Georgia

Off 8am for 3 or so hour trip to Atlanta, visited the Atlanta History Centre which had comprehensive exhibition of American Civil War memorabilia, all collected by Bo DuBois (good southern name huh?)
& his family. It was the whole story of the civil war, explained as more about states having the right to make their own decisions than slavery. Just so happened that one of the decisions they wanted the freedom to make was to own slaves. THe center was set in a most salubrious neighborhood of Atlanta - Buckhead, large gracious mansions on 2-3 acres, most beautiful gardens. Allie - guide whose car I was in, guessed at half to one mill. I think she may have been a bit off, personally.
 From there we drove to Birmingham, 75% African American, the accents getting thicker & thicker, like
at the roadhouse, no idea what the girl was saying & her ditto. The drive took us through the most beautiful countryside, we are going into the Appalacian mountains, heavily treed, extremely verdant & lush. 
We really only stayed the night in Birmingham, Alabama due to change of schedule, but went to seafood restaurant for tea, Pat & I shared 2 entrees, no, no, I mean 2 appetisers, entree in the main in US. We had crawfish, just little shrimp really & something called seafood trash, crab & shrimp, not bad, but the highlight was the Cloudy Bay Sav Blanc we shared.
 Just a word  both Atlanta & Birmingham have been very nice cities, wellkept gardens & parks, no evidence of any great poverty, it could be there, we just didnt see it in our cooks tour