More childhood memories...

I left Atlanta with a single destination in mind - Babyland General Hospital. The lady at the visitor center as soon as I crossed into Georgia had given me the brochure and I had been waiting sort of impatiently to get there. It had to be a destination. I was not dissapointed.

When you sign a nurse greets you and points out the oldest cabbage patch kid - 31 years old - made by Xavier Roberts for a craft fair. He won a blue ribbon for what he then called Little People. You are not allowed to say doll while there (bc doll is a four letter word) and all the babies scattered around are for sale, but do not have price tags bc it scares the babies. They had a nursery with a newborn and a stork and a room full of incubators with babies in them. There was a school room scene with kids on a bus, kids in the cafeteria, kids in class, etc. In the big room was the magic tree and the cabbage patch where the babies are born. They had babies on cabbage leaves and everything - so cute.

There was an announcement over the loudspeaker "Cabbage contractions three minutes apart. Nurse to the patch - stat!" The lights were dimmed, the crystals lit, and the hanging bunny fairies ready. The nurse helped the baby out of the cabbage and it was hilarious bc of the cabbage-but real nurse terminology and techniques. (If you want a copy of my video let me know.) Then the nurse called out for a name from the crowd and Dwayne Anthony went off to the ward. If you adopt a baby there they have people on hand to discuss the adoption process and sign the papers. Besides all the dolls displayed everywhere they had more in the giftshop as well as clothes and all sorts of cabbage patch kid stuff.

I was smiling the whole time I was there bc it was so cute. Funny how I can remember perfectly the names and the outfits of my three cabbage patch kids I had when I was little. Granted one was named Tootsie and the other two had red hair.

After babies, I headed to Helen a German village. It definitely looked German-ish, but it was mostly junk shops and I could only find one place that served brats. I did go to a tarantula museum and spent some time talking to the guy about them. I held one (again and it was still scary) and watched a video where a bird-eating tarantula actually was eating a bird. He had a baby bird eater that was six months old and it was the biggest tarantula there.

I went to the Tallulah Falls overlook and decided that it was not worth me hiking for a closer look and went to Franklin NC to visit the Scottish Tartan Museum. I am not of Scottish descent that I know of, but I thought it might be interesting. Did you know that originally tartan (plaid) patterns were not associated with any particular clan or region? People just made and wore what they wanted? And originally they didn't wear kilts they wore dresses like nightgowns and then later large swaths of fabric they draped in a toga like fashion? Now they associate lots of tartan patterns with clans and there are more than three hundred I think.

It was time to get going so I went back into Georgia to get to South Carolina. When I passed through Clemson I fit right in with my tiger paw prominently displayed on the back window. I met Dianna's parents who are lovely people. We are getting along great and spending a quiet cloudy rainy day at home.