US 27 SOUTHBOUND IN GEORGIA · · PAGE 21. 

November 18, 2020:  Wednesday continues as we go south on US 27 via the western counties of Georgia.  This is a scenic route that remains well clear of the Atlanta area and all its bedroom communities.  The first town south of the Chattanooga area is Lafayette, Georgia.  This town is pronounced by the locals as "luh-fayette."  In Lafayette, Louisiana, the folks there call it "laugh-fee-ette", whereas the folks from Indiana pronounce their town name as "lah-fay-ette" the same way as the French people say it.  As a young man who grew up in northwest Georgia, I have learned to speak other American dialects, including RED NECK the way Jeff Foxworthy uses it in his comedy routines.

On this day as Linda and I were talking, I missed this bypass around the town.  The old road still works, it just takes longer.  If you are down this way, you will want to turn left when you get to this intersection.  Linda did not see any place she wanted to stop for lunch as we passed through this town at 1:13 PM.

The next small town on US 27 going south is Summerville, Georgia.  This is US 27 just south of La Fayette with plenty of four-lane highway ahead.  We are also seeing some good-sized hills along this route.  Georgia state highway number 1 is the route that is co-signed with US 27 from Tennessee to Florida.

Summerville is the county seat of Chattooga County, Georgia.  The court house dominates the skyline of this town with its location at the center of town.  As I was driving through town on my computer using the Google Earth camera vehicle, some of the images in front of the courthouse were on a rainy day and had a garbage truck in the way.  When I cleared the intersection seen here going north on US 27, I got this beautiful image from Google Earth!  We passed by here at 1:39 PM going south on November 18, 2020.

In the south end of Chattooga County is this US 27 Scenic Hometown Highway sign probably put up by a chamber of commerce.  There is a GREEN county line sign visible a bit further down the road.

Here is that FLOYD COUNTY road sign at the county line with a white sign below that says "GEORGIA WORK READY COMMUNITY" as its message about Floyd County.  We passed by here at 1:52 PM.

This "VW AIR BUS" caught my attention while driving between the little town of Armuchee and north of Rome, Georgia.  The "wheels" are fan blades with white tips to simulate how aircraft propellers are painted.  There was a light wind blowing when we pulled into the parking lot.  The fan blades were turning as a result of the wind.  The lights on the front of the VW are illuminated.

The airplane sticking out the front of the building is a 1967 Dassault Falcon 20 jet that once belonged to William Johnson of "Ritz-Carlton Hotel fame" and an owner of 146 Waffle House franchises.  The airplane was sitting in a hangar in Polk County, Georgia for about 10 years.  It was one of the airplanes he had when his empire collapsed.  Use THIS WEB LINK to read the newspaper article on this plane and the restaurant. You will find three photos of this airplane in that article.  This image shows the horizontal stabilizer and elevator of a second business jet parked on the north side of the restaurant.  It is interesting that the front inlets of the engine nacelles have been mounted under the wings.  The engines on this airplane were factory-mounted at the tail of the fuselage which is hidden inside the building.

This second business jet is not mentioned in the newspaper article.

The wings on the VW are from an airplane that can go fast, looking at how thin they are and the black de-icing boots on the leading edges.  I am guessing the wings came from a Piper Malibu.  The tail of the VW AIR BUS came from a propeller airplane with a tail wheel, which is still attached.

This satellite image below from Google Earth captured the second jet parked next to the restaurant, but the tail is not attached as seen in the above image of the "Armuchee Belle" at the front of the restaurant building.  The date of the satellite image below was August 28, 2019.

This Google Earth image of the restaurant as seen from the highway was taken in January 2019.  It shows the second jet has not been delivered.

US 27 goes to the center of Rome, Georgia at the Floyd Medical Center where it joins GA route 20 going East.  

Two miles East of the Medical Center is the junction where GA 20 and US 411 turn East and US 27 and GA 53 turn South.  This is the same US 411 we were traveling yesterday when we departed Sevierville, Tennessee heading away from the Smoky Mountain area.  Cedartown is the next city south on US 27.  We passed this way at 2:30 PM.  Gadsden is in Alabama, and we are definitely not going in that direction.

US 411 and GA 53 have continued West toward Alabama, leaving US 27 and GA route 1 heading south to Polk County where Cedartown is the county seat.  This highway marker sign is less than 3 miles from the county line where Floyd County meets Polk County.  Less than a mile north of this sign there was a road going over to the town of Lindale, Georgia less than 1.5 miles to the East of US 27.  That was the town where my father was born in 1914.

Before this trip down US 27, I had not been to Cedartown, Georgia since I was in my mid 20's on the way down to Callaway Gardens. Today's trip will get us to Columbus quicker by using the bypass around Cedartown and the some of the other towns south of here.

The other places to bypass are Buchanan and Bremen by staying on US 27 South.  

When we got to the end of the US 27 Bypass around Bremen, Georgia we found a Captain D's seafood place and had our big afternoon meal at 3:30 PM.  I walked Linda's dog Chase all around the property to sample all the types of grass before we sat in the car to have our meal.  Chase of course had his share.

We departed Captain D's at 4:16 PM and resumed our southbound journey on US 27 with I-20 just south of our location seen here.  We continued south on US 27 with Columbus, Georgia as our target for a motel this evening.

The next town south of Bremen and I-20 is Carrollton, Georgia where GA route 16 crossed US 27 just over 9 miles south from our meal stop.

This is the third time we have crossed the Chattahoochee River on this vacation.  The first time was when we crossed a leg of Lake Lanier north of Gainesville in northeast Georgia.  The second time was in Helen, Georgia where the river was only 60 feet wide not far from the headwaters of the river west of Helen.  The river is about 290 feet wide at a point under this bridge only about one mile from the small town of Franklin, Georgia.  Aerial images from Google Earth with the "RULER" option provide much information.

About 15.8 miles south of the Chattahoochee River, this four-lane divided highway comes to a sharp turn going toward the center of the town of LaGrange.  Looking at this corner in the road, it appears as if they had been planning a bypass across the north side of LaGrange that was never built.  The road turns into a four-lane road that is not divided, but does have a center lane for left turns all the way into LaGrange.

US 27 turns left at the end of the four-lane road that made it to this point south of the heart of LaGrange, where GA 219 continues south alone.

These last seven miles from the center of LaGrange out past I-85 and over to I-185 would take us to the only interstate  highway we would use on this part of the trip down to Columbus, Georgia where we plan to spend this night.

Interstate 85 is going southwest toward Montgomery, Alabama.  That is not the way to Columbus, Georgia.  We go straight ahead from here to the next interstate highway entry ramp.

This is exit 42 on Interstate 185.  The mile markers are counting down to zero at the main gate of Fort Benning, Georgia.

Here is our exit for our motel this evening.

This is our hotel for the last night on the road.  This LaQuinta Inn accepts pets here at no extra charge.  This day started in East Ridge, Tennessee and ends here at 6:12 PM as darkness is closing in on November 18, 2020.  This Google Earth image was taken earlier in the afternoon in February 2019.  It was dark when we arrived to check in for the night.