What the regional welcome center off Interstate 985 between Flowery Branch and Oakwood lacks in size or appearance, it makes up for in colorful visitors.

Beginning with its manager, Robert Croy.

Each morning, Croy parks his purple Dakota Spirit pickup truck at the center, after unlocking the gate crossing the long driveway, and waits for travelers seeking tourist information, directions or help with a hotel reservation.

And visitors pour in from all over. Croy, 59, a Hall County native and resident, has greeted folks from places around the globe, many hoping to add a country touch to their Atlanta trip.

"A lot aren't on vacation - they're on ‘holiday' and they want to tour the states," he said. "And they want to see the real America."

Croy remembers at one time handing out lapel pins depicting a Georgia peach.

"I gave those to people from other countries, and you would think I gave them the winning numbers to the lottery," he said.

Croy has managed the center since 2000, leaving a longtime career in the retail business. His last job was as the manager of a furniture store.

The Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce established the welcome center in 1996, when the Olympics were in Atlanta and the kayak/canoe venue was at Clarks Bridge Park, off Lake Lanier.

The center, now under the operation of the Lake Lanier Convention and Visitors Bureau, is basically a single-wide trailer, with green shutters, covered with tourist posters.

Another building houses restrooms and, in a grassy area closer to the interstate and off the wide parking area, are three picnic tables that stay busy during the warmer seasons, Croy said.

The center is small, maybe about 900 square feet, but there's room to walk around and check out the wall of brochures and other tourist information. A curio cabinet contains some items depicting area tourist stops.

A small room with rocking chairs occupies one end of the trailer. Croy's station is at the opposite end, and there he stands ready to greet visitors as they come in the front door.

The center celebrated its 1 millionth visitor last year and now averages about 50,000 tourists a year, Croy said.

Those are big numbers, but some days are slower than others. In the hour or so during an early morning interview with Croy last week, two cars passed through, but neither produced any visitors to the cream-colored trailer.

Some days, though, especially during fall weekends, Croy can't stop long enough to take two bites from his sandwich.

In the slower-paced moments, he can stop and have a friendly chat with a traveler.

Croy recalled talking with one man who had visited the area with his family "on holiday."

"They went back and he had his Harley Davidson shipped over here, and he had his sleeping bag and was going to parks and sleeping and having a ball," he said, with a laugh.

Croy and the man sat outside in the rockers, which Croy keeps outdoors in the summer, and talked.

The visitor said that in his area travels he ran across some "wonderful chaps ... who gave him some of the best stuff he had ever tasted."

Turned out he had stumbled upon some moonshine, "and he was talking about it like it was the nectar of the gods."

The welcome center also can be a planned destination. A snowfall, for example, can draw tourists to the center as if it were a ski slope.

"We have people from Valdosta, right there on the line (with) Florida, and they'll drive all the way up here and bring their kids up here so they can see snow," Croy said.

"They'll make a snowman out there and have snowball fights. It's just amazing."

He recalled one year how a group of July Fourth revelers, with their grills fired up on one of the tables, approached Croy saying they felt sorry he had to work. Croy shrugged it off, saying, "Oh, it's fun," but they returned with a hamburger.

Croy also recalled the days after 9/11.

"I had a shirt with stars and stripes on it, and you would be surprised at the people who would come through from other countries that wanted to take my picture," he said. "That was a big deal."

As comfortable as he is in his digs, Croy could someday find himself on the move.

There are plans to eventually build a much larger welcome center off Exit 16, a few miles up the road. Funding for that $1.5 million project hinges on the March 17 vote on the special purpose local-option sales tax.

Regardless of what happens, Croy plans to continue greeting and helping out often interesting colorful travelers.

As far as disgruntled motorists, he recalled one fellow becoming visibly upset with himself after asking if he was near Interstate 75, which is a healthy distance from Hall County, and then learning the painful answer.

Otherwise, Croy said, there aren't many.

"I keep the place patrolled, trust me," he said.