Southern Recipe

Chickamauga to Milledgeville, Athens to Summerville, Indian Springs to Blue Ridge--Joel, Shannan and I have enjoyed many day trips in the great state of Georgia. We’ve even ventured across state lines into Tennessee and Alabama. Our recipe for success includes meeting early for me to run and Shannan and Joel to take a walk. Afterwards we often have a lingering southern breakfast filled with calories and high cholesterol at a local restaurant.

Next we head out for the cultural bit of our day by taking in a museum exhibit or visiting an historic site. Sometimes we just putz around in new places. Shannan generally plans our agenda and wherever we go we always have a grand old time. We’ve followed the Margaret Mitchell trail from Jonesboro to Marietta, spent a day in the largest kangaroo preserve outside of Australia, logged miles and miles on the Silver Comet Trail, trekked up and down Kennesaw Mountain and have experienced many points in between.

Rain in early March caused us to postpone a trip to Brasstown Bald, Georgia’s highest peak. I really wanted to run up the mountain. We rescheduled two weeks later. Rain was in the forecast, but we tested Mother Nature, and lost. It poured all morning long. Still we drove to the base of the mountain trail.

As it turns out, despite the rain, we had a magnificent day. We toured around North Georgia and even slipped into Murphy, NC. Hiking or running up Brasstown Bald couldn’t have been more fun than our time together. Make no mistake, we will not be denied. Someday we’ll return to Brasstown. Having written all this I think I left out the most important ingredient in our recipe for success. A big dose of friendship!

Venture out. Take a friend.

Tom