Birmingham to Savannah

We started today out early, up at 6:00am, breakfast and then on the road by 7:00am. Not long after leaving Birmingham we exited I20 to Leeds. In Leeds we made our way to the Rowan House to find Historic Stage Coach Route. This was an easy find and the box was planted along the Ashville to Leeds Stagecoach Route. We were unable to visit the Rowan House since it was early and they weren't open yet. But we read the plaque outside the house and it was part of an old Irish Farm which is now a subdivision. From here we drove just a short distance down the street to the Leeds Historical Park. Here there is a war memorial and some grinding stones from Fuller's Grist Mill. We looked for The Little Cahaba letterbox and it was a quick and easy find hidden under a small foot bridge near the parking area. I stamped into the box in the car and once it was rehidden we were ready to hit the road again.

Trying to keep to some sort of schedule we decided to not stop for any more letterboxes until we crossed into Georgia. Not far into Georgia we stopped at the Welcome Center. We looked for and found Georgia - A Peach of a State letterbox. It was another easy find and I stamped in sitting on a bench near the building. It was the perfect box to be my first find in Georgia. After the box was in place I went into the Center to get a new map and some information about Savannah. Time to drive again. We made our next stop in Douglasville at Deer Lick Park. We had a little trouble here because there was more than one entrance and we didn't know that. We pulled into the first entrance and looked around for the box but nothing made sense. Thomas noticed that over a hill was another part of the park. So we went back to the car and drove into the second entrance. Now that we were in the right place the box was an easy find. I sat on a log to stamp in and didn't realize that the log was damp. By the time I finished stamping in and got the box back into place my butt was wet. Since it took us a little more time than we planned to find this box we decided to forgo any other boxes in the area and head for Atlanta.

I had big plans for Atlanta - I wanted to look for two boxes, visit the Capitol, go to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Site and get some lunch. So we parked near the Capitol and found a restaurant. After getting a quick lunch we walked to the Capitol. We visited the Information Desk and got a brochure for a self guided tour and a Capitol Stamp. The we started walking around. It is a beautiful building and we enjoyed looking at all the portraits of past Governors. We stopped in to the Senate and House Chambers and then made our way up to the fourth floor to visit the Art Galleries. They had some very nice pieces in the collection and we lost track of time - we ended up being there for about an hour and a half. We exited the Capitol and walked around the outside so I could get a few pictures and then made our way back to the car. Since time had gotten away from us we decided to leave Atlanta and head a little south to Reynolds Nature Preserve in Morrow.

Once we arrived at the park I gathered my letterbox clues and we set out. We first stopped at the kiosk and looked at the map and sorted out the clues. There were three sets of clues. Two set so clues were four box series each and the other was just a single box. The single box was in the same area as one of the series so we worked on those first. We had a pleasant walk through the Preserve and found all five of these boxes, a couple we had to backtrack and look a second time but in the end found them all. We passed a few people but for the most part we were pretty secluded and had a nice walk. We then started looking for the last series. We found the first box easy enough but it was totally flooded. The box had about an inch of water in it and the logbook was completely soaked and ruined. I stamped the stamp into my logbook and cleaned out the box the best I could. I dried the stamp and baggies and I pressed some of the water out of the logbook. Unfortunately I didn't have the supplies to really fix it up. I replaced the box making sure the lid was on tight and decided I would just write the planter and hope they lived nearby and could do some maintenance. The second box in this series hadn't been found since 2007 so I was skeptical that we would find it and I was right. We got to the last landmark and took a compass reading and we were unable to find the fallen log that intersected with a tree and after searching the area and rechecking the compass we decided to give up on that one and move along. We got to the third box and had some trouble - we thought we had found the right stump and its top laying near it but there was no box. By this time the sun was getting lower and the fourth box hadn't been found in over a year so we decided it was probably time to head out. We got to the car and headed back toward the interstate and that's when things got crazy.

The road leading to the interstate was bumper to bumper and it took us about 40 minutes to go 1.2 miles where we finally got on to the interstate. In less than five miles the interstate became backed up as well. From this point we drove 5 miles in 20 minutes. We decided that we would stop for dinner and relax and let the traffic clear up. So we found a nice sit down restaurant and had a nice leisurely dinner and talked about what a great day we had. Around 6:30pm we decided to take our chances and head out. At first the interstate was a little busy but it didn't take long to clear up and we were on our way. Of course we had to forgo a couple of other things we had planned along the way since it was already dark. The drive from Macon to Savannah on I16 was long and a little weird. Since it was dark we couldn't see much. We could tell that the sides of the road were lined with trees. We were able to distinguish the sky from the trees and it felt we were driving in a canyon. There was no way to tell if there was a town or anything on the other side of the trees so we felt completely cut off (and again it was dark and that made it so much worse). Coming from New Mexico driving like this was such a weird feeling - we are used to things being out in the open, you can see ahead that there are lights and a town and maybe a gas station - at least something. We only saw signs and had to assume that there was actually something out there. At one point I had the eeriest feeling that vampires were lurking in the darkness ready to snack on anyone that had a car breakdown and was stranded - I know what you are thinking - I have lost it. Maybe it was just too much driving and too much letterboxing. We did end up stopping for a bathroom break in Metter. As we got to the end of the off ramp and went to make a left turn I noticed this sign just in front of us - yeah the one pictured here - pretty weird, we almost got back on the interstate right then - click on the picture if you would like to learn more. I am sorry if this offends anyone but I really think all those evangelists are creepy.

Anyway we made it safely to Savannah and even though it was 10:30pm there were quite a few people walking around. We checked into the hotel (the staff are very nice and accommodating) and got settled. Tomorrow morning we take an architecture and history tour of Savannah.