We Visited The Great State Of Georgia

This is what the road in front of our house looked like about half an hour ago when we got home from the little day date we took to Valdosta, Georgia. Unlike the other night when it was all pink at that time of day, tonight it was yellow. 
This morning Mr. Moon said, "I want to do something with you today," and I said, "That would be nice," and then he told me that I should pick out a destination and I was like, "Why me?" and then I suggested we go shopping to try and find him a table to put beside his chair where he can put all the stuff he seems to need to have right at hand from the chair and it's gotten so crowded there I can barely get close enough to lean in and get a kiss. 
He's been looking for one for awhile on Facebook Market Place but has had no luck. He wants it to be narrow, like a hall table and it needs to have drawers. 
So we agreed that taking a drive up to Georgia to check out antique and thrift stores would be a good idea and of course lunch would be involved. And so got ourselves ready and boarded the brown Subaru and off we went. 
We drove through the little towns we've driven though many times before on our way up to North Carolina in the summers. We stopped for gas in Quitman, Georgia and I took this picture of their post office. 

There are so many buildings made of brick in Georgia which makes a lot of sense- bricks are often made of red clay, and honey, Georgia has a wealth of it. We passed cotton fields where the cotton was in full bole and looked ready to pick to me. Glen and I both thought of what an incredibly backbreaking, soul-destroying task it must have been to pick cotton from can to can't meaning from when you can see to when you can't, day in and day out and returning to your "quarters" (shacks) while in the distance you can see the hugely columned mansions of the owners. Not just of the fields, but of you too. And your mama and your man and your babies. 
The south has a lot to not only apologize for but to atone for, as well. 
So does every damn part of this country. If the area you come from didn't use workers in slave-like ways, then by damn that area was owned by the native people and was stolen by the Europeans who decided that this land was theirs, and fuck the red man. 

Yeah. I have a lot on my mind today. It is, after all, election day. 

By the time we got to Valdosta we were hungry and with the help of Google found a restaurant that looked promising and although these things do not always turn out as promised, this time it did. 
We ate at place called King of R&B Restaurant and it reminded me so much of a place we ate in Quincy, Florida a little over a year ago. Same color scheme, same well-stocked bar in one section of the restaurant, and even the same sort of wall decor with a sort of plastic garden thing going on. 
This must be a thing. 

Here's the place in Quincy.

And here's the place where we ate today.

There were pictures all up and down the wall of various icons, mostly musicians ranging from Johnny Cash to Bob Marley. I'm not sure what Marilyn was doing there but if you think it about, when it comes to rhythm and blues, she understood. She knew. 

The food was so good. I got grilled salmon, Mr. Moon got shrimp Alfredo. 

We both got fried okra. It was so right-out-of-the-fryer that it was smoking hot. 
Praise the Lord and pass the hot sauce, y'all. 
Our server was darling, all was very fine. 
On the way to the restaurant, I'd noticed several old motels of the sort you'd see in the late fifties, sixties, and seventies, one floor of rooms, each next to the other, all rooms with access to the parking lot. (In case you needed to make a fast exit, I suppose.) 

We passed this one, the Del Mar Motel and Mr. Moon had just told me that he'd had a girlfriend once from Valdosta. 
"Did y'all stay at the Del Mar Motel?" I asked him. He claimed never to have done such a thing. I told him I didn't need to hear any more but he did tell me that her daddy owned a Chevy dealership. 

So as we were eating our lunch and it was raining outside and cozy inside, I told my husband that part of me just wanted to sit at the bar all afternoon drinking bloody mary's and then go check in to one of the motels. 
"Why not?" he asked. 
But we didn't. Maybe next time we'll take our toothbrushes and a change of underwear and do just that. In the olden days, if we'd had the opportunity to do that, nothing on earth could have stopped us. 

Instead, we went to some vintage places, some thrift stores. Neither one of us found a damn thing we wanted. Glen found a table that looked perfect until they cleared all the vases and doilies and whatevers off of it and he realized it had some fairly major flaws. 

I was mostly just overwhelmed. We went to one place that advertised itself as selling antiques but if they did, we didn't see any. Instead, there were rooms and rooms and rooms of furniture and useless things to put on shelfs and tables and lamps, lamps, lamps galore. Mostly boring lamps. Pillows, things that supposedly make your home smell lovely, rugs, and honestly, I was so overwhelmed I can't even remember. 
When we left I told Glen that there must have been millions of dollars worth of merchandise in that place which he wasn't quite sure was true. I pointed out, however, that if all that shit only cost one dollar apiece, it would still be a million dollars worth of stuff. 
I used their restroom (which was lovely) and my hands still smell like the soap I used to wash them with there. 
I am not kidding. 

So. Okay. Here's the one thing I did buy.

A packet of sewing needles and they are gorgeous. They will probably last me for the rest of my life. 

Oh! And here's a tiny hibiscus that was in a pot for sale outside at one of the "vintage" stores.

That bloom would have fit in the palm of a small child with room leftover. I should have bought it. The plant looked like it might have been on it's last legs but so what? I bet if I had cut it back and let it be, it would have grown. It enchanted me. I knew, even as I passed it up that I was going to regret that. 
And I do. 

Here's a picture I liked despite the fact that the hands are all creepy and wrong. Hands are hard. 

I should have bought that too. 

Are you watching returns? I'm not sure I can. 
We'll have a lot to talk about in pottery tomorrow. I hope my bird has been fired so I can paint it. 
It's raining softly and I am grateful. 
That's what I'm focusing on right now. 

See you tomorrow.

Love...Ms. Moon