Plain and simple, the world would little know of Plains if not for their peanut farmer President and, of course, we have Georgia and Jimmy Carter on our minds today.
For all its Punch and Judy Presidential Race antics America, and Americans, are remarkably reverent towards their past Presidents.
Regardless of their politics.
And the death of the Democrat President who lived longer to a full century, longer than any.
And and has now passed on at 100 in his hometown has been marked by typical warmth and dignity.
Remembering George HW Bush
I suspect the mood across the country will be similar to that in Fort Lauderdale back in 2019 the day George HW Bush died.
The flags on the houses and the civic buildings were at half-mast and the talk at Primanti Bros. diner.
Over our overeasy eggs was about the Republican President who drove Saddam Hussain from Kuwait.
With good grace observers and obituary writers have been celebrating Carter’s successes.
In brokering peace between Israel and Egypt and Camp David.
And putting the US Embassy hostages in Baghdad and the economy into context.
The Plains truth
Now nowhere is the legacy of the former Nobel Peace Prize winner more alive than in Plains.
Where he returned to the two-room home he lived in before swapping it for the White House.
Now understandably Plains, a village 158 miles south of state capital Atlanta, builds itself around its most famous citizen.
Stand-outs are the Jimmy Carter National Historic Park.
Our Georgian pals recommend we start at Plains High School, the visitor center, where he and wife Rosalynn graduated.
Of course, peanuts are never far from view on your Jimmy Carter tour and you can pop into the Boyhood Farm.
Where see where the 39th President helped his dad grow peanuts, corn, cotton and sugar cane.
While The Plains Train Depot, the oldest building in Plains, dating back to 1888 and where Jimmy had his campaign headquarters.
As a memento of your visit you will deffo take a selfie with the goofy Smiling Peanut.
While snacking on a bag of peanut brittle from Plain Peanuts.
Now for Civil War nuts (guilty) pencil in a day trip to the Andersonville National Historic Site, a prison for Union troops.
Georgia’s outdoors are a joy and the Providence Canyon State Park, Georgia’s “Little Grand Canyon” is the perfect place for picnickers.
With its sherbet-orange and pale-pink walls.
The Plains peeps tell us advise a stay at The Plains Historic Inn, where seven rooms were built by Jimmy himself.
Library visit
Now the Americans’ tradition of bequeathing a library to their presidents means that we can delve even further.
Into Jimmy’s time in office, in Atlanta.
All of which is why, for the day that’s in it.
And in memory of The Great Man, today we have Georgia and Jimmy Carter on our minds.
We found a return flight with our go-to transatlantic carriers Aer Lingus with pre-clearance in Dublin airport to Atlanta from €1,107.12