A rainy time in Albany, GA

We're in Albany, GA, birthplace of Ray Charles. There is a marvelous Ray-and-piano sculpture on the Flint River, downtown, surrounded with piano keyed sidewalks, and carefully designed speakers playing his music in the waterfront park. It's a small town, that feels even smaller than it is. A welcoming, pretty woman working at the Visitor's Center told us her father lives in Jacksonville, NC. It appears that like many towns, the downtown is trying hard to reinvent itself. The strip malls and chain fast-food restaurants sprawling away from the downtown look like just about any other place in the country, while the downtown is distinctly Albany. The train depot built in prarie style architecture, is a museum now, and the old bridge house is playing host these days to the Visitor's Center. Bob's Candy pulled out in 2005. They made white and red candy canes...we saw a fine video of the process at the museum...and the fertilizer plant by the railroad tracks closed many years ago. The last passenger train made it's run May 1, 1970...same stories, different town. But, the new convention center and waterfront park are beautiful and appear to be well-used. The small businesses in the downtown appear to be holding on; there is a cookie/lunch restaurant that looked good (we missed it's open hours by just a few minutes). The neighborhoods close to the downtown are well-kept with no vacant houses or lots.

Digressing: this is the sunset at Laura Walters State Park in Waycross.
 















Ray Charles, looking just fine!
 














It's cold, and rainy. So far, our trip has been pretty quiet, not much adventure. Too cold and rainy to look for much high adventure! But, we're happy with our slow pace, and enjoying the books we're reading. Oh, news: I just downloaded an audio book from our public library! We can either listen to it on the computer, or transfer it to the little SansaFuze mp3 player. I bought a cassette-thingy that plugs into the cassette player in our old pick-up truck, that allows the SansaFuze to play through our speakers. Hey, don't tell me we're not current with our listening technology!