Georgia Tourism: Get Off the Interstate, Part 2

By on May 20, 2014 in Southern Culture
covered bridge
Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge, Woodbury, Ga., designed by a freed slave, Horace King

Georgia tourism is more than Six Flags and a fish tank.

If you’re willing to explore, interesting attractions can be found in every one of the state’s 159 counties.

Did you know the second oldest hot dog stand in America, after Nathan’s on Coney Island, is located within sight of I-16 in Macon?

Did you know there really is a Whistle Stop Cafe and they really do serve fried green tomatoes? You blow by it every time you pass through Forsyth on I-75.

Did you know there’s a place in west Georgia where President Franklin Roosevelt would sit on a car seat and contemplate some of the most momentous decisions of the Twentieth Century? That’s a place you miss when you fly down I-85 toward Montgomery.

Did you know that the man who designed covered bridges all over Georgia and the spiral staircase of the Alabama State Capitol was a freed slave named Horace King? The Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge which King designed is Georgia’s oldest and longest covered bridge. It’s located near Woodbury, Ga., in Meriwether County. The nearest interstate highway is 29 miles away.

Georgia tourism is everywhere – if you’re willing to get off the damn interstate highway.

See Part 1 of this series

4 Responses to Georgia Tourism: Get Off the Interstate, Part 2

  1. Angie Mobley May 20, 2014 at 11:31 am #

    Did you know there really is a Whistle Stop Cafe and they really do serve fried green tomatoes? You blow by it every time *YOU* pass through Forsyth on I-75.

    Hi, Doug – just one little word needed – hope you don’t mind the edit. I love reading your postings – thanks for giving us a glimpse of things we might not ordinarily ever see. : )

    • Doug May 20, 2014 at 11:38 am #

      You’re still a great editor, Angie. Thanks!

  2. Judy Burke Bynum May 21, 2014 at 12:36 pm #

    Doug, you left one important note off your bio. You were a charter member of The Estesian Society of Dublin, Ga.

    • Doug May 21, 2014 at 12:40 pm #

      Be sure to check out my article about Estes and the time we took Lewis Grizzard there.