After my last disappointing flea market trip, I started thinking maybe I shouldn’t be so limited in where I go. That thought led to a search for the biggest flea markets in GA. Of the ones in the results, the most promising were in Macon and Savannah. Each was about 5 hrs away, so I filed it under "someday". As the week went on, that kind of became "maybe", and by Thursday, I was probably about 50/50 on whether to do it or not.
Friday, I made the choice that yes, I’d go up to Savannah after work, stay overnight, hit the flea market in the morning, some shops in the afternoon, and come back home. I booked a room, packed a bag (which highlights that I need an even smaller travel bag for literal overnighters), took the car cover off the TourX and steeled myself for the drive.
At 5 hrs, the trip isn’t the worst I’ve ever done. I’ve driven to Atlanta before, which is 8 hrs, and decades ago, I drove down from PA, which was probably 14 hrs. But, like many other things, I’ve quite out of practice, so it remained to be seen how I would fare.
The drive up was fairly uneventful. Unfortunately, the TourX had been sitting idle for a few months and the tire pressure was low, so I had to stare at a low pressure warning for most of the trip. I did have to stop for gas on the way up and also had a small stop for McD’s for sustenance. BTW, the McD’s was really good, but since I don’t eat near as much as I used to, I couldn’t really enjoy it.
I got to the hotel right on time, at 10:00, and climbed into bed. It was already an hour past my normal bedtime. And sleep, I did not. I didn’t pack a melatonin pill, so I blame that. The hours went by with eyes closed, body fairly relaxed, but no sleep. I tried all my usual tricks for getting to a sleepy state and none worked. At around midnight I got the (probably to be expected) loud fuckers down the hall. I don’t mean these were just jerks being loud, I’m talking about loud fucking. Like, does anyone know that real sex is not always like a porno? And even if it is – more power to you – that you don’t have to turn it up to 11 when you’re away from home? Luckily, unlike porn which goes on for an hour, this couple was more realistic in duration. I eventually got some sleep in the early morning hours.
Despite the poor sleep, I didn’t wake up exhausted. I checked out, got some breakfast, and paid for some air in the tires. Something curious that I wonder if it’s going to cause me a lot of trouble in the future is that the air pump had a lot of condensation in the air line. Like enough that it was spraying water vapor. I didn’t notice that until I had filled up two tires. I wonder how much water is rolling around in the tires now.
So anyway, off to the flea market. A quick summary is that it was smaller than I expected. The layout was like a series of buildings and outbuildings linked together. I did find one CD guy and I bought some things at the crystal place. CD guy recommended a music store a little ways away, so that was my next stop. It’s about noon at this point.
I arrive at the shop’s location and well, it doesn’t look like I’m going to get to go there. In this town, this is like a downtown area with residential homes right off the main street. None of the houses have driveways, so everyone has to park on the street. There’s NO parking anywhere. Downtown shops have no parking lots, just street parking. I did spy a paid parking lot a block away, but when I got there, the entrance was blocked by a FedEx truck that I guess was making a delivery somewhere. He blocked the parking lot entrance because there was literally no where else to stop – it was the only open area on the street other than cars up and down the street on both sides. I wasn’t going to fight it. I just gave up.
Instead I decided to go to the outlets, mostly because I was drenched in sweat from the flea market and I didn’t bring a change of shirt. I picked up a couple shirts from Columbia and then set the destination for home. I don’t know why, but sometimes, my car and phone do not want to cooperate with Android Auto and it just disconnects and reconnects over and over. Such was the case on the drive back. I had to briefly check the map to see what my next waypoint was and then let it crash.
The drive home was much worse, not because of traffic, but the on and off downpours of rain. But I did make it home only a shade over 24 hours after I left. A whirlwind trip for a couple of CDs, shirts, and rocks.
Post-trip thoughts: After my last rant about flea markets in FL, I only noticed long after I’d left that I didn’t see a single Trump merch booth in GA. I didn’t see any flags, banners, signs, or anything. Now I know GA in general is not a fan, but it really drove the point home that FL is full of the dumbest, bottom-feeding, most hateful, offensive, griftable people anywhere. That was my big takeaway from the trip is that things are better outside of FL.
The other noteworthy thing is NULL’s handling of my 24hr absence. More like his lack of handling it. I came back to poop on the carpet, puke on the floor, and one of my shoes dragged across the room to be beside his bed. He does seem to have separation anxiety.
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