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Resaca, Georgia

 

Essentially all of my relatives live in the eastern part of the United States. This RV trip provided the wonderful opportunity of visiting family members.

We spent two days relaxing with my Uncle James and Aunt Betty on their beautiful farm in Resaca, Georgia. My cousin Michael, his wife Tammy, and their three children (Tim, Amanda and Jacob) live next door and welcomed us with open arms. They had never met Genevieve and Sebastian, and we hadn’t seen them in many years. Yet we felt completely “at home” on the farm, surrounded by strong ties of love.

Driving up to the farm:

Aunt Betty and Uncle James:

Genevieve and Sebastian did a lot of fun activities on the farm.

They fed the chickens and found some freshly laid eggs, which we had for breakfast the next morning.

They helped feed the horses.

They climbed into the hay loft and discovered the skin of a king snake, about 4 feet long.

They played in the corn patch:

Jacob (16 years old) was exceptionally kind to both Genevieve and Sebastian. He offered to give the kids a tour of the 80-acre farm on his quad, exploring the trails through the woods and by the riverbank, as well as climbing up a ladder to his favorite deer hunting blind that he had built in a tree. Genevieve and Sebastian jumped at the chance! They did “ro-sham-bo” (rock-paper-scissors) to determine their riding positions behind Jacob.

Off they went!

Genevieve and Sebastian thought that the ride with Jacob was an awesome adventure! They came back with deer teeth that Jacob had generously shared from a deer skull that he had stashed in his blind.

Jacob also introduced Sebastian to his PlayStation, and they spent time together racing motorcycles onscreen.

Genevieve found a map and showed Tammy and Aunt Betty the route we had traveled on our way to Georgia.

We cooled off in Michael and Tammy’s beautiful pool.

The “basketball” pool game was quite a hit with the children!

Ben toodled around on the quad too.

We were well fed during our stay, with plenty of great home cooking. Uncle James recently took his pigs to the butcher, and he now has a freezer full of pork chops and sausage. We had some of the sausage for breakfast—yum.

(Yes, those are brownies on the table for breakfast—Aunt Betty’s tasty specialty!)

Tammy made some fried green tomatoes for dinner. We had never tried them before, and they were delicious! Genevieve and Sebastian gave them a thumbs up (WAY up!).

After dinner the first night, we took a long walk around the farm. As we came out of the wooded area, we encountered a small herd of cows, with about six calves. We walked about fifty feet and turned around to see the calves lined up in a row right behind us. We walked a bit more and stopped to look, and the calves were about the same distance behind us—they were walking with us and stopping when we did! The calves were very curious and kept following us. The mother cows lagged behind, mooing, as if they were telling their babies “Come back, don’t follow those people.” They were probably also warning us, “Don’t mess with our babies!”

I didn’t have my camera during our first night’s walk, so I brought one during our walk around the farm on the second night. This time the calves were walking in front of us, and seemed a bit wary about us following them. They repeatedly stopped to look behind at us.

There were only four of us on tonight’s walk: me, Aunt Betty, Jacob, and Tammy.

The big black bull was in the herd tonight.

At one point, the bull passed through a gate between fields and then turned around to make sure that the cows and calves were coming through too . . .

. . . except that most of them weren’t. They were remaining in the field where we were, watching us closely.

The problem was that we were walking a loop around the farm, and we needed to get through the gate to continue on our way. However, whenever we started walking toward the gate, the bull started bellowing. He did not want us to get between him and his family of cows and calves. We backed up a bit. The bull kept bellowing, as if he was calling to the cows, “Come on now!”

The cows weren’t budging.

And neither were we. The bull was big, and I wasn’t going to be the first to test out how pointy his horns were.

Luckily, Jacob has a natural gift (and grace) in dealing with animals. By calmly taking steps here and there, he gently maneuvered the cows and calves through the gate.

Whew! As soon as the last calf cleared the gate, the bull stopped bellowing, turned around in the other direction, and started walking forward toward the stash of food at the far end of the field.

We happily continued on our way, stopping to greet the beautiful horses: Little Bit, Lady and June.  When they saw us at the fence, they came over to say "hello."

On the second afternoon, the “girls” set off to visit Aunt Betty’s workplace in the nearby town of Dalton. Dalton is often referred to as the “carpet capital of the world,” with over 150 carpet factories and over 100 carpet retail stores. It also has stores that sell high-end home furnishings. In addition to her full-time job with a carpet manufacturer, Aunt Betty works on weekends at a furniture showroom called the American Home Showplace.

Here are Genevieve, Amanda, Tammy and Aunt Betty at the entrance of the larger store that contains the showplace.

The American Home Showplace is presented in the form of magnificent “house,” with each room elaborately decorated with furniture, wallpaper, lighting, artwork, and accessories. My mom (who has been here quite a few times) calls it the “Dream Home.” The lighting around the exterior of the house is set up so that it looks like nighttime. Here are Amanda, Aunt Betty and Genevieve ready to enter the dream home.

The designs and creations inside were really beautiful. Genevieve tested out the comfort of many of the chairs and sofas. Ever the drama queen, she “fainted” with joy over the walls in this room—she wants to paint her walls just like this at home.

Genevieve and I both liked this saying:

While driving to the American Home Showplace, we had spotted a sign pointing the way to a “Confederate cemetery.” I was curious about the history of the cemetery, so we stopped there on the way back to the farm.

General Sherman had led the Union Army through this area on his way to Atlanta and Savannah during the Civil War. The Battle of Resaca had occurred nearby. After the battle, a woman named Jane Place had returned to her plantation and discovered mounds of dirt where Confederate soldiers had been hastily buried. She located and collected the remains of the soldiers and raised money for a cemetery where those remains could be re-interred. This cemetery was the first Confederate cemetery to be established in Georgia.

Some of the small headstones had engraved names.

However, the vast majority of the dead were not identified.

Here are Aunt Betty and Amanda in front of a monument with the words “To the Unknown Dead” engraved on the cross.

This tombstone was carved with the following words:
                                   Georgia
                         Confederate Soldiers
                       Sleep Here in Obedience
                                   to Law
                    When Duty Called, We Came
                      When Country Called, We
                                    Died

Genevieve was enticed by the small creek that ran beside the cemetery.

She found a dead butterfly that she buried.

On the way back to the farm, we stopped at the grocery store in “downtown” Resaca to buy some worms for fishing.

A woman named Mrs. Shaw was working at the cash register; she said that she thinks the store was built in 1943.

Across the street was the “Resaca Mall”, which seemed to be closed.

A train went by behind the grocery store. Genevieve counted 140 cars, many of them double-stacked.

This pretty church was nearby:

When we returned to the farm, we found out that Sebastian had been having his own adventure on the tractor (with my cousin Michael). He had driven the tractor all the way down to the street and back! Oh, the joy.

Of course, Genevieve wanted to have a turn too—she wore a determined look.

Riding on the back brought big smiles!

The farm has a beautiful lake:

On the last evening, the kids wanted to go fishing after dinner.

What do you have, Sebastian?

Ahhh—he has one of the worms that we bought today.

Sebastian’s idea, however, was to rescue all of the worms by setting them free on the ground. He was quite passionate about this plan. In the end, after some discussion, he decided that he would not use the worms as bait but that he would let the worms stay in their plastic container so that other people could fish with them.

Let the fishing begin!

Michael helped Genevieve with her technique:

And Ben assisted Sebastian:

They ended up taking a small boat out to the middle of the lake, returning to shore after dusk:

Genevieve caught two fish!

Michael filleted the fish for us, and we took away four little fish tenders for a later dinner.

Jacob, who has such a big heart, broke out his stash of July 4th fireworks and shared some sparklers with the children.

He then set off a few rockets high in the air.

Afterwards, we sat on the front porch and watched distant fireworks above the treetops. It was a perfect way to end the day, and a glorious two-day visit.

<< Day 24: Central Alabama to Chattanooga, Tennessee  | Day 27: Resaca to Rock Hill, South Carolina >>

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