Snippets from the weekend October 7, 2007
Posted by charmingbutsingle in Being Southern, College was Fun, Friends, Weekend Updates.trackback
Early afternoon, Saturday, Beer One:
“What did I do before all of this technology?” I asked as leaned back in my chair-in-a-bag with a beer at a tailgate on Saturday afternoon.
I’d just typed out a couple of e-mails and text messages alerting some friends to my location and simply could not remember how we ever pulled off elaborate tailgates without cell phones and e-mail. I picked my phone off of my lap to send out one more message when The Lawyer interrupted me with an answer.
“Um, you paid attention to your surroundings?” she said, nodding to the people gathered around me.
I giggled and put down the phone, as she’d clearly made her point about my technology. (Though, I might add, she can’t be completely anti-technology, as she did run with me to watch a critical play on a nearby tailgate’s 32-inch high definition flat screen later that night.)
—
Late afternoon, Saturday, Beer Four:
“Is it weird that I feel awkward that I’ve made out with two guys at this tailgate?” The Lawyer asked me, motioning to two friends of a friend’s boyfriend.
I paused.
“Nope,” I said. “It would just remind of going out to any bar, any night years ago. Pretend we’re still in college.”
—
Late morning, Sunday, Glass of Water:
“Hah, the menu says ‘$3.99 entitles you to all of the champagne you can drink’,” said The Lawyer.
“Oh yeah?” I said, scanning the brunch section. “Well, I always feel entitled to all of the champagne I can drink, so that won’t be a problem.”
OK here goes: The Weekend from here:
Fri eve.
1.) The search for our fav. hard cider (Ace, CA) continues at our local liquor store. Where I get into a long discussion of local politics with one of the patrons. We’ve met before and he admires my work. Which leads naturally to a longer but more painfully poignant discussion of the war. We’ve got no answers all around.
2.) We leave early to search for the first objective of the day, a fest that includes the moniker ‘Turning & Burning’ in the title, located in the N. Ga. mountains. The paper (AJC) has printed the wrong directions. Much of our follow on directions from Mapquest prove to be garbled as well. When we finally arrive we see some swell genuine handmade southern folk pottery. And tractors dating back to the dawn of time. Several teams of mules pull young and old all around an expansive farm. They are tall & good looking. They will be among the best looking gals & I’ll see for most of the day. (Present company excluded!) The tractors were amazing. I’ve never seen something with that much rust actually run. (Well not well). There’s some wild eyed character who periodically takes off into the crowd in his Model T, christened a ‘Hilly Billy mobile’ looking every bit the part and taking nips from a brown jug, that was no doubt obtained from the genuine working still they’ve got on the premises. Since the place is manned by the local Sheriff’s Dept outside, we assume it’s producing distilled water at the moment. We avoid the huckster selling some of the most vicious & racist looking folk pottery I’ve seen in sometime. (Some things never change). We pick up a C note worth of vintage photographs that have been lovingly restored from a local gent. He brags on how he first convinced his Filipina wife that he owed Stone Mountain, (as Mr. Stone). We were not surprised that he’s not to be believed in anything much more that he says currently. (Yes, they’re still happily married).
3.) We pull out off the maps and onto a winding country road that will take us back across N. Ga. to Apple picking country. This was the entertaining point of the drive. While muscling around big rigs on narrow mountain roads we get to hear the Ga./TN game really clear via the AM radio. It’s immediately apparent that Ga. is not doing too good. It’s a bright sunny hot day, and somewhere a Bulldog is being let down.
4.) Doing 50-60 on a 2 lane road we get into Apple country about hour later, with the road disappearing off the map several times. Lovely country drive. Didn’t even scare the wife. We discover that due to the drought, despite hitting the farms at peak time, most of them are quite restricted in what they’ve got to sell. It’s mostly the same old same old as you might see in the stores. But hey we get some cakes & cookies & gallons of cider to go. We reach the end of the apple trail at the huge Panorama house, and see that they’ve got nothing much either. It’s the first year we’ve not bought something from them. We go across the street, being mowed down by all the extra traffic due to the huge new houses & developments up the Mountains by those damn Yankees & Atlantans.
There at the opposite competing Apple house we see a TV fixed on the game. It’s 28 zip in the 3rd Q, TN. I turn to the angry & cussing Ga. crew and say charitably, ‘No, they’ll not be held scoreless, they’ll put up some numbers’. At that moment Ga. scores. It does not improve their mood much. Ga.’s clearly ‘been sucking most of the game’. I discover that they’re the only apple house in N. Ga, with our precious AK Blacks, and we buy a peck of them. (I’d buy a full bushel if we had a place to keep them cool). The day’s only improving.
5.) We cut over to Jasper on the way home. We’ll stop by that great and storied Mountain Inn for dinner. On the way there’s still one more festival we run into. This we do with free parking and no entrance fee as they’re just closing at around 6. We immediately run into the famed proprietor of said inn selling his marble crafts at a booth. Recognizing him we chat briefly and tell him of our plans for dinner. He gets on the phone, and in his halting but still heavy German accent makes a reservation for us himself. They inform us that they will not take any reservations (or anyone w/o one) after 7PM. We pick up some hunks of Ga. marble as we are leaving, (gratis from one of the local quarry crews), and help a kid load up her Uncle in his wheelchair with just enough pieces for him to manage the slope out of the park.
6.) We arrive at said Inn at around 7 after working around the fact that the Main St has been closed off due to festival events by the Fire Dept. Hearing the strains of Rocky Top playing as we crossed the narrow 1 lane wooden trestle bridge to the inn we knew the Vols had made good on their revenge on Ga. for this year. We sat down to a nice relaxed dinner.
7.) I had my usual, one of the ducks, (a fine fish for the wife), and we had the usual scrumptious smoked trout appetizer. The wine was excellent too. We were soon joined by the proprietor and his wife at an adjoining table. We soon fell into a friendly discussion of the horrible drought and the depleted state of our rivers. Which soon fell into the political disputes with the TVA & GP & ‘Bama & FL soon to be screaming for more water from upstream in order to protect certain endangered fish. I told him that it was not precisely the fish that were at stake (or not only), but that they were indicator species for the quality and health of the rivers. He seemed happier to understand this point, asked about our dinners (which were excellent as usual). As we were finishing our coffees (& my after dinner port), he bid us adieu ‘until next year’. We thanked him again & left.
8.) On the way home we had a discussion about if the old man recalled us from last year when the wife will claim that ‘I nearly came to blows’ with a fellow patron about some silly but very loud lies he was spreading about politics. I say we’ve eaten there since. The wife swears it was just last year. We’ve got an ice cream riding on the bet. We arrive back home about 12 hrs. after our start. A fine start to the fine fall weekend. Not too much worse for the wear, and having seen the unexpected and enjoyed the ride.
Cheers & Good Luck, ‘VJ’
VJ takes us on another journey with a piece of literature that is epic in nature! Will read after posting. That’s a lot of words!
I just visited an ‘adult novelties store’ with a hot chick from work and watched a man bleed from his head. A lot. Was an interesting weekend.
I miss tailgating!!!!!!
Were you at the Redskins Game??
I was happy to watch my Ravens win!
I loves me some tailgating, but my brain feels like it’s wrapped in gauze today from replacing lost fluids with beer. It was hot yesterday!
To make it simpler for Wailin here’s the abstract: Lots of challenging mountainous driving. Some light drinking around dinner, wine & some port. Some fun in between. No arrests & no tickets. TN won the game. Total cost: ~$200 & gas. Best sight of the day: some handsome mule teams on a working farm. (All the rest is graphic blandishment). Cheers, ‘VJ’
Holy crap!! A Flat Screen TV at a tailgate party?? Wow…the world really has changed. I normally have to stay home for that kind of technology!
Much fun had huh? : )