Discovering Roadside Treasure on Georgia’s Byways

Updated: Summer 2020

America’s love affair with automobiles is well documented and wide spread. Give us a choice, and we’ll jump in a car to go almost anywhere rather than walk, bike or take public transportation. And one of the pure pleasures of driving includes the unexpected, unusual and weird discoveries you make along the way.

So, rather than focus on our end destinations, we’re looking at Georgia locations we stumbled upon along the way while driving the highways and byways of our (newest) home state. It’s not a comprehensive list, and not a “best of” compendium. Instead, it’s more of a stream-of-consciousness review of places we recently discovered on the way to somewhere else. Some are places to eat. Some are places to visit. Others are just places that are hard to describe, confusing or amusing.

Here’s our list, which we’re sure will grow over time, and most with links for more information:

• Ball Ground Burger Bus. Aside from the triple B alliteration to make new newscasters nervous, you just don’t expect this combination of bus, burgers and historic business district in too many places. Technically, the Ball Ground Burger Bus isn’t a bus, but a 1948 trolley from Atlanta. It’s featured on one of our own favorite road trip research sites, RoadsideAmerica.com.

  

• Atlanta Botanical Gardens — in Gainesville. The Piedmont Park location is a favorite destination for kids of all ages, and a great place to spend a spring or fall afternoon. What we stumbled upon was the Gainesville location of this Atlanta institution. The smaller, less-crowded location includes five acres of new gardens and wooded hiking trails across some of the 168 acres on the property. Construction started in July 2018 on the next expansion, a children’s garden. We bought an annual pass that includes admission to the main campus plus admission to 300 other member locations of the American Horticultural Society.
• Goats on the Roof. This roadside treasure was on our Georgia travel radar from some Pinterest saves, but we had not taken the time to find it. When it popped up along the route of a recent Northeast Georgia route to Clayton, GA, we had to stop. In addition to the named attraction, the team at Goats on the Roof made us two fabulous nitrogen ice cream concoctions: apple pie and blackberry cobbler. Yum! Finding Goats using the Roadtripper App inspired us to write a recent blog on how we find these kinds of travel treasures.

  

• The Tomato House. When we wrote the term confusing and amusing, The Tomato House was our inspiration. A roadside sign drew us in, thinking it was a farmers’ market of sorts. While a few fresh tomatoes and other farm goods were available, nothing prepared us for the plentiful pickled preserved products present. My wife, Glenda, was so overwhelmed she couldn’t buy anything! And I was so distracted I forgot to take pictures. True story. However, she is making a list of the marinades, meat rubs, pepper sauces, preserves and more for a future visit. And she’s campaigning for a visit to nearby Dahlonega as the reason to drive by again.
• The Highest City in Georgia. More than anything else, we simply liked the description of Sky Valley, GA, especially given the ongoing debate about legalization of certain substances around the country. While Helen, GA, made itself a tourist stop with its Bavarian theme, the failed Swiss-architecture resort lodge and some similar-themed ill-kept time shares seem to haunt this town. Not to be outdone, nearby Black Rock Mountain State Park promotes itself as the highest state park in Georgia.

  

• Tallulah Point Overlook. Traveling US 23 North, we took the Tallulah Gorge Scenic Loop sideroad based on the road’s name. And at the most scenic point sits the Tallulah Point Overlook – a combination convenience store, rustic roadside museum and souvenir shop. I can’t do better than their own description: “Once you take in the beauty and grandeur, step into our shop and revisit a time when sodas were in glass bottles and toys were powered by a child’s imagination. You will find many things to delight your fancy, things that have been delighting people for generations.” BTW, the scenic view from their covered porch is the same as from the parking lot but enjoying it from one of their rocking chairs and holding a cool beverage is much better.
• Carroll’s Sausage and Country Store. Forget that Arby’s ad that proclaims, “We have the meat.” Carroll’s Sausage and Meats in Ashburn, GA,  has the corner on that claim. It was the lure of award-winning Vidalia onion and cheese sausage that pulled us off I-75 northbound to this oasis of offal. We left with supplies of that treat, plus jalapeno cheese sausage and snack sticks. And we bookmarked the online store, so now we don’t have to make the 3-hour drive to Ashburn when we want to replenish.

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• World’s Largest Peanut Monument. (UPDATE:  On our most recent trips in 2019 and 2020, the giant peanut monument was gone. We haven’t discovered if this is temporary — perhaps a refurbishment — or permanent — and definitely a Georgia tragedy. We’re keeping our eyes peeled for more information, while avoiding all nut jokes!) But if we hadn’t stopped at Carroll’s, we might have missed this: A fabricated giant peanut perched atop a cylindrical brick tower commemorating Ashburn, GA, as the peanut capital of the world. Now, there’s real controversy about whether this IS the largest peanut monument. Plus, these “in the world” claims can get out of hand, as they did in my home state of Louisiana. When a town in neighboring Mississippi offered a competing claim for the Catfish Capital of the World, my hometown of Des Allemands, LA, successfully petitioned the Louisiana legislature to designate it officially as the Catfish Capital of the Universe. The state legislature passed a unanimous resolution in 1980 bestowing that designation perpetually on Des Allemands. (That reminds me: I need to submit that history update to the town’s Wikipedia site.)

  

• Pickett’s Mill Battlefield. Like in that Sesame Street song, this one doesn’t go with the others. The site of the last major Confederate victory of the Civil War and one of Georgia’s newest state historical areas, Pickett’s Mill Battlefield makes the list because its most notable physical features might be holes in the ground.  Along park trails you’ll find some well-preserved battle earthworks, among the best-preserved anywhere. That said, unless you’re a Civil War or military history buff, they’ll look like overgrown trenches — not the kind of stuff you’ll feature in your Facebook posts or highlight in your online vacation photo album. We did a full blog post on a springtime visit.

My Shortest and Wisest Road Trip

This all calls to mind my own shortest road trip. It included only one stop. One pre-Christmas night in the 1908s, I actually drove my wife across the street to go to a neighborhood party, then came back to park in my own garage.  The single stop was my neighbor’s driveway.  And when I say neighbor, I’m not using that term loosely to describe someone who lives in the same general neighborhood, or even someone with a house a few doors away.  No, we drove directly across the street from our driveway to theirs.

A few additional facts by way of explanation. This was in Ohio.  The temperature was -5F. The wind was blowing at approximately 20 mph. There was a foot of snow on the ground. And I had failed to shovel our driveway.

What’s Your Favorite Stop?

If you’ve made a favorite stop on the route from here to somewhere, let us know. We’d love to compile a list of favorites submitted by you, and share it with our readers. Just leave us a comment, or send us an e-mail at: contact@ourtravelcafe.com