Double Dippin'

For two weekends in a row we've made it up to northeast GA for some relaxation and fun. First we went to Dillard to stay at a friend's house and enjoy the local Bluegrass and BBQ festival (warning site plays music) on Saturday. It's actually more a of a competition for the BBQers and some of them let us sample the goods. Just when we thought we were too stuffed to move we all decided to head out on a country bike ride. That got us in the mood for dinner. I should also mention that we attended a lecture on GA snakes at the lovely Hambige Creative Center for Arts and Sciences. On the day we visited they were also beginning a day and half long session of managing a once-a-year wood-fired kiln bake. They get the temperature up to over 2000F to bake their pottery. When they do a 'charge' the smoke billows out the chimney at the back of the kiln.

This last weekend we headed up near Clayton for a day trip to two absolutely perfect GA swimming holes. Neither of them made the list in the most recent Blue Ridge Outdoors but should be checked out. The whole day was really planned around making it to Tallulah Gorge. Since we would be able to leave Mali at home we'd finally be able to make a trip to the bottom of the gorge to the famous water slide rock for some fun in the sun. Besides no dogs there are other restrictions you should know about before driving up there. First you have to get there early. They only hand out 100 passes each day to get to the bottom of the Gorge (where the fun is) and we saw a group of people get ticketed for not having passes ($100 each). Second, no flip flops. They consider the hike to the bottom serious effort and thus mandate serious footwear. A member of our party had to return to the car and put on her Chacos before we could get on the list for a pass. Keens and Chacos are approved and good idea since you can hike in them and wear them in the water. Finally if there is a drop of rain they shut it down. It must be completely dry for them to allow people to hike down.

Before I get to far I should tell you about the first spot we hit. Actually first we stopped at The gorge to get our passes but did not hike down. Instead he drove down the road to Panther Creek. We did this to avoid the early crowds at Tallulah. At PAnther Creek we enjoyed a easy/moderate hike in and were rewarded with a waterfall and pool next to which we ate lunch. There were a few people there who had camped nearby the night before. It seems like a good spot to get to and chill out.

After Panther Creek he hiked out and headed to Tallulah. I had heard so much about the place, I was pretty excited to experience it first hand. Plus the 90+ degree heat made the water at the bottom all the more rewarding. Leaving the visitor center you descend more than 500 stairs and reach the permit only section. Here you begin the scrambling over rocks and across creeks to the final destination. It's a long rock slide that you can ride down in several places into the final pool. As was stated, the only thing missing from this place is a high platform from which to dive in. We all swam for a bit and then relaxed on the rocks as we pretty much had the place all to ourselves. Some of us dozed off for a bit, the last thing on our minds were those 500+ steps that awaited. Finally we headed back to the cars. From there we hit up Manriques in Clayton for the second week in a row (a must try little Mexican joint).

This week end Lauren heads to New England and I'm trying to figure out ways to make it three in a row.

Free Dogs

If you've been to my house you know we have neighbors two doors down who chain up their dogs and leave them outside. They never let the dogs off the chains or inside the house, or outside of the yard. The code for Atlanta says that you can't tether your dog with less than 30feet and the yard is must be closed off, but our neighbor's yard is open and the tether does not look that long. Dogs from the neighborhood can get into the backyard if they want to. Every year one of the dogs gets pregnant and has a litter. Sometimes it happens more than once a year and sometimes the puppies don't make it. They, too, live outside all the time but are not on chains.

In the latest litter there were five puppies that made it. The kids who live on the other side of us found out about the puppies and went over to have a look at them. A day later, the puppy owner brought a puppy over to them and then left one of them under the kid's house in the crawlspace without their permission or their knowledge. They've decided that they will keep the puppy and they got it shots and dewormed. A second puppy also went somewhere else so now there are three left. They're about 3 months old and they're mutts. They need some attention but I'm sure they'd be free to a good (or any) home. I assume the owners would give them away since they've taken to leaving them under other people's homes. Anyone interested can get in touch with me.

Atlanta: Top 3 City

Atlanta finished third in Outside Magazine's most recent listing of the best city's in America. The article in Outside says they kept coming back to the notion of healthy cities with regard to, not only fitness, but economic stability and quality of life. They started with the 100 largest cities in the US and whittled it down from there. There are also listings for best small towns, Ely, MN is one of note. Not sure how I feel about this ranking but glad to see Atlanta up near the top. Here's the list:

1. Colorado Springs, Colorado
2. Seattle, Washington
3. Atlanta, Georgia
4. Austin, Texas
5. Boston, Massachusetts
6. Albuquerque, New Mexico
7. Portland, Oregon
8. Minneapolis, Minnesota
9. Cincinnati, Ohio
10. Charlotte, North Carolina

I looked at a few quick stats on some of these cities that I thought I would report here. Atlanta, Cinci, Boston and Charlotte all have air quality problems in the form of ground level ozone, which make it hard to be outside some times. Charlotte and Cincinnati are in the American Lung Association's 20 Most Polluted Cities for Ozone (Cinci and Atlanta in top 20 for particulates). Cincinnati was the highest ranked on Forbe's 2007 list of the most Obese Cities at 11. Also on the list were Atlanta (16) and Austin (18). The Portland (11.7), Charlotte (12.4), Cincinnati (10.1) and Atlanta (10.7) areas all have unemployment above the national level (9.7). Median home prices were used to assess affordability.

I think Atlanta and the southeast have great access to tons of interesting spots, including mountains and coast, but Atlanta certainly lacks its own body of water to enjoy. However, one of the first things mentioned in the Outside article is the presence of the Chattahoochee River in the city, though most people couldn't tell you where it is. Proximity to skiing, which Atlanta definitely lacks, was also in the magazine's multisport rating.

My recent fascination with the West and disenchantment with the Midwest may explain some of my surprise at the relatively even distribution of the top ten throughout the US. (and my shock of seeing a city from Ohio in there) The more I think about this ranking and all the info going into the final scores, the more I think Atlanta is going to be near the top of a lot of lists of cities in America; good and bad. Any publicity is good publicity?

Derailed

Last night I attended a class on derailer installation, tuning, and maintenance put on by the local bike co-op. All in all it's a pretty ingenious design but the more I learned about it the more complicated it sounded and the more I began to understand the appeal of the simplicity of the fixie. I also found it ironic that I went to learn about derailers at a shop where maybe half of the people who show up regularly are on bikes without them.

I can't wait to try my new skills with my own bike. It needs a quite a bit of work to get everything going smoothly. Luckily one of the hardest parts (making sure all the components are designed to work together) is already taken care of.

You can learn about derailers for yourself here.

derailer FAIL pic curtosy of theoelliot

World Science Festival

Today I have been wasting a lot of time on the internet watching stupid videos and laughing at pictures, etc. But I wanted to pass on this pool of interesting videos captured at the World Science Festival. I guess it's from a discussion of music and neuroscience which featured Bobby McFerrin. If you go to the conference's video highlights three of the four videos feature McFerrin. Watching the videos, his talent and knowledge of music is evident but his creativity to experiment with how we react and interact with music is the reason he's on stage. Interesting stuff.