Americus GA to Montgomery, Alabama 159 Miles
"Peace is more than the absence of war. People everywhere seek an inner peace that comes from the human rights to voice their views, choose their leaders, feed their families, and raise healthy children."
~Jimmy Carter
Forty states. We made it to Alabama, only ten to go! Funny when we get to the downside, we focus more on how many states remain.
First, we visited Plains, Georgia, the hometown of Jimmy Carter, and visited the National Historic Site in his high school. Amazing and inspiring to see how a man can become the President of the most powerful country in the world from such humble beginnings. His teacher harangued the kids to work hard, and maybe someday they could be the President of the United States. Apparently Jimmy did his homework.
I always considered Mr. Carter to be a lackluster president, and the site actually focused on his life after the presidency, where he really shone. He created the Carter Center, which promotes democracy and integrity in elections (we could use him here!) and advances human rights and alleviates human suffering. They have almost eliminated Guinea worm disease, resulting from drinking stagnant water. The worm grows inside a person, up to three feet long, then burrows out through the person's skin and is considerably disgusting. Good job Jimmy! Using his farming background (he was a peanut farmer) he's helped with farming as well.
Want to meet him? He teaches Sunday School two or three Sundays a month when he's in town. And they live in the house they built in 1961, and it's a pretty modest place.
The site is his old school, and in the mornings they would gather for an assembly, first through eleventh graders, and the principal would do announcements, current events, Bible reading and prayer. School's about the same now, just more metal detectors and less Bibles and prayer.
Off again to Alabama, via the rural roads that carve through the woods, straight as a ribbon rolling up and down over the hills. Lots of naked deciduous trees. It must be beautiful with leaves. Logging trucks abound here, hauling slender pine trees to the mills. We stopped at Mickey D's for motel coupons (they usually carry them) and splurged on ice cream cones. Not much further we found a Ramada Inn and got inside before sunset. And we moved ahead an hour, been a long time since we left the Central Time Zone.
And now, the queen of the South with a needle and thread, Quilter Girl!
I had gone online to the Alabama tourism site to plan what we should see and saw a town called Eufaula mentioned as having nice, older homes. That sounded good, but not worth a special trip. I was tickled when I found it was on our route from Plains to Montgomery. There is one street, a wide boulevard with trees in the center of the road, with really wonderful mansions. The town itself was a typical small town, but this neighborhood was very special.
QG
Tomorrow the state Capitol. See you then!
2 comments:
I don't mean to complain, but I'm missing the reports on whether you've spent as much on fuel for Libby as you have on Diet Pepsi? I'm guessing the tally is about the same. Haven't heard about Thereabouts lately, either. Either there was no Thereabouts in Georgia, or you couldn't locate its whereabouts.
I'll take the fifth on Diet Pepsi. I mean, PLEAD the fifth. I didn't take the fifth! But it's a tight race. And Georgia? Coke country. Can't find DP anywhere! And there's no thereabout in Georgia. Whereabout it is, I can't say.
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