The One with Milly.

For the life of me, I can't find the desire to blog when I actually want to blog. I have so much I wanted to share, but I just haven't been able to sit down and write. I also have a terrible habit of starting a post and never finishing it unless I write it all in one sitting. I actually started writing this post weeks ago and never continued writing after the first paragraph. The amount of drafts I have written with one paragraph or less is honestly astounding. I'm working on it.

For most of July and August, I had to work every weekend. I don't typically work weekends, but in the student housing world, turn causes you to do things you don't typically do. Like, working until 11pm each night and eating pizza every single day because it's easy to feed an entire office on pizza. Needless to say, I was beyond ready for a break from the property and a break from my morning alarms. And I finally had a work free weekend towards the end of August. So I took full advantage of the weekend and decided to explore this cute little town I've been living in since May.

 

I started my day in downtown Milledgeville at Ryal's bakery. I saw their page pop up on Facebook one day and almost every review was good. I decided since I love all things bakery related (read: cake) I had to find out for myself if it could live up to the hype. My cake standards are very high, by the way. I come from a family where we celebrated every birthday or special occasion with a cake from Smoak's Bakery or Balloon Delights. We never had grocery store cakes and while I'm grateful for it, it probably helped contribute to my boujee-ness. And if you're in the CSRA and never had the delight of eating a cake from Smoak's or Balloon Delights, bless your heart.

I browsed the display cases trying to decide what I wanted to get. They only had one shot to make a good impression so I had to choose my selections carefully. I remembered that people on Facebook raved about their petit fours and I personally can't think of anything better than a bite size cake covered in icing, so I started there. I also have a strong love for cheese straws (thank you Smoak's) and those just happened to be calling out my name so I added some to my order. I asked the cashier if she recommended anything that I should try and she said a lot of people love the brownies so I got a caramel brownie too. I walked back to my car and took a bite of the brownie as soon as I got inside. It was good, but nothing fireworks worthy. I put the rest of the brownie back in the box and grabbed a cheese straw. My boujee taste buds couldn't even make it through one bite of those. They were so bad I threw them all away. Hanging on to a sliver of hope, I grabbed the petit four and took a bite. Then another. Then cried because it was gone and my dumbest mistake of the day was only ordering one of those. During the first bite I knew why the Facebook reviews were so good. It was hands down the absolute best petit four I've ever put in my mouth. Ever. And believe me, I've had my fair share of petit four taste testing. I called my sister to tell her that she needed to make a trip to Milly just for this cake. I honestly still think about it every single day. And rightfully so. It's that good. If you're ever in Milledgeville, stop by Ryal's for a petit four - just stay away from the cheese straws.

After I dried my tears, I decided to walk around downtown and pop in and out of the stores. I visited a few boutiques and the bookstore. The bookstore is mostly just GCSU apparel and text books. But, they did have a section of local author books. I didn't buy any, but I plan to go back to find a good one! I have a long list of other books I need to read my way through at the moment.

Next, I found my way to the newly reopened hot dog stand, Olde Tyme Hot Dogs. From what I've heard, they have the best hot dogs ever. The family that previously owned it close the shop when they moved to New York. Friends of theirs bought it and reopened it in August. It seems to be a Milledgeville highlight, so I had to add it to my list. As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a sign that said "pimento cheese & bacon hot dog." And it was at that moment I knew I would like this place. I ordered a pimento cheese and bacon hot dog, and a slaw dog. The pimento cheese and bacon was so good. Like, I should have ordered two of those. The slaw was terrible though and I ended up throwing that away because boujee. Everyone says I need to try the chili cheese dog so that will be next on my list. My only suggestion for them would be to offer sides other than nachos (I want fries, please!) and to toast the hot dog buns. After eating a hot dog from Freddy's it's hard to find one you love as much because their hot dog buns are perfection. But that pimento cheese and bacon from Olde Tyme will keep me going back even if they served the thing on a slice of white bread.

I headed back to my side of town after lunch because my car needed an oil change. On my way there, I stopped at another boutique called Chatter. I'd heard that Chatter was more reasonably priced than the ones downtown so I had to stop. They had a few cute things, but nothing that I couldn't live without so I left empty handed. I'd visit again though, especially to browse for fall!

The rest of the day was pretty mundane. I got an oil change, went to the car wash, shopped at Hobby Lobby for my mug swap partner, and did some laundry. I did meet my sweet Mama and Daddy for supper in Gibson though. We had seafood at Raley's with lots of good conversation about football and music. That's perfect in my book.

There's so much more I want to do around Milly, like tour the Old Governor's Mansion. But I think it's weird to do that alone as a 28 year old. Maybe the sister will make a home school field trip to Milledgeville soon. I bet Central State Hospital would also make a great lesson!

Sassy as always,

AK