Gasoline to drive to Florida and back - $175
Cheap, on the run highway food - $24
Hotel room to rest the body - $55
Having a chance to get together for some fun with my dearest friends...priceless!
I arrived back at BBR this afternoon. It took me exactly six hours to drive from Atlanta...and what a gloriously beautiful day I had to do it on! As always, it's good to be home.
As noted above, my diversion to Atlanta was to get a visit in with my long time and dear friends. Our times shared are always so special to me, and this time proved no exception.
Since I had stopped in Gainesville Thursday night, I had time to spare for getting into Atlanta on Friday in time for Carla to meet me after work. So...after driving a bit on the interstate, I listened to my scout spirit and got off I-75 midway up Georgia. I decided to go see Plains...the home of President Jimmy Carter. I made my way through cotton fields and pecan groves and McCain-Palin signs...so many, in fact, that I started to wonder if my Obama bumper sticker was going to get me any looks...or worse. It didn't.
The cotton fields eventually gave way to fields of peanuts. I knew then that I was nearing Plains. Then...suddenly...a brown sign with a National Park Service logo. Son of a gun if the the whole daggum town of Plains isn't designated as a National Historic Site! There really wasn't much to the town. The Habitat For Humanity International Center was back about 10 miles in Americus. Plains just has a sign pointing down a road to his boyhood farm...I didn't go...and a tiny little strip of old buildings that I suppose were once vibrant. Of course, there was a very pungent peanut processing plant.
I continued on...now with my sight set on Warm Springs. It was a little further out of the way, but what the heck. It's a place I've wanted to get to ever since I lived in Atlanta back in the 70s. It took me about an hour or so through some not very pretty landscape. Sorry folks, it just wasn't. The only picture I took was of a huge long-horned steer. I saw it as I was flying by, and at first, I thought it wasn't real. But it was such a sight that I had to stop, turn around, and get a better look. Have you ever seen such huger horns?! I never have.

I arrived in Warm Springs in time for lunch and found me a little cafe on its main street. Sitting at the table next to me were two women and a little black Scottish Terrier. I said hello and noted that their dog fit right in the town given that FDR's dog was a Scottie.

The women were quick to advise me that this wasn't just any weekend in Warm Springs. It turns out that hundreds of people who belong to the Scottish Terrier Club Of America come to Warm Springs for a get together that takes place this weekend every year. It's been going on for the last twenty-five years. Who knew! I finished my lunch then drove by the Little White House. I didn't think I had the time to warrant the fee to get in, so instead, I stopped by the Warm Springs Institute of Rehabilitation to see the famous therapy pools used by FDR and other polio patients. The pools are empty now, but old photos gave you a look at how it all looked back in the 30s.
Then it was on to Atlanta...Kennesaw to be exact. And that brings us to where this post began...