Buchholzs in a Burro: Russ and Trina's House: Drying Out (by Jim)

How do you test the water tightness of a Burro? By exposing it to hurricane-force winds and rain, of course, which is about what happens when you drive 65 mph through the pouring rain. The small, slow leak that we discovered on the front window? That turns into a water torrent that shoots across the interior, soaking anything dry in its path. And, it turns out the back window didn't fare much better, with a respectable stream soaking into our mattress.

On the suspension bridge over Tallulah Gorge

At the bottom of Tallulah Gorge

And what does a family on a life journey do when they discover a swimming pool inside their Burro? Why, they go for a hike, of course! On our way to Athens, Georgia on March 13th, we stopped at an amazing state park called Tallulah Gorge. Despite the rainy, cold weather, the swinging bridge we could see near the bottom of the 1,000-foot gorge was too tempting. We put on our rain gear, I put on the backpack carrier, loaded up Walden, and began the beautiful, careful descent down 600 metal steps toward the rushing strand of magnificent waterfalls and rapids. It was Walden's first time on a suspension bridge, and he was fearless. He especially loved it when Dad would sway the bridge purposely from side to side. The going down part wasn't bad, but going up 600 steps with Walden in a backpack left Dad breathless at every resting platform... schwew!!! We visited several observation decks, watched the fog "smoke" rise from the gorge, saw our first spring wildflowers, and, of course, pressed more BUTTONS in the visitor center! We also discovered that this was the place that the movie Deliverance was filmed (queue the dueling banjos).

The Burro in front of Russ and Trina's house in Athens

After our wet adventure, we continued the drive to Athens, where we stayed with my cousin Trina, her husband Russ, and daughters Trinity and Keara from March 13-15. The family graciously provided us a perfect place to park the Burro in the front yard, the use of their dryer for all of our wet sheets, towels, and clothes, and fans and heaters to dry out our mattresses. We were especially grateful to Trinity, who gave up her room and bed for us on the first night so that we would have a dry, warm place to sleep.

It just so happened that Trina's mom and dad, my Aunt Julie and Uncle Gerry, were also visiting from Wisconsin. We had to drive all the way to Georgia to have a family reunion! Walden tried to get the girls to play toy cars with him, but found that he had better luck with Uncle Gerry, who proceeded to tell him why the red Case tractors were better than those "not to be named" green ones. Trinity and Keara did enjoy playing cards, and this was Walden's first time. Dad and Walden did great at UNO (matching colors and numbers)! However, Dad didn't do so well at Go Fish, Old Maid, and an ultra long game of War... he had to hold up the surrender flag to Trinity.

Rattlesnake at Sandy Creek Nature Center

During our time at Russ and Trina's house, we visited an awesome nature center called Sandy Creek, just 5 minutes from the house, which had so many BUTTONS even Walden had a tough time finding them all! It also featured habitat aquariums, several trees to crawl through, smell boxes, a live rattlesnake, and bioscopes. We spent a long time exploring.

Standing next to the stone wall built by Fred Birchmore

The next day, Trina and Russ brought us to Memorial Park in Athens, which included a small zoo and the Fred A. Birchmore Nature Trail. The trail was beautiful, winding over streams and past clusters of blooming bloodroot and other wildflowers. Fred Birchmore was an Athens resident and adventurer (bicycled around the world in the 1930s and walked down the steps of the Washington Monument... on his hands) who built a massive stone wall around his property by hand in his 70s. The wall is 14-feet high, nearly 900 feet long, and consists of 9 million pounds of rock. The wall is amazing to walk around, with so many different colors of rocks, towering above your head, topped by the emerald green of moss... we wondered how a person could even lift some of those rocks by hand? There are surprises built into the wall as well, like the metal portion of pistol that we found.

On a bulldog at the World of Wonder playground

On our last day, after a hearty breakfast, we visited the World of Wonder playground in Athens, an amazing complex of castles, swings, slides, spinners, and a "cat dragon" to climb on. Trinity and Keara led Walden through the play kingdom. He had so much fun, that it was nearly impossible to get him to stop when it was time to go... one more time climbing up the "cat dragon!"

Thank you, Trina, Russ, Trinity, and Keara for rescuing us from the wet Burro, giving us a place to dry out for a few days, and showing us all of the neat things to do around Athens!