Usually we’d blitz home from southern Georgia on Interstate 85 and work our way through Atlanta traffic. Since we’ve enjoyed being in smaller towns, we decided to use back roads to get home; thank goodness for GPS. As we started driving inland after leaving the Savannah area, we realized it was time for lunch. I found a place in a nearby small town that was supposed to have delicious Brunswick Stew (Barney’s favorite) and pulled pork. Sally Mae’s Kitchen, here we come.
We were told that a few years ago Paula Dean stopped for lunch, loved the food, and gave them a glowing review. From then on, this has been a popular place.
On Sunday afternoon we took a drive around the countryside.
As we were driving around, we saw signs for the town/city of Sparta. We know the TV show wasn’t filmed here, but this town shared its name with the show.
While the courthouse looks like its in good shape, the town itself looks pretty poor. Most of the shops in the small downtown area were closed up. While what we saw wasn’t all that inviting, the town’s website lists a number of historical places. It’s close to Milledgeville, a town we want to explore, so we may come back and see what we missed. It’s close to one of our favorite restaurants, now named Nick’s Place, that we found on a trip in 2020, so we’ll be back!
All over the area we saw election signs about the railroad so we looked up what the issue was. People from a larger, wealthier town want a railroad spur from a quarry to their railroad hub. Local residents in Sparta don’t want the noise and added dust. Imminent domain is the issue, and the state is taking up the case as I’m writing. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
As we drove around the countryside, we saw the following crops:
What we didn’t get a picture of was the fields of peanuts that are being harvested by digging up the ground.
We loved driving home this way (instead of driving through Atlanta), so will be seeing these sights again, staying at this RV campground, and eating at Sally Mae’s Kitchen.
But . . . a week after we got home, we had a sewer explosion. Luckily we were home, the plumbers came within 30 minutes, and the drying out people came that afternoon.
More about this catastrophe in the next in-between post.
