Roni's Big Adventures

It's sometimes downright uncanny what happens with tiles ... Yesterday, as I was planning the tile that would ultimately end up in a local ice cream parlor, I received a message about another tile that apparently took it's own trip to a faraway ice cream parlor.

Roni was dropped about a year ago at Ernie's, the famed local BBQ spot that's been on Federal Highway since 1957. It was picked up by the same couple who took Feisty Fred, the mischievous cat on an adventure that landed him in Tennessee and got him into newspapers there. AP apparently picked up the story and news of Feisty Fred eventually came back home and onto the pages of the Miami Herald one Sunday morning.

But this is all about Roni, the woman with a fear of asterisks. When Sherry and Rucci first e-mailed about Roni, whom they spotted behind the bar at Ernie's, they informed me they could not find her on my blog, and though I was convinced I had posted every tile, Roni was not there. Not in my picture file either. So she's mysterious and has apparently found a way to live off the grid and her adventuresome spirit was justly rewarded with a Harley ride to NC.

Yesterday, I received this message from Sherry and Rucci:

"So it seems Roni had quite a trip..After some game play on the slots, she headed up to North Carolina on the Harley.

"After posing with Wild Bill Hickock, a romp in The Pisgah State Forest was in order... she looks so happy among the wild flowers.

"A trip to the oldest soda-shop/pharmacy in Brevard, N.C. and it was off to The Jordan Street Cafe. A very hip, college student type place with good drinks, great bartenders and SWEET POTATO FRENCH FRIES!! What more could a roaming girl want? Ironically, she ended up in the ladies room, where her journey seemed to have begun. We hope to find out what becomes of her. She has come a long way, baby! Sherry & Rucci"

I'm very happy for Roni and her adventures ... Better start having some of my own so I don't become one of those people who has to live vicariously through the tiles they hide on the street ... Everybody's doing that now. But look at her among those wildflowers. The setting looks so peaceful and still, she looks all freaked out. Maybe I felt freaked out when I painted her into existence a year ago. I'm kinda hoping that one of those creative types at the cafe will find Roni and paint a happier little mouth on her, and send that pic too .... 'cause Sherry and Rucci have obviously taken her to all the right places and done all the right things ... They've done all they could for Roni, so maybe she just has stuff to work out.

We all do. We'll see where Roni goes next.