2013-32 Rome Georgia

2013-32

Rome Georgia

Campground: lock and dam trading post, 181 lock & dam rd. Rome Georgia.  $22 elect/water (many are pull-thrus).  $24 full hookups with picnic table pavilions and back up to river and dam.  This used to be a Passport America campground but they’ve dropped out.  They messed up my reservation so I got a premium site for the cheaper price.

Lock and Dam park, Rome Georgia

the paddle boat once plied these waters

the old lock, no longer used.

a homemade pontoon boat

Distance Traveled:  200 miles

Pigeon Forge to Rome GA

Before leaving the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area, I got word that the biopsy on my nose was benign and I wouldn’t need surgery.  Great news as I continued to enjoy this eastern Tennessee area.  Friends Ben and Walt stopped by and we had a great visit catching up.  They’re some of my Florida buddies and it was nice to see them again.

I also stopped at a thrift store and got a couple of great bargains, including two thin spruce type Christmas trees about four and a half feet tall.  They will fit perfectly on either side of the fireplace for Christmas.  A real bargain at $7 each since they normally run in the $45 range.  I have to start collecting decorations for Halloween and Christmas as well as I gave all my decorations away when I moved into the smaller/newer camper.  Should be fun searching for all those bargains once again, but only for what will fit the camper.

I headed out around 8:30 this morning and ended up traveling all the major highways including Interstate 75. Never a favorite road to travel, but at least the heavy traffic was moving and there weren't any idiots on the road.  I arrived at my next campsite here in Rome Georgia.  The Lock and Dam campground is a county park.  It’s a nice location in Northern Georgia.

the Manual Labor School

window into the Baptist Church built by slaves

The next day I did a bit of exploring, heading down the back roads to a small town called Cave Spring .  And yes, it has a cave right in town in a park called Cave Springs Rolater Park.  A natural spring comes out of the cave providing fresh spring water for the entire town, enough to fill a swimming pond in the shape of Georgia and a duck pond.  I headed towards a large two story building rather Greek Revival looking to me.  With it’s high ceilings and large oversized  paned windows.  One of the council members was coming out of the building and told me about it’s history.  It was started as a Manual Labor School, teaching farming skills and other methods of making a living to the students.  Later it became the Hearn Academy, a prep school for college.  Today, the city owns it and uses it for weddings and other large functions.  The Baptist church right next door was built in 1851 from bricks made by local slaves and was the original church before they built a larger church across the street.  The council member remembered when the black folks sat in the balcony for church services.

the castle structure is the entrance to the cave

filling water jugs with free spring water

back end of the old Baptist Church.  Slaved made the bricks.

I walked around the duck pond towards the cave entrance and saw a few locals filling jugs of water from the clear spring waters.  A man was walking away and asked the two ladies to pray for his family.  One of the ladies said “we all need prayer don’t we”.  As I approached and started a conversation, the one gal filling her jugs with water started to tell her story after I inquired about the cave.  She had never gone inside of it since she has only lived in the town for 7 years after her husband of many years had died.  While they were married he was called to the Lord to become a preacher and after fighting the notion, he finally became ordained.  She had prayed to the Lord what to do after her husband passed away and was led back to the arms of her new husband whom she had dated back when she was 17.  He had gone off to war, she married someone else and when he came back also married.  Both their spouses died and they got back together with the Lords blessing.  Her friend, dressed in a pink dress, light white knitted sweater and huge curlers in her hair, which were covered discretely by a pink scarf reiterated that her friend was previously married to a preacher and they were all blessed to have her now living in their little town of Cave Spring.  They of course invited me to their reformed church just down the road in the next town over.  They were blessed left and right with every sentence spoken.  I left just as they were about ready to grill me on the who what and where of my life.

Georgia slang

I was going to do a bit of touring in Rome Georgia, but it has rained all day Saturday and so I’ll close on a wet note.  Of course I did wash my truck for the first time in months yesterday and you know it always seems to rain after doing such a chore.  Your welcome for the rain Georgia.

found in an antique shop in Cave Spring Ga.  the owner makes
these from all the jewelry she collects.

More photos on Picasa.