Travel Adventures // Lexington, GA...

This wasn't my first visit to the teeny tiny town of Lexington but it was by far the most interesting!  Stories about hordes of cats (which are real...just look below!), an eccentric from Atlanta who brought such said cats, Sunday dinners at the jail house...it's unbelievable stuff!

We counted over 30 caats at one time and that's just what we could see in the few minutes we were at this spooky, falling down manor home.  They were in all the rooms, which were still furnished with linens and curtains and clothes, on the roof and EVERYWHERE.  The cats arrived to town a few years back via an older gentleman from Atlanta who brought a big bunch to his new older home (the one pictured) and then they begin populating and repopulating around the house and into downtown.  It became such a problem that the town had to get a grant and work with the UGA vet school to start spaying and neutering them in large batches.  The last group numbered 300+!  They rerelease them so you can imagine how many cats we saw while we were visiting the area.  It's been over 5 years since the gentleman came to live in Lexington and now the cats are a part of history as is his penchant for keeping the front porch of his condemned home swept clean.  Lexington has a large network of old drainage tunnels under the city (about 3 miles worth we were told) and the cats hang out there a lot.  It was weird to walk around and not only see cats everywhere you looked but also know that they were probably right under your feet in a secret kitty tunnel!

At one antique store the owner offered to give us a key to the old jail so we could see the restoration and museum inside.  That old jail held about 12 inmates in it's 800 square feet, still had the remnants of the gallows used 100 years ago and only closed about 8 years ago!  That's how tiny this town is and it boggles my mind.  Oh, and the backdoor was never locked so the sheriff's Mom could bring the inmates their food...which she cooked herself in her own kitchen.  The inmates would also get to go fishing with the sheriff on Sunday so 'they wouldn't be cooped up too much'.  And everyone was so talkative and nice and adept at turning out a good yarn or two.  This was so much small town southern it was beyond endearing...and this comes from a woman who grew up in the swamp in rural Georgia!

And we had to stop by Shaking Rock Park, of course!  There's new graffiti, lots of trees down and more of a view of the river.  Plus Brady likes to get in some exercise via rock lifting...