Saturday was awesome. It was one of those incredibly beautiful fall days that we get here in North Georgia at this time of year. The sky was a Carolina blue and the temperature was around 78 degrees. In short, it was a perfect day for a drive in the country.
Pumpman had invited Georgia bloggers to meet up with him at Carusos restaurant in Dahlonega Georgia. Dahlonega is a pretty little town in the north Georgia mountains about 50 miles north of Atlanta. They had a minor gold rush in Georgia in the 1830's (I think) and Dahlonega was in the center of it. The gold on the dome atop of the Georgia capitol building came from north Georgia. So much for history.
As I said, it was a beautiful day so I hopped into my BMW Z3, put the top down, and headed north on Georgia 400. Cranked up the CD player and put the pedal down hard. It's really fun driving 85 to 90 mph on a beautiful day with the top down. Took me about an hour to get up to Dahlonega. Then I had to find a parking space. WTF? No cripple spaces? Oh there's one but someone is already parked in it. Crap! (Turns out it was the Pumpman)
Since it was a beautiful fall day and the leaves were turning, the town was packed with people. I drove around for 15 minutes and then parked around the corner in what was probably an illegal parking place. WTF! I get a ticket? Who cares. I get to meet some fellow Georgia (or as Pumpman says Jawja) bloggers.
I got in the restaurant and as I hobbled into the pizza area, I immediately spotted Rob and he spotted me. What a trip to finally meet him.
I also got to meet Kelley who is a real sweetheart.
I got to meet Dax and I guess I should have gotten there earlier so I could have had some of the brandy he brought for Rob. Just damn!
I got to meet Donnie and his very lovely wife.
I got to meet Adam.
After that I was on overload. I spent most of my time talking to Rob and the very beautiful Angie who is getting ready to start blogging. All I can say is go for it.
Rob was everything I expected him to be. I only regret that I couldn't stay longer, but I hadn't made arrangements to spend the night and I really didn't want to try to drive back to Dunwoody drunk. If there is another Jawja Blogger Meetup next year and there should be, I'll drive up a day or two early and take my guitars with me and maybe Rob and I can do some pickin' and a grinnin'. Hell, I might even restring my banjo and see if I can remember a few licks on it.
Rob even gave us all t-shirts that say Jawja Blogger Meet 2003. I'm wearing mine right now.
For all the people I met whom I didn't mention it's because at my advanced age (I think I was the oldest fart there) my memory doesn't work as well and I met so many people, I couldn't keep track of them all. I'll try to do better next year.
I drove home OK and listened to Georgia lose to Florida. The last time I drove back to Atlanta from somewhere else (the quarry in Alabama) and listened to the second half of the Georgia game they lost to LSU. Obviously, it's my fault that they lost both games.
After I got back, I went to Michael and Cindy's house for dinner. We had a good meal, I drank a lot of wine, I got drunk, I drove home and had a cognac while watching part of Saturday Night Live.
I slept late Sunday. I have a phantom burning in my feet that gets worse when I am hungover. If my feet hurt the next day, I know I had a good time that night.
My feet hurt!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next meetup and hope we can get more people to come next year.
It was a blast!
Oh yeah. A lot of pictures were taken so they will probably show up on the sites of some of the bloggers I mentioned. Whatever you may see, I'm innocent!