Day 8: Raleigh, NC to Augusta, GA - January 4, 2009

Day 8 of our travels took us into the deep south for some good ol' fashion lard, fog and regional charm. But before we took off for the depths, we stopped in at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC. Once we bypassed the foreboding exterior,

which we learned upon entering is the result of a renovation project slated to be completed in the spring of 2010, we discovered that the interior and collection are actually quite impressive. Here is an amazing "sculpture" of a jet made from cloth flowers and mylar butterflies, which a museum guard patiently watched us photograph before informing us that photographing it was illegal.

From the museum it was on to a pretty tasty and dirt-cheap lunch at Smithfield's, where our BBQ sandwiches on styrofoam plates cost a combined $7.

What happened to the promise of a sandwich for $1.99? Along with Debby, Ian decided to splurge for the upper end chicken option instead of pork. (The vegetarian cashier with no discernible Carolina accent complimented Debby's glasses, so it only seemed right.)

After hours of playing hangman and reading aloud our AAA guidebook while trying to pull our eyes away from this magnetic landscape,

we reached Columbia, capital of South Carolina, at around 5 pm. Our first stop was the world's largest fire hydrant, 39 feet tall and nearly 5 tons, created by artist Blue Sky and unveiled in 2001.

In the adjacent parking lot, Blue Sky painted this trippy mural, "Tunnelvision," in 1975.

On the other side of those blue mountains, we found the South Carolina State House, quite a remarkable structure surrounded by expansive, beautifully manicured gardens.

The building was closed for the day, so we wandered around the grounds, and made some curious, albeit incongruous, discoveries. In the front of the building stands a somewhat sad-looking Christmas tree (think "A Charlie Brown Christmas"), a monument to Confederate soldiers, and finally the Confederate flag, which was moved from the top of the State House in 2000 after a boycott by the NAACP.

Despite the stubborn presence of the flag and thus the continuing boycott by the NAACP, South Carolina threw its black residents a bizarre bone with its African American History Monument, which was completed at a cost of $1.1 million, all privately raised.

But what's a tribute to racial unity and pluralism without homage to one of Carolina's most famous native grandpappies, Strom Thurmond? Thurmond left the Senate at age 100 after 49 years of memorable service, and left this planet in 2003. Heartwarming highlights to a crotchety career include conducting the longest filibuster ever by a US Senator in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Clearly, this monument needs a hug.

Day 8 closed with some first-rate peril as we attempted to navigate what we have since decided is the scariest place in America: Augusta, GA. The blocks upon blocks of boarded up houses, empty crumbling streets, and one "main" thoroughfare that ended in what looked like a prison basketball court, made us both scrunch down in the car and wonder if we were going to make it out alive. Even better, we couldn't see squat through the fog, there was insane and unmarked construction around our highway exits, and Google lied to us about the directions. Once safely ensconced in our Red Roof Inn, Ian looked up some poverty stats on Augusta, and his findings are depressing but not surprising considering what we saw.

Augusta has scared the bejesus out of us, so we need something to make us all feel warm and fuzzy again.


Here is our map for the day:

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