Autumn arrives

Yesterday was my day to drive around Georgia, from courthouse to courthouse. I started off driving to Winder, in Barrow County, and I was concerned about the best route to get there. I finally drove up I-75 to 675 to 285 and then on to I-85. From there, I drove up the Athens Parkway toward Winder. Oddly, after the DOT reconfigured the route to Athens, the old highway to Athens which wound through Winder and a number of other small towns survives. At some point, I drove off the nice, new Athens Parkway and headed down the old Athens Highway through Auburn and Carl and on to Winder.

When I got there, the small town of Winder was rather quaint, and filled with little restaurants and shops, a quite viable downtown. The only difference was the presence of tons of cars, since the area is much more populated than it was when I was driving up and back from Dunwoody to Athens. Still, there was a lot of familiarity with the drive, and I remembered a lot of the sights.

When I got through with the call in Winder, I was about thirty minutes behind, which put me thirty minutes short for the day. I checked my map to try to find the best route to Cumming and then headed up State Route 20 to Forsyth County.

When I got to downtown Cumming, it was clear that there have been a lot of changes in Cumming since John Boswell and I used to drive up there to eat pizza and share a pitcher of beer after class. That was 1974-1975, and there has been a ton of devastation, residentially and commercially since that time. I don't think I could find that pizza place we used to drive to and eat and drink and listen to tunes on their jukebox. Ahh, the good old days.

Anyway, when I got to courthouse, they had engineered the square, changing a lot of the roads to one way and not really adding any parking spaces. I drove around the square and finally found the last chance parking space. When I parked the car and opened the car door I realized that the temperature had dropped considerably and that the wind had picked up briskly.

I walked over to the front of the courthouse, admiring the statute of John Forsyth, for which the county was named. I noticed a slew of people lounging around the front of the courthouse, as if waiting for someone of great importance. As I walked up the steps to the front of the courthouse, a few loungers turned and glanced at me offhandedly.

When I opened my file and began to read the legal notice of foreclosure, the sharks began to swarm around. As I continued to read, I noticed that everyone had gathered around me, which was some help with the wind.

Once I finished the reading, I announced the opening bid on behalf of the bank. Asking for any additional bids, one of the listeners, added a bid for a dollar more than the opening. With that another listener offered another dollar. After announcing their bids, I upped the bank's bid by another $1000.00. One of the bidders added another dollar, as did the other bidder. I announced that bid and then added another grand to the bank's bid.

This exchange continued for several rounds, until the last outside bidder paused and with a touch of exasperation in his voice asked, "Can you tell me where we are headed?"

I smiled at him and looked around at the other faces. "The final competitive bid for the bank is $211,000.00."

With that he let out a sigh and stated, "They can have it. I wish you had told me that sooner."

I looked down upon him sympathetically and said, "Sorry. That's the way they instruct me to do it."

There was a short burst of chuckles from the crowd, but the bidders were now silent. With that, I announced the final bid of the bank three times and knocked the property off to the bank.

As I closed up my folder, one of the listeners behind me asked, "Do you have any other sales today?"

I turned to him and said, "In Gilmer County, if any of yall want to follow me there."

Again, the crowd laughed, and realizing no takers for a trip to Ellijay, I walked down the steps and off to my waiting car. I took the time to glance up at John Forsyth, pulling his pocket watch out of his waistcoat. I didn't have much time either.

I hopped in my car and headed up toward Dawsonville and Ellijay. As I maneuvered the car up through Dawson County and Gilmer County, I took notice of the color of the leaves and the natural beauty of North Georgia. I don't think the mountains of South Carolina and Alabama match up at all. Of course, Florida doesn't have any mountains, and I wouldn't want to compare Georgia with Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. But the mountians in North Georgia are more gentle and the yellows and oranges and reds exhibited yesterday were magnificent.

I wanted to eat at the cafeteria in Ellijay but I knew that I was behind time and still had to make it to Newnan and Franklin, which are both south and west of Atlanta. I found a place to park on the square in Ellijay and trotted over to the new part of the courthouse, which backs up to the old white-columned courthouse on the square in downtown Ellijay. The people of Ellijay have restored a lot of the old storefronts and buildings downtown, but why they decided to place a round-about in the center of town is beyond me. No one in the United States, and most people in Great Britian have no clue as to how to navigate a round-about.

For myself, I waited until all the cars were gone, then proceeded cautiously around the round-about to the street leading to the parking lot. After getting directions from the sheriff's deputy inside the new part of the courthouse, I cried out the foreclosure sale and headed back through the wind and cold to my car, the heater and a after a brief stop at an Arby's for lunch, headed down the Zell Miller Parkway toward I-75. I noticed as I went down the parkway that a lot of the intersections have been named after people, of whom I have no knowledge, which leads me to believe that somewhere in the state of Georgia there has to be a piece of asphalt, somewhere, with my name on it. Doesn't everybody have something named after them in Georgia?

Anyway, I blitzed down the parkway away from Young Harris, and Mr. and Mrs. Miller, and the foothills of the Appalachians toward I-285, I-85 and the second Newnan exit. I drove behind someone who was very slow to the courthouse, parked and ran to the front of the courthouse. Reading the notice, I glanced up at the few people gathered around, who, hearing the bid price from the bank, turned their backs on me and kept listening to the other person reading a notice to the November air.

I ran back to my car and headed westward toward Franklin. I got a little confused as to the route and ended up driving around West Newnan for awhile before I found the route to Franklin. I had about an hour to spare. As I drove westward, the only thing that kept me obeying the speed notices on the highway were the three cars dawdling down in front of me and the fact that there are no straight smooth stretches of highway between Newnan and Franklin which would allow one to pass someone.

Having made the trip between Newnan and Franklin, I parked my car and jaywalked across the road to the courthouse. Standing by myself in front of the courthouse and reading to myself, I wondered what people thought I was doing.

After completing my journey, I drove over and across the Chattahoochee River, for the second time, to take a look at the level of the river. Oddly, looking at the river, whether it was in Forsyth County or in Heard County, the river looked like it wasn't hurting for water. It seemed pretty full at both places. I don't think the Governor of Alabama and the Governor of Florida have much room to complain. Not like the people living north of the Buford Dam. This may be just another example of how much a layman can see by his uneducated eye or it may be another example of how much a layman can actually see.

Anyway, I headed the front grill of my Toyota Solara eastward toward Newnan, Turin, Senoia and Griffin and felt glad that I had finished my run. It was a pretty day and beyond being behind about thirty minutes for the entire day, it wasn't that bad. It just meant that I had to eat a fast food sandwich in my car, rather than sitting down in a restaurant to eat vegetables, corn bread and sweet tea. Oh well, another day.

Later that night, after having bought supplies at Lowe's and Home Depot, and met with the carpenter, I took my sweater off and laid the last of the flooring before I napped on the couch and finally went to bed. I recited the Lord's prayer to myself and closed my eyes. A long day done. A new one beginning.