Smalltown Georgia

Sometimes we stop to see interesting things on the side of the road; like that elephant near Monticello or the big old houses in Madison.  Sometimes, when Meadow's inside a pet shop, when Olive leaps into Harvey's arms, when we're a jamming street duo, we can be the interesting thing to stop and see.  And other times, between the Christmas parade and the photographers and the police chief on the Segway and the guy renovating old buildings downtown, and the alligator farmer who likes Christmas carols... well gee, everybody's sorta interesting.

Those are the 'sometimes' when you go find a reporter; and if you're in Forsyth, GA the reporter finds you.  Thanks for a great article, W, though we just have to say, Hannah's middle name is 'Story' (chuckle).

http://www.mymcr.net/articles/2013/12/04/news/doc529e6c8675a6e700759984.txt

One of our absolute favorite shots of the trip

Those are also the times when the pony inevitably will start fidgeting.  The crowd for the Christmas festivities across the street was growing too large so we cleaned up Meadow's sidewalkapples (even less desirable than the road version) and took off for the alligator farmer's place.  Actually, to be fair, E does a lot more than raise alligators; he has horses and dogs and armadillos (though those aren't on purpose) and his saddle club throws a mean Christmas party.  Thanks to E and his lovely wife for putting up with putting us up.

Can you find all the cats?

As we said in the last post, we rode a solid 25 mile day to find a place to lay our weary heads in Forsyth.  Getting to the next little town, Roberta - also about 25 miles away - took 4 days.  That's the reality of this mode of travel.  When it rains or when we just pack up late we don't get very far.  Plenty of times we're just enjoying the scenery or the company of the fantastic four and lose track of time.  Those days we're lucky to get around the bend, lucky to tick off 5 miles.  That's the way we like it... A common question we get is, "How long will it take to get to Colorado?"  We respond with something about New Orleans sounding fun and we reckon Austin couldn't be a drag, both of which are months away, but the rest of Texas is BIG and (you never know) we might stop to build a gypsy-style covered wagon between here and the Rockies.

The DMV has officially confirmed it, folks... pony's name, unchanged

After Forsyth, it was cool, rainy days and kind people that invited us indoors, away from the elements.  And we so infrequently go into detail on this blog, so why not paint you a moment from one such night?

Picture a large, tractor trailer shop.  The employees, the mechanics, who welcomed us in to use the amenities and camp out back if we wished, have gone home for the day, leaving our traveling quartet to its evening.  Meadow, being a pony from that sturdy, un-spookable stock, stands alone in the damp darkness, methodically, efficiently buzzing a circle (radius = rope length) in a grassy patch surrounding a tree just a few paces from the building.  Under the main roof, past a row of weathered tool chests, around a truck whose ~7 liter diesel engine sits open, waiting for the next shift's repairs, there's a tiny, unfinished bathroom.  Light shines out from underneath the closed door onto the grease-blackened concrete.

Inside, Hannah sits atop the closed lid of her porcelain chair, reading Pete Ramey's hoof care textbook aloud to the sleeping dog at her feet, taking neat, sketch-filled notes, looking up from her work periodically to listen to Harvey, who plunks away at the octave mandolin, singing a new lyric 10 different ways, leaning back in an old, broken office chair that was found to fit snugly between the plastic sink and the plywood wall.  Rain pounds on the metal roof.  Warm and dry, we munch our nomadic dinner; Shady Dale pecans, freshly shelled by a handy bench vise.  There isn't an inch to spare amid all the clothes - every piece we own - hanging from one ledge or another; coats on the door knob, socks slung over the trash can, all drying out beside a tiny space-heater/rotating-fan combo (whose noise initially made the puppy wary of joining us inside).

An hour of our cozy bathroom scene goes by when we hear a knock and open the door to find that the shop owner has returned late from a 'remote' (a roadside truck repair).  After an introduction, he asks us if we like thanksgiving leftovers.  We do and we did.  Thanks J&K for a pleasant end to a tough day...

And it was a tough day because we had a close call.  It doesn't make us happy to say that human error, our silly human error, caused Olive to be in the middle of the road earlier that afternoon when a large truck sped by at 55 mph.  God spared our puppy that day.  We hold each moment with her - like each moment that we're simply alive - very dear with a thankful heart.

She's ridden IN them before but this time Meadow was a horse trailer

It's not often that Olive has to go without food - and she always gets scraps from our plates - but on one of those rainy days it had been over 24 hours since her last raw meat chow-down so we stopped and knocked on a random door to ask for dog food.  And darn if we weren't greeted by the nicest guy in the world.  He'd seen us in the Forsyth paper and knew the gist of our story.

He invited us in, we fed Olive, he fed us and - maybe it was the drizzle fast turning into a downpour or maybe the approaching evening; maybe it was the charming children in that family - anyways, we just couldn't leave.  By nightfall we had set up to stay the night on couches in the grandparents' barn-turned-party-room just up the hill.  As the pony tucked into a lush, green dinner in the old fenced in dog run, we ate hot soup then played music for everyone until late.

The next morning in Musella, the gang was spotted outside an old general store drinking a soda pop and eating peanut M&Ms, Hannah's go-to munchy.

Take note of the happiest pup in the world

Roberta was just around the corner.  And it's apparently the kind of town where you approach the counter at Subway to get a 6" of something vegetabley on 9 grain wheat ... and you get that ... but you also get a place to stay for 2 days.  Thanks for taking the time to help strangers, M.  Our stint at Y's house was a bright, music playing, great food eating, epic TV show watching, blazing video game gaming, fun family event, capped off by a real Roberta Christmas parade, no less.  Y and her whole family were so kind, inspiring and giving, too.  Among other things, FCF is now solar panel flashlight/charger equipped, yehaw!

Meadow got excited and tried to sit in his lap.  When that didn't work she leaned over and whispered, "A cart, a little green one! Thanks!"

We lack pictures of it, but Meadow got to waltz around the parade route with a buddy; a tall, chestnut mare who might've spooked at her shadow had it not been overcast.  No worries, Meadow helped her through.


- FCF

Olive has 27 guardian angels.  We are grateful for every one of them so we can keep enjoying her happy "chica sonrisa".
Meadow keeps us from wearing out our welcome by eating everything in sight, so we have to trek onward before our hosts' lawns are down to the dirt.