Ahhhh...The Mountains

We packed up the camper and headed for the mountains of GA last Thursday, June 30th. We camped at a campground near Hiawasee, GA called Enota. A very nice campground. We met the youth minister of a Methodist church that evening, he had his youth group there on a retreat, very nice young man. On Thursday we just set up our camper and cooked supper. We had chicken sausage, saurkraut, and corn-on-the-cob all cooked on the grill, Ed is the chef when we go camping, and he is a great chef! That evening we just took Liberty for a walk around the campground and relaxed by the camper. Friday morning we got up and had pancakes and sausage for breakfast then we went tubing down the Chattaochee River in Helen, GA. That was a lot of fun. Very relaxing, almost like a lazy river with just a few rapids. That evening Ed cooked steak and potatoes with onion on the grill, very yummy. After the sun went down we built a campfire and had smores with chocolate marshmellows, you can never have too much chocolate : ). Saturday we had oatmeal and toast for breakfast then took Liberty for a walk, we went to the 200 foot waterfall at the campground which was very nice. You would not believe how nice and cool it is beside the falls. God gave us a wonderful air conditioner after getting very hot walking up to the falls. It was beautiful. After we got back from our walk, we put Liberty in her kennel and Ed and I went to Helen just to walk around and have a frozen yogurt, tastes very good on a hot day. We went down by the river and watched the people tubing and went to the quilt shop to look at the beautiful quilts. After we got back to the campground Ed fixed ham with onions, green pepper, and pineapple on the grill....that was so good I can almost still taste it. Writing about it is making me hungry : ) After supper we took Liberty for another walk, we did this every evening. The campground had a big organic garden and farm animals so we would go visit these each evening. After our walk we built another campfire and Ed played his guitar, so relaxing. There were two older ladies camping just across from us and after talking with them found out that they were both widows, one was 70 and the other 87. The lady that was 70 was diagnosed with colon cancer and had just under gone chemo treatments. She wasn't feeling that good and her children didn't want her to go camping but she said this may be her last summer to go camping and she loves to camp so her and her friend packed up and enjoyed camping this past weekend. They were amazing, if any of you have seen the movie "Second Hand Lions" that is what they reminded me of, just that they were the ladies version : ) They really enjoyed listening to Ed play the guitar. Sunday we went for a hike in the woods, we were hoping they would have a church service at the campground but they didn't, I guess we should have held one, anyway since there was no church service we went hiking. This time we went past the falls and let Liberty off her leash so she could just run and explore. She sure did enjoy that. On our way back toward the campground we stopped once again at the falls.

That afternoon Ed and I went to Brasstown Bald which is the highest point in GA. It was a steep and curvy road and then about a half mile walk to this point. It was very pretty and the temp. on the mountian was 68', perfect. At the top of the mountain there was a visitor center and observation deck, on a clear day you can see Atlanta from there. It was kind of hazy that day but we could see a pretty good distance. There were signs around telling us how the mountain was formed, I think whoever wrote about the mountain must not have believed in "intelligent design", they said it was formed 500 million years ago, God did not create the earth that long ago, they tend to think that through the shifting of the earth and erosion the mountain was formed, possibly but that would be because of the great flood, they never once mentioned God and how He created that mountain. When God made that mountain and all the trees and wildflowers around there He did an awesome job, it is beautiful.

That evening after our hike to Brasstown Bald we had dried beef gravy with toast, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Ed played his guitar again that evening and we watched a movie and had popcorn and milkduds. Monday morning we got up and packed up and headed back to Columbus, where the temps are nothing like the mountains...I think I would like to go back to the mountains, I like those temps a lot better. Oh yeah....we did have a black bear who visited the campground every night. He would go into the dumpster and drag bags back up into the woods. We tried to go and take a picture of him but the night we went he either got so much to eat the night before that he didn't need anything or he came later and we missed him. God sure gave us a beautiful world to live in, when I looked at the mountains, the waterfalls, the flowers, the trees, I just think what an awesome God we serve.