When the alarm went off, it was still dark. However, some things are worth getting up in the dark for.  :-)

Well, unless you're a pet. Tucker gave me a look of disbelief, and Snowy a dirty look when I turned the lights on that early. I left "the nest channel" (HGTV) on for Snowy, took Tucker for a walk, and then we loaded up the power chair, stopped at Burger King for breakfast, and were off to Ellijay for the Apple Festival. (I wasn't happy with breakfast; I asked for maple oatmeal and got something filled with dried fruit. I hate dried fruit; it's too sweet. "Sugary" is not my thing.) It was cloudy when we started out, with a promise of clearing up, but as we drove further north, listening to an episode of "Travel With Rick Steves" with Jane and Michael Stern talking about roadfood, it became cloudier and misty, so that the mountains were nearly obscured.

My heart sank when we arrived. Apparently it rained all day yesterday in Ellijay and the Lion's Club field was sodden. (Afterwards one of the parking attendants told me it rained so hard that some of the cars parked out on the grass got stuck in the mud and they had to get a tractor to pull them out. Then the tractor got stuck!) The handicapped field was a sea of mud, so they had us drive around and put us on firmer, grassier ground.

We mostly got around okay, but James got stuck three times because in some places it was just plain mud—once getting over the wooden bridge (which is where we thought he wouldn't get stuck), once going over straw (which had mud underneath), and once going over gravel (ditto). The wheels on the chair got to be a mess (we had to clean them later with a screwdriver to knock the grass and mud out), but we finally made it over the whole field. We got James a new leather wallet, a Christmas gift for David, a quart of sweet ginger pickles (we only got a pint last year and regretted it), five squares of fudge, some homemade coffee and chocolate caramels, homemade dog cookies, and some pralines that seduced James. James had Cajun food for lunch and I had a Philly cheesesteak without the cheese (but with lots of onions).

Instead of loading the chair back on the grass, we talked to the parking attendants and they agreed it would be better if we loaded on the road, so they put us where we wouldn't block traffic. Actually, no one was leaving yet, and the people who were now arriving in droves were parking elsewhere, so we could take our time. We drove out through the car show, which is becoming a regular feature at the Festival. Many old Corvettes, Mustangs, a 1930s Cadillac and then a 1960s one, and old roadsters that had been "chopped and channeled." I wish they'd leave them as is. I love old cars!

We had passed a Walmart on the way up, so I suggested we stop on the way back down to see if they had more of that brand of trousers we found last night. Well, we hit the jackpot! Last night we found mocha-colored ones, and today we found black, greyish-brown, and blue jean color. Cool.

Of course we stopped at the Panorama Farm stand for our apples and some sugar-free taffy for James. There were piles of big orangy pumpkins outside and one obviously doting mama and grandmama perched the cutest little girl on a big crate of pumpkins for a photograph. The clouds? They had turned white and fluffy and had parted; the sky behind them was a brilliant electric blue. We ate one of the apples on the way home: nice puckery-sour Granny Smith goodness, unlike those shiny waxed things that pass for Granny Smiths in the grocery store.

On the way home we stopped at Barnes & Noble to return the book I'd accidentally purchased a second itme—I hate when they republish with new covers!—but I couldn't find the Thoreau mystery there, or the fantasy novel I'd toyed with buying. Really, the Town Center store has fewer books than it used to. Annoying. However, James did find a new book for himself; in fact, he found two, but just bought the one he wanted more, the new John Scalzi novel.

By this time James was tired from the hour-plus drive up and then back again, so we just headed home. Spent the afternoon watching North Woods Law before switching over to America's Funniest Home Videos for a laugh, and then Alaska the Last Frontier. Had chicken egg rolls for supper.

Labels: books, events, food, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:11:00 PM

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