P.44, the Georgia Highway 60 ride. Ride time was about 6 hours and I covered 208 miles. I had a beautiful, sunny, 84 degree day yesterday. This ride is a famous road in north GA. Hwy 60 goes up through Suches and Cedar Mountain. You know the ride is going to be good when the first sign you see is a yellow diamond sign that says, " steep grades and curves, next 33 miles". It was a blast to ride, and doing it on a weekday pretty much gave me the entire road to myself which was amazing.

 

I got a great ride in today! This ride is up in the far north east corner of GA, near Ringgold, GA; a 196 miles round, 5.5 hour trip.

The Chickamauga battle was one of the deadliest battles of the Civil War. Per the web, "While Chickamauga was a decided Confederate victory, the results of the battle were staggering. With more than 16,000 Union and 18,000 Confederate casualties, Chickamauga reached the highest losses of any battle in the Western theater."

The area is huge, with monuments, canons, and historical markers everywhere.






This is the monument to Georgia's soldiers. It sits on one of the battlefields.
I think there's a monument for each state that sent soldiers.

 

Still following and admiring the pictures.
thanks from south ga!

 

Today was a perfect day to ride so I went on the Sweet Home Alabama ride, page 98. This was a 205 miler. It starts in Summerville GA and hits Desoto Falls, Little River Falls, and Weiss Lake, all in Alabama. Great roads although one of the roads I needed was temporarily closed and getting around it took me down a couple of really crappy back-country roads. Oh well that's part of the game, right?
I haven't ridden in awhile, so today felt perfect!

Desoto Falls, AL











Little River Falls, AL





Weiss Lake, AL

 

And now for something completely different. (A tip of the cap to John Cleese @ Monty Python's Flying Circus!)

OK I admit it, I love photographing oddball stuff. Flowers are meh; a rusted-out car is magnificent. So the other day I fired up the Roadside America app to find some unique things in my area. The day was perfect and I jumped on the 1200. My first stop, Dallas, GA, is about 35 miles away. Here I found the first 3 of 5 giant roadside statues that were used to advertise businesses back in the day. The other 2 giants are located in the town. All 5 are owned by a plumber who collects them! These giants are about 20 ft. tall! Here's a link to learn more. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/63705

Another Roadside America site to see is called Old Car City. I ride by this a lot and I have spent a day there photographing. It's really cool and unique; remember I like off-the-wall stuff. OCC is located in White, GA. It's like a combination junk yard & outdoor museum. So I continued my journey that day by riding up to OCC and beyond. Here's a link to OCC. Check it out to really get a feel for this place. https://www.oldcarcityusa.com/
If you go there, bring plenty of bug spray during the hot season!!

All in all, it was a great 120 miles ride with fun stuff to see. I'll definitely seek out more "unique" things to see. Here are the photos.

The first 3 giants were at the headquarters of the plumber who owns them.



Next was Wonder Women - the Uniroyal Gal. If you like big girls, well here you go.




Here's Big Mike. He's at the opposite end of the plaza where Wonder Woman is.




Here's Old Car City. The car pics are ones I took a few years ago. They are a combination of visible light and infrared light; one of my passions.

 

Yesterday I did a 215 mile, 7 hour ride up through the towns of Chatsworth > Ellijay > Dawsonville > Waleska. Went up n over the Ft. Mountain Rt. 52 road which is a favorite of mine. Then I stopped for lunch in Ellijay at the Rooftop Restaurant. Great food and a great view from the 3rd story of the indoor/ outdoor eatery. This ride is a combination of past rides. I'm mixing them to keep things a bit different.

This place is in Chatsworth GA. It's an ice cream shop now. It's a great photo opportunity for bikes and classic cars.


Overlook on Ft. Mountain


Another shot from Ft. Mountain.

 

Went north on this sunny 83 degree day for 135 miler. This photo was taken about half way between Chatsworth,GA and Ellijay, GA. I've past this picturesque scene several times in the past, but between needing the proper lighting and the scarcity of a safe place to pull over, it was like searching for a unicorn. I did photograph it once before, but the light wasn't great. Today was much better!

 

I went out Sunday on a 100 miler up and around Cartersville, GA. Cartersville is a great town and the area has a lot to offer.

I found this very interesting, huge, 1800's Iron Furnace. A photo of the sign below will give you more details. This was in a small out-of-the-way county park called Cooper's Furnace Day Use Area.
Through the park runs the Etowah River, creating some cool photo ops.

Cooper's Furnace...







The Etowah River...







This is Lake Acworth, which connects to Lake Allatoona. If you're in the area check out Cartersville and Acworth. If you're hungry and like Cajun food, stop at Henry's Louisiana Grill. Henry is an old hippy-Harley guy who grew up in deep Louisiana and learned to cook from his Cajun grandma. He then went to France to formally study French cooking. He was featured on the Cooking Channel. Yea, this guy CAN COOK!! The place is so popular now you'll need reservations on most nights. And if you do make it here, let me know! I'm just 5 miles from Henry's.



This is a small pond near Waleska, GA which is about 20 miles from Ackworth. Notice the "spacious" breakdown lane, LOL! Actually it is spacious as almost all the backroads I ride have zero area to safely pull over. I've missed a lot of cool photos due to that.

 

Very excited about the Savoy Automotive Museum!

On friday I took the 1200 out for about 80 miles up through Emerson, Cartersville and Waleska GA. In Cartersville the new Savoy Automotive Museum just opened on Dec 8, 2021. A lot of my rides end up going by the site of the museum, and I've been watching it being built for the last year or so. Now that it's open I'll be stopping there a lot! This is now the 3rd world-class museum in Cartersville, joining the Booth Museum (a Smithsonian-affiliate) and the Tellus Museum. You could spend an entire day or 2 exploring these museums and of course the great little city of Cartersville, GA.

I became a "Key Contributors Club" member and a museum member at the Savoy, an I'm also a member of the Booth Museum. I highly recommend this area as a destination on one of your rides.

Here's a taste of what the Savoy offers:

 

Thanks for posting this, definitely on my to-do list!