Friday 30 April 2010

74 Ranch - Jasper County

Tuesday 27th April


For breakfast we were treated Pancakes, a half dozen different kinds of syrup as well as some tasty sausages in true American style thanks to District Governor and chef Shane.

The rest of the morning was spent relaxing around the house. Some of the team went for a run around the beautiful housing development, others played 8 ball pool and the team also took some time to refine their presentation prior to today’s afternoon engagement with the Rotary Club of Canton.





We travelled with Shane down to the conference centre for our lunch and presentation, this club would be classed as one of their medium sized clubs with around 50 members and it appeared that most had turned out in eager anticipation to hear what we had.



We conducted our presentation in our usual professional manner and afterwards to our surprise we were given each a gift bag containing a whole host of trinkets which had been put together very kindly for us by the Canton Rotary club. In fact with everyone’s generosity out here we may exceed our luggage limits, although we could use this as an excuse for not buying all our friends and family gifts!

From the Canton Rotary club we were driven up into the hills to a town called Jasper, which we were all quite excited about as we heard we were to stay at a working ranch called 74 Ranch.


On our arrival we were greeted at the gate by one of the owners Pam, who caught our eyes straight away as she strolled across her property in full cow girl attire, at that point we all knew we were in for an authentic time.





The lodgings that we were staying in had been lovingly restored to their original pre-civil war beauty by Pam and her husband Larry.

We were given a tour of the property, Steve, Gareth and Roy were to sleep in a well equipped ‘Bunk House’, which had its own wood fire, wash and shower facilities and if any of us were feeling up to it, a honeymoon suite!

The girls we in the main house in a tastefully decorated twin room, in fact all the rooms in the house were decorated and furnished lovingly and sympathetically to the surroundings. The rest of the house itself sits surrounded by paddocks and stables, in which we watched their horses grazing and other usual ‘horse type things’.

We got ourselves settled, made friends with the several dogs which call the ranch home then later on were taken for a meal to the Wood Bridge Inn, located just by.....a wooden bridge.

A good meal was had by all, in fact some of us tried oysters for the first time, Gareth including. However unbeknown to him at this point he’d just ingested a food which was to rendering him ‘incapacitated’ later on that evening, you can use your imagination!

The rest of team ended their evening with Larry and his guitar, in front of the wood burning fire - singing a few cowboy songs and learning some more about the confederate war history.



No comments:

Post a Comment