A trip to the Plains. Plains, Georgia that is.

Saturday, November 17
You have to admire a guy like Jimmy Carter who started life living in rural Georgia working on the family farm and end up as the 39th President of the United States. We wanted to learn more about his life and career and the town he still calls home........Plains, GA.

We planned our trip through the Georgia countryside with stops in Vienna and Americus before arriving in Plains.

Vienna was a pretty little town with a great town square. Also famous in this area is the Ellis Brother Pecans. Yep, we bought a bag.....and a couple other things. :-)

Acres and acres of Pecan groves around here.

The lovely town square at Vienna, GA.

All ready for Christmas

The Courthouse

Interesting architecture. Not sure if it serves a useful purpose.

This was a VERY busy place. Just a mile off the Interstate, folks pop in for some treats to take home. We did!

Such great Southern homes in Vienna.

Wow, nice mansion.

Lots of cotton fields around here. Apparently the hurricane that came through here a few weeks ago really destroyed a lot of the yield although this field looked fine.

Next stop was Americus. It is a larger town and our stop at the Visitor Center convinced us we need to make a return visit here to see all it has to offer. They had a walking and driving tour of their town that shows off some of their very pretty architecture.

Part of the main street.

The Visitor Center

The old fire hall

You know you are in an agricultural area when a cotton harvester passes through on Main Street!

The Windsor Hotel. Built in 1892 it closed in 1974 and underwent millions in restoration. It opened again in 1991. Notable guests have included President Franklin D Roosevelt and President and Mrs Jimmy Carter.

We finally made it to Plains and out to the boyhood farm of Jimmy Carter. They had a special event on this afternoon so we lucked out in seeing some activities not normally held. Some of the folks had said they expected President and Mrs. Carter to make an appearance as they often do but Rosalyn has not been feeling well and they did not come. Regardless it was fun and educational to see the farm.

Jimmy's father raised cotton, peanuts and corn on the 360 acre farm.

Goats in the pasture beside the house. Just as their would have been when Jimmy was a boy.

The house Jimmy, his parents and brother and sisters lived in for 14 years beginning in 1928.

There is a short-line train that stops outside the farm. Dozens of folks came off it to visit the farm this day.

The mule providing 'horsepower' to the sugar cane press.

Feeding sugar cane stocks into the press.

Filtering the raw sugar juice

Boiling and straining the sugar juice to make syrup

The finished product. Sugar Cane Syrup.

The farm manager's house, Jack Clark and his family.

Not sure how much of the captions you can read. Basically the children used these mops soaked in molasses, water and arsenic to apply the concoction to the cotton plants to control the Boll Weevils and other pests. At the end of the day their jeans were hardened with this goo. Their pants would stand up by themselves.

The mules.

This lady was spinning wool. Cotton was spun in a similar fashion but on a smaller spinner.

Blacksmith at work.

The forge heats up to over 1600 degrees.

Making a hook

The Carter home.

One of the few homes that had indoor plumbing. See the shower head? Water would flow into the bucket and drop out through holes in the bottom.

Jeans standing by themselves after mopping the cotton with bug killer concoction.

The outhouse....of course. Not used much after the indoor plumbing was installed!

We went back into the downtown and had a look at the various locations relevant to the Carter's. We also just HAD to try the peanut butter ice cream from the General Store. Yep, it was yummy!

The Carter compound. The public can't access it of course. These are the Secret Service buildings.

The guardhouse.

The gas station run by Jimmy's brother Billy.

Main Street in Plains, GA.

The old railway station that served as Jimmy's campaign headquarters.

The phone and corner desk where Jimmy received election results.

The Carter's still live in Plains. Jimmy teaches Sunday School every two weeks and on those Sundays there are over 400 people in attendance to hear him. A very popular local hero that brings in lots of tourists to this area.

We saw a lot of sights today and could have spent another day out here. We will be coming back to Americus tomorrow to see more of the historic buildings there.

.......and that was Our View From Here!