Day 18

Site #6, Indian Springs State Park, Flovilla, GA

We started the morning chatting with our campground neighbor who as you may notice if you look closely is also driving a Sportsmobile camper, their's a 2006 Ford E350.  Most of the campers that we've seen on this trip are the huge "Dolly Parton" which are bigger than a tiny house.  Talking to fellow campers is one of the joys of camping and really reminds you that despite all the assumptions that many of us make about people in Red States, there are very friendly people with whom we have much in common everywhere.

Leaving the Indian Springs campground our focus for the day was the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Park which includes a visitors center, his boyhood home, his grave and the Ebenzer Baptist Church,

One of the first statues that we encountered on our walk from our parking space to the visitors center was this statue of Ghandi, who was an inspiration for MLK, who went to India in 1959 to study Ghandi's methods on non-violent resistance.

Inside the visitors' center we were incredibly moved by all of the exhibits which focused on segregation practices in the 1900's throughout our country, King's involvement and leadership in so many of the civil rights events in the 1960's, and his death.  After spending the previous day visiting the Andersonville prison "man's inhumanity to man" becomes overwhelming.

Outside the visitors' center is a beautiful garden.  The writings of elementary students were equally moving and beautiful.

The Ebenezer Baptist Church 

MLK's childhood home which was originally purchased by his maternal grandfather.  The guided tour of the home was delightful and revealed how MLK was just a typical boy growing up in Atlanta whose best friend was a White boy who lived across the street.  When the two boys were three, the White boy's parents forbid him from playing with ML (as the guide referred to MLK).  This rejection was MLK's first experience with prejudice, and forced his father to explain to him at an early age who a man's skin color impacted how some people treated Blacks.

Looking up "Sweet Auburn" Avenue which at one point was the wealthiest Black street in the country.  

The Reflection Pool which surrounds the graves of MLK and his wife Coretta.  

Our dinner, take-out barbecue: pulled pork and beans.

Site #12 at the Red Top Mountain State Park, 60 miles north of Atlanta.