It's a large area between Valdosta and the Okefenokee Swamp.
We spent a few days of vacation at the Okefenokee and to get there drove through what is one of the most economically-deprived, sparsely-populated areas of Georgia.
For miles and miles, north and south on the west side of the swamp is nothing but pine woods - straight, flat roads with nothing but pine trees lining both sides of the two-lane blacktops.
In fact, one of the counties, Echols, is 90 percent privately-owned piney woods. As you might guess, logging is big business - and just about the only business. At times, it's just you and the log trucks moving up and down the roads. Echols was for years the least-populated county in the state, but that's no longer the case, even though the population remains abut 3,500. We could not find an incorporated town in the county - one with elected officials - and that includes the county seat, Statenville, which has a county courthouse smaller that an average-sized school here in Hall County.
This is not to knock the area and the people who live there because it was, at least for three or four days, great to get away from the hustle-and-bustle of bumper-to-bumper traffic, mile-after-mile of one development or another, etc. In fact, if anything, you have to admire the people who persevere in areas like that, with few resources, if any, just around the corner or over the next hill - and no major metropolitan area just 50 miles away.
But, sorry, Gov. Perdue and Cathy (with a "C") Cox, that part of Georgia - Echols, Clinch and Charlton counties - at least the part we saw, apparently, at this juncture in the campaign, is Mark Taylor country. We saw several "Mark Taylor for Governor" signs but nary a one for either Cox or Perdue.
And, Internet dating is still on the backburner - at least for one enterprising man whose ad we stumbled upon in Fargo, a town in Clinch County which sits on the edge of the Okefenokee (and whose name I'm convinced evolved years ago when people, when asked for directions, would say, "go as far as you can go before you get to the swamp, etc.")
His ad read something like this - Wanted: good woman to cook, clean and stay home. Age and size unimportant. Call B _______ G ________, 690-_ _ _ _ or ask inside. Serious inquiries only.
It was posted on the wall in the only restaurant in Fargo next to the front door - so you couldn't miss it as you left the place.
And, no, the B is not for Bubba.
(Ken Stanford is the News Director for radio stations WDUN NEWS TALK 550, MAJIC 1029, and SPORTS RADIO 1240 THE TICKET and Editor for AccessNorthGa.com.)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/4/112858