Plains, Georgia

A busy, long day today but we see a lot of interesting places. We first drive 10 miles north of Americus, GA to visit the Andersonville National Historical Site and POW Museum.

It was the site of the infamous Andersonville Civil War prison, where 13 thousand Union soldiers died from disease and malnutrition in the last year of the Civil War. They have a very good movie about the prison, an audio tour of the area where the prison once stood (we stand there trying to imagine how 33,000 soldiers could have possibly fit into that small area),

and an American POW Museum with exhibits of American POWs during all of the wars.

Then we drive through Americus GA (world headquarters for Habitat for Humanity) to the Plains GA visitor center and stop for a picnic lunch.

After lunch we tour the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. First we see an excellent 30 minute film about Jimmy and Rosslyn Carter and look at the museum which is located in their old high school.

Then we walk around town

and visit the train depot which was his Presidential campaign headquarters. Of course we can’t stop in Plains GA without getting some peanuts. We buy a pound of fried peanuts (they’re excellent), cinnamon peanut brittle (also excellent) and each have a bowl of peanut butter soft ice cream (delicious!). It’s amazing that a U.S. president could have grown up in such a small rural community. But it’s a picturesque area and I can understand why the Carters returned here after the presidency (and still live here today).

We drive out past the Carter’s present church, the Amarantha Baptist Church. Apparently Jimmy Carter still mows grass there every 6 weeks or so, but no signs of Jimmy today. The small Baptist church has no janitorial staff so members of the congregation takes turns caring for the property. The Carters are on duty about every six weeks.

Coincidently, I am reading a book written by Jimmy Carter, Living Faith. It’s about how his Christian faith has affected his life before, during and after his presidency. I read that he still teaches Sunday School at his church (he’s taught Sunday School all during his life whenever he’s in Plains). Before becoming governor of Alabama he taught the upper elementary grades, the same age group that I have taught for years (until we began traveling in 2007). Unfortunately we will not be here Sunday to attend his current Sunday School class, which welcomes visitors. Can you imagine attending a Sunday School class taught by a former U.S. President???

The Carters’ current residence is fenced in and can’t be seen from the road (it’s a medium size ranch style house surrounded by trees). The secret service residence is really all that we can see from the road as we pass the property on our way to visit Jimmy Carter’s boyhood home. His boyhood home is also administered by the National Park Service and has been nicely refurbished. He lived there til he left for college. His father sold the farm and bought the peanut warehouse while Jimmy was in college.

No sightings of the former president, so we drive on to Columbus, Georgia. We set up the 5th wheel at Lake Pines Campground, eat dinner and then set off for downtown Columbus. We drive around the historic district and then stop to walk on the RiverWalk pathway that borders the Chattahoochee River.

We stop for groceries and gas and called it a day.