Georgia from Georgia

Growing up in Georgia with the name Georgia was fun... not. Just kidding, it taught me how to have a good sense of humor. I don't know how many times I've told people "no, I'm not named after the state" or had people who didn't believe my name was actually Georgia. And don't get me started on how many times I've been serenaded with the song "Georgia on my Mind"--- too many!! Things can also get confusing when people talk about football, which is very common in my hometown, because I'll hear "Georgia sucks" or "I hate Georgia" or "We killed Georgia" or my personal fav "We raped Georgia." Needless to say, that can get confusing...

On the bright side, any Georgia Bulldog apparel
can conveniently be changed to Georgia Taylor apparel.

Chillin' in our truck bed... literally. 

My boyfriend, Kyle, and I have set out on a road trip across the country. Hugging the southern part of the United States, going along the coast of Cali, and then around the northern part of the states once it gets a little warmer. We've built a bed in the back of his truck and boy, it's pimpin'. Our first stop was my hometown, Fortson, Georgia. Kyle's sister is living in our house in St. Augustine so we had some stuff to drop off at my home in Georgia to make room for them and it just so happened my mom, who lives in Tennessee now, and her college friends (my beloved Aunt Sandy and Price) came down for the weekend. Plus, I had a project to complete. Kyle's uncle sent me a sewing machine and an entire box of Crown Royal bags in hopes that I would sew him a robe. I'm pretty handy with a needle and thread, but this is definitely the most ambitious project I have ever embarked on. That's another reason I planned to go home, because my mom is an amazing seamstress and I knew she could help. 

My Aunt Sandy, one of my many helper elves.

The first night we all got wine drunk and went out to eat at one my favorite restaurants, Hunter's Pub. This place is ALWAYS packed, but so worth the wait. I ate here once on New Year's Eve and I would say that meal is in my top five favorite meals of all time. It was steak with lump crab meat on top with hollandaise sauce. Not even sure what I got this time, 'cause I was wasted but I know it was good! You've got to order the lobster tails appetizer. YUM! The next morning we started on the project of the Crown Royal robe. Luckily, I had a lot of helpers and everyone was put to work. Kyle was cutting the logos out of the bags, Sandy was ironing, mom was figuring out the pattern, and I was sewing them all together like a quilt. I even got Kyle on the machine! By the end of the weekend, we still hadn't finished the robe, but I decided we'd head to my grandma's next in Dadeville, Alabama so she could help me with the rest. 

This is an old picture of me on the
Pine Mountain Trail.

There isn't too much to do in Fortson and I live at least 20 minutes away from everything, but I live on Lake Harding and grew up with a boat, jet skis, and canoes so there was always plenty of entertainment. If you want to hang out at the lake, your best bet is to go to Blanton Creek Park. You can even camp there! There's another really great camping place called F. D. Roosevelt State Park, but this isn't on Lake Harding. It's in Pine Mountain, which is somewhere you definitely need to go if you're in the area. The state park has campsites for as little as $10 a night/per person. There are many trails to walk on and a huge pool that is fed by a spring called Liberty Bell Pool. It's only open in the warmer months, but it is so cool! We planned to go hiking, but car trouble kept us cooped up at my house in the middle of nowhere. Since my mom doesn't live there anymore, she's sold the boat, the jetskis weren't in the water, and the internet was disconnected, so we were pretty bored. I definitely recommend going to check out some of the trails though. This website is pretty informative about what Pine Mountain offers in the hiking department. Callaway Gardens is another neat place in Pine Mountain. There are bikes trails, tennis courts, golfing, wakeboarding and skiing in the summer, a butterfly house, and a beautiful display of Christmas lights during the holidays. 

We made the best of being cooped up on my little dead-end street that I grew up on by skating to the closest gas station, The Store. They used to have the best brownies and popsicles, but someone new must have bought it because the don't have either anymore. I was PISSED! :( We skated to the church near my house to visit the grave of my next door neighbor, Johnny the Jellyman. Johnny was the nicest guy around and would give his homemade jelly to everyone who lived nearby. When we ran out of jelly, we'd go over and pick some new kinds from his jelly closet. He had rows and rows of jelly, the shelves labeled with "orange marmalade," "strawberry," "blackberry," every kind you could imagine! His hands started to shake as he got older and his family wouldn't let him make the jelly anymore because they were afraid he'd spill the boiling concoction on himself. One year for community service, I helped Johnny make his jelly. I didn't get the recipe though... I guess I never thought of Johnny dying and the jelly being gone forever. He died in 2007 at the age of 91 and we attended his funeral up the street from his house where he was buried next to his wife. I think about Johnny all the time and hope for his sake there's jelly in heaven. :)

In elementary school, I had to make a book about Georgia. One
of the sections was "local heros" so I wrote about Johnny. It
reads "This is Johnny. He's the jelly man. Johnny makes jelly.
He makes all kinds, strawberry, blueberry, almost every kind
you can dream of."

This is the dick shaped bowl at the Jonathan Hatcher Skatepark.
I tried to capture it from a good angle so you could see it's
dick resemblance, but the pictures don't do it justice. 

Columbus, Georgia is where I attended high school and about 20+ minutes from everything I just mentioned. Downtown Columbus, Georgia is quaint. There is a 22 mile path that hugs the Chattahoochee River, known as the Riverwalk. The city has recently spent millions of dollars putting hydraulics into the river to make it fun for whitewater rafting and kayaking. It doesn't look that fun to me, but I have definitely seen people with boats in there so if you're into that kind of thing, it might be worth checking out. There are some good skate spots down by the water too, so bring your board. Also downtown, within skating distance of the Riverwalk, is Jonathan Hatcher Skatepark. There are two big bowls, a dick shaped bowl, and some street areas. It's big and really nice, we enjoyed skating there. If you're board breaks or you need some new hardware, there's a cool skate shop downtown called Cuckoo's Nest Skateshop. Here's a link to their blog. There were some really nice dudes in there and some artwork in the back. Good vibes! If you're hungry after all these activities try a sandwich from Mama Goldberg's Deli and then grab a smoothie from Fountain City Coffee.

This is the cool skate spot down on the Riverwalk.

Here are some of the new rapids in the Chattahooche.