We departed A Stone’s Throw RV Park, after a very restful
night and headed north on Route 19. It was a bit foggy, but burned off very
quickly. If you are ever traveling this way, this is a great overnight stop.
Passing through the historic town of Monticello. Monticello
is a pretty little town with giant oak trees forming canopy streets and a lot
of old restored homes, many of them going back to before the Civil War. Many of
these homes were restored during the Great Depression of the 1930's.
Main Street in Monticello is a Florida Main Street
Community, and has historic sites such as the 1890 Perkins Opera House and the
recently restored 1906 County Courthouse, in the middle of the roundabout. The
opera house is still functional and puts on musical and theater performances,
and the ground floor ballroom is a local gathering and meeting place.
The Christ Episcopal Church is also one of the prettiest
Carpenter Gothic churches. It is located in the Monticello Historic District. I wish I could have captured the stain glass, they looked so exquisite and detailed.
Not historic, but just on the edge of town, I spied a
cinderblock purple house … so, if you know me … I had to capture the purple
house!
We crossed the FL / GA line, without much fanfare. But that
is the last time we will be in Florida until October. That sounds like a long
time away, but with all our planned adventures the time will go by quickly.
Thomasville Georgia is home to beautiful tree lined medians
and at the corner of Crawford and Monroe Streets, there is the "Big Oak."
It is a massive live
oak tree that has a limb span of 162 feet, two feet wider than Niagara Falls is
deep. It is 68 feet tall and has a trunk circumference of 24 feet. This massive
Southern Live Oak grew from a tiny acorn and is now close to 400 years old!
Traveling on Route 19, the Georgia – Florida Highway, we
cross over the Ochlocknee River. On the right of the new bridge is an old
railroad truss bridge, that is abandoned and falling apart. We have traveled
this route before, but I never noticed this old bridge.
We say this red sign and thought of Jack & Wayne right way! Want us to grab you a dozen?
We stopped at got gas at a Walmart market. Next to it, I saw
this elephant. It is at the entrance to All American Fun Park in Albany GA. The
Fun Park offers bowling, arcade, bumper boats, putt-putt, laser tag and laser
challenge game, indoor virtual roller coaster, outdoor batting cage, and
hover-car.
Leesburg GA is a small town, less than 5 square miles. It
was originally known as Wooten Station and was founded in 1870 as the Central
of Georgia Railway arrived into the area. In 1872, the town was renamed Wooten.
In 1874, the town was incorporated and renamed again to its present form of
Leesburg. The Central of Georgia Railway train depot has been given a facelift
and is the central focus of the downtown area.
As we got closer to Americus, I kept telling Charlie we know
someone in Americus. Al the way through the town, I kept racking my brain who
it was … no luck … so, if you are a friend of ours and you live in Americus …
remind me who lives here! LOL. We did find a unique sign for South Georgia Technical
College. Northeast of Americus, you can visit the Andersonville National
Historical Site. Andersonville National Historic Site is the only park in the
National Park System to serve as a memorial to all American prisoners of war.
In Butler, we turned off 19 and headed west on Georgia 96.
On the north side of the road is the Sandhills Wildlife Management Area. On the
south side of the road are two of the largest solar farms we have ever seen.
They seemed to go for miles and miles and miles. I took way too many pictures,
but to see the magnitude of the solar farms, I had to get a satellite view …
amazing, just amazing!
Here is the skinny about it. It is a 900-acre solar farm,
it was built by Southern Company, parent company to Georgia Power. What does
900-acres look like? Imagine 826 football fields, end to end and side to side.
Near the end of GA 96, there was a big trailer with a sign
for Boondocks Mud Park. I had to take a picture of it, just for you Tammy
Littlefield. Have you ever been there mudding?
We continued on Route 41 N and headed toward Warm Springs.
Warm Springs is home to FDR’s Little White House. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
built the Little White House in 1932 while governor of New York, prior to being
inaugurated as president in 1933. He first came to Warm Springs in 1924 hoping
to find a cure for the infantile paralysis (polio) that had struck him in 1921.
Swimming in the 88-degree, buoyant spring waters brought him no miracle cure,
but it did bring improvement.
The Little White House provided a sanctuary for the
President during the darkest days of the Great Depression. Many of his New Deal
programs were conceived there as he looked with sympathy upon the desperate
conditions suffered by his rural neighbors.
Downtown Newnan GA is a historic city. But, what attracted
our attention today was a cornucopia of brightly colored and uniquely painted
fiberglass farm animals around Court Square in downtown.
The fun and vibrant
pigs, mules, cows and roosters play an intricate part in the third installation
project hosted by the Children Connect Museum and the Newnan-Coweta Art
Association.
The creative sculptures show the artistic style of the creators.
There were many people having fun and interacting with the fiberglass statues,
which are truly pieces of art.
A large sign in the center of a roundabout, announced we
were in Carrollton.
The Carroll County Veterans Memorial Park is a work in progress. To
date they have completed 24 Walls of Honor containing 1,152 individual plaques
showing name, rank, and service record. They are currently working on wall
number 25, which they are in the process of raising funds for.
We arrived at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park. I was greeted by this talkative guy. We have stayed here before and it is a great place!
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