Deep in Georgia’s historic Old South, Southern Trails RV Resort offers a “certain serenity” with its sites spread among the trees of a pecan grove.   

 

 This area of the state is one of the richest in historical attractions, many within easy day-trip distances from the resort. The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site is in the Plains (GA) Depot, Carter’s former campaign headquarters. It houses memorabilia and exhibits from the campaign and presidential years.     

 

The area was also home to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. From a modest home in Warm Springs, this 4-time U.S. president ran the federal government during one of the nation’s most turbulent times. Preserved much as it was when Roosevelt died here on April 12, 1945, the Little White House features original furnishings, personal artifacts, and the famous Unfinished Portrait which was being painted when the President suffered a fatal stroke.     

 

Callaway Gardens, which neighbors Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park on the west, is perhaps the nation’s finest example of ecological development. This 2,500-acre forest and garden setting opened in 1952 to save from extinction the rare prunifolia azalea, a bright red variety growing only within a 100-mile radius of Pine Mountain. Now over 13 miles of biking, hiking or driving trails meander through the woodlands and formal gardens featuring 700 varieties of azaleas and a Horticultural Center.     Nearby Macon County is the heart of Georgia’s Mennonite country, where visitors experience first-hand Mennonite culture, crafts and food. While manicured working Mennonite farms dot the countryside, driving tours of Montezuma and Oglethorpe feature antebellum homes from the county’s earlier era.     

 

Boating and fishing are popular at nearby Lake Blackshear on the Flint River.