PASTORAL HYDRANTS

Four people from Fitzgerald showed up for my film: the director of the theatre, one of the proprietors of my B&B, a lady I accosted at breakfast and her friend. Despite the modest turnout, I mustered the energy for a Q&A of about 20 minutes.
The screening was in the afternoon. Afterward I drove around and took photos of the depressing town and its environs. In the poorest section of town, I encountered a man on a horse. He was riding western style and offered to let me ride, but as I was wearing a dress and he was a stranger in a strange town, I deferred. I suspect the horse was retired from a trotter farm. Any horse from a racing background is lucky to be retired to any life.
I stopped for a snack at a small diner Jon had recommended. Catfish was on the menu, so after ascertaining that it was local (Mississippi), I ordered a sandwich. It arrived looking like a cartoon meal. The head and tail were still on the fish, which had been dipped whole into a deep fat fryer then placed with the head and tail sticking out from either side of a seeded hamburger bun.
Last night I went to sleep to the chorus of the insect and amphibian ensemble and woke up pre-dawn to a dramatic concert of thunder and lightening - very lovely, especially on the tin roof.

On the drive to Madison I took photos of curious and atmospheric moments. I passed through one town that had hydrants every couple of hundred feet. As it was a very rural town, most of the hydrants were in fields of grass.
That town reminded me of a trip my friend, Theo and I took to Nara, Japan. We were in a rural area, all rice paddies, narrow dirt tracks and vending machines. There was no obvious means by which the auto-serve boxes were powered. On the bus out of Nara we met a fellow, who had recently returned from his first trip to the U.S. He was amazed that we live with so few vending machines.

As Madison drew nearer, my mood lifted, the sun was brighter, and soon I beheld cafes.
After checking into the lovely Brady Inn B&B, I went out to stroll and offer posters and postcards of TEA to unsuspecting local denizens, but instead spent most of the day in an antique center, where I bought an old brass easel that hopefully will be allowed on the planes. I set up the easel all over town and took pictures of it.
I have my eye on an alligator claw bag complete with long nails.
At dinner an elderly gentleman invited me to join his wife and their 2 friends and a son for dinner. I was just finishing my meal, but it was a friendly gesture worthy of Syria and the gracious south. Madison is the Gracious South. Hope to have a southern accent by tomorrow evening and a crowd to drawl to.