Our Sunday Drive

Yesterday, we headed up to North Georgia for our "Sunday Drive." We knew full well that there would be congestion with everyone else driving up there, too, but we went anyways. We decided to hit Ellijay and the orchards first in the morning before church let out.

Our drive started off with something funny happening.  As we were sitting at an intersection in Jasper, we saw that a Sheriff's Deputy had a truck pulled over in a lot nearby, but when the light turned green for the other traffic, this asshat in a ragged out primer-black 240 Z floored it, lighting up the road with a loud squeal, sharp turn, and flooring it up 515.  We both said, "what an idiot!" since the deputy was right there.  It wasn't long when a few miles up the road, we were at a traffic light.  I didn't even notice who was in front of us when this car comes flying around me and butts its front right fender in front of my car.  It was the sheriff's deputy, and then it clicked.  The car in front of us was none other than the 240 Z who had made an idiot out of himself.  As the light turned green, the 240 Z sat there and kept looking in his side mirror.  Finally the deputy got on the horn and said, "Pull forward." The driver of the 240 Z pointed his finger to the left.  The deputy said, "no, forward and onto the side of the road.  You're holding up traffic."  The 240 Z slowly pulled forward, and as he did, the deputy threw on his blue lights and escorted him to the side of the road.  We laughed as we drove by.  He knew he'd been caught.

We pulled up to BJ Reece Orchards off Highway 52. They were a little bit busy but nothing too serious. We paid for our "pick ur own apples," and then we saw a sign that said, "apple cannon - $5/bucket." What? An apple cannon? Of course we paid the $5 and headed on the dirt and gravel road up into the orchard. As we walked the path, admiring the mountain views, fall foliage and smell of apples, we heard the sound of compressed air shooting through tubes....apple cannon.

As we came down the hill, we saw two cannons and targets out in the field. If you hit a target, you got a prize.

We waited to shoot the cannons.  There was a group in front of us from out of town that bought five buckets of apples, and instead of being polite and letting others go, they sat there and fired all five buckets.  So here Andrew was...getting ready to fire.  I think we were one of the few sets of adults firing the cannons.  Out in the field were various plywood targets.

At the bottom were two targets as well.  These were worth a "free candy stick" each time you hit the target. Andrew hit it twice.

After the apple cannon, we went through the orchard and picked some Arkansas Black apples.  Andrew got to act out the "shakey shakey" Allstate insurance guy commercial as he climbed up in the tree and lightly shook the boughs. 

When we came out of the orchard, the number of visitors had multiplied exponentially so that the line to buy tickets for picking and the apple cannons were twenty deep.  After buying fried apple pies and having our fill of crowds, we hopped in the car and headed into Dahlonega.  When we got into Dahlonega (the scenic route,)  we decided to drive through the very busy Dahlonega and up to the 9s to take some pictures but not before stopping at the reservoir.  We were on a mission from my mom to "get a good picture of you two."  So we did. 

A nice couple decided to help us out with the picture since we had taken about six with the timer - haha.  After the reservoir we headed up 19N and then onto the 9s towards Suches.  I've always called it "The 9s" due to a large exposed rock face off to the right that was used for climbing and rappelling in college.  We stopped at two overlooks, and we took some more pictures....

After heading down the mountain towards Suches and taking yet some more pictures, we headed back to Dahlonega for a late lunch at Wylie's.  Sadly, Wylie's is no longer :(  As we walked up to the Conner House, we noticed that it looked dead.  I told Andrew, "I wonder if they're closed between lunch and dinner?"  But the stark reality hit us when we didn't see a sign that said, "Wylie's."  We walked over to Piazza for lunch where our waitress told us that she heard they went bankrupt.  So sad.  We had so many good memories of Wylie's from college and then Andrew and I. 

After Piazza, we drove out to Chestatee Wildlife Preserve whose gates closed twenty minutes prior, and we headed to Cavender's Creek to see our cabin for the day before the wedding and our wedding night before heading up to Sky Valley for a week.  We met Paul Hanson, the owner of Cavender's Creek, who was kind enough to allow us to drive around the cabin loop and find our cabin.  Deep in the woods, beside the creek is our cabin, and in a little less than a year, we will be staying there as husband and wife. 

By that time, it was close to five, and we headed back to Powder Springs.  Even though one of our favorite lunch spots had closed, it was a great day.