Guten Morgan!

Greetings from Helen, Georgia, a Bavarian village in the mountains of north Georgia. We have wanted to come here for a long time, but were worried about driving up here with the big rig. Turns out that is not a problem. We are staying actually just south of Cleveland, Georgia, in a nice park with big sites about 11 miles from Helen. We decided to stay for a week. It started out fairly warm here, but is going to cool off for the next few days or so.

Yesterday we drove up to Helen and did some shopping in the many shops. We stopped and ate at a little German bakery. The food was very good, but we had to bring half of it home. The portions were so big. Helen did not start out as a German community. It was the brainchild of the city fathers back in the late 60's who came up with a plan to revitalize their community. So, it basically was a marketing ploy to draw in visitors' dollars. No matter. It is a quaint little place up in the mountains and a neat town to visit. There were several people of German descent in the shops.

While we were eating, our friends, Ward and Patty, called and invited us to their house for dinner. They live in Suches, Georgia, which is about 16 miles away AS THE CROW FLIES--more like 35 miles on the mountain roads and about an hour to get there. Wow. Talk about curvy roads. One section of the road has over 300 curves and this is NOT the "Tail of the Dragon." We drove FOREVER (well it SEEMED like that) to their house. It is a beautiful place on the hillside and a long front yard. It is easy to see why they love living up here in the mountains. We had an enjoyable dinner with them and a high school friend of Ward's along with his wife. We visited until late in the evening when we then had to negotiate the mountain roads in the dark. I drove back and it took a while because we didn't know the roads, but we made it back home.

Today we again met Ward and Patty in Dahlonega and Ward drove us up the montain to the Amicalola Falls State Park. It is the home of the Amicalola falls. These falls drop 729 feet, the tallest falls east of the Mississippi River. It was quite spectacular with what seemed to be a lot of water pouring down. We hiked up about a third of the way on the trail and took pictures. Later when we went to the top of the falls, it was quite a small creek that supplied the water, but it certainly made a big splash.

From there we drove to the Visitor's Center in the park and out behind the office there is the start of several trails. One of the trails is an approach trail to the start of the Appalachian Trail. We had to have our picture taken there. It was interesting to learn a little about the trail.

We left there and went into Dahlonega and had lunch at a wonderful restaurant called Pueblo's. They serve Mexican food there, but the owners are actually from South America. It was very good. After lunch, we said goodbye to our friends, but plan to catch up with them again before we leave the area. We have had so much fun with them.

Not sure what is on the docket for today, but we will find some place to explore.

Till next time. . .

Dale