ohh man today was great

[brooks599]

i woke up at 9 and went to athens (about a 1 1/2 hour drive) to see some relatives im not really sure how im related to. so we get there and dr. bonner (my grandmothers cousin i think) comes out to greet us and show us his extensive garden if maple plants... at this point im praying for some excuse to get out of there. no such miracle happens so we go in to see his wife who couldnt get up to make it outside. then flora and charlie come over....(no idea how im related to them). so, picture 5 85-year-olds in one room with my brother, mom, and me. there were several instances in at which we had to turn around and walk into another room to keep from exploding with laughter. at one point they began talking about some son-in-law who was called to cincinnati to solve a problem for a powdered soap manufacturer. he apparently is an expert in spraying and nozzles which is important to the powdered soap making process. so they he was called in to develop a new nozzle. that was funny enough but then they started talking about how he got into the nozzle business. then dr. bonners wife says "well he did get his PhD in nozzles didnt he?" at that point my brother and i nearly burst out laughing completely and turn a nice tomato-y shade of red. so then we're finally ready to go eat at the athens country club. the conversations at lunch were equally as entertaining covering their latest bridge games. after lunch we went to flora's house and looked at pictures of the family in germany a few years ago. after our now routine yearly trip to athens, my grandmother decided she wanted to go to royston and lavonia, georgia, where she and my grandfather grew up. it actually turned out to be pretty interesting when we stopped at the royston cemetery and saw both ty cobb's grave and the entire Brooks family plot. we saw my grandmother's grandparents and some of her uncles and aunts including a guy who played minor league baseball in new orleans. then we went to lavonia to see my grandfather's family's gravesite. also in lavonia were the houses where my grandmother and grandfather grew up across the street from each other. at that point we stopped for gas in the middle of the rural deep south...where the confederate states of america still exist, and will rise up again and conquer the evil union empire. we walked into the store to get snacks and were greeted by a snaggle-toothed store clerk and a wall full of CSA memorabilia. licence plates with the confederate flag, statues of confederate soldiers waving the flag proudly over fallen union soldiers, and (my personal favorite) a shirt that said "the CSA will rise again!" on the way out of the store we saw a man coming in that was the spitting image of joe dirt...
soo after that fun experience i drove the way back to atlanta and here i am...all in a day's work