Where in the world is Waynesboro, Georgia

Okay, I don't expect the average American to know where the town of Waynesboro, Georgia is, but I would think that the New York Times and Time magazine should, or at least be able to find it on Google maps. On Tuesday, President Obama made news by announcing a multi-billion dollar loan to the Southern Company to help build two new reactors a the Vogtle plant in Waynesboro, 25 miles south of Augusta. The Georgia location made sense for many reasons, mostly because Georgians are willing to accept the plants and need the jobs.

The New York Times simply referred to Plant Vogtle as being in the Augusta vicinity. Okay, I'll buy that, but they could have been a little more clear in my mind. Time Magazine, however, identified Plant Vogtle as being outside Atlanta. Well, Waynesboro is about 175 miles from Atlanta, so I don't think of it as "outside Atlanta." I have to give them a little cred, however, since they did correctly identify the plant as The Alvin W. Vogtle nuclear power plant.

Vogtle, an Auburn alumni, joined the Army Air Force during World War II and served with the Mighty Eighth. He was shot down over North Africa and spent most of his time trying to escape from various German POW camps. After the war he continued his education, joining Alabama Power after it had formed the Southern Company with 3 other Southeastern power companies. He worked his way through the ranks to become President and eventually, CEO of the Atlanta-based company. Vogtle's claim to fame may elude most people. He was the inspiration for Capt. Hilts "The Cooler King," Steve McQueen's in the movie The Great Escape.

When Forsyth County, Georgia became nationally known for two marches led by Hosea Williams, some people flew to their maps, then erroneously identified the central Georgia city of Forsyth as the location of the marches, not aware that the state had both a city and a county of the same name. All I would say to the people that can't get the geography right is that we are the State of Georgia, not the foreign country, and you really should know better.

A simple "by the way" to Time and the New York Times. Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has absolutely nothing to do with chickens, except as part of his vet practice.

Global warming? - not in north Georgia

When global warming was a hot topic, the announcement of average annual temperatures was a heralded event. So when the National Climatic Data Center announced the 2009 average temp. for the United States on Friday, January 8, 2010, one might think that the interest would at least be piqued. Key "annual average temperature" into Mr. Google news and the first article that actually deals with this subject is from London and is focused on the high cost of "warmists." When global warming proponents (I do like the term warmists) beat us over the head with 14 years of warming (1995-2008) they should also be glad to tell us that the last two years have been so close to normal that the difference is a statistical one (in other words, you probably don't feel it).

North Georgia folks probably don't have a problem telling you its colder because we didn't see normal temps - we were 4 degrees Fahrenheit below normal in December, 2009, and that's a little more than statistically significant. A large portion of the center of the country was 8 degrees Fahrenheit below normal last month. In Atlanta, this has been the coldest start to January since 1869, when records were first kept.

I do believe that global warming is occurring. I just have never been sure why, I don't know if its a short-term or long term change, and nobody has proven to my satisfaction that the CO2 theories of the warmists are scientifically sound. Remeber the "ozone hole" whose growth could destroy mankind? Guess what - it reached its peak in September, 2006 and has been shrinking since. Right now its about the size it was in 1992.

The warmists have arguments that sound logical, but are they really reasonable? One example Al uses is the melting of the icebergs in Alaska. Thunder Bay (now Glacier Bay National Park), has receded some 20 miles since the start of the 20th century (a fact Mr. Gore presented in his book. Well, the ice levels in Glacier Bay have been receding since it was explored in 1790, a half-century before the advent of fossil fuel and a 100 years before its use could be considered common.

In November, 2009 160mb of emails from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia that showed the CRUs efforts to disseminate information that only supported the CO2 theory of global warming. The emails were then uploaded to Realclimate.org, where the file stayed for about 2 hours until it was removed. Researcher and author Kim Cobb wrote "CRU e-mails are an embarrassment to climate science in general." In America, only FoxNews seized on reporting the event and ran multiple stories on "Climategate." Furthermore, the results reported by the CRU can not be duplicated from the raw data available and the CRU has refused to release the "climategate code." (code is programming).

My wife and I have lived in Cherokee County for 17 years and have always been able to get out after a snow storm until we got 2 inches of the white stuff on Thursday, January 7, 2010. Because of the extended cold, when the rain from the start of the storm froze, it made our road impassible until the county salted it on Saturday. Now one storm doesn't mean global warming is history, but 24 months is a significant statistical anomaly that may force the warmists to rethink their claims.

Your speed is...

Driving around north Georgia, there has been a noticeable change on the landscape. Some communities have created speed signs with radar guns in them to tell you what a policeman would see if he were pointing his radar gun at you. One city, Roswell, actually flashes the speed if you are doing more than the posted limit.

Speeders may not like these, but law-abiding folks probably do - a gentle reminder to "Slow it down" as the Roswell police have been trying to do, seemingly unsuccessfully, for years. I must admit, I do speed - a little anyway, normally no more than 5 miles over the speed limit, with gusts up to 10 over as my wife likes to say. So when my speed is gusting while passing one of the Your speed is signs, its time to back off on the accelerator.

Another great thing about these speed guns is it gives us a place to test our speedometers. It may not be easy when the roads are crowded, but early in the morning you will be able to see your exact speed. Then, the next time somebody comes up on your butt, you'll know that you are doing the limit (or 5 mph over).

Georgia has passed a new super-speeder law that increases speeding fines across the board, up to $400 extra if you are caught doing 85 on a four lane highway. This will keep more people within the legal limit without a doubt. With the economy the way it is the quickest way to change bad habits is through the wallet (or pocketbook, as the case may be). A law-enforcement friend has told me that at least initially, when the law goes into effect in January, 2010, some departments are intending stricter enforcement. Some cities have already begun stricter enforcement. According to the Gainesville Times, the police are already out citing drivers for speeding infractions and trying to slow down cars in general.

Now if your a "5 mph over" guy like me you may want to check your speed the next time you go past a radar gun speed sign, not because you will get a super-speeder ticket but because of the stricter enforcement. And if you are in the super-speeder category, the next time you get stopped and fined for speeding watch for a second bill mailed to you from the state. This will be your super-speeder fine.

Before you ask, the super-speeding money (estimated to be $32 million in 2010) is tagged to support trauma care in the state.

November is finally here!

October is always a busy month as the leaf change hits full swing in North Georgia, but by the start of November we trim down our travel and concentrate on the area just north of Atlanta. In fact, sometimes Pam and I don't have to travel very far. I took this photo of a tree in our back yard this morning. While the surrounding trees are past peak, this guy looked stunning in the early morning light, brilliantly reflecting sunlight right into the camera. We hit a number of our favorite stops this year, from Brasstown Bald to Blood Mountain to the Rocktown Trail.

One of our articles in About North Georgia will be about the Gorilla Haven in Fannin County on Paris Mountain. We are excited about the work these folks are doing, giving homes to, well, gorillas here in North Georgia. One final tour is available on November 28, 2009, and according to the web site, it has not filled up yet. If you love gorillas (and who doesn't), you can give to the Gorilla Haven on line! If you have a blog, or even better a Facebook page, why not help them out and add a blurb for this wonderful cause.

More Fall in North Georgia

This image from the Bartram Trail by Annette Gelbrich shows some excellent color in Rabun County at higher elevations and plenty of leaf change to come. It was taken on the weekend of October 24, 2009. The leaves at the top of Brasstown Bald were gone by October 22, although the drive to the top still had some excellent reds and yellows.

To the west, GA Highway 52 from Ellijay to Fort Mountain was in full color on the weekend of October 24 as well. Its a beautiful and easy scenic drive with multiple pull-offs for the peepers.

Fort Mountain has a scenic overview (near the CCC tower). While nearby trees are in full color, the valleys nearby are only at 25-50%.

Have a fall update? Please add it to our comments section.

Fall is in the air

I just finished a 5-day stay at Enota Mountain Retreat in Blairsville, Georgia and the fall colors are moderate to good. Just before we arrived a rain storm passed through, followed by fairly high winds (gusts to 30 mph). This blew a lot of the early fall color off the trees. The good news is that only about half the trees had begun to change at 2000-3000 feet, so there is still plenty of leaf change to see. Below 2000 feet it seems the fall will run a little later than normal with the best weekend probably being the last weekend of the month for the northern counties and the first week of Atlanta for counties closer to Atlanta.



We stopped by Cucina Rustica in Morganton for some of the best Italian food in the Southeast United States this past Thursday. This restaurant has become a standard on our trips to North Georgia. It will be a feature in an upcoming issue of About North Georgia.

We also visited some of the lesser known CCC works in the North Georgia mountains and plan to continue this journey in the near future.

Seems like the drought is really over

Finally, Georgia seems to be catching up on the rainfall it lost over the last eight years. I just wasn't expecting it to come in a couple of months, September and October 2009. Lake Lanier is near full levels (of course, Lanier is not a good way to judge a drought since the levels are controlled by the Corps of Engineers). The Chattahoochee River flooded badly in September and portions are flooding with this October. The ground is saturated and its actually fun to do the fall planting, if you can get a day without rain.

The rain brings back memories of months were rainfall totals were less than 1 inch and dire predictions of weather change because of global warming. Of course, 2008 was the first year that the average temperature fell in 10 years. I'm not sure but it seems this year is unusually cold so 2009 may be the second drop. The good thing about this rain and the cooler weather coming behind it is that there will be a positive effect on the leaf season. If you haven't planned a trip to the mountains, this is a good time to go. Plenty of fall events abound, our favorites being the Apple Festival and the Sorghum Festival.