Well, it's my second day here and I'm pretty excited about going to the beach. I've never actually been there before, but I have seen the pictures. What a fun day we have planned.

We went to pick up Mr. Dean this morning. He's a lot of fun because he likes to wrestle and he tells funny jokes. Like for instance, What do you call a 300 pound snow monkey? Nothing! There's no such thing. HAHA Well we got gas and ate breakfast at the waffle house, which was fun because we played the jukebox a lot and I got to listen to O' Brother Where Art Thou's "Man of Constant Sorrow and I kind of like that song. After breakfast, we drove to a very small Western looking town called Parrot, Georgia. Parrot is small, but still ten times bigger than Louvale! They filmed a movie here about Jesse James and the Younger brothers. The movie the Carradine brothers in it and the Quaid brothers in it. I wacthed it with Gramps later. The movie wasn't very good, but it was fun to watch them blow up the safe from the bank I was looking at earlier in the week. There were cowboys, indians, horses and buggies in the movie, but since Parrot is actually a real town, they had to bring in several hundreds od dumptrucks with several thousands of pound of dirt to cover the paved street. This way it would look like a town out of the cowboy days.

 

       

They have something there called a soda fountain and ice cream parlor. It looks like, a long time ago, they had these long counters with twisty turny stools. A man called a soda jerk stood behind the counter and made your sodas for you, or in some cases got you ice cream or made rootbeer floats.

There was also an old bank in this town. It's an art gallery now but back in the 1800's it was a bank. They say that the combination to the safe was lost years and years ago. In the movie, the James/Younger gang blew up that safe. It was pretty awesome!

                                                                          

We shopped at some of the antique malls but didn't buy anything. We wound up at a produce/convenience store where we found some Paw Paw's Homemade Habenero Pepper sauce for Michail's Gramps. He really likes hot sauce so I think he'll like it.

After we packed it up in Parrot and headed out, we found ourselves in Dawson Georgia. Here, we just basically stopped at McDonald's for some lunch. The food was really good, but Veronica said her coffee was so strong that if it had legs it would run a decathalon all by itself. That's pretty strong! I had a happy meal and my nuggest were pretty good. They were out of toys though. That sucked!

                                          

From there, we went through a whole bunch of little towns on the way to the beach. We were driving down highway 32 from Lumpkin to Brunswick, Georgia. By the time we reached the town of Irwinville, everybody had been drinking the Gatorade in the cooler and we had to make a bathroom stop. Veronica found a nice little log cabin store/restaurant. It was neat. They had cowboy hats on the wall, and old timey pictures. The bathrooms were pretty clean there and the guns on the wall were pretty neat too. On one of the walls, they had a picture of their town's first courthouse. There were lots of people in the picture who had founded the town, so I took my picture with them.

Later, we finally made it to Brunswick. I didn't think we would ever get there, but we did get a really pretty picture of the Sidney Lanier Bridge, which leads from Brunswick to Jekyll Island, Georgia. It's a REALLY big bridge and at first I was scared to cross it, but then after a minute or two, it was kind of cool to look out at the boats on the water that just look like tiny specks from that high up.

                      

After we left there, we went downtown. Brunswick is an old town. It was founded before America was it's own country, back with Georgia belonged to the British King "King George". In the last one hundred and forty years though, they have been a coastal town with no hurricanes so that's a good thing! We ate at a place called "Willie's Weenie Wagon". This place has the best, and biggest hamburgers I have ever seen. I had the Willie Burger with fried and my tea was free. I couldn;t eat it all but it was the best burger I've ever eaten!

After we visited Michail's cousins, we went to St. Simon's Island, Georgia. I never saw such a pretty place in all my life. There were thes gigantic trees that just twist and turn in every direction. They have long hair-like stuff hanging down from them that is called Spanish moss. We went to what Veronica calls the North end of the Island first. We saw a very old church called  "Christ Church" there that was founded in 1736, by Charles Wesley and backed by James Oglethorpe. These two men were two of the founding father's of Georgia.

After visiting the church and walking through the very old graveyard, we drove down to the beach. It was really dark though so we didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked to. Still, we  had fun and Mr. Dean took us for an ice-cream while we walked around looking in store windows. After that, we got on a little bot and the captain rode us around on the water for a while. It was nice... dark... but nice.

When we finished the boat ride, we were all pretty tired from having such a big day. We went back to the hotel room and watched the Fantastic Four, then went to sleep. I alost couldn't stand to wait and see what we would do the next day!

                                  

I arrived here on April ninth at around eleven in the morning. Michail's mommy, Veronica, opened my envelope and took me out to get a great big hug. I was really glad to be out of that envelope! You think it's bad enough to get flattened by a bulletin board, you should try being folded up in an envelope for two days! Haha

Anyway, after she got me some comfortable clothes to play in, she introduced me to michail's grandmother, Grammy. They took me for a three and a half mile walk through the country here in Louvale Georgia. While we walked through this village, squirrels, chipmunks and lizards scurried everywhere while birds flittered overhead. Kitties lounged in the tall grass and on people's porches and everyone waved at us when we walked by. We saw a creek, and lots of pretty flowers and tall green trees. We even saw a horse running through an open field while nanny goats grazed nearby.

                                                       

On the way home from the walk, we stopped at the post office, where I met the Post Master, Lesha. She was a REALLY nice lady and let me play with the antique bell on the counter. I played it a little too much, but it had a very pretty sound and I couldn't help it.

                                                                              

After we got back to the house, I played on the tire swing until I got dizzy, then I swung on the tarzan rope for a while.

                                                                

After I finished playing on those things, we played hide and seek. I didn't start out too good, but I got better with practice. When I finished playing hide and seek, I noticed that Grammy has a pond with four great big goldfish in it. There are also some frogs in the pond but I think my favorite things were the flamingoes. They're not as pink in person as they seem in the pictures!

After all that playing I needed a bath! The tub wasn't small enough for me so Veronica gave me a bath of my own in the birdbath in the yard! Once I was all cleaned up, we went into a town called Columbus Georgia, which is a MUCH bigger city. There are no stores in Louvale. 

Veronica was planning a "fairy party" for her niece's visit. She was going to the fabric shop for cloth to make table cloths, and to the grocery store to buy food to make fairy recipes out of her niece Lillian's recipe book! 

                                                                      

I just really had fun driving and riding in Grammy's car. She has a Mazda Miata that looks like a hot wheel!

While Veronica shopped for groceries, Grammy and I stayed in the car and she told me all about the rules for parking lots. I didn't know that drivers in the cars have a hard time seeing short people like me and other kids. So it's important to watch for cars.

After we got groceries we went back to Louvale where we prepared a nice meal for Michail's grandfather, Gramps and it was a wonderful day! I hear we're going to the beach tomorrow, and I can't wait!

                                               

See you soon!

Flat Stanley