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Ten days ago , I scouted out the place where I would be staying for… ten days, so this must be the last day!🤪 The first building that caught my eye was placed in the center of town ,on a 10-12 feet elevation and circled by a road flanked by little stores ,coffeeshops and insurance agents. It is a Courthouse ,just like in Matlock and Perry Mason( yes, I’m that old!) This was the second town I noticed with this lay-out. Europe has the same kind of set-up with a church in its center. Well…. kind of..have some imagination Okay !

So yesterday was the day I would visit the Courthouse turned into Museum. A nice lady introduced me to the set-up of the building, first world war, second world war, old school stuff, Law enforcement in Blairsville, church life and upstairs was the perfectly reconstructed Courtroom. Oh yeah also a donated dollhouse collection , ! yowser, nearly too much for one visit.

So I’m still debating what to do, the displays of the second WW had a table with nazi stuff on it , Swatika’s, Flags, Mein Kampf, pictures of Hitler, star of David armbands etc. So as a Dutch man this still give me chills and makes me feel weird. Why is this on display in Blairsville Georgia.  So I asked, ….supposedly a few WW2 veterans from the town were in Europe fighting the evil empire. This was their loot and the town was very proud to display it . OK, I ve been to slave museum’s , displays etc, visited America’s first president’s homestead with plenty slave Quarters. I just saw it as History , horrible history but I have no real connection to it. (oops I’m Dutch and I think we started this !)

Also, I spoke with two old men who were visiting and both were very quick to start talking about segregation and The fact that there were nearly no Black people in Northern Georgia. ” those are all in Central and South Georgia” . barely 50 years has passed since Segregation “ended” took a mother 3 years to become official in North Georgia according to my hosts. Even when we were checking the dollhouses they talked about Black and White. Nothing upfront racist, just feeling they were still dealing with what should be the past but for them was still the present.

So I think I won’t post the picture of the nazi stuff. It sure has a function but not in my pretty picture blog.

Let me know what you think.

Great looking building, interesting it has clocks facing all four sides, The courtroom is upstairs, downstairs used to be admin and lunch area. Now different war displays, school history and church life.

Finally nature next to our RV. see you tomorrow from Cherokee NC.

 

tomorrow they will be back, its been only a week but feels longer. Beau is ready to see another face. so I went to the postoffice to mail a package to my lovely daughter, visited the old Courthouse, more on that later, farmers market and back to Beau, we cleaned up together and got caught in a major squal. MAJOR.

Forgot to tell you yesterday got my first buck, drove thru two creeks ,1 foot of water on a soft dirt road , Deidre would not let me drive there . ha, got the buck though!

Very cool 5 mile drive thru the woods , had to fight of an alligator, pulled the highlander thru the mud, leeches were sucking on my muscled calves. A black bear jumped me and velociraptors missed me by an inch. but I got my buck!

Here he is.

See it was all worth it, Following are some pictures around the campground and around town. Give you an idea what it looks like.

Two more days and the family is back together, so Today I got two more waterfalls in and a wine tasting at a local winery. Paradise vineyards , in the north Georgia mountains an idillic little slice of beauty of the Banjo trail. Seriously very gorgeous, I drove up expecting nothing and there she was, the first regal deer I had been looking for the whole week, Unfortunately he was waiting for me as well, so as soon as I got my 10 pound camera on the tripod and pointed at the buck, the buck was no more! On to the wine, two decent ones, I spit out the other 14. Had to drive mind you! After that everything looked like a spectacular waterfall.

I also caught a glimpse of a weird bear like fellow making his way thru the vineyard, never seen anything like it , what do you think it is??

So , the wait is over , here are the next fiery waterfall pictures, North Georgia’s pride !

So, another great day for the man, Cleaned the RV, did some little repairs and enhancements, two loads of laundry, in-house!. Walked and played with the dog. afternoon driving around never more then 8 miles from camp. First visit a nice Mall. look for yourself!      ” INDOOR MALL.”

Then it was off to the infamous Grand-pappy Mimms, moonshine brewer extraordinaire.

I got a nice tour of the more modern distillery, Still done the old fashioned way though. Hand forged Copper stills, hand blown blue 50 gallon drums for fermentation, and hand crushed Corn mash to start the fun off. Ok Boys at the Lake of Champlain, I got the goods for you , get ready !

Quick visit at the very weird and eerie Gift/icecream/furniture/souvenir shop on the premise. Don’t get freaky now !!

I’ll leave you today with the funniest sign in days, and I have seen a lot of funny signs here in Northern Georgia. How about the local Walgreens is called……..’Drugs and Guns”

SO two opposites today, first I got up early played with Beau , made him nice and tired , fed and pooped. Left around 7:15 to the highest point in Georgia, Brasstown Bald. 4764 Feet , you can see 4 states and on a good day the Atlanta skyline.Not so today, clouds were rushing by and the temperature was a nice 60 degrees. Took some pictures , watch an 35 year old slide show and went thru the exhibits . Cool, I was the first and it was nice and peaceful, always great to see how enthusiastic people who work at such places are about there Mountain in this case. They can talk about it as if it is the most important and beautiful thing in the world. It might very well be.

Two choices after tis for the day, another very beautiful waterfall, or a picturesque Bavarian village in the mountains of Georgia!!  i thought my trusted followers are sick of waterfalls for the time being and who wouldnt want a nice bratwurst and a stein of beer.

Well…. that was a mistake, the most tourist trapped town you can imagine, I bought a wurst , chocolate, and a Diet Coke and gone, wasted some pictures on this Hell Hole.

Lovely little town!

Now look at the original Peanut man, a breath of fresh air!!!

 

so this was a test, scary because we never leave our beloved dog alone. The parks here do not allow dogs so it was locking myself up in the doghouse or leaving the dog. So I went to this park where the Appalachian trail starts , I think?. stopped at a little antique store first” we buy junk, we sell Antique”.  Hmmmm

Then off to the fruit stand , no not an apple store , Georgia peaches and Peach Cobbler,Peach on a stick, peach Pie, deep fried peach pie, well your getting the idea. It’s Forest Gump in North Georgia!

19 more miles to the Waterfall, decent climb up the mountain…..with the car and only had to walk uphill for half a mile to a spectacular display of water fireworks. Glad my love wasn’t there , I went a bit overboard with the waterworks, angle here , filter there different lens , ridiculous tripod  , all the good things . Love it.

Great first day away from the family. Keeping busy!

Now for the details with the high and mighty sun turning the waters into fire and sparks,

Cant get enough of it, you’ll be sick of it soon. ahhhh, smatta!

Now time for some good ol’ roadkill!

ok lets get this out of the way, I don’t like the way the cows and steers and bucking horses are used and treated , did my $12 contribute to the continuation of the rodeo, yes. My excuse , I like to take pictures and there are few places where Americana is so alive and upfront as at one of the small town rodeo’s. Of the two hour “show” 100 minutes are spend with clowns, show riders ,prayers,commemorations and advertisements ,while the remaining 20 minutes is calf roping and bucking bronco riding( only 1 ride at this rodeo.). no excuses though. Checking out the cowboys, cowgirls, spectators( all white except for one black couple ), seeing the little kids have so much fun chasing a calf to get the ribbon of his tail, and the teens doing the same without shame is a pleasure. Watching the Cowboy church give out free bibles, only 3 per person !, is something you don’t see everyday.

This is America and its short history celebrated in todays life,

 

 

I’m sure that this rodeo attracted more spectators then a Marlins game on Monday.

My car and everyone else was packed tight in the field , took 45 minutes to get out.

 

 

 

 

 

Last day on Hilton Head, our campground was 500 yards over the only bridge to the island. The island is about 12×20 some miles, and overall very beautiful, remind me a little bit of Sanibel and Captiva. If you are not a golfer, boater or BeachBum, not a whole lot to do. Still a good place to relax. On the other side of the bridge is a small town called Bluffton. Now this is an example of a very nicely restored attractive little town center. Nothing too modern at all, still the stores are unique, clean and different. I knew that every Thursday they set up a small farmers market in town. Different and so well done. Pizza made in an portable woodburning oven, mouthwatering, freshly baked bread, with Rosemary, Garlic etc. Fresh veggies, the bestests homemade chips with Salsa . Honey, soap everything just a bit different on 500 yards of blocked-off roadway. But….. the gods didn’t want us to buy too much so they opened the skies and forced us inside the town pub where we had some deliciousness and a cocktail..Great hour with my love.

Get ready , tomorrow is real rodeo time!!!!!

Today is a travel day, up at 7, folding up the lady , unplugging her and reversing all in 380 miles or so. Blairville Georgia is our next stop, Deidre and cayman are going to leave me alone for 5 days , and Beau is mine.

Here is my first , really bad movie, mostly with the drone . Flying is going better , but no clue yet on writing a story, Robbie where are you???

Talk tomorrow

 

so I left you at the beach, ran back thru mosquito alley and hid in the car, what to do. I was told that the main attraction was a beach completely covered in dead tree trunks, this wasn’t it. so I took a leisurely drive to the other side of the island, hoping the skeeters wouldn’t think of that. It also was still real early so when it gets hotter the skeeters seek shelter. So that was my logic. The skeeters had other plans…..my dutch blood was delicious as always and they got word from the lighthouse skeeters that a juicy treat was on its way. Oh…. the beauty of skeeter social media. Parked the car at the Nature center and found the trail to the promised beach, No skeeters in sight, good sign….little did I understand about Skeeter trapping systems. So I walked about 5 minutes down the path and felt a little cute prick on my leg.. looked down and 20 pairs of skeeter eyes were looking up smiling smugly at me. I hit them! and my leg resembled a freshly plowed strawberry field, but not forever, I ran! that did it, a few bites later I arrived at a long pedestrian bridge bathing in yellow early morning light. To my left I saw the waves crashing thru the dead trees . Arrived ! who cares if I need a quick transfusion, the adrenaline will kill the skeeters and get me even more excited. Weird , no more  skeeters on the beach site , too salty and hot. I shot some decent pictures and Ran back! Stopped by the Nature center , they opened at ten and supplied free bug repellent .So much for getting up early. The nice lady was wearing a snake around her neck. It’s head was making it’s way down her decolleté. Lucky snake.  She seemed excited to see a fresh tourist . I took a long road back , stopped for a delicious Gumbo with shrimp

and Sausage, checked out the Gay fisheries, and bought a plank!. Great day,

on my way back I stopped at a beautiful trail going deep into the marshes. Hidden on the other side of a small densely wooded hammock was a second walkway to the river meandering thru the rough grasses. A large deck was at it’s end ,two people crabbing and enjoying an early morning beer.” I LOVE SALT AND CRABS AND MARIE” I read on the mans arm, Marie loved the same and Jonas. They had two frozen raw chickens thawing in a bucket and the first catch of the day in an iced cooler. Two beautiful Blue crabs, 5 inches (4″ is the legal limit).

I didn’t measure as they had fillet knives that reflected the southern sun laying nearby. I left them in the now sweltering sun and made my way back to the car, where I met another family , mam with stroller and two more kids under 4 , they asked me how the crabbing was , as I was carrying a large tripod and bazooka lens attached. I told them it was OK and the crabs were biting. They seemed happy.