The wife and I are planning on coming Friday to the convention. Any of you Georgia folks have any warnings or suggestions about the area around Dublin or Macon? Planning on spending one night in the area. Thanks

Macon ought to have more stuff for you to do if your wife wants to do some non trapping convention stuff. Has a pretty nice down town area with all manner of bars and restaurants. Some are pretty good. Im not real familiar with Dublin, but I dont believe there is much to do there. If you want a smaller town than Macon with some boutiques and good eateries for your wife you can come down to Perry Ga.

She will be with me at the convention. Mainly wanting to know of places to stay away from. Trying to minimize the risk of having the truck broken into overnight.

I only know of Dublin by passing through but it's your typical rural county seat type town. In other words a good place to visit and generally safe. Like all small towns there are bad seeds, usually drugs, but a visitor would have to go looking for that sort of trash.

Macon is much the same though larger as it was once a thriving city and manufacturing center now much declined with the loss of industry. Outside of a democrat government it has fared better than many other cities in similar circumstances.

Lots to see in the area if historical sites are your thing. Macon has the Ocmulgee Mounds which is a must see, several house museums, the Big House for fans of the Allman Brothers, for civil rights there is the Harriet Tubman museum and a Blues HOF. There a small but decent science museum/planetarium in town as well my younguns enjoy it. As said there's plenty of craft eateries if your into that scene. I much prefer the local BBQ and there's several good ones around and the best old school meat and three cafeteria style in the area is S&S Cafeteria with several locations. Fishing can be done in town with a couple parks/boat launches in town on the river. Just south of town is Bond Swamp NWR with a boat launch and walking trails. East of town is a big flea market. Head west to Roberta to Dickie Farms for the last of the season peaches, they have converted the old cotton mill into a packing plant store with fresh produce and peach ice cream. Next town up on 75, Forsyth has Hamlin Farms for fresh produce as well.

Not far from Dublin is Milledgeville the old state capital with several original buildings/museums. Griswaldville isn't that far away as well.

If you happen to find yourself in the Vinesville area of Macon (the Big House) watch out for Vinesville Ave. It has reversible lanes in sections watch for the lights to tell you which lanes are open or closed. And if traveling through the 75/16 interchange be aware that it's under construction and attention needs to be paid to signage as they are currently rearranging everything, they might finish it someday. Otherwise 475 is the better option to bypass everything if going north south.

Almost forgot, Macon does have a Bass Pro Shop off the Bass Rd exit.

If staying in Macon, avoid anything on Eisenhower. I'd look more towards Riverside.

Thanks for the info.

If I were coming from out of state I don't know that I wouldn't look to stay in Warner Robbins. It's a much newer town in terms of recent growth. That's thanks to the Air Base and military growth. I'm not as familiar with the town as it's just out of range for me but I've done a few jobs in the area. Just a few interstate miles south of Macon and it has a Buccees to boot, lol.

Next month the National Fair will be Perry to the south.

BTW I'm hemming and hawwing on whether or not I drive down for the day for the convention. Still got a bad taste in my mouth from the old bunch in the GTA and how they treat us metro NWCOs.

Probably just take the grandyounguns to the local old farm days in Inman instead.

Perry is the same distance to Dublin as Macon is and, in my opinion, much better as a place to stay unless you are looking to do all of the historic stuff mentioned in Macon.

But I am biased since I live right outside of Perry

How you coming from Bama?

From 20 consider turning off at Douglasville onto GA 92 and staying on 92 to Griffin where you'll catch GA 16 to 75 if you want to bypass Atlanta traffic. If you hit at the right time of day you're better off going 20 into town direct to 75 to go south rather than 285 around. Always a bottleneck at the 285 exit and again 285 to 75.

From 85 take the Hogansville exit hwy 54 to Luthersville then 362 to Alvaton stay on 362 left then right to Griffin. From Griffin either 16 across to 75 or south on 41 to Macon.

I'm just north of Griffin and 41 or 75 is half a dozen of one six of the other to get to Macon for me.

From Columbus 80 will take you straight to Macon and you'll go right by Dickie Farms.

If you happen to find yourself on 75 at exit 201 Jackson exit/truckstop and want the best meal in central Georgia pull off go west take the next right onto Bucksnort to get to Buckners Family Restaurant. It's lazy Susan family dining and folks come from all over the state to eat there so there may be a short wait if busy. Hopefully it'll be Friday or Saturday when they have BBQ. As good as the regular menu is they could close and reopen as a BBQ joint and never miss a beat.

Anywhere around Forsyth watch your speed. The training academy is there and they train them well, lol.

I dated an ol gal from Hogansville long ago in my wilder days, not even going to say what she said she would do to me if i ever dared show my sorry face around there again, thus far ive never been back, lol.

Sounds about right for Hogansville, lol.

We have stayed near the Bass Pro in Macon twice now. Seems like an ok/safe area to me. Certainly less sketchy than our stay in Knoxville this year LOL

Anything above Macon is considered Atlanta so we don’t even go to Macon for anything, lol. Perry is ok and anything South is ok. You’ll be ok with Bama plates.

WannaBe,
You should ride over to the convention.

I think you'd enjoy it. Plus, you can buy about any supplies you need.

I had planned on it if we were still on strike this week, but we went back to work Monday and I have a stupid wedding to go to Saturday.

That's not a bad area pretty close to Rivoli which is a somewhat effluent ranchette type area.

Not far off but Atlanta really begins about Griffin but the stretch from Griffin to Forsyth is fast filling up each exit area with massive warehouses for the whole "inland port" deal around Macon. Even putting one right on the lake next to High Falls State Park. The idea is to use the 16 corridor to ship by rail and truck from the port of Savannah to a hub at Macon. Needless to say points north of Griffin are clogged with big rigs and road rage central. There's even plans to build the first big rig only toll road through here.
Forsyth to Macon is being built into gated and ranchette communities.