Day 21: November 24, 2020 Finishing Georgia Comment via blog Check Granny's letters of the day

Before I fell asleep last night, I'd convinced myself to take the planned expressway route in the morning, but when the time came, I just couldn't do it. One result is waiting for a train in Cordele. Note that the pickup truck is beyond the gate and between the two tracks. Guess he almost made it -- or almost got unmade.

This former Sinclair station in Perry, Georgia, has been restored in just the last couple of years. Granddad and Granny were a little too early to patronize the place which opened in 1931.

I remember seeing big square bales of cotton in stacks the size of box cars but on this trip I had not seen even one. Instead, I saw long lines of cylindrical bales like these just a little north of Perry. I took the picture to illustrate a planned rant on the disappearance of square bales but, as I should have predicted, the first and only line of square bales encountered on this trip appeared less than ten miles later.

I'm pretty sure this building just east of Gray existed in 1920 and that the block letters on top read "IT COSTS LESS AT". I'm much less certain of my guess of "Stercher" in the script below.

I had hopes that the "fine buildings" Granny saw in Milledgeville might have included one or more of these but it's looking doubtful. I thought the Campus Theater a possibility but have learned it opened in 1935.

When I took the picture of smoke far ahead of me, I didn't realize that my Dixie Highway based route would soon lead me into the midst of it on T E Buchanan Road. Two guys on 4-wheelers were putting out roadside flames so maybe it was a planned controlled burn. Don't know.

On entering Louisville, I was immediately embarrassed that I had not recognized the town while plotting my route. I had forgotten my previous visit in 2012 and that the town had been Georgia's capital for ten years. Louisville was the state's third capital (Savannah and Augusta preceded it.) but was the first place that an actual capitol buildong was constructed. The current Jefferson County courthouse is on the site of that capitol as indicated here. A plaque in Market House floor can be read here and one on a nearby pole can be read here.

I fortunately had no rain today because I did encounter some of that red clay Granny wrote about on Blount Chapel Road.

James Brown could be framed by that ribbon full time for all I know. It seems I only see him near Christmas,

When I realized that I would likely end the day near Augusta, I decided this would be the time to stay at the Lookaway Inn across the river in North Augusta, SC. I booked a room online and got a confirmation, then found locked doors when I arrived a short time later. A phone call soon had things being sorted. John, the manager, was on his way. There had been no previous bookings for the night and John was off hunting. My booking had triggered an email to his phone and he was already heading to the inn when I called. He arrived after a few minutes and soon had things squared away. My room is in the addition behind the main building. More pictures tomorrow.

I arrived in shorts but put on long pants before walking the two blocks to dinner at the Sno-Cap Drive-In.

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