A Long, Fun, Long, Awesome Day

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Well, no, I had no troubles yesterday.



9:30 ish - wake-up. Amy woke me up because her parents were on their way over from their hotel to say goodbye before they left back to Florida.



10:30 ish - loaded up the car and headed down to PetCo to hang out with BHRG, the Basset Hound Rescue of Georgia. We helped hang out and hold dogs after first making Autumn our officially adopted rescue Basset Hound. We'll do this as much as possible as they always need people to hold leashes at the adoption events and it's a lot of fun interacting with the people who stop by to look at and meet the dogs. Yesterday we had Pretzel, Hugh, Elijah, Dottie, and about 8 more hounds.



12:00 - we left PetCo and swung by Winston's to drop off the prize from the poker tournament we held two weeks ago (52 free Chick-fil-a sandwich coupons).



12:30 ish - back at the house to grab a blanket and bone and Amy, Autumn, and I loaded back into the car and headed North up to Octoberfest at Helen, GA. Helen is up in the mountains, the southern end of the Appalachians and pretty close to the gold rush town of Dahlonega. Helen was developed as a tourist attraction, where all buildings are required to fit a certain code so they all look like Bavarian Alpine buildings. Basically the town is full of shops selling t-shirts (beer, biker and party-oriented), German-looking nick-nacks, candy (mostly made in the shops), restaurants (mostly overproced but one excellent Mexican restaurant) and a lot of cabins for rent, mostly with hot tubs.



Autumn had a very over-stimulated day. She enjoyed meeting the other bassets at the adoption event, and she rides in the car very well, curled up and sleeping on the back seat. We walked her around Helen and she met other dogs, she got lots of attention from people and kids and she got a little scared by the horses pulling carraiges.


Up close with Autumn

Old barn

Red barn and Fall colors.

The Tomato House

Shopping with pumpkins and gourds

Fresh tomatoes in October!

A boy and his dog

Northbound into Helen

A walk before heading home.

Chattahoochee River in Helen.

Adirondack chairs for sale - very inviting.

Octoberfest always means live music at the International Cafe.

We drove home, arriving right about 8:30pm which was going to be great so I could watch game 3 of the World Series. There was a rain delay, and the game did not begin until 10:06 pm. Taylor Swift performed the National Anthem, country style with her guitar. Tim McGraw read off the Phillies starting line-up. His father is the late Tug McGraw, the star Phillies relief pitcher from the 1980 World Series Championship team. Jamie Moyer, a Philadelphia-area native cut school to attned the 1980 series. He is the oldest pitcher in Major League Baseball and was the starting pitcher for the Phillies last night. His hero from 1980, Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton was there to throw out the first pitch of the game.

Jamie Moyer (45 y/o) reacting to a pitch that was almost hit out of the park.

Game 3 Victory

Hall of Fame Member Steve Carlton threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Peter and I saw him live at game 2 of the 1980 World Series.

It was an excellent game. Three Phillies hit home runs including slugger Ryan Howard who broke out of his month-long slump. A bad call by the 1st base umpire, coupled with a pair of stolen bases and a throwing error caused a tie game in the 8th inning. It remained tied into the 9th when the Phillies came to bat. A hit batter got a runner on first. When he stole second the throw was off and he advanced to third. The Rays then intentionally walked 2 batters to load the bases with no outs and they pulled their right fielder in to be a 5th infielder. The next batter tapped the ball down the third base line. The runner on third advanced to home plate and the 3rd baseman's throw was way off, so the Phillies scored a run, making it a 5-4 final, winning game 3 and taking a 2-1 lead in the best of 7 series. Games 4 and 5 are tonight and tomorrow night in Philadelphia. if the Phillies win both games, they will win the World Series, otherwise it is back to Tampa for one or two more games on Wednesday and Thursday.