Advertisement
Nancy and I usually seek to break up the winter and travel somewhere in February. This year we decided to travel south. With the recent anniversaries of boycotts, marches and actions, organizations offer Civil Rights tours these days. We thought we could plan our own.
We headed via 81 south from Pennsylvania towards Nashville. Compared to interstates 95 and 76, traffic was light. Our plan was to stay downtown; we spent enough time in the car and wanted to be able to walk to the action without driving. We stayed in the Marriott, which fit the bill.
Although Nashville was a location for early civil rights lunch counter sit-ins, we mostly looked at other stuff. Music is the thing in Nashville; not only Country and Western, but for recording and performing in general. The main street, Broadway, is lined with bars, many open to the street, all with live performers. It was a pre- virus scene; sidewalks pulsed with bar hoppers. Evenings were crowded and loud, but at lunchtime we found a bar with relatively quiet performers, and enjoyed burgers there.
I watch American Pickers while riding my stationary bike. Two buddies van travel the country,
buying auto and motorcycle memorabilia. They conserve and resell it in their store in Nashville. The shop was within walking distance of our hotel. The shop is in the former Marathon Car factory, which fits with the reclaimed merchandise. In addition to the Antique Archaeology store, there are a half a dozen other interesting shops in the building.
Lots of people make the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum a highlight of their visit. If one is interested in the particulars of every country star you could easily spend the day. It was certainly worth the visit, but not really our thing so we breezed through it in about an hour.
We visited Parnassus bookstore. Ann Patchett, renowned novelist is one of the owners. In addition to selling books, they host authors’ series. The store was a 40 minute walk from downtown.
We did have to take the car when we visited Opryland Resort, which is outside town. There were no performances going on during our visit; we just wanted to do a walk through and see the hotel. The $30 charge to park was a shocker. We figured out that we could park at
the Opryland Mall, next door, for free and by walking about a half a mile, save the charge, which we did.
Montgomery Alabama was our next destination. Coincidentally the movie Mercy was in theatres just before our trip. It’s the true story of a young African American lawyer who wants to make a difference by moving to Alabama and defending death row clients. We walked by the storefront offices of Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery his organization, and he waived back at me. The movie was excellent; I recommend it.
Montgomery is the Capital of Alabama. We stayed in the Embassy Suites for 2 nights, which is adjacent to the old train station.
This is a very walkable city. We didn’t need the car until it was time to go. Downtown consists of the Capital, 4 or 5 hotels, half a dozen restaurants, some civil rights monuments and museums, and that’s it. You would think that there would be some stores, some of the government workers or lawyers might pick up things, but there was almost nothing. There must be more shops in the suburbs or other areas.
We visited the Equal Justice Initiative
museum, telling stories of racial injustice. We also visited the Rosa Parks museum, the story of the first woman arrested in the Bus Boycott in Montgomery in 1965. Also special was the Lynching Memorial, a bronze and stone outdoor monument to those lynched all over, including Pennsylvania.
We also visited the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Many associate Dr.Martin Luther King with Atlanta, but he never preached in Atlanta. His father’s church was in Atlanta. He was offered the pulpit at Dexter Avenue. From that position, he was recruited to head the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization that masterminded the Bus Boycott in Montgomery. Our tour of the church was special. It was only Nancy and me, and an elderly member gave us a tour including MLK’s office. At the end of the tour she gave us a hug.
The subject matter is heavy, but all of the museums were excellent.
The next stop on our trip was Atlanta. We wanted to visit the Jimmy Carter Museum and Library. On the road, we stopped for lunch in a Burger King. I noticed at the table across from us, a diner had a handgun strapped to his waist. A
minute later, two men who I learned were cleaning up outside came in, also with weapons strapped to their waists. The manager was an African American woman who I asked about it. She said that Alabama has “open carry”. She said that business owners can ban guns, but the owners of her store had not done that. Later I saw the diner with the handgun go outside and get on a bicycle. Wonder what would happen if a driver cut him off; would he use his gun? It seems odd that someone would carry around a gun all day, every day, and not use it. I guess it gives a sense of power.
We arrived midafternoon at the Jimmy Carter Museum. It’s very well done. Jimmy Carter does not get much credit, which is unfortunate. Looking at his accomplishments now, he was ahead of his time.
Jimmy Carter successfully implemented peace between Israel and Egypt. In 1977, I remember President Sadat of Egypt arriving in Israel to speak to the Knesset (Parliament). Even though the trip is an hour by air, it was like he had come from the moon. It was an unbelievable accomplishment for peace between
the two nations, which still holds today. Recently President Trump came up with a Middle East Peace Plan, which was promptly rejected. If Donald Trump had any brains, he would have consulted with Jimmy Carter, who is still alive.
Carter was an early environmentalist; in the late 70’s we had oil shortages. He ordered solar panels installed on the White House, which Ronald Reagan later removed. And of course there was the Iran hostage crisis, which he successfully resolved without loss of life, just as he was leaving office.
We didn’t stay over in Atlanta, we hit the road. Our hotel was a roadside two star. After that, Nancy was interested in something better for the following night. We stayed at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond Virginia. This is an elegant 125 year old hotel, in the downtown. It wasn’t cheap, but we got a relatively good deal. We had just enough time to visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. We had been there before, it is outstanding. We had dinner in one of the two hotel restaurants, which was excellent.
The next day for breakfast, we headed to Perly’s Deli on Grace Street, a short walk from the hotel. It was sunny, cold, and windy, but the coffee was hot and the food was good. We took a stroll down towards the river until we were chilled and turned back. Franklin Street and Grace Street have not been redeveloped much. The have 1950’s era Neon signs on them that are terrific. The area must be a historic district, as the storefront low rise buildings are still there, not in good repair. It’s worth a look. With the current recession, rehabilitation is going to have to wait.
From Richmond we headed for home. We traveled just in time. After we returned, tornadoes hit Nashville, and of course the Coronavirus hit all of us. Hoping to be out traveling a writing about it again soon!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.177s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0636s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb