Failure 2

Jell-O Museum…seems interesting?

In this post, I continue my series on failed blog missions starting with my trip to the Jell-O Museum in LeRoy, NY. Well, it seemed like good idea at the time.

This stop had a lot of good elements to it. LeRoy, NY, is a very pleasant little town that is a bit southwest of Rochester. Initial impressions were good. The museum is located in a pleasant historical house. Furthermore, our visit started with a Jell-O cow. You can not go wrong with Jell-O cows.

Once you get by the Jell-O cow, its really all down hill from there. The museum is a self guided walking tour where you basically read endless story boards on Jell-O history and/or trivia. You get such riveting information as strawberry, lemon, orange, and raspberry were the first favors introduced in 1897. There were even old boxes of Jell-O on display. But, in the end, how exciting can any box of old Jell-O be? Don’t get me wrong. I like Jell-O. But, seeing a collection of Jell-O boxes, Jell-O molds, Jell-O art, Jell-O dolls and other Jell-O trinkets did not do anything for me.

Furthermore, the museum missed a rare chance to be interesting. There was nothing about their corporate faux pas of appointing Bill Cosby, known sexual predator, as their most famous celebrity spokesperson.

On the bright side, LeRoy is a very pleasant little town. Carol and I had an enjoyable, scenic lunch. Furthermore, the museum people were very nice and the tour was only $6. So, it was not a total loss. In closing, Jell-O may be “America’s Most Famous Dessert.” But, that does not make it blog worthy.

James Brown Let Me Down

As some you know, the late James Brown, “Godfather of Soul” and I were somewhat good friends. By that, I mean that I sat near Mr. Brown and his significant other in the Atlanta airport as we waited for our flight to his hometown in Augusta, GA in 1987. Recently, I was passing near Augusta and decided to pay respects to my old friend by doing the James Brown Journey.

The James Brown Journey starts at the Augusta Visitor Center where you get a map of all the walking tour stops. At each stop, there is a marker on the sidewalk with a QR code giving you the significance of that stop. However, the QR codes are too worn out. So, none of them actually give you any information. That was my first sign this was going bad.

Its All About the Statue

The Visitor Center lady warned us that the town was experiencing some construction and some stops may be affected. I was not concerned. All that I wanted to see was the big James Brown statue in the town center that reportedly takes selfies for you… That was a must stop…

Just in case, you were not aware…James Brown is not some colonial dressed, white guy. The above left statue is General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia. Every city in Georgia is required to have one it seems. The selfie taking James Brown statue was gone. The town of Augusta completely removed my friend’s statue to an undisclosed location. The above right picture was the view of the James Brown statue on the day of our visit.

Closed on Mondays

The construction negatively impacted most of the stops on the James Brown Journey. Furthermore, to compound the problem, Augusta seems to close all businesses on Mondays. So, most of the shops were closed and downtown was almost a ghost as well. I say “almost” because we did encounter some downtown “regulars.” I’m as sensitive to homelessness as the next guy. But, when Carol and I appeared to be the only source of income in the entire downtown…we got a lot of attention.

I did find a coffee shop that was open. So, I salvaged something with Carol by supplying her coffee addiction. However, I did see a frightening sight within the coffee shop. The shop actually served smoothies with BEETS. That is about as wrong as it gets.

Wrap It Up

Once again, I hope I have salvaged some entertainment value from my failed blog missions. The only good news from my Failure 2 blog missions was the travel distance. Both places were on my intended path. So, I did not go out of my way to see the boring Jell-O museum or the “James Brown-less” Journey. Oh well…any afternoon spent with my beloved Carol is a good day. Have a wonderful day. PT

I hope you have enjoyed “Failure 2” on Traveling with PugsleyTonks.

Here was our first installment of Failures https://travelingwithpt.com/failures/

If you still want to visit the Jell-O museum… https://jellogallery.org/

If you want the James Brown journey when construction ends… https://www.visitaugusta.com/plan/experience-passes/soul-starts-here/

Please do a Ghost Tour so that I get a commission…

https://usghostadventures.com/columbus-ghost-tour/?ref=ytmxmtg