Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through, an’ just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind

Last night we stayed at Emily’s AirBnB in Millbrook just outside of Montgomery Alabama.

Emily is a 911 dispatcher and has a really nice little 2 bedroom house in the ‘burbs.

There wasn’t a great deal that we wanted to do in Montgomery AL, so we had a bit of a lazy start, loaded up The Don II, pointed him south towards the Montgomery City Centre, and headed off.

The one thing that we did want to do was visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (a civil rights memorial). Noting that it is Sunday here, the place was pretty quiet in the city.

It was very sobering to walk around the memorial and understand the ways that whites tortured and killed black African Americans, up to as late as 1950 … and for the most menial of “crimes”.

The memorial has a plaque representing each county of each state, listing the names of each African American who was killed (they call it racial terrorism) that can be proven. There were obviously many, many more …

In some cases it is obvious that whole families were wiped out …

… and sometimes the names were simply not known …

… and sometimes there were simply so many killed that it was not possible to record their details …

… all for trivial crimes …

After the memorial, we wandered into the city to have a look around and discovered it was Rosa Parks day. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a while woman on 1 December 1955 and she was arrested and convicted, resulting in Dr Martin Luther King coming to prominence and a boycott of the Montgomery buses for over one year – the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

We didn’t realise it at the time, but Rosa Parks day was today (1 December 2019) and they were in the process of closing down the city and unveiling a statue in her honour.

We then went for a walk down towards the river (the Alabama River). There is a great deal of history in Montgomery and they do not hide their history, even though much of it is very sad.

After browsing around Montgomery, we got back onto the Interstate and headed for our next destination – Atlanta Georgia.

We deliberately tried to stay off the interstate as much as we could so that we could experience some of the rural Alabama and Georgia countryside.

The roads and surroundings are absolutely beautiful at the moment with the leaves all changing colour and falling to the ground.

We stopped in LaGrange GA for lunch, not long after crossing the Georgia State Line, and feasted on fried chicken and salad.

Tonight we went in search of BBQ 🙂

Here’s a fun fact – in the USA they refer to the main meal as the entree, unlike in Australia where an entree is a starter.

Here is another fun fact – an entree is big enough for both of us, so we normally only buy one meal serve.

Now I know that I’ve previously had a rant about the drivers, speed and interstates generally … one thing that I have noticed is that everyone drives very respectfully, making space for drivers merging onto the interstate and (generally) pulling over to the right if another driver wants to get past you.

Another thing that I have noticed is that drivers seem to drive quite close behind you on the interstate – even at 80-90mph – on the assumption that you will not be stopping.

On our way into Atlanta this afternoon, I was in the fast lane with another car on my back bumper and the cars in front of me stopped quite suddenly … so I stopped quite suddenly. I think that the driver behind me must have been texting or checking his phone because I could see the whites of his eyes when he frantically hit the brakes.

We were really lucky not to be in a nose-to-tail 🙁

I’ve also discussed previously how you can merge from one motorway to another, without slowing down from 80mph. Some of the motorways and interchanges look like a bowl of spaghetti!

As we were coming in to Atlanta today, we were presented with this on the GPS …

… which looks like this on Google Maps …

… and then turns into this …

Overall, our trip today looked something like this (below) – 225mi or approx 360km. A pretty lazy day.

Tonight we are staying at Marietta, just outside Atlanta Georgia. We’ve really scored the jackpot tonight because we have a fully equipped in-laws apartment in a beautiful suburb – I’ll give you some pictures tomorrow.

While the weather was beautiful in Louisiana and Mississippi, it has been steadily getting colder as we go further north, and tomorrow’s forecast for Marietta is going to be cold.

Yep, a maximum of 6 degrees Celsius. Cold enough to freeze the you-know-what’s off a brass monkey.

All of the houses here are centrally heated, so while you can walk around inside in a tee-shirt and jeans, you are not prepared for how cold it is outside.

Me thinks we may need to look out our thermals for tomorrow …

Today was a 23 hour day thanks to the magic of crossing into another time zone, but I’m sure that I’ll get that hour back somewhere around Nashville Tennessee after we have been through the Smokey Mountains … but that’s not for a few more days yet.

We continue to have a blast. Loved Alabama and loving Georgia … particularly when we can get off the interstate and travel through the beautiful countryside.

Tomorrow we head towards Charlotte North Carolina.

We really love to hear from you, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment. We will even take requests … want more photos of BBQ, fried chicken ….?

Thanks for tracking along with us.

Today’s song is Georgia (Willie Nelson). Enjoy!

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019