A Weekend at the Blue Ridge Mountains

Before anything else:  thank you for the warm reception to Viajera Filipina’s launch!  This whole experience is both exciting and nerve-wracking, and we’re just getting started.   I’m looking forward to producing more content that helps people make meaningful steps towards their own dream travels.    This site is a work in progress, and I am open to feedback and suggestions to help make this a better space for our tribe of travelers.

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This past weekend, Glen and I spent some quality time with our small group from church at a mountainside private lodge we rented through VRBO  (Vacation Rentals By Owner) in Blue Ridge, Georgia.   We stayed at a lovely 6 bedroom house that stood along the banks of the Toccoa River.

The city of Blue Ridge is an easy 80 to 90-mile drive from the metro Atlanta area, especially once you get off the busy interstates and start making your way around the winding roads leading into Fannin County.  It’s our first time in this area.  The fall chill in the air gave it an extra cozy feel.   This trip convinced me how much more there is to discover in our neck of the woods here in Georgia and the South as a whole.

Going on vacation with friends is something I look forward to.  Nothing brings a group closer than having shared experiences on a trip with the only thing on the agenda is to have a good time.    While scheduling a time when everyone is available can be tricky, it’s definitely worth the effort when you’re all sitting around having a some good conversations, or in our case, some good yelling at the television when an exciting game of college football is on.  

Activities included strolling around the downtown area, playing a game of football,  walking around (or running, for those who were so inclined) the property that included a pretty brutal hill,  engaging the farm animals and pets that lived there, relaxing in one of the many nooks and crannies of the house, and lots of eating.

After leaving the lodge, some of us went to check out some local attractions.  Our first stop was Mercier Orchards.  While apple picking was over for the season, we enjoyed milling around the store, sampling a wide range of butters and salsas made from the orchards’ produce, and taking home apple cider donuts and fried apple pies.  Content that we have enough goodies to hit our week’s carb limits, we got back on the road.  We proceeded to Amicalola Falls State Park, which was the popular point of approach to the start of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.  As we were not ready to take on the 2,200-mile hiking trail that ends in Maine that day, we settled for taking pictures at the falls, whose Cherokee name stands for Tumbling Water.  

After the requisite selfies were taken, we headed to the nearby Amicalola Falls Lodge for an unexpected close encounter with one of the area’s residents: a gentle nonvenomous black rat snake named Desdemona.

We ended our little afternoon adventure with an indoor picnic in the lodge that gave us a great view of the Blue Ridge Mountains while enjoying the warmth of a fireplace.

 

A weekend getaway to a nearby destination is one of the best ways to get your feet wet in traveling.  The destination doesn’t have to be far.  You just have to be keen on finding new experiences and open to absorbing different cultures, even if it’s that of a town just a few miles over.   Traveling is not about the miles between yourself and your home.  It’s about exploring a place and its people, taking in what’s different and special about it, and letting the experience change you.  In that way, no matter you go, near or far, you will always return home a different person.