Willkommen zum Mustang-Rollen

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Rural roads wind the rolling hills of north Georgia providing a nice blend of cultivated fields, country homes and a scattering of charming tiny towns. On this first day of April under a brilliant blue sky we thus made our way toward Helen, Georgia. We undertook this bit of investigative touring having seen an ad in the SC lowcountry's " ISLAND LIFE" which showed a sketch of the place. Obviously, we need little if any provocation for hitting the bricks.

Good weather, open roads and the budding florets of Spring made the day. Changing gears with the gentle twists, turns and easy inclines came as smoothly as the fluid sweep of an old fly fisherman.

Suddenly we are met by a phalanx of bumper to handlebar car and bike traffic. Around that last turn, Helen presents as " Little Bavaria ", an entire town made in the image of a German village. It is a set piece which seems to have required unanimous consent of every owner of every patch of land to cooperate in the making of this fantasy. We imagined their Board of Architectural Review handing down stern decisions, " Sorry, not German enough. We want a little more gingerbread on those gables ".

This happened to be that one weekend during which everyone came to Helen. We had the feeling that everyone in the world was on Helen's e-mail list except Windveil. Babies in strollers, elders on walkers, fraternity boys crawling, everyone was there in a three generation array. You can't get some of the worst brats to eat bratwurst so there is a Wendy's for the unwilling.. Pommes-Frites mit dem?

The Hantzel and Gretel Candy Kitchen and Chocolate Factory caught our eye. There could have been a thousand or more people in Minideutschland at that moment so we took a pass on the H&G, but we managed to scatter some bread crumbs as we left in order that we might find our way back once the crowd cleared. That's as much GPS as we care to have.

AUF WIEDERSEHEN, HELEN