Two Farms… Two States… Seven Days…

I’m finally getting around to blogging about the rest of our trip south in April. After our time in Bluffton, our road trip found us in Lagrange, Georgia and Boaz, Alabama. A year ago, when we bought this RV, our friends suggested that we stop at their farms if we were ever in the area. Well, we made it a point to take them up on the suggestion and planned our trip accordingly.

Page and Buck Petry have a fabulous family farm and sporting club outside Lagrange, Georgia. Liberty Hill Sporting Club spreads out over 700 acres of rolling hills. They offer a wide array of shooting experiences including sporting clays, quail and pheasant hunts, a 20 person Continental Stand for pheasant hunting, and facilities for private events. Check out their Gallery here to get a feel for the club.

The Petry’s beautiful homesite comes complete with a one-room cabin, that they graciously offered to us. It was perfect, warm and cozy, and fully equipped. It felt like staying in a suite at a Marriott resort, or maybe a Starwood… nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean.

We were treated to a grand tour of the property including the hunting fields, 12-station sporting clay course, and the five-stand where Terri and I both got a try at sporting clays with Page’s 20-guage. Buck was the perfect teacher starting with gun safety and then walked us through how to shoot clays. We didn’t expend a lot of shells as the wind was playing havoc with us and the clays were flying all over the place. Our lack of experience showed, but I actually hit one of two. Beginner’s luck, no doubt.

Friday evening we went into town for a nice dinner in one of Lagrange’s finest restaurants, Mare Sol. On Saturday we decided to take a drive over to Warm Springs, GA, for a visit to Franklin Roosevelt’s “Little White House”. What a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon. The museum is full of exhibits of Roosevelt’s time spent in Warm Springs, where the 88-degree waters of the springs soothed the effects of polio. The Little White House itself is preserved perfectly and paints a picture of a humble man. For a history buff like myself, the visit was a great way to learn more about our 32nd President. Highly recommended. After the museum visit we took in a “Taste of Lagrange” for food trucks, craft beer and live music.

Our three short days in Lagrange on the Petry family farm were a great way to take in our first visit to Georgia. Page and Buck are the perfect hosts and Liberty Hill Sporting Club appears to have a bright future. If you like to shoot clays or hunt for upland game birds, you should consider making a stop here.

Sunday the 10th, it was off to Boaz, Alabama and another farm recently purchased by our friends Daniel and Andria Hite. Daniel and I played guitar together for over a decade and he was a critical component of Stixx & Stonz. When he and Andria moved to Alabama, the band essentially dissolved. But we have the many memories of the dozens of gigs we played over the years.

The drive to Boaz from Lagrange took us through rural Georgia and Alabama. It was an intimate look at another side of America. Beautiful farms interspersed with depressed rural towns. The RVLife GPS was supposed to take us down RV safe roads. In the end it was successful, but not without some drama. The final 1/4 mile took us down Mt. Hebron-Douglas road to a bridge over Clear Creek. We were literally 100 yards from the Hite’s driveway and as we approached the bridge, a sign informed us that the bridge had a 3-ton limit. We’re nowhere near 3-tons, but one look at that bridge and neither of us felt comfortable. I pulled the rig over and Terri got out to inspect (using her serious civil engineering skills, no doubt). She decided to call Daniel to ask if it was safe. Of course, she had to be on the right spot on the bridge to get one spec of cellphone signal. Daniel told her that trucks well over 3-tons had crossed, and that it was truck length that was the real problem. We crawled the rig over the bridge and proceeded the final 100 yards up to the Hite ranch.

The Hite’s have found paradise in northeastern Alabama. The farm sits on roughly 140 acres that include a beautiful 5 bedroom/5 bath colonial home with a pool, a huge out building (shop), chicken coop and 1/2 acre pond loaded with bass. Clear Creek runs along the northern side of the property. The Hite’s, along with their next door neighbors, greeted us with a heart warming and belly filling pasta dinner. As with most farms, animals are a theme here. We met Baxter the Great Pyrenees, Luna the Pyrenees pup, Rickie and Lucy the Muscovy Ducks, and Daisy and her goat friends. Of course, I immediately pulled out the fishing gear and it wasn’t long before I had my first Largemouth in hand.

We spent the next two days exploring the property on foot and ATV. The property is beautiful and has a ton of potential and Daniel is already learning the ropes of farming. He got himself a Mahindra tractor with all the attachments and I’m sure he’ll be spending a lot of time figuring out how that thing works.

The house is a highlight of the farm. It was move-in ready when they purchased the property in 2020 and is perfect for their grown kids to visit and have their own space. The home was built by an executive with Toll Brothers, so nothing was missed and everything is designed to accommodate an active farming lifestyle.

The Hite’s truly have found paradise and as long as they will have us, this place will remain in our plans whenever we travel through Alabama