There is nothing like the ride to Blairsville accompanied by the Cold Mountain soundtrack. This morning I drove to this little roadside grocery store called Sunshine Grocery. It is owned and operated by this lovely couple who are my age. They inherited it from his parents and have two children who come in and help in the afternoons. This afternoon's task for her little boy will be cleaning the blueberries out of the cooler from where they spilt and where the rest now in our cooler at Manna. I went to get organic blueberries (which are the best blueberries I have ever tasted....mmmmmmm) and bittersweet (for Gertie Mae's to sell). The drive doesn't really begin until the Horseback Mountain Ridge is in the rearview mirror. There is a store on the corner of 129 and 9 that is called Turner's Corner. It is the begining of a huge loop that occurs where the racers race and the bikers cruise. Something happens there at that corner. The trees cover the road like a canopy of greens, which during autumn(not that we are going to have one this year) is yellows and reds and oranges. It is breathtaking no matter what season it is, but I can understand why the bikers bike. But in the vanno it still had a nice effect with the windows down. The temperature immediately dropped. According to vanno, it went from 70 degrees to 64 degrees which was 69 degrees as I left and 75 degrees out of the same spot! Go trees, way to cool things off. The mountain which Sunshine Grocery sits on is Blood Mountain. For those of you who don't know, at Walasi Yi (place of the frogs) the Appalacian Trail starts which is just prior to the grocery. I am not sure the reasoning behind the name of the mountain, but I recognize that the curves in the road could totally live up to the tradition. There was probably some great battle or death of some kind to earn its name. There is no way to go over about 40 miles per hour unless you are a local and make that trek everyday. The vanno was not up to it and I think it topped out at 35 which was fine with me because the scenery is amazing, peaceful, beautiful and everything that God created.

Side notes to trip:

Originally, I was supposed to take my car, however, my car has a flat tire. Yes, it is the same tire I ran over John's dog with, who is recovering quite well and turns out that I am not the first to run over her this past week. Turns out that Albert, the farmer who owns the land, ran over Rosa too, only he didn't flip out like I did. So now my tire is flat and I drove the "blackvannomanna" as it is familiarly referred to amongst those who drive it. Needless to say I was relieved to drive to Blairsville, it was a getaway from the stress of my life. I recognize that none of side note is big potatoes (flat tires and dogs don't constitute big events in my life) and there are bigger potatoes out there. The only thing I thought about though whilst on my journey was that if I flip out over dogs and tires, what will happen to me when the big potatoes do show up and no wonder people are so severely effected when the big potatoes arrive because the small potatoes are aweful.

Back to story:

My trip was so relaxing and reviving that I was almost grateful coming into work. Just kidding, I was grateful coming into work! Then everything picked up speed and instead of listening to heartbreaking music and being surrounded by majesty, there were trasfer trucks and tons and tons of inventory to stock: organic blueberries, fresh made sweet rolls, fresh hearth baked bread that was still warm and much more. . . mmmm. . .the taste of gratitude!