Martha's Marvellous Munchies

In a space of time but little longer than Scarlett's seventeen years, Atlanta had grown from a single stake driven in the ground into a thriving small city of ten thousand that was the centre of attention for the whole state. ... The people who settled the town were a pushy people. ... They were proud of the place, proud of its growth, proud of themselves for making it grow. Let the older towns call Atlanta anything they pleased. Atlanta did not care. - Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind Before this trip, the main thing I associated with Atlanta was the book Gone with the Wind , and so I knew a small part of its history: that it had been a major railway and supply hub in the Civil War, and been burned to the ground when taken by the Union soldiers. This didn't daunt its "mighty pushy" inhabitants, however, and the city was quickly rebuilt. It still gives the impression of rebuilding itself today; as we walked around, the contrast between dilapidated old wrecks ...

Over near Dallas is a suburb called Las Colinas, planned and built by a guy called Ben Carpenter on his family's ranch. Despite concreting over swathes of prairie (which it could be argued was going to happen sooner or later anyway) he obviously had an eye for beauty, and commissioned an African sculptor by the name of Robert Glen to create a sculpture for the centre of the community. The subject chosen was mustangs, wild descendants of the horses brought over to America by the Spaniards, who used to roam free on the Texas plains. At 1 1/2 lifesize, they are really impressive. There's a small museum run by a very friendly lady who showered us with advice on where else to go while we're in the country. We followed her promptings on a couple of local things, and went to see some marble cows (not half as impressive as the mustangs) and a statue of Ben Carpenter telling Graham off. We got some lunch at Joe's Cafe, one of those home-cooking establishments...