Lost Luggage

Sistah's: This the the ULTIMATE Thrift Shop! Wow! You'd love this place! There is a map for the place, it's so big! My idea is to cruise the perimeter, get a feel for the location/inventory/etc. Stuart says, "let's get a shopping cart now". So, we divide, and look. There really is everything that might be in a suitcase here: shoes, purses, jackets and coats and sweaters, blouses and shirts. I can't stop at the underwear and bra section: this is a little too close to the skin. There is an entire section with just sporting goods! I'd be really sad to lose the scuba BC I saw. And, there must be 200 feet of ski boots. And cameras and other electronic gadgets that I can't identify. Books, shawls, fur coats, skis, cd's and dvd's, and more.

After a while, I try on a few garments, and Stuart has found some clothes he can use. At the end, we have spent $35, and walk out with a bag full of clothes! I got a wool jacket, a light-weight wool sweater, a cotton sweater and a cotton blouse. Stuart found a fleece jacket, a denim jacket. If we needed a suitcase, this is the place: a large rolling case is about $15.

It's terribly cold today. When we finished shopping, we had lunch in our Cottage, finishing up a wild variety of leftovers. The kind of meal I love! Time to head east, requiring us to cross some mountains. We are going to attack this next phase of the trip in 2 hour-ahead segments. So, we find ourselves on US 35, crossing the mountain, and stopping to regroup. Rome, GA, and then on to Cartersville for the night.

It's very wet, there has been a huge amount of rain in the past few days. We pass what appears to be a lake that's not marked on the map, to figure out that the river has over-flowed it's banks, pushing the cows to high ground making even slight ridges important. We pass a scene that gives me cold chills: six or more vehicles parked on a slight ridge, in the middle of the day. These folks are flooded out of their houses. The sight makes me want to stop and find a boat to row across, to see if I can help in some way. It's cold, the water is high, and it takes a long time to recede. We drive on. A change of time this afternoon, crossing back into Georgia, we lost an hour.

Tonight, we're at the Allatoona Lake Campground, a Corps of Engineers project. Our campsight was flooded earlier today, someone has dug a trench to release the water. The lake, by stark contrast, is more than 5 feet lower than what appears to be normal. Maybe this is the winter level...

Again, we fill the hold tank, and bring inside the water hose. It's going to be in the low 20's tonight. Julie sent me a note, saying that the torrential rain has flooded the river trail, melting the snow with the temps in the 60's, and now, it's snowing!! What a long, strange winter this has been.