Georgia on our mind

I never thought much about Georgia, until I moved to northern Florida. For much of my life, I equated Georgia with Atlanta. Of course, I knew the state had much more than that metropolis, since I have traveled through it on several occasions. But on this trip, I seem to be really seeing Georgia for the first time.

We spent a couple of days in an RV park in Unadilla, a small farming town about 30 miles from Macon. For those of you who are geographically challenged about Georgia as I have been, Macon sits just about in the middle of the state.

After we solved our electrical problems, Jim and I decided to play tourist in Macon. That wasn't a hard decision; there really wasn't much else to do around Unadilla. We had already gone to Americus where we could have visited the world headquarters of Habitat for Humanity (had we not been eager to fix our electrical problems). And we had already visited Andersonville,  which was a prisoner of war camp that had horrible living conditions. (If you haven't read the novel Andersonville, I recommend it.) So, Macon was just about the only other area to visit.

I'm glad we did. We really liked the city with its antebellum grandeur.

In some ways, Jacksonville and Macon are similar. I think Jacksonville is slightly older; both have city-county governments; and both are located on rivers, which had an impact on their development and growth. Jacksonville is much larger (864,000), vs. 155,000.

Macon, however, seems vibrant and living. Maybe it is because the antebellum homes are kept up (at least on the outside). Most of the big, old homes were closed for touring because we were there on a Monday, but we were able to tour the Hay House, a National Historic Landmark.

http://www.georgiatrust.org/images/hayhouse/367x302xhay_house.gif.pagespeed.ic.zWboku4kBe.png

The countryside in central Georgia is beautiful. Pecan trees are everywhere. I told Jim I wanted to stop and buy some pecans. We didn't have to! The RV park in Unadilla was nestled among pecan trees. Last night we picked up several pounds of the nuts. Yum!

Jim and I picked up a couple bags of pecans fallen from the trees.

These goodies were just lying about, waiting for us to pick them up!

And the rolling hills! I'm a flatlander, no doubt about it. Mountains are beautiful, but they make me nervous when I have to drive in them. But hills are another matter. I love hills, especially when I can look out on fields of blossoming cotton. (They remind me of the good times I had while living in Texas.)

A cotton field ready to be picked.

Here's a cotton bush up close. I took home a ball for a memento of our trip.

We will be driving northeast across Georgia next week, in order to go to Raleigh. As we make our journey, we'll see more of these lovely countryside.

In the meantime, we are not discounting the possibility of the Macon area for relocation. Just an idea right now. We need to do a lot of research about cost of living, including housing and real estate taxes.

We're not in any hurry. We can come back and have an extended visit and "try out" living wherever  our curiosity takes us.

Until next time,

Your Reluctant RoVer,

Linda