April/May 2024
Number 200
Springtime in Georgia & Alabama with traveling friends
In explanation of the title of this message, this is indeed our 200th message to you from the road. From “A Mouse and Other Tales” in 2001 to this message today; through Central & South America, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Africa and of course the US, Canada and Mexico — 65 countries in all. Two hundred times we have taken ‘pen in hand’ to share our stories with you. As always, we hope you enjoy coming along for the ride.
After a very quiet but pleasant winter in southern Alabama, Spring arrived with a bang. Beginning mid-April, we joined forces with a couple of friends and spent a bit over two weeks traveling in northern Georgia and Alabama, seeing some of the highlights of the southern edge of the Appalachian Range.
We then moved further south into southern Alabama to enjoy the Gulf Coast, the area where we have sort of settled; it’s lovely right now, and our adventures even included a couple of alligators. Not too bad, we thought!
These wanderings were taken with old and dear friends, a German couple whom we first met over 10 years ago, and with whom we have joined up over the years in various parts of the world. Berit & Toni first appeared to us on a search for a can opener in the great campground at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona, back in early 2012. Since then we’ve met up with them in an amazing array of countries: Turkey, Scotland, California and Australia in addition to multiple visits with them at their home in Germany.
We were resurrecting a trip that had originally been planned for 2020, but had to be cancelled due to Covid. The first thing we now realized was that our earlier plans had been far too ambitious. So as we began planning for this year’s trip we narrowed our focus, shortening our distances and giving more “off” days so we could enjoy our trip better. We also knew we could give a halt any time we wanted, and think again. Nothing like being 4 years older to shorten up the ambitions!
Our plans started with a wander in northern Georgia and Alabama after we picked our friends up in Atlanta and took them to the RV rental place. We would be checking out the flowers of the South in springtime, trekking along mountain trails to lovely waterfalls, enjoying mountaintop views of the southern end of the Appalachian range, seeing historic sites, old wooden covered bridges, small towns with European ancestry, museums about the Civil Rights movement, and lots more. Then we would move south in Alabama to see the antebellum Coast and other interesting areas.
Of course it was still too much to do in the time we had, but we didn’t want to cut out all that much. Mostly, in addition to seeing the sights, we wanted to have time to relax and enjoy each other’s company. We would have liked more time to just enjoy the beautiful weather, the local food, the walking trails where we camped, and the pleasures of being in the south in the springtime, but we all did OK even though there certainly were times when we felt a bit rushed.
Our equipment worked out fine. Toni & Berit had arranged for a rental van and we took our coach, plus towing our car so we could all ride together for day trips on tiny mountain roads. In making reservations, we’d given ourselves two nights in each campground, allowing for a day between to either rest or wander about.
In order to get to Atlanta before Berit and Toni, we needed to get out of town a couple of days before they were going to arrive as we are about 350 miles from the Atlanta airport. It was a scramble, but we made it. Our preparations were complicated a bit because as soon as we said goodby to our friends at the end of our time together, we would need to turn west and head to California right away. This meant that in effect we had to be ready to leave for the summer, not just for two weeks.
We picked up Toni and Berit and drove to Payne campground at Allatoona lake, not far from Atlanta, GA. We spent the weekend visiting, letting them get over jet lag and organizing the trip ahead.
Leaving on Monday we drove to nearby Cartersville to visit the Etowah Indian Mounds state historic site and museum. Amid misty rain we walked the grounds and learned about this important Cherokee group and its culture.
They were part of what the researchers refer to as the Mississippi Culture, with settlements throughout this part of the east, and the Etowahs were very important. Later on, still in Georgia, we stopped near the town of Chatsworth, to see another Etowah site, the home of Chief Vann.
Unfortunately, the Etowahs were forced to move west of the Mississippi River, as part of the “Trail of Tears” removal, which started in 1838. This was brought on by the discovery of gold nearby. Thousands died from disease before reaching their new home. Why were they forced out and made to march away? Gold, lots of gold, had been discovered nearby in 1828, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush. A tragedy and embarrassment.
It was a very pretty spot, we learned a lot, and found information about other locations in the area that we could visit. Things to add to the list! But we were having lots of fun. It was just great seeing our friends again after six years’ separation.
Next stop? We headed further east in Georgia, through Gainesville and close to Cornelia, where we made camp for a couple of nights at Lake Russell, in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. The next day we all piled into the car and took a loop up into the southern edge of the Appalachian Range, starting in Helen, where we had lunch and a nice walk through town down to the river.
We went further up into the area, and circled up around Brasstown’s Bald Mountain, through the Chawhoochee forest. (“Bald” means treeless mountaintop.) We ended up at the top, near the town of Brasstown, where there is a really great lookout with a 360 degree view of the Appalachians, lots of information on how the area grew over the years, the critters in the area, and other fun stuff. Also, there is an access from here onto the Appalachian Trail, one of the most famous hiking trails in the United States.
That afternoon, we stopped in the town of Cornelia on our way back to our camp spot. We were looking for a museum called the Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis. (Can you believe all this?) But rats. The museum (housed in an old house) was there, but nary a person to be found. So we made good with taking pictures of ourselves in old rockers on the porch, then moved on. Next time we’ll try again — maybe.
The goal of the next day’s drive was to reach the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds, in the exotic sounding town of Hiawassee. This the location of the huge Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens, at their peak now with the annual festival only just concluded. So off we went.
The day was also to include stopping at Tallulah Falls Gorge State Park. Georgia and Alabama both have lots of well known falls to explore, and we’d picked out several we wanted to enjoy. Tallulah Falls is magnificent, and it has a huge suspension bridge across the water, much of the way down this endless, very steep and difficult path down to the bottom. Some of the group decided this was all a little bit too much, although Toni took all the various scenic routes all over the gorge, had a wonderful time, and had much to tell the rest of us about. But even from above, the falls are stunning
One of the fun aspects of guiding our German friends around the States was introducing them to great places to eat. One top-notch spot came along about lunchtime this day, when we hauled up and stopped for a bit at the Rusty Bike Cafe in Clayton, GA on Hwy 441S, just before you turn west on Hwy 76/2, east of Hiawassee. Great food, great atmosphere, swell waitresses, and some damn fine RUSTY jam, labeled as
Raspberry
BlUeberry
Strawberry
Sea SalT
Black CherrY
All available for purchase. It was a great meal, among bikers and locals, and we felt welcomed. Super experience.
We finally showed up in Hiawassee mid-afternoon, found out the skinny on seeing the flower gardens (tomorrow), and collapsed. We were parked near the lake, it was a lovely afternoon, and a nice long walk along the water took all our remaining energy.
The next day, which was quite beautiful, we attacked the rhododendron gardens and spent two lovely hours wandering along the trails, taking lots of photos of the gorgeous bushes in full bloom, plus seeing a big fat snake. He was gross. Ended our afternoon with a stop at DQ for ice cream. Yummy. The gardens were really spectacular and well worth a visit.
The town of Hiawassee was a real treat all on its own. It’s located in the Appalachian Range, and is a very nice small town. It’s known as the country music capital of Georgia. We were too early in the season for music, but soon after Memorial Day all would be opening up.
From Hiawassee we began to drift further west, towards northern Alabama. We had briefly debated the idea of heading a bit further north and crossing into Tennessee for a couple of days before getting to Alabama, but were loathe to introduce ourselves into the madness that is called Chattanooga. Don’t get us wrong, Chattanooga is terrific, full of great things to see (with the aquarium at the top of that list), but getting through the area, and getting to what you want to see, was meant for another time. For one thing, this area is so popular that even back in January when we were doing our campground reservations, the nearby state park was already booked up.
So we drove southwest toward the state line, on a quiet route which took us past Amicalola Falls State Park, home of the final Georgian water fall on our list. It was a beauty.
And now we’d reached Alabama, where we got to choose from among several more lovely falls to enjoy; all the while muttering to ourselves why had this trip not been scheduled for a month, instead of slightly over 2 weeks!!! We needed more time!
We headed toward a strip of waterfalls that angle down a crack in the mountains sort of near the Tennessee River in the northeast corner of Alabama.
Starting near Mentone, not far from Ft Payne, we visited the impressive De Soto falls. For one thing, we had easy access and could wander close to the water. Also, there was a lovely set of stairs down to the falls, decorated with pretty, multicolored stones set into the steps with letters sharing the following poem by John Muir.
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread;
Places to play in and pray in,
Where nature may heal,
And give strength to body and soul.
Then, moving a bit further south along a road paralleling I-59, we stopped outside Geraldine to check out High Falls. We liked this one too, in part because there were several people there enjoying the falls with us, including a fisherman practicing his fly-casting abilities. And, unusually, there was a walking bridge across the top, so you could explore the area, go swimming, or just enjoy the day.
One last falls to see, and then on to a new group of sights. The historic Noccalula Falls Park is in Gadsden. It seems it is named after a princess; she is posed on the edge of the falls, where, as the story goes, she jumped to her death on her wedding day after being forced into a marriage she couldn’t abide. This spot was different from the others in that it is located in the midst of the fairly major city of Gadsden and is surrounded by a lovely city park, so access was very easy.
Enough falls probably. Each lovely. Some viewed from the bottom, some from the top or somewhere in between. Every one worth the short walk to get there, and located in the midst of or near a forest glade. Aren’t we lucky to have them all protected as treasures!
But Alabama has other treasures to share — ancient covered bridges being one.
There are several of these interesting old wooden structures up Hwy 75 northeast of Birmingham. Individually they’re not as glamorous or spectacular as the waterfalls; however, when taken as a group, as a representation of how sturdily built, well maintained and long-lasting wooden structures of the early parts of the 20th century could be, these are fine specimens. None we saw was still being used for vehicular traffic; they are fun to walk across, lean over to enjoy the sturdy build, think about the old cars that used them daily, and just kind of enjoy earlier times.
We stopped at two of the bridges: the Horton Mill Bridge is near Oneonta, and the Clarkson Bridge is close to Cullman; this second bridge has an old gristmill and a log cabin located nearby. They’re fun to see.
But we had more than just bridges on our minds. The Jesse Owens Memorial and Park are in Danville, a small town in a rural area (near Decatur if you’re into such things); this is where he spent his younger years. The museum is terrific, there are plaques and such, a wonderful film featuring footage from the games, and very interestingly a replica of the long jump pit used in Berlin at the 1936 Summer Olympics. It was wonderful to be there. Such an incredible man! You might enjoy the 2016 film, “Race”, which tells his story as well as the story of the controversy revolving around those Berlin Olympics.
And we had one more bridge we wanted to check out in this part of the state: a natural bridge very close to the small (tiny!) village called Natural Bridge. It’s right at the intersection of US278W and CR3500. Got that? Well, it was pretty cool, if I have to say so myself. You are in the deep woods at this point. You walk along a small path, and then you come on this big opening, a sort of a cave. You keep going and the cave gets bigger and wide open and you look up and there’s a long piece of what seems to be concrete that runs across a big opening right over your head. You think, “What crazy person would walk across that big opening way up over your head?” Well, not me of course. But people do. And it’s fun to take pictures and crawl around among the rocks at the base of the cave. So there. But time to move on.
So! If you have a map handy, you can see that we’re moving south through Alabama. We’re gently moving to the bottom of the state, close to the Gulf Coast, our southernmost destination on this jaunt. We were now heading to the bottom of the hill so to speak. But with lots more to see.
We made a lovely stop at an Army Corps of Engineers park outside Coffeeville. We’ve been there several times over the years, and it’s a favorite camping spot for us. The small park (Service Park) is right on the edge of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, and it’s a beauty. By now we knew we desperately needed to slow down, so we stayed there for two nights and didn’t go anywhere. It was great; we hated to leave.
However, we wanted time for several more sights before heading back to the Atlanta airport. We started with a really lovely visit to an antebellum mansion in Mobile; it was everything you could ask for — the Bragg-Mitchell mansion in the old part of the city. They don’t let you take photos inside, but the grounds were totally charming. The interior was quite charming, too!
We spent two nights down in the Summerdale area, where we have our motorhome pad and spend our winters now. It was a very nice visit, and now Toni and Berit can picture us “at home.” We spent our days exploring the area. The magnolias, rhododendrons (and even some dogwoods) were all in bloom. We were able to show them a bit of the coast, visiting Weeks Bay and walking out to get the feel of the Gulf.
We also took a trip to a spot where I’d been assured there would be alligators… and son of a gun! We saw two of the big beasts! There is a great walking path right near the water along the edges of Mobile Bay, near Fairhope. It was actually quite exciting!
The next day we started the trek back to Georgia. We had taken our car with us when we headed out in the first place, back in mid-April, but hadn’t been sure that we wanted to tow it behind us all summer. Our brief tour with it along convinced us that, at least for us, towing the car is not the right thing. So, we left the car in storage at the Plantation for now. Slim Charles shook his bottom in happiness (?) and we took off again. Another year, on a different trip we might make a different decision. But for now, our little Honda has the summer off once again.
Leaving town, we stopped at our favorite restaurant down here, and introduced our friends to breakfast at the Magnolia Blossom Cafe in Robertsdale. Heavenly!! Southern biscuits at their finest!
And now it was time to talk about the days we had left and how to make the best use of them. Well, T&B, what do you want to do between here and Atlanta? And so, together, we finalized our list of sights to see. A great list it was, too.
We decided that if you are going to be seeing the Deep South, it would be good to spend some time in Montgomery, Alabama, home of three great Civil Rights Legacy Museum Sites. (At the legacy sites, you are not allowed to photograph indoors, nor at certain outdoor areas, so we don’t have a lot to share with those of you who are reading this message.) But we do have some areas where it was allowed, and we did what we could. Please try to go to Montgomery and see these museums yourself; they are important, they are modern, and they do a wonderful job of telling the difficult stories of slavery, the Reconstruction period and life in the Jim Crow south. We visited two of the three locations one afternoon, then returned the next day to see the third.
After we left Montgomery we drove further east, crossed into Georgia again and went to see the Warm Springs home of FDR, along with the Roosevelt Summer White House. While perhaps less profound than the museums in Montgomery, it was still a very interesting place to visit, and we wandered the property while dodging heavy rain at times. This is a lovely, rural part of western Georgia, lush and green (and their rhododendrons and magnolias were in full bloom, too).
After we had finished touring the Historic Site, we stopped in the tiny town nearby and had splendid ice cream (and homemade fudge) at the Warm Springs Bed and Breakfast Inn. The elderly woman at the counter makes it all, will make you a hot fudge sundae if you wish, and runs the B&B. We had a delightful chat, during a quiet moment on a rainy day.
Pretty done in by now, we headed for our last spot on the trip — one of our favorite places, R. Shaefer Heard COE campground out of West Point, GA, where we had all decided to settle in until “airport day” — enjoying each other, catching our breath, taking walks around the lovely lake, sharing photos, and preparing to say goodby. We only left once, on the Sunday, to enjoy the drive to La Grange and the terrific food at Country’s BBQ on Vernon St.
The next day Berit and Toni left for the drive on to Atlanta, with a few chores to perform, a short list of sights that could be fit in, and the “necessary” time returning their camper and arriving at the airport before their flight would leave. It was hard for us to say goodby. We miss them and hope to see them again, somewhere down the road.
We had had a terrific couple of weeks. We’ve never seen so much green, thanks to the very rainy winter. The weather was great, although often cold at night when we were in the mountains. After all, it was only April. Berit and I went for long walks in the woods, on trails leading to the local lakes. Flowers were everywhere. The landscape and gardens were all jammed full of rhododendrons — every color you could think of, all crowding in upon each other. And we all were really pleased we saw not one but two, TWO, alligators!! That was just plain super!
Obviously we really had a great time in a lovely part of our country. In an area where not too many of us know there is real beauty. Next spring, if you are thinking of heading into the southeast, and would be interested in our ideas of good places to go (and don’t forget the great BBQ), just give us a shout. We have lots of suggestions for you.
From Rick & Kathy, with Slim Charles and his entourage,
You’ll want to visit the Photo Page for this story to enjoy the gardens and the rest of the trip.