Georgia - Day 9 - visit to Macon

Cordele KOA, Cordele
Friday, 17 March 2023

today's route

St. Patrick's Day today.  The local NPR station had a program about Ireland, including some poetry by William Butler Yates.  I learned that Lady Gregory was a mentor of his.

As you can see, it was a fairly long trip up there - Google said it'd take an hour and I did it in an hour and a half - pretty standard deviation for me.

Along I-75, we passed a water tower that said "Welcome to Vienna" with the cotton symbol and the slogan "The Fabric of Our Lives."  Despite being named after the Vienna in Austria, this town pronounces its name as "vy-anna," per their own website.

It wasn't in color on the water tower, but this is the only one I could find online that looked like the water tower.  There's a cotton museum in town.

I passed another water tower that said "We The People," though I don't know where it was for or why they chose that phrase.

And the town of Unadilla urges us all to "Make The Difference."

I passed miles and miles of cropland and an absolutely enormous solar field.

My first stop was a recycling drop-off station.  Cordele doesn't have one and even Macon wouldn't tell me any place to put recycling other than my usual curbside pickup (and I had so much to drop off I envisioned asking a householder if I could use their cart, as Momma and I did once in Rhode Island).  But I finally found a drop-off center in next-door Monroe County.  They didn't accept any plastics other than bottles, or any of my mixed paper.  But I got rid of the glass and the milk bottles and such, which was a good start.

Traveling into Macon's city limits, we went next to the closest PetsMart, where I parked behind a car with a Hawaii license plate and 2 very nervous little kids clinging to their mom.

I felt lucky to find everything we needed at the PetsMart and drove from there through a very pleasant neighborhood, likely wealthy considering the size of the lots, with lots of blooming azaleas and incredible wisteria.  I sure hit this area at the right time for wisteria.

I drove around Wesleyan College, established 1836, with signs saying they were the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women.  Attractive campus.

Right next door (basically) was a Kroger, and I stopped there and marveled at the vast difference between a grocery store for a smallish town (Cordele) and a major city (Macon).  I crossed off my grocery list a bunch of things I'd been wanting that haven't been available at other stores.  

In the checkout line, I asked the clerk if Macon is a nice place to live (my standard question) and the young woman said yes, it's a nice size with a pleasant downtown and things to do.  The man behind me in line chimed in to say that it's far more affordable than Savannah.  He said he'd been living in Savannah and was glad to have moved over to Macon.  (Later, I looked online and found quite a few houses for $150,000 or much less that looked nice and in well-kept neighborhoods.)

Continuing towards town, I found myself on the Duane Allman Memorial Highway.  I knew there was an Allman Brothers Band Museum along this road (and that they charged $15 for senior admission) and expected to see a sign for it.  I thought later I'd just missed it but now I'm not sure that there is a sign.  I looked on Google's map/street view and see no sign except what's on the gate to the driveway (metal sculpture of several mushrooms and the slogan "And The Road Goes On . . . Forever").  It figures.

That museum is in Historic Vinewood, per a sign, and that's a neighborhood that's about as old as Macon itself.  Likely an interesting area to investigate sometime.

We found a dog park I'd seen online - nice big dog park with small uncomfortable parking area.  But Dext and I went in to join several other people and their dog who arrived when we did.  Large bouncy dog that got Dext to run around for a while, which he needed.  I talked for a bit with the older man, who said they were staying at a hotel because they were in town from up north.  He went back to their car, so I moved over to talk to the younger man and the pre-puberty girl.  The man was given to monosyllables and the girl didn't say a word.  

But at one point I said something about taking Dext to the vet, and the man said he'd never taken any of his animals to the vet (and I started wondering if there were any diseases that big dog could give Dext while they were playing).  I said because I'm constantly traveling I thought it was important to keep Dext's shots up to date, and the man asked why does my travel mean "mandatory" vet visits.  And the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, because of course I hadn't said anything at all like that.  And I said I'd had a cat once that died of distemper because I was late getting its shot, and it had been a very bad death and I didn't want to put me or a pet through that again.  And I slowly moved away and took Dext back to the RV and we left.

I've wondered since about that little girl.  This was a school day.  And she was really quiet.  This guy sounded like the survivalist type and, if he was anything remotely like that, I was glad to give that little girl an alternate view of reality.  But I sure hope she hadn't been kidnapped or was otherwise in trouble, and I couldn't get her alone to ask.  You just never know what a day will bring.

I'd hoped to see Mercer University but ended up passing behind some of its buildings and couldn't tell anything about it.

I'd wanted to at least pass the Tubman Museum, billed as the Southeast's largest museum dedicated to the art, history and culture of African-Americans.  Senior admission is $9.  But I ended up having trouble with Google's directions and missing it entirely.  Definitely something for another visit.

I thought I was routing myself through the downtown area but apparently missed it entirely too.  I'd heard it's an attractive, walkable area and I like downtowns.  Again, something for the next visit.

Macon claims to be the Cherry Blossom Capital of the World with 275,000 Yoshino cherry trees.  There was so much blooming going on while I was there, I'm afraid I didn't notice particularly, which is a shame.

Macon, which sits at 381' elevation, calls itself the "Heart of Georgia" because of being near the state's geographic center.  The city itself isn't unusually large - 157,346 residents in 2020 - but the metro area has nearly a quarter million folks.  Macon's government has been combined with that of Bibb County for the last 10 years.  I haven't heard how folks think that's been working out.

I heard on the radio that Georgia is second worst among the states for maternal mortality.  Behind Texas, I guess.

When we passed the town of Perry, I'd noticed on the way up a huge number of RVs, mostly Class As.  And then I remembered seeing a sign at the KOA saying there was an RV show there this weekend - which is obviously what I was seeing.

That huge solar field I passed earlier?  I learned this afternoon that the panels swivel to follow the sun's path.

On the way back I was fighting a very strong crosswind and it was hard to stay in my lane.

So I missed quite a bit of what I'd wanted to see, but I also got a pleasant impression of an attractive and bustling small city.

Georgia - Day 8 - in the Cordele campground, round 1

Cordele KOA, Cordele

Thursday, 9 through Thursday, 16 March 2023

I can divide this period into a few general categories.

RV life

For the first few days, the wifi here was frustrating, often working only intermittently.  I had my hotspot, but one of the amenities I expected here was a functioning wifi network.  I asked the manager, who apologized, said he was having problems with it too and had called the repair folks who promised to be out Monday.  Which was the day I'd planned to leave.  

But one advantage of this campground is that all the spaces are unusually wide - most places pack people in pretty close to their neighbors.  The campground is surrounded by mostly pines, but some years ago someone planted a whole lot of pecan trees here, and many campsites have one.  At the moment they're all still bare - pecans leaf out later than many other species - but they're still a nice presence.

So with the promise of improved wifi, I extended my stay an extra week.  I'd already used the laundry and showers, and they were just fine.  I had to work a bit to find a level spot on this campsite and I could see others wouldn't be any better, but since I could find a level place and everything else was okay, I decided to stay here to do some catching up.

One afternoon I had the door and windows opened because it was warm outside, so I could easily see that the people who'd just arrived in the next space didn't seem to have any idea what to do with their hoses and so forth.  The nice KOA manager spent a lot of time helping them get set up - and the folks told me later that he'd actually given them an extra sewer hose to augment the too-short one they had, and the manager's wife had gone into town to buy them a water hose, which they'd left home without.  

I went over and offered help when, later on, I saw water spewing from their hose connection to the spigot and the folks couldn't seem to figure out what to do about it.  They had a fancy Class A and, though I had zero experience with one, I was able to figure out how to get their hose on right and fill their water tank, which they'd arrived with empty.  They told me they'd just bought this RV and were on their way to boondock for several weeks with some other RVers.  I'm guessing that those others had to walk these folks through how to boondock just like the manager and I had here.  Boondocking, in my opinion, isn't for the novice or the faint of heart - doing without all hookups and amenities and relying only on what you're carrying with you is complicated.  But they were really nice people, so I imagine it'll all work out for them.

The next day that same site was occupied by a Chateau just like mine except the outside graphics were different.  I thought about going to talk to them but then saw the back window was covered in political stickers.  Some were somewhat innocuous: "I Like Ike" and "George W. Bush" for instance (they really had those).  But they all looked seriously Republican and, the way folks take politics these days, I decided to not push things.  Too bad.

Equinox here came early - on the 16th instead of the 20th - sunrise at 7:44 and sunset at 7:44.

Speaking of which, Sunday the 12th was the beginning of Daylight Savings Time.  I'd overslept until 4:30 this morning so I was already running late.  Then once I'd done the "spring forward" bit, I was even farther discombobulated.  And it didn't get much better as the days went on.  As a morning person, I find not having the sun rise until almost the beginning of the working day nearly depressing.  And of course, for one who prefers going to bed around 7:30, having sunset farther and farther after that is hard.  I've ended up not being sleepy until 8:30, and then oversleeping in the morning until 3:30 or 4:00.  

We all - including me - adjust to the gradual lengthening of the days every spring.  But this artificial move to a different time zone is seriously unnatural.  I've been gratified to find many more news articles this year than in the past that explain the scientific reasons why not only should we not make Daylight Savings Time permanent, but in fact we should do away with it altogether as being unhealthy for us.

Trips to town

This campground is 4 miles from the town of Cordele, pronounced core-DEEL.  In 2020, it had just over 10,000 residents, 8% lower than the 2010 census.  The signs at the edge of town say it's "The Gateway to South Georgia," but Cordele actually calls itself the Watermelon Capital of the World."  They hold a watermelon festival every summer.  I made several trips into town and gradually got to see quite a bit of it, though there were some places I never managed to get to.  For instance, they're proud of the nearby Georgia Veterans State Park, which I haven't visited.  The county courthouse is here in town, though I haven't found it yet.  And there's a motorsports park that is official enough to hold a sanctioned annual preseason race.  Instead, I visited various businesses and parks.

I picked up a new inhaler from the local CVS and, considering the way I've been feeling, I'll be using it a lot.

I found one of the local liquor stores - Sonny's Liquor - which was in a sort of strip mall that fronted on an alley.  But its address was on the main street a half block over, so it took me a while to figure out where it was and how to get there.  It was a small store, with most of the hard liquor behind the counter on tall shelves.  I went there twice and both times the owner (maybe) helped me - a tiny woman with a strong accent from India or so.  Once the bottle I wanted was a big bottle on the very highest shelf, and when I realized that, I told her I'd choose a more accessible one.  But she climbed up on something I couldn't see behind that tall counter and managed to pick up that heavy bottle, even though she had trouble reaching it.  When I found out how heavy it was, I told her I didn't know how she'd managed to get it down without dropping it.  Very nice woman, though I had to work a bit to get her to talk much.

The town has 3 grocery stores, and they're all in a row together for some reason.  On one end was a Walmart, on the other end was a pleasant local store with a good selection, and in the middle was a Sav-A-Lot, which is a chain I've come across but not tried before.  I'm not much for those huge discount places, which is what those stores have been in other places.  Here, it has almost no stock, and I'm guessing that when the Walmart moved in, the Sav-A-Lot started to wither, and the local store - Harvey's - held onto all the non-Walmart folks like me.

On one trip, I was listening to Here And Now on NPR and they were interviewing the author of a work about how to master things.  He learned to master a variety of skills, such as baking and boxing, and spent time with magicians learning how they mastered their craft.  The book really sounds interesting - another one I'd like to read when I settle down.  It's called The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery by Adam Gopnik.  There's an excerpt of the book at this link.   https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/adam-gopnik-book-real-work

I found several parks in town (for walking Dext), but one - Lions Club Park and Fairground - was always chained shut.  We went to the 19th Avenue Park a couple of times, but it was really tiny - just a neighborhood park with a couple of picnic tables and some playground equipment and some winding paved paths.  So we mostly went to Turner Park, which was larger.  It too had some picnic tables and playground equipment, but it also had tennis courts and the clubhouse for the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and much longer winding paved paths.  Both these parks had lots of trees and were very pleasant.

And one trip to town was for grooming for all the critters.

Critters

Beginning with that grooming trip: partly it was to get Dext a bath and partly it was to get the felines' claws clipped.  Dext had been rolling around on his back really often lately, and it finally occurred to me that he might be dirty enough that his skin was itching.  Online I found 3 grooming places in town and tried the 2 less popular ones first, figuring they'd be more likely to work us in.  But when I looked on Google maps to see if they seemed respectable - well, they didn't.  In fact, the building where one was supposed to be located was a wreck (the roof was caved in) and had old semis parked in front of it.  Anyway, I called the popular one and he agreed to work us in 2 days later, which was perfect.

Dext came out looking like a cleaner, less hairy version of himself - and at his first chance he started rolling around on the grass.  So much for my $40.

I found a vet's office to clip the cat claws.  They'd scheduled me when they had a lot of other things going on and, though I'd warned them it would take 2 people, they said all but one was busy with other animals.  We started with Lily, and that was a big mess.  I don't have the knack for holding her down in a non-moving position, so she was able to completely intimidate the person with the clippers with her hissing and clawing and attempts to bite and so forth.  That person finally ended up begging another staffer to help, and they got all the kitties taken care of.  The kittens didn't like it much and acted like this had never happened to them before, though I think this is clip job #4 for them.  All in all, I think that's one vet clinic that's glad we were just passing through.

One day Dext vomited most of the morning.  I'd have worried except I knew that the day before he'd eaten a chunk of another dog's poop that was old and mixed with grass.  I was really peeved then so not wildly sympathetic while having to clean up the mess.  Although it was a little funny watching the kittens try to figure out how to deal with it.  I was afraid they'd try to eat it, but instead they just wanted to bury it.

Dext followed the several rounds of that with loose bowel movements when we got outside - pretty standard for him when he's eaten some kind of garbage.  He finally seemed okay in the afternoon - and then really irked me by trying to find something else to eat.  I mean, sure he was hungry from having lost his breakfast, but he just does not connect that discomfort with eating yucky stuff.

One evening I was trying to fix my own dinner after having fed all the others, and the kittens kept trying to get to my food.  Over and over I was yelling at them - I think I was really yelling - and they just ignored me until I physically moved them away.  But once I went over to close the door (I thought the pollen outside might be why I was having trouble breathing) and then saw the kittens leaning over the table to get to the ham and cheese and I SCREAMED at them.  That actually scared them enough to make them run, and it lasted long enough for me to finish cooking and eat my food.  I'm so glad I never had children - I'd be buried in guilt feelings.

Nature in the campground

During our first night here we had some serious rain, and it kept raining off and on all the next day.  We ended up with half an inch of water outside the RV's door - I have rubber boots but Dext just had to wade through it, which he doesn't like to do.

A few days later we had some very serious lightning in the morning.  When lightning hits close by, I've noticed it makes a very loud crack; thunder is what we hear when the lightning is farther away and I guess that loud crack is the thunder when it's right here.  Anyway, that crack was so loud it scared everybody, me included, and the kittens ran around the cabin looking for a safe place to hide.  Dext stayed right by my leg, while I patted him for a while to calm him down.

We had a range in temps, and it didn't always feel like the formal temperature would suggest.  For instance, one day it was supposed to get up to 62°, and it felt a whole lot chillier than the 70° the next day.  In fact, several mornings we needed the heater for hours, with all the critters hanging out in front of it when it was running.

While we were here, spring was gradually coming - as it is wont to do.  

These are really common, but I was interested in how
the tiny red balls become tiny white balls that become
bigger white balls and then burst out into fluffy white flowers.

I didn't realize for days that these are flowers on a chinaberry tree. 
I haven't seen one in a while, and it took old chinaberries lying
on the ground for me to figure it out.  Really pretty flowers.

I was sitting in the campground's dog park one day, waiting while Dext enjoyed lying in the sun, and I noticed a squirrel in the tree right above us.  She was in constant motion, running to tree after tree, breaking off 6" or 8" pieces of twigs that held 5 or so new green leaves, and bringing them back to a large conglomeration of sticks.  I came to realize those sticks were an enclosed nest and that she was lining it inside with these leaves.  I watched her go nonstop for about 15 minutes before Dext decided to leave.  When we got back to the RV, I looked it up, which is why I know it was probably a she, and that she was preparing her nest.  I'm sorry that I won't get to see the babies - they nurse for about 2 months before they're ready to leave the nest.  I never saw this before and feel lucky.

The squirrels here have skinny tails, though online photos show they don't usually.

Eastern gray squirrel

It seems especially odd to me because this place is a paradise for pecan lovers (e.g. squirrels), and surely pecans have enough nutrients to produce fluffy tails like the one in the photo.

Miscellaneous

I got 10 posts done during this period and still have 5 more in Florida plus 8 more in Georgia.  Still a lot of catching up to do.

I started finding it hard to keep track of what day it actually is, because when I write the daily posts I'm immersed in that time and tend to think any given day is the day I've been writing about.

For quite a while now, the stream of water out of my kitchen faucet has been gradually diminishing.  This happened a couple of years ago, so I know that the cause is a clogged filter in the faucet and that the only remedy is to replace the entire faucet assembly.  The filter can't be reached without (apparently) breaking the outer casing.

Then there was the time I set Jimmy's food down on the floor, only to find there was a small puddle of water at the base of the cabinet under the frig.  After Jimmy was done, I inspected and discovered that it was dripping through the roof of the cabinet and leaking out into the cabin floor, due to the freezer thawing, due to the frig not staying cold even though it was set on its coldest setting.  The nice KOA manager suggested a local company that advertises in the campground's brochure and, hoping to get both problems fixed, I called a couple of times but so far no result.

Despite the freezer not working right at times, when I put a bottle of white wine up there to give it a quick chill, and then forgot and left it in overnight, the wine froze solid.  I have no idea whether it'll even be drinkable, but I didn't want to throw it out without giving it a try, so it's sitting in the frig thawing out slowly.

My asthma has been pretty bad, and I have indeed been using the inhaler.  I'm almost beginning to believe I've developed - if not allergies - sensitivity to pollen in my old age, which I think is incredibly rude.  Why on earth can't I just spend the last 25 or so years of my life not having to worry about such things when I've already had 70+ years without them.

Once when I was filling up my gas tank I noticed I'm now down to only 1 hubcap.  My poor RV is looking like a total refugee - dirty and straggly.  Poor little thing.  It deserves better - but I haven't stayed in one spot long enough to give it better, plus not having enough money for such frivolities as hubcaps.

Since I'd been here so long, and since I was sort of in the neighborhood, I decided to take a day trip up to Macon.  I've wanted to visit that city for a long time because (this will sound dumb) my sorority was founded there.  So while I was waiting for Dext to be done at the dog groomers, I planned a trip up there, and I'll go tomorrow (Friday the 17th).

Georgia - Day 7 - Plains and Jimmy Carter

Cordele KOA, Cordele

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

today's route

Today is International Women's Day.  I hadn't realized that this day has been celebrated for more than 100 years and is an official holiday in a long list of countries.

According to Google, the Americus KOA is actually 9 miles from the town of Americus, and the Jimmy Carter National Historic Park is 9 miles from there.  I knew I wanted to see Plains at some point during my visit to Georgia, so now looked like a good time.

But first, to Americus, enjoying the wild wisteria all along the way.  It was really glorious and I wished I could stop even to take a photo, let alone to smell it.  But the road was a 2-lane no-shoulder road and even the private driveways didn't have very wide openings, so I'll just have to remember it.

Signs told me Americus counted itself a historic town, and when I got there it was easy to see what the historic downtown had looked like in the past.  Some buildings were well maintained, some weren't.  But overall, it was an attractive old town.  And it really was old, having been incorporated in 1832.  It was named, believe it or not, for Amerigo Vespucci.  And even before the town was officially formed it was making history: Charles Lindbergh made his first solo flight in a nearby field in 1923.  They've got a statue there commemorating the occasion, and I'd like to see it when I've got more time.

Pressing on to Plains (pop. 573 in 2020), I almost missed the presidential center because I didn't expect the town to be so small.  

Plains High School Museum and Visitor Center

side 1

side 2

We got there at 9:20, I took Dext around the grounds for a walk, looking for the front door - or even an indication that there was anything here besides the building.  Although it's clear where the central door is, there are no signs at all to say it's the entrance, let alone what it's the entrance to.  I've been to a lot of museums by now - including a lot of presidential ones - and this is the first time I've had to guess whether it was even here.  Even the name made it sound like a local museum, not something relating to a former president.  And that historical marker didn't help a bit.

But I was already there, so I stored Dext and took my federal senior citizens pass and my mask through the central door and found a Park Service person at a desk, asking if she could help me.  This presidential stuff is the only claim to fame Plains is likely to have, so why should they and the National Park Service want to be so incredibly low-key about it?  But I've learned to ask questions and the parks person handed me a brochure (when I asked for it) and told me they had exhibits about Pres. Carter in several rooms of this old school building.

She told me (when I asked) that she'd only recently been transferred here, that she had previously spent several years working at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, locating remains of inhabitants from many centuries ago.  She must still be processing the change, because it's hard to think of a greater contrast than between deserts in Utah and farms in Georgia.

It's not a large museum, and I came to understand that most of Carter's official stuff is at the Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.  What's here seemed to be more of the personal stuff, about the town and Carter's background - his roots.  Plus, I'm guessing he wanted to give a boost to his hometown by having this second space here.  Which it apparently does.

Still, I found what was here to be interesting,  I'm very sorry to say that a lot of my photos came out a little blurred.  I'll put in what I can and tell you about the rest.

There was an extensive exhibit about racism in local public schools while he was growing up.  And actually, his family technically lived in nearby Archer, an even smaller mostly African-American town.  I don't know why they moved there, because accounts say his father was a successful store owner and that he was also very pro-segregation.  Apparently that's where Jimmy went to school until he entered Plains High School, an all-white school.

a school east of Atlanta

Students having to share books.

To avoid integration, Plains authorities granted
Black students school buses in 1950.

Note that this classroom, that looks like those I attended,
is called an "equalization school."  Apparently it occurred
to authorities that "separate but equal" was just "separate."

After high school, Jimmy Carter eventually was accepted to the US Naval Academy and began a naval career.

Jimmy and Rosalynn married just before their graduations - he from Annapolis and she from GA Southwestern College.  She'd always excelled in school and, having worked hard enough to get away from Plains, never wanted to go back.  But when Jimmy decided to leave his career in the Navy, he didn't even discuss it with Rosalynn first; he just did it.

(I recently heard an interview he did with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, when he said he was not a good husband for many years because of exactly these kinds of actions.  It seems he did eventually learn better, though.)

Because Jimmy's father had been very active in civic organizations, Jimmy decided to run for the county school board, his first elected office.  His progressive views about race ran into opposition from the local White Citizens Council.  Still, he was elected to the state senate for 2 terms before running for governor.  He was beaten by Lester Maddox, well known as a staunch segregationist.  Next time around, Jimmy won.  Three years later he ran for US president against incumbent president Gerald Ford and won.

That result was likely for 2 reasons: Ford's pardon of Nixon may have been the best for the country but it angered voters; Carter was well-known as a professed Christian and appealed to religious voters.

I'm guessing that settling into her role as First Lady was fulfilling for Rosalynn, given her desire to have a greater influence on the world than a life in Plains could provide.

But it's little known that she also played a role in foreign affairs, such as in what's regarded as Jimmy's greatest achievement: peace in the Middle East.

"Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords
on September 17, 1978.  The experience inspired Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
to start The Carter Center."

Both Arafat and Begin were grateful for Carter's efforts as shown below:

During his presidency, Carter also had a few other matters of foreign concerns to deal with.

Carter's inability to bring the hostages home was widely
regarded as a stumbling block for his reelection.

(Just over a week after I visited this museum, I heard confirmation of a rumor I'd heard many years ago: that Reagan worked with Iran to ensure that the hostages wouldn't be released until after the election.  The source was former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes of Texas.  I remember him as being a fairly principled Texas politician (which you may have thought an oxymoron) so am inclined to believe his account.)

Riots regarding transfer of the
Panama Canal back to Panama.

I didn't remember that John Wayne supported
Carter on the transfer of the Panama Canal.

see caption below

The Carters in 1979 with the Chinese Vice Premier and his wife.

Nixon is known as the president who "opened up China" but that was for trade purposes.  Carter was the president who established diplomatic relations with China, while still preserving support for Taiwan.

He also attended to matters of domestic policy:

Without intending to denigrate the importance of bringing education to a cabinet level position,
what this display made me remember is how sorry I felt for Amy Carter.  She had to go
through those ghastly awkward years of 9 through 13 in full public view.

The museum also displayed one of the few replicas of the Resolute desk.  The original is currently being used by Pres. Biden.

Fuzzy copy of a well-known photo from 1963 of Pres. Kennedy
and his son John with the Resolute desk.

In 1880 the desk was sent to Pres. Rutherford Hayes as a gift from Queen Victoria.  It was built of timber from the HMS Resolute, hence its name.  It's been used as the primary desk by 23 presidents.  There's a pretty interesting account of its extensive history on this Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute-desk

A striking display was a gift that happened well after Carter's presidency.  It came from Habitat for Humanity, which he and Rosalynn are well-known supporters of and volunteers for.

This is an enormous quilt.
Some detail shown below.

These are 2 panels of those around the edges - see
a section below.  These 2 are signatures of Gerald Ford
and the wife of Anwar Sadat.

The Carters' work around the world with Habitat for Humanity is only one of Jimmy's humanitarian activities during his post-presidency.  He occasionally acted as a back channel negotiator for various presidents.  He's internationally known for helping to ensure fair elections in other countries.  Through The Carter Center, they've worked to eradicate diseases that are especially prevalent in Africa.  And so forth. 

Somewhat unsurprisingly, he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."  The chair of the Nobel committee said he'd have gotten the prize in 1978 for the Camp David Accords, except that his nomination came in too late.  At least he's lived long enough to see it.

a replica - see below

There was of course more in the museum, but I knew I wanted to visit the official library in Atlanta and decided this was enough.  I have to say, though, that I hadn't remembered a lot of this and, just as it was intended, it improved my impression of him.

Dext and I walked around again, and we left Plains a little after 11:00.  We passed through the small town of Smithville, which has been losing population by about 150 people per decade - now sitting at 462.  Part of the reason may be that the main road from Americus down to Albany was routed around the town.  I drove through town because I wasn't going to either of those places.

Instead I headed northeast to Leslie to the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum.  I wanted to visit despite their webpage saying there was a "nominal" entrance fee.  Anyone who won't say how much they're charging and then goes on to downplay the amount is probably charging too much.  But in the event, I wasn't able to decide.  The road it sat on was narrow with no parking along the street.  The entrance to the museum's parking area included a brick arch that looked like it might be too narrow and too low to accommodate the RV - enough anyway that I didn't want to risk it.  A shame.  I'd have loved to see old rural telephones.

On to Desoto - and all these towns looked just like small old towns.

I heard on the radio that 5 women in Texas have filed a 91-page lawsuit against the state, asking for clarification of the abortion laws recently passed there.  I also heard that Texas has the worst maternal mortality rate in the developed world.  I'll look forward to reading that brief.

We got to the Cordele KOA and were in our campsite before 1:00.  Our reservation is for 5 days, but we might stay longer if the facilities are comfortable.

Georgia - Day 6 - to Americus

Americus KOA, Americus

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

When Dext and I were walking this morning, I noticed an unusual camper not far from us.  It was a pop-up camper, but not like any other I've seen because it popped up perpendicularly, where others pop out sideways.  It was about 3'x3' at the base and, when it was closed, might have been about 8" high.  Open, it looked like it was 5' tall.  One side was hard, 2 sides were similar to a modified version of the usual popup with a screened space sticking out, and the 4th side was covered by an awning that sheltered a cooking area.  I think it might have used hydraulics to open up the top part.  It looked European, or maybe Canadian.  I'm certain it wasn't of American manufacture.  I think a couple was staying in it.

I'm always interested in seeing new kinds of camping equipment, and these days the variety keeps growing.

today's route:
the lowest blue line that then goes way up north

As we were leaving the campground, we saw deer by the road near the park entrance.  That was reassuring for me because I'd been certain that was deer country, but neither Dext nor I had seen any.

I also saw what I think were 2 wild turkeys, but both had drab colors.  The bird book says females and immatures are smaller and duller than the males, so I think that's what I saw.  There aren't that many birds that big that are shaped like that.

We went back through Fargo which has a population of 250.  In case you were wondering, Fargo, ND, (the famous one) has 125,994 residents.  This Fargo seems to serve the function of being the largest town near the national wildlife refuge and a crossroads.

As I drove west, I passed pines at various stages of growth, obviously being farmed.

About 30 miles from Fargo, I came to Statenville, which has an unusual history.  A highway sign said it was an unincorporated town, but online I learned it was disincorporated.  And then had a hard time finding out how a town gets disincorporated.  Statenville is the county seat of Echols County, and I found some interesting history about the county too.  The town was originally named Troublesome (per Wikipedia, I'm not making this up) but in 1858 changed the name when it got class (i.e. when it became the county seat).  Then in 1995, a new law resulted in Statenville joining dozens of other GA towns in having its incorporation charter revoked for lack of an active government.  At that point, Echols County became one of only 2 counties in Georgia that has no incorporated towns.

But wait, there's more.  The Georgia State Constitution forbids banishment outside of the state's boundaries.  But apparently it was legal to banish someone from 158 of GA's 159 counties, and Echols County became the county of choice - the only one someone wasn't banished to.  Apparently who got banished were criminals.  Clearly they never bothered to stay in Echols County but instead moved to another state, but that's what Echols County was - a place of banishment.  (Banishment was upheld as lawful by the state supreme court as recently as 2011.)

I saw a Confederate flag flying below a US flag.  It's beginning to look like I'm going to have a real problem during my stay here with cognitive dissonance.

I passed huge fields that looked like they'd been laid to waste, and I couldn't tell what was going on there.

A whole lot of people around here really like azaleas, and I saw huge bushes of them blooming in every yard we passed.

We stopped in Valdosta so I could arrange to pick up my blood pressure meds farther along the road, and while we were stopped I walked Dext and we all had some lunch.  The route through town took me past the county courthouse, which was really pretty as county courthouses go.

Lowndes County Courthouse
built 1905 in the Classical Revival style

And from there we got on I-75 for more than an hour, then turned west for another half hour.  Of course I couldn't really see anything much of the country I was traveling through.  Interstates are really only good for getting from one point to another, not for exploring the US.  I did see a billboard urging visitors to come to Ellijay, "Apple Capital of the Peach State."  Ellijay is way up in the northern part of GA and I may be able to get there later in my stay.

North of Tifton I saw a HUGE Confederate flag on a very tall and strong pole in the middle of not a whole lot.  I keep seeing these situations.

And I saw a whole lot of religious signs and was surprised that none of them addressed abortion.

A sign told me this was an Alternative Fuels Corridor, which was something I don't remember hearing of.  Across the Lower 48 there are 55 such corridors that have been designated by the Federal Highway Administration as providing "sufficient alternative fuels and charging facilities."  We live and learn.

At Cordele, "Gateway to South Georgia," we turned west.  I enjoyed that part of the drive much more because it took me along US-280 through a whole lot of countryside.  For much of the way, trees and bushes were absolutely dripping with wisteria.  It was an incredible display.  Also quite a few very large pecan orchards.  Also lots of blooming dogwoods around here.

We passed a sign for the turn to get to Andersonville Historic Site.  I've heard of Andersonville - well, it's notorious among Civil War sites.  I'm really torn about whether to visit or not.  It was built to house up to 10,000 US Army prisoners during the war.  At its height it had more than 32,000.  It was notorious because of its conditions: no shelter, contaminated water, little food, extensive disease - just under 30% of prisoners died while in custody.  The cemetery created for them is now a national cemetery that's still in use.  The whole site is now managed by the National Park Service and includes the National Prisoners of War Museum.

I just want to say I'm increasingly astounded at the vast extent of responsibilities for the Park Service.  I'm finding them in charge of an incredible number and variety of places all over the country.  I remember when we had that stupid government shutdown in 2019 and all kinds of places I wanted to visit were closed.  That was less than a year into my travels, and I now realize I'd barely scratched the surface of what the National Park Service provides our country.

Anyway, today I just wanted to get where we were going.

Which turned out not to be the place of refuge I'd hoped for.  I'd made reservations for the next 2 weeks, but it was clear almost immediately that this was not going to work out.

I was greeted before I'd found the office by a guy who was clearly an employee, very nice, said he'd take me to my site and I could later on walk over to the office to pay what I still owed.  But the office looked like it was quite a distance from the campground - it was right by the 2 golf courses which were part of this whole complex.  So I decided to drive the RV over now before settling in.  

That involved going back out to the highway and going down to the next entrance, then taking a very narrow winding road full of potholes.  Then paying and going back to start all over.  The nice guy was back to greet me and took me to our site - which was on a very definite slope.  I almost started crying at the thought of sitting at such an angle for any time at all, let alone 2 weeks.  I explained I had no ability to level myself, he called the office and they found an unexpected vacancy in a very level site - but only for this one night.  They agreed to refund me what I'd paid.

They were very nice about it but were stuck because at that moment they had a whole group of RVs in for some kind of rally, and they had a whole other group coming in when this batch left.  They literally had available only the spot I was rejecting.

I walked Dext, found the very small dog park, and then got online.  I found 2 KOAs in this general vicinity (I wanted a KOA for its internet connection and its predictability) and picked the one back in Cordele because it looked flatter than the 2nd one which was built on a hill.  The nice guy in Cordele took a reservation for 5 days and told me he'd go out personally to check the 4 sites he had available and see which one was the most level.

I figured tomorrow on my way to Cordele I'd make a side trip to Plains, since it was so close by.

Georgia - Day 5 - Okefenokee Swamp

Stephen C. Foster State Park, Fargo 

Monday, 6 March 2023

I'm certain I took notes today, both from the drive here and from inside the park as well.  Unfortunately, I can't find them anywhere, and I'll have to write this strictly from memory and from the photos I took.  Very frustrating.

Google told me today's drive should take about 2 hours which, of course, meant I should plan on at least 3 hours.  But I knew I wouldn't be able to stay late tomorrow because of a much longer drive, so if I was going to learn about the famed Okefenokee Swamp, I wanted to get there early enough to allow some looking around time.  These days, sunrise isn't until 7:00 and sunset is about 6:30, so those were my parameters.

today's route: 
the lower blue line

Google wanted to send me south to Valdosta and then east to the park, but I needed to go that way tomorrow and, besides, I wanted to see what the town called Homerville looked like.  (I just liked the name.)

I stopped for gas at a Love's Truck Stop near yesterday's campground because it had the cheapest gas in town.  (I know I wrote down notes from today because I remember writing this price down.)

We went through Nashville (GA), "City of Dogwoods," and I'm sorry I was a few weeks too early to see them flowering.  Nashville is the county seat.

Berrien County Courthouse
built 1898

The rest of the town doesn't look as old as the courthouse, but it's still an old town.  A historical marker on the courthouse grounds says the county was named for John MacPherson Berrien, "the American Cicero."  Nashville was named for Gen. Francis Nash from North Carolina, who fought in the Revolutionary War.  (I'm just reporting.)

We drove on to Homerville, which seems like a nice little town, lots of trees.  I stopped at a liquor store there (in Georgia, beer and wine are sold anywhere but scotch is only in package stores).  We had to park at the very end of the parking lot because of a beer delivery truck taking up half the lot, so I decided to stay there for a bit and walked Dext around the residential neighborhood for a couple of blocks.

From there we went south through Fargo and, just before the Suwannee River, we turned off to see a monument to Stephen Foster.

"Erected in Memory of Steven Collins Foster
At the Source of the Stream Which he made Immortal in Song:
"Suwanee River."

The Suwanee River begins in the Okefenokee Swamp, which you can see on the map above is directly east of here, and flows south to Florida (where I saw it last month).  This memorial is in a small rest/picnic area that sits on the river.  Right next to this area, also on the river, is a large, very nice southern-style building that has 2 floors.  Actually, 3 floors but the first is entirely pilings and stairways, so the 2-story building actually begins on the 2nd floor.  It has a large screened-in porch, a small balcony, and a ramp that leads up from the rest area parking lot to the 2nd floor of this building.  It has no labels of any kind.

There were vehicles parked in the parking area directly in front of the building, but they all had boat trailers attached and had clearly made use of the boat ramp nearby.  I was admiring the looks of this building and started talking to a man in a pickup nearby who seemed to be doing the same thing.  When I asked, he said he was sort of local and had lived in the area for decades, but he had no idea what this building was for.  He thought it was a government building, but it was clearly not being used at all so he was stumped.  I guessed it had been intended as a fishing lodge, but he hadn't heard anything that would suggest that.

A shame to see a good-looking well-built place like that, sitting directly on the Suwanee River, just being abandoned.

Just on the other side of the river was the turn to the state park and the only real access I'd been able to find to the Okefenokee Swamp.  And it still took a 17-mile drive to get to the office.  You can sort of see on the map above that the refuge's boundary is a ways from that turn, and along the way is mostly swampland.

The Stephen C. Foster State Park, where I stayed, is a small area inserted into the mammoth Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  The state and the federal governments have operated this way by agreement for more than 50 years - the state gets easy access for its citizens to the refuge and the feds get personnel in to manage the area without having to pay for them.

This was my first Georgia state park, and when I checked in I bought a year's entry pass to state parks, and then learned because I was a senior I qualified for a 50% discount on the cost of my stay.  It didn't matter that I wasn't a Georgia resident.  So let's hear it for Georgia State Parks!

Our campsite turned out to be the closest one to the main trails, which started near the office, so after we got situated, Dext and I walked down there.  Next to the office were a boat ramp and canal that led out to the swamp (I guess), equipment rental facilities, and the beginning of a boardwalk nature trail.  Here are signs posted near the office.

detail enlarged below

Knowing that GA-177 is 17 miles from GA-94 to the You Are Here point
indicates the size of this place.

A big fear of mine in all the southern states has been that Dext will discover
an alligator and not see danger.  This sign made me even more nervous.

text enlarged below

left side of sign

right side of sign

part of text enlarged below

So, armed with all this information (and my camera), Dext and I started off on the boardwalk.

Right away we came to a couple of other signs explaining what we'd be looking at.

text and map enlarged below

text enlarged below

There was a wide variety of vegetation along that boardwalk, and a variety of scenes.  Here's a representative sample of what we saw.  Look at all the different life forms.

As a side note, I'm sure Dexter is somewhat lonely without Gracie's companionship, but he's getting to go to lots of places that I wouldn't have wanted to take the two of them.  On this boardwalk, I worried there'd be dogs somewhere along the way and we'd be stuck on the same narrow boardwalk and, with Gracie, wouldn't have been able to control both dogs.  Instead, Dext was very well behaved and we met only one couple (no dogs).

That campground was quite a trick to navigate and I don't know how the larger RVs did it.  It was divided into 2 areas right next to each other, and both had roads that were very narrow and very winding because of being hemmed in by trees, and both driving and walking were made hazardous underfoot by tree roots.  But it was pretty and shady and peaceful.

If I ever find the notes I wrote, I'll add any details I forgot.