Oh! Snow has a whole new meaning!! (yet more pics soon)

 03-12-2022

The plan is to finish breakfast by 9:00 and meet George in the lobby for our "snowy adventure".  Then comes the text that it will be 9:30 and that's just fine, we don't have to hurry through breakfast.  Ammar can even go outside to have a smoke.  That's when he realizes how very cold he is!  I don't think he has as many layers on as I do!  And he's really not used to the cold.

We go back inside and George comes quite soon.  He's a perfectly charming young Georgian man, maybe thirty-five, with a huge smile and happy personality.  They drive on the right side of the road here, but his van has the steering wheel on the right, which is a little disorienting!  Ammar gets in the front with the hope that it will keep him from getting motion sickness.  It takes about half an hour, or less, of the twisting roads to realize that it isn't going to work.  We pull into a little town and he and George flag down a taxi.  The driver doesn't speak English at all but George tells him how to get to Hualing and Ammar gets George's number so we can communicate.

I hate for him to miss today, but I don't see another option and I'll take a million pictures to share with him whenI get home.  I move up to the front seat and we're off.  The first stop is the reservoir and who can resist snow and water??  But, really, there is so much beauty whizzing by that I'm already pretty overwhelmed!  I can't stop pushing that little button on my phone.  Thank goodness for digital!!  I could never have afforded all that film, and processing, and printing!!  

We next went to the Sabaduri Fortress, and I got to play with the snow for the first time.  It's so amazingly light and fluffy!  I've only held wet and heavy stuff.  This was like the old fiber fill we used for crafts!  I was looking for a different angle and George showed me a way that we could get past the locked gate!  It involved walking along a ledge and swinging your leg around the end of the fence while holding on for dear life because there was a shear drop off if you let go!  It was such a blast!!  I don't think my picture is any different;  but the experience made my whole day!

Mostly I was just entranced by the way the snow changed the landscape and played with the trees.  It didn't matter to me where we went or what else we really saw!

Along the way we see lots and lots and lots of semis parked along the edge of the little two-lane road and the guys are shoveling the snow away from their trucks.  And off the roofs, too!!  We are on the road to the Russian border and they have to wait for permission to cross, so they may be here a couple of days.

George knows the place that makes the world's best khinkalis and we just happen to be near there!  Oh, and they have chacha, Georgian vodka! Ours is the only car when we stop;  but we are blocked in when we leave, or so I thought.  George reminds me that he is a professional and demonstrates his skills extricating us from the other cars and the snow!  But about lunch, there is Georgian salad, with parsley and white onions and lots of salt which really makes a tasty difference, and Georgian pear soda and, of course, ten khinkalis.  They truly are the best I've ever had (okay, so how many others have I really had?  Maybe three!). But wow they are delicious and the chacha is much tastier than I expected.  And just as potent! We spend quite a bit of time talking about the Ukrainian situation and he is pretty frustrated that NATO, the EU, and the USA aren't doing more to keep kids from dying there.  We've also talked a lot during the day about the cost of living in Georgia and in the U.S.

George has shared his wifi with me so I can check on Ammar.  He says he got back safely and is still not feeling too great.  We are heading back and George stops to ask a policeman if a different road is open.  It is and George says it's much prettier and we should make ourselves happy!  I'm good with that!  And oh my goodness is it ever magnificent!!  I feel like I'm in a fairyland!  The branches are fully encrusted in ice and cover the road is some places! Just gorgeous!

There's only one place left on our agenda, The Chronicles of Georgia, which sounds like a children's book! It is actually a gigantic sculpture that is "dedicated to 3,000th anniversary of Georgian Statehood and the 2,000th. anniversary of Christianity dissemination." Poor George has been driving all day and I tell him that I can climb those steps all by myself, he can rest!  Poor guy, he's been keeping me upright through all the snow slogging!

And now it's time for home sweet home!  George puts his number in my phone and says to call if we have any problems or anything that he can help us with! He really is a sweetheart and I wish him well.  When I get in Ammar isn't home.  My wifi connection was pretty spotty because I phone kept forgetting Georgie's wifi, so he wasn't sure when I would be home until after he had left to get some provisions. 

When I walk in I discover a huge plate of sliced fruit and a bottle of wine!  Ammar calls to ask if it is in place of afternoon tea and is told that it is just a gift?!?!  Just as well, since we've missed tea and don't feel up to going anywhere.  We'll have a real breakfast and everything will be fine.

Just time to blog before the effects of the day drag me off to dreamland!  Choosing the photos will be the hard part, so there might not be too many! Sorry!  I'll try to make up for it later!