After reaching my hotel in Roswell, Georgia, I got my bike tucked in and then ventured out to eat dinner.
There was a fabulous place across the street, kitty-cornered, from the hotel so I decided to walk.
The restaurant atmosphere was fabulous, it looked like it had been there for a while, but was super-luxe. I ordered the tuna. The filets melted in my mouth. The croissant was sweet, and the salad was good.
In the morning I ventured to the local yarn store in Milton, Unwind. It was in a strip mall. I realized that it was not a "downtown" in this area, the neighborhood is not very walkable. You really needed a car to get around.
Inside, I found a group of ladies working on their projects. Two of them were making a mosaic shawl, one in a dark-grey and off-white and the other in a light and dark green. I told them about my trip and that I had come from Ohio. One of the ladies had lived in Crossville, Tennessee and she agreed with my characterizations of the town as having an old-fashioned real downtown, but also stretching out over several miles. This yarn shop had been described on google as having a real "community" outreach and all the ladies agreed when I mentioned that. I could tell they had been knitting together for years.
I spoke with the shop owner and she pointed me toward some of her specialty yarns. She imports yarn from Ireland and other places. I ended up choosing five skeins of a merino-linen blend that were sale-priced.
Next, I sought out a bike shop. It was several miles from the yarn shop.
The bike shop and the bookstore I was looking for were across the street from each other, in a recently-constructed shopping mall that had apparently been planned to look old by the architects.
I enjoyed the planter full of pansies outside the bookstore.
The clerks in the bookshop were very friendly and kind. They were interested in my trip. One of them was from Sharon, Pennsylvania, originally, until her husband was transferred to Atlanta. I asked them about the bike shop and they didn't seem to know much about it. There were a few shelves of used books, but mostly everything in the bookshop seemed shiny and new. There were several bookcases full of teen literature and several bookcases full of Christian literature. I saw a shelf of classics and a shelf of gardening books. It was getting toward lunchtime and they steered me to the "The Nest" cafe at the end of the street.
It was a beautiful day, and there was a long line at the counter. I decided to go to Lily's Sushi next door.
All in all, the shopping experience in this simulated downtown area left me feeling like I had just visited a modern outdoor shopping mall. It was walkable, but I didn't get that lived-in "neighborhood" vibe that make a town feel cozy.
I retrieved my car from the parking lot and headed for the next stop.
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