Breezing into Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge, GA – April 3 - 5, 2014

If you look at a map, there is no direct route from Gaffney, SC to Blue Ridge, GA. Instead, there are a series of interesting country roads with small towns to travel through.

Fun stuff in a motorhome towing a car. And as any one who has driven a large vehicle knows, prudence indicates that you don’t go downhill any faster than you went uphill if you want to have any chance of stopping in an emergency. But I’m guessing the long line of cars behind us didn’t share the same opinion.

In Blue Ridge we always stay at the Blue Ridge Mineral Springs Campground. It has nothing special to offer, is a little run down, floods when it rains, but it’s the only campground near downtown and it’s the closest campground to our friends Jim and Shelley. Plus in over 3 years they have not raised their rates.

After we got leveled and plugged in, we drove over to our friends for happy hour. Frank was accused of whining about being the only visitor that Jim never took to the Toccoa River Restaurant. I didn’t think I was whining, I was only doing what any good friend would do by making Jim aware of this glaring omission in his otherwise impeccable hospitality. Whining indeed! We got to sit in the “Happy Chair” so we were thrilled with the whole experience.

The next morning started with a knock on Big Guy’s door. It was Rick, the campground owner advising us we ought to move the motorhome if we didn’t want to end up sitting in a big lake. He said a storm was coming and it looked pretty nasty. Whew, I thought he was coming by asking for us to pay up. I checked the radar, and sure enough, it looked pretty nasty. In a span of about 15 minutes, we had Big Guy secured and ready to move. This time we moved up to the upper level into a space normally reserved for long term renters. It’ll suit us just fine.

Our other adventures included the Serenberry and Nottely River Valley Wineries for a little tasting. On back roads and gravel roads we traveled to find the Serenberry Winery where we purchased the opportunity to discover if we did or didn’t like their offerings. No more free tastings and no waiving of the tasting fees if you buy a few bottles. And if you don’t like any of their wines, tough! You still have to pay. All in all it about equals the price of a standard glass of wine. So no more whining.

On the way to our next stop, we passed several farms that had pretty sizable solar farms installed. When we got to Nottely winery, we asked the owner about them. He went on to explain how those were our solar panels, meaning that the US tax payers had purchased them from Solyndra. Farmers in this area were able to take advantage of some grant money to buy and install these panels but they could only be purchased from Solyndra. You probably recognize the name as the solar company that received a 535 million dollar loan from the Obama administration and went bankrupt without repaying it.

Nottely has a very nice setup and a great covered patio where you can sit and enjoy your wine. Which is exactly what we did. Jim surveys the booty from our wine encounter.

Many good meals and conversations were had during our visit. We wish we could have visited longer, but we had to head north and they had to head south.

Until next time…”Cheers!”