Saturday, September 16:
It rained on and off today and we don’t like biking in the rain so we went for a walk through Piedmont during a dry spell. We saw many of the historical homes, including a Sears & Roebuck house. Sadly, most are in very poor shape. Piedmont itself is struggling; empty storefronts, run down buildings. One big surprise was the Solar Project right across the street from where we’re staying. It’s a solar array in the parking lot with several EV chargers.
We walked a bit on the Chief Ladiga Trail and then stopped at one of the few thriving businesses for a coffee and lunch. It’s been a bit tricky to find vegetarian offerings. Tom had the spinach and artichoke wrap which sounded good but they failed to mention the tuna! We make do with quite a bit of cooking ourselves and a healthy dose of flexibility!
I was glad that Rita from the Historical Society came by this afternoon to put a fresh batch of muffins in the freezer. She gets them from a local bakery and supplies them for guest breakfasts. They’re not some fancy huge bakery muffin – they look like they just came out of a home oven and they are very tasty! We learned a bit more about the history of the museum. The house was bequeathed to the Baptist Church with the stipulation that it not be torn down for 25 years. The church was planning to tear it down after 16 years and the Historical Society managed to rescue it and made it an AirBnB. It’s never been used as a museum but it is currently housing the collection from the Depot museum which is undergoing renovation. We chatted with Rita for quite some time hearing about the town, the sisters who were the last owners the house and other bits and pieces. Rita’s husband ran the Boston Marathon twice!
We had a pleasant afternoon playing mahjong on the porch and are looking forward to a good ride on the Chief Ladiga tomorrow.
Sunday, September 17:
We got great weather for a ride this morning. We were out early and had ridden 28 miles on the Chief Ladiga Trail by noon. The trail is very well maintained and nice and shady. We rode to the Georgia State Line where it becomes the Silver Comet Trail. The two trails are currently the longest paved rail trail in the country at 95 miles.
Tomorrow we drive to Jackson, MS. We’ll pick Elizabeth up at the airport and will visit the Mississippi Museum of Civil rights and the MS History Museum on Tuesday. Wednesday is the start of our quilting retreat with the wonderful Gees Bend Quilters. We’ll take a blogging pause for the duration and pick up again when we arrive in Gainesville on September 25th.