history in the macon (get it?)

This weekend I took my seemingly random pilgrimage to Macon, Georgia with my platypus Lloyd for company. Even the locals kept asking me what I was doing visiting Macon! but I don't understand why.
Macon is really rich in history and scenery. There are more churches per capita than any other city in the U.S. and many of them date to the 1800's. There are 8 museums and more places on the state historical registry than any other city in Georgia! In fact there is a Native American national monument with evidence of civilizations living there 12,000 years ago.

As you can see, the sunset over the city was beautiful when I arrived. Lloyd and I immediately stopped by Otis' statue and a handful of marble-mouthed men walking along the train tracks started up a conversation with me, and tried to suggest where I should go for dinner in Macon, though it took some translation (what sounded like RHINES to me was actually two syllables - Ryan's). Never thought I'd need a translator in my own country but it truly is a different dialect in south central Georgia.

I couldn't find a single damn local restaurant open on Saturday evening when I arrived or all day Sunday so I was trapped between Chick Fil-A and McDonalds both days. I wish I had realized on Sunday the local theater (which I assumed was closed like everything else) had a "dinner and a movie" of Mary Poppins. How adorable.

The most famous local eating spot, Nu-Way Weiners, is a hot dog stand that's been there since 1912 and the kitchen really does look like it! Phew. It felt compulsory to have one, but I wondered as I took a bite whether I should have gotten updates on any vaccinations before I left on this trip. The dog was distinctly hot pink.

Sunday morning I went to a church service at Macon's First Baptist Church which amazingly was an integrated congregation years ahead of the Civil War, and founded in 1835.  Sadly, folks in the congregation told me that these days there's a "white First Baptist" just 2 blocks away and the "black First Baptist" which is the one I went to. It's not any kind of a requirement, it's more like voluntary preference for the church.  Nonetheless I was welcomed by everyone in the church and treated like a friend and neighbor.


What I really went to Macon for was the Georgia Music Hall of Fame's new exhibit on Otis Redding with tons of concert posters, rare vinyl singles, and photographs of his short career, on loan from his wife Zelma's personal collection. It was fascinating and I spent nearly four hours there.

I've always felt a close connection with Otis and can't explain why. I generally can tell when someone is one of my favorite people within a few seconds and he's one who I loved from the first time I heard These Arms of Mine. I've always felt Otis' talent was under-recognized by the American public, although certainly not by his musical peers - Wilson Pickett, Little Richard, James Brown, Booker T, and Percy Sledge all were present at his funeral and several tribute records were produced in mourning of Otis' death in 1967. He was only 26 when he died. He had had a monumental moment in his career just six months prior at the Monterey Pop Festival.

The right poster below is very rare - Otis was booked to play the Fillmore West on December 20-22 with the Grateful Dead opening for him the first night. His plane went down in a lake in Wisconsin on December 10th.
Here's one cool thing I just realized about the timing of my trip. Otis died in 1967, and he would have turned 67 years old the day that I flew back to Denver, September 9th, 2008.

I also took a verrrrrry long drive to try and see where my favorite writer, Alice Walker grew up in Eatonton, Georgia.

I couldn't find any info on her neighborhood ahead of time so I just had to go and find it for myself.
Turns out her road was super hard to find even with a map.

Many homes in Eatonton were impoverished and rotting as I would have imagined from the descriptions in The Color Purple, but the wide, emerald green farmland was really breathtaking. About an hour west from Eatonton, I also passed by Otis' estate where his family still lives and I'm sure he does too, known as the "Big O Ranch". Respectfully I didn't take pictures of it.

Driving through farm country in Georgia you see some amazing wild ivy growing on the trees (above) which I'm told is not natural to the landscape and quite a nuisance. And I noticed immediately that the bugs in Georgia are unlike anything I've ever seen or heard ~ the grasshoppers are huge, and at one point I saw a big, black thing that was like a scorpion without a tail, 6 inches long, sitting on a brick - still makes me shudder!!! *later note: turns out this is a flying cockroach - more shudder!!!*

On Monday, I took a drive to Athens, the famously funky college town that gave birth to the B-52's and R.E.M. It was extremely humid that day so I mostly enjoyed staying in my car, stopping for a bucket of peaches on the side of the road, shopping in an air conditioned used bookstore, and stopped into the famous Walker's Pub & Coffee for a cold beer. I walked the main streets and UGA campus for about an hour, but it was brutal. Georgians are crazy about their Greek-inspired architecture and crazy about their bulldogs.

My last night for dinner I headed to Decatur where another one of my favorite artists, the Indigo Girls, live and Emily has a farm to table new-ish restaurant, The Watershed.  It was delicious, kind of gourmet home-cooked soul food. And the most adorable buildings and shops surrounded the restaurant (below).

It turns out that REM's Out of Time truly is the perfect music to road trip through Georgia listening to. It almost sounds even better in the right atmosphere.

*P.S.* Lots of friends have commented to me personally about their own experiences in GA after reading this blog, and I have to say, it is consistently a one-of-a-kind place. I would love to visit more of the South, and if any of you go there, take a tip from my friend Doug - don't even think about ordering Pepsi in Georgia. There's no Pepsi, only Coke!!