3-13-17  back up to the cabin!

Last night when we got back to our apartment and unpacked, I realized I didn't have all the clothes I had taken up there!  So Ken called the manager of the cabin and told them I left some stuff there.  Guess I was so excited to get outside and take pictures of the snow before it melted that I forgot to finish packing!  Anyway, the manager found my stuff and we told him we would come back up for it today.  It was still really cold and suppose to rain, but it was only about a 1 1/2 hour drive through beautiful countryside, so why not.  Now that we're retired, we can do stuff like this!  So we found another route that was about 2 minutes longer, and saw some different countryside.
Even saw a reminder of long ago---

 And another painted egg---this one by a high school.

 Was this the chicken who laid the egg?

 on to the countryside

 It was another pretty ride

 Cute little town of Ball Ground.

 We drove by this too fast for me to really see what these are.

 some really lazy cows.

 Amish country?

 After picking up our stuff, we decided to continue another 15 miles or so up to Blue Ridge, Ga. for lunch and to check out a bit around there.  I would love to take this scenic railway train trip in the Fall!  Hopefully I won't forget about it then. 

 Blue Ridge is a cute little tourist town.

 although they had a lot of the old town torn up. 

 Bet this is an interesting store to check out.  Probably a good thing we didn't!

 Lots of restaurants.

 Wonder if this is like Tupelo Honey?

 It was about 1 now and we hadn't eaten, so we decided to give this place a try.

 Certainly wasn't fancy.  Order from a counter and they call your name when it's ready.  But it was cheap and my fried chicken sandwich was really good.

 We had stopped at a visitor center in Blue Ridge and the guide there told us of a waterfall nearby and another one on another route home (and a swinging bridge) so we made a day of it and played tourist.
Got to see more of the Georgia Mountains we haven't seen before, too.

 even saw another little covered bridge.

 and some barns.

First falls we went to was Fall Branch Falls

check out more pictures of our hike here:  FALL BRANCH FALLS!

Then we drove around trying to find highway 60.  You would think a highway would be easy to find---but not here in the north Georgia mountains!  Didn't help that we had no reception on my phone and the Garmin wasn't finding any of the sights I tried to search on it.  But we got to see more countryside and dilapidated buildings!

 Even a couple of these cute little red-breasted Mergunsers.

 I would think this was obvious without the sign!

 We finally found what we thought was highway 60, even though there were no signs.  But there was this mill at the end of what looked like an RV park.

 That's about where we saw a little sign for the swinging bridge and decided to go check it out.  The road reminded me of many of the unpaved roads on Kauai that we've been on.  Nice views along the way, though.

We finally made it to the Swinging Bridge

check out more pictures of our hike to the bridge here: TOCCOA RIVER SWINGING BRIDGE


 Not far from the swinging bridge was the 2nd water fall that we went to--Sea Creek Falls---

check out more pictures of our hike to the falls here: SEA CREEK FALLS

By now, it was after 6, so we decided to find our way back to Buford.  Love the American flag on the side of this barn.

 another river along the highway.

 one final wave good-bye to north Georgia! 

 Turned out to be another great day.  I think I've decided that I should always leave something behind in great tourist areas so we have to go back to get it!