Deep South Roadtrip: Tourism-Lite

We left Savannah both celebrating our awesomeness for helping pull of such a great surprise, and also coughing, complaining and wishing for antibiotics. Well, that second part was just me. I had fully succumbed by Monday morning to Jess's death cough and fever, and Dan had woken up feeling just great! Of course.

On the drive, we had tried to find out if there were things that would be worth stopping for in towns we at least recognized the names of. I knew I definitely wanted to get to Montgomery, AL and Macon, GA is right on the way. Except, there is pretty much absolutely nothing in Macon but one huge, ornate church. We pulled off the highway, stretched, wandered around the church for about 10 minutes, lit some candles, drove around the nothing that is the town, switched drivers and continued on. Yeah, you can skip it in your travels. You're welcome for taking that one for the team.

St. Joseph's cathedral - Macon, GA

4 hours after leaving Macon, we arrived in Montgomery, Alabama. Actually, this part of the drive was probably one of the highlights for me...we got off the interstate and took some back roads, which was really gorgeous. We also got to eat Chick-Fil-A, which Dan was super excited about. I was driving, so I was more excited that I managed to cut an entire hour off the arrival time the GPS projected for us. Best driving time ever!

Montgomery really only had three highlights that I wanted to see. One, state capitol building. It looks shockingly close to another capitol building many of us are familiar with. We walked a lot of the grounds and WOW does Alabama love to commemorate stuff. On the grounds of the capitol are: the Moon Tree (the seeds of the tree travelled in the space shuttle), a statue to the father of modern gynecology, a rock memorializing where the state highway commission started, some creepy busts of Alabam senators, lots of stuff about the "War Between the States" and some other stuff that we took pictures of but weren't sure what they were later. Seriously, there was an insane number of plaques, statues, memorials, etc. Alabama. Land of the Inscription.

The Capitol is pretty though.

One of the smallest plaques of the day, for one of the most interesting facts. This star marks the spot Jefferson Davis was sworn in the first and only President of the Confederate States. (Which in above photo is between the 2nd and 3rd columns from the right)

The second thing I wanted to see was the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church, where Dr. King was the pastor from 1954-1960. I sometimes have trouble conceptualizing that such intense events happened where I am on any given peaceful "normal" day, idly taking pictures. But, there they were.

The last thing was the Civil Rights Memorial. It's the only memorial that honors those who died during the Civil Rights Movement. Reminiscent of the Vietnam Memorial, it's a black granite circular fountain, with the names of those who died around the edges like a clock, which is front of a large granite wall, also a fountain, with one of Dr. King's quotes on it. It's a pretty powerful place.

Sorry, Mobile will have to wait until later. Also, New Orleans approaches. I know you can hardly wait.