Sea Island Georgia, Athens, GSMNP

Sea Island, Georgia

Sea Island ended up being pretty wonderful. Although I worked four of those days, I did soak up as much as I could in the free moments. Every morning I would workout in a beautiful fitness center and then walk the beach. I would work diligently through the day, then at lunch come down to the beach and see everybody. Then back up to the condo and crush through more work. In the evening I would come back down again and see everyone again either at the beach or the pool and meet for dinner. Then I would walk and explore the facilities more just with my wife and sons.

One thing of note is that there is an Ole Times Buffet in the area, which is one of my favorite restaurants in the southeast. Of course we went there for dinner! We were also treated to a feast at the resort itself. Most nights we ate incredibly well in the condo, which was well appointed. During those days I did work I sat a huge table looking out at the ocean. The weather remained perfect, and one night I even slept most of the night on the porch after falling asleep out there.

The only drawback was an issue with my CPAP, and after a few nights without wearing one I start feeling like crap again. I was able to deal with that though and the first thing I did when I got home was grab a fresh mask and go right to bed to catch up on sleep before my work week started.

Athens, Georgia

Leslie and the boys flew privately to Sea Island, GA. Since I wasn’t sure I could make it down at first, and decided to drive, I wanted to pamper myself a little on the last weekend travelling home. I did not want to do the whole pedal to the medal thing and instead have my own little adventure seeing a part of the country I’ve not been to before. I chose to drive from Brunswick GA up through 441 to Athens and then through GSMNP, only getting on an interstate when I reached Knoxville. The drive itself was incredible! I saw so much of central and north Georgia and western North Carolina I would never see on my own. Georgia was particularly interesting. That part of Georgia is timber country. Some parts are particularly nice, others not so and I will not name what I thought were not worth visiting again. Some parts I definitely could understand why they filmed portions of the Walking Dead there. The only recurring theme I saw were Dollar General stores and storage bin installation businesses. There were some nice places though, notably Madison and Lake Sinclair.

My original plans involved staying at Athens, GA, a town I knew I would never visit otherwise. I originally wanted to eat a nice dinner and see a movie or concert in town, but the last day at Sea Island my in-laws treated us to a wonderful smoked meat dinner. I packed up the leftovers and put into my cooler and decided to eat it at the hotel instead. It would be hard to beat otherwise. The movie theater I decided against visiting ultimately because I was kind of tired (I hadn’t had my CPAP in a week) so watching “Wolverine and Deadpool” would have to wait. Instead, I drove around Athens and saw the city and the UGA campus. I was able to get into Sanford Stadium and look around and check out the field. I did some shopping for the family and purchased a hat for my wife and a hat for myself. My hotel was near a fairly wealthy section of Athens so I checked out a few stores there also. Back at the hotel I went to sleep fairly early because I planned on hitting the road again before 6:00 AM so I could have some additional time in Pigeon Forge.

Great Smokey National Park

On my way from Athens to Cherokee I was able to see some interesting parts of the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains. I stopped at Tallulah Gorge and hiked around there in the morning. I drove through GSMNP and stopped at a few interesting places to take photos. I drove through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and ultimately stopped at the Great Smokey Knife Works to buy the boys some presents. I also got a few knives for myself, of course. Ultimately I was able to sample both the ocean and the mountains in one weekend. Then, onto the expressway and pedal to the medal until I was home in time for dinner. What a week!