The Difference Between Rain and Snow? 500 Miles . . .

When we go south in the winter, I usually expect an improvement in the weather.  Not this year – two trips since the first of the year have sent us to Texas and Georgia, and each was experiencing its coldest weather in at least 20 years.  Last Thursday, I drove from Dayton to Atlanta.  When I got up on Friday morning, it was 32 degrees at home – and pouring snow.

In Atlanta, it was 34 degrees – and pouring rain.  The picture just doesn’t do it justice – the rain was coming down sideways.  So I backed the truck as close to the building as possible.  Worked pretty well, except for that overhang at about forehead level.  Smacked it three times – ouch . . .

Thankfully, by Saturday morning the rains were gone but it was still really cold.  First customer in our booth were the Bag Ladies from Charlotte.  The other shot is the view of the convention from my cash register later in the day.

Sue Rothamel from USArtQuest was holding court next to my cash register (you can almost see her behind the book on the left).  This crowd was alive – they clapped, laughed at her jokes, and responded like few groups I’ve witnessed.

There was a food trailer outside the back door.  This is the line waiting to go outside, one by one, to order food.  The wind was howling.  Every time that door opened, the blast hit me all the way across the room.  By the end of the day, my throat was scratchy from the draft.

This is a group of people looking at the Copic Marker display.  When I first saw it, all of these ladies were crowded into that one space (except for Peggy Gould in the print blouse, who was working for us).  But some of them had backed off before I clicked the shutter.

Not everyone thinks this is a thrilling experience . . .

By giveaway time, Dave Carlson from Heirloom was sneaking around the back trying to get a shot of me up on the ladder.  So these are my shots of him trying to get a shot of me . . .

And the obligatory “wave for the camera” shot . . .

We often try to sample some of the local cuisine when we’re on the road.  David had seen a piece on the Travel Channel about a restaurant called The Varsity that is an Atlanta legend.  The original location is downtown near Georgia Tech (according to their website, on football game days they serve 30,000 customers), but when we found out that there was one near us, off we went . . .

 

The sign outside looked like we were heading into an old movie theater.  And I really liked the mirror with their logo inside.

We had no idea what to expect.  This is fast food – burgers and dogs, onion rings and fries.  And the server at the counter greets you with “What’ll you have?”  Now I’m not a food critic – I’m not even a food fan – but for my money the atmosphere was better than the food.

That said, the whole thing was worth it just for the pictures I took after Peggy, Karen and Sue put on their paper Varsity hats.  I will likely hear from Sue about this shot of her slurping her chocolate milkshake with a straw . . .

But she’ll like this one . . .