Day 4 of Traveling North via the Blue Ridge Parkway 2017

Saturday May 6^th, 2017

Our friend’s house is on a cove on one of the northern fingers of Lake Sinclair. The sun comes up on the road side (people living on the lake call that their back yard), but it still shines brightly on the lake, or the view from their front yard. It was an awesome view for our departure day. It was sad, but also happy ... because we did get to spend time with them!

We headed back on to Route 441, just south of Eatonton Georgia. Traveling along 441, you enter the Oconee National Forest. It provides outdoor recreation opportunities and natural resources in Georgia. Featuring over 850,000 acres across 26 counties, with thousands of miles of clear-running streams and rivers, approximately 850 miles of recreation trails, and dozens of campgrounds, picnic areas, and other recreation activity opportunities, these lands are rich in natural scenery, history and culture. I guess you could say you could get lost in the Oconee National Forest, and you would not be kidding!

When you enter the town of Bishop Georgia, the first thing you see is the Bishop house. It is the start of the Southern charm that abounds as you enter the Historic District of Bishop. Originally known as the "Greenwood Community", the town of Bishop, Georgia sprang to life because of the railroad.  The line was originally designed to run from Knoxville, Tennessee to the Florida coast "through Macon and Covington", and thus was given the name the Covington and Macon Railroad.  However, the northern terminus changed from Covington to Athens, and that brought the railway directly through Bishop. In 1897 Mr. Seymour Durham Fambrough and his wife Janie purchased the property across from the railroad and sometime later began construction of a grand Queen Anne Victorian home.  Their intent was to "create something grand and out of the ordinary."   By this time the town of Bishop was growing rapidly.  Cotton was king and farmers were growing more and more of it every year.  The railroad, now called the Central of Georgia railway, transported cotton out of Bishop and brought goods, from around the country, back to the prospering farmers. During the period the house was under construction, Fambrough also had a store built, less than ten feet away from the house.   Both were built in a similar style and are believed to have been constructed by the same contractor, Howard S. Ash.  The store sold general merchandise and at the back of the store was a bank, "complete with bank vault".  The store was torn down sometime around 1918 but sections of brick, marking the foundation of the store, can still be found in the driveway. Two northbound trains and two southbound trains stopped at the depot each day.  For many, the first sight that greeted them to the town of Bishop was the beautiful Victorian home.

In Athens, Georgia there is the Sandy Creek Park & Nature Center - Sandy Creek Nature Center is a gateway to outdoor exploration.  The property features 225 acres of woodlands and wetlands with over 4 miles of trails, including an ADA interpretive trail and connections to the North Oconee River Greenway and Cook's Trail. The Education & Visitor Center includes live reptiles, amphibians, marine and freshwater aquariums, interactive natural history exhibits, and an incredible resource library, all housed in an eco-friendly building.  There is also a circa 1815 log house and several wildlife observation areas on site. This 782-acre park surrounds 260-acre Lake Chapman and offers a variety of activities throughout the year.  Athens-Clarke County takes pride in providing the community with facilities like those of many state parks.

In Commerce, Georgia there was a big back up on 441. Once we got close enough to the overpass of US 20 we discovered that there was a truck was on fire. It is amazing, how much one vehicle can back up traffic in both directions!

Fort Hollingsworth was erected in 1793 in Banks County, Georgia near the town of Alto, as a colonial defense establishment for local settlers in the area.  Fort Hollingsworth is listed on the National List of Historic Places and operates as an open-air museum that is free to visit. An annual celebration, A Day at the Fort, is held every year on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend to celebrate local Appalachian heritage. The White House, Joshua White and Katharine Lane White obtained the fort and made it their home. They built the addition to the two story single pen that had been the fort and made it look like any other farmhouse of the mid 1800’s. The addition was linked to the original structure by a covered walkway, known as a dogtrot. Fort Hollingsworth-White House looks very much today as it did in the 1860’s.

As we drove through Mt Airy, Georgia it is the first time that we get our first real sighting of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a sight that I can never get tired of ….

Warwoman is a 15,800-acre Wildlife Management Area within the Chattahoochee National Forest. It is open to hunting deer, hog and bear during managed hunts. There is also the opportunity for turkey, small game, and furbearer hunting. The area offers scenic landscapes for picnicking, hiking, camping, fishing, bird-watching, and horseback riding. Trout fishing is available at Hood Creek, Walnut Fork Creek, Sarah's Creek and tributaries of each. It is an awesome place for the outdoors men and women of northern Georgia.

Black Rock Mountain State Park is a 1,743 acre Georgia state park located west of Mountain City in Rabun County, Georgia. It is named after its sheer cliffs of dark-colored rock in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Located astride the Eastern Continental Divide at an elevation of 3,571 feet, the park provides many scenic overlooks and vistas of the southern Appalachian Mountains. On a clear day, four states are visible: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In addition to Black Rock Mountain itself, the park includes four other peaks over 3,000 feet in elevation, making it the highest state park in Georgia.

Dillard Georgia always makes me smile! We have many great memories in this area. My memories are from a couple of different visits. Once with Jackie, Karen and Wayne. The other visit with Pattye and Bully! Both of the visits involved a trip to the infamous Dillard House, a family style restaurant.

 There are also two places that sell all kinds of yard art. I am sure that we could find kin for Maudine, Maynard, Gunny, Pinky, Tiny and all our Geek-E-Birds! But, we have no space to pick one up on this leg of our trip!

Just north of Dillard is the Georgia and North Carolina state line.

Within a couple miles of each other on Route 441 there is a Cherokee Defeat historical marker on the northbound side and a Cherokee Victory historical marker on the southbound side. Grant had arrived in America in 1757 as the major of Montgomery’s regiment, the 77th Foot, more aptly known as Montgomery’s Highlanders. Impetuous, Grant led a disastrous attempt to take Fort Duquense in Pennsylvania from the French in 1758 that resulted in his capture as well as the destruction of nearly 30 percent of his force. 

Exchanged in 1759, Grant returned to the British army and was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 40th Foot, although he was soon detached from his regiment to lead a new expedition against the Cherokee. On June 10, 1761, a 2,800-man army led by British Lieutenant Colonel James Grant defeated a Cherokee force led by Chief Oconostota in an engagement known as the Second Battle of Echoe near present-day Franklin. The battle took place only two miles from the location of the Cherokee defeat of Colonel Archibald Montgomery’s force the previous year in the First Battle of Echoe.

Near Franklin North Carolina, I found two "Purple Things We See." 

A Rock shop and a port-a-potty! Quite a combination!

Route 441 joined with 23, it is also known as the Appalachian Highway. We followed the line of the mountains into Cherokee, North Carolina. We traveled through the Oconaluftee Indian Reservation on our way to our overnight stop. The school is home to the “Lady Braves.” 

The rain had just begun to fall as we got close to the Cherokee / Smokey Mountains KOA.