Driving the dirt roads

[cheese]

My wife and I took the day off from the daily grind and the house remodel and just went for a drive down some of the back country roads and took some pictures. Here are some pics of some of the roads, cotton in the field, Georgia swamps, an old confederate bridge built when union prisoners were being evacuated from Savannah to Andersonville when Savannah was being burned. It was used by the locals until the 1980s or so, then it got to be fit to fish off of but not to drive on. I caught a load of catfish off this bridge over the years. Now it's blocked off and not accessible to the public.

This town was established in the 1820's and settled a little earlier. When explorers got here, soome of these old dirt roads were already here...the indians created them and were salt trade routes. One explorer noted that the banks of a particular trail now known as magnolia road were "high as a horses' bridle"...so they've been in use for a looong time... probably thousands of years. We also saw an old graveyard where the vaults were showing out the eroding road bank, and what's left of a near ghost town called metcalf.

It was a fun day. I need a better camera and I think we'll do this more often.

 

[cheese]

more...

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

Beautiful pics - I hate kudzu, but, beautiful areas where you took your pics.

Thank you for sharing.

Beth

 

[colorado14ers]

reminds me of florida Very nice pictures though!!!!

 

[fossis]

That was a very nice day out, thanks for sharing.

Fossis..............

 

[Ray S S]

Those are some pretty nice scenes and an interesting history lesson. Nicely done.

Thanks for sharing.

Ray

 

[rginn]

Lotta history in that part of the country. I like the way the trees come together over the roads and form a canopy. Your camera's doin a pretty good job; I think they're nice pics.

 

[cheese]

Thanks! There is a lot of neat history around this area, and the beautiful trees and spanish moss. I love the canopy roads too... feels like you're driving through a tunnel in the woods. I guess back in the day when cars had no AC, or buggies had to travel through, it made for a more pleasant ride in the shade.

This area is a lot like some places in Florida, in fact, we were only a couple dozen miles north of the Fl border.

Beth, thanks! I couldn't find any kudzu in any of my pics... but there is a lot of it in certain areas around here. Goats seem to be the only effective control for it. If you cut it, it comes right back, but goats keep eating it every time it even tries to come up and eventually the roots die.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

I know its beautiful around there. Spent some time in the south (lived in Virginia, but of course, had to go to Georgia, South and North Carolina and all those areas), and the kudzu was going insane back then - they were looking for ways to control it (originally it was supposed to be absolutely great for livestock, except that it went bananas and the cows and horses wouln't touch the stuff ) I'm glad to see that goats will eat it!

I love to drive the back roads of the country - no matter where we go, we try to stay off the interstates. We, too, have found beautiful places, and some of the best eating places by doing that!

I will be looking forward to more!

Beth

 

[lauramarydonovan]

Pretty funny that I should run across this thread now, years after you posted it. I know these places well in the pictures. Especially the old graves falling out of the old road bank. That's on the road I grew up on just after it turns to dirt.