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October 1999

Alabama and Georgia

David Aaronson
2005-09-23 23:07:31

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herded back out of Auburn lemming-style with several thousand other cars. Eventually we managed to get around the city and make it to the state park, where they actually gave Trout a cookie at the gate. Trout enjoyed this, but did not think it justified six hours in the car in the rain.

This picture might have however. This is Trout in a waterfall. He doesn't really know what to make of it, but he certainly preferred hiking, even in the rain, to sitting in the car. The rocks around the river were made even more slippery by the rain so Trout even got carried (or pushed, dragged, thrown) up some of the rocks around the falls.

After that we headed for Georgia hoping the rain would stop the next day before we went to Callaway Gardens. Here at the Georgia border (in the rain), Trout discovered that holly bushes are sharp. We spent the night in LaGrange, where apparently all restaurants close at 9 PM even on Saturdays. We actually found one in the phone book that was still open, but they were unable to give us directions from the interstate to where they were located. We tried to find it by driving around randomly. For future reference, we do not recommend driving randomly around LaGrange as the city was apparently designed by M.C. Escher. In the end, we ordered pizza.

The next day, we went to Callaway Gardens (where dogs are welcome in all outdoor gardens while leashed) and of course it was still raining. The hiking trails and gardens were very impressive, and we pretty much had them to ourselves as no one else was stupid enough to be out in heavy rain showers. As the day progressed, the rain continued to become even harder to the point where the concept of hiking was simply ridiculous. Instead we visited the indoor butterfly garden which is truly spectacular. Most of the butterflies were unwilling to land anywhere long enough for a portrait, but the picture here and the background picture turned out acceptably. We gave up on Callaway after this as the golf course had become a lake, and the hiking trails were sporting a current. We headed east, trying to get ahead of the weather again. We arrived in Macon, just ahead of the storm, and decided (foolishly) that we could spend a little time at the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds before the rain started again. We were wrong, it started on the trail at the farthest possible point from the car. Drenched again, we fled Macon and continued heading east.

Halfway to Savannah, we outran the rain again. As it was still clear out when we reached Savannah, we decided to spend the night there. The next morning it was amazingly bright and sunny. We packed up the dog and headed out to St. Simon's Island. Along the way we passed the "world's smallest church" but for some reason we failed to stop. Trout frisked about the beach at St. Simon's for a while, but the real excitement came later in the afternoon on Jekyl Island. Trout discovered the existence of fish thanks to some jumping mullet. Several hours later, Trout had still failed to learn that fish do not remain exactly where they land in the water. We visited a few of the old mansions on the island and then headed home, stopping for this picture (3rd in the Trout Across America series).

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