Georgia Traveler; 302; Made in Georgia Tour

You Coming up on Georgia Traveler. It's the Maiden, Georgia tour from moonshine and soda to paintings and prayers. We'll show you a few peach state originals. That's next on Georgia Traveler. On this episode of Georgia Traveler, it's our Maiden, Georgia tour. We'll show you a great getaway in Conjures and outdoor activity on the coast and family fun in Dawsonville.

But we begin our Maiden, Georgia tour here right behind us at the world of Coca-Cola in downtown Atlanta. When ordering a soft drink in Atlanta, you don't ask for a soda and definitely not a pop for prompt service, simply ask for a coke. Because Atlanta Georgia is the home of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola was actually first served here in Atlanta in 1886 and John Pemberton invented the product. But Asa Canller actually purchased the company from John Pemberton in 1891 for $2,300, which was a lot of money back then. But then if you turn around and think about what Asa Canller sold the company for in 1919 to Ernest Woodruff and a group of investors, it's even more magnificent. He sold the company for $25 million. And so the Coca-Cola era was underway. A legendary product now offering over 400 different brands and served in over 200 countries around the world. And the best place to learn all about Coke's history is none other than the world of Coca-Cola.

We do have a lot of the archives and the memorabilia of the company simply to tell the history of this worldwide product. We've also got some fantastic things that you won't see anywhere else. We have the world's smallest and slowest bottling line. We only bottle about 20 bottles a minute and a full speed, full-size line would produce about 1200 bottles a minute. So we've slowed it down considerably so that our guests can see all the magic that goes into every bottle. For those guests who had visited the original world of Coca-Cola and are wondering if we have the tasting experience. Yes, we would have riots in the streets if we didn't have a tasting experience here. Well, I remember the old world of Coke as a kid. I used to go around and taste all the flavors. I think they had flavors from all around the world and we'd go through and get every single one. Well, this new world of Coke, I think they have even more flavors, but I'm a grown-up now. So I'm going to leave that to the kids. Cut. We have over 60 different beverages that are manufactured by the Coca-Cola company around the world.

So we have them arranged by continent. So you'll see that you can take your taste buds for a trip around the world and never have to leave Atlanta. I remember as a kid there was one that just stayed away from the Beverly. I want to try it. Really bad. That one's good. You want to try that one? It's called Beverly. It's real good. Have you tried it yet? Here, pushing the Beverly. I'm going to sell this stuff. Go! Go! She likes it. Yeah? No? No good? Beverly is a bit or a pair of teeth that they have in Italy that taste a little bit like biting into a ruby red grapefruit because it's made with quinine water. Do they like it in Italy? They love it in Italy, but it's a really hard beverage to find because it's not as well known as Coca-Cola. You want to try the Beverly?

All right. We got a Beverly drinker here. Let's see. Oh, full glass. Let's see. Go for it, go for it. Oh, brave man. All right. Now, let's go to suicide. You get one of each of them. That's good. Better than the Beverly. Now, everybody who was around in the 80s remembers when the formula changed. You want to talk about new code, do you? Yes. It was in 1985. And Coca-Cola had decided to change the formula and that was really as a result of feedback we had gotten from consumers. They said they liked the sweeter taste that we were going to change to. So the company did away with Coca-Cola. New Coke was what you had. There were riots in the streets literally as you'll see on this footage. It was an outpouring of concern and just desperation from consumers calling the company every day saying we want our old Coke back. So I think it was less than three months. New Coke was away and Coca-Cola classic came back. The new world of Coca-Cola, we have an entire section of pop culture, which is a gallery where we showcase what people around the world have done with the logos and the story of Coca-Cola.

But before you even make it to the pop culture section, you have to pastor the front gates where a polar bear awaits. And I promise this isn't your typical sideline mascot. We have the seven-foot tall Coca-Cola polar bear that you can only see here at the world of Coca-Cola. He is simply magnificent for adults as well as children. It's really interesting to watch the reaction. I get a bigger kick out of watching the adults than I do the kids because some of the kids are used to fluff the animals and they're still kind of in that mindset. So they're very accepting the adults. You don't look any worse for the way we didn't have to call them that. You don't have any teeth as you can see. He's harmless. And if you make it past the polar bear alive, you can step into the 4D picture show. That's a 3D movie with motion-based seats. So you really get into the action of a film. It is wind and water where that's appropriate in the movie. Now you watch the bobbling plant. They all end up here.

So before you leave, make sure you grab a fresh Coca-Cola. Thank you. Appreciate it. So when embarking on a journey to the world of Coca-Cola, arrive thirsty. Very thirsty. But please take my advice. Stay away from that bitter, bitter letter. You're right. I know you'll try it anyway. Good luck. Next, we had East Takanyur's Georgia for a spiritual getaway. The monastery of the Holy Spirit. The concept of monasticism of living in a monastery where life is dedicated to prayer and religious contemplation has its roots in some of the world's oldest religions. More than 60 years ago, the brothers of the monastery of the Holy Spirit made their way from Kentucky to Kongers. And the nearly 40 men who live here follow rules set down in the 6th century.

The Saints when St. Benedict wrote his rule for monks and said the brothers had to make their living by their own hands. Mornings at the monastery begin with mass in the chapel, which the public is invited to attend. The monks began construction on the chapel in 1947, but a lack of funds brought the project to a halt until the mid-50s. And it wasn't until 1961 that the chapel was finally completed. 60 feet above the chapel for our stained glass windows designed and crafted by the monks themselves. Stained glass is just one of several items made at the monastery of the Holy Spirit. The first stop on our monastery tour is the bakery, where the team gets started on 250 fruit cakes. It takes 55 pounds of pecans, 30 pounds of dates, 16 pounds of raisins, along with a 60 pound fruit mix of cherries and pineapples to make 250 cakes.

The mix is then marinated for several days in 6 pounds of cherry and 4 pounds of peach brandy. After the cakes are baked, peach glaze is brushed on top, and later 3 ounces of a mix of golden cherry and peach brandy will be injected into each fruit cake. And all of the work is done by hand. Brother Augustin is the bakery team leader. It's not your typical fruit cake at all, but I think this is a very unique tasting fruit cake. Today's batch of fruit cakes are just a fraction of the more than 10,000 which will be made this year. The fruit cakes, along with fudge and cookies, are all big sellers in the months and weeks leading up to the holiday season, which helps fund the monastery's expenses. It's important for us that they not only financially, but as far as spiritually, who we are, that we make money by the work of our own hands. And now that all the hard work is done, time for me to step in and lend a hand.

This is like putting on makeup. This also helps seal the cake, too. Keep some of the moisture down in here. This smells delicious. Our next stop on this tour of the monastery of the Holy Spirit is the stained glass workshop, which is provided glass for churches of all denominations throughout the southeast and as far west as Arizona for more than half a century. As with all of the items made and sold at the monastery, the brothers are self-taught. Father Mathodius leads the stained glass team. This is one of the prudent virgins in the Bible. She's holding a lamp. Remember the story is that Jesus told the story that there were ten virgins and I think nine of them let their oil burn out and she was the prudent one to keep her lab lighted. Most of this glass came from an Armstrong glass company here in Kennesaw. This particular lot that we got this time was made in China.

Now it's my turn. It's all right there. Let's give it a good start. How's that? One more. Churches aren't the monasteries only customers. If you're willing to wait several months, you too can have a handmade these abstained glass. The monastery hopes it will soon be able to sell smaller pieces in its gift shop. Our third and final stop on our visit to the monastery takes us to the bonsai garden. It's thought that the origin of it was that in a place like China the emperors wanted to have some memories of forest of trees. And so they crafted things like this so in their palaces they could sit and look and have a sense of an ancient old tree or a grove of trees. One of the oldest trees at the monastery of the Holy Spirit is this white pine designed by American artist John Nakka. If we look at this, this looks like a regular size white pine with moss growing at the bottom and rocks growing over here.

And we've got some little three leaf clover here just as you would find in its natural setting. You could take a shot of this from a certain angle and frame it in such a way that just looks like a perfectly old, old tree. There is an art to bonsai crafting, something anyone can learn with a little patience. Basically when you're trying to make a bonsai, you're trying to make what looks like an old tree. And so the Japanese would say that if the tree is old, a bird should be able to fly straight through it without missing a wingbee. Here is a difference from when you first start. Yeah, I can see through it now. And so that's what you would have to do all through here all around this until you get it open enough like this one over here. Or you can see the line of the main truck.

Visitors may stop by almost any day, visit the outdoor as well as the tropical bonsai greenhouse and select a favorite as a keepsake. Finally, for those in need of a break from the daily nine to five, the monastery of the Holy Spirit offers weekend and midweek spiritual retreats. Guests can stay in semi-private rooms, sit in on classes led by the monks, have lunch or stroll the monasteries more than 1,000 acres. That does it for this tour of the monastery of the Holy Spirit for an up close and personal look, make the drive to conures and meander down the monastery's magnolia line drive. Every view of the Georgia coast offers a stunning panorama. So where better to capture that than Glen County, Georgia. People come down here and they may have wanted to be an artist their entire life and they finally retired.

We offer classes so that they can finally see their dreams come to fruition and it's just a great place and there are a lot of people who are good mentors for artists. The first thing is I think I want to make sure that your paper is ready to go. Bob Fisher has been painting I believe the whole time that he's been here on St. Simon's. He does our Saturday morning watercolor workshops which people can drop in on if they're in the area just for a Saturday. He's got a great ability to get a good painting out of everybody in the three hour class that he has every Saturday. He's always amazed at how well all of the students do from start to finish. Everybody paints pretty much the same thing but when they're finished I'm amazed at how well they've done. So thanks Bob for letting me join your class.

I always wanted to sit out on the side and do some watercolour. I've never done it before. So take me from step step number one. Just to wet the paper on both sides. And most people don't do that but I find it makes for a lot of those two things. It gives me less control but it allows me to lift things, lift paint off the paper. Alright so when I start what I want to do is go into the water. I want to get some of this sepia and this is something I never use on a finished painting but I'll use it here because it gets... I can go very very dark or very very light with it. It gives me the whole range of values. So this is going to just continue to run on down a little bit. And the next step is going to take a little different brush. This is kind of a mixture of animal hair and synthetic.

It's not very good for painting because it kind of bends like this and doesn't stay where you put it. But it's great for lifting and here's the key to this technique. Remember there's this little lake of water on the back side of this paper. Which means that if I come in here and say all right I've got a little branch coming up there. Let's see if we can get that in here. It's going to come out here like that. That's the first step and then the next one will be the first step. That's the first step. Lay in your mid-value wash, lift out the lights and then later we'll come in and punch in the ducts. You ready to get started? Sure. He's really good with beginners and he kind of makes watercolor. It's not a simple thing to do but he is so good at giving them the steps in order to do wet and wet watercolor.

And that says his real expertise is that technique. There's the same thing underneath of it. There you go. Perfect. Now let's get the water out of your brush or paint out of your brush. Excellent. Now lighthouses are a little bit wider at the base and they are at the top. So it's kind of important to get this at least on the left side going out a little bit farther. The next phase is to actually what we call punch in the darks. We've laid in the mid-value washers, we've lifted out the lights and now we're about to punch in the darks. Now the trick here is to actually sense the paper is pretty wet is to get as much water out of the brush as possible. So sometimes I'll actually try and get it almost toothpaste consistency out here. And if I can't then I'll try and work the water out of the brush.

Okay, and now if I go in here it should pretty much hold. Let me see if I can do it somewhere where it's not going to make any difference right here. Plain air is going outside and painting the vistas that you see without using photographs. Plain air painters get out there, they fight the sand nats and the bad heat and the humidity and they paint outside and they're very, very passionate about that method. Now from there, once I've done that I've got these hard edges right here so I'm just going to go in and make some nonsense marks. Essentially what I'm doing is just getting paint on the brush. I'm just kind of twisting and pushing and smushing and when I do this in color I'll actually have lots of different paints, different colors on the brush. You can definitely tell who's teacher and who's student.

Why does it really, really good? I don't know, I've found myself confusing a lot of my paintings. When they're loose like that, it just gives it a great feel and it looks like you had fun more when you were doing it and actually we did. I think that's reflected in the paintings. That was a great job. Thank you so much, Chris. Taking a moment to teach me, I'm going to come back and take some more classes. All right, well we have classes all the time here but I don't offer some others as well. Great, thank you. From art on the coast to moonshine in the mountains, it's off to Dawsonville for this week's local legend. What do moonshine, arts and crafts, antique cars, food and fun, all heaven common? Well for the last 40 years they've all been a part of the mountain moonshine festival in Dawsonville, Georgia. It started out, people setting up booths, it was called Fall Festival in and people come in the fall of the year when the leaves would change.

And then they started getting themes up here on that and then when they call it the moonshine festival. And connecting it in with the race cars, that was a good thing to do because it's a nice car. It started right here. If people wonder what moonshine has to do with NASCAR, the answer is everything. The early moonshine runners had souped up cars in order to outrun the authorities. These cars would often end up racing each other for bragging rights and bets on the side. Those early races lead to the creation of stock car racing. I liked it. Meets in Dawsonville has a birthplace of stock car racing. Back in when the V8 engines came along, back in the early 30s, their boards would meet down here on the river bottom. The big liquor guys would bet on who had the basis car.

And some of the same dollar signs I've had and they went to Atlanta and rented the horse track down at Lakewood Fireground. And that was the first organized racing. The real runners could take these cars, run down the road 100 miles an hour, do a 180 and go back the other way. We want made a moonshine runner car, a moonshine runner car. What made it different from another car? Handling, in other words, going around the curves with 100 gallons. A gallon, you know, weighs 7 pounds. So that's a lot of weight in the back and they had no seats in the back. Really and truly, these were used a lot and have a reputation. But the real cars that they used to haul the big loads were not 44. They used these to go and collect money as they set their load off. And then they'd come back to town and go buy them. The good time house or wherever they set it up. So is it true that the runner cars were kind of indistinguishable on the outside? Yeah, they were, they looked just like everyday cars, except when they were empty, they were like this and when they were full. That big spring.

But if you open the engine, you could tell if that was it. They didn't have these kind then. They had Cadillac and I was going to fill the engine. All this talk about cars and moonshine sure has made me hungry. But I'm not the expert in that area, so I'm off to find Phil to get some tips. Phil, I see you've already eaten, but no, it's my turn. How do I get started here? Okay, the best thing to do is you've got to get some liquid refreshment into you. How do you familiar with the monkey nut? The monkey nut. The monkey nut nut. Turn around. Oh, all right. Yeah, I'm guessing this is a monkey nut and a monkey nut expert. Ah, pirate. Yes, okay, so what is in a monkey nut? I really want to get down to the nuts bolts here. Right, you can get Phoenix a lot up behind the mom out right? Just orange or a lemon battery. All right, this is the moonshine festival to these monkey nuts involved moonshine. No moonshine here this week. They are perfectly legal. Perfectly legal. All right, well, I think I'll start with a monkey nut. All right, well, I think I'm fed for the day.

Yeah. Phil, thank you so much. This is the best monkey nut I've ever had. It's so good. I'm so confused. Now it's time to eat. Hmm, look good. Finding food was no challenge at the Mountain moonshine festival. My next stop took me to the legendary bully burger. Okay, been going around the festival and everybody keeps talking about a bully burger. So I got to figure out what a bully burger is. It gets slaw, mustard ketchup, onions, and a pickle on top. And they just, when the restaurant first started, everyone would just order a bully burger and that's just the way he would make them. Okay. So that's just, it's basically all the way. And who's he? Bully. Bully. Yeah. Is bully around? No. Where's bully? I don't know. Okay. We'll figure that out later. Okay. All right. It's looking good. There's just a missing ingredient right now. The burger. The burger.

Oh, this looking good. All right. Head in this way. I said you got, here's the bully burger. Pickles on top. All right. All right. Well, here we go. I've had the monkey nut warmed up, had a little chow-chow, a pickled okra. Last time for the bully burger. Now all I need is an napkin. Along with the multitude of classic cars and fantastic food, the moonshine festival boasts an array of arts and crafts. And I think Phil Proctor is scouting out the latest fashions. Okay. You know what? What kind of bonnet y'all got? If I was going to wear a bonnet, what would I mean? What bonnet would actually work for me? All right. Just the right one goes like this. That's it. There you go. That's it. All right. Yeah. All right. Now sometimes, you know, fellas, you got to be in touch with your manly side. The bull is off. Yeah. I know, bro.

This is fantastic. Oh. Okay. I got people laughing at me. You got to have a bow. No. If I try to bow, it's not coming off. Oh, man. I appreciate it. You guys got it. I know. What's the nice answer you guys got here? All right. We'll have a good time. Thank you so much. All right. Crafts, cars, food, and fun spotlight. The annual Fall Festival in Dawsonville, Georgia. But there's still one question left to be answered. Is there really moonshine at the Mountain Moonshine Festival? I guess that secret stays with the stills. Well, that does it for our Georgia traveler made in Georgia tour. We hope you'll join us again next time. Until then, I'm Valerie Edwards. And I'm David Zelski, wishing you pleasant journey. Okay. Here's a trick question. How do moonshine and elevators go together? The moonshine actually compliments the elevator

and the taste of the sweetness. You can get a sweet moonshine or a bitter moonshine and the dough is actually a sweet bread, which is fried. So they can compliment each other for either way when you get the sweetness of the meal. Elephant here. Anyone? Elephant here? We're good. Ready? Yes. I hope I am. Traveled here to conures from Kentucky. I forgot the rest of it. Husty fan, do the dance, do the hop. Do it, baby. Hi. Georgia Traveler is produced in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development.