In March, we decided to take our first county-collecting trip of the year. Our destination was the southeastern region of the U.S. We flew into Atlanta on a Tuesday morning, rented our Volvo XC40 Hybrid, and were off and running!
We headed northeast out of town on HWY 19 and picked up Forsyth, Dawson Lumpkin, and Union Counties. When we got to Blairsville, we took a side trip to the west on HWY 76 until we crossed into Fannin County. Upon arrival, we immediately double-backed to Blairsville, continued east on HWY 76, and entered Towns County, our last new county in Georgia for the day. From there, we entered Clay County, North Carolina, and worked our way over to HWY 74, getting into Cherokee County, then later to a tri-county point to hit Macon and Graham Counties. We then went northwest across HWY 129, eventually crossing into Swain County and then the state of Tennessee.
The Tennessee portion of HWY 129 was very twisty and winding. It's a known stretch of road where motorcyclists get their pictures taken as they zoom around the turns. It’s popular enough that we saw three photography companies taking photos of every vehicle passing by. Eventually HWY 129 also twisted into Monroe County. We then continued northwest to pick up Loudon and Roane Counties, our last new counties of the day. Our final stop was the Hyatt Place in Downtown Knoxville. After we checked in, we walked over to The Kennedy for dinner before calling it a night.
We had a relatively light travel day on Wednesday—at least
for us. Our next hotel was in Asheville, NC. But before heading there, we had
to clear some counties northeast of Knoxville. We headed northeast on HWY 11W
until we entered Grainger County. Once we hit the city of Blaine, we headed
west on HWY 61 and crossed into Union County. As soon as we reached HWY 33, we
turned northeast again, and entered Claiborne County. We then drove back into
Grainger County before heading northeast on HWY 131 until we reached Hancock
County. From there, we turned around, found our way back to HWY 25E, and
crossed into Hamblen County.
We then headed for our first stop of the day, President
Andrew Johnson’s grave, museum, and home. We drove into Greene County, then stopped at the gravesite first,
visited the museum, then took a private tour of his home. Our private tour was
simply because no one else signed up for that particular time. It was cool,
nonetheless. After our fill of Andrew Johnson, we went to our hotel, the Tru by
Hilton Asheville Blue Ridge Parkway. Along the way, we crossed the North
Carolina border and Madison County. After checking into our hotel, we ate
Mexican food at Mama’s and Beer.
We started our day on Thursday with a tour of the Biltmore
Estate, the largest privately owned home in the country. The impressive
250-room French Renaissance chateau includes 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65
fireplaces. After the tour, we started our drive to Charlotte. As usual, we
took a roundabout way to get there. We initially followed I-26 north, exiting
HWY 19 and traveling east into both Yancey and Mitchell Counties. From there,
we headed south until we crossed into McDowell County, where we got onto I-40
east. We stopped for lunch at Arby’s in Morganton. We followed the highway (or
a parallel route), snaking our way to pick up Burke, Caldwell, Alexander,
Catawba, and Iredell Counties. We then exited the interstate, somewhere not far
northeast of Cool Springs. From there, we headed south and performed two
turnarounds about a mile apart to enter Davie and Rowan Counties. We spent the
next few nights at the Hyatt House in Charlotte/Rea Farms. After checking in,
we walked to the Improper Pig, a barbeque restaurant featured on an
episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, for dinner.
Friday was a non-county day, where we worked and relaxed around our hotel area. We ate lunch at Penn Station Subs and dinner at a nearby Italian Restaurant called Little Mama’s.
On Saturday, we drove a loop route through South Carolina,
visiting several new counties, before returning to our hotel in Charlotte. We
started by heading south on I-77, picking up Chester and Fairfield Counties. We
then took a side trip to visit Congaree National Park. The park was bustling,
and we weren’t confident that we had parked legally, so we wandered around one
of the trails for a few minutes before getting back in the car to finish our
day.
After leaving Congaree, we headed northeast on I-26,
where we picked up Newberry County. In Newberry, we got onto HWY 34, mainly
heading west. We stopped at Dollar General for snacks and drinks when we got to
the small town of Chappells. We then went south on HWY 39 to reach Saluda
County. We turned around, went west again on HWY 34, and entered Greenwood
County three miles later. We then turned around again, returned to Chappells,
and went north on HWY 39 to Laurens County. When we got north of Clinton, we
got onto HWY 56 and took it north into Union County, followed by Spartanburg
County, a half mile later. We eventually worked our way up to I-85. We drove
northeast through Cherokee County (our last county in South Carolina), and
Cleveland County, NC. From there, it was straight back to our hotel. We ate
dinner at a place called Margarita’s. You can imagine what their specialty is.
Sunday was a travel day back to Atlanta, but we still had
two states to finish on the way. We headed west out of Charlotte and drove
through Rutherford, and Polk Counties. We then crossed into
Henderson County (where we’d been several years earlier) before crossing into
Transylvania County, where we drove through the city of Brevard. Brevard has a lot of interesting small statues on the top of many of their traffic signals. As the road became more mountainous, we finally finished
North Carolina by entering Jackson County.
We hooked up with HWY 23 as we crossed the state line into Georgia, picking up Rabun County in the process. We then stopped for lunch at the McDonald’s in Clayton. After eating, we continued south into Habersham County. From there, we took a side trip on HWY 123 near Ayersville to pick up Stephens County. After getting back on HWY 23, we continued southwest for about 10 more miles before taking a small 4-mile side trip to reach White County. From there, it was a direct path to our hotel, which took us right through Chattahoochee County and Hall County, our last new county of the trip, and our very last county for the state of Georgia. With 159 counties, Georgia has the second most, behind Texas’s 254, so it was nice to get this one done.
We spent the night at the Hyatt Place Atlanta / Centennial Park. We walked a few blocks to Ruth's Chris Steak House for a pricey (but delicious) steak dinner. We also walked across the street to the Georgia Aquarium, Centennial Park, and the World of Coca-Cola to do some touristy Atlanta things. Later that day, we drove to the Hyatt Place near the airport, where we spent our final night of the trip.
When it was all said and done, we’d picked up 50 new
counties and completed two states. So, what’s next? We’ve got a visit to Long
Island that’s already been completed. So, stay tuned!
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