Road trip! Plan a day-trip up I-24 or I-75 for this weekend's festivals

Cindy Lowery will sell her tiny baked polymer clay figurines at a booth at this weekend's Ketner's Mill Country Arts Fair.

Wood basket with Red Apples

Cindy Lowery went to her first Ketner's Mill Country Arts Fair as a shopper in the early 1980s; now she's an exhibitor.

"I used to go there with my mom every year. We loved going together and shopping, having lunch in the food barn and usually a fried pie for dessert," Lowery says. "It's just a great festival. Beautiful location, things for the entire family, great crowds."

This weekend's Ketner's fair marks her 12th year selling her tiny, detailed, baked polymer clay figurines and Christmas ornaments.

"I have a lot of regulars that I see every year. I've watched kids grow up. I have couples who bought from me when they were dating and now they are buying for their kids."

Lowery is one of more than 100 vendors who will be selling in the popular festival in Sequatchie Valley on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 18-19. Ketner's is popular as much for its picturesque setting as its vendors. It's held outdoors on the grounds of the historic operational grist mill at the base of Suck Creek Mountain in what is known as Ketner's Cove.

Visitors can tour the mill, enjoy the talent of bluegrass musicians and cloggers, ride in a hay wagon, skip rocks across the millstream, shop or buy lunch in the food barn. Many of the concession vendors at Ketner's are school and community groups fundraising for their worthy causes - which makes the calories in a funnel-cake indulgence hurt less.

As long as you're making a trip to Ketner's, travel on up I-24 to Bell Buckle, Tenn., where the huge Webb School Arts and Crafts Festival is also happening this weekend. This juried show started 38 years ago as a fundraiser for Webb School and continued to grow until it spilled off campus into downtown Bell Buckle. Visitors can catch a hay-ride shuttle between the two locations.

• Festival chairman Ray Padgett of Mentone, Ala., says "cool mountain air and Southern hospitality" will soothe the soul at this year's ColorFest in Mentone's Brow Park.

The fun starts Friday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m. with a two-hour, Beatles tribute concert in the Mentone Inn pavilion. Saturday and Sunday is filled with craft and food vendors, music, a silent auction and soaking in nature's beauty. Local schoolchildren will perform at the Children's Festival site, Kamama Gallery.

"Something new and exciting at ColorFest is that the Echota Cherokee tribe of Alabama will perform at the Children's Festival," says Padgett. "The Children's Festival will also have pony rides, pumpkin bowling, glitter tattoos, cookie decoration and a dunking booth."

• The apple harvest is cause for celebration in Cleveland, Tenn., and Ellijay, Ga., on Saturday and Sunday.

At Cleveland's Apple Festival, the action on the courthouse square includes a new act onstage at the top of each hour, food and craft vendors, pageants and apple dessert contest. The Trailhead Bicycle Kids zone is free to children ages 12 and under. Three pageants for girls ages 5-7, 8-10 and 11-12 are scheduled Sunday at 5 p.m. It's too late to enter, but spectators are welcome to cheer on their favorites.

Cindy Lowery makes tiny baked polymer clay figurines.

If you're a good cook age 16 or older, bring your best homemade apple dessert to the downtown gazebo between 11:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to compete in the apple dessert contest.

Walk-ups are welcome for a $10 entry fee, and bakers must have a completed entry form with them (which can be downloaded from cleve landapplefestival.org. Desserts must be in an 8- to 12-inch, nonreturnable pan or plate. Winners will be announced at 2 p.m.

Georgia Apple Festival bills itself as "North Georgia's biggest celebration" for 43 years. With more than 300 vendors and 22 apple varieties fresh from the orchard, it takes two weekends to pack in all the fun.

The Apple Arts crafts row in downtown Ellijay will be open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11-12 and 18-19. The Apple Classic Auto Show takes place Saturday, Oct. 11, at the Gilmer County Civic Center on Highway 5 next to the Lions Club fairgrounds. The Apple Festival Parade steps off 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18, in downtown Ellijay.

To make it easier for visitors to get around this mountain town, free shuttles will operate from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sundays. Shuttle parking areas are located at Gilmer High and Middle schools, Ellijay Elementary and Mountainview Elementary schools.

Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6284.