We passed over the Suwannee River and the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. Turns out Foster was never in Florida, but his "Old Folks At Home" (Way Down Upon the Suwannee River) tune was adopted by Florida as the state song in 1938 after changing some of the racist lyrics.
We passed through a lot of agricultural areas--including cotton fields irrigated by center pivot irrigation. The first picture is of a cotton field that looks like it had been picked-the second one is ready to pick.
Some of the cotton bales were round, some were square, and we saw a semitruck pulling up one of the square bales into it's trailer:
We saw pecan groves - - and Rick thought he saw a new peach orchard with small trees-it was also being irrigated by center pivot. Here is the pecan grove:
Magnolia Plantation must be the Wall Drug of Alabama-- there were lots of road signs trying to direct us there for pecan pies and such.
We went past Albany, which has it's own Civil Rights Museum telling it's story -along the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains, GA was only 21 miles off the Martin Luther King Junior Drive.
We arrived about 1pm for lunch. Borden was experimenting on us with a Southern / Cajun meal she was planning to make on her next excursion -- chicken smothered in vegetables over rice with toppings of egg, slivered almonds, apple chutney, raisins, cocoanut and a great side salad and a really chocolate chocolate bar with a hint of cinnamon. All is I can say is her experiment passed with flying colors. Lots of train talk. She was not too happy at our report that the window in the Dearing had not been replaced yet as her trip is coming up soon. They are trying to find people who would like to go in on owning the Berlin as it is for sale and they would like to continue to companion with it.
We had and a tour of Nelson's Georgia Railroad memorabilia (his grandfather was a station master) including a whole rack of trainsmen's lanterns and a couple of impressive rail road ticket racks. Here Rick and Nelson look at one of his treasures:
Nelson said this lantern was in a shop asking $15 - he said there was a piece missing and the globe broken so he got them down to $10. Turns out it is from 1887 and worth four figures now.
This was a small ticket rack -- the big one was in the other room and was over 5 feet tall.
Borden was an Army brat who grew up all over the world including the orient so she was hosting the Daughters of the US Army at her house next week for a luncheon. She showed me her collection of coral. She and Nelson have a house full of family heirlooms, including paintings by her mom.
We left about 4pm for the 3 hours to Birmingham. Columbus, GA is right next to Alabama--we crossed the Chatahoochie River into Alabama and headed west on US 280 & 85. Again, we passed so many interesting places but didn't stop. Here are a few:
Tuskegee Airmen Museum
First White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery
Confederate Memorial Park
We traveled on the War on Terror Memorial Highway (I65) which is a stretch in memory of those from Alabama who have fought and died after 911 in the War on Terror.
Arrived in Birmingham and ate supper at Crazy Cajuns Boiling Pot. "Pinch Me, Peel Me, Eat Me" was their motto.
I had the delicious Baked Cheddar, Smoked Gouda Grits served with Shrip and Andouille Sausage in White Wine Garlic Cream Sause. YOLO. As of this moment, if anyone asked me what the best thing I'd ever eaten was, this would be it. Rick had the Louisiana Gumbo with authentice dark file (pronounced Fee Lah) (which is sassafras) with rice. His was pretty spicy so we stopped at CVS for some tums.
We are staying at a Holiday Inn Express - - pool open until 9pm so got a bit of a swim. Breakfast served until 10am, coffee on in the lobby. Life is good.
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