In 1819 a twenty-year-old man from New Hampshire finished a four-year apprenticeship in architecture and heeded the words of Horace Greeley to leave his New England home and go west, young man, go west.  He ended up in Savannah, Georgia.

Twenty years later this same man would leave his Georgia home with a wife, two slaves, enough materials to build 50 cotton gins and the knowledge necessary to run a plant that manufactured them. His name was Daniel Pratt.

We stayed last night in the town Daniel created for the workers in his cotton gin plant: Prattville, Alabama. Pretty took us on a tour of the historic downtown area this morning. We love an historic downtown area – particularly one as beautiful as this one. Imagine what this looked like in 1839 – before the Civil War – one man’s dream.

Daniel Pratt was one of Alabama’s first industrialists

Daniel has his own personal historic district now

My friend had a bird’s eye view of the falls

…and sat on the remnants of history

Guess who else was from Prattville besides Daniel Pratt?

Mustang Sally Wilson Pickett, Jr.

Had to say goodbye to the wisteria and Prattville

On the road again – Charly perches atop Yeti cooler

Getting closer…

Rest area, my you-know-what

I am so tired. Please, God, get me out of this vehicle.

Spike’s prayers were answered…we have stopped for the night in Slidell, Louisiana, which is 30 miles from New Orleans.

We are sneaking up on it.