Tourin' the South Part 2

(Last summer my mom and I went on a road trip through the South. I wrote this recap on a different blog last year. I thought I'd write it up again, add photos, and share the trip with new readers. Enjoy!)

Day 4 - Friday, July 2nd - Franklin, TN - Decatur, AL
We slept in and started down to Franklin, south of Nashville. They have a really cute downtown, and we walked around the shops for a while. After that we went to tour the Carnton Plantation, a private home that was turned into a field hospital during the Civil War's Battle of Franklin. After the war, they donated part of their land for a Confederate cemetery, where all of the soldiers' graves remain to this day. Even more haunting were the blood stains in the upstairs bedrooms where the surgeons did their work for six months.

 Mom had bought a Groupon for a restaurant in Franklin called the Daily Dish. In this restaurant I ate the best Greek Salad of my life. End of story.

We decided to continue South to Alabama, where we sought out a hotel room for the night, and ate at Five Guys, a burger joint that I've heard all sorts of things about. It lived up to its reputation.

Day 5 - Saturday, July 3rd - Decatur, AL - Selma, AL
We planned to head down the Interstate to Selma, to take in some of the Civil Rights points of interest. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we ran into some serious traffic, and got off the interstate and got to figure out some back county roads. Before this we had managed to avoid the interstate anyway, so we had already been enjoying great scenery, especially of rolling hills and wonderful houses.

On our way to Selma we stopped for lunch at the Brierfield Cafe. Of course this place has no website, because ... you know.. it's the kind of place your teenager next door works after school. The place was empty, but I enjoyed my sandwich AND the fried green tomatoes we tried out. We're going for broke with trying Southern food. This probably should be "eating our way to through the South" instead. I'd never had fried green tomatoes before, and I really liked them. Yum.

We finally found Selma, and the tourist welcome center, where two nice ladies gave us all sorts of pamphlets and pointed us in the right direction. It was much warmer this afternoon, and after we started walking away from the tourist center, the lady followed us outside to make sure we weren't walking to the starting point of the tour. We reassured her that we were just stepping away to figure things out. They also told us where we could get some good dinner :)

We decided to do a driving tour of Selma, which focused on architectural influences of important landmarks and houses. Right up my alley. The most interesting fact to us was that many old houses were moved from nearby Cahawba, AL. Looking online, we see that Cahawba was the state's first capital, from 1820-1826, but was abandoned after the Civil War. We're thinking about visiting there later on. At the end of the tour we came to Brown A.M.E Church, site of many speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965.

So on the recommendation of the ladies at the welcome center, we headed to Lannie's BBQ (again, no website, of course). While we felt a little out of place, the food was worth it. Oh. My. Word. I got fried chicken, mac and cheese, and collared greens. Now, I've never had collared greens before, so I didn't quite enjoy them, but the mac and cheese and fried chicken were WONDERFUL. I'm on my way to gaining ten pounds.

So here we are, in Selma, and going to visit Montgomery tomorrow!

(In other news, Athletarian is having a giveaway that I really want to win. Every girl needs a good headband.)