On the road again . . .

Well, ye socks, I am sorry to report that our Thrashers suffered a rather humiliating defeat at the hands of the Alabama champs last night.

Mercifully, they ended the diaster on the diamond in the 5th inning when it became clear they were running away with the game.

The good news is, the boys have played so well up to this point that they secured a wild card spot against the North Carolina champs.

The bad news is, it starts at 1pm today, and yours truly had to get back on the road this morning to make it back to our little corner of heaven and get ready for the work week.

But, we're keeping our fingers crossed for Bowden and his teammates! As I reminded them last night, the mighty Gators had to suffer a loss in both their national titles . . . of course, that was football, but I think they got the point.

Anyway, headed south, and will be glad to cross the border back into Florida today!!

Killing a day in Alpharetta

Well, the game against the Alabama team doesn't even START until 8:30pm, so we had a day to kill up in this little corner of . . . well, Georgia.

The not-so-aimless wandering eventually led us to the little village of Crabapple Crossing, where we found the neat little bistro pictured here.

And, just down the road, we met two of the nicest people in Alpharetta: Millie and Robert Huckabay.

It may be that they are originally from Central Florida, or maybe it was the striking similarity between their surname and that of our favorite former presidential candidate. But, whatever it was, we struck up quite a friendly conversation that ended up with them drawing us a map to their homestead outside of town.

There they have collected some early 19th Century cabins from Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, on ten of the most beautifully secluded acres I have seen in these parts. And, they invited us to return in September for a fall festival they host on the grounds. A tempting offer.

Anyway, now we're back at the hotel and getting ready for the big game against the Coosa team. I'll let you know tomorrow how it turned out!

Smashing day, just smashing!

This was the scene along I-75 today, just north of Ashburn, Georgia. Somebody cut-off a truck full of watermelons, causing it to flip and lose its cargo.

It was our only hiccup on the big roadtrip today, and really was not much of one. Surprisingly, it only delayed us about 5 minutes, and it looked like everybody walked away from the accident itself.

Anyway, we were excited to get to the Ripken League regional play-offs up in Alpharetta to see my cousin Bowden Francis and his team represent Florida. Last night, they defeated the hosting Georgia champs, 2-0. Bowden was the starting pitcher, and also scored one of the games only 2 runs. So, he was pretty much the star of the show, in my humble opinion.

We arrived at Ocee Park just in the nick of time to watch the opening pitch against the Virginia champs this afternoon. Unfortunately, Bowden was being held in reserve and only played first base for one inning. But, the team pulled off an astounding 7-0 rout against the boys from Tri-River.

Needless to say, we're all excited in this little corner of . . . well, Georgia. Tomorrow night the Winthrop Thrashers will again represent Florida in the tourny, taking on the Alabama champs . . . and, that will be no easy task from what I hear.

Stay tuned for more notes from the road!