Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts

Ride the Rails with Tri-State Model Railroaders

We headed back to the Mineral Bluff Depot for the Ride the Rails event with the Tri -State Model Railroaders. Fall is a perfect time to join this friendly group as they take a couple of railroad speeders on a five mile round trip on the former L&N trackage to Murphy Junction. The highlight of the trip is crossing the Toccoa River on an old iron bridge.

Ride the Rails - Tri-State Model Railroaders

Visiting the Savoy Automobile Museum

We hit the road to visit the Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. The museum is beautiful and all the automotive collections are impressively displayed.  What the museum may lack in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. The Savoy Automotive Museum is constantly rotating out exhibitions so there is always something new to see.

Savoy Automobile Museum

Photos from the Georgia State Railroad Museum

We took a road trip to the Georgia State Railroad Museum. The museum is housed in the former Central of Georgia Railroad Savanah repair shops which closed in 1963. They are trying to preserve the old landmark buildings. While the grounds are clean and walkable, there isn't much here. A few cars and a couple of locomotives are on display. We spent about an hour exploring but mainly because I am a train nut. My suggestion would be to try and visit when the museum is holding some sort of an event.

Georgia State Railroad Museum

Photos of the Tree Spirits

Out of twenty or so Tree Spirits that are located around St Simons Island, Georgia, eleven are located in publicly accessible areas. You can pick up a brochure telling you where their locations are. This creates a sort of scavenger hunt. Warning: some tree spirits are difficult to find. Some of the trees, in which they inhabit, are beginning to consume them. Here are photos of all eleven of the public Tree Spirits of St. Simons Island.

St Simons Island Tree Spirit

Road Trip to Jekyll Island

We woke up early to try and catch the sunrise at Jekyll Island, Georgia. It was brutally windy and cold. Our first stop was to Driftwood Beach. What a fantastic place to explore! Old trees littered the beach making for some interesting shapes to photograph.

Driftwood Beach - Jekyll Island

Photos from the Grey Owl Inn

We stayed at the Grey Owl Inn during our trip to St. Simons, Georgia. The inn is a fantastic bed and breakfast. We couldn't have been happier with our accommodations during our stay.  It's quiet and centrally located to all the places we wanted to visit. If we were ever to travel back to St. Simons this would be our first choice as to where to sleep. 

Grey Owl Inn

A trip to St Simons, Georgia

 We took a road trip down to St Simons, Georgia. I have to say I wasn't impressed. I had high hopes that it would be an upscale beach town. Nope, just your average touristy beach area with cheap Chinese imports in all the downtown shops. The only saving grace was that the food, from all the restaurants where we dined, was delicious.

Garden Lights, Holiday Lights

The crew made a road trip down to Atlanta, Georgia to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens for their Garden Lights, Holiday Lights display. It was a beautiful evening to get out and enjoy some Christmas lights with friends. The crowds weren't too bad and  we were able to spread out and take our time. We also enjoyed some adult beverages of Peanut butter whiskey hot chocolate and Garden Beer #8. This event will certainly be added to our short list of Christmas shows to attend each year.

Photos from the 2021 Atlanta Air Show

We took a road trip down to Peachtree City, Georgia for the 2021 Atlanta Air Show. The Atlanta Regional Airport - Falcon Field is home to the Commemorative Air Force and is a nice airport for an air show. It is small enough that you can get pretty close to the flight line to watch the aircraft. A mix of prop aircraft and jets took to the skies but the show was shorter than what we are used to experiencing. We still enjoyed watching the show and were happy to be able to get outside for the day. 

Atlanta Air Show

Photos from the Southeastern Railroad Museum

We took a side trip on our way home from Atlanta to check out the Southeastern Railroad Museum in Duluth, Georgia. This nice little museum is the official transportation museum of Georgia. It has trains, buses, taxis, fire engines, and a bunch of other transportation-related items. You can just wander around the yard, take a ride on the full-sized train or miniature train, or even railfan the adjacent Norfolk Southern line.

Southeastern Railroad Museum

Photos from the Atlanta Model Train Show

We piled into the Jeep for a road trip to the Atlanta Model Train Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre. It's a nice show but a little on the small side. Oh, and parking sucks! We spent less than an hour looking around but did manage to pick up a few tools and supplies. With this show being so far away and just being okay, we will probably skip it in the future.

Atlanta Model Train Show

A quick trip to Helen, Georgia

We decided to take a trip to Helen, Georgia for an overnight stay mostly to stay at the Heidi Motel. The Heidi Motel is a cute motel which has a faux windmill. Of course, we needed to stay in the windmill portion. Our room was a Queen Windmill Suite Standard on the second level of the windmill.

Photos from Charlemagne's Kingdom

A trip to Helen, Georgia would not be complete without a tour of Charlemagne's Kingdom. This sizeable model railroad layout depicts a German alpine area. There are 400 feet of track and a 22-foot mountain included in the layout and it is very well done. However, it could use a little sprucing up in a few areas and there were only a couple of trains running when we visited. Since we were staying next door at the Heidi Motel, we could visit the layout as many times as we wanted for free during our motel reservation. We definitely enjoyed our visit.

Photos from the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway

We stopped by Blue Ridge, GA to do some shopping and grab lunch. While there, I had to take a few photos of the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway and other Patriot Rail equipment. Georgia Northeastern Railroad #8705 (GNRR), Columbia and Cowlitz Railroad #3810 (CLC), and the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway #7529 (BRSR) were all on the tracks nearby.

Georgia Northeastern Railroad #8705 (GNRR) at Blue Ridge, GA

Road Trip to Mineral Bluff Depot

We are on the road again. This trip finds us traveling to Mineral Bluff, Georgia to the old Marietta and North Georgia Railway (M&NGR) Depot at 150 Railroad Avenue. The depot was built in 1887. The tracks have been owned by various railroads, including Atlantic, Knoxville, and Northern Railroad Construction Company in 1896, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) in 1902, CSX Transportation (CSX) in 1986, and Georgia Northeastern Railroad in 1987 (GNRR).  The Mineral Bluff  Depot last saw freight action in the 1950's. After a renovation in 2007, it is now home to the Tri-State Model Railroaders.

Getting a Little Nutty at Ellis Brothers Pecans

Riding the backroads of Georgia during pecan harvest time, we stopped at Ellis Brothers Pecans in Vienna, Georgia. Inside their store you can taste all sorts of pecan goodies.  One intersting thing we discovered is just how many different varieties of pecans there are and each one really does have a different taste. This is a fantastic stop for anyone in southern Georgia.

Ellis Brothers Pecans