Mentone, Shmentone

About 3 or 4 years ago I first heard of the Rhododendron Festival in Mentone – a tiny little town about 2 ½ hours up the road from us. It’s on top of Lookout Mountain. Now, you have to understand I love flowers and I love mountains. Festival? Hey, sounds like a party to me! Lookout Mountain holds a very special place in my heart. Some of my best memories have their home on that mountain or in it’s shadows.

So when I heard about this festival of course I just had to go. Unfortunately, every year something came up that prevented us from going. Every year I’d vow to go and every year we didn’t. They even have a fall color festival every year and we kept missing that, too. I even shook my fist in the air in my best Scarlet O’Hara imitation and revised her quote to “As God is my witness, I WILL make it to Mentone!” Well, my patience finally paid off this past weekend. My heart skipped a beat when I looked at my calendar and found that we had no other commitments this weekend and thus we were wide open for Mentone! Yipee! Let the fun begin!

Now, I had freely admitted that having never actually been to the Rhododendron Festival nor even Mentone, I had no idea if it would be worth the effort or not. Info on the ‘net was sketchy. Hummm. But, how else will you know unless you go check it out? Dothan has had the Azalea Dogwood Trail for umpteen years and it’s fantastic. So I guess I just pictured it in my mind something along the lines of the ADT. Let’s see – a spring time festival celebrating flowers on top of Lookout? Yep, I’ll bite.

After we were well on our way, I was gushing about how excited I was and how happy I was to finally be going and how much I love that area. Robert finally admitted that a road trip was about the last thing he wanted at that point. Ugh! I had not realized that having just returned home from back to back travel to 2 of the nuclear plants, he wasn’t in any hurry to hit the road again. Bummer. I’d never mistreat my Darling. So after I apologized for not thinking of that, he said it was okay and if he’d really been too much against going he would have said so. Thus he once again showed me how much he cares about my feelings. What a great guy!

The drive alone was worth the trip. Beautiful scenery. After a totally delightful drive we arrived in Mentone. Well, the town was cute. Tiny, but very quaint. Talk about atmosphere! Definately a "mountain" town. But we never did see more than a handful of rhododendrons blooming. And those were past their prime.

Parking was scarce and the best place we could find was the parking lot at the local utility office. A police officer happened to be stopped nearby so Robert told me to go over and ask if it was ok to park there. Super nice officer. Had a nice visit. No doubt much nicer and friendlier than Robert’s recent “visit” with an officer. Yep, Mr. Perfect got pulled over. His excuse—distracted by a phone call. A rather expensive distraction. Oh, yes, we've contributed to the Georgia state revenues.

As for the “festival” think tacky home made crafts and bad thrift store junk. It was pretty bad! LOL! It was really more of a chain of bad yard sales. Icky-poo! There were several choices for lunch there in the downtown area. “Downtown” would easily fit into a thimble with enough room left over for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and their sack lunches (yes, I’m sure they would be packing.) You could have counted all the businesses on fingers and toes and have digits left over. In fact, I'm not even sure you'd need the feet - but what else are you going to do with them? Being total newbies, lunch was a shot in the dark. Yes, I admit it. I should give up shooting in the dark. The Log Cabin was my idea. I’m to blame. Trust me, I don’t have to be punished for that decision, I’ve been punished enough already! I think the reason we had to wait 40 minutes for our food was so they could take it out back and torture it to death. I'm clueless on how to torture to death a peanut butter on whole wheat but I now know it can be done. I can’t say I’ve ever been served brown corn before. And I sincerely hope to never have occasion to say it again. I’m dead-dog serious here! That corn was brown! Egads! I feared breaking my foot if I dropped that hard roll on it. And what was “that” smell? No!........wait, I don’t really want to know! But, yes, the atmosphere was fun.

We went over to the brow and discovered a delightful little park perched on the edge of the mountain top. Now, that’s better! LOL! That’s what I came for! The view was spectacular. I could have stayed there forever (without ever getting hungry enough to crawl back over to The Log Cabin.)

We did get to see the parade. Wow. That was .............?????..........was that a parade? Uncle Sam and Aunt Samatha lead the parade, carrying an American flag. They had great costumes! The remainder of the parade was an emergency response vehicle, a few cars and some motorcycles. Apparently everything motorized in town. I started waiting for the riding lawn mower but I guess nobody owned one. The folks in the cars tossed beads Mardi Gras style. Yes, we do all know how to get Mardi Gras beads tossed at you. No, I don’t think I’d ever need cheap plastic beads that badly! Although when Robert saw the big-honkin’ white beads I had he said I must have really impressed someone. {ahem} No.

After the parade we walked around the booths and found the best part at the far end. They had an inflatable. Anna calls them “bouncy castles.” So the kids were bouncing away and Robert and I were standing by with another father. Might as well get to know each other, right? He had a Nikon D-70; we had the D-80 so we talked some photography. Also found out our friend was from Chattanooga – the town nearest and dearest to my heart. I was already temped to take this fellow home with me, but then he said he owned a cabin on the Brow. Well, that’s it! I jumped over beside him, grabbed his arm, looked at Robert and said, “you may have a D-80 but he’s got a cabin on the Brow!” We all had a good laugh.

Well, we’d about milked all the fun out of the Rhododendron Festival. Robert whispered to me that we could just take off and go over to Desoto. Hey, not a bad idea!

We headed over to Desoto Falls. First time there. Absolutely incredible! Photos do NOT do it justice! The size alone was amazing! We explored a bit, took some photos and then drove over to Desoto State Park. It was lovely. Robert got some tips on the area from the personnel. Oh, and they actually had mood rings for sale in the camp store. I didn’t even know you could still buy those things. The kids were fascinated that the rings changed colors! So Robert bought them each a ring. That kept their attention the rest of the day.

Then we took Highway 176. The scenic route. Oh, boy was it ever! Take my advice: DON’T eat at The Log Cabin, but DO drive 176! This road follows the rim of the Little River Canyon. The beauty is beyond words. Of course by this time it was late in the day so our goal was to scope out the area for a future return. We stopped at many of the overlooks for a quick look. Amazing! Breathtaking!

As we drove up to one of the last overlooks, I noticed a man sitting alone over to the side on a rock. His motorcycle was parked nearby. The canyon is so awesome, I just assumed that he was there for the beauty and solitude. Thus I actually felt a bit guilty about us intruding on his peace. Yes, it was a public area and yes, we did have just as much right to be there. Still, though.

So we’re looking around, exploring and taking photos. Our soon to be new friend speaks up and offers to take a shot for us so we can get the whole family. Cool. As we started getting acquainted, I voiced my apology at our intrusion on his solitude. He just waved it off and said no, he was just sitting there hurting. Poor fellow. I was wondering if he had a bad back or something. He then tells us he just fell off his motorcycle. Then he starts showing us his injuries. Oh, the poor thing! He was missing too much skin to not be hurting. He was walking towards us to take the photo and I start wondering if he should even be standing up. So of course we immediately offer assistance. He says, no, he’s fine. (He didn't look it.) He told us some guys had gotten some tools and repaired the peg on his bike. And a nurse had happened by and she gave him some first aid and some Alieve. He was telling us how nice everyone had been to him. Of course, he and Robert started exchanging “I fell off my motorcycle” stories. We really were concerned for our new friend, fearing he might go into shock or any number of things. He really seemed quite dazed. He said he was ok and was waiting for some family members to come get him. Still, we were very hesitant to leave him alone considering the condition he was in. So we just hung around. Luckily his family soon arrived.

The really interesting part is what the man first said to his family. “I’ve had the best things happen to me today.” I looked at them and said, “Sure, AFTER he picked himself up off the asphalt!” I couldn’t help but notice that his focus was not on his misfortune, but on his appreciation of the kindness of strangers. He told them about us and the other good Samaritans who had all helped him. We all ended up having a very nice impromptu visit. I’m sorry the man got injured, but it really was a very heart-warming experience for us all.

After that we left and were soon past the Canyon. We had planned to go all the way to Gadsden on Lookout, but by then it was almost sundown and we decided to just get on the interstate and make decent time. The scenic route was beautiful, but very slow. And what good is the scenic route in the dark?

We got home about 9 PM. Tuckered out but happy. We’ll definitely be returning.