Madison - Morgan County

Tuesday 20th April


Today was a busy day for the team, it began with an early rise and visit back over to Cartersville Rotary club for their early morning Rotary meeting.

We were not as bleary eyed as we thought we might be, as the breakfast clubs visits did at first appear to start at an ‘uncivilized’ hour. However we were bright eyed and bushy tailed, and ready to go!

We had breakfast and then another successful presentation, following this we were taken back to the hotel where we collected our cases and headed off to our next destination of Madison in Morgan County.

The day was more overcast than on previous days and we experienced a drop or two of Georgia rain on the way over.

On our arrival in the town we had chance for a brief visit to a few of the Main Street shops before we were taken to the Chop House, where we were to have lunch and give an afternoon presentation.

Madison

Our guide for today was the club president Andy Williams, not the famous crooner but one of the youngest Rotary presidents in the country at only 25 years old.

Gareth with Andy Williams in Perk Avenue

From lunch, Andy took us on a brief tour of some of the historical houses of the town, the properties were beautiful – think Gone With The Wind style grand colonial homes, you can almost imagine the local militia marching past, although it appears today they would most likely use a Ford Pick-Up Truck. We also had the benefit of a professional tour guide for these various homes.

As we had been on our feet for such a long time, we were taken for a brief rest to the delightful local coffee shop called Perk Avenue. It is independently owned like most businesses in the city. There was a great look and vibe about the place, more types of coffee than you could shake Rotary flag at and some very tempting looking food.

We could have spent longer at the cafe, it was very much similar to the Central Perk Cafe on friends and this cafe alone was a good enough reason for us all to considering Madison our new home town!

Later on after we had visit to the locally based and very interesting Cultural Centre but prior to being taken for our evening meal; Steve, Roy and Gareth were taken to their accommodation for the evening, the Brady Inn. The accommodation was excellent and resembled one of the grand homes we had been visiting previously. The owners were very obliging, we had the building to ourselves, they provided us with soft drinks and wine and a great place to sleep.

However sleep was not the priority at this point, as we’d not eaten for over an hour it meant it was time to go for dinner. Tonight Andy took us Tequila Express, which served homed cooked Mexican and Greek food.

We were well looked after by the owner Ricardo and introduced to some new flavours and food, although the conversation involved Andy being brow beaten into benefits of the British way of restaurant etiquette and our obviously unquestionable reputation for good food!


Just as we were thinking the night couldn’t get any better, we were taken to the beautiful home Shauna Von-Hounstein.

This was to be the girls accommodation for the night, to say the house was ‘big’ was an understatement. It was situated on a complex of other large homes but with a rear woodland backdrop, providing a completely natural view.

We were also treated to a fabulous evening of cocktails, games of pool, good conversation and all in the surroundings of Shauna’s social wing of the house, which had its own bar, concealed fridge freezer holding nothing but drinks and ice, large screen TV with surround sound, covered outdoor veranda and ‘hot tub’ in which ‘some guest’ chose to end their evening.

Both Andy and Shauna really looked after us all, showing us everything that is great about where they live, I’m sure we’ll remember our new friends from Madison, Georgia.


By Gareth (aka Garth)