Atlanta, Georgia May 11-13

Our first stop in Atlanta was the Carter Presidential Library and Museum.   Feeling brave we took MARTA into the city center and then took a bus to the library---all this on Mothers' Day.  The setting for the library is beautiful and very befitting President Carter.  The thing that struck me the most was how his team turned a small, grass-roots effort into a nation-wide election.   They stayed in people's houses, they shook hands, they went door-to-door.   None of this had been done prior to Carter's campaign and he set the bar for all other campaigns to follow.  Not only has President Carter taken his grass-roots methods to the White House, he has taken them across the world.    He works tirelessly to cure very curable diseases in poverty-ridden countries.   He is very much a real person.   As is Roslyn, his wife, who admits that when he told her they were moving back to Plains, Georgia, she sulked for about a year.

 
 

Our second day was spent at Stone Mountain.   This monolith is the largest, exposed chunk of granite in the world.   It is an easy walk up the far side to the top with a terrific view of Atlanta.

In the early 1900s the Ladies Auxiliary commissioned Borglum of Mt. Rushmore fame to carve the Confederate heroes into the face of the mountain.   Many, many years later, after running through several sculptures and blowing Borglum's original work off the mountain, the carving was finished to its present state (which is nothing like the plans).


The carving depicts the three heroes of the South.  In the foreground Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.  Next to him, Robert E. Lee, a brilliant general for the Confederacy.  Bringing up the rear is Stonewall Jackson  another great general of the Confederacy. 

This is the largest bas-relief carving in the world.  The parks department has a laser show on the mountain at night.  (Something we will catch in the future!)