Day 44 - Atlanta and Stone Mountain, Georgia

Once upon a time, about forty years ago now, Concetta met an older gentleman at the Las Vegas airport who has remained in her heart all these years later. She remembers that the kindly gentleman took her hand, looked directly into her eyes, and said, "When are y'all comin' to Georgia?"

Well, we're here, Jimmy Carter. We're here, and we came to see your wonderful Carter center today. And let us just tell you that it was a grand adventure, from the time we arrived to the time we left. We're just sorry it took us forty years to get here.

Traffic was heavy as we motored in from the Stone Mountain RV camp and we spent nearly an hour in stop and go commuter snarls. But once we arrived at your library, museum, and gardens we soon realized that the effort was going to be well worth our time. The grounds are simply beautiful, and the architecture of the museum building is modern but extremely tasteful in its simplicity.

Jimmy, we do have a small complaint about the approach to your facility. You're supposed to park big rigs like ours in a special parking lot, however you're not informed of this requirement until you round a bend and are rolling past the driveway for the RV lot.

Because of that split-second miss, we had to go ahead and park in the regular parking area, which, thanks to light attendance today, was mostly free of cars at the far eastern edge. We just pulled our rig into a vacant lot, put the front wheels on blocks to level the coach, and left it there while we went exploring.

Once inside the museum, we paid our senior citizen entrance fee, and we were launched into one of the most outstanding museum experiences we have yet experienced, not only for our current trip, but in memory. We were both so impressed that your exhibits were so simply narrated and elegantly illustrated.

From your earliest days in Plains Georgia, where even before you started school you told your parents that you wanted to go to the Naval Academy, to your days as our 39th President, the museum tells the story in a way that we could easily understand and follow.

We were so impressed with all your accomplishments, from going to the Naval Academy, to becoming a state senator from Georgia, to becoming governor of your state, and finally President.

However your efforts to bring about a peaceful society as well as a peaceful world were perhaps the thing that impressed us the most. For those efforts, and your ongoing work, you were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 (photo left).

Being a Navy man myself, I was impressed that in 1998, the US Navy named the third and last Seawolf-class submarine honoring you and your service as a submariner officer. It became one of the first US Navy vessels to be named for a person living at the time of naming.

We're sorry we missed your visit to your Presidential library on April 9th. We hadn't quite made it to Georgia by then, but we heard from your staff that it was a "packed" event.

In closing we wish you well in your continued work for the poor and disadvantage worldwide, your personal history has impressed us very much. We extend our heartfelt congratulations on your upcoming 90th birthday in October. We loved visiting with you, with your state of Georgia, and we promise it won't be another forty years before we return. Cheers!