{"id":2399,"date":"2011-04-27T21:03:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T02:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2018-09-03T16:08:49","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T20:08:49","slug":"a-slower-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2399","title":{"rendered":"A Slower Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, April 27, 2011
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I woke up early this morning and didn’t feel well.\u00a0 I was very dizzy, nauseous, and head achy.\u00a0 I stayed in bed and slept.\u00a0 To make things worse, the weather channel on television talked about severe tornadoes heading in this direction toward northern Georgia!\u00a0 Jeff went down to the desk and reserved the room for another day.\u00a0 I slept until noon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Spring Flowers<\/span><\/p>\n

When I woke up, I felt a lot better.\u00a0 I took a nice hot shower and we went out.\u00a0 Jeff drove us to the nearby town of Helen for lunch.\u00a0 Helen is a very unusual place.\u00a0 In the early 1800s gold had been discovered in the region causing the “Great Georgia Gold Rush.” \u00a0The prospectors left \u00a0Helen after gold was discovered in California. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Helen, Georgia<\/p>\n

During the early 1900s lumber was the commodity and several sawmills successfully operated for a period of time.\u00a0 Eventually the city of Helen fell into rapid decline and light manufacturing businesses moved to other locations.\u00a0 In 1968 two local businessmen talked the townspeople into transforming their town into a Bavarian village.\u00a0 Business owners and local carpenters added gingerbread trim and shutters, and painted German murals on the faces of the buildings.\u00a0 They added Alpine towers to the roofs and made cobblestone alleyways.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tourist Information Office<\/span><\/p>\n

Today Helen is a tourist destination in the mountains of northern Georgia!\u00a0 It was a short 30 minute drive from Cornelia to Helen.\u00a0 We arrived with low expectations, but were pleasantly surprised by most of the buildings.\u00a0 Many were charming and, though a bit over the top, the decorations reminded us houses in the Switzerland.\u00a0 Most of the names of the streets in Helen have German names, for example: Edelweisstrasse.\u00a0 We stopped at Hofer’s Bakery – Konditorei – Cafe on North Main Street.\u00a0 The double pitched roof and brown porch railings could have been anywhere in the Alps.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hofer’s Bakery – Konditorei – Cafe<\/span><\/p>\n

The entrance led to the bakery which had luscious looking pastries in the display case.\u00a0 We smiled at the Sacher torts, Apfelkuechle<\/em>, strudels, and bread puddings.\u00a0 We sat down in the pleasant dining room and perused the menu.\u00a0 Among the Bauern Fruhstuck<\/em> was Pregel & Lox, Bavarian Cold Cuts, and Eggs & Grits.\u00a0 Jeff ordered bratwurst & sauerkraut with gravy laden mashed potatoes.\u00a0 Since my stomach wasn’t a hundred percent yet, I had a cup of chicken noodle soup and half a ham & Swiss cheese on rye sandwich.\u00a0 For added atmosphere, there was a group of people sitting near our table who were speaking German!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>More Shops in Helen <\/span><\/p>\n

After lunch we drove around the town for a little while, but the shops didn’t interest us so we didn’t stop.\u00a0 Jeff had read about Fred’s Famous Peanuts on Tripadvisor so we drove up the road to find it.\u00a0 Fred’s was a small shack along the roadside, just off Route 356, on the way to Unicoi State Park. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fred’s Famous Peanuts<\/p>\n

We took photos and sampled boiled and fried peanuts and tasted peach cider.\u00a0 Jeff also decided that he had to have a tee shirt from Fred’s Famous Peanuts.\u00a0 By the time we left, it was starting to rain.\u00a0 Huge gray clouds had been moving by all afternoon.\u00a0 This was part of the string of storms and tornadoes which were menacing other parts of the south and mid-west today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fred’s Roadside Stand <\/span><\/p>\n

We returned to the car and drove south again.\u00a0 At the junction of Highways 17 and 75 was the Nacoochee Indian Mound.\u00a0 This was a large grass covered mound of earth with a round wooden cupola on top.\u00a0 It is a sacred ancient Indian ceremonial site. \u00a0The mound was located in the center of a Cherokee village and an eternal flame burned on top. \u00a0 There was a legend attached to the mound, but in actuality it marks former Cherokee land.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ancient Nacoochee Indian Mound<\/span><\/p>\n

Down the road a little bit is the tiny village of Sautee.\u00a0 There were several old brown wooden buildings in a cluster.\u00a0 We parked near the general store and wished that the two cars parked directly outside would move so we could photograph the building. Two men were playing checkers on the porch. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Old Sautee Store<\/p>\n

Inside the entrance door there were two wooden Indians and a small wood-burning stove.\u00a0 On one side there was an automatic roller “piano” which operated by a little vacuum cleaner on the floor.\u00a0 On the left side was a long counter with a smiling troll statue and other curiosities. The shelves along the walls were filled with old antiques of all kinds.\u00a0 There was so much to look at!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Front Room of the General Store<\/span><\/p>\n

We had fun looking at all the old stuff and took lots of photographs, but we were tired and were ready to return to our hotel in Cornelia.\u00a0 This part of Georgia is unlike any other part of the state. \u00a0It is very different from “Coastal Georgia” which we saw a few weeks ago in the beginning of this Road Trip. This region is referred to as The Northeast Mountains of Georgia and is actually the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This western part of Georgia is really very beautiful!\u00a0 The terrain is hilly and the narrow roads twist and turn. \u00a0The dramatic clouds and threatening skies added to rough-hewn spirit of the place. \u00a0The houses are modest cabins and the lifestyle of the people is self-sufficiency with a strong pioneering spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Northwest Georgia <\/span><\/p>\n

After a little bit of a rest at the hotel, we went to a small local place in Cornelia for dinner.\u00a0 When we were almost finished, two Southern “gentleman” walked into the restaurant.\u00a0 One was an older ordinary looking fellow.\u00a0 The other, a man perhaps in his mid forties, wore full camouflage pants and shirt, high leather construction boots, and sported a round Mohawk-like hair-do on the top of his head.\u00a0 As he sauntered through the door, I noticed that around his waist there was a black belt with holster and a rather large hand-gun sticking out of the holster.\u00a0 The first thought that rattled through my brain was, “Is that legal?!”\u00a0 Then I quietly whispered to Jeff to check out the gun!\u00a0 The man’s cell phone rang and he walked back outside.\u00a0 We quickly finished our suppers and left.\u00a0 I was reminded of the bumper sticker I saw earlier: “I’ll Keep My Gun and My Money and My Freedom – You Can Keep the Change.” <\/em>Thank goodness we have gun control in New York!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 I woke up early this morning and didn’t feel well.\u00a0 I was very dizzy, nauseous, and head achy.\u00a0 I stayed in bed and slept.\u00a0 To make things worse, the weather channel on television talked about severe tornadoes heading in this direction toward northern Georgia!\u00a0 Jeff went down to the desk and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-united-states","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14207,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions\/14207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}