Jimmy Carter receives accolades from afar, and right at home

Chad Loshbaugh, 51, of Albany, New York, and his son diverted their vacation plans, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023, to visit former President Jimmy Carter's boyhood farm in the Archery community just outside Plains, Ga., the 39th president's hometown. Carter, 98, is at home in Plains receiving end-of-life care. The announcement that he's entered hospice has attracted new visitors to Plains and Carter's presidential library and museum in Atlanta and drawn well-wishes and praise from across the globe. (AP Photo/Bill Barrow)

Chad Loshbaugh and his seventh-grade son, Theo, were starting a historical tour for their winter break when they heard that former President Jimmy Carter had begun end-of-life care at home.

So the father-son pair from Albany, New York, changed their itinerary and found themselves Wednesday on the Carter family farm in Plains, where the 39th president grew up and about a mile from the one-story house where the 98-year-old now is receiving hospice care.

“This was an add-on,” to a civil rights trip that is taking them from Atlanta through several stops in Alabama, Loshbaugh said. “We thought it was important to change our trip to see the site here and pay our respects to President Carter.”