Laurel and Hardy Museum

On our way down to Grovetown!  Today we made the trip to a place mid-Georgia, I suppose, not far from Augusta at all, but at least a two and a half hour drive from where we live.  Maybe more, actually.  I can't remember.  Anyway, we got out the door and were blessed with no worries about traffic so much.  It was a pleasant drive through Athens and other new places we drove past south of there, like Lexington, Crawford, and Washington, Georgia.  That's where you can see the Muffler Man above, something we occasionally keep track of.  If you're nearby a Muffler Man, you should go check out this relic from the past.  The last one we saw was up in Blueridge, Georgia, about six years ago.  

He's in pretty good shape!  The reason for our trip is a tournament that Maddie is signed up for, something she's trying out in the morning.  Rather than make the huge drive early in the morning, we opted to spend the night nearby so she could get more sleep.  So we were packed up and ready for the ride down.  Here's a few pics Maddie took from the car.   

Plus, this gave us an opportunity to go and visit a museum that I've always wanted to visit!

This is Mom and myself at the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Harlem, Georgia.  It's not far off the interstate, and it's on the way, so of course we had to drop by.

The museum is filled with memorabilia related to Laurel and Hardy, and we spent about an hour there looking through the various items, and reading all the stories about these two silver screen icons.  

Look!  A Laurel and Hardy Pinball Machine!

 

Apparently, people had a hard time resisting the urge to touch a lot of things in this museum.  The end result is a comical collection of "DO NOT TOUCH" signs placed all throughout.  It's a larger room, half of it dedicated to Laurel and Hardy and the other half dedicated to history in Harlem, Georgia.  A small theater in the back actually played some biographical movies about Laurel and Hardy, including a few scenes from their movies.

They did have this little place where you could draw your own Oliver Hardy cartoon character on a blackboard, giving you this little guide to try it out.

Here's my attempt - it's a nice mess, indeed!  I was drawing this one out as Maddie and Mom were still looking around.  I had to give it a try!

Yes, I'm going to have to find this episode now!

This is the first stoplight in Harlem, Georgia.

And this is another sign telling people not to touch it.

Each year there's a Oliver Hardy Festival in Harlem, Georgia.  Perhaps one year we'll make it down to join everyone, dressed in our black and white suits with derby hats.  Kind of like this:

Maddie and I generally have to do all of these photo ops, where you stick your head in some hole for a photo.

Apparently, people have a really hard time not touching this stove!

And there it is, a Model T!  I was glad to see this one.  Nice car!

But you can't touch it.

I'm not sure who these people are inside the Model T, but they would give me the creeps at night time.  Imagine this like a "Night at the Museum" place where things come alive.  These two would be terrifying!

We sat for a while in this theater watching old clips from Laurel and Hardy movies, and watching a documentary about the famous duo.

Speaking of creepy, this monkey person did too.  I felt like it was going to turn its head at any moment and look at us!

It was a nice visit.  It's not a terribly huge museum, but it was an enjoyable trip.  I remember watching a Laurel and Hardy movie at a campground in Colorado when I was very young, and I remember laughing at it.  I still laugh at these guys.  Now Mom and I want to see one of their movies!

Afterwards, we made our way to Grovetown, our final destination for the day.  We stopped at a Cracker Barrel and got a great meal there, quite full afterwards.  We did a tiny bit of looking around the shop, got some candy, and then were off to the hotel. 

It's Pi Day, so before we go any further, I present you the latest hit single I wrote about Pi Day - this one was fun to put together:

And so with that in mind, we were out for some dessert tonight, visiting a place we heard was nearby:  Vampire Penguin!

Yes, we found out that was nearby and we so we made a trip over there for a nice little bit of dessert.  It was super tasty!  

After that, we got back to the hotel room.  It was a really nice place, a fresh hotel and a very nice room.

Maddie went to go see one of her friends also checking in, but we were all a bit tired tonight.  Glad we rode home earlier so we can get a good night's rest.  Time for some sleep.  We read tonight, and then we prayed.  Time to get some rest and time to get ready for a big day tomorrow!