My Dad and I got out and I loved being a passenger for the first time in ages. Basically drove through Dahlonega, Dawsonville, Tate (marble!) and numerous little towns. Dahlonega is beautiful, with a college (a northern branch of the University of Georgia nestled in this little mountain town).
I've never seen such beautiful scenery throughout the day...mountains, valleys, so much green, rolling farmland, old farmhouses, barns, tractors, old trucks, little one-stoplight towns, trains, country stores, etc.
I live for that stuff and, since I didn't have to drive/focus on the road, I got to take it all in. We drove past the Tate House in Tate, made of pink marble. It's now a wedding venue. I'd never seen such a structure (you can Google it). I noticed it through the trees as we approached.
"Is that a marble block house? Wait...is it pink?!" Yes to both.
We put in about 270 miles and 7+ hours, and ate at two good places while gone. We made a
huge circle encompassing about 6-7 counties, just a gigantic clockwise sweep with zero backtracking. The only bit of that was 2-3 miles from his house, coming back in from the main road out. The rest of the day was just driving forward, all new road for the first time (I have a thing about backtracking, or returning from the way I came...drives me nuts; so anytime I can just keep moving forward and still wind up back where I left from, I'm happy). We did just that
This post is for no other reason than just me recounting a good, relaxing day. And forgetting just how beautiful places can be. Two-lane winding, hilly roads...all day long.
This post might appeal most to drew, since he's probably heard of the above towns and knows where they are.
I'll try to draw it out on a map if I can figure out a good way to do so...