More Pictures From Madison, Georgia

Madison, Georgia

Well, another night and things are definitely looking up. This morning we signed out of the Hofbrauhous or whatever the fuck it's called and hit the road north to Anna Ruby Falls, a Federal park where we walked up a steep trail to see the waterfalls. It was lovely.

The pictures don't do it justice. I do not know how to take a decent waterfall picture. Plus, it was in the sun. Oh well. You can get the vague idea of it.

And here's Mr. Moon on the trail:

And me. You can tell I was really prepared for a hike in the woods. And really happy to have my picture taken.

But my favorite picture is this one:

A tree growing from a rock, rising up into the light.
Lot of damn metaphor in that shot.

So we got in the car and decided to go back to our original plan of having no destination. After a night in the Alpine Village of Helen how could we go wrong? And we didn't.
We headed south on roads calculated to allow us to miss Atlanta, almost impossible by the way if you're traveling through Georgia, and we did and we have ended up in the small and very picturesque town of Madison, Georgia which seems to be eat up with The Charm and antique stores. And restaurants.
We drove around the main square, hoping that maybe, just maybe we'd find a place to stay and lo and behold! The James Madison Inn was right there and we pulled up and have paid the big bucks to stay in one of their gorgeous rooms.
I see no trace of any former tenants in this room whatsoever and well, check out the bed:

Hmmmm....
and
Mmmmm....

I am thinking that we may not even leave the room. And we don't have to as there is a sweet little town square just across the street and we have a balcony and a band is tuning up as we speak and so there will be a concert. They sound bluesy.


Did I dream this up?



Oh. We are so far away from The German Christmas Shop. So very far away.
There's a spa downstairs here at the inn where theoretically I could, after ten a.m. tomorrow, get massaged with warm stones or waxed in the Brazilian manner.
Probably not.


Mr. Moon took one look at that shower and stripped his clothes off and jumped in. Do you know how hard it is for that man to find a shower that doesn't hit him in the chest? Now he's sitting on the bed in a James Madison bathrobe and well, I think I should join him.
Oh wait. I just looked.
He's shed the bathrobe.

All right! Well!
Lovely talking to you.
I think I need to go now.

Happy Friday, y'all.
Love...Ms. Moon

And Goodwill To All

Mr. Moon and I took the convertible up to Thomasville today, driving down the back roads through Medart and Miccosukee and it was a gray day but when we stopped for coffee, the guy at the convenience store was so nice, as he always is, and he made fresh coffee for us.

I had one of those moments on the drive where I felt perfectly and utterly at peace. No niggling or nagging of my soul was going on, or if it was, it was under the radar-type niggling and I couldn't detect it. I reached over and rubbed Mr. Moon's neck very softly with just my fingertips and he smiled at me and my prayer was this:
Don't ever die. Do not ever die.

I was perfectly content and perfectly happy with no schedule, no expectations, just traveling down a country road with my man in a noisy blue car with the top down.

We got to Thomasville and started a bit of downtown shopping in the fancy stores but we were suddenly hit with hunger, and despite the fact that we'd decided not to go back to the All-you-can-eat-'til-you-bust-good-Southern-cooking restaurant, we did anyway.

And we didn't eat until we busted but we ate too much, as always when we go there. After I ate, I ended up spilling all my change on the ground and hitting myself with the door and I just felt drunk on something- carbohydrates? Animal fat? Whatever.

Let's GO, I said, I need to get out of here and we did and we are not going back for awhile. I promise you.

Mr. Moon took me to the Thomasville Goodwill which used to be a font of finds for me. It's an indication of the downward slide of the economy in that I can't find the fine labels I used to there and I suspect that the well-off ladies of Thomasville are taking their clothing to the consignment shops, rather than donating them to Goodwill because there were an awful lot of Walmart brand clothes on the racks and hell, the way the prices are at Goodwill now, it's almost as cheap to buy Walmart clothes at Walmart.
But I did find a picture I like and I bought it. Mr. Moon doesn't care for it but I told him that wasn't the point. I did. It has magnolia blossoms in a bowl. How can you not like a picture of magnolia blossoms in a bowl?

We went back downtown where all the fancy stores are and all I can say is although Goodwill definitely is showing signs of the recession, the downtown area is all What recession?

All sorts of SUVs were represented there such as the Mercedes SUV, the Range Rover and Land Rover SUV's, etc. And people were appearing to buy the lovely and expensive merchandise that Mr. Moon and I were only looking at. I tried to talk him into a set of Spode hunting-themed dinner ware for our hunting camp but he just looked at me and said, "What hunting camp?"
Then he got it and said, "Oh, the Georgia hunting camp at the plantation. Right." And man, that Spode would have looked damn good with grilled quail and cheese grits on it. And angel biscuits. Uh-huh.

But we didn't even buy a tureen for soup or collard greens and not even so much as a gravy boat but passed it all up and we did buy coffee. Mr. Moon and I love the coffee.

We drove home and I did air-tricks with my hand and arm out the window as we rushed down the highway and now we're home and the sun is setting and the rooster is crowing next door to tell us that fact. I suppose. Roosters just love to crow. That's what they do.

Just like Mr. Moon and I love to get in the convertible and drive the back roads and look at the old houses and pine trees and let the wind rush around us and smile at each other. We saw this other old middle-aged couple on two trike bikes (I forget what they're really called) when we stopped for gas and Mr. Moon said, "They think they look cool."
"We think we look cool, too," I pointed out, and we laughed.

Pretty soon I'll heat up some leftovers and we'll eat them on our old Goodwill china which is NOT Spode but pretty, nonetheless, and we'll be happy. Spaghetti is always better on the third day than it was on the first.

We didn't get one damn thing accomplished today but we didn't give a damn, either. It's December 20th and I'm wearing a tank top and I'm not chilly at all. I have to remind myself that Christmas is in five days. I guess I'll go plug in the Christmas tree and we'll play some cards on the porch, being glad to have had this easy day, smiling at each other and making each other laugh. The owls are doing that pant-hoot thing which sort of makes you feel like you're in Africa instead of rural North Florida and I guess they have love on their minds.

It's not Mexico where we are tonight, but it ain't bad being right where we are.

Not bad at all.