Business as Usual

I had my first business trip in a while last week. It was a road trip to Covington Georgia. I drove down on Tuesday and back on Thursday. The trip down was interesting because we drove through some of the remnants of a hurricane. There were flood warnings and tornado warnings everywhere (but people here treat those about as seriously as Nova Scotians deal with blizzard warnings). There were people on the road and a few accidents as well. Our trip was uneventful.

Covington itself is not much to write home about. We actually stayed in Conyers at the Hampton Inn there. It was very nice. It had a few extras that I really liked-cold water bottle on check-in, freshly baked cookies when you arrived at night, and a good breakfast. Restaurants there were good too although a little tricky to find when you don't know where you're going. The first night we ate at a small Italian place. I ate calamari to start and had a sampler plate of pasta (too much food!). A colleague choose the wine and I didn't like it but what do I know about wine? The second night we tried to find a little Thai place but in the end it was between locations and would open the day after we got back.

The real winners were lunch. One day we ate at a little place called Little Phillies which made the best Phillie steak sandwiches I've ever had. The second day we at the Butcher Block and had some fantastic sandwiches. I think one of the things I like best of all about living in the US is the abundance of small, independent, hole-in-wall type places I get to eat at. The food is amazing, the prices are always reasonable, and you feel like you're in the the middle of some classic Americana.

The other thing I learned on my trip is that The Dukes of Hazard and In the Heat of the Night were both filmed in Covington, the former in Conyers as well. I haven't been able to find out more about it but the sites above give you some information. I guess the people in Hollywood think Conyers and Covington both look (or at least looked) enough like the typical South to shoot the shows there. (If you're at all a fan some of the stuff in Wikipedia about the cast and cars in the The Dukes of Hazard is worth reading.)

The rest of the week brought a quiet weekend with a trip to Kings Mountain. We visited the Kings Mountain National Military Park. It is the site of a significant battle of the American Revolutionary War-The Battle of Kings Mountain. The British forces didn't do very well here against the American Patriots but the story of the battle, the people involved (including the British commander) and the events leading up to it were interesting. The park was hosting an encampment so there were people dressed in traditional costumes and tents and such to see. We did the 1.5 mile walk with Maggie and Isabelle and finished in time to hear (but not see) the musket firing. Isabelle still doesn't like loud noises.

The walk was lovely but Maggie thought it was a little warm. Isabelle was a little under the weather to but she managed.

The monument at the top of the hill was impressive. Isabelle did manage to fall off of it.

After a quick picnic lunch we headed home along some back roads and found a nice but very quiet little town called York. It was very pretty and had lots of historic buildings. Jane picked up some propaganda on it and the surrounding area and we may have to go back to have a better look. The ice cream place we found was good too!

Sunday brought a relatively quiet day. Jane took me up to a park where Isabelle had enjoyed herself with some other kids a few weeks ago. She, Isabelle that is, enjoyed showing me around. Now if can just shake this cold Isabelle seems to have brought back from school...