Interstate highway I-75 cuts through the heart of Georgia. It's a big,ugly road that bypasses just about anything of interest. Ask for directions anywhere in Georgia and you'll probably be pointed towards the nearest interstate. Don't do it.
Instead,look for the secondary highways. There's usually one that follows much the same route as the interstate but passes through inconvenient things such as small towns,historic sites and scenery. Most are better roads than the average Australian highway and remarkably free of traffic.
Highway 441 from Athens to Madison is one such road. When Australian visitors with visions of Gone with the Wind visited me in Athens years ago,I would take them to Madison to ogle its collection of once grand but by then decaying buildings. Like Savannah,Madison was one of the few towns spared by the Union's General William Tecumseh Sherman on his infamous march to the sea in 1864,during the Civil War,which left much of Georgia as rubble.
But Madison had changed in my time away. The grand homes had a fresh lick of paint and plaques noting historic buildings were everywhere. The town has clearly discovered its tourist potential,although I saw one worrying plaque reading"Ye Olde Colonial Restaurant,Est. 1954".
The visitor centre confirmed that tourism had picked up. A good thing,too. Ten years earlier it was not uncommon for old Greek revival homes to be torn down for car parks or service stations.
Thirsty after a walking tour of the town,I went looking for an old drugstore on the main street that I remembered as a 1950s gem,with a lunch counter and soda fountain,where you could still get a sandwich and a Coke while waiting for your prescription to be filled.
"Oh,they tore that down,"a shopowner told me enthusiastically."It's a restaurant now. But they built a new drugstore and counter down the road."In authentic"ye olde style",no doubt. Madison still has a way to go before it gets the historic preservation thing nailed down.
Sitting over pancakes at a 24-hour diner in Athens the next morning,I contemplated my next move. With a college football game on that weekend in Athens,I had to get out of town. First,the hotel I'd been staying in was booked solid with visiting football fans. Second,Athens on a football weekend is nuts.
I decided what I really wanted to do was watch an octogenarian former president play softball.
The town of Plains is tiny,with just 716 people. But every year just after the peanut harvest the population swells a little as farmers from surrounding Sumter County gather for the Plains Peanut Festival. The star attraction is the town's most famous resident,James Earl Carter.
Whether it's handing out ribbons to fun-run winners or signing copies of his many books,Jimmy Carter and his wife,Rosalyn,crop up almost as much as peanuts do during the two-day festival. But for my money,the softball game between Jimmy Carter's Secret Service Agents and the Plains High School Stars of Yesteryear is hard to beat as the festival's main event.
I'd heard about the game and assumed Carter,who turned 81 on October 1,would be the team manager or be confined to some ceremonial duty such as throwing the first pitch,as serving presidents are prone to do on opening day of the baseball season.
Nope. As the players warmed up,there he was throwing practice pitches from the mound to his alarmingly fit-looking agents.
Carter and his boys jumped to a huge first innings lead and were never headed in the game,despite Carter giving up the odd homer. The former president pitched for the entire game and contributed two hits as a batter (although he did have the benefit of a runner). Hearing the ground announcer call"Now at the plate,the 39th president of the United States,Jimmy Carter"will rank as one of my strangest sporting memories.
Heading out of town I took a wrong turn and stumbled on Andersonville,site of a horrific Confederate prisoner-of-war camp where 13,000 Union soldiers died. It's now a museum to all prisoners of war and a sobering place to stray. I'd had no idea it was so close to Carter country. But then you never can tell where an old road will take you in Georgia.
Destination Athens,Georgia
Athens is about a 90-minute drive from Atlanta. Take the I-85 north then Highway 316 and 29 and follow the signs.
When to go
From August to October the weather is great,although Athens is best avoided on any weekend when a home football game is scheduled.
Peanut festival
The Plains festival is held on the last weekend of September,with the softball game on the Sunday. Jimmy Carter can be heard teaching Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church when he's in town. Classes are open to the public.
More information
http://www.flagpole.com,http://www.visitathensga.com,www.plainsgeorgia.com.