Rural Georgia

You never know what you are going to find on a road trip, especially one in rural Georgia!  On a recent trip which included Moultrie, Albany and Americus, my friend Clay and I happened to be invited to tour the restored Rylander Theatre in Americus.  Built in 1921, it was beautifully restored (after 40 years of no use) in 1999 and now is used for various theater productions from plays to ballet performances.  The Rylander is also known as the home of "Little Mo" a smaller version of the Moller organ in the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.  It was also restored and is used for theatre productions and recitals.  We had joined the tour with a group of antique Buick car enthusiasts who were passing through Americus and had their Buicks on display as well. 

Earlier in the day we had photographed one of the many pecan groves along the way.  This one was offset from the road and allowed uninterrupted photo time with no cars or houses that we had to shoot around.  The morning sun peeked through as we arrived and added drama to the photos.

A little way down the road on Georgia Hwy 41 we found a beautiful old Victorian home, overgrown with hedges and the yard littered with old tires.   The details were still there - the gingerbread trim and the stained glass windows were still beautiful.  One can only imagine who lived there and what the family life was like.

Desoto State Park Wildflowers

At the end of April, I went on a road trip with Doug and Beth Powell to Desoto State Park in Northeast Alabama.  Desoto is located at the end of the mountain range that is Lookout Mountain and is known for the abundance of wildflowers and numerous waterfalls.
However, the 80 degree weather in the South in February and March had forced the wildflowers out of hiding early and we found very few blooms.
All was not lost, however, as the mountain laurel and rhododendron were blooming beautifully and the hiking trails were great exercise.  The waterfalls were still flowing and Desoto Falls was especially impressive.  Mountain laurel were blooming in abundance near the falls and around the lake created by the dam above the falls.
Adjacent to Desoto State Park is Little River Canyon, a national preserve and the deepest canyon east of the Mississippi.  Here the trail next to the river revealed a few wildflowers, but the best was the beautiful Jack in the Pulpit pictured here. 

Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah

You can't take a trip to the coast of Georgia without making a stop in Savannah! This time I wanted to visit historic Bonaventure Cemetery - a cemetery that has been in existence since the 1800's and is the final resting place of politicians and celebrities alike.  Bonaventure is draped with Spanish moss and you can imagine how spooky it would be at night.  It was featured in John Berendt's book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and became famous for the Bird Girl statue pictured on the front of the book.  The Bird Girl is no longer there, having been moved to the Telfair Museum to protect it from the many visitors who came to see her.

Probably the most famous person buried in Bonaventure is Johnny Mercer, composer of hundreds of familiar songs, and his burial site will remind visitors of them for years to come.  The bench next to his gravestone lists the most popular of his songs and features his signature.  His epitaph is "And the Angels Sing".  The epitaph on his wife's grave is "You must of been a beautiful baby", the title of another one of his songs.

I was impressed with the intricate detail of the gates and fencing surrounding many of the graves.  Here's just one of the iron gates found there.

And as always, there were lots of angels - sweet, contemplative expressions or fat-cheeked, cherub-like cuties.