A Bigfoot Birthday Weekend for Max! – by Brian Whiddon, Managing Editor

This past Labor Day weekend, we packed up the truck and drove two hours to Blue Ridge, Georgia.

It was Max’s birthday (he turned 25), and he wanted to see the Bigfoot museum. Back in 2021, when Angela and I were making the 11-hour treks from St. Petersburg, Florida to North Georgia to look at houses, we brought Mason along. On one of those trips, we were looking at properties in Ellijay, which is not too far from Blue Ridge. Seeing signs on the highway for the Bigfoot Museum (officially named “Expedition Bigfoot“) I checked the GPS and saw that it was within easy driving distance of where we were house hunting. So, we booked a hotel nearby, scheduled our house tours for later in the afternoon, and the three of us spent a couple of hours browsing all of the Sasquatch paraphernalia on display at the museum. Max wasn’t with us on that trip.

So, for his 25th birthday, Max wanted to experience Expedition Bigfoot.

What Max didn’t know was that Angela had arranged to have his sister, brother-in-law, and all four of their kids join us at the museum! Interestingly enough, when we told Max that we’d rented an AirBnB to stay in, rather than a hotel, AND sent him the photos of the place, he didn’t ask any questions about why we rented a large 4-BEDROOM house.

Well, anyway, the drive took us through sections of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Park. I absolutely LOVE driving those hilly, curvy forest roads. During the entire trip, we listened to the podcast “Sasquatch Chronicles” to get us in the mood. Angela and I were interviewed for that podcast two years ago! There’s a link to a snippet from that interview RIGHT HERE.

Occasionally we’d pass a house or two built in the middle of the forest, miles from anywhere. I couldn’t help but think that those people must have Bigfoot encounters from time to time. How could they not?

When we got to the museum, I was floored at how many cars were in the parking lot! I mentioned to Angela that it wasn’t that busy the last time we visited. To be honest, I think we were like one of three families in the whole place the previous time. Angela reminded me that, last time, we came on a weekday, AND that this was the Labor Day weekend. But…it was still the Bigfoot museum. So, I was pretty stoked. In fact, we all were. The last time we went there, Angela thought I was a yo-yo for believing in such a silly thing. She knew there was no Bigfoot. That was a couple of years before she saw hers. She’s singing a different tune nowadays!

If you ever get a chance, you should take a trip to Blue Ridge, GA. The area is gorgeous. The town is quaint. It’s a bit touristy for my tastes, but not nearly as bad as Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge in TN. It’s not far from TWO national forests. There are plenty of places for hiking, whitewater rafting, historical tourism, shopping, zip-lining, etc. A little something for everyone. And while you’re there, go see Expedition Bigfoot. Whether you believe or not is irrelevant. You can’t help but come away asking what it is that so many people are experiencing, and why we can’t seem to catch or kill one.

And sure, I believe that some of these accounts are made up stories to get attention. But where do the footprints come from? Livestock are found dead. Not torn up as if by a bear or coyotes, but with their necks twisted and broken. You don’t have to dig too deep to find accounts from on-duty cops who have seen these things. Soldiers, professionals, game wardens, forest rangers – credible and reputable people from all walks of life have reported encounters with large, hairy, bipedal creatures in or near forested areas. And if just one of these photos or videos is authentic, then something is out there.

One more point on Bigfoot and I’ll move on:

This isn’t just a Northwest USA phenomenon. These things have been sighted throughout the U.S. and Canada. Check out the map below (taken from the Bigfoot museum’s Facebook page) showing the locations of reported sightings.

Additionally, Angela was excited to get to see her very own pin marking her very own sighting on a Georgia map at the museum itself. That’s it at the top left.

Okay, so back to the story. While we were at the museum, in walked Sister, Brother-In-Law, and all four grand-babies. Max was a little stunned. Ha ha! Then, we all spent the next hour or so keeping track of a 5, 7, and 9 year-old running around looking at all the exhibits. Fun for everybody!

We finally left the museum, but not before I got to spend WAY too much money on some t-shirts and car stickers.

The AirBNB cabin was a few miles up the road, and the cabin itself seemed to be a few miles up from the road. I’m not kidding. We had to drive up a driveway that was darn near STRAIGHT UP. I literally couldn’t see anything but woods and sky past my truck hood until we leveled out and came to rest at the carport. There is no way anyone could drive up that driveway if there was snow or ice on the ground!

The cabin was great for the kids. The entire basement had been finished into a play area, complete with a pool table, video arcade games, a foosball table, a disco light over the whole area, and a giant bedroom with FOUR king-sized bunk beds! What was cool for Max, Angela, and me was that our bedrooms were upstairs. So, we barely heard all the squealing, fighting, and carrying-on occurring downstairs.

After an evening of pizza from a local restaurant, birthday cupcakes from a local bakery, and Max opening his presents (like the Bigfoot pajama shorts below), we all went downstairs to the home theater with two big couches and 50-inch big screen to watch “The Legend of Boggy Creek” on our Prime account. If you haven’t seen “The Legend of Boggy Creek,” yep, it’s a Bigfoot movie.

After the movie, everyone went to bed. The next day, we packed up and took an alternate route home that took us through the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee. This ride was really cool because US-74 takes you right along the Ocoee River where people are whitewater rafting. Every fourth vehicle passing by was a school bus with a giant roof rack stacked with four or five rafts on top. We’re going back there someday.

Stay tuned for THAT adventure!!

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Brian Whiddon is the Managing Editor of WritersWeekly.com and the Operations Manager at BookLocker.com. An Army vet and former police officer, Brian is the author of Blue Lives Matter: The Heart behind the Badge. He's an avid sailor, having lived and worked aboard his 36-foot sailboat, the “Floggin’ Molly” for 9 years after finding her abandoned in a boat yard and re-building her himself. Now, in northern Georgia, when not working on WritersWeekly and BookLocker, he divides his off-time between hiking, hunting, and farming.

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