The Fletcher Grand Tour of Georgia - Stage 7: Athens

Mum and Dad at the covered bridge

Our journey to Athens was to go via one of Georgia's few remaining covered bridges.  According to Wikipedia the purpose of covering bridges was to protect wooden bridges from the elements.  Our only problem with visiting this bridge was trying to find it.  For once, this wasn't because I tried to find it without our GPS.  Rather, our GPS couldn't find the road on which the bridge is situated.  We were on the verge of giving up when the GPS suddenly discovered where the road was.  However, after spending so long looking for it, I couldn't help being slightly disappointed when I eventually found the bridge as it wasn't quite as impressive as I thought it might be.

Welcome to Athens

The Athens Arch

Administration building

After visiting the bridge we made our way into Athens where we were going to be staying.  Athens is east of Atlanta so our journey northwards had arrived back level from where we had set off.  For once we were staying in the city centre as most of the other places we had visited we had been staying on the outskirts.  Athens grew as a university town as it is the home of the University of Georgia (UGA) and so had a vibrant feel to the city.  The symbol of the university is the twin arch way.  The legend goes that any first year student who walks through the arches will not graduate from the university.  The campus is large but beautifully kept with gardens and interesting designs to their buildings.  Although the arches is the official symbol of UGA the bulldog is the unofficial symbol.  Their sports teams are called the Georgia Bulldogs so the city is bulldog mad. Having a slight interest in sports we headed down to the Sanford Stadium where the Georgia Bulldogs football team play.  They even spell 'Dogs' the way they say it with a Southern drawl.  Our hotel was called the Georgia Gameday Center and was set up to cater for people going to UGA sports matches - so our apartment was also full of bulldogs!

Sanford Stadium

Georgia Dawgs!!

Lampstand in my room

 
 

With the Cannon

During the Civil War someone in Athens developed a double barrelled cannon.  The theory was that it would fire two cannonballs, joined together by a chain, at the same time and so cause twice the damage.  Sadly, on the first trial firing, the two fuses used to fire the two balls burned at different speeds and so one was fired before the other, broke the chain that led them together and they went off in different directions.  The only damage inflicted was on one field of corn and one cow killed.  It was never fired again, although it does still point North - just in case!

Plaque marking the tree

The tree that owns itself

  The final point of interest is The tree that owns itself.  The story goes that William Jackson was so fond of this particular oak tree that, in his will, he left the tree and surrounding land to the tree - thus preserving it's future.  Although it was protected from humans removing it, the will could not prevent the tree from natural degradation.  In 1942 the original tree came down.  However, another tree was grown in the same spot - supposedly from an acorn of that first tree.