Wednesday, March 09, 2022

Throwing Paper Airplanes off Allatoona Dam

On Adam's boat ride I took this picture of Allatoona Dam, on the deep side. I recently saw on facebook a picture of catfish the size of sports car that they claimed was caught at the dam. This picture reminded me of the time my life-long friend Sam Carsley and I, when he was a Tech student, walked up the stairs on the other side, to the top. Once there we neatly folded sheets of paper into paper airplanes and threw them over the high side, down the Etowah Valley. In every case wind going eastward through the valley until it hit the dam would shoot upwards, which could carry our paper airplanes higher and higher.... when the planes went as far as it could ride the wind, it would start descending and then it the updraft of the wind would take up again, over and over. We had about a dozen planes circling us. They might still be there. And, see that hump behind the dam on the right? On the other side, it is almost 90⁰ down to the river. As steep as a cliff. It is covered with little small bushes and trees. In my teens I climbed up that, gripping bushes and trees. I was breathless when I reached the top. I never said I was a bright teenager.

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