Georgia Traveler; 512

This week on Georgia Traveler, the Enchanted Wonderlands of Gibbs Gardens and Ballgrounds, 16 beautifully cultivated gardens and 22 reflecting ponds spread over 220 acres in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains. This garden is all about harmony of nature. We travel to the great locomotive chase festival in Adairsville and learn about one of the most exhilarating civil war stories of pursuit in American history. Next, the wonders of Flat Creek Lodge, a first class resorting game reserve in Swainsboro where fine dining includes world-class homegrown mushrooms and cheeses. And lastly, we hit two hot Atlanta dinner theaters, a comedic murder mystery at Agatha's, and the brilliance of the barn at the new American Shakespeare Tavern. All that mourned in the next Georgia Traveler.

This week's journey begins at the Enchanting Gibbs Gardens and Ballground, a dream-turned-reality by one of Georgia's great landscape designers. This property is among the most exquisite public gardens in the country. For two years in the making, and open to all Georgians as of spring 2012, come join me as we tour Gibbs Gardens, a 300 acre estate of artistically designed gardens nestled in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountain. Here, Jim Gibbs invites you into his dream

garden and takes you inside the mind of a master gardener who found a piece of earth seemingly made just for him to cultivate. When you visit the gardens, you'll enter through an iron gate and you would meander and wind down to the pool where we have the reflecting waterfalls. As you leave the pool, you wind gently down to the perennial and annual gardens, which overlook the Rose Arbors. Pass through the Rhododendron and the Hydrangea Gardens, move on by the Coifish Pool, and as you wind on down, you'll go through the Woodland Shade Gardens and you make your way through the Green White and Chartreuse Gardens. As you wind on down 150 feet from the crest, you would finally arrive at the Water Gardens, which then feature the Water Lily Gardens, the grandchildren's sculpture gardens, the Japanese Gardens. The Japanese Garden is the country's

largest, and as the Garden of Four Seasons, it's at its prime year round. This garden is the most difficult garden I have ever designed. It has taken me 15 years digging out the ponds, putting in the stones, putting in all the plant material. Knowing that I wanted to design a garden, which would be visited by the public, I decided that the best thing to do is to put these earth and bridges in. There are seven ponds that are showcasing this garden. What's the significance of this bridge? It's believed that evil spirits travel in straight lines, so when you make a turn, your evil spirits are no longer with you, and by the time we make three turns, you should have no evil spirits with you. Over here we have the Venerable Seat Rock. You position this where the designer would most like to sit and view the garden. This is my favorite place. So what do you want people to take away from the Japanese gardens? This garden is all about harmony of nature.

The effortless beauty of the garden belies the diligent care gym invests into all of its elements. So I want you to reach in here and prune that plant there deep enough, and it don't be afraid. So when you prune it, you're going to force everything to fill out laterally, and that's what we're trying to do. Now the light's in, and that's the way you prune a bonsai. See how you're beginning to open up? So by opening this up, look at the beautiful trunk formation, how sculpture it is. It's gorgeous, but you want to open it up just as you did. So you did a great job. That looks good. Thank you. It takes two men up to two days to prune this plant, and there are more than 50 of them in the garden. Jim traveled to Japan to study the country's traditions after majoring in landscape design and horticulture. He started down the path of business, but gardening is a family tradition passed on to Jim by his mother and other relatives. I feel that landscape design is really in the genes. My mother's mother and my father's mother

were avid gardeners. Gardening became Jim's passion and business. Gibbs landscape company has over 200 awards for their landscaping design and installation. Two are particularly meaningful to Jim. I've been honored at two gale of White House receptions. One was Mrs. Reagan and Mrs. Carter presented one to me at the White House. It was quite an honor. And he built his home here too, complete with garden cats. The manor house sits on one of the highest peaks in Cherokee County, 150 feet above the water lily gardens. Our water lily gardens are the largest display of water lilies in a natural environment in the nation. We have over 140 varieties of water lilies and we have the Monet Bridge featured in our water lily garden. Jim traveled to Monet's garden outside of Paris and returned to build a replica with the exact dimensions.

But for Jim, a more meaningful tribute is the one to his mother. These rolling hills blanket it and daffodils. We have the largest display of daffodils in the nation. We have planted over 3,500,000 daffodils. They cover over 50 acres of property and we have over 60 varieties of daffodils that come into bloom. Daffodils multiply every year they're planted. So Jim will always have daffodils as far as the eye can see. A gardener's garden is never complete. Every year provides new seasons and every year I will continue to design new plant collections. They complement nature. This is my legacy. It's a journey for me and I'm just having the best time of my life and I'm going to continue to enjoy it. Let's catch up with Ricky at the Great Locomotive Chase Festival in Endaresville. We're an

entire town celebrates this epic civil war escapade. Did you know that the city of Daffodilsville was the first Georgia town to be listed in its entirety on the National Register of Historic Places? As soon as you drive into town, you're going to see why. Because Norman Rockwell style charm abounds. Historic homes and buildings line the streets. The cozy downtown looks much the same as it did 100 years ago. And the train still goes right through the center of town. It's a thriving, modern community that's close to its historic roots. And what better way to celebrate history than with a parade? A daffodils Great Locomotive Chase Festival takes place the first weekend of every October, featuring music. A parade, beauty pageants, lots of food, carnival rides and crafts, it's grown a lot since it started in 1968. But it's what happened more than a century earlier

that lent its name to the festival. The theme was chosen because the Great Locomotive Chase and Civil War era was our number one claim to fame here in Endaresville. In April 1862 during the Civil War, a Daresville witness one of the war's most famous stories of southern heroism. Jerry Holloway is director of the Daresville Rail Depot Age of Steam Museum. As it does today, this 1847 depot stood right next to the train tracks at the time of the Great Locomotive Chase. Also known as Andrews Raid, union spies snuck into Georgia as far south as Canis on North of Atlanta to steal the Confederate Locomotive, the General. The Yankees raced the engine north toward Chattanooga, destroying train tracks, telegraph lines and bridges. Confederates struggled to catch them until they arrived in a daresville. At this depot, they hopped onto the Texas. The southern forces raced the engine backward after the Yankees

until running them down north of Ringold. We count that the final leg of the race started here. Eight of the 20 union raiders were hanged. A mural on the outside wall of the depot museum captures the excitement of this chase. Artist Skip McNutt and his creative partner Ernest Niel collaborated to bring the story to life with paint. Who knows some of the highlights of what's going on in this mural. This is the General and it's headed north. We have the federal troops back here. They're throwing frost tides off onto the track to go west to burn the bridge prior to reaching their destination. To break the Confederate line and then we have the Texas actually chasing the General. The real soldiers of the Great Locomotive Chase didn't actually have guns. The artist took some creative liberties to add action to the scene. Inside the museum, though, are genuine artifacts from a daresville's history. We have farm tools. We have civil war history. We have

railroad history. Chanel during the 30s and 40s and 50s, our main street was Highway 41, which was the first interstate in this area. Chanel was the big boom at that time. So we have that. Just a little bit of everything. All of the artifacts in the depot museum are donated by local citizens. So now that we have the history of the Great Locomotive Chase Festival, how about we get some food? Misty, what are we doing here right now? We're fixing blooming fried onions. All right, let's get started. Now why do you put it in an ice water? Because it helps bloom out the onion. Because it fills with the water and it kind of swells, right? So can I try? Yes, you may. I'll start filling it from the outside in. Like that? Yes. Oh gosh. Grab the onion from the bottom and turn it upside down. Because you're going to drain that excess batter off. Okay, hold it like that. Yes. Okay, now set the bottom at the onion right here. Okay. Slide it off your thing.

Like that? Yep. Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's going to be really hard to eat though. And we have to try the funnel kit. Here you go, man. The hot fresh ones take just out of the prior. Enjoy it. There's your napkin in for it. Thank you. Thank you, honey. So when you come to a daresville the first weekend of every October, you can look back at history and learn about the Civil War and you can stay to make some of your own memories. We now join Chef Marvin Woods at Black Creek Lodge in Swainsboro, a resort in game reserve that also boasts an exquisite dining experience. Through these gates, lies a treasure reflecting East Georgia's best qualities and telling the story of its past. Today, Black Creek Lodge is an outdoorsman's paradise, a stunning resort and game reserve. But like so much of the land surrounding Swainsboro, it started out as farmland and long-leaf pine forest.

The 2,000 acre property is vast, so I hitched to ride with General Manager Captain McDaniel for a tour. I get to drive this? No, no, no, no. We're going to take another route, but there's a great story behind that. Okay, what? The guy that owns the place, he bought these online and they came to us in a box and the instructions were in German and we had to find somebody that knew German that could know how to put them together. We used them in one swap of tours, but okay, you're going to take one in this tour, so we're going to go tour here. Black Creek Lodge is the brainchild of the owners, Steve and Carolyn Harlis, portrayed in this painting of them enjoying a ride on the property. Their plan was to reinforce the land for Timiland production, but a small house once used as a hunting club inspired the Harlises to transform the property into a place that visitors could enjoy, just as previous inhabitants of the manual county did in the early 20th century. And of course, we do deer hunting, we have an individual stance, or we have what we call the honeymoon stance, where a man and his wife sit out there lots of times,

the wives want to go and take pictures. Along with wildlife, peacocks and swans, the resort is peppered with landmarks to the history of the area. The redwood and benches came from one of the earliest buildings on the property, the first African-American schoolhouse in the manual county. This fire tower, dating back to 1932, was relocated to the property from nearby Oak Park, and the countless sculptures by local artists serve as signposts of East Georgia's heritage. This is one of our bias ponds. This is our beach. Not many beaches. Our own hunting resort. You'll notice we've got a hummingbird, a flower, and a bee on top of each building. The bee is the man's restroom, the flower, the lady's restroom, and the hummingbird, that's the bar. It's a serene retreat where you can explore by day and relax and live luxurious accommodations at night. The animal-themed guestrooms, like Eagle Lodge,

captured the essence of a rustic yet elegant camp. And if you want to stick close to home, just drop a line in the fishing pond from the privacy of your own deck. The nearby spa and Japanese baths bring a new meaning to roughly. Black Creek Lodge is also a working farm with 200 acres dedicated to the organic, sustainable production of produce, like oyster mushrooms. So, this greenhouse can produce how many mushrooms roughly? We can produce as much as 3,000 pounds a week. 3,000 pounds a week. Wow, that's amazing. A rare crop to most of the southeast, oyster mushrooms grow abundantly here. But Black Creek is perhaps best known for its award-winning cheeses, produced at its dairy, open for the public to tour. Black Creek turns out up to 15 different flavors. The Aztec Cheddar is a flavor of Georgia contest winner.

It is a combination of Waheo chili powder and cocoa powder. And it's blended in the curds and layers. It's pretty consistent and cellar for us. Very good. As you can see, Black Creek Lodge is a feast for the senses and the stomach. At the Feindani restaurant, guests can taste the fruits of the land and bring home some of the farms, jams, and cheeses. You know what time it is, the bad dinner's on, jackets on, to the kitchen. Black Creek's executive chef, Joey Williams, showed me how the restaurant uses the wonderful ingredients growing just beyond his doorstep. So, I'm going to do a oyster mushroom stack. I've already taken the mushrooms from the fresh and turned them down. Roasted them in balsamic. Roast them in garlic. Go ahead and start stacking it in there. And then it's time for the cheese. So, this is a garlic, garlic and herb blend. It's a chef. Okay, chef. Yeah, that's amazing to me.

To you. And then, top it again with your rest of your mushrooms. Now, is this something that's on the menu all the time? This is not. I do it seasonal on this one. Raise it carefully. Finishing this off. Yes, we're going to take a little cilantro. Garnish it a little bit with that. We're going to take that balsamic, please. We're going to finish it off. Cool. Very nice. Next up, some mac and cheese made with black creeks as tech cheddar. Now, it's low on it. Yeah, it's steaming coming off. It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. I can taste the bacon, obviously. And that as tech cheese. And a little heat. A little bit of coconut powder. Those tasty appetizers prepared me for the main event. Tell me how we use some of the ingredients from this one of the robbery. OK, well, these things are on our menu. As you can see on both these entrees right here, I have our cowboy cut pork chop, right. Tattooly soft, but on top of that, under all this goodness of cheese right here is actually our blackery-gourished mushrooms. And the next one right here, this is our grilled ribeye. Once again, up under all this goodness here is more blackery-gourished mushrooms.

It's one of our more popular items on the menu. Can we dig in? Please, please, by all means. Whether enjoying your game cooked to order or pairing just the right wine with your daily catch. Can we cheers? Salud. Thank you, chef. Thank you. Back Creek Lodge is a treasure for all to enjoy. Still to come on Georgia Traveler, two hot Atlanta dinner theaters, a comedic murder mystery at Agatha's. That's the real crime. And enjoy the brilliance of the bar at the new American Shakespeare tavern. There's a kid in the princess. One, two, one. Georgia will be back in 30 seconds. Let's meet up with Ashley at two long-time Atlanta Tractions

where dinner and theater combined to create an evening of pure entertainment. Whoever thought Agatha Christie and Sir William Shakespeare would rub elbows in Atlanta. Agatha's on Peachtree Center Avenue and the new American Shakespeare tavern on Peachtree Street have more in common than their Midtown location. Each of these theaters is guaranteed to show you an apporiously good time. Since its founding in 1988, Agatha's mystery dinner theater has kept anything but covert operations. Performing most days of the week in a total of four shows year-round, Agatha's asked guests to make a big trade-off. New friends and a great spread in exchange for a little unrehearsed acting. We have indoor glory. From the moment of entry, the play is on. Leave your reservations at the door.

Oh, and bring a partner to help stay off the self-doubt. What's the last thing with the reservation? Georgia Traveler. We're here with Georgia. guests are greeted by the shows two actors who also play hosts for the evening. Welcome Georgia Traveler. Coming with me. The show tonight is called Jackalicious. Okay? I am your host. My name is Enrique Eswabe. So if you have any questions, I don't know when eating. Okay? For patrons, the formula is the same each show. Join up to 150 guests in the dining room to be seated as your new identity at your assigned table. As the plays action unfurls, foul play ensues and a murder is committed. But stay on your toes between belly laughs. The perpetrator could give you. These are not stuffy who done at plays. All of the original satire written and hilariously performed here at Agatha takes its inspiration from real-life people and situations. Most of the characters are current event type people people who are on shows. We spoof a lot of things. We try to pick on everybody evenly, however.

Can you catch the contemporary illusions in this play? Jackalicious. My character tonight is called Enrique Eswabe and he is the assistant for Gaeli Geococomo. She is the owner of the salon. She's the great guest, and I am her assistant, Espa. With a direct line to your funny bone, the actors at Agatha's can clearly carry the evening on their own. But you'll want to pay special attention to the guest cameos. Cast as hotel staff, Kyle and I proudly seized our moment in the spotlight. One, two, three. This is the man she is dead. She had a makeup on her head. We did it back for the stretch. She was her tomorrow. That is all we know so long. People's first reaction to Agatha's is shock. We don't do dramas, so you're not going to be sitting intensely. You're going to be laughing most of the night. And our biggest compliment is my cheeks hurt so much when I leave here or something like that.

Face cheeks, good. To experience the full taste of mystery at Agatha's also means enjoying the five-course meal served between the plays four acts. We have a wide selection of entrees there are six to choose from. That's a huge appetizer buffet. And we try to change them in you with each show. As the play concludes, so does the meal, pausing the antics at Agatha's and for celebrity, at least until tomorrow night. Is that the real crime? Just a hop skiff and a jump away from Agatha's you'll find the new American Shakespeare Tavern serving Iambic Contaminer since 1984. Agatha's isn't the only place in town for a hearty laugh. In fact, literary genius William Shakespeare is a master of the absurd. Mishaps, mix-ups, men playing women. It's like really, really the best soap opera ever ever written. And it'll never go out of fashion if the audience wants to watch

and we're really fortunate that our audiences are kind of greeting and hungry for what we do. Greed and hunger, which haven't abated since the Atlanta Shakespeare Company opened on a shoestring at manuals tavern in the 80s. Now thriving at their own venue, they're always rehearsing and always performing. I know what you're thinking. Isn't all that Shakespeare difficult to follow? Oh, contrary. So we found that Shakespeare speaks most clearly from his own time in place. And it's easier to understand if you perform it in a manner consistent with what Shakespeare imagined. I love it! When you see Shakespeare at my theater, you will feel like you get it. And you'll finally understand why Shakespeare is such a big feat. As an original practice theater, actors foster this understanding by performing the text as a true conversation, even acknowledging the audience, just as Shakespeare intended. We actually talked direct address to the audience.

It's just a lot of fun. Yeah. The audience becomes another character in the play-out. They're one of the most important characters. Don't worry at this theater, you won't be expected to stand and deliver lines. These actors have those mastered for you. We've got pop, we've tried out, and we've grown. Before seating myself in the house for a mid-summer night's dream, I had to sample the authentic British pub menu. Featuring salads, chili, shepherds pie, and a full complement of wine and ails, the opportunity is abound. There's plenty of theaters all over America that do extraordinary Shakespeare, but that combination of feeding the soul with Shakespeare and feeding your body with food creates something way bigger than one or the other. In true Shakespearean fashion, the experience is love at first sight. Having never seen Shakespeare on stage myself, I quickly learned that what captivated audiences centuries ago still very much alive in modern context.

The Shakespeare Tavern is very similar to the actual Globe Theatre in London because the feel here, it's so real. Performing each week, Thursday through Sunday, the Atlanta Shakespeare Company wants you to get to know William Shakespeare. Why does Shakespeare stand the test of time? It's relevant, it's fun, it's sexy, it's fun. For a quarter century, both Agatha's and the New American Shakespeare Tavern have thrived by catering to a few simple pleasures. Food, drinks, and good humor. Until next time, Pleasant Journey. We have to try to fry death. Oh wait, it's fun, okay. It's from Boston. I quite don't sit. Yeah. Stand again, go back. Your sound went bad, do it again. See how important this sight line is right there. We're looking through. Keep walking. Are you going to ask something for her? Yeah, we're ready. Oh, yeah, I think he was just. Yeah, well, we're sorry.

I don't know. Okay, just go for it, man. I love the camouflage. Yeah, you've got to have camo for that. No getting around it. To live in real life. We rad on Georgia's travel partner. We always do watch the show. Oh, I see. Yes. I love the show. We love the Shakespeare Tavern. We love the Shakespeare Tavern. Yeah. Georgia Travelers produced and partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development. This is a GPB original production.