Augusta, GA

Dad and I make the drive to Augusta, Georgia, arriving in bright sunshine to see the historic homes and funky features downtown. After lunch, we strolled along the Augusta Riverwalk to the Morris Museum of Art. While skies darkened and heavy rain began to fall, we checked in on our Augusta Canal Tour to find it canceled. Much worse, our game with the Augusta GreenJackets at SRP Park — across the Savannah River in North Augusta, South Carolina — would also be rained out.

Downtown Augusta

For our drive from Charleston to Augusta, I took us on a slightly more rural route than Google had recommended, favoring the highways heading toward the Georgia border over the Interstate we had already traveled from Columbia. It added 15 minutes of time but was substantially more relaxed, picturesque, and interesting. Do this when you can.

We arrived in Augusta and went straight down Broad St., the main downtown artery, and parked near the Augusta Commons and the James Brown Memorial.

*James Oglethorpe, who founded the colony of Georgia in 1732*

We continued on to see a memorial to another famous Augusta resident: the boyhood home of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States from 1913-1921. On our way, we stopped to admire several other beautiful old homes and buildings along busy Green St.

Augusta Riverwalk

After a good lunch at The Boll Weevil, we made our way toward the Savannah River and the Augusta Riverwalk, a half-mile length of greenbelt with an amphitheater at its center.

Morris Museum of Art

At one end of the Riverwalk, the Morris Museum focuses on Southern art through paintings, sculpture, glasswork, and photography. I found it to be one of the most compelling museums we visited on the trip.

*Augusta Oelschig,* Play Ball, *c. 1955*

*Part of the museum’s Contemporary Studio Art Glass exhibit*

*Nell Choate Jones,* Georgia Red Clay, *1946*

*Stephen Alke,* Tobacco Settlers on a Hilltop, *c. 1938*

*Virginia Derryberry*, Consummation, *1998*

*Don Cooper,* Extreme Southeast Georgia, *1990*

*Lary Connaster,* Man and Flowers, *Undated*

*John Baeder,* Col. Poole’s Pig Hill of Fame, *1995*

*Manning Williams,* Rice Field, *1985-86*

I left the museum to pull the car up for Dad. I heard a crash tumbling into a deep echo and turned to see menacing thunderclouds approaching quickly.

Augusta Canal

We had booked a tour of the Augusta Canal, a waterway parallel to the Savannah River that extends for nearly seven miles. The boat tour passes the Confederate Powder Works Chimney, the smokestack of a plant that produced 2.75 million lbs. of gunpowder during the Civil War.

But by the time we presented ourselves for the tour, the rain had started coming down, and forecasts showed little sign of it letting up. We shuffled around, waiting for confirmation that the tour was canceled. We watched a short film on the canal and its natural and historic highlights. We peered into the small but elaborate museum. At last, we were informed of the inevitable, and headed to our hotel.

Our SUV crept along Highway 26 as the rainfall intensified every 20 seconds or so, until I became genuinely concerned with visibility and safety, slowing to about 30 miles per hour with the rest of the highway traffic. "OK, that's as hard as rain can fall," I kept thinking, only to be proven wrong seconds later.

As we checked in for a rest, I hoped the rain would stop soon, and that the GreenJackets had invested in a good tarp.

SRP Park

The rain had let up a bit when we arrived at SRP Park, but not enough. I checked Twitter as I arrived at the gate and saw the game had been officially postponed. Our first (and only) rainout.

We considered options for dinner and settled on Southbound Smokehouse, which overlooks the ballpark in right field. We could at least get a glimpse of SRP Park, a nice-looking facility that opened in 2018 and seats nearly 5,000.

Behind my increasingly damp vantage point was a small park dedicated to Sharon Jones, lead singer of the soul-funk band Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Jones was born in North Augusta in 1956 and died in Cooperstown, NY, in 2016. But the only music I could hear after missing a game on our schedule was the blues.

Video Highlights

A short and somber look at tarp and heavy rain.

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