Saturday, October 31, 2009

The Scenic Driving Tour

We took a scenic driving tour around the Warm Springs, Georgia  area. We stopped at the historic Little White House where Franklin Roosevelt lived when he came to “take the waters” in the warm springs. It was our first visit there and there was a lot to hold my attention, besides this little house. 100_9194

The museum contains many items related to Roosevelt but two were of great interest. The first was a stage coach, completely restored, that originally ran from Columbus, Georgia to Warm Springs in the very early 1800’s. It brought many Florida coast residents who had taken riverboats up the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers in the summer to escape all the killer diseases that plagued them, such as malaria. It was later used in ceremonial parades when Roosevelt won the presidential election four consecutive times.

The other was a large collection of hand-carved wooden canes that had been gifts to Roosevelt, who suffered from the effects of polio that struck him in his early thirties.

As we continued on, we drove through a covered bridge.

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We crossed the Flint River twice. At one place where the rocks create shallow shoals, the turtles were quite numerous. In addition to the shells you can see, there were lots more heads poking out of the water.

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It was more turtles than I think I ever saw at once.

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We passed these antennas that were referred to as the UFO antennas. Not sure what that story was. Maybe just a local joke.

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It rained most of the drive, which was one reason we decided to go exploring: it was dry IN the car. But one time the sun came out and a beautiful rainbow was visible for only a few minutes.

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I was not able to get back far enough to get the whole thing. But I liked the idea of my car being at the end of rainbow.

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It was a nice drive. Worth checking out if you go to the area.

1 comment:

Kimberlee said...

This looks like SUCH a nice trip! Amazing to see so many turtles at once. They are my favorite!