Southern Belle
28 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Road Trips Tags: bees, family, georgia, kentucky, mom, road trips, trips
Last Thursday, Mom and I checked out a bunch of books on tape from the library, packed up the car, and left for Georgia. You might be wondering what would bring my mother, a delicate northern flower, and me, a Great Lakes mermaid, to the hot humid city of Kennesaw (in July, no less), and I rather confess I was wondering the same thing. But it was my sister Jessica’s bridal shower, and we wanted to spend the weekend helping her around the house, celebrating her upcoming nuptials, and tickling her future step-daughter (MY FUTURE NIECE!). So south we drove.
We actually made a stop at my grandparents’ in Fort Wayne, Indiana for the night first, where my grandpa simultaneously grumbled about “the dumb dog” and lavished affection on “the dumb dog.”
"You dumb mutt! You smell."
Absolutely charming.
Grandma and I played several rounds of Scrabble, and I have to say she gave me quite a run for my money. Those of you who have spent more than a day at my house know that Scrabble is central to my family’s culture, so getting taken to school by Grandma one game (I kicked her butt the other two. No mercy) was kind of intense.
Mom and I headed out in the morning. We offered to leave Shiloh, but Gramps said “Yeah right!” So off to see the bride we went. As the temperature and humidity skyrocketed on our drive, I really began to question just how much I loved my sister. But the books on tape got us through to Georgia, where we immediately ate a lot of food (asparagus fries! How have I lived without you for so long?), looked at all of the renovations going out around the house, and drank copious amounts of water.
Saturday was the bridal shower, which conveniently, has a photo album! It was really fantastic to meet the family of women Jess has in Atlanta (including a second mother, pictured), and the food was really delicious. She received many valuable presents, a Pyrex set, candles, recipes, and Scrabble (the most important gift a bride can receive!). Then we did the final fitting for her wedding dress, and went home and took really really long naps. Hooray! On Sunday, we ate more good food (general theme) and did some wedding planning.
Scrabble is the most important gift a bride can receive.
Generally, the free time was filled by playing with Haley, catching up with family, and relaxing. Jess definitely has a good life cut out for herself down there (though I think she’s counting the years until she can move somewhere with a better school system for her family, a more agreeable climate, and a bit less nostalgia for the Confederacy). I’ve also been getting a lot of work done for Tom’s Bee-Loved Honey.
On our drive back, we stopped at Kelley Bees in Clarkson, Kentucky, one of the largest domestic suppliers for beekeepers. My mom, when frantically learning to beekeep in lieu of my very ill father, called Kelley Bees begging for advice and caught the owner of the company on the phone, the owner who doesn’t usually answer calls. Something clicked and they’ve been good friends ever since. My mom has stayed at her house a few times now, and her company does the Kelley Bees newsletter.
Walter and Shiloh playing with the bees.
At the home of Jane and Sean (the owners) was a 115 pound labradoodle named Walter – named after Walter T. Kelley -whose heart was as big as his stature. I fell in love with him a little bit. Their house has fifteen hives and a nice little garden, and of course Jane and Sean were more than welcoming. I felt really lucky I was able to visit.
Old advertisements from Kelley Bees.
Mr. Kelley's last truck.
The coolest part about stopping here was that basically everything Kelley sells is made in the US out of US materials, so walking around and taking photos for the newsletter entailed seeing how all of their products are made, from the suits to the hives to the extractors.
In the morning, we bought some supplies, had Sean wrap up a functional hive for us to combine the one of ours that has been ailing, and started our drive home. Unfortunately, driving with a beehive is never very easy, especially when said bees fly out during the drive. While the thought of having a strong beehive was very exciting, the bees flying around in the car were exciting in all of the wrong ways. We stopped three or four times to let out the bees that our dog Shiloh didn’t manage to eat.
Mom and I drove to the farm and unloaded the bees. I’m going to post about what chaotic mess this was on TBH in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that.
Our harvest, scheduled for today, was ruled out by the threat of rain, so hopefully tomorrow with the clear skies and 70 degree weather we’ll get it done. Once it is, the site will launch and the store will open. Hoorah, hoorah! That is, of course, assuming we have enough honey to harvest. You never know when some hive has gorged on it and taken it away in a giant swarm.
Still no word from the Peace Corps, but I’ve been too busy to notice.
