On the final week of our Road Trippin’ Across the USA! tour, we are traveling all around our home state of Georgia. The state is known as the Peach State, even though it is not the largest producer of peaches.
In the late 1800s, Samuel Rumph developed the Elberta peach and invented a refrigerated train car. This allowed Georgia peach growers to ship their product to the larger markets in the North, which forever associated peaches with
Georgia and earned Samuel Rumph the title of the “Father of the Georgia Peach Industry.”
Georgia is the nation’s top producer of broiler chickens, peanuts, pecans, blueberries and spring onions. The most famous onion from Georgia is the Vidalia onion. The Vidalia Onion Act of 1986 declares that an onion can only be called Vidalia if it is grown in one of 20 signated counties around Vidalia, Georgia. Vidalia onions are known for their unusually sweet flavor that is due to the low amount of sulfur in the area’s soil.
If you travel from Vidalia onion country toward Macon, you will come to the Museum of Aviation near Warner Robins Air Force Base. The Museum of Aviation is the second-largest aerospace museum of the United States Air Force. It has over 85 historic aircraft and four exhibit buildings. This is a great museum for kids. You can climb into the cockpit of an F-105D “Thunderchief," a UH-1 “Huey” helicopter and an F-15 “Eagle”. Who doesn’t love to pretend to fly a fighter?
Next, we’ll stop by the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. Every type of Coca-Cola memorabilia you can think of is here. Even items from other countries. Of course, the best part is the tasting room, where you can sample Coca-Cola flavors from around the world. Some are good, a few are terrible.
As you travel north from Atlanta, you will come to
Cartersville, home of the Booth Western Art Museum. I’m not a huge fan of art museums in general, but this museum’s sculptures and paintings of horses, cowboys, western vistas, and Native Americans are both fascinating and moving. It is well worth the stop.
The last stop on our trip through Georgia is Cloudland Canyon State Park in Dade County. The park is located on the western edge of Lookout Mountain in the northwest corner of the state. There are several hiking trails, campsites, picnic areas, even a disc-golf course. But the most well-known trail leads down to the waterfalls–half a mile down to Cherokee Falls and another very steep half mile down to Hemlock Falls. Going down is not so bad. Coming back up is rough.
There is much more to do and see around Georgia! You can watch our Road Trippin’ Across the USA! – Georgia! video on the Dade County 4-H Facebook page or on our Dade County GA 4-H YouTube channel.
Our traveling days are over, but next week we’ll learn more fun facts about the great state of Georgia!
