2023 July 18-21, Trip to The Alpine Village of Helen, Georgia

 Tuesday, July 18:

We left home about 6 A.M. stopping at Jacks in Athens for biscuits and gravy. 

We continued through Huntsville, taking Hwy 72 toward Scottsboro through (hwy 35)Mento crossing the Tennessee River,  to (Hwy 40) Hangar, Valley Head, and Mento crossing into Georgia.

In Georgia, we traveled through Summerville, Rome onto the I-75 bypass of Atlanta. We went through Cartersville, Marietta taking 400 north bypassing Atlanta to Dahlonega, Cleveland, and 75 to Helen.

We checked into the Castle Inn around 2:25 p.m. and took all our luggage up two flights of stairs (they had no elevator.)

We walked down the front of the hotel to the nearby Troll Tavern. The Tavern was along the Chattahoochee  River with a gate covered in locks weighing it down. There was a sign that said no more locks and all locks had to be removed. It was causing the gate to be unstable and unsafe. 

Troll Tavern with Gates full of locks 

While we were waiting for a table we watched hundreds of people tubing down the Chattahoochee River on green, pink, and blue tubes.

We ordered Reuben on toast with mashed potatoes and Diet Coke. I think they were short-staffed because there were lots of empty tables and people waiting to be served.

Reuben on toast with mashed potatoes

We walked around the town and some of the places we saw were: The Wooden Toys, Assay Station, Welcome to Wildwood, Hansel & Gretel Candy Kitchen, Wilkommen, Helen Hat, Grimm's Weg, Sock Store, Christmas & More, Christoff's Seventy-six, Helendof Inn, Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf, Pepper Place, Dizzy Bear,  Cowboys and Angels, The Christmas Shop, just to name a few. 

Gone Squatchin in Helen 

It was a beautiful day but very hot so we walked back to the Castle Inn and rested until around 7PM. 

We left the Castle Inn and walked across the bridge stopping for a picture at the Cafe International (head in the hole), the Mural of Helendof Inn. I continued walking passed the Alpine Wedding Chapel, Fashall where they were playing bingo. I saw the Pirates Cove Miniature Golf and Alpine Village Inn. 

I walked to Wendy's where I had left hubby and he bought us a strawberry frosty and Diet Coke. 

We walked back to our car and rode to Cleveland stopping at the White County Courthouse to take a few pictures. 

Wednesday, July 19:

Early morning I took my journal outside onto the balcony and began to write. I watched as the town slowly came alive. I could hear the birds chirping in the distance and could feel the cool breeze and the sky was full of clouds. The only people that I saw were early-morning workers. 

We were at the Waffle House when it opened at 8AM. I ordered 3 pecan pancakes with whipped cream and Diet Pepsi. Hubby ordered 2 eggs, sausage, 3 pancakes with gravy, biscuits and hash browns.

We rode to the visitors center there they gave us a map of Helen and suggested places we should visit. 

She said Anna Ruby Falls, Sautee General Store, Hardman's Farm & Indian Mound, and the Covered Bridge. 

We walked through Veterans Park taking pictures the park was behind the Visitors Center. 

We rode to Unite State Park to see Anna Ruby Falls but before we began our climb uphill to the falls it began to sprinkle so hubby went back to the car for the umbrella. 

We had to stop several times to rest during our climb uphill. There were stone benches along the path. 

It was getting slippery with all the light rain but we finally made it. Hubby stopped just short of the falls Hubby talked to a couple while I walked to the top. 

Anna Ruby Falls 

I ask a red-headed girl to take a picture of me standing in front of the waterfalls.

We also met a family with teenagers walking up the hill and they passed us coming down. Several people were visiting Anna Ruby Falls. 

Our next stop was Baby-land The Cabbage Patch Doll Hospital. Baby cabbage patches were planted all around the hospital. When you walked inside there were pictures of famous people on the walls. 

There were several different rooms of dolls and scenery it was overwhelming.

Cabbage Patch Kids

It was hard to choose which baby to adopt but I settled on Sandy Sue. 

Everyone crowded around to watch the birth & the storytelling of a baby boy Cabbage Patch Doll. 

Our next stop was the White County Courthouse Museum.

It had already closed the day before so we rode back today. 

Several ladies were sitting around a table talking they were members of the Historic Society of White County. 

One of them told us the history of the museum. 

We could hear music coming from upstairs. There was a man in the Old Courtroom playing a fiddle.

I saw a replica of the Covered Bridge and asked questions about it and its location.

Our next stop was the Hardman Farm State Park.  We had to park on the hill and walk down several flights of stairs to the Visitor Center so hubby did not want to walk around the farm. 

Hardman Farm Historic Site Sautee Nacoochee, Ga 

He bought me a ticket and I walked around taking pictures of the building and historic markers.

I met a couple of women also taking pictures of markers to be read later. 

Hubby was in the car waiting for me at the bottom of the hill.

Next, we rode to Stovall Covered Bridge and Old Sautee General Store.

The Stovall Covered Bridge has been washed away three times. 

We stopped at Walgreens in Cleveland for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and a couple of Heath Bars. 

We stopped at Nora Granary Mill where we bought some stone mill cornmeal. 

We ate dinner at Wendy's then back to Castle Inn. (Hamburger and fries)

We watched the new Ghost Buster Movie.

I walked outside to talk to my daughter and to write in my journal. 

It had been a full day. 

Thursday, July 20:  

We rode to McDonalds in Cleveland bought a muffin with sausage and hubby ordered a big breakfast. 

Today we rode to North Georgia Wildlife and Safari Park in Cleveland, GA.  We walked through the petting zoo and then drove through the Safari where we saw buffalo, Elk, Deer, Emu, Ostrich, camels, Zebra, and several small animals. 

I was not too impressed.

Next, we rode to Brasstown Bald Hiawassee, GA (the highest point in Georgia) and paid $8 to ride the shuttle van up to the overlook and visitor center. 

It was too foggy to see very far but we did enjoy the Visitor Center museum. 

Brasstown Bald Overlook and Visitor Center

In the museum, we saw several handmade quilts hanging on the walls.

We saw several different forest animals, a log with a saw, a train engine, displays, etc. 

Saw several barn Swallows and Gray Catbirds. 

We rode the shuttle bus back down the mountain. 

We stopped at Chick-fil-A in Cleveland for dinner. I ordered a kid's chicken finger meal with waffle fries and ice cream. 

It was raining when we returned to the Castle Inn. 

I sat outside on the balcony listening to the band in the restaurant across the street. 

It was a stormy night and very few people were outside. 

Friday, July 21:

Check-out Castle Inn 

Music History Recording Studios of Muscle Shoals, Florence & Sheffield, Alabama

Welcome to
City of Muscle Shoals
Hit Recording
Capital of the World

The Singing River Sculpture (Sheffield)
Legend of the Singing River 
The Yuchi and other early inhabitants who lived along the banks of the mighty Tennessee River held the legend of the Spirit Woman who lived in the river, protected them, and sang to them. If the river was angry, She sang to them loudly; if the river was peaceful, She sang softly and sweetly, sometimes humming a comforting lullaby. 
Some say that all they heard was the high waters' mighty rush and roar over the mussel shoals, or at other times, the calm low waters babbling through the river rocks. Others say She is real and can still be seen in the early morning mist, hovering over the waters, just as She did many years ago. In her honor, they called it the Singing River, and in her honor, we named these sculptures the Singing River Sculptures. 

1951 Dexter Johnson's Recording Studio

Bluegrass musician and uncle of Swampers guitarist Jimmy Johnson established the Shoals area’s first professional recording studio in his garage, a decade before Rick Hall’s FAME opened its doors.

Recording Studios(Alabama Music Hall of Fame)
Dexter Johnson's Recording Studio c1951
Charles Stanfield's Mobile Recording Studio c.1955
Tune Recording Studios c.1957
Spar Recording Studio c.1958
Fred Bevis Recording Studio c. 1967
Woodrich Recording Studio c.1973
Joe Wilson Recording Studio c.1973
Paradox Recording Studio c.1975
Cactus Recording Studio c.1980
Audio Workshop c1984

1956 Tune Records,123 E Alabama Ave Florence, Al. 

The Shoals’ first record label and publishing company, released a single by Bobby Denton called “A Fallen Star” which laid the foundation for the emergence of the area’s recording industry. (James Joiner, Walter Stovall, Kelso Herston, and Marvin Wilson) (Junior Thompson recorded Who's Knocking/How Come You Do Me 1956)

This Concertone tape recorder was used by James Joiner in this Tune Records Studio, one of the first studios in the Muscle Shoals area to make commercial recordings
(Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

1959 SPAR Music, 123 1/2 E Alabama Ave Florence, Al. 

(Stafford Publishing and Recording) 

above the City Drug Store in downtown Florence, was the brainchild of the “local bohemian type” 

(Tom Stafford), the birthplace of the Muscle Shoals music scene, and the precursor to FAME Studios.

Original Site of FAME Recording Studio early 1960s

This marks the site of the pioneering music company of Florence Al Music Enterprises FAME, a name that became renowned worldwide as the home of "the Muscle Shoals Sound".

FAME was founded in the early 1960s by three young local entrepreneurs (Rick Hall, Billy Sherrill, and Tom Stafford)  who improvised make-shift studios in a vacant room above the City Drug Store that once stood there. FAME's earliest recording sessions launched the careers of such music business legends as Arthur Alexander, Rick Hall, Billy Sherrell, Norbert Putnam, David Briggs, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and many others. 

Original Site of FAME Recording Studio early 1960s
Following the limited success, the partnership dissolved. Rick Hall took the publishing company and FAME name in return for the studio equipment. He relocated the studio to an empty tobacco warehouse in Muscle Shoals. His next recording "You Better Move On" by Arthur Alexander, was acclaimed as the Shoal's first worldwide bestseller.
Over the next several decades FAME recording studios became one of the most successful producers of rhythm and blues, pop, and country music in the world. Rick Hall became known as the "Father of the Muscle Shoals Sound".

1961 FAME (Rick Hall) 603 Avalon Ave., Muscle Shoals, AL was the first successful professional recording studio in the state of Alabama, producing hits by Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Clarence Carter,  the Osmonds, and countless others.

2015 Fame Recording Studios where it all Started 

Fame Recording Studios where it all Started in 2011

FAME Recording Studios Home of the Muscle Shoals Sound (2009)
(Muscle Shoals Municipal Building)

Rich Hall on his own in Muscle Shoals
Fame Studio at Old Candy and Tobacco Warehouse
(Singing River Statue Muscle Shoals)

1963 Quin Ivy Recording Studios  

1965 Norala Sound Studio,104 E 2n St Sheffield, Al 

Founded by FAME songwriter and WLAY disc jockey (Quin Ivy), gave the world Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and brought Jerry Wexler and Atlantic Records to the Shoals

Percy Sledge's "When a Man loves a woman"
Hospital orderly Percy Sledge recorded 'When a Man Loves a Woman' at Quin Ivy's studio in 1966. Mr. Sledge's breakup with a girlfriend inspired the lyrics credited to songwriters Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright.

The release featured Marlin Greene (guitar), Spooner Oldham (Farfisa organ), Albert 'Junior' Lowe (bass), Roger Hawkins (drums), Jack Peck (trumpet), Bill Coifed (tenor sax), and Don Pollard (alto sax). Greene and Ivy produced the cut. At the request of Roger Hawkins, Ivy played the recording for Rick Hall, owner of FAME Studios. Hall felt it had hit potential and contacted Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler, who released it. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was Atlantic's first certified gold record. Rolling Stone magazine ranks it number 54 among the best songs of all time.

Percy Sledge was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Spooner Oldham followed in 2009. Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux, who sang backup on the hit, was inducted in 1994 with her husband Keith Godchaux and other members of the Grateful Dead

Producer Quin Ivy Norala and Quinvy Studios
 Record store owner and WLAY dis jockey Quin Ivy established North Alabama Recording 

Studio (NORALA) at 104 E. Second Street in Sheffield in 1965. He purchased used equipment, including Ampex 351 and Berlant mono tape recorders and a radio station console. Ivy-mounted egg cartons on the studio walls to deaden stray frequencies.

The first song recorded at NORALA was Florence native Donna Jean Thatcher's "I'm Out of Touch." Several months later Percy Sledge cut the classic "When A Man Loves A Woman." With proceeds from the Sledge session, Ivy completed a better-equipped studio across town in 1968 and named it Quinvy.

Ivy also produced Tony Borders, Buddy Causey, Jeanie Green, and Z.Z. Hill, Ben E. King, Mickey Buckings and The New Breed, Don Varner, the U.S. Male, and the Wee Jun.

1969 Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was the home of the Swampers(Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins) and the consummate 1970s hit factory, recording the Stones, the Staple Singers, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, and more. 

1969 Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Muscle Municipal Building)

Muscle Shoals Sound 3613 Jackson Highway (2019)

1969 Widget Sound Studio in Sheffield, 3804 Jackson Hwy., Sheffield, AL 

a very near neighbor to Muscle Shoals Sound gave Woodford and Ivey’s Wishbone a workspace pre-1976 and gave the world Sailcat’s “Motorcycle Mama.”(by Ron Ballew) 

Widget Studio is the first step in the music field for Ronnie Ballew (left) owner; the first major production for "Peanut" Montgomery(center) and the studio's first waxing puts the voice of Al McLendon (right on record for the first time.
TIMES DAILY 

1972 Broadway Sound Studio, 1307 Broadway St., Sheffield, AL 

the successor to Norala carried the R&B tradition of its predecessor into the 1970s and gave birth to the “Southern rock” genre by recording Lynyrd Skynyrd's first demo. (Quin Ivy)

Broadway Sound Studio Est. 1972 (2008)
(Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

Broadway Sound studio with owner and producer David Johnson second right
(Sheffield Singing River Statue)

1973 Wishbone Recording Studio 
1920 Webster Avenue, Muscle Shoals, AL 

was a proving ground for songwriters like Mac McAnally and Robert Byrne and recorded albums by such legends as Roy Orbison and Hank Williams, Jr. (by Terry Woodford)

Wishbone Recording Studio Est 1973

Wishbone Studios (Photo furnished by Terry Woodford)
 (Singing River Statue Muscle Shoals) 

1974 Music Mill Recording Studio, 1108 E. Avalon Ave., Muscle Shoals, AL 

founded (by Al Cartee), was the first of the big local studios to specialize in country music, working with everyone from Narvel Felts and Roy Clark to Bobby Bare and Arthur Alexander.

1974 Music Mill Recording Studio (2008)
(Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

1978-85 Cypress Moon Studios

was the second home of the Swampers, (Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins) where they reconnected with their R&B roots and got reacquainted with old friends like Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, and B.B. King.

Cypress Moon Studio (2019)

The world-changing Muscle Shoals Music
Legendary producer Jerry Wexler at Muscle Shoals Recording Studios' riverfront location
(Singing River Statue Sheffield)

1977 East Avalon Recording  2815 1/2 East Avalon Avenue Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35661 

Wishbone engineer Steve Moore purchased the studio from its builder and designer Joe Wilson and East Avalon Recorders was born in the "Hit Recording Capital of the World", Muscle Shoals, Alabama. 
The successful studio operated until around 1988.

1987 Avalon Recorders

1977 East Avalon Recording

East Avalon Studio
 (Singing River Statue Muscle Shoals)

1985-2005 Malaco Recording (at Cypress Moon)

used the Sheffield studios for its own artists, including Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, and Little Milton, while continuing to operate its own facility in Jackson. The Rhythm Section, minus Beckett, worked with other studio musicians at Malaco Records and at other studios.

Cypress Moon/Malaco Recording 

2006 The Nuthouse (Jimmy Nutt)

In March of 2006, Jimmy launched The NuttHouse Recording Studio in downtown Sheffield, Alabama. What was once a 1950s bank, now is the home of The NuttHouse Recording Studio.  
108 W 4th St, Sheffield, AL 35660

The Singing River Sculpture (Muscle Shoals)
The city served as the birthplace for early breakthroughs in the local music industry and later provided a home base for some of the area’s top studios. The first commercial recording to emerge from Muscle Shoals — the Bobby Denton single, A Fallen Star — was produced by James Joiner in the Second Street studios of WLAY Radio in 1957. Four years later in an old candy-and-tobacco warehouse on Wilson Dam Road, aspiring producer Rick Hall joined forces with bellhop-turned-singer Arthur Alexander to cut Muscle Shoals’ first national hit, the Southern Soul anthem, You Better Move On. In the wake of that success, Hall built FAME Recording Studios on Avalon Avenue in 1962. Artists ranging from Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and Etta James to Duane Allman, the Osmonds, and Bobby Gentry later recorded there. From 1970 to 1985, Muscle Shoals became known as “The Hit Recording Capital of the World” as FAME and Al Cartee’s Music Mill, Steve Moore’s East Avalon, and Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey’s Wishbone Studios generated hits by Clarence Carter, Hank Williams Jr., the group Hot, George Jones, the Forester Sisters, Mac McAnally, Shenandoah, and many others. In 2011 Hall received the American Music Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2014 he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for his significant contribution to the recording industry.

In 1964 Mrs. Jewell Britton Wear began a career in the local music industry she founded Florence, Al 

JJ Records with Junior Thompson, Monty Olive, and the Hacker Brothers for that label.

She also established the Music Scene Column in Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily. It was the first column detailing the music in the industry. 

Label owned by Junior Thompson and Jewel Wear.

In 1964, Mrs. Wear began a career in the local music industry. She founded JJ Records with Junior Thompson. She also established the Music Scene column in the Florence Times-Tri-Cities Daily. It was the first column detailing the local music industry.

Thomas Reeder “Monty” Olive 

Taken From: 

April 2010 Newsletter Birmingham Record Collectors

From Killen, Alabama comes a piano player by the name of Monty Olive. Monty's style of playing and singing was compared to that of Fats Domino. Although he never got national airplay his recordings were very popular locally. 

He was another of those who made a musical instrument his "friend". Monty tells it this way. "I've never had a piano lesson. When I first started playing, I would get the melody of a tune set in my mind and try and find the proper keys for it. It was fun and I practiced it every day." Sounds easy, doesn't it? SURE!! 

Monty entertained in many cities across the country including D.C., Detroit, Dallas, and Panama City's Old Dutch Inn. From an interview in the Time Tri-Cities Daily, August 13th, 1957 Monty put it this way. "Everywhere I go I respond to the crowds. I feel the touch of my music. It's something you can't explain. I enjoy performing."

Rain Inside My Heart/Foggy River

Bell of Bar Room/Molly Darling

Mary Lee/Follow Me 

US Rockabilly singer, born Clen Houston Thompson Jr. Florence Alabama

Junior Thompson began in 1956 at Meteor Records from Memphis (Tennessee). He also made a demonstration in Sun Records in 1956, without success. In 1957, it passed to Tune (56), JJ' S, and Badd Records before disappearing from Show Business. He was a regular singer in Dixie Hayride (Florence, Alabama) in 1956. 

1967-1968 JJ’S RECORDS Jewell Wear 

Sit by my side/Jungle Girl 1967

House of Lost Lovers/Ooby Dooby 1967

Cry on My Shoulder/Jimmy Boy 1969

Fairyland Girl/Child Days 1969

I’ll Never Let You Go Little Darling/Sally Ann From Paris, France 1969

The Hackers 

1967 Ange Love/Keep on Running Girl 

Not sure of the location of JJ's Studio may have been located in her home.

Touring Hartford's Capitol Building

Rotunda

Hartford Capitol
The building is one of the largest Eastlake-style buildings. The exterior is of marble from East Canaan, Connecticut, and granite from Westerly, Rhode Island. The building is roughly rectangular, the interior spaces organized around two open interior courts that run vertically to large skylights. In the center is a third circular open rotunda beneath the dome. The larger hall of the House of Representatives forms an extension on the south side.

Stained Glass windows  QUI TRANSTULT SUSTINET

Connecticut the Constitution State 

The figurehead of the US Constitution 

From the Battle Field of Chickamauga 18863

Genius of Connecticut
The Genius of Connecticut by sculptor Randolph Rogers (1877–78), a plaster version of the bronze statue (destroyed) originally mounted on top of the dome, is exhibited on the main floor

Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon
"Hotchkiss gun" also refers to the Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon, a Gatling-type revolving barrel machine gun invented in 1872 by Benjamin B. Hotchkiss (1826–1885)

Houses of Representatives  Republicans and Democrats

Bushnell Park backside of Capitol 

William Buckingham Governor and US Senator
The ship USS Governor Buckingham (1863) is named after him. Buckingham was a benefactor of Yale College and served as president of the Board of Trustees of Norwich Free Academy and as president of the Connecticut State Temperance Union. His house in Norwich is owned by the city and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A street and school are named in his honor in Norwich, and a statue of him is inside the State Capitol Building in Hartford

Charter Oak
 The name "Charter Oak" stems from the local legend in which a cavity within the tree was used in late 1687 as a hiding place for the Charter of 1662.

Columns in North Hall

Nathen Hale
Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 – September 22, 1776) was an American soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed. His last words before being hanged were reported to be, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country

Charter Oak Chair of the Lieutenant Governor in Senate Chambers

The oak was blown down in a violent storm on August 21, 1856, and timber from it was made into several chairs now displayed in the Hartford Capitol Building. The desk of the Governor of Connecticut and the chairs for the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate in the state capitol were made from wood salvaged from the Charter Oak.

A wooden baseball made from the Charter Oak was presented by the Charter Oak Engine Co. No. 1 on September 20, 1860, to the Charter Oak Base Ball Club of Brooklyn.^[2]

The New London Historical Society has a pair of cufflinks made from the wood of the Charter Oak with the initial "G" donated by Samuel Goldsmith.

Scions of the tree still grow in Hartford and many other towns around Connecticut.

Senate Chambers * our tour guide

Hartford Capitol Dome Victorian Period architecture.