Cedartown Bound?

It's really not such an exciting place, any way you look at it.  Just a little town nestled in the rolling hills of north Georgia. I'm drawn back there for a myriad of reasons, the most tangible of which is this trail.  It is I believe the longest paved trail in the country, at about 100 miles total.  For a cyclist, this is paradise!

This photo takes me back deep into childhood.  When my father returned from the Army after WWII, I remember him working at this railroad station, loading big cotton bales into boxcars.  At least, I think that was his job.  I remember those big bales, at any rate, and seeing him out on the platform doing something.  I was maybe 3 or 4 years old.  Most of the trains that came through town were the big, black coal-fired steam engines, chug-chugging their way, smoke billowing, whistle blowing.  That was big entertainment for us kids back then.  I also rode the train from time to time and in fact remember several trips I took alone when I was 6 or 7, traveling back to Cedartown from Atlanta to visit my grandfather, aunt and cousins.  By then, my dad had been back in the Army for some time and was stationed at Fort McPherson -- I guess loading cotton bales wasn't too exciting.

If you're thinking all this means I'm going back, you would be correct.  At least, that's the current thinking after letting the idea settle and rest and percolate for a week or so.  As I say so often, one never knows what the next few months will bring, but all else being equal, I'll be driving south sometime in February.

Lots to do between now and then -- mostly, trying to earn some $$.  That's not as easy as it sounds, in this town, but I have to believe it's possible and if it's not, then we go with what we've got.

Whatever happens, I surely don't regret this layover in Brookings, costly though it was.  I really needed this time to transition away from all that I love out here.  When I was in San Francisco, I knew I was saying 'goodbye', although I didn't know why.  But I absorbed that fabulous city right back into my body, enough to keep me going without it another 20 or 25 years, surely.  Things happen the way they are meant to happen, I believe, and in the end all will be well.