Here’s a fun story to start the day. Seems our trainer in training Jachin and his suite mates at college have initiated a rescue effort … for a handicapped kitten. The critter has only three paws. They aren’t allowed to keep it in the apartment, though, so they are actively seeking out a home. They have given it a name. “Tripod.” Classic, guys.
We pulled out of Opelika - Auburn Tiger Territory - at 8:19. Temp was a brisk 77 degrees. Last time I saw that was last winter in Galveston. Felt great. I saw a sign for the town of Chewlaka. Wonder if that’s a cousin to a certain Star Wars character?
First stop of the day made the whole trip worthwhile. It was the World Famous Drive Thru Museum of Searle, Alabama. It was a fabulous collection of oddities by themselves, as well as oddities combined with other oddities in abnormally creative ways, all stuffed into huge shipping containers with windows cut in them so you can just drive by and check out the wonderful weirdness, from two-headed ducks to hair from Bigfoot to a massive gallstone. It’s all there. And free for the looking. But you can buy some of the mash-ups … if you dare.
From the museum we crossed into the Eastern time zone to seek out Jimmy Carter’s Plains, Georgia, hometown national monument, as well as Andersonville National Historical Site a few miles north of there.
We decided before we ever arrived that Plains is not someplace you “just happened” to drive through. It is the definition of “out of the way.”
In Plains we absolutely took in the sites. Well, the National Park related sites, anyway. We saw such riveting architecture as the Old Plains High School, which now houses a museum and the Park service. We had lunch in beautiful Downtown Plains at the old bank building. Good sandwich, great fried okra. Had to celebrate the great news about my heart. No heart cath needed. No further action needed. Come back and see the cardiologist in 6 months.
We stopped in at the train depot that was Jimmy Carter’s campaign headquarters. Next we drove out to the old Carter farm, Jimmy’s boyhood home. On the way we saw the fenced and secret service protected home where the Carter’s now live, as well as the Methodist church where he got married.
At the childhood home we met a park Ranger appropriately garbed in overalls, a noisy rooster named Rudy and his brood of hens, two donkeys, and a couple thousand GNATS. OH, and on the way out of town we stopped in the parking lot of a Baptist church to enter our next destination in the GPS. As it turned out, it was the very church where Jimmy Carter taught Sunday School. Imagine that.
From there we drove to Andersonville. That was the site of a huge Confederate-run prisoner of war camp during the Civil War. It is now also the home of the National Park Service’s tribute site for all prisoners of war over U.S. history. I have to admit, it was quite a sobering and emotional experience for me.
We finished our day by driving over to Macon, Georgia. Sounds like a great site for a movie, right?
Matthew 5:10 says, Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Father, thanks for the great news about my ticker. Hard to beat that. Amen.
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