A Hot Courthouse-A-Go-Go Ride to South GA.

[Boxer]

Friday evening I took a look at weather.com to see how hot it might be for the coming week. I was planning another overnighter to south Georgia to visit some more courthouses down in that area. I had been to 122 and still was lacking 37 of the 159 counties in the state. Wow! Weather.com was telling me it would be 98F down near Bainbridge. Combined with the oppressive humidity, that would bring the heat index up well above my most liberal levels of comfort.
What the heck! You only live once. I quickly phoned the Georgia state parks hot line and made a camping reservation for Monday night at Seminole Lake State Park. Sunday I spent the better part of the morning poring over the maps and charting my course for the Monday and Tuesday rides. I wanted to be reasonable and visit 10 going down and 12 or 13 coming back up on Tuesday. Sunday afternoon I washed the black Roadster, checked the tire air pressure, made sure the brakes and lights all worked as expected and packed the camping gear.
Monday morning came quickly! I woke up at 5:00 and after a fast breakfast of cereal with milk I showered and dressed for the road. I was completely packed and ready to ride at 6:00. Since I live well north of Atlanta I needed to get through the congested downtown area before the heaviest morning rush-hour traffic clogged the freeway. I woke the wife, kissed her goodbye and headed out. It must have been close to 60F Monday morning because I quickly had to pull over and don my rain jacket over the mesh to keep from freezing! My first courthouse was down in Barnesville (Lamar County) and that is almost to Macon! It was a good 2 hours of riding before I reached my first stop.
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On the opposite side of the street from the courthouse was this old theatre which has been maintained/restored for modern day shows.
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I proceeded on to Zebulon (Pike County), a little to the west. This photo doesn’t show the bike. I took a different one for that, which had some trees hiding a bit of the building. So this one was extra!
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From there I rode down to Thomaston (Upson Co.-no pic) and then Talbotton (Talbot County) courthouse…built in 1892. I know, I know! You guys in Europe have shoes older than this, but for us this is old.
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On to Marion County in Buena Vista (pic not good) then to Preston (Webster County). This one was built in 1915.
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Upon leaving Preston I rode over about 10 miles to Plains, Georgia to visit our former President Jimmy Carter’s home town. Now I’m not a staunch democrat politically, nor am I a staunch anything else, but I kinda like Jimmy.
This is a small composite of Plains downtown. Nothing really to brag about here. Just peanut country.
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The Carter family compound is just east of town and is fenced and guarded by the guys in sunglasses and black SUVs. BobFV1 should know about them. But there is a well maintained Carter museum in the old high school where Jimmy went. This is his old classroom…or one of them.
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And a room dedicated to his presidential campaign.
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And Jimmy's Baptist church.
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I even bought me a “Jimmy” cap from the gift shop. Fits right nice too! (Man! It doesn’t take much to pull me right back to those old southern roots) Last week I watched “Coal Miner’s Daughter” again and for two days I talked hillbilly.
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Enough history! I took off for the south again and came upon Dawson (Terrell Co.). This one was built in 1892 as well.
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And then another 25 miles down the road was Morgan (Calhoun Co.).
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The next stop was Miller County seat in Colquitt. It is a new modern building so I didn’t include it here. I figure you see enough modern buildings.
The next one, and the last for the day, was pretty interesting architecturally. It was Seminole County in Donalsonville, south Georgia.
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By this time (about 2:00) I was down in the 98F area and beginning to get toasty. Plus I was within 20 miles of the campsite. I pulled into a Subway and got a big sandwich for dinner, then filled up with gas and bought some sodas. You know, it’s very nice how the system cases can hold a bag of ice each, with the drinks inside also. I only had to shift my dry items to the duffle bag. Piece a cake!
I made it to the Seminole State park and shed the hot riding gear, as I set up my tent and proceeded to eat half my dinner.
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Upon check-in the ranger gave me this!
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Hmmmmm??

After dinner and cooling off some, I decided to go take the little Gopher, Tortoise trail hike.
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Then I read this!
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Cottonmouths!? American Alligators!!?? Yeah! Whole lotta fun!
So I gave up my hike and sat around reading and swatting flies, gnats and skeeters. I can deal with the little varmints.
Speaking of little varmints, does anyone know what these are?
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They were all over my shields and headlight.
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You Floridians should have plenty of experience with the renowned “Love-Bugs”.

The park looks really nice, but there was just too many bugs!
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I got stung by fire ants. Bitten by mosquitos, and gnawed on by chiggers…all after dousing myself with a whole crapload of Deets spray. After the sun went down I spent a fitful night trying to sleep as it got slowly cooler and cooler throughout the night. I think it might have dropped down to 75 or 80 by morning! Whoo-Hoo!

This is rather a long post, so as not to bore you all at once I’ll save the day two explorations for another post…maybe later today. Goodnight!

[DSKYZD]

Keep it coming!

Good job, Phil. All the little details really make the story. Almost like being there with you.


DSKYZD

[1MPH]

Phil, Thanks for the history about Jimmy.

That is a nice looking camp ground. I take it you didn't go

swimming.

Jack

[DJ Downunder]

Thanks Boxer

DJ

[bmwdave52]

The word for those bugs on your shield and headlight is: dead.

[mistercindy]

Great pics! I like courthouses, too. We have quite a few beautiful ones in various counties here in N. Texas.

[mnnden]

Boxer, I am really enjoying your ride, and am learning a little along the way. just great, Den

[Valueman]

Awesome report!!

VM

[big papa]

I replied in wrong post..........

[socalrob]

Looks like a light year for the love bugs. I remember cars overheating from having the radiators clogged with em.

Camping in Florida for me is a Nov. to Feb. kind of thing. The bugs arn't so bad then. Gotta whatch where you stand regarding those fire ants.
The no see ums & the chiggers get past everything, screen doesn't stop em. One of my favorite critters were the Banana spiders with a leg span of about 4 inches, they like to spin their webs across trails, then sit in the center of the web about face high. I would swing a stick in front of me when walking through the woods in the summer.

If you live in Florida then persticides are your friends. I've known people to spray their kids with Raid.

Great ride report. Reminds me why I moved back to Cali.