Sorry to have left you all hanging for two days; I had no bandwidth through my cell phone for the iPad.  We left you hanging after our failed attempt to see the Augusta National Golf Club. That afternoon we were to hot and tired to go far, and we were dodging a heavy thunderstorm around Augusta (managed to stay dry).  We traveled west on I-20 (now you know we were tired because we were on the interstate) looking for a good place to stop for the night.  Found a place at Hwy 78 and I-20 and kicked back in AC with a nice flatscreen TV.

The next day we headed on 2-lane highways to Toccoa to see the College and the Falls.  This might have been the best riding in the cool of the morning on the whole trip, but it always seemed that way in the morning–cooler, shaded by the low sun with little or no traffic.  We were almost sorry to find the town and college. but we did.  Here are the notable pix:

Toccoa Sign

I had not been on this campus in many years.  A Trinity Divinity School classmate of mine, Carlos Vega, went to work at Toccoa in the same year I went to work at Bryan, 1971.  I asked about him; like me he was semi-retired.

Best view of the falls

This is a good view of the falls.  They are only about 100 yards up from the campus bookstore and welcome center at the back of the campus.  It seems very smart of them to make you go through the giftshop to get to the falls.

This is a memorial to the devastating flood at Toccoa in 1977.  I remember that day; it sobered all of us at Bryan College to learn that 49 people lost their lives on our sister campus in Georgia.  Near this site is a stone oblisk with the names of the victims inscribed on it.  The saddest part is that several families lost 4 or more in the flood.

We both enjoyed this stop.

From Toccoa it was an easy and beautiful ride up Hwy 441/23 to Franklin, NC (my second home).  We stopped for lunch at Fatz Cafe (my favorite place to eat).  Had a good lunch and reminisced about the trip.  After lunch, Andy was eager to get as far north as possible before dark (he got within 40 miles of Lexington, KY), and I went shopping for food before going up the mountain to our house (we call it Hope House).

Saturday Andy got home in the early afternoon (I think; can’t remember), and I slept until 10:00 AM!  He was safe; I felt like I was in heaven.  Here are some pix to let you know how I felt.

Hope House from the Driveway

This is the view of Franklin valley and town over my bike.  The house sits on a 4,000 foot ridge with almost a 360 view.

I left for home Sunday at noon.  The best part of that trip was the best babyback ribs in the world at Rib Country in Murphy, NC.

I traveled 2,160 miles; Andy had an extra 500 miles on each end of the trip–probably 3,100 miles at least.  It was a tour of museums and cities with some old friends in the middle.