I knew Athens, Georgia ranked on the top of my list of places I wanted to stop as I headed to Florida (my editor says I’m the only person he’s ever heard say that). The town, and it’s surrounding sights, did not disappoint. What I discovered, however, was a study in contradictions. That variety of sights and experiences in and around the Athens areas made my time there fun and interesting.
Before I settled into the town proper, I took a day to explore places of interesting in its vicinity.
The drawback to visiting Georgia (and the southeast in general) in the winter, is that, well, it’s the winter. Just because there isn’t snow on the ground doesn’t mean that plants aren’t dormant.
Why does this matter?
Well, it means that when I visited the Georgia Botanical Gardens it was rather lame. Gardens, to me, mean flowers and splashes of color in the midst of green. I saw what it could have been, but other than a few interesting spots (and an exceedingly cool children’s area), it felt a bit like a waste of time and gas. I’m just glad I didn’t pay an entrance fee!
Hoping for a more engaging experience, I headed to Watson Mill Bridge State Park. While Madison County, Iowa is known for their covered bridges (thank you Clint Eastwood & Meryl Streep), there are over 75 other covered bridges all across the United States. Usually located in the middle of nowhere and not really accessible to a 30-foot RV, I jumped at the opportunity to visit one situated in a state park. It actually is a working bridge that allows cars to drive through it, but I didn’t test to see if it could handle my rig (in general, I try not to test fate).
While the park itself wasn’t anything to write home about (my Georgia State Park experience makes me think they don’t really invest in up keeping most of their parks, or at least not their trails), the bridge and dam made an amazing spot at which I could get some work done.
My boondocking location in Athens may not have provided hookup, but they did possess another important fuel: coffee! When I was looking for a spot to stay in the Athens area I couldn’t believe my luck when Jittery Joe’s was listed as one. How can you go wrong when you can step out your door and someone has prepared coffee for you already! Amazing!
This started off my time in Athens extremely well. I mentioned at the beginning that Athens is a study in contrasts (sorry, I got a little sidetracked by other stuff and didn’t talk about this right away). Athens is home to the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!). Not one of the little ones in the UG system, the big campus (as in almost 40,000 students). For my Minnesota friends, it’d be like having the U of M’s Twin Cities campus located in Rochester. Now that I think about it, I’d compare it to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan (for my Michigan peeps). It has the vibes of a small town, yet at it’s center is this massive, old university. The school was the first state-chartered university, established in 1785!
One of the many things I loved about the city is that they had painted Bulldog statues (à la Berlin's Bears, Minnesota's Peanuts characters) all over town. I enjoyed searching out the ones in walking distance. Some were a little more, um, seasoned than others, but I tried to get pictures of them with their best paw forward.
Around town there were other interesting sights, like the Tree that Owns Itself (it was actually deeded to the tree!) and the double barrel cannon.
The campus is beautiful. They have an amazing superstition with Arch (pictured) - if a student walks under it they won't graduate! So fun to watch students skirt it and others - with some symbol if graduation on - take pictures under it!
I also, apparently, picked a great weekend to visit, as it was the SEC Championship game (more on that later!) so I had much of the town and campus to myself. As someone who isn’t into any college or professional sports, I didn’t even consider when would be a good time to visit a college town!
As with many old, moneyed southern towns, Athens has stunning architecture. While predominately Renaissance and Greek Revival, Art Deco and modern buildings also shine.
One area, centered around Millage Ave, showcases the massive homes built in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. Today they are mostly fraternity and sorority houses. I, of course, had to take a picture of the house of my own sorority – Alpha Gamma Delta (go Alpha Gam!) – which is a far cry from the little house I lived in on the campus of Alma College in Michigan (go Scots!).
Downtown Athens isn’t large but it’s jam packed with shops, restaurants, and bars – especially bars! There are 80 in downtown alone! I don’t know how they fit anything else in, truthfully!
Everywhere I went there was street art, cute storefronts and all types of food. Small towns with big universities at their center have one leg up on other small towns: a constant influx of new. While “hipster” culture annoys me (I’m often like a cranky old man and I’ve accepted that…now get off my lawn), innovation and exploration is awesome.
I didn’t really do any shopping, though I was almost sucked in by the SEC mania and purchased a Bulldogs tee, but I did take some time to enjoy some good ol’ southern cookin’: chicken and waffles! In general, southern food and I don’t exist successfully together, as I am allergic to corn and don’t eat anything that comes out of the water. If you know anything about traditional southern cooking, you can see why those two limitations really cut down on my ability to enjoy it. However, I can get behind a tasty waffle topped with a piece of crispy fried chicken along with some sort of sweet sauce, in this case a blueberry reduction. Oh. My. Stars. It was worth every delicious calorie!
Now that I’ve made you salivate and maybe take a short snack break, let’s talk football. As evening approached, I decided, when in Athens (Georgia) I should do as the Athenians do (is that even what they call themselves? Whatever, I’m calling them that). So I put on a black shirt, because I own nothing red (that isn’t for my lifeguarding job back home), and headed to the closest bar to watch the Bulldogs play Alabama for the SEC Championship. Boy, I had NO idea what I was getting myself into! I have friends who are into college football, so I have had a taste of what that looks like. That did not prepare me. Not only was I in the South – where football is basically a religion – but the feud between Georgia and Alabama is deep. Like Vikings-Packers deep! They don’t play each other often, but Alabama has won the past seven games, Georgia hasn’t won since 2007. But! Georgia went into the SEC Championship game undefeated and Alabama was ranked third. Everyone was so excited – hopeful even – and certain this was Georgia’s year.
After the start of the second half I couldn’t take it anymore.
Have you ever heard the poem Casey at Bat?
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out. (Thayer 49-52)
It was heartbreaking to watch the hopes of an entire town be completely decimated. As I walked down the street to get some pictures of Christmas lights, I could hear the gut-wrenching moans in chorus emanating from all 80 bars as Alabama obliterated the hometown hopefuls. While I’ll never be that diehard of a fan, I couldn’t help feel, just a little, of their pain.
I loved my time in Athens. With the contradictions between old and new, small and big, you would think it would be a city fighting itself. Yet, it is those dichotomy of elements that make it such a fun and interesting place.
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