are the little guys ….
Here’s the middle size gang-
And then there’s the big guys….
Here are all the teachers in their “new” resource room – it was a project that Sharon and I worked on. Considering that you could barely walk in the room, we think it’s a great improvement (cracks on walls notwithstanding!)
Before we leave Vienna….
Now that we are packing up to leave our “home between the tracksâ€, I just wanted to say again how much we’ve enjoyed our time here! We’ve gotten to experience southern Georgia in a way that we never would have been able to if we had just passed through and stayed at campgrounds. Yes, we might have seen the same points of interest, but we never would have been able to get to know and love the caring teachers here at Faith Christian School, or the students (and their families) or our new friends, the Brittells. Check out our photos page so you can see some of the faces we’ve come to love!
Other Fun Stuff…
While we were here in Vienna, we got to experience some pretty “fun stuffâ€. Along with the all the activities I mentioned in earlier posts, we were able to visit a pecan cracking facility, TerriLynn Pecans and a cotton gin, Nobel Gin and Cotton warehouse. Both were very interesting (and very noisy!). We took in the Cotton Museum here in Vienna (did you know that a bale of cotton (about 500#) can produce 7,800 men’s hankerchiefs or 1200 men’s T-shirts or 300 pairs of jeans!) and the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum in Leslie. Today we also did Andersonville – the site of the famous Civil War prisoner of war camp and the home of the Prisoner of War Museum. A very sobering afternoon. But before we went there we stopped in Americus and visited the Habitat for Humanity International Discovery Center. That was a stop that, while graphically illustrating the desperate situations many people live in (world-wide), was also filled with hope as it spoke about homes being built and lives being changed.
I don’t think we’re done with Georgia yet – heading north in a couple of days. We’ll keep you posted, I promise!
What’s Next…
From this weekend until Thanksgiving we’ll be traveling through Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia (again!) and north Florida, seeing sights and visiting family. If you have any “must see†suggestions, please let us know! December we’ll be doing another Sower’s project (this time in South Carolina) before we head north for Josiah’s graduation and then on to Columbus to meet our new grandbaby. Looks like we’ll be pulling out those winter clothes before we know it!
Did I mention it was 81 and sunny today?
=)