~ Crawling Along

I am a little behind on getting out this 'review' of last weekends events. I had to go from the Clayton Crawl straight to a week long training and have just returned home. But I do want to share a few things with you from last weekend.

Last weekend I drove to Rabun County to hangout out at the Clayton Crawl. Myself and a couple of girlfriends hooked up and headed out to this annual, yet young, event. Basically what happens is this mountain town, where I dragged town and sipped Boones Farm on more then one occasion during the eighties, shuts down main street and lines up tables and tents housing local wine from the nearby vineyards and cuisine from the local restaurants.

You start off at the front gate and you pick a glass;

A wine glass or a beer glass. Oh, yes, this year they added beer. Then, you pay $15 and you get your glass. From there you are free to take your glass to every booth along the crawl and someone will happily fill it for you. As it turned out, there was only one beer vendor there. Even though I had chosen a beer glass, I didn't want to wait in that long line so I enjoyed wine in my beer glass all evening long. It was a crisp, lovely summer Moscato. I got a little confused because it kept appearing booth after booth so I am not sure if it came from the same vineyard or multiple vineyards produced the same thing with the same label and everything; or I was having my glass filled too many times. 

I have no idea about the beer. But like I said, the line spoke to its popularity.

OK, now the food. You had to buy tickets to purchase the food. Which just seemed like extra work considering the 2-3 block party. The only thing I am going to say about the food is that I thought it would be so much better given the fact that several of the mother ships were actually on the same street. But non the less; I didn't fill up on food at the Clayton Crawl.

I did however fill up on food at the Universal Joint. This restaurant is in an old mechanic's garage and has great outdoor seating, a slightly bitter waitress and a phenomenal pimento cheese plate.  This place also sported the boy who was widely considered the best looking boy in the class of '80 something (yeah the actual year would give it away and that would be crass). I can say thank God for 'progressive' lenses. It is worth noting that the Joint did have a table at the Crawl as well but I didn't get to it before the group decided we needed to sit down and rest from Crawling.And as a side note from a band groupie; this is the best place in town for live outdoor music. And I say that as if I know if there is any other venue that offers outdoor venues for bands. 

A block away and an hour later we ended up at a bar with boys. 

Boys who swore to us their mothers made sure they learned ballroom dance but neglected to say they only retained two moves. Good young men non the less.

There was something nice in the swing dance and fraternity shots that said hey, we got your back and this is a good band; so that made that stop a really sweet memory. And of course a really cruel hangover.

The next morning we searched for some fried food and a Bloody Mary. We found uncooked Fried Green Tomatoes and a town that doesn't serve alcohol on Sundays (remember it is city by city not county by county. Clayton = Bloody Mary; Rabun Gap (where we were staying) = Water with Lemon).

The only thing I am going to say about the dining establishment we chose for our Sunday meal is this: It is a restaurant that used to be a bank and Judy Fountain sure didn't train those waitresses!

When I was driving home to Athens in my car with the faulty air conditioning I thought about the great fun, great food, great wine and sure, the great free shots.But mostly I thought about how much a trip to those Mountains feeds that Soul and how it is really cool to retrace the KEDs Steps you once took, now, with your worn black boots and strong, beautiful women who knew you then and know you now...and still wanna hang with you.