With 2400 miles under my belt, I think the road trip is finally getting started. I can safely say I was unimpressed with Georgia and Alabama. I'm sure there are many fine things about both states, but if there's anything in this world I'm an unwilling expert in, it's small Southern towns. I've seen approximately 900,000 pecan trees and magnolia trees, and I've realized that sometimes it's better to take the freeway.
Sunday I drove straight up 19 from Tampa to Atlanta. I'd never been to Atlanta before, and it was different than I'd imagined--there were a lot of hills and a lot of trees, and the city layout was very poorly designed. I realize there was no real design, the city just evolved and sprawled, but really. You can't expect not to have traffic problems in a city where the layout makes no sense and all the roads are filled with blind curves and trees. Pretty though. Apparently whoever designed the art museum was following the same format, because that was the most oddly laid out and confusing museum I've ever been in. The other supposed highlight, the Margaret Mitchell Museum, turned out to be a bust. They've turned an apartment building where she used to live on Peachtree Street into a museum, but they have none of her actual stuff and I didn't learn anything I didn't already know. I couldn't even bring myself to buy a tacky Gone With the Wind refrigerator magnet, so you know it was bad. I stayed with some friends from high school who live in the 'burbs. They introduced me to the Big Green Egg, which I now have to buy.
Monday morning I got up early for the drive to Gulfport, to stay with my sister. I wanted to stay off the interstate, but it took me three hours to reach the Georgia-Alabama border on back roads. I made it as far as Opelika before I decided I'd seen quite enough Confederate flags at 35 mph, thank you, and hopped on the interstate down to Mobile. I had a lovely lunch of fried pickles and a soft-shell crab po' boy at Wintzell's, and drove along old highway 90 to Gulfport.
After driving for two days solid, I had an advanced case of what my mother so colloquially calls "butt rot." Today I've been relaxing, catching up on laundry and computer stuff and enjoying the 90-degree sunshine and my sister's proximity to the beach. I went to the beach this morning to take some pictures; one of the best things about the beaches in this part of the world is that they're largely deserted. Katrina knocked out most of the beach industry (waterside surf shacks, bars, restaurants, hotels, etc.), most of which has not been rebuilt, so it's possible to be the only person on the beach for as far as the eye can see. Tonight I'll make some shrimp creole with huge, head-on, fresh Gulf shrimp, and have some frosty cold Abita Turbodog. Mmmmmmm...Abita.
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