At first Finn used this broom to
sweep out the shelter, but then
decided that trying to swipe his sister
off of the ladder was way more fun
This is where hikers go to get away from
the bloodthirsty Springer mountain bears
Jon took this one-taking full advantage of my
outdoor potty phobias
Almost tall enough!
Our Ludie Love
I had a wonderful childhood. Since there weren't internet search engines back in the good old days, my dad would either buy a book to research family outings or he would pull over at an old family owned store or anywhere that looked interesting to gather intel on fun things to do. I remember one time we drove up a dirt road to peek at a building that dad liked the look of. An elderly man came out his house and was pleased as punch to show off his barn to a bunch of strangers. Turns out lucky for us he was more than willing to share his personal specialty...bbq'd possum. I kid you not. Being a properly raised homeschooler I had to politely take and eat the proffered forkful of greasy possum that quite possibly went against every Levitical food law ever written. All this to say that Jon and I have actively starting trying to recreate our fabulous childhood experiences for our own offspring. I have them enrolled in soccer and music lessons so the next logical experience was of course hiking with a newborn.
Jon was completely gung ho and by the time he woke me last Friday he had already fed and dressed all of the children and bathed Seamus. We were set to walk out of the door when our other dog Bob Marley (named before the movie thank you very much) looked at Jon with pleading eyes. He got a bath so he could come as well.
When we were finally all loaded up and on our way, I heard Finn fussing and turned around to check on him, which is when the wall of stench hit me. The excitement had given Bob gas. For the next hour we were treated to the same scenario, first we would hear Finn start crying and then we would smell it. So far it was remarkably resembling childhood excursions.
The only thing to eat on the way there was an Arby's, so as we were wanting to get up to Dahlonega in a timely manner we went through the drive thru. I passed out all of the food that made the movie FOOD INC. possible and we commenced eating...until Seamus snatched Finn's food out of his hand and ate it complete with napkin. Jon pulled over and fed Findlay his lunch bite by bite through the back window. On a bright note, Ludie slept the entire way!
We stretched a 2 1/2 hour trip into 4 and then we were finally ready to hike! We parked at the trailhead and after we changed, nursed and jacketed everyone we headed up Springer mountain for our one mile hike. All went great for the first 300 feet until Maggie asked how much farther and flopped herself down on a rock. Seamus then pulled Brennah between a rock and a hard place(a tree) and injured her ankle. We made it to the top where everyone had to pee, took pictures, let Finn backwash in my Vitamin water, gave the rest to him and started down the trail again. Noteworthy things to see were the new latrines for campers and the numerous signs that told of recent bear attacks on the mountain.
There was so much whine involved we could have had a cheese tasting party right then and there. We made it off of the trail at 6:45PM.
I decided we should eat at Cracker Barrel! Who doesn't want a yummy breakfast for dinner and an old fashioned toy all in the same evening? Everyone agreed to this until we found out from our nifty internet phone that the closest one was an hour and a half away. I should have copied Dad's tried and true method of stopping and asking.
On to the next brilliant idea! When I was a kid we always ate at a restaurant called Po' Folks. This was a warm, cheerily decorated family friendly place where one could feed the whole family fried chicken and cobbler for CHEAP! Well I found one listed on the handy dandy internet phone hooray! I decided that since this was a fond memory for me, I would recreate it for my own exhausted and filthy offspring. We unloaded everyone (by now it was nearing 8) and walked into Folks(renamed for its political incorrectness). The food was terrible, the waitress's were all missing teeth and they had actually dared to change the dish pattern along with the name. Well all was not lost, the fried chicken was still pretty good and after a healthy and cheap dose of cobbler, the children were good natured about the broken water faucet in the women's bathroom that completely soaked them as they washed their hands. Now to make it home! To wrap up this post, Ludie finally woke up after sleeping the whole day and fussed the whole way home and Seamus kept jumping up onto Findlay every ten minutes which necessitated Bren unbuckling, turning around and pushing the dog off of my sobbing toddler. We arrived home at 11:30 and piled exhausted into bed.
All this to say, we had a FABULOUS time! Jon and I are already planning another trip with a few modifications. I hope that one day my children will have plenty of "greasy possum" stories to tell their kids, and will continue on the crazy family traditions that I have always treasured so dearly.
