Atlanta

So we made it - we're now Georgians, apparently. The logistics involved in the transformation all came together on time, even if not necessarily smoothly - there was no way to convince our mortgage lender that our new place really isn't in a flood plain in time to avoid having to shell out for flood insurance, for example. But the closing was done on time, and the moving truck showed up just a little bit late with our stuff, so by the time we went to sleep that night we were in our own bed in our new house.

Leslie is working in Atlanta for the first few weeks we're here, so the timing turned out well in that she doesn't have to travel right off the bat, plus if we hadn't gotten moved in time it would have been a hassle for her to be down here. As it is, we've had a chance to do a little exploring of our new town - the free stuff, anyway, since we've still got that extra house to unload!

For instance, last weekend we took the gang over to Piedmont Park, Atlanta's main big green space. From Google Earth it looked kind of blah, but surprisingly it turned out to be pretty nice from ground level - it reminded me a bit of Central Park, though more manageable in size, and it was a relief to see there were still a few drops of water in the lake. By January, we'll all be lining up to dip our cups in there for drinks.

We also visited the dog park there, of course. It was a Saturday afternoon and so teeming with people. It was pretty nice, but not as nice as Greensboro's - less shade, not as many different areas to go and so harder to find a spot for a scaredy-dog like Fergus to relax and play fetch. We've also got a little coffee shop near our house with its own dog park that we've been to several times - he's still working on claiming that as his own too. He'd better get over it - his yard at home is about 1/20th the size he's used to!

Saturday night we drove north of the city to a Meetup paddling group, and kayaked around a beautiful mountain lake from sunset until well after dark. We'd never been paddling at night before - I can't say it was particularly peaceful, since it was a pretty boisterous and fun group we were with, but it was certainly a different sensation to be adrift in a totally foreign place in the dark.

Then on Sunday, we drove up to Unicoi State Park for a hike around the lake to see the fall colors. I'm not sure if it's the drought or what, but the colors were pretty drab, no more than a dusting across the canopy. We're going to spend this weekend in Asheville (for the first time since May), hopefully if the season is coming late we'll still catch the show up there.