Back to Atlanta and Home

June 31st, our final day on our southern road trip before boarding our flight home to the cooler temps of Bellingham. We packed up and after breakfast at the hotel, headed for Atlanta. The drive was uneventful. We finally took some photos of the Kudzu that we'd seen so much of along our way. This funny looking vine often takes the shape of familiar objects like clouds often do, but sadly it has become a real problem to control here in the south.

As we drove along, Leslie discovered Harold's Barbecue in Atlanta was right on our way into the city. She read its description aloud and it sounded like a place we ought to try so we took the turn off for it just as we came into town. The description read that it was located between a housing project and a state prison, but not to worry as lots of cops ate there as well. The location wasn't that seedy but there were cops there. I had wanted to try Brunswick Stew and hadn't had a chance the entire trip so I ordered that along with some ribs. Leslie ordered her usual pulled pork sandwich. The stew is a thick southern vegetable soup with meat added. In the case of the Georgia style it is usually pork. The stew was a disappointment. It was pretty flavorless and sadly it was a foretaste of the rest of the meal. After Sargent White's, Harold's just didn't even come close to matching up. Later on I read that they had stopped using wood fires to BBQ their meats and had gone over to a gas oven. What are they thinking? A sad, disappointing final taste of the south.

We had a plane to catch. We had hired our car downtown Atlanta instead of the airport saving ourselves the high airport taxes they tack on when you get the car their. It was an easy and very convenient train ride from the airport to the center of Atlanta and then only a 3 block walk to the car rental agency. We returned our car and they even drove us the 3 blocks to the train station for the return to the airport.

Our visit to the south was wonderful. Oh, I know I have complained a lot in this blog series about the heat and humidity and it was genuinely a problem for me and Leslie as well. I would recommend taking the trip during a cooler time of year, perhaps early spring or fall.

But don't stay home for any other reason. I have long stayed away from travel in the deep south for reasons that are really prejudicial which is rather ironic because that was my image of the south--prejudiced white supremacists driving around in old beater pick up trucks proudly flying the stars and bars, poor blacks relegated to run down neighborhoods, marginalized where opportunities in life are concerned. The separate water fountains, Jim Crow laws, etc. may have been outlawed, but. . .

Now admittedly I am seeing it through the eyes of a caucasian male, but my view of southerners both black and white was one of a warm, friendly and generous folk. The racism so burned into my memory from all those 60's images was simply not evident anywhere during the trip. Instead those ugly ways seem to have been exposed for what they were, not hidden or swept under a rug, but admitted to and now there is a feeling of live and let live. Oh, I'm not naive enough to think racism no longer exists in the south, I'm just saying that, like the rest of the country, we have come a long way.

Successful, affluent African Americans were quite evident everywhere. The charm of the old south is also evident everywhere--in conversations, the service, courtesy, warmth and friendliness of nearly everyone we met and so one day very soon I'd like to return and continue exploring more of the south.