Beans, Trees, Rolling Pins

We needed to run out to the grocery store on Thursday so Andy suggested that we go to the Bush's bean factory to eat lunch.  We went to the museum a few years ago and the cafe was closed.  I am a huge bean fan and wanted to see how they serve them at the source. The General Store, museum, and cafe all sit right across the road from the factory.

I am enamored with the white frames surrounding the outdoor eating area.  We sat out there next to it and I inspected it right away.  I thought it was made of wood, but it turned out to be metal.

This is the farmhouse on the property.  I love it too except that is has a factory in the back yard.

Oh yeah, the food.  It was good, but I was disappointed that they did nothing creative with the beans. The waitress, Sharon, told us they just heat them from the can and don't do anything to dress them up.  They didn't have any bean entrees, only bean side dishes. It was good, but just typical cafe food.

I was wearing my park uniform shirt so Sharon also mentioned that she was a friend of the man who fell and died at Ramsy Cascades the other day.  She said he was 29 and from the Czech Republic and had been here many years. She had worked with him for ten years at another restaurant before he moved to the construction business.  He had no family here.

There is a great write-up on Wikipedia about Bush's, a fabulously successful family-owned business.

We don't usually leave the park on Thursdays or Fridays, Spence's day off. We also stay here on the weekends. Here are two of my regular photo subjects.  This branch is usually in the sunshine when we walk up to the campground in the mornings.

I also enjoy this scene when we are walking from our motorhome up to the parking lot area.

On the Radio:  An elderly man was sitting in the road behind his car over near Mingus Mill on the Cherokee side of the park. When a ranger went to investigate, he found the car but not the man. I didn't catch any more to that story.

Dispatch called for twelve volunteers to form a litter team to carry out a 79-year-old man with a knee problem on the Alum Cave Trail.

A ranger asked for some VPs for assistance, but there were none on duty.  All volunteers were coming in later to help with the firefly watching in the evening.

Spence and Linda stopped in this morning.  She brought me a present.  The last time she was here, Andy and I were disagreeing on something of major importance (we disagree on nearly everything) and were good-naturedly arguing.  Linda noted that she had something we could use.  Her husband Larry had made it.  So this morning, she delivered a set of His and Hers rolling pins.  For those too young to know.  The old comics and cartoons always had the wife threatening or bonking her husband with a rolling pin. One of them is slightly heavier than the other.  I told Andy that one was mine.

Boss Larry stopped in this afternoon while I was just finishing our dinner.  He told us that there had been another drowning. This time is was at Abrams Falls. I knew something was going on from the radio but missed the beginning and could not figure out what the emergency was. I kept dinner warm while Andy accompanied Boss Larry while he emptied the money envelops from the iron ranger.

While browsing for a photo online, I was shocked to see one with a line of young men jumping off the falls from the top. It was not free, so I chose this one from Pinterest instead.  There have been many drownings at Abrams Falls and the park has posted warning signs in the area.

We had hard rain today and that seemed to keep the number of day visitors down.  There were plenty of parking spaces in the picnic area parking lot.  The campground is nearly full despite the damp weather.

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