A Wedding and More…

We went to Dawsonville, Georgia on Saturday, May 19, to attend an outdoor wedding that Jeff was going to DJ. A little background, you see the groom’s mother and sister were camping at River Vista in Dillard last Halloween and attended the dance Jeff djed that weekend. She recommended Jeff to her son and fiancee. The mom contacted us during the winter when we were at Rock Crusher Canyon after getting our telephone number from the River Vista office manager. Anyway, it took us two hours to get to the Payne’s home last Saturday and we didn’t have much traffic at all. We had stopped at Mc Donald’s in Clayton on our way there for breakfast. We got bogged down in Mountain City, which is about 10 minutes away from Dillard, due to the Warrior Race being held there. This is a race that anyone can enter. It is like an obstacle type race that had people racing in water, mud, and under ropes, etc… The local papers said about 30,000 people competed in the race. It was the fourth time that they had the race in Mountain City.

When we got to the groom’s parents’ home in Dawsonville we set up our equipment. It took us an hour and a half to complete the set up and sound test since we also put up a 10 by 10 foot covered canopy to protect our equipment and ourselves from the elements. The house sat on 6 acres and was on a creek. They had been putting the seat clothes with ribbons on the chairs when we got there. The groom was actually taking the tractor and getting some fresh mowed grass and clearing  it from the areas where people were to walk. We didn’t think they would get done by the wedding time of 4:30. Some pictures of the set-up follow.

  

  

  

After setting up we ate a quick lunch at Arby’s and then went to the Best Western Motel, which was about 20 minutes from the Payne’s home, to shower and get dressed. They were having a Scottish terrier dog show outside when we arrived. This was Kozmo’s first motel stay with us so we didn’t know how she would react. The room was fantastic. They had just remodeled it and we got a king suite which included the king size bed, TV, microwave, refrigerator, iron and iron board, safe, sofa and hassock, and a desk with a chair. The bathroom was spacious and very well equipped. We were very happy to stay the night there which only cost us $62 for the night. They didn’t even charge us for Kozmo. We thought it had to do with the dog show. It would normally have cost us $15 for her but they waved it.

We arrived at the wedding an hour early at 3:30 to play nice smooth jazz music as the guests arrived. It was a beautiful wedding with the weather cooperating fully for the entire time we were there. There were probably about 100 people at the wedding who were having a very nice time.

They had one of the sister-in laws prepare all of the dinner food which was absolutely fantastic! We did not eat it while we were there because we were not hungry but one of the sisters made us a huge carry out container to take with us. We did try the wedding cake and it was so moist and flavorful! We played until 7:30pm and then packed up and got back to the motel at 8:40. Kozmo was great during the wedding and reception, just laying behind the table where we were set up. We did sample some of the reception food when we got to the room and it was delicious. We had some grilled chicken, creamed corn, green beans, a pickled onion salad and a green salad. Again, it was all terrific-very flavorful! We slept very well in the bed. Kozmo had some difficulty getting to sleep. She was shaking a little bit and looking at the ceiling for some strange reason. But when we turned out the lights she stayed very close to us throughout the night.

On our way back to Dillard on Sunday we went a different route which took us through Cleveland and through Helen, Georgia.

   

They were having some kind of a car show that made traffic bumper to bumper at 11:30 in the morning- a Sunday morning at that. We went through the Lake Burton area which had a tremendous amount of damage last year due to the tornado that went through it. They are rebuilding but trees are still down around the area. You can still tell where the tornado touched down. If you click on and enlarge the picture below you can see the tornado’s path across Lake Burton.

All in all the weekend was a very nice one. It felt good to get away from the rig for a while because you appreciate it much more when you return. We did miss our bed but we were still comfortable in the motel, too.

The HWY 246 bridge in Dillard that was closed down starting on April 2 is now open. They were supposed to have it rebuilt by June 25 so they were a month ahead of schedule. It looks very nice and now we can make it to Dillard in four minutes or less rather than 12 minutes the detour took. We headed to Highlands today to the Bank of America and to see what was happening up there. People are checking  in for the Memorial Day weekend at River Vista for sure. When we got back to the campground many more people had arrived. Looks like we are going to have a full campground this weekend.

We are headed for Clayton tomorrow to see if we can get a new deep cycle battery for the golf cart. After testing each battery, one of them was at 10%. We would charge it up overnight and then just be able to drive it for five minutes before it goes dead. We are hoping that we only need to replace the one because they are very heavy to get out and they cost between $150 and $200. We had our neighbor help us and it was still a hard task to perform. If we have to replace them all, we will call our repairman Eddie who has a golf cart shop in the Tallulah Falls area to do it for us. We are hoping it won’t come down to that though.

Our bird in the nest that is in our covered coach house must have laid its eggs because Momma bird is keeping the nest warm almost nonstop. I want to take some pictures of the nest when Momma leaves but Daddy comes by almost automatically. So here is the picture from afar with a zoom lens.

Thanks to our good friend Pat Gregory we now have found a new TV show to watch. It is called “Swamp People” and is on Thursday nights on the History Channel. It takes place in the Louisiana area in swamp land. People hunt for gators and make it look so creepy. I’ve had one nightmare already from watching the show. Thanks Pat!

We hope your Memorial Day weekend is a nice one. We will be thinking of all that made the ultimate sacrifice for us, all of our veterans and all of our military people currently serving our nation for us to be a free nation.

River Vista has some activities going on this weekend. We will take part in the cookout Saturday afternoon and a live music show by a local band, “The Ram Cats”, later in the evening. Monday afternoon our homeowners association is having a cookout and covered dish meal as well. There will be barbequed pork, beef brisket and assorted dishes brought by all lot owners. Jeff will supply some music as well. It should be fun.

‘Til next time….