Labor Day Weekend 2011

I went once again to Dahlonega to spend (a lazy) Saturday afternoon. I'm sure you're thinking, Dahlonega again, isn't this the third time in a year? Yep. This is also the 3rd season there; I've been there in the Winter, then Spring and now Summer, albeit late Summer. The last remaining season - Fall, which my cohorts and I promised to conquer once Falls rolls around. 

There's something about the Georgia Wine Country that can't be beat that keeps me coming back and leaves it as the sure filler to my "don't-have-plan's-weekend." It's not just the view, the ambiance, but the tranquility of the place, coupled with the alcohol and the enjoyable intelligent company of like minded wine enthusiasts, all that infused into my thoughts always confirms that this is a much better way to spend my afternoon than say, catching up on shows on Hulu. So armed with that, I willingly take the hike, all 50 plus miles of it to Dahlonega and let me just tell you it is never cheap. It's a treat that can only be done between seasons, not too soon.

This time around I made the hike with a couple of people (strangers to me) but members of my Wine Meet-up group. They wanted to carpool so I joined them. I thought it would be a different take on my last 2 trips, at least this time I get to do it in a car full of people I may not know now but will get to know as we make the journey together. It's all part of the exploration expedition. 

In the end, it was fun, an immensely fun afternoon riding in a car with strangers and talking about how we want to live our lives and what brought us to love wine (or not), and, at least want to dedicate the afternoon to exploring wine. With wine lovers asides from the wine, there's always another hobby you share - be it love of good food, good company, music, art, travel, etc. With these folks it was the love of travel and adventure. Thus, we spent it talking about places we've been, would like to go, and plan to go (when life throws us a bone). Fun stuff. So with talk like that and feeling uninhibited from the alcohol, quality yet humorous conversation was not lacking at all. I spent a good part of the afternoon laughing in between...indulging in lots of wine.   

In the end it was a good day. I, and my travel mates, concurred. It was a perfect day spent exploring Georgia wine country (again) in good company. We went home feeling accomplished. Me a little broke, but accomplished. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to balance my checkbook, but that's just me, I love doing my own accounting.