To get to South Carolina from North Florida, one must drive through Georgia. My route of choice is 301, mostly because it's a friendly back road, not an interstate highway. Route 301 is only a mile from my home - once I get on that road, I can pretty much sit back and drive blindfolded for several hours without thinking about anything, until I reach South Carolina.
The part of Georgia that 301 runs through is never a destination for me. It's only a means to get me where I want to go in another state. There are not too many of my friends who think much of Route 301, because it is straight, narrow, and seemingly boring as hell. But I like Route 301, and I'm going to tell you why.
The road runs through all these little Georgia towns, with weird names that I don't even know how to pronounce. Like Nahunta. And Ludowici. And in between the towns there are cotton fields, pecan groves, and prisons. There are little restaurants and run-down thrift shops, and all of these seem to be frozen in time. There is the town of Claxton, famous for its fruitcake. If you turn left after the railroad tracks, the fruitcake plant is about a block down on your right. You can get free samples of fruitcake and sometimes a mini tour of the plant, if you speak nicely to the proprietor on duty.
Speaking of Claxton, before you actually get into the town, there is a restaurant on the right called Mrs. Rogers. This place is a Southern buffet that features fried chicken, ribs, and the like. You can smell the collard greens in the parking lot. I can attest to the fact that they make their okra and tomatoes from scratch. If you go in there after church, you will see pious Baptists gorging on Mrs. Rogers' specialties, since they're not allowed to drink beer after church like we Episcopalians do.
In the town of Glennville, there is a little Mexican restaurant called Mi Plaza. They make delicious chili rellenos. You can get an enormous lunch for only $5.29. And keep those diet Cokes coming, because I don't think you can drink alcohol in Glennville, either. The servers are amazingly friendly, and when you tell them you are from Florida, they look at you as if you had said you were from France. Apparently, they don't get many out-of-towners at Mi Plaza.
In Statesboro, there is a bakery called Sugar Magnolia, and it's located on Savannah Ave. I'm not sure how I found the place but perhaps I needed a restroom and ended up there. They make yummy bakery items, and also pizza with their own homemade dough. I would say that Sugar Magnolia is probably the most sophisticated of all the places I have come to know on my trips along Route 301.
You can buy pecans all along Route 301. Some at farm stands, some from people sitting in their cars on the side of the road, with cardboard signs on their bumpers advertising their wares. You will come across several prisons and detention centers, surrounded by razor wire, which sparkles in the sun and reflects off your windshield in a cosmic sort of way. Right next to the prisons you will see cotton fields that go on for miles, and especially in November, right before the cotton is harvested, it's really quite a beautiful sight.
When I finally get to South Carolina, I am feeling a little sad to get off Route 301. Now I have to read my map, drive on interstates, through big cities and on beltways, and find my way to my destination without the help of a GPS, since I don't own one. There are family members to visit, trails to hike, rivers to paddle, and mountains to climb, all north of Georgia's Route 301. And after all is said and done, I look forward to coming back the same way I drove up. Because I live in one of those little towns off Route 301, in North Florida, and gee, it feels great to be home.
No comments:
Post a Comment