Road Trip 2025, Day 3: Jimmy Carter and a Very Wild Adventure

 

This morning we stopped at Buc-ee's to get coffee. The mascot is a beaver, and it is a travel plaza that seems like a department store. They sell just about everything, even Buc-ee Buckets.

Then we drove quite a while and stopped at a Texaco in Palmetto, Georgia that made fresh pizza and had an Italian restaurant next door, so we had pizza from the gas station and cannolis from the restaurant for lunch, sitting outside. It's so mild here, but you still need a hoodie or light jacket. After that we drove quite a while until we got to Plains, Georgia, the home of President Jimmy Carter. By the time we got there, the museum was just about to close, but they did let us in to look around. 

This seems to be a replica of the Resolute Desk.

Official portraits of Jimmy and Rosalyn.

Apparently he won four Grammies! Here is one of them.

Arafat gave him this replica of da Vinci's The Last Supper.

Here's what people want in a president: the absolute opposite of Dear Leader.

Then we went into town, stopping at an antiques shop to buy T-shirts and some old campaign buttons, and the general store for their famous homemade peanut butter ice cream - so delicious! Here are photos of the town.

We went to his boyhood farm outside of town, which was closed by then but we could walk around the grounds. Here are some photos.

Then we got back on the road again and drove to Valdosta, Georgia, where we had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant that played Bossa nova in the background. The food was very good, and I love Brazilian music, it's just that it was such a crazy combination. Then, as we were leaving town, we saw a sign for a light display at the Wild Adventure Park, which is a zoo of some sort. Since we never got to Zoo Lights back home this year, we decided to go there. The bad news: they had just closed. The good news: we were able to sneak in without paying and mingle among the people who were poky about leaving. We took some photos.

We got all the way back to this beautiful pond with decorated trees reflected in it.

Then we realized that nobody else was around. We hurried back and saw some people who worked there clearing stuff up, but then we did see some other laggers, and nobody said anything to us since we were heading toward the exit with great speed. We were even able to use the bathroom before leaving. The thing I can't get over is that we were moving fast the whole time, but my FitBit said our workout was just medium effort. What? Not vigorous? I can't believe it!

Now we are at a Holiday Inn in Lake City, Florida. Even they have Christmas decorations.

We got here too late to use the pool, so we might try to swim tomorrow. You have to pay for breakfast here, but I do have leftover Vietnamese food. Travalon isn't so lucky - he ate all his lobster stir fried rice.

Famous Hat