Spartanburg, SC to Plains, GA

Our second day on the road took us to Plains, GA, via Athens and Macon. Since we had visited Athens and the University of Georgia on previous trips (remember Jeanine?), we just drove through and went on to Macon, which was a pleasant surprise. Apparently, Sherman bypassed Macon on his way to Savannah and the impressive antebellum homes are pretty much intact. We stopped at the visitor's center for information and asked them where they would recommend for good southern cookin'. Surprisingly, they said "Jeanine's". (We then discovered she didn't know how to spell her name and spelled it "Jeneane's".) The food was excellent and the perfect comfort food--fried chicken, collard greens, corn on the cob, okra and corn bread. The place was packed and we'll tell you about the "culture" of the place when we get home. After that, we toured the Hay Mansion. This home had been featured in A&E's American Castles series, and it was apparent why when we went through. It was built around the time of the Civil War, but escaped damage. It was built at a cost of $100,000 while the largest home in Macon at that time cost $12,000. After the war, when others were rebuilding and trying to just make a living, the owner put 24 karat gold leaf on his crown moldings. Money wasn't a problem. The house is currently owned by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. We'll show you the book on it when we get home. From Macon, we drove to Plains with a stop at the Habitat for Humanities Global Village. That's the second picture posted. They have built replica's of homes they have built all around the world. It was a very inspirational display of their work. In Plains we discovered that the entire town has been declared a National Historic Site for Jimmy Carter. The Federal government owns a lot of the town including the High School where both Jimmy and Rosalind graduated from, his boyhood home and farm, and the compound where the Carter's currently live. It is a very clean and pretty town with just one main street. We discovered that there was one hotel in town. It had 8 rooms--one for each decade of Carter's life from 1920 to 1980. The rooms were numbered 1920, 1930, 1940, etc. and were decorated in furniture of that time period. Rosalind Carter decorated the rooms. That is were we stayed. The Inn is the building with the balcony and we stayed in 1930, which was decorated in a French style. The picture of the room really doesn't do it justice, because it was really beautiful with lots of period amenities. The bathroom was also done in the 30's style and we are really glad bathrooms have evolved since then. Unfortunately, there was no internet access, so we will do two blog posts tonight.