Small Town, Big Nanny

A couple of weeks ago me & my friend Big Nanny were in a funk.

She was sad because her best friend Sumer had just gotten the "sell everything you own and move to Africa" call from God and actually went through with it.

I was sad because Big Nanny had loaned me THIS BOOK to read. It was moving and inspirational and I couldn't seem to put it down. It was also like reading my own experience word for word and stirred up all sorts of feelings I hadn't felt in a while.

So, there we were, in a funk and needing a little distraction. It was actually the day we usually take our kids to pool playgroup but as luck would have it, both of us had sent our kids to camp for the week. So we asked ourselves, do we really want to go to the pool with no kids and be met with a group of friends with so many kids that they'll feel obligated to share? The answer was a resounding "no". So we decided to go all Thelma & Louise and ditch playgroup for a little road trip adventure.

Heading down to Mt. Pleasant was my idea. You all know how I love me some small town charm and Mt. Pleasant it very close to school so I've become quite familiar with it in the past couple of years......or so I thought. I really just wanted to take Big Nanny to one of my favorite restaurants, The Mt. Pleasant Grille. It's got great food, a great atmosphere and killer desserts. Big Nanny chose the chocolate cake:

I chose the hot caramel sundae:

There's nothing like a little girl talk and a 2000 calorie dessert to chase away the blues. Once we had adequately stuffed ourselves we decided to venture out and walk amongst the townspeople. We wanted to see what kind of excitement this little town had to offer.

Our first stop was Doc's Snack Shop right across the street where, according to the sign, you could get a pick-me-up. What you can't see if the other window which advertised compressed air to go with your snack. Man, that Doc thinks of everything.

Here in the Bible belt it's no secret that we can work Jesus into just about anything. But this was the first time I'd seen it done with manicures.
Once we rounded the corner we found what is certainly Mt. Pleasant's shopping hub:

Yes, we went in. Yes, we saw Bob. No, we didn't stay long. But as we headed down the street we noticed that Bob actually had an even more exclusive location:

On our way out of town we found what is most certainly Mt. Pleasant's greatest tourist attraction. May I present, The Big Bible:

Big Nanny was very impressed that it was KJV. I was disappointed that Big Nanny was the first one to spot it. I've been to this town at least 6 times and I'd never spotted The Big Bible? How is that even possible?

On our way out of town I gave her the ultimate honor. She was the first one of my Peeps to get a grand tour of ZCA. I showed her my desk and the computer lab, the laminator, the teacher break room, The Ocho's classrooms, the gym-a-cafi-torium, the exact spot whereI stood to work the car-line and the playground which is best known as the scene of the unfortunate ukulele incident.

I think she was impressed with our little school and it made me happy to share it with her.

After the tour we decided to cruise the streets of Columbia. We picked up some refreshments at Sonic and went looking for trouble. Once we realized there wasn't a whole lot of trouble for middle-aged women to get into at 2:00 in the afternoon, we headed home.

We never got arrested, picked up a hitchhiker that looked like Brad Pitt or drove off a cliff, but we also didn't have to find anybody's swim goggles or listen to anybody argue over squirt guns.

It was a fun afternoon. We managed a few laughs and forgot our troubles for a few hours. I think that would make Thelma & Louise proud.