have i mentioned how much i love this area already?

i went up to one of the little downtowns we have around here (three were suggested and i went to the one i knew but hadn't gotten a chance to really look at) and visited a teeny, tiny, 5 minutes and you're done museum. tomorrow (yes, it looks like i have the car then too!), i'd like to find an art gallery if i can find one that doesn't cost anything to get in. but, today's wonderful little trip first.

i had to stop by the gas station and get some gas, although i probably would have made it on the amount i had. i just didn't want to take chances. fortunately, the jetta has pretty good gas mileage as for as i can tell. anyway, once the car was fed, off i went. everything around here is real close. in cali it seemed like everything was really far away, but that may have had to do with the fact we were always on foot or on a bus. but out here, you look on a map and the drive itself doesn't seem anywhere as long as it looks. granted, i avoid freeway driving out here, but still. so, i got into town around 11:30 and parked the car. town is so little, that even i can walk it with my bad ankles and knees and being in poor shape and all that.

i love these little towns out here (have i mentioned that?). i doubt if atlanta itself is the same way, but the outlying areas i've seen so far are such a mix. residential homes scattered in with the businesses, greenery everywhere, old town mixed in with the new. for example, there was a large autozone across the street from a small fire station built of red brick and with this dark green, overhanging, shingle-like roof. red brick was scattered all over the place, as was stone and wood. not too many of those flat cement-walled buildings that were all over san bernardino. old fashioned awnings hung over quite a few doorways, and there were graceful archways and pillars. and even downtown you can smell that damp, mossy, fresh-cut grass smell. bells rang at the half hour and did a medley of sorts at noon. they didn't sound like most bells . . . more . . . hollow it think - kind of like a handheld cowbell but bigger and with more ring to them.

the museum was tiny - basically the upstairs room of what was a female seminary. but the stuff was interesting, even if it was really small. there were artifacts from the cherokee and creek tribes that ceded the land that became gwinnett county, including some stuff on soapstone tools and bowls. the area used to have a lot of farms and farmland and so there was quite a lot of old farm stuff. the tools were iron, cool, smooth, and bumpy (kinda bubbled but smooth) to the touch. the wooden items were smooth but ridged - i had really expected the wooden stuff to be rougher. they had the wedding outfits from a cotton bagging wedding held in 1890. really nice looking despite how they sound. a saddle there was simple but had some nice stamping around the edges, and above it were the stamps the company that made it used to print their catalogues. these stamps were about 1" thick and two of the three were almost as long as my hand. the weirdest thing there was a flax tool - a rectangular piece of wood with an upraised oval that had nails coming out of it. i also saw one of the older stoves - a big things with burners underneath that looked literally like small pots and a big white box resting on top on the right - which i assume was the "oven." for such a small place, it really had quite a bit of fascinating stuff.

after the museum, i went to lunch at a little cafe on the corner and wrote down my impressions of the area and the museum, such as they were (remember the memory thing? i'm surprised i got down as much as i did about the museum! the rest was easy - i just looked out the cafe windows). people all over were friendly - they smiled and said hi, and there was none of that cali sense that you might be putting your life in danger by saying hi back about it. and there was that "small town knows everyone" feel about the place. the waitress and cooks greeted people by name. heck, there's this paper and gift store with stationary and such where the clerk greeted a lady that came in to find a halloween gift for her daughter. i had a seafood salad croissant, and yes it was very good - though i had to bring half of it home, and a fruit salad. it was pretty gray, though the clouds looked more like that foggy overcast that can hover real low in the sky in the morning. only, this didn't burn off after lunch.

it was getting time to head home, even though i hadn't been out that long, so i walked slowly up the street back to the car, mostly peeking through windows, although i did stop at that one paper and gift shop. i took the long way around coming home and stopped by b&n to pick up a book for research. i managed to beat both my daughter and the rain in getting home, feeling pretty good, and thinking about going to an gallery tomorrow.

it was a lot of fun for being almost nothing and being all by myself. i think i just needed time out of the house.