Another update so soon? You betcha! Our friends James & Masako invited us to visit Burt’s Farm in north Georgia where it had been covered in pumpkins. Big, small, round, white, orange, yellow, if there was a gourd to be grown it was there! We decided we would drive as Ripley needs her seat and moving it is kinda of a pain. We met early and headed out to lunch first at Doc Chey’s, always tasty but I guess we arrived right before any rush so we had all of our food in less than ten minutes and the places undivided attention. After lunch we hit the highway towards Dawsonville just passed which is Burt’s Farm. Traffic was fine til we reached the small town of Dawsonville, which unknown to us was having the 43rd Annual Moonshine Festival which included antique and modern show cars and a lot of people, A LOT of people. Once through the city we get back to the winding two lanes of the mountain roads, and arrive at Burt’s Farm… and holy crap there are ALOT of people here too! I was kind of astounded by the mixture of folks from all over that had driven to Burt’s Farm to visit the pumpkin patch, I mean you’d see a ol’pickup full of kids to some polo wearing group in a Mercedes. Almost surreal. People watching and crowd aside Burt’s Farm was a sea of pumpkins, a small gift shop, Autumn decorations, concession stand, and a large platform for loading the massive trailer tugged by an equally massive tractor for the hay rides. Music pumped out clearly through the big field a mix of country, soft pop/rock, and season appropriate instrumental stuff. Toddled around til the a less crowded area and broke out the camera, this was a prime photo opportunity and we took full advantage of it! Ripley was in a good humor all day and was very co-operative with taking pictures, well as co-operative as her attention span would let her be anyway…
After photos and a quick refreshment of fried apple pie, a slice of pumpkin roll, and apple cider we went pumpkin hunting. James & Masako got what I believe will be their first pumpkin to carve together, Kellie & I haven’t done a pumpkin in a while so we got one to carve and set out as well. Out bounty loaded in the wheel barrow we headed out and loaded the car. We decided to take a detour through Dahlonega instead of dealing with the ending festival traffic back in Dawsonville. We got some grub on the way home at Wild Wing Cafe which as always was awesome! We dropped James & Masako off and said our good-byes before heading home ourselves. It was a long day out but Ripley was a champ as usual and we had a blast! Next time though we are totally doing the hay ride! 
“Thou art God, and I am God and all that groks is God.”
- Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land