The Terrible Catsafterme

When you last heard about the Georgia trip from this Summer, Bob, Ashleigh, and I were staying at the Plains Historic Inn. On Sunday morning, July 9, we got up early and headed just up the road about a mile to the Maranatha Baptist Church.

We got there about 7:15am and found there were only four or five people there before us. The Secret Service had not finished securing the building so they were casing the area with their bomb-sniffing dogs. Waiting in line is never too boring as Miss Jan will always come out and brief the crowd on what to expect (metal detectors, camera inspections) and not-to-expect (autographs, conversations with President Carter). There are always other visitors in line from out of town to strike up conversations with. Read the rest of this entry »

Again, this posting refers to the trip I took just last weekend with my Dad and Bill. We awoke in Americus, Georgia bright and early Sunday morning and headed out toward Plains (about 10 miles west) to the Maranatha Baptist Church. We arrived at around 7:30am, although I was hoping to get there about 15 minutes earlier.

After a brief wait of about 30 minutes, we were allowed entrance to the church. Security seemed a bit more lax than it had been during my other two visits. Neither Bill nor I were required to be scanned by the metal detector, but Dad was. I guess he just looked more like an assassin than we did. All that was required of me was that I turn on my camera so that they could see that it was actually a camera. We ended up in the fourth pew from the front, where a large floral display contributed by Sybil Carter commemorated the 18th anniversary of the death of her husband Billy. Read the rest of this entry »