Georgia - Day 12 - north to Atlanta and south to High Falls

High Falls State Park, Jackson

Tuesday, 4 April 2023

On our second walk this morning, just before leaving the campground, Dext found at least 1 armadillo (may have been 2, or just 1 that moved very fast).  As he's done in the past, he went crazy.  We were walking down a hill at the time, and my knee hurts worse walking down than up, so coping with his craziness was especially challenging.  The 'dillo moved away from us but otherwise didn't make any special attempt to get away.  I kept telling Dext these guys have sharp claws, but he wasn't listening to me.  I finally managed to move him on to another area.

This FDR campground was heavily wooded and very hilly, but also very peaceful and I was a little sorry to leave.

today's route

On the road

Once we got out of the park (meaning down from the mountain), I noticed just how heavy the fog was getting.  For a bit, visibility was only 3 or 4 RV lengths in front of me.  And although I didn't stop at the town of Warm Springs, I did get a clear idea of what FDR might have seen in this area.  With its thick mixed trees and multiple hills and apparently abundant wildlife, it was probably a great antidote to Washington, DC, and New York.

I'd gotten fairly clear directions to Atlanta from Google, but after we'd gotten on our way, we came to a blockade in US-27 with a sign saying "Road Closed."  I couldn't see any reason for it, but farther behind me I'd met a police officer stationed in the road in the other direction who told me the road that way was closed due to a downed tree.  So I assumed it must be something like that - or maybe a bad accident - up ahead and tried to figure out where to go from there.

I ended up driving for quite some time on very back roads, winding, with no street signs of any kind.  At one point I crossed the highway I was aiming for but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get there.  A couple of times I stopped to ask for directions; the first time from a man driving the same way as me, and with a very strong Georgia accent he told me to "drive down this road a ways and turn left."  Really.  So I tried that and ended up on some more unidentified narrow winding roads.  The second time I stopped was at a road construction crew, and that guy said turn here and keep going and I'd run into it.  That time he was right.  But I had to "keep going" so far I was seriously doubting it for a while.  I have no idea where I'd gone or where I should have gone, but at least I found the highway.

The dogwoods are blooming, and the occasional white dogwood flowers were like fairy lights in the dark woods and low clouds. 

dogwood flowers at the Carter Center

It was 55 years ago today that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Atlanta

But I wasn't done getting lost for the day.  After making it to Atlanta and getting off the highway at a perfectly respectable exit, and even finding the right street, I couldn't find the next street to turn on that Google had assured me was there.  It turns out Atlanta has lots of hills, and lots of narrow streets that shoot off at angles to each other, and they aren't all labeled.  I finally had to stop (idling, because no parking allowed) in front of some apartments and get out my hotspot and laptop to get myself found again.

But while I was driving around in befuddlement, I was driving up a high hill, still in heavy mist, and looming over the top I saw a misty something that honestly looked like a mountain in Alaska (Denali, specifically).  I had to get a lot closer before I could see it was a building and learned eventually that it was the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Home of the Atlanta Falcons.

I had a list of things I wanted to see in Atlanta, and today's portion included the Atlanta City Hall, the Georgia State Capitol, and the Pres. Carter Museum.  The city hall and the capitol are less than 3 blocks apart.

The lower floors of the Atlanta City Hall,
built 1928-1930.

The whole building.
I've seen state capitols less
impressive than this.

My photo of the capitol.

The Georgia State Capitol,
built 1889.

That's Miss Freedom on top of the dome.  She's 26' tall, weighs 1,600 pounds, and is made of hollow copper painted white (an unusual choice).

Carter Presidential Center

And I spent several hours in and around the Carter Center/Presidential Museum (they're in the same building).

Dext and I walked around the grounds a bit and found this historical marker.

We were basically in the middle of Atlanta, which must have been
on the outskirts back in the Civil War, based on this and other signs in the area.

Carter Presidential Center
This building seems to be built into the hill that historical marker was on,
I'm guessing for environmental reasons.

Some of what was in the library was similar to things I saw in Plains, but as I expected there was more focus here on Carter's presidency.  The following are some of their exhibits that included information I either hadn't known or had forgotten (memories are odd things).

Carter's presidential campaign:

caption enlarged at right

caption from poster at left

some text enlarged at right

text enlarged from left

some text enlarged below right

text enlarged from above left

Oval Office:

Some items explained below.

Mr. Vice President:

And after the Nixon years, how refreshing.

Rosalynn's role as First Lady:

Challenges of the Presidency:

Recovering from Watergate

Healing from Vietnam

In Vietnam, wading through the war.

In Washington, protesting for peace.

Encouraging efficiency

Maintaining security

The face of terror at the Munich Olympics.

Wanted: American terrorists for University of Wisconsin bombing 
(It's good to be reminded that home-grown terrorism isn't new.)

Carter's presidency by year:

(I hope this list is clear - the program was touchy about spacing.)

1977

In January: Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders

In September: signed treaties with Panama regarding the Panama Canal

1978

In September: Carter hosted the Camp David Summit with Israel and Egypt

In October: Carter signed the Civil Service Reform Act; the Omnibus Energy      Bill; the Airline Deregulation Act

In December: Carter restored diplomatic relations with mainland China

President Carter invited former President
Richard Nixon to the official state dinner in
honor of Deng Xiaoping.  
(This photo still boggles my mind.)

1979

In March: Egypt and Israel sign a peace treaty; Three Mile Island nuclear           power plant suffered a partial meltdown

In June: The US and the USSR signed the SALT II treaty to cut back nuclear      arms, while still building up the US military

In July: Carter gave a national address on energy and the "crisis of                    confidence"   https://www.cartercenter.org/crisis-of-confidence

In October: Department of Education was established

In November: Iranian students overran the US embassy in Tehran and took      hostages

1980

In February: the US ice hockey team beat the Soviet team in the Winter                Olympics, but the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 2 months earlier                prompted Carter to announce the US would boycott the Moscow                     Summer Olympics

In April: Carter signed the Windfall Profits Tax bill; a hostage rescue                attempt failed

In December: Carter signed the Superfund Act, taxing corporations to pay      to clean up their toxic messes; Carter signed the Alaska National Interest      Lands Conservation Act, protecting 100 million acres of land

Mt. Denali was protected in 1917, but in 1980 its name was officially
 changed from Mt. McKinley to Denali, and many other areas were protected.

1981

In January: Carter turned over the presidency to Reagan on the same day      the hostages were released

Accomplishments

This list makes it clear that Carter accomplished a lot more than I'd thought; my memory is of a fairly ineffective president - clearly not accurate.

But beyond that, I'm struck by how much Congress accomplished.  Much of this list were major pieces of legislation that would have taken a lot more cooperation than we're getting used to seeing.  Granted, Carter had a Democratic-dominated Congress for most of his presidency, that still didn't mean the Republican party was impotent.  I'm truly impressed.

One last exhibit:

A Remarkable Portrait
by Octavio Ocampo, 1979

Post-presidency:

Following is some information about Carter's activities after leaving Washington.

Puppet used to explain the Guinea worm to affected people.  

One of the Carter Center's activities focuses on controlling the Guinea worm.  It's a tapeworm sort of creature that spreads at water sources, enters the human body, causes intense pain and disfiguration, and eventually kills its host.  Usual medical research doesn't deal with such problems, mostly because there's no profitable market for any solutions.  So the Carter Center is filling the gap left between need and cure - and apparently it's working.

Awards:

see explanation below right

The Carters' Medals of Freedom
(see below right)

Pres. Carter's Nobel Peace Prize

Did you know he won a Grammy?

More of Atlanta

As it was only 1:00, I decided to do some shopping and promptly got lost.  Google's directions just aren't designed for the kinds of intersections they have in Atlanta.  Here you'd have to use GPS or some such, which I don't have, so I kept getting lost.

But while I was wandering around trying to find a street name that looked familiar, I passed The Internationally World-Wide Known Brewhouse.  Pretty emphatic about the scope of their renown.

I found a PetsMart, which was buried in a very crowded parking lot, and got the things the Petco didn't have a few days ago (mostly kitten food - I'll be glad when they're old enough for adult food).  Leaving that area, I found myself facing a large old building with "Sears, Roebuck and Co." carved above the doors.  From 1926 until 1979 it was a major hub for Sears.  These days it's called Ponce City Market (it sort of sits on Ponce De Leon St.) and is used by a variety of businesses (e.g. Williams Sonoma) and eating establishments.  It was heavily renovated in 2011, though the exterior could still use a good sandblasting (my opinion), but I was delighted to see a nice, sturdy old building being reused instead of torn down.

Google said it'd just take me an hour to drive down to the campground, and traffic was no problem southbound.  But once there I had to find the office (not labeled) to check in, then the campsite they gave me was on such a severe slope I didn't even want to try to make it work.  The campground let me move to another site, that was still sloped but not nearly as much as the first one.  I did some maneuvering to get the best siting I could, and by then it was nearly 4:00, so I took Dext for an overdue walk and we settled in for the evening.