Thanksgiving Plans

We had planned to go on a cruise for Thanksgiving week, but it didn't work out.

We'll be spending Thanksgiving with all the family at Mom's.

Enchanted Corn Maze & Voodoo Bayou

Well we picked our date, and got up early to get started. I packed a picnic lunch and when everyone was here, we set out for Flintstone, Georgia.

We arrived at the Enchanted Maize about Noon'ish and bought our combo for the Maze, Forest of Fear and Ghostride. We headed on to the Corn Maze, as, really, that was the only thing to do.

When I had read on the website about the place, I had the idea that they offered more to do than they did. There was an inflatable jumping thing, and a table set up for pumpkin painting, and a small fire...but no marshmallows or smores offerings.
To be advertised as "By Rock City", it was pretty disappointing. The only things very Rock City'ish was the Gift Shop and Photos, and the concession stand prices.

The weather was pretty bad (not Rock City's fault), it was very cold and overcast, and wet following a few days of rain. The Maze was a sodden mess, you practically had to swim through parts of it.
But it was fun, I guess. Having no sense of direction, I just follow everyone else, taking my pictures of them experiencing/enjoying the event, so that makes me happy.


The Maze spent all of about half an hour, then we decided to go to the car and have our picnic lunch. Only to discover I had forgotten to have John stop and get a loaf of bread on the way up. So we had to leave and go find the Walmart. Tara needed a pair of gloves anyway.

We stopped at a picnic area place on the side of Cummings Hwy. where the Big Rock Court Motel and Super Waterslide used to be. The kids tried to eat out at the table for awhile, but soon jumped back in the car.

After we ate, it was still much too early to go back and sit and wait for hours and hours for the night-time part of the activities to start. Eventually we decided to go to Ruby Falls.
We hadn't been to Ruby Falls in years and years. To me it was always like a 'been there, done that' kind of place. But I didn't care for the Oktoberfest events going on at Rock City, and we never really enjoyed the Chattanooga Aquarium, and I couldn't think of anything else.


The caves and formations and all were still pretty much the same as always, but now, I guess the attraction has gotten so popular, they take much larger groups at a time, and they get you on through and back out.
I remember we used to stop at every formation and the guide would point it and talk and tell about it and this, that and the other. Not now. You start out watching a short video telling about the man who discovered the falls, and stop maybe twice to view some items of interest.

Also new now, they let you walk around behind and up under Ruby Falls, so that was neat.

We spent some time going up on the Ruby Falls Castle Observation Tower, where there's a nice view of Chattanooga, but boy was it cold! and then it started raining on us.

They played some in the Gem Mining area, and we knocked around in the Gift Shop for awhile. Eventually we left to head back over to the Maze and take our Hayride that was included in the price of the Maze before they closed it down.
Sitting on haybales in a trailer being pulled by a tractor through a cornfield...how exciting was that!
Ryan and Kevin found some "spooky" and fixed Kevin up for the scary stuff later.


We stood around by the "bonfire" a little while, then eventually went back and got in the cars to sit down and warm up.

Eventually it got dark and the nighttime activities started.
First we went through the Forest of Fear, which was a spooky trail through the woods, with scary props and of course Monsters jumping out and scaring the pee-diddle out of you. It was pretty fun, but again, not as professional as what I was expecting for the place to be connected with Rock City.

After that we went on the Ghostride, another ride in the hay wagon trailer. We went out into the cornfield and got out of the trailer and sat around a stinky campfire and were told a ghoststory. Then we were supposed to get up and run while Monsters chased us, but we were near the back so all the chasers were already gone after the first people I guess.
We got back in our hay trailer and rode back to where we started.

It was nice to have spent the day together as a family, doing something away from home.