The "Laughing Moon" was our first stop after lunch across the street."Georgia on my mind" is the state song of Georgia. What a gorgeous place, at least what we saw of it. We arrived at the Hartfield terminal in the early afternoon and had our rental car out of the airport by 3:00 p.m.. Upon the advice of an Atlantan friend, Pat Powers, we drove to Madison, Georgia. This small town, about 60 miles east of Atlanta and 20 miles south of Athens, is a tourist town featuring several antebellum homes and nifty shops.
The "Laughing Moon" was our first stop after lunch across the street.
Pam and Meredith pose outside a four-acre estate just a few blocks from downtown
Madison.
Pam ponders how many antiques it would take to furnish the place. That
evening we drove hard through Macon and on to Columbus where we sacked out for
the night. In the morning we drove to Fort Benning and picked up Reed.
We toured his barracks then drove into town.
One of our stops was at the former home of Ma Rainey, "Mother of the
Blues." There wasn't much to see. The place was locked. No one
was there to offer a tour or even sell us a blues cd.
While crass commercialism isn't the answer to every historical site, I thought
the Columbus Chamber of Commerce missed an opportunity to bring more tourists
downtown. We spent the better part of two days with Reed in
Columbus. He had to return to the base each evening by 8:30 p.m. but we
had plenty of time to visit. He told wonderful stories, peppered with
military acronyms, and kept us entertained for hours. He's adjusted to
Army life amazingly well.
Reed boarded a bus bound for Atlanta on Friday morning. From there, he flew to Missouri where he will take Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort Leonard Wood. The rest of the family left Columbus and drove north along the Alabama/Georgia border to a beautiful place called Callaway Gardens. (Click "next" to follow us on the next leg of our vacation.)