After checking out of the hotel this morning, I caught the train down to the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site - a fancy title for a museum, church and birthplace. The museum there is quite interesting - a lot of information on the freedom riders and different boycotts and marches that went on during the fight for civil rights. There was a machine in one corner that asked you questions (eg how many jelly beans are there in the jar) to ascertain whether you were eligible to vote. Of course the only important question was "What colour are you?"
I wasn't too fussed on going on the tour of the house where King was born in but I'm really glad I did. Our tour guide, Rev. Williams, a retired preacher, had marched together with . His children were also amongst the first black children to go to an integrated school. As he was a former preacher he had a powerful and emotive delivery when he spoke to us and on a couple of occasions he stopped us and quite sternly reminded us that people, both black and white had been killed fighting for equal rights. What we were learning about was not just history he said, it was real life, and it was painful and dangerous. By the end of the hour-long tour, most of us were in tears. It really was a very powerful experience.
The house itself had four bedrooms, and was very nice. It was owned by King's grandfather, and as the family were middle class, they had a very high standard of living. There were 'shotgun' houses across the road - so-called because if you fired a shotgun through the front door, if no-one were standing in the way, the bullet would leave via the back door. There was a clear line of sight through the house. Many of the houses in the area had been bought by the National Parks Service, restored and rented out. So it's a very nice neighbourhood. The whole area is called 'Sweet Auburn', named after the street.
Travelled out to the airport next to catch my flight to Savannah. Managed to negotiate my way a little more successfully around Atlanta Airport this time! Had a strange experience after checking in. I noticed a large number of soldiers gathering together - they were all in uniform, what looked like desert fatigues. I assumed that they were on their way to Iraq. There were about 200 of them and when they'd formed together, they marched through the concourse to their plane. People went nuts - they were clapping and cheering, going up to the soldiers and saying they were praying for them. I just felt chilled, knowing where they were going and that it was likely some of them weren't coming home.
Caught my flight to Savannah OK. I landed at Savannah at 3.30pm and my train to Charleston wasn't leaving until 6.30. Unfortunately the train station is just as far out of the city as the airport is, and it was closed until 5.30. So I stayed at the airport, reading, and watching a cat in a cat carrier go round and round on the luggage carousel. Then I caught a taxi to the train station where, frustratingly, the train was 2 and a half hours late! It was so frustrating! I had originally wanted to drop my luggage somewhere in Savannah and wander around for a couple of hours but that's not possible. So had a long, hungry wait at Savannah train station. The train, when it finally came, had been travelling from Miami and was on its way to New York. Train was OK, nice big comfy seats.
When I got to Charleston, the train station there is also miles out of town so I caught a cab to my B&B, arriving there about 11!
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