Besides being blessed to live in the U.S. Bible belt, life in Atlanta boasts plenty of other benefits. Take for example hoards of hustle, busy-busy bustle and enough excitement to keep us Georgian’s go-go-going day after day.
Sometimes…you just gotta get away!
So, that’s what one of my girls (Diana) and I did two weekends ago. We headed to a favorite get-away, Chattanooga.
Did you know there are Amish and Mennonite farm communities in Tennessee?
I didn’t.
Prior to leaving I googled: Best things to do in Chattanooga and found this: Â amish-community
I thought: cool, we’ll tour the Amish world — it will be an adventure…off the beaten path… educational…weird!
We were instructed to meet the tour guide in Delano, Tennessee precisely where the Amish Community Market is.
When we arrived and asked several Amish people where we might find the tour group, we received disillusioned, fearful, bewildered expressions and responses. We worried too.
A woman, whose driveway we pulled into to turn around scurried out to see if we were lost and ended up pointing us in the direction of a winery savannah-oaks-winery. That might be where you meet, she said.
The man who ran the winery was equally unhappy and clueless about us looking for a tour.
We spent an hour and a half under a shady tree in front of the Savannah Winery seeking explanation from Expedia and Viator. We finally secured a confirmation number with an email promising us a $300 refund.
I feel certain if we weren’t two innocuous-looking females the winery owner would have called the police.
Beware of scams! (Including through reputable companies)
Diana told me that she’s heard of similar situations through Airbnb (properties advertised online but don’t actually exist have lead others on tail chases like ours).
But it’s all GOod.
With a little prayer and innovation we hoisted our disappointed hineys up from under the shady tree and headed back to the Amish market to shop and also to quietly and politely tip-toe around on our own self-guided tour. Here we are with some picturesque Amish landscape:
Skipping along on our self-guided tour. (Thank you Amish people in Delano, TN for not kicking us off of your property!!!)
I love you and I’m sorry we got scammed Dan!
The horse/carriage behind us was simply spectacular. Bright sunshine caused us to inadvertently block them from the photo.
This barn is mimicked in the link advertisement. We thought this was the meeting place. lol
The Amish are respectful people.
Stunning tree and trail.
This watermelon was HUGE. The photo is not edited to make it look big. Sorry don’t know the lbs.
As you can see in the scam link expedia.com/things-to-do/amish, the ticket price is $150 per person. Wouldn’t you expect a dang, nice afternoon for that price?
A huge disappointment it was. But we made the best of it and bought the most delicious spaghetti sauce, sorghum molasses, watermelon, salsa and fruit I’ve had in a loooong time.
Inside the very cool Edwin Hotel
Finally, we hit the road back to The Edwin Hotel in Chattanooga Edwin.
We walked to dinner at the amazing Back Inn Cafe back-inn-cafe and enjoyed a delicious dinner, wine, and lots of laughs.
Outside of the Back Inn Cafe
Thanks for reading!
Love, Shelley
Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man,
but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.
Proverbs 20:17