The section of US-17 south of the Ogeechee River, off I-95 between exits 14 and 12, offers shunpikers a 24-mile taste of old-style Lowland Georgia. Sometimes called the Old Atlantic Highway, it is a textbook example of how traveling the two-lane highways is superior in almost every way to hustling down the interstates. Midway along, the coincidentally named town of Midway (pop. 1,100) was founded back in 1754 by a band of New England colonists, two of whom (Lyman Hall and Button Guinett) went on to sign the Declaration of Independence as Georgia’s self-declared representatives to the Continental Congress. The centerpiece of Midway, then and now, is 200-year-old Midway Church, which preserves the original pulpit and slave gallery; keys for the church are available at the adjacent Midway Museum (closed Mon.; $3; 912/884-5837).
Though redolent with ghosts of Georgia’s past, Midway is still a living, breathing little place, with a great little 1930s-era road-food restaurant, Ida Mae & Joe’s (912/884-3388), serving up plates of fresh-fried catfish, chicken fingers, and fresh-made pies at 817 N. US-17.
