Fall Flop

The weather in Atlanta has been HOT. Normally I really enjoy warm weather, but 85 degrees in the middle of October is not pleasant, even for me. Since I'm originally from Pittsburgh, I start missing the cool weather around this time of year. The leaves are supposed to be changing. I should be wearing sweaters with leggings and cute riding boots. I want to smell leaves burning and fireplaces... It was a "balmy" 60 degrees this morning and I could still feel the humidity in the air when I walked out to my car this morning. Needless to say, I am OVER summer.

This past weekend Jen and I had a lovely event at Urban Cottage to showcase some of our new letterpressed cards. It was called "Fall Love", but it felt nothing like fall. It was, again, at least 85 degrees and all the vendors in the show were sweltering. As I was sitting there, wiping the sweat from the pits of my legs (you know, that area behind your knee) and fanning myself with one of our cards, I thought to myself, "If it can't feel like fall here, I'll at least do something fall-oriented to suffice my craving for all things autumnal." (Well, I really didn't think that, but I did call Justin to see if he was willing to go to North GA the next day to find some fall activities. Of course he complied.)

.... Enter the Corn Maze.
So, I thought it would be super fun to go through this corn maze in Cleveland, GA. The website brags that it's the largest corn maze in GA , so it had to be good, right? After an hour-long car ride my anticipation was building. I couldn't wait to see this awesome maze. Pulling up to the farm, my hopes began to sink. Country music was blaring from a loudspeaker near the parking lot (aka: a field next door) and the owners (or maybe friends/relatives of the farmers?) were sitting in lawn chairs right beside the opening of the maze staring at everyone that was going into the corn. Granted, there weren't tons of participants at this point in the day, being that it was 4pm on Sunday AND it was at least 90 degrees, but there were some kids running in and out of the stalks of corn, so we thought it couldn't be that bad. At the entrance Justin and I were handed this:


And were told to find all the checkpoints in the maze. THAT WAS IT. That was the game. You were supposed to trudge around dead corn and look for checkpoints 1-7 to win.... NOTHING. I thought this maze was going to be massive. I thought we were going to get lost in all this luscious, green corn and after milling around for an hour we'd emerge on the other side of the corn like in Field Of Dreams and feeling victorious.

Let's just say we were in the maze for 10 minutes. Between the blazing sun, the phony paths that other people made through the middle of the maze, and the outrageously loud country music we gave up. I didn't even use my map to get out of it! I felt defeated and deflated. My fall fun was a huge flop. The car ride home was quiet. I must admit, I was pouting and cursing the stupid south for their hot weather and country music. "If we were in Pennsylvania...." I kept arguing. But we weren't.

The "view" as you approached the maze

Supposedly you could see the maze from this high view point, but it just looks like corn to me.

Trying to make light of the situation...

As we are leaving the mountains, Justin decided to pull over and check out one of the roadside stands that advertises the typical produce,trinkets and BBQ. I hesitantly got out of the car and walked around the grounds with arms folded and a frown on my face. I saw bushels of apples, some lawn ornaments and planters full of mums. I walked around the corner and spotted pumpkins... Then I saw squash... and apple cider.... and jellies and jams... I went inside the store and there were TONS and TONS of canned fruits, homemade breads and apple fritters! NO BODY makes apple fritters down here! I began to run around the store and went into a shopping frenzy of "pumpkin-this" and "apple-that". This was the Fall I was looking for.

One of the many rooms in the little roadside stand we stopped at
on the way home. Jellies, jams, honey and dressings as far as the eye could see.

Sixty dollars later and a car full of pumpkins, we head home. I am quietly content and glad to have found such a cool place in my hour of desperation. Now if only the cool weather will follow suit.

-LGT