Day One of the Great American Peabody Adventure and what a fun time we have had so far! 302 miles in a little over 4 1/2 hours and we landed in Madison, Florida on Interstate 10. Standing at the check-in counter, I craned my neck to spot it! Yes! The pool! 95 degrees on the thermometer and a big blue pool. Hurry, hurry to the beautiful room! Change into my bathing suit and out the door to the pool. No hesitating here… Ah! a giant outdoor bathtub. It was actually cooler than 95 degrees I guess. I walked down the steps into the water, scanned the blueness, and I headed for the deep end and the shade. As I wallowed against the wall in about a foot of shade, with my back to the sun and a water jet caressing my lower back in 5 feet of cool water, it came to me what I did when I entered the pool. I scanned for depth and shade. I thought about what some of us do when we enter a new room: Do you seek the back wall and put your back to it, where you can see the door? Do you seek an air conditioning vent, or steer clear of all vents? Do you seek a quiet spot or a noisy spot? I thought about some of us always in the same place at church… Do you seek the right or left? Front or back? Do you stand and see where the A/C is blowing? For me, at St. James, it is to the right facing the altar about the 3rd row back. Since I got to Saint James, I have moved from the left side to the right. I think I can hear better over there…. What does it mean?
After my little pool exercising, we went into town and ate the Friday night special fish buffet at O’Neals. Ah! Catholics have a sway… how many fish fries are on Friday? There was a table with about 10 very happy ladies right behind us! (Chuck said, “it’s the Garden club”). I mean those ladies were laughing and telling stories and both waiters talked with them about “grandma!” Madison is a small town where everybody knows your grandma so you better behave!!!! Oh my goodness… After a plate full of grits, corn, sweet potato, ribs and chicken (oops I skipped the fish)… I headed for the cobblers. I missed the banana pudding. As we left, I nearly dragged Chuck back, as I shouted, “they have banana pudding!” Chuck rushed me out, pulling his ball cap lower on his face (big city boy style)…. We are now ready to finish our first day in our room with wine and a movie. It’s early yet… God bless us and you. Celebrate your happy day!!!