This slower-paced travel has made me a slower-paced blogger! I'm going to try to get caught up over the next couple of weeks - we're having some great experiences.

When we

left Cartersville

, we drove to Elberton to explore a little. During a Production class in school, I had to create a production schedule and budget for one of my scripts, and chose Elberton as the filming location even though I'd never been there. (I did some research on real estate websites and Google maps to find a town that fit my vision, and Elberton worked well.)

Then Zach, my older son, reminded me that the Georgia Guidestones were in Elberton, so we had to visit!

We met a very nice couple there and we exchanged recommendations and suggestions for our travels - they were on their way to Florida.

As we stood at the Guidestones, the rain hit hard again so we headed to Macon, because I needed to meet with a client about her upcoming children's book. We'd visited Macon several times the last few years - and my dad was born there - so we didn't spend much time in town because of the rain. We pushed on south to try to escape it.

Glancing at the map during a rest stop, I saw the town of Santa Claus and knew I had to take my own Santa Claus to visit! Once there, I couldn't figure out why I'd never heard of this town before. All the streets had fun Christmas names, and we drove through them just to see Dasher, Candy Cane Lane, etc. I thought that was it - just streets, but as we left, I discovered this:

A beautiful chapel surrounded by Santa Claus Gardens.

From Santa Claus, we continued toward our intended campground, but when we arrived, we discovered a massive construction project underway, with bulldozers and dump trucks and cement trucks all over the place, and not a campsite in sight. 

We decided to move on to South Carolina for the night.