Back on the road again

We pulled out of Palm Harbor and headed north on our next journey.  The first night we drove back up to Tallahassee and spent the night. Next morning, we hit the road for Sumter County, Georgia.  Located in this area is Americus.  Americus is less than 30 miles to Plains and 25 mile to Andersonville National Monument.  We stayed at the Brickyard Plantation RV Park. During and before "The War Between the States" the property now occupied by Brickyard Plantation Golf Club was owned by James M. (Jim) Johnson, the great grandfather to the current owner, Mary Lillian Johnson Clark.  Today she and her husband, W. N. Clark, can trace back seven generations of ownership.  The present acreage is 800 acres of the original 7000 acres.  Until about 1950 it was farmed by mules.  Crops grown were peanuts, cotton and wheat.  The plantation had its own cotton gin, commissary, blacksmith shop, cane mill and many houses for the local labor.  Bricks were used for these houses and they were made on the farm.  A very cool RV park with tons of spaces in the middle of a field. Hotter than imaginable and overrun with black gnats. Flying in your nose, mouth and eyes. And, worst of all, in your ears. Especially if you have hearing aids. They sounded like B-52's coming through my head.

Off to Americus for a surprisingly good lunch at Lil Brothers Bistro. Located on the ground floor of the Windsor Hotel. Americus is the atypical southern small town.  Small shops, but lots of empty stores.

Off to Plains and the Jimmy Carter museum, located in the Plains High School. Now the school is operated by the National Park Service and is a testament to the man from Plains, his wife Rosalynn and the Carter Center.  1/3 of the museum covers each part. There is a splendid movie on the peanut farmer who became President and so much memorabilia from the campaign and his presidency. 

 Then off to the farm where he grew up. No electricity, a sand yard, and farm yard animals. He and Rosalynn still live in the same house they built in 1961.  You can't visit the house since the secret service stops you, but he still teaches Sunday school two times a month. He greets folks after services and will still shake hands with you and take a photo. 

That's an outhouse, by the way. Downtown Plains is much like it has always been.  The stores are now souvenir shops, antiques shops , and peanuts galore. Jimmy thought it was the big time.

And for tThose of you who remember, this is the train depot where the campaign started. Rosalynn said the depot was chosen as it was empty, big enough and was one of the only places in town that had a bathroom. 

Whether you thought he was a good president or not, he accomplished some pretty big things.  Unlike this current president, he imposed gift limits and financial disclosure rules on his appointees; slowed the revolving door of officials departing to lobby their former departments; and appointed inspectors general to root out fraud and mismanagement.

He established the Department of Education, increased tuition grants to needy students.  He ended price regulations in the trucking, interstate busing, railroad, and airlines. He established the Department of Energy, focused America on the need for energy independence and established tax credits for energy savings.

In Asia, he took on the Taiwan lobby to establish full diplomatic relations with China, completing the opening begun by Richard M. Nixon. In Latin America, he began a new era of mutual respect by turning over the Panama Canal to local control, and limiting arms sales to military dictatorships. His administration began the unraveling of the Soviet Union by embracing human rights and introducing intermediate-range missiles in Europe.

Then, of course, there was the Camp David Agreement.  And since his retirement from public office, he has established the Carter Center that has been working in world health, eradicating disease throughout the world. 

Compared to what we now have for a president, Jimmy Carter is a man of high moral character.  I doubt he could tell a lie if his life depended on it. Right now it seems that the president is a pathological liar supported by the house and congress who will turn a blind eye to anything in order top get their one sided agenda advanced. The current speaker of the house today declined to state that taking information from a foreign government in order to win an election is okay.  Jimmy Carter was a disaster in the area of economics but he was a man who would stand up for what is right. Who will stand up for what is right today?

Next time, Andersonville....