Georgia On My Mind

Greensboro, GA

Yesterday my trailer and I travelled north on I-95 and crossed over into a new State – Georgia. It’s new state number 5 for me and new state number 11 for my trailer. Almost at the border the landscape changes over from the flats and marshes of Florida to the hills and trees of Georgia. And I instantly felt like I’m back in the south again after the more diverse population of Florida. The “honey” and “y’all” etc came back into the vernacular and the friendly quotient went way up.

I overnighted in a KOA just south of Savannah, but didn’t go in to the city as it was threatening rain and I’m back there on Monday for a week so lots of time to see that great historic city.

Today I drove up I-95 to I-16 and headed west. Then I headed across country on secondary roads for most of the day to my destination near the small town of Greensboro, Georgia. I loved it. Little towns, some of which looked forgotten, and some where the core of the historic town is still vibrant, sprung up with regularity. Old Victorian homes, plantation style homes some still showing their former stately glory, house trailers on acreage, gynormous ranch houses with land for horses or cattle, and a hodge lodge of other things. There was obvious signs of logging, and a little bit of farming. I stopped for gas at a secondary road intersection and there were so many truckers lined up at the lunch counter that I got in line and joined them to pick up a “4 rib lunch”. They had barbecue half chickens and racks of ribs that you wouldn’t believe. Huge and succulent. Yum.

It’s definitely spring here in Georgia, where the seasons are more noticeable than Florida. There is new light green growth on the deciduois trees, the pink and red azaleas are in full bloom, the yellow daffodils are up and out on the side of the highways, fruit trees of various kinds and colours are magnificent (making me home sick for Vancouver), mauve wisteria blankets patches of trees along the highway and they even have a species of dogwood tree that is blooming. Georgia is the “Peach State” and I haven’t seen any obvious orchards, so I’ll have to be sure to figure out which of the blossoms are peach trees and where they are grown. Too bad not to be here in fall.

The KOA just south of Greensboro is actually on a branch of Lake Oconee which supposedly has great fishing. I won’t find out if that’s the case or not first hand since fishing is not my bailiwick. But my neighbour came back a few minutes ago with 3 fish so it must be so. It’s rather unique in that there are 23 train cars on the property. They are using some for administration, like the office and the pool houses, laundry, etc, and some are for nightly rental. You can stay overnight in a caboose over looking the lake. They look like they’ve been here a while, so not sure what kind of shape they’re in but kind of a neat idea.

Why am I in a small town in the middle of Georgia you ask? Well, do you remember meeting my friend Marilyn in northern Ontario on August 2/3 of my adventure? Marilyn lives at Kensington Point on Lake Huron in the summer where I got to know her, but her winter home is Georgia. So I’m up here visiting with her for the next couple of days. We have some fun stuff planned and I’ll try and remember to take some pictures to share.