Bruce and I were honored to be the key vendor at Tat Days this year. We got back about a week ago, and we’re still worn out, but we had a great time! It was SO much fun to meet everybody there.
Tat Days is sponsored by the Palmetto’s Tatter’s Guild and takes place at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, Georgia. If you get the opportunity to go there, it’s really worth it.
We initially thought we’d drive there, but considering it would take 24 hours of driving each way, and we found a screaming deal on plane tickets, we flew instead. We picked up our rental car and headed on out! But we didn’t make it far. We’d heard about Atlanta’s legendary traffic, and we found it. It was bad, but not that much worse than a bad day in Denver. I took this picture while we were sitting in traffic and sent it to my kids. My daughter responded with “ugh”, and my son responded with “Nice car!” LOL Like they said, at least we had something to look at while we sat there.
So between the traffic, finding dinner, and running an errand, we didn’t get to the conference center until after 9:00 that night. Having dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:30 that morning, we were tired! But we did find time to go see the vending room, and the ladies in charge took good care of us.
The next day was set-up, and that turned out to be a huge job. We had some great help, and only had one hitch with our set-up. Yay! Still, by the time we were done, it was 7:00 and time to open for business. We closed at 9:00 for the night. Both Bruce and I were so bone tired we could hardly move. I literally hurt from my shoulders to my toes. The bed felt so good.
This photo shows the view from where I sat when I had a chance to sit. These tables were all full of Lizbeth thread. The shuttles and other things were on three tables against the left wall. We learned two very important things with this trip. Bring BOOKS, and lots of them, and take less of everything else than we took this time. We had 11 boxes of stuff initially and shipped back seven. I think things went really well overall, but we didn’t bring nearly enough books.
The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. So many people there were folks I’d met online, and it was wonderful to put a name with a face. It was also so much fun to meet everybody new to us, too. We learned all about southern hospitality–it’s real!
I can’t thank the ladies from the guild and their husbands enough for all the great help they were to us in so many ways!
Afterwards, Bruce and I had set aside a couple of days to see what’s in that corner of the world. I’m glad we did. What a beautiful place! We hiked into the Tallulah Gorge, checked out the Foxfire Museum, and toured at the Consolidated Gold Mine. Check out Bruce’s blogs on Foxfire and the gold mine. He hasn’t blogged about Tallulah Gorge yet, so I’ll say a little about it.
Bruce had decided to photograph Hurricane Falls at the bottom of the gorge. We both thought he’d get a good shot from the footbridge, but you couldn’t even see it from there, so we ended up going all the way down… all 531 steps! Every step I took, I was well aware that I’d have to hike back up. And by the time I got to the bottom, my thighs were tired. But it was absolutely beautiful!
And the falls are gorgeous, too. This is just my photo–Bruce’s is so much better, but again, he hasn’t posted it yet.
And then there was the trip back up. We knew we’d have to take it slowly, so we decided to go up only a flight or two at a time. At first it was easy, but it sure got hard later on! We met a few people who regularly go up and down these stairs for their work-out, which in my mind is a great way to do it (See the lady waaay up there? She’s one of them.)
We decided to time ourselves. I was sure it would be dark before we got out of there, but we managed it in an hour and 10 minutes–and the sun was still shining. Not bad! But wow, were we covered in sweat. Ew…
I’d wanted to hike to see the dam, but by the time we got to the top, all we could think of was the car, air conditioning, dinner, and a shower. We’ll see the dam another time.
Here are a couple other photos from our trip.
I LOVED this sign!
And I really loved the roads. I learned to drive while we were living in Virginia, and I’ve missed the windy, tree-lined roads there. This part was fun for me!
