It looks like over a hundred Airstreams arrived today. The “silvery tapeworm” of Airstreams began to snake down the access road to the Fairgrounds as the parkers worked to get them settled. The vendors opened up their stores, and registration officially began as well. This rally is getting under way.

The long row of registration

We spent most of the day running into people and catching up. Imagine Brett and I riding around the fairgrounds on our bicycles and getting stopped every few hundred feet by a cry of “Hey guys!” Each stop meant ten minutes of conversation (“Where are Eleanor and Emma?” “How’s the magazine?” “Where are you parked?” “Have you seen my new trailer?” etc.) but it was all fun.

Every day there is a chance of thunderstorms. In the afternoon today we had a threatening sky and high winds, but no rain. Still, the steady wind was enough to deflect Brett’s flagpoles far enough that they touched the front of the motorhome, which was his trigger to take in the awnings and flags. A fast moving thunderstorm would easily destroy awnings all over the fairgrounds. Today it just lowered the temperature to about 80 and made the evening air rather pleasant.

In the interest of discovering the “real” central Georgia, we did some research online. Local food is always a priority for me, so I searched for something authentic and well-respected. I found Fincher’s Barbecue in Macon, about 30 minutes north of here. FIncher’s has been in the same old neighborhood in Macon for about seventy years.

Ordering take-out at Fincher’s

It looks like a delapidated drive-in restaurant (which it is), and the neighborhood isn’t great, but the food is legendary. While waiting for our order to come up, we talked to a fellow who said his mother used to come here, and he had such great childhood memories that whenever he was in the Macon area he stopped in for dinner. That’s exactly the kind of story that I read on the Internet that brought us here.

Tonight Fincher’s was serving only take-out, so we loaded up with two pounds of barbecue, some cole slaw, and Brunswick stew (a local variation on barbecue). All of this came back with us to the motorhome and we served it up with bread for late dinner with Colin Hyde. Now I’m happier — we have put a little knowledge of the area in our brains, and a delicious sampling in our stomachs. To me, this sort of event is what really kicks off the rally.