He "politely" educated me that folks in the 1800's didn't have access to electronic bull horns (DAH!) but rather just blew through horns from bulls like a horn. Now why on earth would they think that sounded better than church bells?!Zipping out of North Carolina, through South Carolina, we arrived in no time at the Welcome station in Georgia where we picked up some tourist info to help in our search for lunch. Back on the road, I began reading about this little town of Dahlonega. It was 5o miles off the main road, but suddenly it occurred to me that we were no longer racing to get away from the ice storm (DAH!), so why not take a side trip?
If you are like us, you may not have realized that Dahlonega was the site of the first gold rush in the US in the early 1800's. In fact they mined so much gold they even put one of the US mints there. It was abandoned during the Civil War (no surprise there...). Even though some gold is still mined there today, their major gold digging appears to be from tourists. All the shops in their very pretty downtown have now been redone into quaint little shops for tourists. John & I aren't much into shopping, opting to go through their gold museum instead - not a whole lot on display but what they had was interesting (and their movie gave John a chance for a brief nap).
But the real reason (other than lunch which was nothing to write home about) I wanted to come to Dahlonega was to go to the "Funky Chicken Art Project" described as art in an old chicken coup. It was about 10 miles out of town. Some interesting garden type art but with prices waaaaay above my price point.
So it was on to Atlanta - we brought them driving rain which I'm sure they were only too happy to have. (Rambo & I were less than enthusiastic! - we haven't dared look in the back for leaks yet...) Past Atlanta, we're now in Douglasville, GA. Who knows what today will bring? (DAH!)
1 comment:
Hi, I live in Dahlonega and the Gold Museum is ok, but a better place to go is the Consolidated Gold Mine on the Morrison Moore bypass next to the Walmart store. You can go down underground and tour the mine. The largest "gold nugget" ever found anywhere in the world came out of this mine. You can still see the "Glory Hole" where it was extracted.
There is also a great waterfall in town called "Cane Creek Falls" over on the old Methodist Cane Creek Campground.
The Old Dahlonega Mint still lives as the "foundation stones" for the Price Building (the one with the "golden dome") on the North Georgia College and State University Campus.
Visit the "Crimson Moon" restaurant and coffee house located in the oldest commercial building in town. The place showcases bluegrass/celtic singer/songwriters from all over the world on weekends.
Come back for a second look.
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