Why not to go to Hillcrest Orchard in Gilmer County

Why not to go to Hillcrest Orchard in Gilmer County - Ellijay, Georgia

My family and I set out to enjoy a fall day at Gilmer County’s Hillcrest Apple Orchard this past weekend. The day was supposed to be filled with fun activities for the kids in an enjoyable atmosphere and followed up by a evening time cookout at Georgia’s Amicola falls. The day started out as expected, but ended as no one would have anticipated. In the end, my faith and the faith of my children in our legal system has been lost forever. It seems that these economic times have turned even the smallest of businesses, Hillcrest Apple Orchard included, into profit hungry organizations that will stop at nothing to pull an extra dollar out of your back pocket.

Without doubt, the advertisement was grand, if you are reading this then you have probably happened upon their web site. They advertise pony rides, wagon rides, go-kart, cow milking, face painting, museums, etc, etc, etc. Sounds great right, well you might want to look closely at what is “included” in the admission price, and what is “extra”. The entrance fee was (at the time of this writing) $5.00 per person and there were 8 of us (4 adults and 4 children)… so if you are keeping a running total, we are currently at $40.00 before we ever walked in the gate. Upon entrance, it quickly became apparent that this was not going to be the exciting and reasonably priced day that was advertised. We spent our first hour or so walking around the grounds trying to find something that my kids wanted to do that was included in the admission price. Passing the face painting station, I thought to myself… “I have all girls, that is surely something that they would enjoy”. After looking through the available choices, my kids decided on some small designs, about the size of a quarter. I then noticed the sign above the “artist” that listed the price of each face painting as $4.00, I quickly began to see what the agenda was.

So, for $16.00 more dollars I now had $1.00 worth of paint splattered on my kids face in a design that no one could tell what it was, by a woman who had no more painting qualifications than my golden retriever. Just in case you are keeping track, we are now up to $56.00. Following the face painting, we purchased a 7 dollar plastic bag (the cheapest available by the way) and let the kids pick apples to take home. While walking through the grounds of the orchard, almost everywhere you stepped there was an apple under your foot. The kids picked some nice apples and I took what was a fairly heavy bag back to the car so that I didn’t have to carry it around for the remainder of the stay. In case you are still keeping track, at this point we have now spent $63.00, for a few apples, and $1.00 worth of face paint..

A little shell shocked by my quickly emptying wallet, we decided to walk around the grounds a while longer doing the things that were included in the admission price. The “go-karts” that were advertised, were not go-karts at all, but instead pedal bikes set up in the blistering head on a dirt circle; needless to say, the kids latest all of two minutes on them. The “Museum” was at best a joke, a hot decrepit barn with a bunch of junk thrown in there. No explanation of what any of the stuff was, just a bunch of junk. There was a zip line that the kids enjoyed riding on, however there was no attendant at the zip line to ensure the children’s safety. My kids looked extremely bored, so I spent about 15-20 minutes giving them rides on the zip cord. It must have looked like a lot of fun, at least more fun than any of the other activities there, because within minutes I had a line of 10-15 children waiting for me to push them back and forth on the zip line. Maybe I should have been put on the payroll at Hillcrest.

After the excitement of the zip line, my kids were all geared up to do some cow milking, thankfully another one of the “free” activities. Let’s just say that we got our monies worth with this activity. Maybe they should have called it the “don’t touch my cow” activity. You might think that when giving the kids an opportunity to milk a cow, they might allow the kids to sit down on the stool and really get the feel for what many of them had seen on TV at some point in their lives. No, in this case the “attendant” (pictured above) sat on the stool as kids were expected to reach around him and if lucky squirt one shot of milk in the bucket before they were ushered away. Oh, and those pictures that you wanted of your kids “milking a cow”, forget about it. If you’re lucky, you might get a snapshot of your kids back as he or she was trying to reach around the attendant who wouldn't get out of the way for fear that someone might touch old betsy in places that she is not fond of.

Ok, so after an hour or two, we covered all the free activities. We watched the pig races, which was probably the best thing there. We took the wagon ride and we let the kids go down the slide. I didn’t have another 20 dollars to let my kids take the 30 second ride on the kiddy mechanical bull. I didn’t have another 28 dollars to let them jump up and down on a trampoline while attached to a bungee cord, and I certainly didn’t have another 30-40 dollars for 4 hot dogs and drinks so that we could have lunch there. Finally, we approached the event that my kids looked most forward to the most, the “Petting Zoo”. This event would be the last of the day before we headed out to cookout at Amicola Falls Start Park. Little did I know it would be the event that changed the course for the remainder of the day.

We walked through the orchard and down the trail to the petting zoo, my wife bent down and picked up an apple, and tossed it around in her hands as we approached the gate to the petting zoo. I reached for my wallet one last time. It would be another $3.00 per child or adult (even if you just wanted to go in and take pictures of your kids). There on the gate was a sign that read, “no reentry, if you leave the fenced in area for whatever reason you can not return without paying another $3.00”. Again, my stomach turned in disgust at the boldness of their greed. We opted to save a few bucks and take pictures from outside the fence. Once again, in case you are still keeping track, this $12.00, would bring my grand total for the day to $75.00. As I handed another $12.00 to the attendant, who not surprisingly spoke broken English, this lady has the audacity to look over at my wife and ask “Excuse me, do you have a bag for that apple”. Taken back and confused by the nature of this ladies inquiry, my wife replied “no, I just picked it up off the ground”. This worker went on to say “well, you need to put it back down on the ground”. At this point, my already building frustration reached it’s boiling point. I stepped into the conversation and told the lady, “are you kidding me, we have spent $75.00 at this establishment and you are hassling my wife over an apple that she had in her hand”. I could not believe what I has hearing. After a few more words between her and I, my wife tossed the apple on the ground and we walked over to the fence to take pictures of my kids. Still, astonished by her audacity, (and a little hard headed myself) I reached down and picked the apple back up and took a bite of it. (keep in mind that we had in fact purchased a $7.00 bag of apples not and hour earlier). At this point, I am standing there talking to my father when a young male employee arrives on the scene, obviously summoned by the Hispanic worker who had harassed my wife moments earlier. The young male worker, interrupts my conversation with my father and says to me in a very rude manner, “you have a bag for that apple?” By the tone in which the young man was talking to me, I could quickly see that this was not going to end well. I replied to him, “yeah, I have a bag for this apple… it is in my car”. Taking a few steps closer to me and father, “well lets go get it”, he says. Humored by this kids brazenness, I looked him in the eye and told him that I was watching my kids in the petting zoo and had no intentions of going anywhere with him. In the same breathe, I told him that we would be leaving very shortly and that he was more than welcome to follow me to the parking lot if he would like to “talk it over” then. A few more comments started to come out of his mouth, when my now irritated, 70 year father, turned around to him, threw his hands in the air and asked “what is you people’s problem, its an apple”. At that time, the young man (probably in his early to mid 20’s) grabbed my father’s hand and tried to bend it backwards. At this point, it was on. I was not about to stand around and let this man assault my father. A pushing match ensued; I dropped the “apple in question” and went on the offense. I can’t really recall all that happened next but I can tell you that parents scattered, kids started screaming, and a very ugly scene erupted. In the end, the young man had a busted nose and lip and my father a cut hand. The owner arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and offered absolutely no apology for her employee’s actions, nor did she offer any type of refund to us.

At some point, someone hollered, “call 911”. In the next few minutes, things calmed down and we made our way to the parking lot. We walked very slowly, expressing our discontent to the owner and our intentions to file charges against her employee for assaulting my father. Still, she offered no apology. Minutes later, two Gilmer County Sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene, one of the deputies took statements from us, while the other deputy went back down over the hill to gather statements from other witnesses and employees. After standing in the parking lot for more than an hour, it was decided by these deputies that my 70 year old father (whose has NEVER been arrested or even received a traffic ticket), and myself (also, NEVER been arrested for anything) would be arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to jail in front of our wives and four small children. Efforts to explain to “Barney and Andy”, that there was no disorderly conduct until Opie and Aunt Bee assaulted my father, fell on deaf ears. It became obvious, that the interests of these “lawmen” lay with the owner of the "Hillcrest Apple Orchard” and the evidently large tax revenue that they bring in to Gilmer County.

In the end, this little afternoon at the Hillcrest Apple Orchard, cost my father and I a few hours in jail, and multiple hundreds of dollars to Gilmer County. The case is on-going but the charges will more than likely get dropped after the county gets what they deem is enough money out of my father and I. My only recourse is to tell my story and encourage you to pick another apple orchard to go to. So if your church, school, Girl Scout troop or whatever is planning an outing to the Hillcrest Apple Orchard, please consider this story and give your hard earned money to someone else. There is no value for the dollar at Hillcrest Apple orchard and there is definitely no respect for their customers. If you don’t heed my warning and you find yourself in this same situation, remember...if you hear the banjo music, you better start running!

Hillcrest Apple Orchard