What do you do when your big trip falls through? You could take a little trip. We had planned trips to the two Washingtons and for one reason or another, both fizzled out. So WMM says, "We're packed.* Let's go somwhere." That was enough for me.
We had never been to Helen, Georgia, a little mountain town with a Bavarian flavour.
So we dumped the suit cases in the car, grabbed the camera and took off down I-75. At Cleveland, Tennessee, we turned east, up the Ocoee valley where the Olympic kayaking took place. We saw beautiful mountain streams and photogenic lakes, waterfalls, rafters shooting the rapids, kayaks on top of every car, and bicycles around every curve. All of this in about 35 miles.
Then we got to the corner where Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia all come together at a place called Copper Hill. We turned south into Georgia, stopping briefly in Blairsville where the scooter meet will be held this fall. We found a sports complex just outside of town which could be the site of the meet. Blairsville is a pretty little burg with an old historic-looking courthouse in a town square. Like most of these old courthouses, this one has been converted to a museum while the courthouse stuff has been moved to a new building a couple of blocks away. The square is an easy scooter ride from the sports complex.
Helen is only about 30 miles from Blairsville as a crow flies. That's assuming a crow can fly through a 5000 foot mountain. Not knowing the correct name, I have named it tall-steep-cloud-topped-mountain-between-Blairsville-and-Helen, or TSCTMBBAH for short. The road over TSCTMBBAH is much too steep for the old Huskey engine found in a Cushman. And the road is much too crooked to keep your speed up, which wouldn't work anyway. However, it was no problem for the Toyota, but we used second and third more than fourth and fifth. Going down required the same gear choices. At the bottom, we began to see more waterfalls on clear mountain streams. We arrived at Helen in time for lunch (If you like lunch at 1:00 pm). We stopped at a German restaurant for a sandwich and found the prices to be reasonable, the service good and the food to die for. All of the bread for the sandwiches was baked right there in their kitchen.
Helen reminded me of Gatlinburg, Tennessee; Solvang, California; and Hershey, Pennsylvania. Horsedrawn carriages (with hydralic brakes) carried tourist around town. There were several hotels, and parking space wasn't a problem. Homemade icecream was available, and it was cranked by a beautifully restored John Deere hit-and-miss engine. The main street was lined with quaint tourist-trap gift shops and other such businesses. Magicians, musicians, jugglers, con men, artists and many other such favorites preformed on the sidewalk which was, in places, 30 feet wide. Fountains were splashing and pansies bloomed everywhere. There must have been a Harley-Davidson event in town, because the big flashy 'cycles known as "hogs" were everywhere. Their riders were dressed in their usual black costumes. I'm sure most of them were back in their office riding their computers on Monday.
There was a car and carriage museum in Helen, but it was closed. I'll have to go back for that.
To make a long story a little less long, we went back over TSCTMBBAH, back through Blairsville and the Ocoee valley to the Interstate. But instead of going home, we went through Chattanooga, over Monteagle Mountain and down into Rutherford County for a couple of days with family and friends. Then on Tuesday, we went home.
Now what should I do with 31 emails and 31 pounds of junk mail?
Howard
* "We're packed..." The joke here is that we're always packed. Even if we weren't, it would only take a few minutes.