Lake Oconee

That's good, that's good.

Well, in District 42, I mean, the way we talked about it earlier from as far as McDonough to, you know, Morgan County to Lake Oconee to, what did you say, Jackson Lake to Loganville.

It is quite a diverse, you know, cross section.

And this area is continually changing.

One, I broke all my traditions, and I actually got out and did some productive stuff Saturday morning despite Georgia game.

I went to Lake Oconee Academy to watch Maddie's cheer competition.

And after the cheer competition, when I was dead set to get home for the Georgia kickoff, Haley goes, well, let's go have lunch at the Ritz Carlton.

All right, whatever.

What? Haley, why ruin the fun? I mean, you're talking, dude.

And this is, and I don't know if you know Greensboro,

Georgia, Lake Oconee.

This is like.

So I have a couple that are pretty easy to get to for me that I really, really like.

I really like the Ritz Carlton Lake Oconee.

So this is, you know, it's hour-ish outside of Atlanta.

It's on the lake.

Yeah.

Tony's in Buckhead, Georgia there, Lake Oconee area.

I, you know, I, I, I don't know how close that is.

Yeah.

was unreal ... never, never dreamed that there were that many coyotes in this world.

We left here, we left, we left William's house in, in, at Lake Oconee at 8:00.

We got to Kansas at quarter to 12.

Yeah, right at midnight.

Um, big reservoirs.

Occasionally I'll go out with some of my colleagues here and fish Lake Oconee, um, stripers or whatnot.

But yeah, I would say mostly it's, it's small impoundments close by.

So I, I try to ask everybody this 'cause I'm so passionate about it.

Thanks for listening.

On Tuesday, May 6th, 2014, neighbors of 88-year-old Russell Dermond and his 87-year-old wife, Shirley, drove down the manicured streets of Great Waters, an upscale, highly secure gated community in the town of Eatonton on Lake Oconee in central Georgia.

Russell had been a successful executive, and after a lifetime of working hard, he and Shirley had retired to the area 20 years earlier.

Russell and Shirley lived at the end of Carolyn Drive on a cul-de-sac overlooking a peninsula.

Russell was a World War II Navy veteran from Hackensack, New Jersey, who went into business after the war.

He worked as an executive for a clock company, but ended up owning several successful fast food franchises, including Wendy's and Hardee's restaurants.

Shirley also grew up in New Jersey, but eventually the couple retired and moved south to the affluent development at Lake Oconee, roughly 70 miles southeast of Atlanta.

They had been living in the 3,255 square foot home on the lake for almost 20 years, and they had been good neighbors and were well-liked by everyone.

It was the eighth hole.

Lake Oconee.

How far was it?

165.

whose career has taken her from extraordinary wedding cakes to high-pressure television competitions and the international competition stage.

Today, we're going to talk through Riva's creative career journey, her remarkable business, Merci Beaucoup Cakes, in the Lake Oconee area.

Love a Georgia person, yay.

Her participation in cake competitions on and off screen, the new season of Food Network's Halloween Wars, and more.

also lived in Northern California, but I'm from Southern California.

And then we kind of all just migrated out to Georgia.

So funny because your parents came to Lake Oconee to retire, right? And your sister was out here and then you were like, I guess the natural path for me is to be here.

Exactly.