Pine Mountain, Georgia

It was a beautiful day today!! Gorgeous, 65 degrees and sunny with blue skies. We took a drive to Pine Mountain which is about an hour southwest of Atlanta.

Pine Mountain is a very quaint small town (about 1400 residents) and its main street is one that you would expect to see in Mayberry. :) We had lunch at the Purple Cow Cafe - very good sandwiches and a GREAT double chocolate chip cookie dough milkshake. A fun way to start the day! We then walked down Main Street and went through a couple of the stores. One was an "emporium" where I found used books - I was in heaven! I only bought four, though. I restrained myself.

Once we had finished with the stores, we took a drive to Warm Springs which is about a 15 to 20 minute drive from Pine Mountain. Warm Springs is the town in which President Roosevelt built a cottage replica of the White House for his getaways. FDR started going to Warm Springs to partake of the healing waters and fell in love with the area. The State Park system owns the cottage and has restored it and turned it into a museum. We thought it would be interesting to see that.

To get to Warm Springs, you have two choices: the "rural" route which is the shortest; or, the "scenic" route which takes you through the FDR State Park and is about five minutes longer than the rural route. Of course we took the scenic route. And, it was beautiful. I've included a picture from an overlook. Just beautiful.

The FDR museum was interesting. You just meander through on your own. There is a timeline area, which charts FDR's life and then you go out into the yard and walk to the Little White House which has many of the actual furniture pieces from the Roosevelt family as well as glassware and such. It is amazingly well preserved.

There is also a walk of state flags and stones. Each state contributed a piece of indigineous stone and there is a placque giving the stone information, the date the state entered the Union, and the state's motto. That was interesting reading. The east coast is full of limestone, I'll tell you that! Many of the stones are fashioned in the shape of the state itself, which is kind of neat.

We took the rural route back to Pine Mountain and started for "home." We did find a nice campground there in Pine Mountain. That will be handy for when we return so we can visit Callaway Gardens which is 14,000 acres (yes, 14,000!) of botannical gardens, pathways, etc. The brochure says you need a few days to see it all. Not sure when that will be, but we know it's there.

Don't plan to do much tomorrow. Randy thinks he's getting a cold, so we might just take it easy. Definitely want to see Missy and kids again before we leave Friday.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!