Paradise Gardens

 

This is a picture Maddie took today, and it wasn't something any of us were thinking we'd be taking about 24 hours ago either.  Nevertheless, last night I realized Maddie had off of school today, and not only that, we didn't have any doctor appointments or urgent shopping needs.  So we were thinking what to do with the day - the earlier plan was to go to work, and possibly Maddie could come with us, as Mom was wanting to come as well.  But the weather is so warm outside right now, and there wasn't any forecast for rain, so we decided that yes, we were going somewhere.  But where?  After a good bit of deliberation about Augusta and Atlanta, we instead decided to go west to Summerville.  That's where Paradise Gardens is, a collection of the works of Howard Finster, who is easily the most famous folk artist ever.  Bands like R.E.M. and the Talking Heads put him on the map even more by featuring his art on their album covers and music videos.  Mom and I have had this destination on our bucket list for twenty years now, and we kick ourselves for not going while he was still alive.  But we did make it, and despite the fact that it is February and there's nothing in bloom, and it's been a good long while since the gardens were taken care of personally by Reverend Finster, things still looked pretty good there.  We enjoyed walking around and exploring, and Maddie was grabbing the camera for a lot of photos herself.  It's a highly unusual destination, but again, it really is the ultimate Mecca of Folk Art.  There's a wheel chair access ramp he constructed in the middle of the garden, one that allows viewing of the garden from above, but also has a lot of artwork inside it.  We were there for a few hours, and it just never got boring.  And we had the entire place to ourselves, outside of the two employees or volunteers who were at the gift center area at the front.  So we quietly wandered around the grounds, contemplating one piece of art after the other, looking at all the recycled pieces, reading the scriptures, and marveling at the creativity all around us.  It was a super pleasant visit.

On the way there, we had a brief stretch on interstate I-75, and that's when we noticed a sign for a big travel center that Maddie has been to before, at least at a different location further down in South Georgia.  It was a Buc-ees Travel Center in Calhoun, and it was about four miles off from where we were traveling, but we all decided to go there first and just check the place out.  Again, Maddie's been to one before, but we hadn't.  It was huge.  We needed gas, so we filled up there.  But this place had so many people in it, like a mall.  There are gifts, t-shirts, and all the food that you usually expect from one of these sorts of places.  But there were so many people, the barbecue just kept being chopped and mixed and sliced right in front of us, sandwiches made right there and then - given that Mom can't do the bread, we ordered several slices of barbecue, and oh my, it was good.  Maddie had a sandwich herself.  And of course, given that Buc-ees is trending with clothing items lately, she got a Buc-ees shirt with a baseball theme to it.  We even got a Christmas ornament from there!  Mom got a shirt too, which looks great on her.  We spent easily 40 minutes there, looking around at all the gifts and t-shirts, and even the food.  We posed for a few pictures with the Buc-ees beaver out front, and of course filled up for gas.  The bathrooms in this place were huge.  It was a fun stop that we didn't plan at all, but God is good, and our entire day was blessed.

When we got home, we remembered it was Fat Tuesday today.  That's why we chose to return to "The Princess and the Frog" for our movie of the night.  We watched that together, because why not?  We were pretty tired after that though, as you might expect.  Our destination was a few hours away, so that was a lot of driving today.  But it was fun.  We read tonight, just briefly, and then we were off to sleep.

Below you can see some of the photos from today, some taken by Maddie and some taken by myself.  This may be the most photos ever shared on one blog post here.  It was quite an adventure!

We'll start with the Buc-ees pics, outside, and a few of the merchandise inside.

A ladybug on Buc-ee's nose!

Maddie wound up getting one of these shirts.

Meet Lucy.  She's the "guard dog" at Paradise Gardens.

Maddie took these pics of the pets there, while we looked around the initial gallery.

Maddie used her cell phone to capture a lot of great shots.

This is the ramp where viewers can see the gardens outside from above, and of course the artwork inside.

Many, many, many mosaics.

Really cool shot inside the Mirror Room.

Howard Finster built this vantage point so we could take pictures from it.

Next come pictures taken with my camera.  You can see Maddie to the left, and Mom to the right, both exploring.

Mom had a great day today!

Mom and I with the World Folk Art Chapel behind us.

Lucy poses before we head out to explore Paradise Gardens.

Maddie and Mom in front of the World Folk Art Chapel.

One of the many large-sized Coke bottles he decorated.

Mom overlooks some of the floor paintings and messages.

Maddie took a lot of close-up shots throughout the grounds.

The famous Bicycle Tower, the one used in a very early R.E.M. video.

Maddie took several close-ups of the Bicycle Tower.

The sidewalks were filled with mosaics all throughout.

Yes, that's a giant cement shoe.

Mom in the Mirror Room.

Maddie and Mom in the ramp, looking at all the folk art.

Two Towers!

Wise words.

One of his famous Coke bottles.

It was a really nice day together, and a great destination.  We only planned to stay a little while, but were so amazed, we were there for hours!

One final look back...