An Overnight to Callaway Gardens

Yesterday the three of us took off to Callaway Gardens for an overnight trip. I think this is the third time we've been there, but each time we find new things to do and always have a wonderful time. We went mainly for the Fall Festival they have every year--Riley loves the arts and crafts for children (and kids at heart) and her favorite activity of all is pumpkin painting.

Our little artist.

Not bad!

It's the Great Pumpkin Tree!

A smile on a windy day.

She also got to make images on muslin with flowers picked fresh from the gardens all around us. She thought this was fun because you get to pound the muslin and flowers with a hammer...

This was just too fun!

She needed just a little help.

Callaway also hosted an antique tractor show this weekend--usually not my "thing," but it was neat to see them...

I preferred this rusty old tractor over the
freshly painted and restored models on display.

A cool photo by Charles.

I love this shot...

Okay, we took like 150 photos this weekend so I don't really need to say anything else. I just want to share some of the amazing photos we got during our trip...

An inside view of the corn maze...

Sweetwater (The Park, Not the Beer)

After Riley's karate class this morning (and a little retail therapy at Kohl's) we all decided to take a trip out to Sweetwater State Park. It's just a few miles down the road and is a really fun place to spend the afternoon.

Here's a bit of the history:

Today the park houses the remnants of the New Manchester Manufacturing Company, which was destroyed by George Stoneman's cavalry on July 9, 1864. Although there was no fighting at Sweetwater a brief skirmish occurred at Alexander's Mill, also in the park. A third mill, just outside the park boundary, was also destroyed. The New Manchester Mill and Roswell Mill were major targets of William Tecumseh Sherman's forces because the products from these mills were used to outfit and house the Confederate Army. While Sweetwater Mill produced cloth for tents and sheets, Roswell Mill produced the famous "Roswell Gray" used in the uniforms. Other mills in the area handled grist.

Now for a few photos of the park and the mill ruins. I was very disappointed when we reached the ruins today--the last time I hiked here, you could walk through the old mill and explore every inch. Now there's a fence around it to keep hikers and visitors out. When will people learn to quit ruining things for the rest of us? Enough of my whining; back to the pictures...

Part of the frame-work of the old mill.

Another shot of a portion of the ruins.

We hiked the trail that took us by the river.

Riley taking a break on the rocks.

Part of "The Falls" area.

This was quite a random site...

Riley posing at a river overlook.

A peaceful spot.

Now I'm off to take massive doses of Aleve for my aching feet, ankles and legs!!

No Gas = No Patience

All the cars you see in this photo are waiting in
line for gas! (Sad part is, this is only a fraction
of the total number of cars in line.)

Someone has got to solve this gas shortage issue--quick! Things are getting pretty crazy here in the Atlanta area; I have proof!

Friday night, I got in Charles' car just before 9:00 p.m., tuned the radio to NPR (so I could listen to the debate) and started my search for gas. His car was nearing empty and we had plans to drive to Japan Fest just north of Atlanta on Saturday morning. For more than an hour, I drove past station after station with no luck--in all a total of 17 stations--not one of them had gas for sale. My patience was running thin. I finally decided to head home and tell Charles and Riley that we would not be going anywhere this weekend when I spied a station with a small line.

All the lights were out, no prices were posted on their sign, but a couple of dozen cars were lined up at the pumps. I did a U-turn and pulled in to the end of one of the lines. A station attendant told me they did have a few hundred gallons left and thought I'd be able to fill up. Not long after I arrived, two police officers showed up, lights flashing, to park at both entrances to the station. They had been called to keep others from getting in line so the station could close up for the night. Apparently, I had gotten there just in time.

After a 30 minute wait, I was able to fill the Versa and $42.80 later ($4.09 per gallon) I was on my way home. I felt so proud of myself!

Today, we went out in search of gas for the van. It showed only 15 gallons of available fuel left, so we put a gas can in the trunk and headed out. After a short search, we saw that our local Sam's Club had fuel, but also had a ridiculous line! We pulled around the line that reached into the street--deciding we didn't want to wait--and as we pulled into a parking spot, realized that there were several lines that had formed for the 12 pumps the station had. The middle line had only 20 or so cars in it, so we jumped in line (at approximately 2:45). I was thinking the wait wouldn't be that bad--boy was I wrong!

I took Riley into Sam's so we could shop for a few essentials thinking I had to be pretty quick--wrong!! Charles called and told me the line really hadn't moved all that much--in the 45 minutes I was in Sam's, he had only moved up 3 spots. While in the store, I decided it would be wise to buy another gas can for us to fill up once we got to the pump. Riley and I got back to the car at about 3:30 and joined Charles for the wait.

The view from near the back of the line.

A shot of the middle of the line.

The very end of the line--all the way out into the street.

The light at the end of the tunnel--we are getting near the pump!

When we got to the pump, it took about 20 minutes to fill a 5-gallon and a 6-gallon gas can. The pumps were running extremely slow, but we were glad to get what gas we could after a 3+ hour wait.

We finally got home around 6:00 p.m. and used the gas cans to fill up my van. I'm hoping the 11 gallons we added will hold me for a while--thank goodness I work from home and only drive Riley to and from school three times a week!

If you're reading this outside Atlanta, be thankful that you are not suffering in the same manner we are...

Antibiotics: The True Sign Fall is Here

This past Friday Riley woke up with a really raspy voice and coughed a bit so we figured she had caught a little bug at school. On Saturday, she still sounded like an 80 year old, but felt fine--with no fever--so we headed out to the circus and all was well. Saturday night, she woke up a couple of times during the night with severe coughing and congestion, but went back to sleep just fine. Sunday was more of the same, but Sunday night was a whole different story.

That night, she woke up several times--maybe every 45 minutes to an hour--with terrible coughing, I mean, coughing so badly that, at times, she really couldn't draw air into her lungs. It was so scary to hear her struggle to breathe! She then began coughing up clear fluid and mucus (I know, waaaaay too much information) which seemed to help her breathe a little better. This went on until about 4:30 a.m. until she finally slept.

I got her an appointment with the doctor this morning and, after a quick examination, found out that she has pneumonia! Not so bad in the left lung, but her right lung is in bad shape. We are now on antibiotics, steroids and cough medicine to try to get things back to normal. I just hope tonight we all get some sleep!


On a completely different note, I forgot to add to my last post a photo we took of a random guy walking around the mall this weekend. I so wish I had been able to get the picture from the front, but I think you can get a good idea of the incredible fashion sense on display...



This guy was in head-to-toe camo: note the cool tank top, "capri" pants and black socks pulled up to his knees--the hat just completes the look. Funny thing is, his wife and kids didn't mind being seen in public with him...

"Ladies and Gentlemen; Children of all Ages..."

Today Charles, "Uncle" George and I took Riley to a "smaller" version of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Gwinnett Arena north of Atlanta. We got there a bit early so we could go down on the floor and meet some of the performers and play around with props. Riley had so much fun!

Riley did pretty well with the hula hoop.

Riley & George got the hang of it very quickly!

George & Riley playing with the costumes.

An acrobat shows off before the show.

Riley & George posing for a photo before the show.

I often worry about the animals in the circus (treatment-wise),
but they were still wonderful performers.

Now, that takes talent...

Riley's absolutely favorite act of the entire show--miniature dachshunds.

Big Guy/Little Bitty Bike.

Little Bike versus Fire.

Six beautiful white tigers standing in a row.

Riley & me taking a break during intermission.

Riley mauling the $10
(justified by the inclusion of a silly hat) cotton candy.

George rocks the hat.

The whole family...

After the circus we drove across I-85 and went to Discover Mills mall--not the greatest place, but we were hungry and got a bite to eat and looked around a bit. One of our first stops (thanks to Riley's relentless begging) was the carousel.

George & Riley on the carousel.

We then headed over to the Lego store--I'm not sure who was more excited, Charles or Riley. Riley was like a, well...I guess like a kid in a Lego store! She would see one thing and pause a second or two before she spied something even cooler--running all over the store, torn between wanting to show us what she'd just found and moving on to the next thrilling display. Even cooler was the display that caught the eye of the Star Wars geek in the family...

Charles with the one-and-only Darth Vader.

I leave you with what happens when you put George and Riley in a photo booth...