Rain, Rain, Go Away . . . wait a second.

It has been raining here for the past few days. Went out to the driving range and had to quit early because it was raining. But that's okay--it's supposed to be in the high eighties for the next few days--which is good because we are going to the Braves game on Saturday. What a great change from the 350 degree days we have been having (okay, maybe not that bad--but boy it has been humid).

We'll take in our first Georgia high school football game tomorrow night--hope it is as exciting as Texas high school football. We have about three high school teams to keep up with here in Carrollton--so that should be fun (and they are all in the same region--similar to districts in Texas).

Lauren is finishing up her second week of school tonight. She has been doing well--getting to know people there at school, getting a feel for doctorate work. The Atlanta commute has not been too bad--she does not have to go in during high traffic times.


--be

Boone, North Carolina

Welcome to our weekend. I went along with Lauren up to North Carolina-to see Lauren's friend, Sarah, who lives in Boone. We left on Friday morning and stopped in at yet another Dwarf House Chick-Fil-A for breakfast in Rome, Georgia--one side you can order like normal from a person at a cash register; the other side you can sit down on. Lauren had an awesome chicken biscuit; and I downed me some grits, eggs, and biscuit--something I have decided is a southern staple. From there, we headed north and drove through the northern Georgia mountains, past the Brasstown Baldy, the highest point in Geogia.

In these parts, all of the Kentucky Fried Chickens have buffets--something we saw a ton on this trip. Wish we would have stopped there for lunch--anything would have been better than Clyde's, which is where we decided to stop. We crossed into North Carolina; and things went from beautiful to absolutely beautiful. We drove up and down some mountains and got into the first of two really big rainstorms, so we stopped at Clyde's in Waynesville, NC. Looked like an awesome greasy spoon, home cookin' place. It was greasy allright-greasy badfoodiness. Never eat there--just in case you are ever at a crossroads of where to eat in Waynesville, North Carolina--don't pick Clyde's. Just go hungry if you have to. Lauren's was okay. Mine was just plain bad--it gives fried chicken and mashed taters a bad name.

After lunch, we drove through the Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains. Above is a picture we took not too far from Boone. This stop is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The picture, of course, does not even get close to what it actually looks like. Guess this is why they call them the Smoky Mountains in these parts--looks like there is smoke rising from all of them.

This is Boone. A really cool place. It had been in the high 90s here in Carrollton last week. At Sarah's, we slept with the door open and I had to close it because it was freezing. It was perfect temp. We ate at the Coyote Kitchen that night--totally made up for lunch--kind of a Tex-Mex sort of place. I had the best salad I have ever eaten--lettuce, corn chips, salsa, kobe meat, cheese. Awesome. Guess it stretches the term, "salad"-but still. Lauren had a boat thing--bunch of stuff together--fried plantains, sweet potatoes, chicken, black beans, and cornbread. She also had a sweet potato fry appetizer that she really liked.

Saturday morning, we went to the Watagua County Farmer's Market (amazing); and we hiked up Grandfather Mountain, just south of Boone, up to 5,900 ft. It was a seven mile hike; and we are still feeling the effects today--but boy, it was cool. Above is a picture of the trail we took. Wish the whole thing would have been like this--we literally had to crawl up some ginormous rocks to get to the top.

No, this was not one of those rocks--but it was a really cool rock we saw on the way up.

This is why they call it Grandfather Mountain. This outcropping in the distance looks like a man's face, if you look at it right. Sorry the flash did not work well, but if you look right and use your imagination, you can see us and Sarah.

This is from the top of Grandfather Mountain. Made all 7 miles worth it.

A shot on the way down the mountain.

Just thought we would share a bit from our weekend with you. We have been meaning to post some pictures of our church and of the loft--we will do that soon.

--b and l

Alan Jackson

Well, Kay Mayo--I went to your old stompin' grounds today. Our Happiness Group at the church (Senior Adult group) took a trip to Newnan this afternoon (22 miles south of Carrollton)-so I decided to tag along. We went over there to eat at a fish place--Catfish Hollow. While there, I got the chance to eat some more of the Georgia staple, cheese grits. Man, those are great. They can't be that difficult to make-and they're so good to eat. Grits and cheese--you can't go wrong.

On the way to Newnan, we crossed the Chattahoochee River. Where have you heard that before? That's right-an Alan Jackson song. Jackson is from Newnan--yep, "Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee, never knew how much that muddy water went to me." I heard that toobing and floating down the river is big on the Chattahoochee.

We actually did not get to get into Newnan, which I hope to do soon--I heard there is a really cool street of old homes and a great barbeque place (Sprayberry's, I think is what it's called). We took the bypass around town and went through a bunch of strip malls and new development out by the interstate.

I also heard about another city I need to go see--Peachtree City--not far from Newnan. I heard that they will not let people drive cars inside the city--only golf carts. You gotta be kiddin' me. I got to check that out.

Lauren is heading for North Carolina tomorrow to see her friend, Sarah, for the weekend, before school gets too heavy. I am sure you will get to see awesome pictures from that.


--be

Hotlanta, 8/17/07

Today, Lauren had orientation at Georgia Tech. While it was not the most informative thing ever, it was very good for her--as she met other fellow doctoral students that she will be studying and working with. I think it was a good day for her.
Meanwhile, I trucked around Atlanta and checked some stuff out. My first stop was the Georgia Dome (Falcons). I was going to tour it--but when I found it it was $10 to park plus the tour cost for a short little tour, I said forget about it. I then found out the Hawks do not give tours of their arena--I guess they figure no one comes to their games, so why would anyone want to tour their stadium.
So, then I went to Turner Field (Braves). They were having some type of ceremony, so there were no tours today. But it was really cool to go up and see the stadium. We hope to see a game soon.
The above picture shows a deal they have. They have tickets with all you-can-eat-food. Are you kidding me? That's so awesome--two great things of the south--baseball food and the Braves. Texas Rangers--you could so learn from them--I love you; but they are light years ahead of you.

This is the site of Hank Aaron's 715 homerun. They tore the old Fulton County Stadium down (where they played before 1996)--but they still have a little monument up for the stadium and this thing where his homerun landed. Pretty cool.

Atlanta is home of the very first Chick-Fil-A. But it is unlike any other Chick-Fil-A. One side has a place where you can order and sit like normal. The other side has places to sit down and order from a waiter/waitress and a bar to sit at (you can see part of the menu at the bottom of the picture--it is a gigantic menu). And they have tons more food--full menu breakfast, steaks, hamburgers, etc. It is really cool. I went in and thought I would just get a little biscuit and say I went there. Well, I sat down and it looks like a Waffle House behind the bar--griddles, all that stuff. So, I thought, I gots to try me a waffle and compare it. Big mistake. Right after I ordered, I saw their biscuits come out--oh yeah, definitely going back and trying that. Plus, the sweetness of the waffle gave me a headache until dinner.

The first Chick-Fil-A is what they call a "Dwarf House." There are some others in Atlanta--means your regular Chick-Fil-A, but on steroids--like a regular restaurant (waiters, full menu, etc.).

In my travels around Atlanta, I came upon Oglethorpe University. Really cool old-looking buildings--but built modern. Their baseball field has the most strange stands I have ever seen. It is like ampitheatre-seats. Not sure if you can really tell how weird these are from the picture.

We ate at Fat Matt's Rib Shack for dinner tonight. Lauren had heard about it. Man, I am glad we went there. I made the mistake of ordering the pulled pork sandwich. Lauren got a rib sandwich--these ribs are incredible. Really good. Cool atmosphere--live blues music every night. You can probably only fit like 50 people inside the restaurant.

--be

Citizenship, Pollution, Humidity, Red Lights

Well I guess we're officially Georgians now. We have changed our license plates and unpacked our last box. Feels like a home now. We hope to post pictures of our loft, all moved in, soon--so that you can see where we live (if you care; you may not, in which case, just ignore the pictures).

The pollution in the air seems to be going down a bit. We are beginning to see real clouds again in the sky--for like the first time in a week. Felt like we were living in a bubble of haze. Even seemed a bit cooler tonight when we ran on our new trails. Maybe I just wanted it to be cooler--but either way, it did feel cooler.

People here in Georgia seem to think that we are used to this kind of heat. They always comment about how the temperatures are warmer in Texas. They just do not realize that there is like no humidity at all compared to what there is in the air out here. Unreal, my friends, unreal.

We have probably already mentioned this a time or two . . . but the red lights here in Carrollton last like, forever. I can feel my whiskers growing sitting at some of these things. Not really sure I understand why they are so lengthy--but they make a point of traffic lights all around town lasting an incredible length of time.


--be

"A good day . . . a little hot."

Lauren's words summed it up well. We traveled into Atlanta today-basically to map out how Lauren would get to and from school. A little hot is an understatement, though. That might have been the hottest I have ever been. On our honeymoon, we were in New Orleans, right on the banks of the Mississippi River on a hot July afternoon--that was hot. This might have been hotter. It was well above 100 today--add in the Georgia humidity, and add in the warmness of a downtown of a major metropolitan city. Yep, it was burning.

We checked out the Buckhead area (kind of a swankier area than the other parts of Atlanta we had seen) and Georgia Tech--a very nice college campus. We forgot our camera--and too bad, because we had some really cool photo opp's. We were bummed that we forgot it--we thought about turning around when we were in Douglasville.

We had lunch at the Flying Biscuit Cafe (www.flyingbiscuit.com) in Atlanta and dinner at Gumbeaux's in Douglasville (www.gumbeauxs.com). I will let Lauren more fully describe those meals--we had been told they were wonderful. And they lived up to all of our expectations.

We were almost ran over by a motorcycle today--by a policeman--on the SIDEWALK. Good grief. We checked out the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta today--big waste of money. I did get to taste a coke, though, called, "Beverly" from Italy--unbelievably bad.

A good day. An extremely hot day. But a good day. We figured out more about Lauren's school today. We found a good MARTA stop (Atlanta's transit system). Lauren should be able to drive in to just inside the loop of Atlanta-then ride the train into downtown--where her school is. We also figured out there is more of a campus to Georgia State (one of the two schools Lauren will be working at--GA Tech is the other) than what we originally thought. It is much more decentralized that most college campuses--but there is a campus there--it's just in downtown Atlanta--so it looks much different.

We have now been here a little over two weeks. Work is going well for me. We are enjoying the church. We are getting to know the youth and the church members. Had a back-to-school party the other night that went really well (Carrollton kids are already back in school). We are having a get-together for high schoolers next weekend--"Nachos & Nacho"--we're eating nachos and watching the movie, "Nacho Libre"--ah, yeah.

--be

As many of you probably know I love food. I mean really love food...well good food. I have been really excited to try the two places Brian mentioned and my enthusiasm did not waiver after eating there.

I first heard of the Flying Biscuit from Rachael Ray's $40 a day show on Food Network. It has been featured in everything from Elle to the local independent Atlanta paper and it lived up to all expectations. There are three locations and since we found that the original is generally the best, we decided to go there. Brian got the breakfast and I got a fried green tomato BLT. As the plates passed by me, I started regretting my decision. The breakfasts looked REALLY good. When our meal came, there were no regrets. My sandwich was wonderful - minus the jalepeno and cashew relish, that was the only dull moment of the meal. Brian's was also good and the biscuits were amazing, of course. A must stop in Atlanta and we at there for under $25!

I ran across Gumbeaux's on an online forum concerning Douglasville restaurants. The only restaurant talked about was this one so I asked around and got a resounding, "You have to go there!" So we did and it was also wonderful. I was a little disappointed in the husband for getting catfish, not exactly cajun. However, even I liked it. Yes, I said liked it and as you probably know, I do not eat any type of fish. I loved mine even more, though. Red beans and rice with sausage. I have enough in the refrigerator for another two meals and it was the half order (for $7.95). We also at here for under $25.

Two very different restaurants - very wonderful restaurants, though, and a pretty good value when considering the reputations and the food.

Lauren

P.S. For those worrying about our health, eating out so much today, let me ease your worries. Flying Biscuit is not so bad - chicken sausage, turkey bacon, field greens and whole wheat buns should help. Also, as Brian mentioned it was hot today and we walked a lot in the warmth today. I am pretty sure I lost weight in this heat!

A Georgia Mile is Longer Than a Texas Mile

We found a new running trail tonight--behind the hospital, with a little hidden lake. Very beautiful. Very cool. We wanted to share some pictures of it with you.

In the last post, I noted that 1.2 miles does not equal 1.2 miles. I am pretty sure that is correct now. This trail tonight was 1 mile. Yeah, right. More like 5 miles. In the words of Lauren, "That's rough." The hills are a killer. The last picture shows the beginning of the trail--it has an incredibly steep hill to start the trail--the picture does not really do it justice.

We have two quotes we want to share with you. Last week at church, a friend of ours was talking about something; and for whatever reason, he said, "Jesus, he was the man." That could be my quote of the year. Tonight, at Target, we're walking along and there are two women with probably a junior high-age girl walking with them. Apparently, one of the women said something tacky. The young girl said, "You need to find you a Bible." Hilarious.

Life moves along for us here in Georgia. Today marks our having been here for two weeks. Tomorrow, we are heading into the big town of Atlanta to figure out Lauren's going to and fro from school.

--be

1.2 does not equal 1.2

We went running tonight. The trail we had mapped out was 1.2 miles. 1.2 miles in Georgia seems to be a bit different than what we are used to. Hills and humidity add a tad to that. This week it is 100 degrees in Georgia plus an incredible amount of humidity. This makes the pollution coming out of Atlanta kind of hang in the atmosphere--so there has been kind of a haze in the sky for the last few days. Probably the wettest and stickiest we have ever felt. There are not many flat places in these parts--so, I guess we will have to get used to a new 1.2 miles.

--be

The World's Largest Yard Sale...Really

We decided after all to head to northern Alabama after dropping Mom off at the airport. We had read about a small town called Mentone and the southern most ski resort in the US and decided we just had to see both. We headed north on Highway 59 and got off in Collinsville to make our way to Mentone. Keep in mind, we could have continued on 59 and not taken the scenic route. We soon saw what we thought to be a huge community yard sale, was a bit annoyed by the traffic, and moved on.

As we moved on, we realized that the yard sales multiplied and went on for a few miles. We kept thinking, "This has to be the last one."
However, they did not end. The yard sales actually stretch from Gadsden, Alabama (about 20 miles south of where we got on in Collinsville) to Kentucky! 450 MILES LONG! It took us about one and a half hours to go twenty miles! This event was also in our book that we found Mentone in...unfortunately we did not see if we were going on the one weekend every year that this takes place.

We did eventually make it out of the yard sale and were able to see some breathtaking water falls. The first is in Little River Canyon and the second is in Desot0 State Park. I was able to some locals and they told me that the water is actually very low compared to normal levels. Unlike Texas, Alabama and Georgia are in a drought. The falls from the first picture should actually have two falls, but the water is too low. I still say it is beautiful!

Below is the "ski resort" that we just had to see. Not so impressive, we know, but I guess we should have suspected as much considering it is a ski resort in ALABAMA.

Below is the Desoto Falls. We stopped for lunch here and would love to go back to the state park for a longer visit. They have a small motel for about $70 a night and would be well worth it if only for the scenery. They are booked, though and the attendant suggested booking a year in advance! I guess we are not the only ones that thought it would be a good idea!


We had a great time driving around northern Alabama...minus the yard sale! I think it might have been a bit too much driving after driving from Texas just two weeks before but it was worth it to see the falls.

Until next time,

Lauren

Food Stuff

We promised you reports of food and have, for the most part, failed to deliver to this point. So . . . we have to tell you about the best croutons in the world--at Parelli's--a block from our house. They cook pizza on the wood iron thingy-doober. It's really good. But the ceasar salad was un-bi-lievable. these croutons--probably had 8,000 calories in each one--but oh my goodness, it was like saturated in a grease--but in a really tasty way.

We rode over to Douglasville tonight to shop a bit and saw a cool Cajun place--Gumbeaux's. We have heard wonderful reports about it. There were twenty groups in line in front of us on the waiting list--so we went to a pizza place. But we want to go back there soon. On the way over there, we saw a guy driving a truck drinking some form of liquid from a Jack Daniel's bottle--straight from it, I kid you not. Right on the highway. I can only imagine what was in it.

The Irish Bred Pub a couple of blocks from our loft (downtown here has 17 locally-owned restaurants that all look amazing) has one of the best philly cheese steak sandwiches. Now that I write this, I realize I might have already written about this. So, I guess I will move on.

Lauren and Martha ate at a place the other day in Waco (Georgia!) called Big Mama's. And the report sounds like everything you would imagine from a place called, "Big Mama's." Big Mama gets up at 3:00 a.m. to get the veggies ready. We are definitely going to have to go back--and take our camera and get a pic with Big Mama. And Waco is a bit smaller than Waco, TX--their sheriff's dept. is in a corner of the courthouse!

We take Martha back to the airport in Birmingham tomorrow morning. We are thinking about making a big scenic loop on the way back--going up towards Tennessee and checking the sites out up in the mountains.

One other note before I sign off--I thought Texas had a lot of churches. There is literally almost a church on EVERY street corner in Georgia. Just a thought to leave you with.


--be

We Got Ya Pictures

Our bad--sorry if this makes your head hurt.















A beautiful, little park








































Not really sure what to say at this point.
































Wonder where that goes?





























Mmmmm. It may be ran over and old and stuff-but still, that thing once held a grand ol' Krystal burger. We now live in the mecca of Krystal & Waffle House. Word is that a Waffle House museum is opening in the first ever Waffle House--maybe they will let us into that one.


















Just turn your head sideways and look.



























A street in our new town.



























Yeah, we live here.

Mom and I (Lauren) took a trip to the John Tanner State Park, about six miles outside of Carrollton. We went in a paddle boat, swam, and walked around the lake. This sideways picture - sorry about that, if anybody knows how to post pics the right way I would appreciate some pointers - is a view from the trail. The trees are a bit taller than I am used to, for some reason the mesquites of West Texas do not grow this tall.

This bridge was on a side trail - it is made from
shells and concrete. I wish the detail was better.

Well, almost through our second week in Georgia-land. Lovin' the southern cooking. Lovin' the trees and hills. Lovin' the people. We hope all is well with you and yours. If you are reading this, it is most probably because you are someone close to our hearts. Know that you are in our thoughts.

--L & be