A year ago, for our 2nd anniversary, I planned a trip for Paul. He didn't know where we were going, so this year, it was Paul's turn, so for the past month I have had no idea about where we were going from August 8th -10th. I thought we'd be going to the beach after a few comments Paul made, but I wasn't sure.
After taking care of all that fun medical stuff on Friday morning, I began packing a variety of things for the trip. Still, not knowing where Paul was taking me. We finally got on the road at 1PM and started driving. Once Paul got on I-85, I knew it wasn't the beach, but I still had no idea where we were going. I figured it had to be mountains, but that could have been anywhere along the Appalachian.
We drove down I-85 going completely through SC and into GA. I still had no idea where we were going, but I was pretty sure it was a mountain location. Finally, Paul needed help navigating through GA back country, so I had to help read the directions to him. The directions were thus: "After about 5 miles GA-17 will become GA-17 North/GA-365 South/US-123 South. Continue on GA-17/GA-365/US-123 about 5 miles until it meets up with US-23/US-441/GA-15/GA-365". This was taken straight from the directions. Have you ever seen a road that was going South and North at the same time? Confusing... Why so many road names? Why not just one?
After navigating our way, I realized we were staying at a place near Helen, GA right in the middle of the mountains. At 4:30, we arrived at the cabin. Paul picked out a gorgeous cabin in the mountains through
cabinrentals.
View from cabin 
We were 30 minutes outside of Helen. Helen, GA is very touristy. Paul wanted to go some place more rural, and he found one of the most rural places I've ever been to..
Right after arriving, we needed to get some groceries, so the nearest grocery store was 20 minutes way in Blairsville, GA. We got back in the car and headed to the Ingles in Blairsville. We grabbed some water and snacks, but we also wanted to get some beer. Paul searched the store back and forth, but he could not find any alcohol, anywhere!!! I figure maybe I can find it, so I run around the whole store searching for beer. Well, Paul had to ask the cashier. She, in a whisper, said "Dis is a dry county. We don't sell alcohol here." Yeah, this is how rural this place is. They still had a mammoth cigarette selection, but no alcohol. How hypocritical. Anyways, Paul ask where we can find some and the cashier says in a whisper "Well, my cousin get his beer from this bp station in the next town. It's about 15 minutes that way."
Paul and I feeling like we were evil for asking for alcohol scooted out of the store with our heads low and headed to the Bp station. The Bp Station had signs all over it announcing they had beer! On our way back to the cabin (before Blairsville), we noticed a winery and figure why not, so we drove down to a very quaint winery called "
Crane Creek". They had some of the best wine I've ever tasted. Crane Creek was closing up when we got there, so we weren't able to enjoy the property.. beautiful lake, cow field, rolling hills, and cottage... for long, but we did enjoy some wine tasting. :) We got 2 bottles to take home.
We arrive back at the cabin at about 7. We sat out on the back deck and rocked in the rocking chairs for a bit. The temperature was only in the 70's, so it felt great. Then, we ate the frozen pizza we got at Ingles. After dinner, we decided to walk around the cabin. There were 2 other cabins near ours, but no one was staying in them, so the place was very quite and rural! We walked around the cabin and up to a road that was alittle ways in the woods from the cabin. We walked up a really steep hill and then back down.. after that we decided to head back to the cabin.
Well, on our way back, we heard a 4 wheeler coming. All of a sudden the 4 wheeler pops out of the woods and the guy riding it miss judges the ditch he's heading straight into and flips over. The 4 wheeler was on top of him. Paul rushes to help get the 4 wheeler off. They both were able to get it lifted up. The guy was unhurt, but explain to us that he was having an argument with the folks that own the cabin we were staying in. They put up a chain to prevent him from biking on their property. If the chain wasn't there, he wouldn't have had to go into the ditch. He doesn't think that was very fair that they won't let him bike through their property to get to the other road... he continued cussing out the folks for a bit and we convinced him it was time to get his 4 wheeler back on the road. He then began pulling the chain down by tugging at a beautiful fur tree (I think that's what they are called-look like Christmas trees)... almost bending the whole thing over until Paul and I showed him he could remove the chain by pulling it over the nails that were in the pine tree on the other side. Poor tree!
That was the excitement for Friday. Saturday, we had a busy day planned. We went hiking in Vogel State Park. We decided to hike the 4 mile trail up Blood Mountain. The lady at the visitor center said it would take 2 hours, but we thought we could it in less. Wow! This was the STEEPEST trail I have ever climbed. You are completely exhausted after only a few steps.
About to start the trail...
The never ending climb....
Finally, near the top...
View from the top..
Still, it only took us an hour and 45 minutes to go all the way around. We still showed up the usual time. :)
After that, we went into Helen, GA for lunch and to go tubing (doughnut floats) down the Chattahoochee River. Helen was very crowded, so we had to wait a bit for lunch. It was 2 before we finally got to eat at Troll Tavern, but the food was good.
Some pictures from Helen
A restuarant called Paul's
Eating at the Troll Tavern 
At 3, we went to the tubing place. I wasn't able to take pictures of us going down the river because I was worried my camera would get wet. It was suppose to take 2 hours, but it ended up taking us 3 hours to go about 2 miles. The river was really low, so your tube would get stuck on the rocks alot, so you had to get out and push. It was a very refreshing way to end the day, not as relaxing as we'd hoped, but fun. There were a ton of people in the river as well and that would lead to some traffic jams, as you can see from the photo below. It was taken when we were in Helen about to eat lunch.
It was fun, but you had to sit in cold water for 3 hours with wet shoes. It started to get cold at 5:30, so we were glad when the ride finally ended. Paul was tired from pushing us both off the rocks the entire trip.
We headed home and ate the rest of the pizza and watched the olympics. We were completely exhausted from the uphill hiking and hiking/tubing down the Chatahookie River. It was fun though. :)
Sunday, we had to pack up and get out of the cabin pretty early. I noticed when I went to the back deck to pick up our clothes that had gotten wet from tubing.. that some mice had walked across our clothes and across the towels. There were droppings all over them.. .... Then, I noticed my shirt! A mouse decided to start eating it! See picture below:
I had to throw it out. :( Ah well! At least it didn't eat anything else or burrow in my wet tennis shoes. :)
We got back to Charlotte at about 2:30. I'm just doing some laundrying and trying to relax before training all next week....
