Antebellum Trail - Day 1

Last weekend, my mom and I went on a little road trip together. I've decided to blog about it in multiple segments so that it doesn't turn into the longest post ever. We spent 4 days exploring the Antebellum Trail through Georgia. The Antebellum Trail is home to the historical Antebellum homes that managed to survive General Sherman's destruction on his March to the Sea during the Civil War. For those of you who are from the North this probably has no significance or interest for you what-so-ever, but for my fellow Southerners it was such a fun experience. Of course, all the towns we visited still have some cannons set up in their town squares for the tourists to see, and all of them face due north...you know, just in case :)

Saturday, December 17

We left Jacksonville around 6am and headed north to Macon, Georgia. The Antebellum Trail begins in Macon and ends in Athens. It includes all the little towns along highway 441 between the two cities. I have actually been to Macon before because Phi Mu was founded there. While in Macon, we visited...

The Cannonball House

The Cannonball House is aptly named because during the war a cannon was fired at the house, sending a cannonball through the middle column on the front porch, through the window where it landed, still in tact, on the hardwood floor in the foyer. The window and the column were repaired, but the dent in the floor where the cannonball landed still remains.

The Hay House

The Hay House is absolutely gorgeous inside. I'm sad that I couldn't take any pictures of the interior, but if you ever go to Macon, you must go visit this house. One cool feature of the house is the wine cellar. The wine cellar is located underneath the marble front steps (my mom is standing on them in the photo below). It is located there because the under the marble was the coolest location in the house, so the wine would stay chilled even without the modern convenience of refrigeration.

Mercer University Law School

We left Macon in the afternoon and drove the Gray, Georgia. This town was super tiny, but we stopped and visited the Jarrell Plantation. We took a self guided walking tour of the entire plantation and learned all about life on the plantation. Let's just say that I would not have fared very well in plantation life.

We continued on the trail to Milledgeville that evening. We spent the night in Milledgeville before exploring the town on Day 2.