Field Trip: Albany, GA

Goodness have I been traveling a lot lately! Hopefully, this will be the last "field trip" for a little while.

Anyway, I took a weekend trip down to Albany, Georgia. It's kind of centered in the bottom of the state, three hours from Atlanta by car. I wonder how long it would take by 110 MPH passenger train? The Beau and I took bicycles along, since we had heard rumors about a lovely new riverfront multi-use path. This was my first real ride on the diamond frame Schwinn. The cranks are still a little too long for me and the handlebars are, well, not staying. I knew they were temporary, so they don't even have tape or grips or anything - just bare metal.

The path was a lot of fun, though! Currently, it has to be accessed from a horrible, four lane, high-speed road, but they are planning to extend it. Hopefully they will make lots of connections to surrounding neighborhoods. It runs along the Flint River from Lake Chehaw all the way to downtown Albany. There is a really pretty nature trail at one point, although it was partly flooded during our visit.

We were disappointed to find downtown eerily vacant. A few stores may have still been in business, but for the most part the storefronts were empty and boarded up. The vast streets were nearly unused. We used the angled parking area as a bike lane. One restaurant was open, a delicious barbecue joint. The riverfront park and aquarium were beautifully designed and seemed to attract a decent number of visitors. I was impressed by the architectural detailing of the old brick buildings and the shady streets plunging through tunnels of enormous live oak trees. So much potential.