In Georgia, you can find old-fashioned charm and modern progress
Author – Unknown
Since Georgia is the apex of our boomerang travels, we headed northwest away from the coast, to the interior of Georgia, booking our next week’s stay at the Scenic Mountain RV Resort, located just a couple of miles outside of the small town of Milledgeville. It proved to be an excellent location due to its park-like setting and RV spaces set a little further apart than the ubiquitous parking-lot style that plagues the RV “camping” world.
Yet the park does offer a butt-cheek puckering experience when you have a rig that has a “long” overhang, past the rear trailer axle like we do. From the flatlands of the Low Country, we had now entered the hill country. And since Georgia doesn’t have to consider driving in the snow when they lay out their roadways, steep grades are everywhere. So, when we turned into the park, we were faced with a potential conundrum; the steep entrance transitions quickly to a flat drive when it meets the causeway between two ponds. Inching forward, the excitement ensued as Laura walked alongside the rear of the trailer, calling out the countdown of inches remaining between the inclined roadway and the bottom of our trailer. Luckily, she stopped around 5″! Whew, disaster averted within the first two minutes of our arrival. Once again, we’d become the center of comedy relief as the “regulars” of the campground paused to watch the possible disastrous spectacle! We’re surprised that there isn’t a professional bookie dedicated to our travel antics.
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Rooted by the Past, with Wings of the Future
As the fourth capital of Georgia (1804-1868), with an antebellum genesis, the town certainly has history, including being Georgia’s Civil War capital. With such notoriety, the original Governor’s Mansion played its own role in historical events and has, luckily, made it through the darker periods in time. It still stands today on the campus of the Georgia College and State University, abutting Milledgeville’s Historic Downtown area, which we strode around during our first day, taking advantage of the sunshine and mild temperatures.
Eventually, our wanderings led us to a very formidable crenelated castle-like structure, complete with gates at the entrance to the grounds. A historic plaque explained that the gates, once wooden, stood as the portal to the capital grounds, and these were modern replicas. This further piqued our interest, so we entered the kingdom. Turns out, the “castle” was actually the Old Capital erected in 1803! And “now”, as of 1879, it is the home of Georgia Military College. Fantastic! We champion higher education! No wonder we had noticed so many “younger people” in this area, as compared to the mostly “frosted tops” of the many folks in Florida! Refreshing! (Note: Central Georgia Technical College also calls Milledgeville home. It’s just not located in the downtown area).
The rejuvenated period buildings now hold a number of fantastic boutique shops that we poked our heads into, and soon lunch was upon us. We settled on trying out a unique restaurant called Bollywood Tacos. The name alone was too much to pass up! After reading through the mouth-watering menu, Laura decided to try the Lamb Kafta Bowl (minced lamb infused with spices, onions and peppers, mint, exotic herbs, with crunchy coleslaw and tzatziki sauce), while Curtis ordered the Peach Country and Buffalo Chicken Tacos. Both meals were fantastic and certainly satiated our appetites!
During lunch, another patron paused while passing our table to ask if we were the one’s who had driven a “really cool white trike” into the downtown area? Of course, Laura spoke right up and stated, “Yes, as a matter of fact “I” did drive up on that particular trike, with my handsome boy-toy here riding second seat”, pointing to Curtis. As it turns out, Wayne is a local motorcycle enthusiast who teaches the local motorcycle safety courses and is also the Co-Owner, with is wife, of a local bakery called “Coasties Bakery”. After finding out we would be touring through Georgia over the next few weeks, he mentioned a few of the better locations throughout the northern portion of Georgia to experience motorcycle riding. It’s always better to find out the “best riding places” from the locals!
If at all possible, commune with nature daily.
-Robin S. Sharma, Canadian author and leadership expert
Just a short ride from the downtown area, the Oconee River Greenway has a boat launch that we wanted to check out, as we were considering floating our paddle boards down the Oconee River. Well, that was a no-go! All of the rain saturating Georgia over the last two weeks had caused several rivers, lakes and reservoirs to rise, in some cases to the flood stage. The river looked swollen and was running fairly fast, with a lot of suspended mud; honestly, it looked like chocolate milk. We decided that we’d missed any chance at enjoying paddling the slow moving rivers of the flatlands; elevation and rain now quashed that idea. Luckily the greenway had a nice walking and bicycling pathway, ideal for walking off some of those lunch calories!
Another day, another ride on the trike! This time we enjoyed motoring around a large lake in the area, Lake Sinclair. The overall lake region has a number of winding roads and low hills, making it perfect for a gratifying motorcycle ride. Again, we were searching for a potential put-in for paddle boarding, thinking a lake might be better than the river, so we set our GPS to the small recreation area of Rocky Creek Park. With a number of amenities like a playground, shaded pergola, and set within one of the lake’s many-fingered coves, we thought it would be perfect, especially to relax at after any paddle boarding. However, as we drove up to the entrance, a barricade sat in our way; it was actually…closed?? With sunny skies and temperatures approaching 80-degrees it was hard to understand that they hadn’t yet opened for the season.
Undeterred, we thought, it still had possibilities for us to carry our gear down and launch. However, our only opportunity for such pursuit turned out to be on a Sunday and, with the warm weather, the lake was overrun with boaters zipping around, having their fun in the sun. Not ideal for paddle boarding. **sigh**
Wine is the answer, I just don’t remember the question.
-Anonymous
Happily, a quick search on the “old google machine” indicated that the “Drink of the Gods” could be found at Courson’s Winery in Sparta, just a short ride from Milledgeville. We quickly started up the trike and took off in search of this local gem. As we “zoomed” around a bend on the narrow highway, with Laura gunning the accelerator for even more “thrills” and high G-force, our map guidance promptly announced “You Have Arrived at Your Destination”, which caused Laura to quickly decelerate out of warp speed, skidding to a stop right in front of a bijou, nondescript building. Laura exuberantly jumped off the trike, pointed at the front door to the winery and proclaimed “We Have Arrived”!
We were greeted by Cheryl, the energetic, knowledgeable “wine pusher” who quickly talked us into sampling a few of their very unique wines; as if we were going to have a problem with that idea?! This small batch winery produces wines of the fruit, muscadine, and fortified variations. Oh, did we also mention that they produce a few different meads as well?! Makes sense, since they also harvest their own honey, and the bees feed on particular wildflowers in their area, imparting a very specific flavor! With so many choices, we definitely needed a flight to help us decide.
Our small sampling quickly grew as Cheryl passionately informed us about their offerings, declaring that they were the “Garage Band of Wineries” (LOVE IT!!). A particularly interesting factoid that we learned, is that the muscadine grape is native only to the southeastern U.S. (yet extends from Delaware to east Texas along the Gulf Coast). Cheryl was an absolute fount of information!
Their most surprising wine? Hot Lips – a muscadine infused with jalapeño, which is a standard offering of theirs, yet we partook of a trial batch that was also imbued with habanero. Terrific! In the end, we purchased 10 different bottles! The nice thing about our trike is that the lower trunk can easily accommodate all of the bottles of wine and still have room to spare! With our precious cargo carefully stored, we headed back to our campsite to end the day. We can tell you that Hot Lips was a fantastic complement to our pico de gallo and guacamole topped spicy sausage burgers! A side of cherry coleslaw was all it took to temper the heat. Life can be sweet, especially while enjoying a sweet wine!
Life is short, eat dessert first.
-True Attribute Unknown
Our last full day was forecasted to be sunny with the temps in the low- to mid-60’s. We decided to go for a picnic…
…And what would be better than adding a sweet treat to our al fresco meal?! We just had to check out the goodies at Coasties Bakery. (You’re shocked that we hadn’t gone sooner, aren’t you?!) Once we entered, we knew we were in trouble. The artistry alone was impressive, yet knowing we could devour the variety of delectable treats, triggered the drooling!
The gal behind the counter was one of the bakers, who was clearly zealous about the creation and experimentation involved in her baking process. Her presentations didn’t help us one bit, though! On the contrary, they only made us add to our ever-growing list of possibilities! With sooo many delicacies to choose from we did the unexpected…Laura and I decided to purchase one of each kind of HUGE custom cookies, two different tarts, and a chocolate mousse treat that looked utterly divine! We walked out with two large boxes of “goodies” and had to make a trip back to our camper just to place the majority of our treasures in the fridge for later indulgence.
We selected two of the monster cookies, and made haste! Lunchtime was nearing!
50-Acres of Gardens
As we arrived at the Lockerly Arboretum, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that only a couple of other vehicles were in the parking lot, so we would basically have the entire place to ourselves. It is free, so we were quickly able to orient ourselves with the walking trail that wound it’s way through, and came upon a quaint little pond with a tiny island near it’s center that could be accessed via a small wooden walking bridge. We decided that the island, bathed in sunlight, immersed in nature, would be the perfect location for our garden party. We stretched out on the lawn, slowly eating our sandwiches thankful for the clear skies and the sun’s rays. After all, the air still had a chill.
Sandwiches eaten, we waited an incredibly long 30-seconds before we dug into the fantastic cookies we had just purchased! What can we say,…we devoured both cookies, licked the remnants from our fingers, and grinned like a couple of kids who just had the BEST cookies we had ever eaten!
Now that we had the proper energy, we proceeded to hike through the remainder of the arboretum, taking particular note of the numerous, informative vegetation identification signs. We had no idea how many different species of oak trees there are!
In the distance we had glimpsed a grand structure that we finally came upon near the end of the walking trail. Rounding the bend, an enormous historic home, named “Rose Hill” that was built in 1852, stood atop the hill. Regrettably, the house wasn’t open to tour on that day, so we had to settle with peering through the windows to marvel at the interior of the main floor! After playing “peeping toms”, our time at this quiet and scenic location of respite came to a close.
The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.
-Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist
As with much of Georgia, history abounds; interplaying with the present and providing a dais for learning and building a future. We are now a part of those who have learned so much of what this area has to offer.
English 
I’m finally catching up a bit and envious of wine named Hot Lips and gi-normous cookies. What WILL you do next?!!
Next…we will try to catch up with our posts as your brother plays drunken Bingo and I’m down for the count in front of the brewery…
Frosted tops huh! Your days are coming!😏 What is the political climate like in Georgia compared to Colorado?
There’s definitely self degradation within our ‘frosted tops’ comment, but being young at heart is the key. As far as the political climate goes, we’ve encountered little to nothing regarding it; and that has been our experience throughout our entire trip. Everyone we’ve encountered has been easy-going, open and eager to talk about their experiences and knowledge at each location, as well as ask us questions about our experiences and our beautiful home state.