Attractions Near the Wedding
Lake Rutledge
There’s a private dock at our group camp suitable for swimming and/or fishing. We hope to have canoes available to take out for a spin. Others may want to bring their own small motor boats or sail boats.
Horses
There is a public 30-horse stable in the park immediately outside the entrance to our group camp. Furlong Farms (706-342-7044) is a private stable 4.5 miles from the park; if you call ahead, they will bring one or more horses to the public stable and rent them to you for use on the park’s 22 miles of public riding trails. In the nearby City of Conyers there is the Georgia International Horse Park, a relic of the 1996 summer Olympic Games.
Golf
If you like to golf, well, you’re in
luck. Hard Labor Creek State Park has a
challenging 18-hole golf course touted as one of Georgia's best golf
values. It has a pro shop, driving range, rental carts, unlimited
weekday play, and senior citizen discounts.
Hard Labor Creek cuts through the course, creating water hazards on five
holes.
Observatory
One
of the best astronomy facilities in the Southeast is the Hard Labor Creek Observatory. HLCO is operated by Georgia State
University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy in support of basic
astronomical research. Public viewing
nights near the wedding date include September 14 and October 12. Open houses are held rain or shine, free of
charge, from sunset until 11pm or midnight.
City of Rutledge
Rutlege is the nearest town to the campsite. It was founded in 1845 when a railroad was
constructed between Augusta and Marthasville (now Atlanta). There are about 700 residents and 30
thriving businesses, mostly oriented toward antiques and the arts. It has a great little downtown with a
sandwich shop/ice cream parlor made from a train caboose tied to an art gallery. There’s also a fantastic
hardware store that
time seems to have forgotten. The
weekend of our wedding is also the date for Rutledge’s annual “Area’s Largest
Yard Sale,” so bring some empty trunk space with you.
Other Local Attractions
Other local attractions include Panola Mountain State Conservation Park, the City of Athens, the City of Madison, Oconee National Forest, Stone Mountain Park, Lake Oconee, and the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center. The Blue Willow Inn has no hotel rooms, but really great southern food.
As you go West toward the wedding on I-20, you can stop in Conyers (exit 82) to see “the Apparition Site,” or the Georgia International Horse Park, the Haralson Mill Covered Bridge, or the 50-year old Trappist Cistercian Monastery of the Holy Spirit. Next is the City of Covington, exit 92, where “In the Heat of the Night” is filmed, and home of Oxford College of Emory University. Then Social Circle, exit 98, home of the Blue Willow Inn restaurant. Then comes the exit for our wedding, Rutledge, exit 105. Just before Madison is the Steffen Thomas Museum and Archives, and if you keep going you’ll come to Madison at exit 114.
In and Around Atlanta
Wuichet/Davies Home
While visiting Atlanta from out of town, be sure to stop by and see the soon infamous landmark where we’re making our home at East Lake Commons in Decatur. Drop by and see us in unit 704, and we’ll take you on a walking tour of the geothermal heating and air unit in our home, the common house, and ELC’s six-acre organic farm and twenty-acre campus.
Gwen and John’s Haunts
Gwen works at the Grady Infectious Disease Center and likes to visit the Gorillas and Giant Pandas at Zoo Atlanta. John works at the Army Environmental Policy Institute and spends a lot of time at Oglethorpe University and High Meadows School & Camp.
Atlanta Attractions
In Atlanta consider visiting the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, Atlanta History Center, Stone Mountain Park, the dinosaur exhibit and IMAX theater at Fernbank Museum of Natural History, CNN studios tour, High Museum of Art, Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, or Atlanta Botanical Garden.