Usually, when I get on the road, I have a couple of books on CD to keep me company, entertaining me while I am driving for hours at the time. Plus there is always the public radio option though it seems to often be on a 'loop', with the same news/programs playing over each hour. I don't really mind driving those distances that I go from week to week, with books to keep me interested with well-crafted characters and plots. But the most recent trip was with someone in the passenger seat- a real person to converse with.
A friend from my Valdosta State days and I had talked about a trip to visit a former instructor from the Art Department there, who is retired but still living in the area. The friend, PS, really knew this art teacher much better than I did, but I was probably the instigator. As I pestered her over a couple of years with 'when are we going?' It finally came to fruition this week.
PS came down from Marietta, where she has been living for several years. Arriving about noon on Wednesday, and we left for Q-town. Where we met her daughter and two grandsons for dinner last night. Spent the night in the big, cold, lonesome house there at 1209. And drove on over to Valdosta this morning. Roamed around a little to see how town has changed and comment on: 'where did that building come from?', and 'when did that building disappear?' PS and family lived there for nearly two decades, so she was even more aware than I of how the landscape has altered over time.
PS had called the instructor, to ask if we could come visit, maybe go to lunch, and was pleasantly surprised to discover there was a show at the local public space displaying some of her most recent work. So we went to her house, and she took us downtown to the Turner Center, walked and talked us through her painting, inspired by recent trips to Norway, Italy, France. (yeah - I know, must be nice....) Then we went to lunch, and had a nice visit.
We drove around and through the campus of the college/university and were amazed at how much it has changed. Lots of big new buildings, that the board of regents somehow managed to squeeze in a space that looked full decades ago when we were students there. If you wonder where you tax dollars are going, (other than providing room, board, health care for the incarcerated) visit any nearby public college campus. You will be astounded at the building programs that are underway - bricks and mortar, stucco and Spanish tile roofs at it's finest.
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