I have been anticipating spending Thanksgiving with my relatives in Georgia for years and was finally able make it happen en route back to Denver, Colorado. Special thanks to April and her boyfriend Vince for hosting me for a weekend of sight-seeing and barbeque eating in Kirkwood — a neighborhood of Atlanta very reminiscent of my home back on the outskirts of Denver. Both are industrial, warehouse districts with train tracks crossing them that have undergone gentrification over the past several years as new cool cafes and restaurants spring up. A personal highlight of the weekend was eating pecans fallen from the backyard tree. I created a monstrosity of a coffee by creating a grinded coconut milk infusion for my morning coffee.
After that I headed about an hour south of the city to Brooks, Georgia, a very small town where my father’s first cousin lives with his wife. I spent twelve days here working from my computer on their kitchen table, eating a lot of Andy and Susan’s food and disrupting the organization and serving of breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition to helping with that, I was perhaps the most dull houseguest they have ever had the pleasure of enduring. Don’t worry guys the next time I drop in for twelve days I’ll be sure to lose a lot more games of poker and Settlers of Catan to you.
Brooks, Georgia is a couple miles away from Senoia, Georgia, a town famous for being where the television show, The Walking Dead is filmed. The show is about a zombie apocalypse and profiles drama and characters fighting to survive. While driving around Senoia you can see signs pointing filming crews to various shooting locations as well as curious geeky tourists trying to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors around town. There is a zombie-themed coffee shop and even local tour guides that show visitors around various places in the region featured throughout the show.
America is such a diverse place; being immersed in the sub-culture of southern hospitality for almost two weeks was a great way to handle my re-entry into it. Thanks again Andy, Susan, Vince and April for being such gracious hosts. I look forward to returning the favor.
