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Saturday, April 17, 2021

We rushed through our usual routine and had breakfast at Ward's instead of Hardy's because we were on our way to Baton Rouge for the day. The hubby drove, since we had to take his truck for any statues or other concrete items we might end up purchasing. Our goal was a decorative concrete statuary place in Baton Rouge. It was a 2.5 hour drive, and it was rainy off and on the whole trip. To get there, we went down I-59 to Slidell, then switched over to I-12, which took us all the way to Baton Rouge. We arrived at our destination, went in, and it wasn't quite as big as we had hoped. On the way to Slidell, the hubby had me to call, since they have two locations (Baton Rouge and Napoleonville) so we could see which one we should go to for what he had in mind. The guy we spoke with (the Baton Rouge location) told us either place would be fine, so we believed him and went to Baton Rouge. Afterwards, we sorta wished we'd gone to Napoleonville instead. But my main reason for wanting to go to the Baton Rouge location was its proximity to Denham Springs, which has multiple antique shops, and I wanted to stop in and browse at least one of the shops.

Now, as I stated, they weren't as big as we'd hoped, but they did have quite a few nice pieces, including a beautiful 5 foot tall David statue I fell in love with. However, it was damaged (cracks around one of his knees and a couple other places), and they wanted over $700 for it. There's also the fact it would have been too heavy for the hubby and I to maneuver from his truck to where I would have wanted to put it. There was also the fact he was, at this time, planning on purchasing four statues of the same size, or slightly bigger, and he also would have to leave 2 of the four behind to pick up at a later date, so my David was just a no-go from the start. He was painted a very striking white, and his genitalia was rather well made and displayed, so I also wasn't sure how the Pentacostal family across the street, to whom I give the majority of my eggs and from whom I was gifted a lovely farm scene painting yesterday, would react to the statue. And then there was the guy we dealt with himself, who a) was not terribly friendly, b) was a raging racist, and c) was extremely annoying above and beyond the first two issues. Not wanting our trip to be a total bust, and not particularly wanting to commit to four statues there when he might find something nicer, cheaper, and that he liked better elsewhere, the hubby ended up purchasing two concrete pedastals for a couple of urns he wanted to raise up off the ground.

Once we left the statuary place, where I did take a bunch of photos (will explain them in more detail below), we went to eat at Jack In The Box across the street, mainly because I'd never eaten at one before. My gosh, they are having trouble with workers too, evidently, since it looked like 1 person, or at most maybe 2 people, were working inside and we were in line for half an hour with 3 vehicles ahead of us! The vehicle just in front of us ordered $60+ worth of food, for Jack In The Box, so that was a huge order for one or two people to handle. We didn't complain, and the young lady that took our order got everything right and was friendly, so we mostly felt bad for her (and for us a bit since that half hour took a huge bite out of our time). So while we were parked and eating, the hubs announced he wanted to skip Denham Springs and go to another concrete place in Slidell. Even though I really wanted to go to Denham Springs, I figured we can always go another time, so I agreed.

Another long drive on I-12 brought us back to Slidell, and we then headed south to Creations Unlimited, and when we arrived, we were like, "Wow!". Now this is what a statuary place should look like! Lots of selections, and they even had some Davids! The larger David was $200 less than the one in Baton Rouge, and I truly considered getting him, but that was still $550, plus tax, plus a pedastal to put him on. Also, while his face and body were as well-detailed as the one in Baton Rouge, his genitalia wasn't quite as detailed. But I still was thinking about it. Now, they did have a few smaller (4 foot) Davids, and they were much better priced ($150 for natural, $175 for the stained), and after much debate, I ended up buying the stained 4 foot David and the pedastal he stood on, so for $300, including tax, I got a four foot David and pedastal, stained sort of a bronzy color. Of course the details on the smaller one are no where near as good, but it's good enough for my little garden. I did run across a beautiful dragon that I would have loved to have gotten, but it was a little more than I was willing to pay (it was about the same size as some that were $40-$50, and I would have paid that, but they wanted $65 and, while if it were the only thing I was getting, I would have probably paid that price, I couldn't get David and the dragon both with the dragon being that price. I know, I'm cheap.), but maybe next time.

We actually stayed there for quite a while, looking around at all the items, but the hubby ended up not getting anything there. So I ended up being the big spender for the day, spending literally twice as much as he did. So once we'd looked at everything, we decided to head home, since poor Max had been in the house all day by this point. We decided to eat at Cracker Barrel in Hattiesburg, and pulled into the parking lot at 6:15. By that point, we'd been gone for about 10 hours and were tired. Hubs got the country fried shrimp, while I went for the country fried steak, and once we finished, we went on home, took Max for a walk and fed him, we both had showers, then had some personal time before starting to get ready for bed, exhausted. David can sleep in the bed of the hubby's truck until morning.

So, let me quickly go through the 57 images below! The first row is of I-12 and the hubby giving my phone the finger lol. Then there is a series of pictures of him checking out some of the four seasons statues at Baton Rouge he was interested in. He was having trouble deciding on them. Next are 2 random images of water fountains, then a picture of the hubby, and some small statuary. Then, there's a far-away image of David, then one of myself posing with David, then closeups of just David from the front, side, and rear. One thing that's interesting is that evidently Michelangel depicted David with foreskin, even though King David was a circumcised Jew. Now, Michelangelo, being an Italian in 15th/16th Century Italy, probably just sculpted what he knew lol, which was foreskin. I tell ya, you just never know what the hell I will discuss in this blog! Anyway, then there are some lions, some sphinxes, more lions, and a small David (I think he was only 3 feet tall) along with a huntress, and various other statues. One I really loved was a rabbit standing on his hind legs, but I never got a price on him and, by this time, the guy running the Baton Rouge place was so annoying and horrible that I wouldn't have wanted to give him any of my money anyway. Although I still want the big David lol. The last image there is of the hubby as he's waiting to pay for the two pedastals he got.

The next images are all at Creations Unlimited in Slidell. The hubs fell in love with Apollo at the front gate, and also with Artemis the huntress who matched him. Next is their large David, who is you compare to the Baton Rouge one, you can see the subtle differences in detail. Next is the small natural David, which is the one I almost got, but the hubs pointed out the stained one was only a few dollars more. In between two images of the smaller David are side and rear images of the larger David. I still want one of the larger Davids, either the one at Baton Rouge or the one in Slidell lol. I may see if I can order him from the Creations Unlimited in Hattiesburg. After the smaller Davids is the dragon I fell in love with. And then just a strange skeletal alien creature that I thought was hilarious. Ok, that's it for the pictures! Goodnight, gentle reader!

George