Bob's Blah Blog:
WE ARE HOME!! HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGITY JIG!
P.S...we ate real Mexican food tonight. YUM.
Bobo
Friday, November 2, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Bob’s Blah Blog:
Ok, where did I leave off? Oh, yes…New Mexico. We visited Santa Fe, NM. Corinne was there many, many years ago and ‘I have never have.’ We walked around the town square, if you want to call it that. It is bordered on one side by the Palaces of the Governors, shops on the others. Corinne left her “reglar” glasses in the truck, so we didn’t tour the museum. She said she wouldn’t be able to read the display placards. Funny, she and Moe never read those placards when they are in a museum. Know who reads them? Bobo reads them. The girls race through the museums and I take my time, finishing maybe two – three hours later, but so much more “smarter than when I starter.”
We had lunch at a very up-scale restaurant in the “La Henry Fonda.” Ok, it wasn’t La Henry Fonda, just La Fonda, but I call it Henry. Walking into the restaurant, it reminded me of going into Pea Soup Anderssons’ pea soup restaurant in California. Just the setup took me back in years to the famous pea soup place. At Henry, Corinne ordered her enchiladas and I ordered the Pueblozuela Combinationes which included a tamale, chile relleno, and an enchilada, all smothered in green chile sauce. Of course, both plates came with pasole, beans and rice, I mean pasoleo, beanos and riceo. Very good meals. We also had chips and salsa (kind of hot – YES!) and “sofapillows”… those pasteries that are hollow and you put honey into.
The waiter tried to serve me fajitas, but I didn’t order fajitas. He took it back to the kitchen and I had to wait about 7 minutes for my combinationes plate. But it was worth it. We also had flavored ice tea which the waiter deducted one of them to make up for his mistake of charging me for the fajitas. Net savings...$1.50. Now that’s how restaurants should reward customers for making them wait. I recommend LaFonda just for that reason.
Next we visited the Catholic Church across the street. Not because we were “stuffed monkeys” from eating Mexican food and needed a place to sleep, but because it is both a working church and museum. Very pretty church and interesting. Because it is a museum, Corinne hustled through it while I read stuff. At one point, I couldn’t find her, but then she poked her head out from behind a pillar and there she was.
We left the church and arrived back to the city-run parking lot we parked the big rig at. Cost was $1.80 per hour to park and I had paid $3.60 to park for two hours, not knowing how long we were going to be walking around. We got back to the lot 10 minutes past the two hours. I figured another buck-eighty was going to be due, but the lot attendant, (I think her name was Lotta Caros), just waved us through, free of charge. Net savings…$1.80. I recommend this parking lot just for that reason.
We next stopped at a post office to write post cards to home. I had found a card with four monkeys on it. One was riding a tricycle pulling a wagon (“You got three waaggons?”) with three monkeys riding in it. Each monkey was a different variety. I thought my mom would enjoy this card and wrote asking her to send bail-o money-o to Mexico. I signed the card for my brothers Charlie-o, Jamie-o, Danny-o and Pabl-o. Honestly, those monkeys looked just like my brothers and it was being redundant to write their names on it as my mom will recognize them, as any mom recognizes her primates..er, I mean “chillins.” (I will probably get my butt-kicked for this.)
We visited the National Cemetery in Santa Fe. Something peaceful about being in a military cemetery…so solemn.
We drove up to Los Alamos, NM to see the town. We saw the town and not much else. I think we were either in the wrong Los Alamos, NM or just not in the right place. We ended up going to a movie to see Rendition, which was not too bad a movie. Spy-stuff.
The next morning, we broke camp and headed to Arizona. We got as far as Winslow, which is amazing since we really didn’t leave Santa Fe, NM until around 2 pm when all is said and done. We stopped for lunch at an Arby’s because they offered free WIFI and Corinne needed to get onto high speed internet to finish some Lodge business. Two guys in suits came into the Arby’s and had lunch. I made them out to be Popo because they acted like Popo. I don’t know if they were feds or locals, tho.
In Winslow, we camped at Homolovi Ruins State Park outside of Winslow. We were one of about 6 campers. We had a great view of Winslow and the high desert. The worst part of this park is the access road into it. Some moron thought it would be good to install “poor-man” speed bumps every 50 feet or so. Poor-man speed bumps are slots cut across the asphalt. Some of these slots are wide enough to swallow up a small vehicle, in fact, I believe I drove over the top of a VW in one of them. Anyways, these slots really jolt the axles and wheels and cause folks to drive really slow if they don’t want to rattle all the fillings out of their tooths. I will make a phone call or write a letter to the Parks Department to complain about these grand canyon crevices. Totally unnecessary…the slots, not my complaining.
We visited the Winslow cemetery to find some more gravesites. We found almost all we were looking for. Corinne had a lot of family from the area, dating back into the 1920’s. One of her ancestor's headstone was just a 2 inch metal pipe sticking out of the ground with his initials etched on it. Interesting. Maybe I will cast some concrete and scribe his info into it and replace the pipe. His name was John Thomas McComas. Maybe some of you are familiar with the name as the book titled “Massacre on the Lordsburg Road” by Marc Simmons, a true story about Judge McComas and family being murdered by “Chato” the Apache, and his band of renegade cohorts.
Bob-servations:
I found a headstone which read “Guest.” No thank you, I’ll stay at a Best Western, please.
Saw a motorhome with a large swamp cooler affixed to the rear of it. Now that is high class. I am so jealous. Photo taken.
Movin’ on. Leaving Winslow we were headed home. We decided we just hadn’t had enough of being on the road, so we decided to spend one more night camping. Dead Horse Ranch in Cottonwood, AZ came to mind after I spoke with friend Bill Y from the House. Bill, this place is every bit as nice as you said. And, convenient to Cottonwood. We will have to come up here with you and Carol. PS…they have a nice group camping area if anyone is interested in having a round-up weekend sometime. We sat outside for awhile last night and looked at the lights of Jerome. A wonderful sunset with wispy clouds coming over the top of them.
Well. I believe Corinne is now up. I hear the shower running.
This will probably be my last blog for this trip…or not. I may summarize our adventure…or not. Anyway, we passed the 15,000 mile mark just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. It has been a great adventure. I couldn’t have asked for a better travel companion, (Corinne), and I’m 45.18% certain she feels the same about me. The friends we met and made along the way, the scenery we saw, the food we ate, the grog we drank, the humidity, the rain, cold, hot and warm. And of course, my “blogger posse” who kept me writing by letting me know they enjoyed my nonsense. Signed copies are available at a nominal fee…and Christmas is coming up. Makes a great stocking stuffer or gift for that hard-to-buy-for family member. Shyeah!
Corinne will post more photo albums as she has time.
Next week, we go racin’ at PIR, so I guess this adventure really isn’t over at all.
Happy tales…I mean trails.
Bobo, Corinne, and “the Queen”
Ok, where did I leave off? Oh, yes…New Mexico. We visited Santa Fe, NM. Corinne was there many, many years ago and ‘I have never have.’ We walked around the town square, if you want to call it that. It is bordered on one side by the Palaces of the Governors, shops on the others. Corinne left her “reglar” glasses in the truck, so we didn’t tour the museum. She said she wouldn’t be able to read the display placards. Funny, she and Moe never read those placards when they are in a museum. Know who reads them? Bobo reads them. The girls race through the museums and I take my time, finishing maybe two – three hours later, but so much more “smarter than when I starter.”
We had lunch at a very up-scale restaurant in the “La Henry Fonda.” Ok, it wasn’t La Henry Fonda, just La Fonda, but I call it Henry. Walking into the restaurant, it reminded me of going into Pea Soup Anderssons’ pea soup restaurant in California. Just the setup took me back in years to the famous pea soup place. At Henry, Corinne ordered her enchiladas and I ordered the Pueblozuela Combinationes which included a tamale, chile relleno, and an enchilada, all smothered in green chile sauce. Of course, both plates came with pasole, beans and rice, I mean pasoleo, beanos and riceo. Very good meals. We also had chips and salsa (kind of hot – YES!) and “sofapillows”… those pasteries that are hollow and you put honey into.
The waiter tried to serve me fajitas, but I didn’t order fajitas. He took it back to the kitchen and I had to wait about 7 minutes for my combinationes plate. But it was worth it. We also had flavored ice tea which the waiter deducted one of them to make up for his mistake of charging me for the fajitas. Net savings...$1.50. Now that’s how restaurants should reward customers for making them wait. I recommend LaFonda just for that reason.
Next we visited the Catholic Church across the street. Not because we were “stuffed monkeys” from eating Mexican food and needed a place to sleep, but because it is both a working church and museum. Very pretty church and interesting. Because it is a museum, Corinne hustled through it while I read stuff. At one point, I couldn’t find her, but then she poked her head out from behind a pillar and there she was.
We left the church and arrived back to the city-run parking lot we parked the big rig at. Cost was $1.80 per hour to park and I had paid $3.60 to park for two hours, not knowing how long we were going to be walking around. We got back to the lot 10 minutes past the two hours. I figured another buck-eighty was going to be due, but the lot attendant, (I think her name was Lotta Caros), just waved us through, free of charge. Net savings…$1.80. I recommend this parking lot just for that reason.
We next stopped at a post office to write post cards to home. I had found a card with four monkeys on it. One was riding a tricycle pulling a wagon (“You got three waaggons?”) with three monkeys riding in it. Each monkey was a different variety. I thought my mom would enjoy this card and wrote asking her to send bail-o money-o to Mexico. I signed the card for my brothers Charlie-o, Jamie-o, Danny-o and Pabl-o. Honestly, those monkeys looked just like my brothers and it was being redundant to write their names on it as my mom will recognize them, as any mom recognizes her primates..er, I mean “chillins.” (I will probably get my butt-kicked for this.)
We visited the National Cemetery in Santa Fe. Something peaceful about being in a military cemetery…so solemn.
We drove up to Los Alamos, NM to see the town. We saw the town and not much else. I think we were either in the wrong Los Alamos, NM or just not in the right place. We ended up going to a movie to see Rendition, which was not too bad a movie. Spy-stuff.
The next morning, we broke camp and headed to Arizona. We got as far as Winslow, which is amazing since we really didn’t leave Santa Fe, NM until around 2 pm when all is said and done. We stopped for lunch at an Arby’s because they offered free WIFI and Corinne needed to get onto high speed internet to finish some Lodge business. Two guys in suits came into the Arby’s and had lunch. I made them out to be Popo because they acted like Popo. I don’t know if they were feds or locals, tho.
In Winslow, we camped at Homolovi Ruins State Park outside of Winslow. We were one of about 6 campers. We had a great view of Winslow and the high desert. The worst part of this park is the access road into it. Some moron thought it would be good to install “poor-man” speed bumps every 50 feet or so. Poor-man speed bumps are slots cut across the asphalt. Some of these slots are wide enough to swallow up a small vehicle, in fact, I believe I drove over the top of a VW in one of them. Anyways, these slots really jolt the axles and wheels and cause folks to drive really slow if they don’t want to rattle all the fillings out of their tooths. I will make a phone call or write a letter to the Parks Department to complain about these grand canyon crevices. Totally unnecessary…the slots, not my complaining.
We visited the Winslow cemetery to find some more gravesites. We found almost all we were looking for. Corinne had a lot of family from the area, dating back into the 1920’s. One of her ancestor's headstone was just a 2 inch metal pipe sticking out of the ground with his initials etched on it. Interesting. Maybe I will cast some concrete and scribe his info into it and replace the pipe. His name was John Thomas McComas. Maybe some of you are familiar with the name as the book titled “Massacre on the Lordsburg Road” by Marc Simmons, a true story about Judge McComas and family being murdered by “Chato” the Apache, and his band of renegade cohorts.
Bob-servations:
I found a headstone which read “Guest.” No thank you, I’ll stay at a Best Western, please.
Saw a motorhome with a large swamp cooler affixed to the rear of it. Now that is high class. I am so jealous. Photo taken.
Movin’ on. Leaving Winslow we were headed home. We decided we just hadn’t had enough of being on the road, so we decided to spend one more night camping. Dead Horse Ranch in Cottonwood, AZ came to mind after I spoke with friend Bill Y from the House. Bill, this place is every bit as nice as you said. And, convenient to Cottonwood. We will have to come up here with you and Carol. PS…they have a nice group camping area if anyone is interested in having a round-up weekend sometime. We sat outside for awhile last night and looked at the lights of Jerome. A wonderful sunset with wispy clouds coming over the top of them.
Well. I believe Corinne is now up. I hear the shower running.
This will probably be my last blog for this trip…or not. I may summarize our adventure…or not. Anyway, we passed the 15,000 mile mark just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. It has been a great adventure. I couldn’t have asked for a better travel companion, (Corinne), and I’m 45.18% certain she feels the same about me. The friends we met and made along the way, the scenery we saw, the food we ate, the grog we drank, the humidity, the rain, cold, hot and warm. And of course, my “blogger posse” who kept me writing by letting me know they enjoyed my nonsense. Signed copies are available at a nominal fee…and Christmas is coming up. Makes a great stocking stuffer or gift for that hard-to-buy-for family member. Shyeah!
Corinne will post more photo albums as she has time.
Next week, we go racin’ at PIR, so I guess this adventure really isn’t over at all.
Happy tales…I mean trails.
Bobo, Corinne, and “the Queen”
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Ok, here we go again. I will try to recall all I wrote about in the mystery log that vanished. Let me warn you ahead of time, it will not be as good as what I lost. Someone (and I mean Corinne)says I should write my blog in Word and then cut anc copy to the blog. Its my own fault if it gets lost. Thanks for the kind words.
Everyone, well not everyone, most people, no, that's not true either, some friends, no, one or two, nah, somebody, nope, ok, Moe keeps asking when we are gonna be home. At this time and place I can definately tell her and anyone else who might be interested, we will be home no later than Friday, this week...or not. Absolutely, positively...maybe.
Bob-servations:
A street in Arcadia, OK is named Odor Street. Wish I lived on a street named Odor. as rockers Lynard Skynard sang: "Oooo, that smell, can't you smell that smell?" Located on Odor street is the post office...'nuff said.
Read a marriage document at the historical center. A man by the name of Ben Man To You was being married to a woman named Young Now. After the marriage, she would then be called Mrs. Young Man To You. If she didn't get married and was a old spinster, would she have to change her name to Not Young Now or Old Now? The man's color was listed as brown. The woman's was red. Their chillin's would most likely be reddish-brown, I presume, and be either male or female. Most liekly, they would be born naked as jay birds, which, of course, are an entirely different color and need not be mentioned here.
Does anyone remember Grandys restaurant on Grand Ave. in or near Suprise, AZ? They had country-style cooking and sold great cinnamon rolls. Well, we found one in OK City, OK and just had to stop in. Corinne told me to buy 4 cinnamon rolls, so I went inside and ordered 4 for $5.59 or some price like that. The clerk rang me up and then set off to package me up 4 cinnamon rolls. Standing at the counter with nothing else to do, I decided to read the menu board. It said I could get 6 cinnamon rolls for the same price, so I asked the clerk if 6 rolls cost the same as 4 rolls. She said no, 6 rolls cost $6.05 with tax added, or some price similar to that. I told her, I would rather have the 6 rolls for the same price as 4. She said ok and rang up the order for 6 rolls. Now, why didn't she tell me when I ordered 4 rolls that I could get 2 more for the same price? Isn't that their job...to save me from myself?
Credit Unions: Today I saw a credit union named "People's Credit Union." It was in Amarillo. I also saw one named "Everyone's Credit Union." I figure the second one is for anyone who does not fit neatly into the parameters of the first one.
Enough of this stuff, lets move on...
In Arcadia, or at least nearby, is a place called "Pop's" which sells about 400 different kinds of...well, pop. It is right on Historic Route 66 as it passes thru Oklahoma. It has a modernistic metal design to the building and canopy over the gas pumps, and a tall swirl of a pop bottle complete with straw out the top adorning the front right of way along the highway. Pops is not cheap here, so don't leave home without your American Express. $1.99 per bottle, but it comes with a complementary cardboard 6 pack carrying case worth a good .10 on the open market, .15 on the gray market and .25 in the old USSR. They are pretty proud of they stuff, but people were lining up to buy. They also have a restaurant inside. Corinne said the food looked fabulous. I didn't look 'cus I has "willpow'r".
We had lunch at Toby Keith's I (heart shape) This Bar and Grill in OK City, OK. Food was good and a bit on the high side dollar-wise. Corinne thought the prices were ok, but I'm a dollar for a hag-a-mere kind of guy. I had a prime rib sammich which came with Freedom Fries, not to be confused with those "yellow-bellied we don't believe terrorists are bad people other fries"..ok, I'll say it...french fries. Corinne had the country fried steak sammich with cream corn on the side. It was a mouthfull but fortunately she had me there to finish it up for her. We sat upstairs where we could overlook the floor below and watch the happenings. It is located in Bricktown where almost all the old buildings are made of wood, no silly, bricks. They have a canal that meanders around the buildings and have human powered gondola type boats to ferry folks from far and farther.
Yesterday, we were in Amarillo, TX and decided to do laundry. We had the Queen tell us where to go. We ended up at a "laundry mat" where there were folks of every kind. White, Hispanic, Asian, male, female, young, old, childrens and others we were not sure of. One in particular was this big, big man, well overweight who wore a leather jacket and a knit cap as if it was cold inside and out. It wasn't either. He kept busy on his cell phone and he had shirts that indicated he worked for the Texas Dept. of something or other. He must have been a supervisor as he seemed perturbed by the phone calls he got. I think he was wearing the jacket because he was packing heat, roscoe, blue steel baby, old persuader, Mr. Equalizer or whatever you want to call it. I prefer to just call it a gun. When he left the laundry mat with his clean clothes, I opened the door for him. Didn't want to get on his bad side, whichever side that was.
A sign in the laundry mat read the following warning: Parents control Your Children. No Running, Screaming or Playing with the Buggies. I agree, parents should be doing laundry, not runnung, screming and playing with buggies. they should pay more attention to their kids and not be so occupado (Note to Sandy O. Occupado is Spanish for occupied) having fun doing those prohibitted acts, their kids would be much better behaved. So parents, knock it off!
Tonight, we are staying in a Corp of Engineers campground south of Santa Fe, NM. it is called Chochita Lake, not to be confused with the Town of Chochita Lake which is down the road. We plan to be here two nights so we can go to Santa Fe to sightsee. I think there are only about 6 campers in the park. Got it made!!
We crossed paths with neighbors Les and Sonia as they traveled east to family in TX. It was nice to see someone from back home and we had a nice hour long or so visit outside of Albuquerque. Weirdly, when we spoke this morning on our cell phones, they were at milepost 325 on I-40 in Arizona,and we were at milepost 325 on I-40 in New Mexico. Is that wild or not? I vote yes.
Ok, Corinne is fixin me some din-din, so I better get into the coach and help her. I
married a domestic goddess. I am outside blogging on a pic-a-nic table and it is starting to get dark and cooler.
I have a great view of the mountains, crystal skies and can here a dog barking. That's how crisp and clear the air is here in New Mexico.
As Bullwinkle said to Rocket J. squirrel,, "This time for sure."
Bobo
Ok, here we go again. I will try to recall all I wrote about in the mystery log that vanished. Let me warn you ahead of time, it will not be as good as what I lost. Someone (and I mean Corinne)says I should write my blog in Word and then cut anc copy to the blog. Its my own fault if it gets lost. Thanks for the kind words.
Everyone, well not everyone, most people, no, that's not true either, some friends, no, one or two, nah, somebody, nope, ok, Moe keeps asking when we are gonna be home. At this time and place I can definately tell her and anyone else who might be interested, we will be home no later than Friday, this week...or not. Absolutely, positively...maybe.
Bob-servations:
A street in Arcadia, OK is named Odor Street. Wish I lived on a street named Odor. as rockers Lynard Skynard sang: "Oooo, that smell, can't you smell that smell?" Located on Odor street is the post office...'nuff said.
Read a marriage document at the historical center. A man by the name of Ben Man To You was being married to a woman named Young Now. After the marriage, she would then be called Mrs. Young Man To You. If she didn't get married and was a old spinster, would she have to change her name to Not Young Now or Old Now? The man's color was listed as brown. The woman's was red. Their chillin's would most likely be reddish-brown, I presume, and be either male or female. Most liekly, they would be born naked as jay birds, which, of course, are an entirely different color and need not be mentioned here.
Does anyone remember Grandys restaurant on Grand Ave. in or near Suprise, AZ? They had country-style cooking and sold great cinnamon rolls. Well, we found one in OK City, OK and just had to stop in. Corinne told me to buy 4 cinnamon rolls, so I went inside and ordered 4 for $5.59 or some price like that. The clerk rang me up and then set off to package me up 4 cinnamon rolls. Standing at the counter with nothing else to do, I decided to read the menu board. It said I could get 6 cinnamon rolls for the same price, so I asked the clerk if 6 rolls cost the same as 4 rolls. She said no, 6 rolls cost $6.05 with tax added, or some price similar to that. I told her, I would rather have the 6 rolls for the same price as 4. She said ok and rang up the order for 6 rolls. Now, why didn't she tell me when I ordered 4 rolls that I could get 2 more for the same price? Isn't that their job...to save me from myself?
Credit Unions: Today I saw a credit union named "People's Credit Union." It was in Amarillo. I also saw one named "Everyone's Credit Union." I figure the second one is for anyone who does not fit neatly into the parameters of the first one.
Enough of this stuff, lets move on...
In Arcadia, or at least nearby, is a place called "Pop's" which sells about 400 different kinds of...well, pop. It is right on Historic Route 66 as it passes thru Oklahoma. It has a modernistic metal design to the building and canopy over the gas pumps, and a tall swirl of a pop bottle complete with straw out the top adorning the front right of way along the highway. Pops is not cheap here, so don't leave home without your American Express. $1.99 per bottle, but it comes with a complementary cardboard 6 pack carrying case worth a good .10 on the open market, .15 on the gray market and .25 in the old USSR. They are pretty proud of they stuff, but people were lining up to buy. They also have a restaurant inside. Corinne said the food looked fabulous. I didn't look 'cus I has "willpow'r".
We had lunch at Toby Keith's I (heart shape) This Bar and Grill in OK City, OK. Food was good and a bit on the high side dollar-wise. Corinne thought the prices were ok, but I'm a dollar for a hag-a-mere kind of guy. I had a prime rib sammich which came with Freedom Fries, not to be confused with those "yellow-bellied we don't believe terrorists are bad people other fries"..ok, I'll say it...french fries. Corinne had the country fried steak sammich with cream corn on the side. It was a mouthfull but fortunately she had me there to finish it up for her. We sat upstairs where we could overlook the floor below and watch the happenings. It is located in Bricktown where almost all the old buildings are made of wood, no silly, bricks. They have a canal that meanders around the buildings and have human powered gondola type boats to ferry folks from far and farther.
Yesterday, we were in Amarillo, TX and decided to do laundry. We had the Queen tell us where to go. We ended up at a "laundry mat" where there were folks of every kind. White, Hispanic, Asian, male, female, young, old, childrens and others we were not sure of. One in particular was this big, big man, well overweight who wore a leather jacket and a knit cap as if it was cold inside and out. It wasn't either. He kept busy on his cell phone and he had shirts that indicated he worked for the Texas Dept. of something or other. He must have been a supervisor as he seemed perturbed by the phone calls he got. I think he was wearing the jacket because he was packing heat, roscoe, blue steel baby, old persuader, Mr. Equalizer or whatever you want to call it. I prefer to just call it a gun. When he left the laundry mat with his clean clothes, I opened the door for him. Didn't want to get on his bad side, whichever side that was.
A sign in the laundry mat read the following warning: Parents control Your Children. No Running, Screaming or Playing with the Buggies. I agree, parents should be doing laundry, not runnung, screming and playing with buggies. they should pay more attention to their kids and not be so occupado (Note to Sandy O. Occupado is Spanish for occupied) having fun doing those prohibitted acts, their kids would be much better behaved. So parents, knock it off!
Tonight, we are staying in a Corp of Engineers campground south of Santa Fe, NM. it is called Chochita Lake, not to be confused with the Town of Chochita Lake which is down the road. We plan to be here two nights so we can go to Santa Fe to sightsee. I think there are only about 6 campers in the park. Got it made!!
We crossed paths with neighbors Les and Sonia as they traveled east to family in TX. It was nice to see someone from back home and we had a nice hour long or so visit outside of Albuquerque. Weirdly, when we spoke this morning on our cell phones, they were at milepost 325 on I-40 in Arizona,and we were at milepost 325 on I-40 in New Mexico. Is that wild or not? I vote yes.
Ok, Corinne is fixin me some din-din, so I better get into the coach and help her. I
married a domestic goddess. I am outside blogging on a pic-a-nic table and it is starting to get dark and cooler.
I have a great view of the mountains, crystal skies and can here a dog barking. That's how crisp and clear the air is here in New Mexico.
As Bullwinkle said to Rocket J. squirrel,, "This time for sure."
Bobo
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Monday, October 29, 07
Bob's Blah Blog:
Well, I had a really great blog going. Probably the best one I have written to date. I started it on Saturday and was finishing it last night when it just disappeared. It was really, really good, too. I tried everything, including standing on my head to retreive it, but alas, no avail.
It is Monday. We are in Amarillo, going to Santa Fe, NM.
Sorry...
Bobo
Well, I had a really great blog going. Probably the best one I have written to date. I started it on Saturday and was finishing it last night when it just disappeared. It was really, really good, too. I tried everything, including standing on my head to retreive it, but alas, no avail.
It is Monday. We are in Amarillo, going to Santa Fe, NM.
Sorry...
Bobo
Friday, October 26, 2007
Friday, October 26, 007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Dorothy: "Bobo, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Wicked Witch: "That's right my little dearie."
Yes, we are not in Kansas. We have moved onto: "Oklahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain." How could two states be so musically inclined? Beats me (eight to the measure, that is.)
Ok, lots has happened since we last visited, and "lots of nothing" has happened, too...as my friend Bill Y. says. So lets get started.
Bob-servations:
I think I wrote about this in Dover or York, PA, but here it is again in Kansas. First you have the People's State Bank, then comes the Community State Bank, and as the accounts get larger, along comes the City State Bank. What next? County State Bank, State State Bank and National State Bank or is it State National Bank. Where would it all end? Universe State Bank?
Restaurants I have known: "Just Us Restaurant" and, just down the road is "My Place Restuarant."
Funeral Home slogans: Potts Funeral Home...Not only do we "Plant" your loved ones, we can also "Potts" them. Or, "You shots 'em, we Potts them." I know, its lame.
Ok, enough of that jibberish.
I forgot to mention the hand dryer in the restrooms at Poopy's Tattoos, Pub and Grub (or whatever it was called.) First, I must compliment Poopy's on the cleanliness of their restrooms. After doing your business and washing your hands, what you want to do is dry them. At Poopy's they have the usual air-type dryers, but these are super-duper dryers that blow air about 100 miles and hour. You get your hands dry almost sooner than you got them wet. Now thats a dryer. Zoom-Zoom.
We saw a Mugs Up rootbeer joint somewhere in Kansas that I can't recall. For those who might recall, and for those who don't know what I am talking about, Mugs Up used to have a drive-in on Glendale Avenue, just east of the I-17 freeway. When I was young, much younger than today, I coached both a co-ed and an all-girls softball team for St. Francis Xavier youth group. I would take my teams to Mugs Up after a game and treat 'em to rootbeer. Ice cold, fresh and dee-lis-us. It closed down many years ago, but I think the original building was standing for a long time. Anyways, I wish I had stopped and got me a big frosty mug of rootbeer when I saw it, but didn't. Don't know why I didn't, but I didn't.
We camped near a town in Kansas named Cherryvale. The park was nearly empty and located on a big lake. Nice. Saw lots of deer. We stayed there so we could be in close proximity to Coffeyville and Independence, Kansas. Coffeyville is where my maternal grandma was born and the Dalton Gang tried to pull off a double bank robbery, which failed and cost them their lives. Driving into Coffeyville, we passed Amazon.com building. Must be their headquarters or something. Huge building.
One side of Coffeyville, across the railroad tracks was devastated by a flood earlier this year. When we drove through the area, we noticed all the vacant buildings, houses, business, disheveled grounds, etc. Most of the vacant buildings had search and rescue markers painted on them indicating they had been searched for live and dead persons. We didn't know what had happened until we asked at the library. I think they have photos on the internet, so if you are interested, google Coffeyville and it will probably pop up. In some places, the waterline on the buildings is about 5 feet. In other places (low lands) the line is a good 10 feet deep. Just to make things worse, the water had oil on it from the refinery north of town. Other than the damaged buildings, they have things pretty well cleaned up.
We ate lunch at El Charro, a so called mexican food restaurant. Food was ok. Corinne's fajitas were good. Rice was no-go. Beans ok. The best part was the ice cold frosty 22 ounce beers. Its great being retired and being able to have an ice cold one at lunch any day of the week. But I got a headache from the beer, so its not all that great. I thought the salsa was tasteless. I asked for some hot sauce and it was neither hot nor tasty. I mixed it with the other tasteless sauce, salt, and pepper, but it didn't help. I called it Salsa-lite. They had actual spanish speaking waiters. I spoke to them in spanish, saying things like "esta bueno," ""si," "y" (and in spanish), and "no gracias" when he asked if we wanted dessert. Corinne was certain I was over my head and would get caught not knowing what I was saying and told the waiter so. He said I was "very good spanish speaking man" and even thought I might have been a Spaniard. So there.
We found old phone directories at the Coffeyville library and were able to find where my grandma and great grandpa/ma lived in Coffeyville. I hope the house looked better in 1909 than it does today. The grocery store they worked at is no longer standing, but was there during the 60's or 70 according to the lady at the library. She warned us she wouldn't go near that neighborhood even in the daylight. It was a pretty skanky part of town. Not really much of a town. Poverty must be the biggest employer. We got some photos of the house and vacant lot where the grocery once stood.
We visited Independence to gather genealogy info on my grandma and family, but because the town was celebrating Neewolloh (holloween spelled backwards...and an accurate indicator of their small town mentality) the Historical Museum was closed. We ended up at the County Court House and could not find any records of births. They let me, unaccompanied, go through the files to do the searching myself. The clerks then directed us to the city library. Now this is where the backwards small town mentality comes into place. They would not allow me to go to the "Kansas Room" where the records were stored because they didn't have any "volunteers" working and we would have to have a volunteer with us to view the records.
Now, we were just at the County Court House where they allowed us to peruse important government documents unaccosted, but we can't review library docs without supervision?? I was not happy and believe it or not, I may have got a bit testy with those people, whom I believe may have been from Arkansas. (Sorry if any one reading this is from Arkansas, but that's the way it is.) I asked to appeal to a supervisor or manager, but she didn't have any backbone to change things. I came about two numbers from calling the town mayor and getting him/her involved, but I didn't. Its not worth the effort when dealing with mor-ackus and a mor-oon mentalities. So, I will just have to write to the Kansas Governor to get the info I want.
We thought we might take in a movie since the rest of the day was shot. We drove to Parsons, KS, since it was probably the biggest town close to camp. We found one theatre, it was 5 pm, and several movies were playing. When we walked into the building, there was only one person working, a teenage girl. I introduced ourselves as being from the "Movie Board and we were here to do an inspection." We probably would have gotten away with it, but someone (and I mean Corinne) started to laugh. With that blown, we had to look at the movie times and pick a movie. As luck would have it, all the movies had already started and we would have to wait until 7 pm for them to restart. Not wanting to wait, I asked the girl if she could stop a movie and restart it from the beginning for us. She said "no." I informed her, "if we had actually been from the Movie Board, we would have had to shut the place down for that." Again, someone (Corinne, again)laughed and ruined our chances. We went back to camp and cooked dinner and watched TV.
Friday morning, we dumped our holding tanks really good and flushed them again to get them sparkling clean...if anyone wants to look and see. We finally broke camp at about 11 am and headed to OK City, OK. We took it slow and easy and actually drove on part of old Route 66. Along the way, on I-44, the Turnpike, I saw no less than 7 Oklahoma State Troopers working traffic. All but one of them had someone stopped when we passed them. This was all within about a 30 mile or less stretch of highway. Someone (and I mean Corinne) can't verify this because she was sawing logs, if you know what I mean.
We reached camp at Arcadia Lake, between Arcadia and Edmonds, along Route 66, OK. Nice campground. We set up then, becasue it was early, decided to go to OK City, OK to see some sights. First we went to the Capitol. This is one big building, and lots and lots of parking around the building for the House and Senate, Supreme Court and and of course, the Governor and all the staff for these folks. The governor had about 20 parking spaces reserved just for the office. They have an oil well on the grounds of the capitol.
We then went to the Oklahoma National Memorial which is the Murrah Federal Building. This is one nice memorial. They saved the back wall of the Murrah building, added a reflection pool where McStupid parked his truck. There are metal and glass chairs arranged in 9 rows for the 9 stories of the building. One for each person who died in the blast. Surrounding buildings were fixed but only to the point of making them safe. They still have missing bricks, damaged fire escapes, etc. They blocked in and painted windows black so to look as if they were still broken out. Pretty sobering atmosphere. McStupid got off easy, if you ask me.
Bob-servation:
The post office across the street from the memorial was still open and doing business at 6:30 pm on a Friday night. Why cannot they all do that?
It's now 1045 pm, Corinne is long ago asleep, and I need to do the same.
As the Scarecrow sang:
I would not be just a nuffin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
(dee doo dee doodle-lee doo)
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain!
Yes, if I only had a brain...
Bobo
Dorothy: "Bobo, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Wicked Witch: "That's right my little dearie."
Yes, we are not in Kansas. We have moved onto: "Oklahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain." How could two states be so musically inclined? Beats me (eight to the measure, that is.)
Ok, lots has happened since we last visited, and "lots of nothing" has happened, too...as my friend Bill Y. says. So lets get started.
Bob-servations:
I think I wrote about this in Dover or York, PA, but here it is again in Kansas. First you have the People's State Bank, then comes the Community State Bank, and as the accounts get larger, along comes the City State Bank. What next? County State Bank, State State Bank and National State Bank or is it State National Bank. Where would it all end? Universe State Bank?
Restaurants I have known: "Just Us Restaurant" and, just down the road is "My Place Restuarant."
Funeral Home slogans: Potts Funeral Home...Not only do we "Plant" your loved ones, we can also "Potts" them. Or, "You shots 'em, we Potts them." I know, its lame.
Ok, enough of that jibberish.
I forgot to mention the hand dryer in the restrooms at Poopy's Tattoos, Pub and Grub (or whatever it was called.) First, I must compliment Poopy's on the cleanliness of their restrooms. After doing your business and washing your hands, what you want to do is dry them. At Poopy's they have the usual air-type dryers, but these are super-duper dryers that blow air about 100 miles and hour. You get your hands dry almost sooner than you got them wet. Now thats a dryer. Zoom-Zoom.
We saw a Mugs Up rootbeer joint somewhere in Kansas that I can't recall. For those who might recall, and for those who don't know what I am talking about, Mugs Up used to have a drive-in on Glendale Avenue, just east of the I-17 freeway. When I was young, much younger than today, I coached both a co-ed and an all-girls softball team for St. Francis Xavier youth group. I would take my teams to Mugs Up after a game and treat 'em to rootbeer. Ice cold, fresh and dee-lis-us. It closed down many years ago, but I think the original building was standing for a long time. Anyways, I wish I had stopped and got me a big frosty mug of rootbeer when I saw it, but didn't. Don't know why I didn't, but I didn't.
We camped near a town in Kansas named Cherryvale. The park was nearly empty and located on a big lake. Nice. Saw lots of deer. We stayed there so we could be in close proximity to Coffeyville and Independence, Kansas. Coffeyville is where my maternal grandma was born and the Dalton Gang tried to pull off a double bank robbery, which failed and cost them their lives. Driving into Coffeyville, we passed Amazon.com building. Must be their headquarters or something. Huge building.
One side of Coffeyville, across the railroad tracks was devastated by a flood earlier this year. When we drove through the area, we noticed all the vacant buildings, houses, business, disheveled grounds, etc. Most of the vacant buildings had search and rescue markers painted on them indicating they had been searched for live and dead persons. We didn't know what had happened until we asked at the library. I think they have photos on the internet, so if you are interested, google Coffeyville and it will probably pop up. In some places, the waterline on the buildings is about 5 feet. In other places (low lands) the line is a good 10 feet deep. Just to make things worse, the water had oil on it from the refinery north of town. Other than the damaged buildings, they have things pretty well cleaned up.
We ate lunch at El Charro, a so called mexican food restaurant. Food was ok. Corinne's fajitas were good. Rice was no-go. Beans ok. The best part was the ice cold frosty 22 ounce beers. Its great being retired and being able to have an ice cold one at lunch any day of the week. But I got a headache from the beer, so its not all that great. I thought the salsa was tasteless. I asked for some hot sauce and it was neither hot nor tasty. I mixed it with the other tasteless sauce, salt, and pepper, but it didn't help. I called it Salsa-lite. They had actual spanish speaking waiters. I spoke to them in spanish, saying things like "esta bueno," ""si," "y" (and in spanish), and "no gracias" when he asked if we wanted dessert. Corinne was certain I was over my head and would get caught not knowing what I was saying and told the waiter so. He said I was "very good spanish speaking man" and even thought I might have been a Spaniard. So there.
We found old phone directories at the Coffeyville library and were able to find where my grandma and great grandpa/ma lived in Coffeyville. I hope the house looked better in 1909 than it does today. The grocery store they worked at is no longer standing, but was there during the 60's or 70 according to the lady at the library. She warned us she wouldn't go near that neighborhood even in the daylight. It was a pretty skanky part of town. Not really much of a town. Poverty must be the biggest employer. We got some photos of the house and vacant lot where the grocery once stood.
We visited Independence to gather genealogy info on my grandma and family, but because the town was celebrating Neewolloh (holloween spelled backwards...and an accurate indicator of their small town mentality) the Historical Museum was closed. We ended up at the County Court House and could not find any records of births. They let me, unaccompanied, go through the files to do the searching myself. The clerks then directed us to the city library. Now this is where the backwards small town mentality comes into place. They would not allow me to go to the "Kansas Room" where the records were stored because they didn't have any "volunteers" working and we would have to have a volunteer with us to view the records.
Now, we were just at the County Court House where they allowed us to peruse important government documents unaccosted, but we can't review library docs without supervision?? I was not happy and believe it or not, I may have got a bit testy with those people, whom I believe may have been from Arkansas. (Sorry if any one reading this is from Arkansas, but that's the way it is.) I asked to appeal to a supervisor or manager, but she didn't have any backbone to change things. I came about two numbers from calling the town mayor and getting him/her involved, but I didn't. Its not worth the effort when dealing with mor-ackus and a mor-oon mentalities. So, I will just have to write to the Kansas Governor to get the info I want.
We thought we might take in a movie since the rest of the day was shot. We drove to Parsons, KS, since it was probably the biggest town close to camp. We found one theatre, it was 5 pm, and several movies were playing. When we walked into the building, there was only one person working, a teenage girl. I introduced ourselves as being from the "Movie Board and we were here to do an inspection." We probably would have gotten away with it, but someone (and I mean Corinne) started to laugh. With that blown, we had to look at the movie times and pick a movie. As luck would have it, all the movies had already started and we would have to wait until 7 pm for them to restart. Not wanting to wait, I asked the girl if she could stop a movie and restart it from the beginning for us. She said "no." I informed her, "if we had actually been from the Movie Board, we would have had to shut the place down for that." Again, someone (Corinne, again)laughed and ruined our chances. We went back to camp and cooked dinner and watched TV.
Friday morning, we dumped our holding tanks really good and flushed them again to get them sparkling clean...if anyone wants to look and see. We finally broke camp at about 11 am and headed to OK City, OK. We took it slow and easy and actually drove on part of old Route 66. Along the way, on I-44, the Turnpike, I saw no less than 7 Oklahoma State Troopers working traffic. All but one of them had someone stopped when we passed them. This was all within about a 30 mile or less stretch of highway. Someone (and I mean Corinne) can't verify this because she was sawing logs, if you know what I mean.
We reached camp at Arcadia Lake, between Arcadia and Edmonds, along Route 66, OK. Nice campground. We set up then, becasue it was early, decided to go to OK City, OK to see some sights. First we went to the Capitol. This is one big building, and lots and lots of parking around the building for the House and Senate, Supreme Court and and of course, the Governor and all the staff for these folks. The governor had about 20 parking spaces reserved just for the office. They have an oil well on the grounds of the capitol.
We then went to the Oklahoma National Memorial which is the Murrah Federal Building. This is one nice memorial. They saved the back wall of the Murrah building, added a reflection pool where McStupid parked his truck. There are metal and glass chairs arranged in 9 rows for the 9 stories of the building. One for each person who died in the blast. Surrounding buildings were fixed but only to the point of making them safe. They still have missing bricks, damaged fire escapes, etc. They blocked in and painted windows black so to look as if they were still broken out. Pretty sobering atmosphere. McStupid got off easy, if you ask me.
Bob-servation:
The post office across the street from the memorial was still open and doing business at 6:30 pm on a Friday night. Why cannot they all do that?
It's now 1045 pm, Corinne is long ago asleep, and I need to do the same.
As the Scarecrow sang:
I would not be just a nuffin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
(dee doo dee doodle-lee doo)
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain!
Yes, if I only had a brain...
Bobo
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Kansas City, Kansas City here I come.
I say I'm going to Kansas City,
Kansas City here I come
They got some pretty redhead ladies there
but I already gots me one.
Hello from KC, MO, not to be confused with KC, KS, or KCK as they say on TV. Got here yesterday afternoon. Beautiful park built by the Army Corp of Engineers. Ms. Lynda, if you haven’t discovered these gems, let me know and I’ll tell you how to find them.
Wind blew here pretty strong last night. Coach rocked a few times. Before retiring to slumber last night, I went outside to see what the area looked like in the dark. The moon was shining bright and the sky was clear. Don’t know where the wind came from, but it arrived with force. The nightly weather forecast didn’t mention any wind possibilities. Maybe got some rain, too. Not sure.
Its just a bit after 6 am and I haven’t seen 6 am in several months. I just heard Corinne yawning so that means she must be awake. For the past few days, she has been waking up at 4:30 or 5 (in the morning) so, at least she was able to sleep in today. Yep, she's up, I see her. Good morning "my little ray of sunshine."
Some catching up...going through Davenport IA, we had to take a bypass because their bridge underpasses are like 11' 8'' high. Just as we were approaching one, the warning lights began to flash and a message board told us to move to the right lane, which we did. Howvever, as we continued to approach the bridge, there was construction and it became confusius for us to know where to go. Fortunately, a couple in a truck ahead understood the problem and waved us to follow them. Good thing, too. After getting through the detour, they stopped and asked where we were headed and said we shouldn't have any more low bridges on the route we chose. They must be RV'ers, too. Then, at a stop light, a man driving a cherry 53 Caddie pulled up along side and warned us about the low bridges, saying he drove his high profile vehicle into one and he lives there. We appreciated the heads up...er, I mean, keep your head down...advisories.
Today, we are going to visit the Hallmark Visitor Center and see real Hallmark employees actually making Hallmark stuff. I guess thats why I woke up so early. Anticipation is killing me. Corinne's mom owned two, count 'em, two Hallmarks in Kingman. She used to let me work there. I was Robert and she was Roberta. We will probably be given the VIP tour because we buy Hallmark ornaments and cards, and are special.
After a little touring, we will head for Coffeyville, KS where my mom's mom was born. Its also the location where the Dalton Gang made their ill-fated simultaneous two bank robberies in the 1890's and they got wiped out by the town folks. I think Grandma said she saw the blood stains on the boardwalks when she was young. Hope they are still visible.
Wanna know what we had for dinner last nihgt? Corinne made chicken fried chicken, smashed taters and gravy, green peas and, for 'zert, tapioca pudding. She's a good cook and makes the best gravy. As my dad would say after eating dinner, "Bow Wow Wow." Don't know why he used those specific words, but it meant it was a good meal. Wish I would have remembered to say that last night. A cook can't be better complimented than a hearty "Bow Wow Wow."
Make sure you have the hose tightly attached to the drain connection when you dump your holding tanks. Enough said about that.
We are headed home by way of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Speaking of New Mexico, did you know there is a Mexico, Missouri? Corinne's nephews used to live there at one time. People living here probably shorten the name and just say they live in "Mexi-mo."
Adio-mo.
Bobo-mo
Kansas City, Kansas City here I come.
I say I'm going to Kansas City,
Kansas City here I come
They got some pretty redhead ladies there
but I already gots me one.
Hello from KC, MO, not to be confused with KC, KS, or KCK as they say on TV. Got here yesterday afternoon. Beautiful park built by the Army Corp of Engineers. Ms. Lynda, if you haven’t discovered these gems, let me know and I’ll tell you how to find them.
Wind blew here pretty strong last night. Coach rocked a few times. Before retiring to slumber last night, I went outside to see what the area looked like in the dark. The moon was shining bright and the sky was clear. Don’t know where the wind came from, but it arrived with force. The nightly weather forecast didn’t mention any wind possibilities. Maybe got some rain, too. Not sure.
Its just a bit after 6 am and I haven’t seen 6 am in several months. I just heard Corinne yawning so that means she must be awake. For the past few days, she has been waking up at 4:30 or 5 (in the morning) so, at least she was able to sleep in today. Yep, she's up, I see her. Good morning "my little ray of sunshine."
Some catching up...going through Davenport IA, we had to take a bypass because their bridge underpasses are like 11' 8'' high. Just as we were approaching one, the warning lights began to flash and a message board told us to move to the right lane, which we did. Howvever, as we continued to approach the bridge, there was construction and it became confusius for us to know where to go. Fortunately, a couple in a truck ahead understood the problem and waved us to follow them. Good thing, too. After getting through the detour, they stopped and asked where we were headed and said we shouldn't have any more low bridges on the route we chose. They must be RV'ers, too. Then, at a stop light, a man driving a cherry 53 Caddie pulled up along side and warned us about the low bridges, saying he drove his high profile vehicle into one and he lives there. We appreciated the heads up...er, I mean, keep your head down...advisories.
Today, we are going to visit the Hallmark Visitor Center and see real Hallmark employees actually making Hallmark stuff. I guess thats why I woke up so early. Anticipation is killing me. Corinne's mom owned two, count 'em, two Hallmarks in Kingman. She used to let me work there. I was Robert and she was Roberta. We will probably be given the VIP tour because we buy Hallmark ornaments and cards, and are special.
After a little touring, we will head for Coffeyville, KS where my mom's mom was born. Its also the location where the Dalton Gang made their ill-fated simultaneous two bank robberies in the 1890's and they got wiped out by the town folks. I think Grandma said she saw the blood stains on the boardwalks when she was young. Hope they are still visible.
Wanna know what we had for dinner last nihgt? Corinne made chicken fried chicken, smashed taters and gravy, green peas and, for 'zert, tapioca pudding. She's a good cook and makes the best gravy. As my dad would say after eating dinner, "Bow Wow Wow." Don't know why he used those specific words, but it meant it was a good meal. Wish I would have remembered to say that last night. A cook can't be better complimented than a hearty "Bow Wow Wow."
Make sure you have the hose tightly attached to the drain connection when you dump your holding tanks. Enough said about that.
We are headed home by way of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Speaking of New Mexico, did you know there is a Mexico, Missouri? Corinne's nephews used to live there at one time. People living here probably shorten the name and just say they live in "Mexi-mo."
Adio-mo.
Bobo-mo
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday, Oktober 22, 2007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Hold on tight to your dreams....
Here we are, just west of St. Louie, MO. Got here yesterday after a long day of travel. Staying at a beautiful MO state park named Dr. Edward Babler Memorial Park. Who is Dr. Babler? Heck if we know, but we sure like his hospitality. We are in a town or area called Wildwood, southwest of US 61 and US 40 intersection. Really purty and surrounded by trees with all colors of fall leaves. Lots of high dollar homes around here. One has its own lake, with a view of everything to the north. Gated as to keep me out. Now that's class.
We decided we spent enough time in Moccalocca, IA and probably wouldn't find anymore information of value to us. Besides, it was getting hot again...like 84 degrees. We pulled up stakes and got back on the road again. Get itchy for adventure if in one place for more than a couple of days. We did laundry on Saturday night at a 24 hours laundromat. Nothing of consequence to report other than I put money into someone else's dryer and started to dry their clothes, again. I had to open the dryer, move all their clothes to the next dryer only after emptying the other dryer of my clothes. The two ladies had 4 dryers together, but they were gone for all the time we were there, except for the last few minutes before we left. I don't think they ever caught on to my touching their unmentionables (pink and lacey).
I mistakenly called the Macarena, IA campground we were at as Horseshoe. The full name is Horseshoe Lake Park. It is operated by the Mochalatta, IA town.
Today, we went into St. Looey and toured the Jefferson Memorial Gateway Arch. Did you know it is 630 feet to the top and you can go to the top via a 5 person per car tram ride? The tram is based on a carnival ride, something like a ferris wheel and the cars pivot front to back as it goes up and down inside the arch. At a preordained degree, a catch releases and the car goes back to level. We were able to get our tram car rocking and almost got it to go clear around its pivot axis. It was pretty cool. The elderly passengers in the car with us didn't think it too much fun, but, hey, its St. Looney.
We also had a St. Screwy fireman in our car, but he didn't know Paul, my brother. Some brotherhood. Actually, there were about a dozen firefighters on the tram and at the top. When they rotate firehouses they come to the arch to get familiarized with the building and how to get in and out of it in case of a disaster or other emergency. I imagine its just another way for them to get something for free, right Pablo??
At the top, I was really surprised and excited that someone (and I mean Corinne) wasn't fearful of the height and would look out the windows. She is not fond of heights and I think she was trying to look brave, but hoping to faint and have all
those hunky fireman fussing over her. I noticed she tried to be near the cutest, most hunky one most of the time there. There was a really geeky one in the group. He looked really nerdy, wore black horn-rimmed glasses and was skinny and dorky. Why Corinne didn't sidle-up to this one I don't know, because he reminded my of myself when I was young and not as buff and hard-bodied.
It rained for most of the day today, beginning around 10 am, about the time we were getting to the Arch. What a fabulous view of St. Loose, the Mississip, and Illignore we had from the top. River boats, tugs, barges, trains, firetrucks, cars all could be seen from up there. If you ever get a chance to come here, do it and do the arch. Money well spent, and not much of it, at that.
After the tram ride, we watched a 35 minute film on the early 1960's construction of the arch and the men who built it. Nobody lost their life on the job, and they had estimated 13 men would die while it was being built. I noticed in the movie the workers did not wear safety harnesses and some did not have hard hats on. I guess OSHA wasn't around then. After the movie, we went to the museum and saw real artifacts of the old west, actual photographs of pioneers and "Indins" as my Native American friend, Pete (Nando, Pierre) Padilla calls them. It was interesting, had quotes from pioneers, their wives and soldiers. One wife was quouted as saying about the old homestead: "Sell it, give it away, leave it...I don't care. I don't even want to ride the railroad. That schooner ship looks good enough for me, right now." Hmmmm, doesn't sound like Little House on the Prarie was as much fun as it looked on TV.
Went to see a movie this evening since it was raining and St. Charles wasn't as much fun to be in as was Galena, IL. We saw "What we lost in the fire" with Halle Berry and some Benito Bean Burrito sounding name guy. It was good. I liked it. Had some unexpected twists and turns and kept me entertained.
Tomorrow we get our little wagon train hitched up, again, and will head for Kansas City. Don't know if its Kansas or Missouri side of the river we want to be on. Will know when the wagon gets there and the wagonmaster (and I mean Corinne) says, "Whoa there, pardner, that's fer nuf fer today."
Head 'em...move 'em out!
Bobo
Hold on tight to your dreams....
Here we are, just west of St. Louie, MO. Got here yesterday after a long day of travel. Staying at a beautiful MO state park named Dr. Edward Babler Memorial Park. Who is Dr. Babler? Heck if we know, but we sure like his hospitality. We are in a town or area called Wildwood, southwest of US 61 and US 40 intersection. Really purty and surrounded by trees with all colors of fall leaves. Lots of high dollar homes around here. One has its own lake, with a view of everything to the north. Gated as to keep me out. Now that's class.
We decided we spent enough time in Moccalocca, IA and probably wouldn't find anymore information of value to us. Besides, it was getting hot again...like 84 degrees. We pulled up stakes and got back on the road again. Get itchy for adventure if in one place for more than a couple of days. We did laundry on Saturday night at a 24 hours laundromat. Nothing of consequence to report other than I put money into someone else's dryer and started to dry their clothes, again. I had to open the dryer, move all their clothes to the next dryer only after emptying the other dryer of my clothes. The two ladies had 4 dryers together, but they were gone for all the time we were there, except for the last few minutes before we left. I don't think they ever caught on to my touching their unmentionables (pink and lacey).
I mistakenly called the Macarena, IA campground we were at as Horseshoe. The full name is Horseshoe Lake Park. It is operated by the Mochalatta, IA town.
Today, we went into St. Looey and toured the Jefferson Memorial Gateway Arch. Did you know it is 630 feet to the top and you can go to the top via a 5 person per car tram ride? The tram is based on a carnival ride, something like a ferris wheel and the cars pivot front to back as it goes up and down inside the arch. At a preordained degree, a catch releases and the car goes back to level. We were able to get our tram car rocking and almost got it to go clear around its pivot axis. It was pretty cool. The elderly passengers in the car with us didn't think it too much fun, but, hey, its St. Looney.
We also had a St. Screwy fireman in our car, but he didn't know Paul, my brother. Some brotherhood. Actually, there were about a dozen firefighters on the tram and at the top. When they rotate firehouses they come to the arch to get familiarized with the building and how to get in and out of it in case of a disaster or other emergency. I imagine its just another way for them to get something for free, right Pablo??
At the top, I was really surprised and excited that someone (and I mean Corinne) wasn't fearful of the height and would look out the windows. She is not fond of heights and I think she was trying to look brave, but hoping to faint and have all
those hunky fireman fussing over her. I noticed she tried to be near the cutest, most hunky one most of the time there. There was a really geeky one in the group. He looked really nerdy, wore black horn-rimmed glasses and was skinny and dorky. Why Corinne didn't sidle-up to this one I don't know, because he reminded my of myself when I was young and not as buff and hard-bodied.
It rained for most of the day today, beginning around 10 am, about the time we were getting to the Arch. What a fabulous view of St. Loose, the Mississip, and Illignore we had from the top. River boats, tugs, barges, trains, firetrucks, cars all could be seen from up there. If you ever get a chance to come here, do it and do the arch. Money well spent, and not much of it, at that.
After the tram ride, we watched a 35 minute film on the early 1960's construction of the arch and the men who built it. Nobody lost their life on the job, and they had estimated 13 men would die while it was being built. I noticed in the movie the workers did not wear safety harnesses and some did not have hard hats on. I guess OSHA wasn't around then. After the movie, we went to the museum and saw real artifacts of the old west, actual photographs of pioneers and "Indins" as my Native American friend, Pete (Nando, Pierre) Padilla calls them. It was interesting, had quotes from pioneers, their wives and soldiers. One wife was quouted as saying about the old homestead: "Sell it, give it away, leave it...I don't care. I don't even want to ride the railroad. That schooner ship looks good enough for me, right now." Hmmmm, doesn't sound like Little House on the Prarie was as much fun as it looked on TV.
Went to see a movie this evening since it was raining and St. Charles wasn't as much fun to be in as was Galena, IL. We saw "What we lost in the fire" with Halle Berry and some Benito Bean Burrito sounding name guy. It was good. I liked it. Had some unexpected twists and turns and kept me entertained.
Tomorrow we get our little wagon train hitched up, again, and will head for Kansas City. Don't know if its Kansas or Missouri side of the river we want to be on. Will know when the wagon gets there and the wagonmaster (and I mean Corinne) says, "Whoa there, pardner, that's fer nuf fer today."
Head 'em...move 'em out!
Bobo
Friday, October 19, 2007
Friday, October 19, 007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Hey, Hey, Hey! Its Friday, but then, everyday is a friday for me. No workie tomorrow. My brother Paul said the best part of being a fireman was every day he went to work it was a friday. Well Paul, I think you were right. The best part of being retired is everyday is a friday.
Catching up on some stuff I meant to blog about, but haven't..
It seems the residents here like to burn the fallen leaves in their yards. Not thats not so unusual, but what I find concerning is nobody is out watching the fires. And, some of these fires are pretty big. One we saw in Michigan I was sure was a house fire. When we got on it, it was just a big pile of leaves, wood and other combustibles (big word) ablaze on the front lawn.
We have taken note of the numberous, and I mean numerous, bars or taverns they have here in Illinoli and Ioweya. Seem almost everywhere you go, everywhere you look, there is a lighted sign hanging from the side of a building advertising beer products. Lots of Pabst Blue Ribbon, which I must say, is pretty darn good in a bottle, ice cold and jonesing for a brewski. I had a PBR in a can at Poopy's Tattoos, Pub and Piercings (as the place is actually named) last night with my all you can eat Aye Fish Fry. I was jonesing for a brewski, the beer was cold, but it was deliverd to me in a can. Not the same as a bottle. I think my brothers will back me up on this one. Bottles good, cans better than nothing.
Speaking of the Aye Fish Fry, they had a really good fried Alaskan Pollock. Crispy filets, fries or sweet potato, slaw, tarter sauce and rolls. My tongue nearly slapped the teeth right out of my mouth trying to get to them tastee morsels. Did you know that Alaskan Pollock fish swim backwards? Yeah, the fishermen put their nets upstream and the fish swims backwards right into the nets. I read about it in Reader's Digest. (Vanessa, ask Ron to loan that issue to you.)
We have had some odd weather here for the past few nights. One night, it rained all night. Stopped in the morning, tho. Then, the wind has been blowing for over 24 hours. Blowing pretty strongly. Causing white caps on the Mississip River, but thats not really saying much because a 6 knot wind will cause white caps. But these were White Caps, not the ordinary kind. Tiny Hawaiian kids could have surfed on these bad boys. With the wind coming right off the river and nothing to impede its force, I think it picked up speed. The coach rocked a few times when hit by a gust. Today, we moved to Maquoketa (pronounced Maquoketa). With our plan to continue making our way west, we decdied if we were going to be doing some graveyard searches we might as well be closer to the action.
The last campground, Thomsom Causeway, was filling up fast for the weekend. The campers decorate their motorhomes and coaches with halloween attire, lights, pumpkins, sleletons in the hopes that the little creepy kids will soon be there. Actually, the town youngsters come out to the campground and trick or treat for the campers. I think its a pretty big deal as the campers seem to come back each year just for that.
Leading in to the campground, there is a levee between two bodies of water. Two signs are posted. One list the speed limit at 10 MPH (miles per hour for you speed scofflaws) and the second sign reads Turtle Crossing. What kind of turtles do they have here where they have to put a maximum speed limit on them crossing a roadway? I guess turtles could go 10 mph or faster if they got a running start or something.
Well, it looks like its election time all over again. This morning, I saw my first political ad. This one for Hitlery Clinton. At the end, you know they always have that little legal tag for the candidate to say "I'm Hitlery Clinton and I approved this boloney...I mean crap...no, wait, advertisement. Vote Republican and vote often.
Did I mention the squirrel I pissed-off in a cemetery? I guess I was getting too close to his nut stash and he didn't like that. He shook his tail at me, chattered as squirrels do, and climbed a big tree and looked down on me. I made noises to challenge him and that just seemed to agitate him even more. I even thought he might jump from the tree and land on me and beat me severely with his tail. I thought it was pretty funny of him to be so protective of his acorn stash, so I picked up all I could just to spite him. Ain't no squirrel gonna threaten me with certain death. uh-naw...not gonna happen.
Mean while, across the roadway and down the hill, Corinne was having a close encounter with a dear of some sort. She said it would walk back and forth past her, lifting its head to pick up the telltale scent of the dangerous redheaded graveyard walker. Eventially, Corinne said it went into some undergrowth and disappeared.
We have met some pretty nice folks along our travels...some even from Iowait. Today, we had a nice conversation with some folks who live on or near the land Corinne's ancestors lived and farmed on.
Oh, some exciting news....we think we have found the missing link (no, not that kind of missing link, and no, not me) between Corinne's family and my family. We have thought since both families came through the Iowon state, and lived in relatively (no pun intended) close proximity to each other at different times, we surely would have inter-marriage of the two blood lines. Yes, we could have found the link, and don't call me Shirley. Of course, we will have to do lots more research to confirm or deny the connection, so keep your eyes and ears ready.
We ate one day in Clinton, IA at Moe's Pizza. Pretty good pizza, even if Moe is short for Muhammed and the closest he ever got to Italy was Iran. Nice gentleman. We invited him to come sit at our table and tell us his stories. At one point, he mentioned that in Iran, no sale is completed without negotiation. The sellers want one price, the buyer another. They then dicker back and forth until they agree to a selling price. He said, even if the buyer is willing to pay the price the seller first offers, they must still negotiate. Strange. Anyway, I told him this was the best $5 pizza I ever had. At the cash register, he brought up the $5 negotiation price and I told him $5.50 was my best offer. I ended up paying the menu price....some negotiater he was. Oh, and because he was Muslim, no smoking or alcohol served. Oh, well, can't everything be perfect.
When we travel, we like to listen to audio books because I get tired of talking and talking and talking to fill the void of silence over the thousands of miles we have traveled. Anyway, the book we are currently listening to is called "Reversible Error." It is about a 3 time homicide committed on the Fourth of July. The killer placed all the bodies into the restaurant's freezer after shooting them. The newspapers started calling the incident the Fourth of July Murders. My thoughts are, if the bodies ended up in the freezer, wouldn't a better name for the newspapers to use to identify the incident be...the Frost of July Murders?
Yesterday, we went to the Maquoketa Historical Society in Jackson County, IA. We just walked in, like we usually do, and began to make ourselves at home, like we usually do. I found a name index and determined the Paup name I was looking for was in a file folder. I looked around, found the files and went to retrieve the file. Just as I was about to pull the file door open, I read a note saying I had to ask staff for assistance. I looked around and could not tell whom was is and whom was isn't. Some man looked at me so I asked him. He didn't know, but addressed some other guy at a computer with his back to us. He got up and came over to me, just at about the same time Corinne came over to back me up. I asked to see the Paup file and he wanted to know why? Corinne explained she was doing research on her ancestors and was looking for info. He said "what for?" At this point my spidey-senses activated and I asked him if he was a Paup? He said no. Corinne said she wanted info on her great, great, great (you get the idea) grandfather, Daniel. He said "which one?" Corinne said "Daniel the second, son of Daniel the first, father of Daniel the third, and George the first." (Like that was going to make any sense to him). Well, he knew just what she was talking about, and wanted to know what he could do to help us....that and us joining the Jackson County Historical Society. He was quite knowledgeable about the family, where they had lived, where they were buried, whom they married. He even said Daniel the second was so well known in these parts that he was often referred to as "Uncle Daniel" by the townsfolks. Anyway, we got lots of valuable info from him and some of the elderly ladies present in the museum...even if he almost got started off on the wrong foot with us by acting like he was the keeper of all information Paup and we have to justify to him why we want info.
Anyways, thats all for tonight. I am Bobo and I approved this blog.
Bobo
Hey, Hey, Hey! Its Friday, but then, everyday is a friday for me. No workie tomorrow. My brother Paul said the best part of being a fireman was every day he went to work it was a friday. Well Paul, I think you were right. The best part of being retired is everyday is a friday.
Catching up on some stuff I meant to blog about, but haven't..
It seems the residents here like to burn the fallen leaves in their yards. Not thats not so unusual, but what I find concerning is nobody is out watching the fires. And, some of these fires are pretty big. One we saw in Michigan I was sure was a house fire. When we got on it, it was just a big pile of leaves, wood and other combustibles (big word) ablaze on the front lawn.
We have taken note of the numberous, and I mean numerous, bars or taverns they have here in Illinoli and Ioweya. Seem almost everywhere you go, everywhere you look, there is a lighted sign hanging from the side of a building advertising beer products. Lots of Pabst Blue Ribbon, which I must say, is pretty darn good in a bottle, ice cold and jonesing for a brewski. I had a PBR in a can at Poopy's Tattoos, Pub and Piercings (as the place is actually named) last night with my all you can eat Aye Fish Fry. I was jonesing for a brewski, the beer was cold, but it was deliverd to me in a can. Not the same as a bottle. I think my brothers will back me up on this one. Bottles good, cans better than nothing.
Speaking of the Aye Fish Fry, they had a really good fried Alaskan Pollock. Crispy filets, fries or sweet potato, slaw, tarter sauce and rolls. My tongue nearly slapped the teeth right out of my mouth trying to get to them tastee morsels. Did you know that Alaskan Pollock fish swim backwards? Yeah, the fishermen put their nets upstream and the fish swims backwards right into the nets. I read about it in Reader's Digest. (Vanessa, ask Ron to loan that issue to you.)
We have had some odd weather here for the past few nights. One night, it rained all night. Stopped in the morning, tho. Then, the wind has been blowing for over 24 hours. Blowing pretty strongly. Causing white caps on the Mississip River, but thats not really saying much because a 6 knot wind will cause white caps. But these were White Caps, not the ordinary kind. Tiny Hawaiian kids could have surfed on these bad boys. With the wind coming right off the river and nothing to impede its force, I think it picked up speed. The coach rocked a few times when hit by a gust. Today, we moved to Maquoketa (pronounced Maquoketa). With our plan to continue making our way west, we decdied if we were going to be doing some graveyard searches we might as well be closer to the action.
The last campground, Thomsom Causeway, was filling up fast for the weekend. The campers decorate their motorhomes and coaches with halloween attire, lights, pumpkins, sleletons in the hopes that the little creepy kids will soon be there. Actually, the town youngsters come out to the campground and trick or treat for the campers. I think its a pretty big deal as the campers seem to come back each year just for that.
Leading in to the campground, there is a levee between two bodies of water. Two signs are posted. One list the speed limit at 10 MPH (miles per hour for you speed scofflaws) and the second sign reads Turtle Crossing. What kind of turtles do they have here where they have to put a maximum speed limit on them crossing a roadway? I guess turtles could go 10 mph or faster if they got a running start or something.
Well, it looks like its election time all over again. This morning, I saw my first political ad. This one for Hitlery Clinton. At the end, you know they always have that little legal tag for the candidate to say "I'm Hitlery Clinton and I approved this boloney...I mean crap...no, wait, advertisement. Vote Republican and vote often.
Did I mention the squirrel I pissed-off in a cemetery? I guess I was getting too close to his nut stash and he didn't like that. He shook his tail at me, chattered as squirrels do, and climbed a big tree and looked down on me. I made noises to challenge him and that just seemed to agitate him even more. I even thought he might jump from the tree and land on me and beat me severely with his tail. I thought it was pretty funny of him to be so protective of his acorn stash, so I picked up all I could just to spite him. Ain't no squirrel gonna threaten me with certain death. uh-naw...not gonna happen.
Mean while, across the roadway and down the hill, Corinne was having a close encounter with a dear of some sort. She said it would walk back and forth past her, lifting its head to pick up the telltale scent of the dangerous redheaded graveyard walker. Eventially, Corinne said it went into some undergrowth and disappeared.
We have met some pretty nice folks along our travels...some even from Iowait. Today, we had a nice conversation with some folks who live on or near the land Corinne's ancestors lived and farmed on.
Oh, some exciting news....we think we have found the missing link (no, not that kind of missing link, and no, not me) between Corinne's family and my family. We have thought since both families came through the Iowon state, and lived in relatively (no pun intended) close proximity to each other at different times, we surely would have inter-marriage of the two blood lines. Yes, we could have found the link, and don't call me Shirley. Of course, we will have to do lots more research to confirm or deny the connection, so keep your eyes and ears ready.
We ate one day in Clinton, IA at Moe's Pizza. Pretty good pizza, even if Moe is short for Muhammed and the closest he ever got to Italy was Iran. Nice gentleman. We invited him to come sit at our table and tell us his stories. At one point, he mentioned that in Iran, no sale is completed without negotiation. The sellers want one price, the buyer another. They then dicker back and forth until they agree to a selling price. He said, even if the buyer is willing to pay the price the seller first offers, they must still negotiate. Strange. Anyway, I told him this was the best $5 pizza I ever had. At the cash register, he brought up the $5 negotiation price and I told him $5.50 was my best offer. I ended up paying the menu price....some negotiater he was. Oh, and because he was Muslim, no smoking or alcohol served. Oh, well, can't everything be perfect.
When we travel, we like to listen to audio books because I get tired of talking and talking and talking to fill the void of silence over the thousands of miles we have traveled. Anyway, the book we are currently listening to is called "Reversible Error." It is about a 3 time homicide committed on the Fourth of July. The killer placed all the bodies into the restaurant's freezer after shooting them. The newspapers started calling the incident the Fourth of July Murders. My thoughts are, if the bodies ended up in the freezer, wouldn't a better name for the newspapers to use to identify the incident be...the Frost of July Murders?
Yesterday, we went to the Maquoketa Historical Society in Jackson County, IA. We just walked in, like we usually do, and began to make ourselves at home, like we usually do. I found a name index and determined the Paup name I was looking for was in a file folder. I looked around, found the files and went to retrieve the file. Just as I was about to pull the file door open, I read a note saying I had to ask staff for assistance. I looked around and could not tell whom was is and whom was isn't. Some man looked at me so I asked him. He didn't know, but addressed some other guy at a computer with his back to us. He got up and came over to me, just at about the same time Corinne came over to back me up. I asked to see the Paup file and he wanted to know why? Corinne explained she was doing research on her ancestors and was looking for info. He said "what for?" At this point my spidey-senses activated and I asked him if he was a Paup? He said no. Corinne said she wanted info on her great, great, great (you get the idea) grandfather, Daniel. He said "which one?" Corinne said "Daniel the second, son of Daniel the first, father of Daniel the third, and George the first." (Like that was going to make any sense to him). Well, he knew just what she was talking about, and wanted to know what he could do to help us....that and us joining the Jackson County Historical Society. He was quite knowledgeable about the family, where they had lived, where they were buried, whom they married. He even said Daniel the second was so well known in these parts that he was often referred to as "Uncle Daniel" by the townsfolks. Anyway, we got lots of valuable info from him and some of the elderly ladies present in the museum...even if he almost got started off on the wrong foot with us by acting like he was the keeper of all information Paup and we have to justify to him why we want info.
Anyways, thats all for tonight. I am Bobo and I approved this blog.
Bobo
Monday, October 15, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Good morning from the banks of the mighty "Mississip" as I call it.Due to a computer crash, we have been out of service for awhile. Had to procure a new computer. But, like a bad penny, we're back!
Okay, its now Monday afternoon, we are in Galena, Il, the end of the stageline when stage coaches came this way. Also, home of US Grant before and after the Civil War. And, 8 other Civil War Generals from the winning side.
Corinne found my little red notebook which was mysteriously misplaced a couple of states or weeks back. She found it under the driver's seat in the big rig when we were washing and cleaning it before the big rain. (her idea to wash it when the rain was imminent.) So, I have to catch up on some of the stuff I forgot about. Let's see....
We saw a sign near the Racoon State Park campground outside of Piggsburgh that read: "Got Far Wood." That's a good thing, nobody wants to have a campfire or bonfire using "Near Wood" which would most likely be synthetic wood, not real wood, but as near to being wood as wood would be. Now, wasn't that worth waiting all this time for us to find the little red notebook? I thinks so.
Bob-servations...
Saw a roadsign advertising a business which read: "Krapohl's Auto," followed by another sign reading "Poopiecredit.com." Sounds like someplace I would like to buy a car and get my credit from.
Continuing on, we had lunch today in Savana, Illinoise at a place called "Poopy's Pub N Grub." The food was certainly Cheaper than S#*t, as advertised.
Then, heading into Galena, Illinose, we saw a business named "Poopsie's."
I am starting to get a whiff, so to speak, of how to best name for a thriving business. Give it a name having to do with excrement.
Read a sign for a business called "Ann's Snoop Sister's Inn" as we entered into Galena. What the heck is that all about? Snoop Sister's??
We stopped at a scenic overlook that had a tower (like the forest service uses to watch for forest fires). The sign at the entrance to the tower's parking lot read: "Trucks more than 8 tons prohibited in scenic tower." Well, duh. I guess someone must have tried to drive their 9 ton truck up the ladder into the scenic tower. How dumb can some people be. Anyone could plainly see the steps would not support that much weight.
Had to take a break in the action. Its now Tuesday night and we are back at the coach. We are staying in an Illinosey state park named Thomsom Causeway. It is about 9 miles northeast of Clinton, IA if that helps anyone. Its a very, and I stress very nice park with paved pads for RV's and vehicles. Level, too. We are camped about 100 feet to the east of the Mighty Mississippi River and have a great view of it when we go outside. Cost? Glad you asked. $18/day. Includes water and electric. Also showers if we want to take one. But, its been so great these past 100 days without having to get cleaned up to go to work or something, "why start now" is what our saying is every morning. Just kidding...we say that at night.
Lets see...where have we been? Seems to me my last blog was when we were in Piddleburgh, PA. We moved westward, yes, we are headed toward home, to Aunt Harriette's farm in Indiana. We parked the big rig and coach on the farm right next to the cattle pens. Don't worry, there were only 23 cows in the pen but lots more flys. Country fresh air is what Moe always sez. She would have liked this "fresh" air. I liked it, but then again, I worked in Bugeye, AZ for 5 years and got accustomed to odd smells, mostly. There are still some odors that make me gag, but...
I made friends with the cows, particularly a brown Swiss with big doey eyes. She just looked at me lovingly and all I wanted to do was make a hamburger or steak (Swiss steak, naturally) out of her. I told A. H. I put the brown Swiss into the cattle hauler (as she jokingly called our coach) when we were leaving and was taking it with us. She said ok.
The funnest part about the cows was the conversations I had with them. I would say "moo" and they all came over to the fence to listen to what I had to moo about. They kept pushing and shoving each other out of the way to get a better position near the front and to hear what all the mooing was about. Cows are easily entertained.
No cats or dogs on the farm. No more piggies, or chickens. All the tractors are gone, 'cept a little lawn tractor, but I got one of them so I didn't need to ride it.I would have liked to ride a pig, tho.
We had dinner one night at the "Chicken Shack" in Winchester, IN. Darn good broasted chicken. I think I am going to buy me one of them broasting machines when I get home. Used to operate one when I worked at the best job I ever had - at the chicken joint "Western Kitchens", formerly a Ladmo's Burger place on 7th Ave, north of Indian School. Buy 10 hamburgers and get a gallon of rootbeer free was his gimmick.
Anyway, we had a great time visiting with aunt Harriette and the cows. We all miss Uncle Bob who passed away 3 years ago, tho. He was quite the character. Farmer, accountant, bus driver, friend, neighbor, uncle, husband and dad. What a great sense of comedy he had and always had a laugh waiting to erupt.
Moving down the road, we next stopped in Michigan to visit Gayle, (the mom of Mark Dryer), and Bo, her husband. For those unfamiliar, Mark was a DPS Reserve Sgt. killed in the line of duty more than a decade ago. She and Bo live across the street from a Lake, where Bo was born and raised on a farm. We had a great time with them, going out for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or staying in and fixing meals in the house or coach. We toured the area, meeting friends, and once visited "Anderson and Girls" farm market where we ate apple donuts, blueberry donuts and apple donuts again because they were so good. Washed them down with apple cidie. It was wonderful to visit with the two of them. Bo liked to say he wouldn't trade Gayle for a billy goat. How charming and loving is that? I got to come up with some snappy saying to use when someone asks me how Corinne is doing. I know she would be flattered if I can just think up a really good one. Too bad the billy goat one is taken.
Moving on, we next went to Illinosebleed, to a place called Merseilles or something. Its along I80 about half way across the state for those of you keeping track at home. We stayed at another nice state campground named Illini State Park. $15 bucks a day, right on the river, although we weren't on the river actually. Pretty quiet except when they guy driving the muscle car came into the park and revved up his 6 million horsepower engine for everyone to hear. It was like being at NASCAR and having someone start up their race car right next to your campspot at 6 in the morning..hey wait, that actually happened to us. Anyway, it was a black GTO or something and made lots of noise for the entertainment of everyone in the surrounding 4 counties.
For those who care, I called Rick Shoe last weekend to see if he and Joyce were available to meet with us. Unfortunately, they had a wedding to attend in Milwaukee on Saturday, traveling there on Friday and home on Sunday. We may still get together if time permits. He is doing well, plans to retire in 2 years, all the kids are out of the house, graduated from college and have jobs. Julie is married to an animal doctor. Joyce is working fulltime, too. Will update more if we see each other. We are only about 60 - 100 miles apart right now.
By the way, we are nearing the 12,000 mile mark on our journey. Neither has killed or maimed the other, although I'm sure someone (and I mean Corinne) must have thought about doing me in a couple of times because she just can't stand having so much fun. Speaking of that, we celebrated our 22 year wedding anniversary on the 13th of October. Wow, 22 years with the same woman. 22 long years with the same stinkin' man. Corinne is just as beautiful as the day we got hitched and we took off for wonderfulland. Thanks, you're the BESTEST! (Well, thanks for saying so, Corinne!)
As I wrote above, we are near Clinton, IA on the river. We have been spending time at the historical museum and found some pretty good stuff, including photographs of one of her great, great, great, maybe even more greats, grandfather and grandmother. Corinne is pretty excited about this. Its like winning the lottery, although I can only make that assumption not actually having won a lottery. Its a dream come true, much like being married to me. (at least that's what I've been told, not actually having been married to myself.) Corinne had imagined the photo would show her g,g,g,g,etc. grandpa with a long beard. Not. He is clean shaven. And handsome with white hair. Unlike me, with flesh colored hair and a black and white beard and a little ponytail-thing going on behind me.
Corinne doesn't like me sporting a beard, so I don't get many kisses from her. I do get some discouraging looks when I try to fancy my beard up by teasing it, parting in in the middle of my chin, twisting the ends. I'm just trying to make myself more attractive to her, kind of like what the male birds do when they are courting the fine female feathered fowl. I think she is a-scaried some other hottie is going to try and steal me away by promising me an "all you want" everyday kiss-buffet.
Doing laundry the other night in Fulton, Illinope, we meet some crazy lady named Marge who wanted to know if I was the guy she met at the laurdromat before. I told her no, this was my first time in this burg and first time in this laundromat. She was missing her bottom front teeth, talked a mile a minute, had been to AZ in the summertime driving with only her brassier on, and her ex-husband had shot and killed someone in Apache Junction (justifiable according to her). She said it is too hot in AZ for her. I told her they couldn't make it hot enough for me and I usually ended up wearing a jacket most of the time. As I said, she was a bubble off level (or center, if looking left to right) which just made it easier for me to communicate with her. We talked about all kinds of stuff and I gave her all kinds of crap. She sometimes caught on but it was good fun for both of us. We ended up going to dinner with her and buying at the Paddlewheel Pizza place where we had tacos for dinner.
She filled Corinne in on the details of a couple of shootings (killings) her ex-husband was allegedly involved in when they had a tavern in Chicago 40+ years ago. We will have to do some snooping when we get back to Phoenix. Marge forgot she told me her name when I first met her, so when she was leaving the laundromat, I said "goodbye Marge." That freaked her out because she didn't know how I knew her name. I thought briefly about making up something but I was good and just told her the truth. Man, I could of really had some fun with that.
Bob-servations:
Went to a couple of cemeteries today and found some interesting headstones....
There is a lot of Anguish buried in one cemetery. It is a result of death? The thought of being buried? Where they are buried? Another stone listed the name as "Goer." They may have been a Goer before dying, but they are now a goner. Two other graves had markers side by side which listed the last names of the occupants as: Yahum and Yohum. Hmmmm.
At a Ford dealership I visited along the way, I read the available accessories wish-book. In it I found the following info referring to power mirrors: Power mirrors are for vehicles with power mirrors only. Well, no duh!
Along the roadways, I have read signs with the following message written on them: "Lots for sale." Lots of what? I ought to copy down the phone number listed and inquire what it is they have "lots of" for sale. Maybe Corinne doesn't have any and could use some.
Saw a restuarant in Thomson, IL which is located just outside of the Thomson Correctional Facility. The name of the restaurant is: "Work Release Restaurant." Now there's someplace I don't wanna eat, specially if the cook is a resident-worker, know what I mean?
Saw a Catholic Church near Galena, Il whose name is" "The Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist. Can you do that? Is that allowed? Name a church using another religion in the title? How does that work? Catholics dance and drink. Baptists don't, last time I checked. What about BINGO? Corinne saw an "Episcopal Methodist" congregation. What the heck is going on? I thought the US Constitution guaranteed the separation of Church and states it right in the wording.
Moving on...Found a road in Michigan named "Coe Road." Don't see no "Bob Road" or "Bob Blvd"; "Bob Byway"; Bob Business Route"; or "Bob-a-loop". Must have something against Bobs. I did see a "Bobo Cafe" but didn't get a picture. You can ask Corinne and she will back me up on this.
Hey, a big shout out to Courtney (Corinne and Maurine's daddy)for his 79th birthday on the 10th. Also, to Brandon and the little lady for their 2nd wedding anniversary. Oh, and not to forget, Bobo turned a big 53 on the 3rd. Many a trucking company are honoring Bobo's birthday by putting a big "53" on their larger trailers. Usually, the numbers are up near the front of the trailer on the sides. Sometimes on the back of the trailer, too. Check it out. When you see one, honk at the driver and wave (use all your fingers - please) so they will know you know Bobo, too. Thanks to my truckin' good-buddies! (Miss Lynda, thanks for remembering my b-day and sending an email card.)
Ate at Poopy's Tattoos restaurant in Savana, IL. Outside the doors, for a sitting area, they had what I refer to as "Weiner Pigs." They are concrete-casts of pigs that are elongated and flattened on the top for a sitting area. One of the weiner pigs had a Corona beer next to it. I hate drunk weiner pigs, don't you?
I will finish with quote I found when we were in Utah, but I lost until just recently when I found it at a library in Michigan. The quote is by Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) and reads:
"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."
My sentiments exactly!
Bobo
Good morning from the banks of the mighty "Mississip" as I call it.Due to a computer crash, we have been out of service for awhile. Had to procure a new computer. But, like a bad penny, we're back!
Okay, its now Monday afternoon, we are in Galena, Il, the end of the stageline when stage coaches came this way. Also, home of US Grant before and after the Civil War. And, 8 other Civil War Generals from the winning side.
Corinne found my little red notebook which was mysteriously misplaced a couple of states or weeks back. She found it under the driver's seat in the big rig when we were washing and cleaning it before the big rain. (her idea to wash it when the rain was imminent.) So, I have to catch up on some of the stuff I forgot about. Let's see....
We saw a sign near the Racoon State Park campground outside of Piggsburgh that read: "Got Far Wood." That's a good thing, nobody wants to have a campfire or bonfire using "Near Wood" which would most likely be synthetic wood, not real wood, but as near to being wood as wood would be. Now, wasn't that worth waiting all this time for us to find the little red notebook? I thinks so.
Bob-servations...
Saw a roadsign advertising a business which read: "Krapohl's Auto," followed by another sign reading "Poopiecredit.com." Sounds like someplace I would like to buy a car and get my credit from.
Continuing on, we had lunch today in Savana, Illinoise at a place called "Poopy's Pub N Grub." The food was certainly Cheaper than S#*t, as advertised.
Then, heading into Galena, Illinose, we saw a business named "Poopsie's."
I am starting to get a whiff, so to speak, of how to best name for a thriving business. Give it a name having to do with excrement.
Read a sign for a business called "Ann's Snoop Sister's Inn" as we entered into Galena. What the heck is that all about? Snoop Sister's??
We stopped at a scenic overlook that had a tower (like the forest service uses to watch for forest fires). The sign at the entrance to the tower's parking lot read: "Trucks more than 8 tons prohibited in scenic tower." Well, duh. I guess someone must have tried to drive their 9 ton truck up the ladder into the scenic tower. How dumb can some people be. Anyone could plainly see the steps would not support that much weight.
Had to take a break in the action. Its now Tuesday night and we are back at the coach. We are staying in an Illinosey state park named Thomsom Causeway. It is about 9 miles northeast of Clinton, IA if that helps anyone. Its a very, and I stress very nice park with paved pads for RV's and vehicles. Level, too. We are camped about 100 feet to the east of the Mighty Mississippi River and have a great view of it when we go outside. Cost? Glad you asked. $18/day. Includes water and electric. Also showers if we want to take one. But, its been so great these past 100 days without having to get cleaned up to go to work or something, "why start now" is what our saying is every morning. Just kidding...we say that at night.
Lets see...where have we been? Seems to me my last blog was when we were in Piddleburgh, PA. We moved westward, yes, we are headed toward home, to Aunt Harriette's farm in Indiana. We parked the big rig and coach on the farm right next to the cattle pens. Don't worry, there were only 23 cows in the pen but lots more flys. Country fresh air is what Moe always sez. She would have liked this "fresh" air. I liked it, but then again, I worked in Bugeye, AZ for 5 years and got accustomed to odd smells, mostly. There are still some odors that make me gag, but...
I made friends with the cows, particularly a brown Swiss with big doey eyes. She just looked at me lovingly and all I wanted to do was make a hamburger or steak (Swiss steak, naturally) out of her. I told A. H. I put the brown Swiss into the cattle hauler (as she jokingly called our coach) when we were leaving and was taking it with us. She said ok.
The funnest part about the cows was the conversations I had with them. I would say "moo" and they all came over to the fence to listen to what I had to moo about. They kept pushing and shoving each other out of the way to get a better position near the front and to hear what all the mooing was about. Cows are easily entertained.
No cats or dogs on the farm. No more piggies, or chickens. All the tractors are gone, 'cept a little lawn tractor, but I got one of them so I didn't need to ride it.I would have liked to ride a pig, tho.
We had dinner one night at the "Chicken Shack" in Winchester, IN. Darn good broasted chicken. I think I am going to buy me one of them broasting machines when I get home. Used to operate one when I worked at the best job I ever had - at the chicken joint "Western Kitchens", formerly a Ladmo's Burger place on 7th Ave, north of Indian School. Buy 10 hamburgers and get a gallon of rootbeer free was his gimmick.
Anyway, we had a great time visiting with aunt Harriette and the cows. We all miss Uncle Bob who passed away 3 years ago, tho. He was quite the character. Farmer, accountant, bus driver, friend, neighbor, uncle, husband and dad. What a great sense of comedy he had and always had a laugh waiting to erupt.
Moving down the road, we next stopped in Michigan to visit Gayle, (the mom of Mark Dryer), and Bo, her husband. For those unfamiliar, Mark was a DPS Reserve Sgt. killed in the line of duty more than a decade ago. She and Bo live across the street from a Lake, where Bo was born and raised on a farm. We had a great time with them, going out for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or staying in and fixing meals in the house or coach. We toured the area, meeting friends, and once visited "Anderson and Girls" farm market where we ate apple donuts, blueberry donuts and apple donuts again because they were so good. Washed them down with apple cidie. It was wonderful to visit with the two of them. Bo liked to say he wouldn't trade Gayle for a billy goat. How charming and loving is that? I got to come up with some snappy saying to use when someone asks me how Corinne is doing. I know she would be flattered if I can just think up a really good one. Too bad the billy goat one is taken.
Moving on, we next went to Illinosebleed, to a place called Merseilles or something. Its along I80 about half way across the state for those of you keeping track at home. We stayed at another nice state campground named Illini State Park. $15 bucks a day, right on the river, although we weren't on the river actually. Pretty quiet except when they guy driving the muscle car came into the park and revved up his 6 million horsepower engine for everyone to hear. It was like being at NASCAR and having someone start up their race car right next to your campspot at 6 in the morning..hey wait, that actually happened to us. Anyway, it was a black GTO or something and made lots of noise for the entertainment of everyone in the surrounding 4 counties.
For those who care, I called Rick Shoe last weekend to see if he and Joyce were available to meet with us. Unfortunately, they had a wedding to attend in Milwaukee on Saturday, traveling there on Friday and home on Sunday. We may still get together if time permits. He is doing well, plans to retire in 2 years, all the kids are out of the house, graduated from college and have jobs. Julie is married to an animal doctor. Joyce is working fulltime, too. Will update more if we see each other. We are only about 60 - 100 miles apart right now.
By the way, we are nearing the 12,000 mile mark on our journey. Neither has killed or maimed the other, although I'm sure someone (and I mean Corinne) must have thought about doing me in a couple of times because she just can't stand having so much fun. Speaking of that, we celebrated our 22 year wedding anniversary on the 13th of October. Wow, 22 years with the same woman. 22 long years with the same stinkin' man. Corinne is just as beautiful as the day we got hitched and we took off for wonderfulland. Thanks, you're the BESTEST! (Well, thanks for saying so, Corinne!)
As I wrote above, we are near Clinton, IA on the river. We have been spending time at the historical museum and found some pretty good stuff, including photographs of one of her great, great, great, maybe even more greats, grandfather and grandmother. Corinne is pretty excited about this. Its like winning the lottery, although I can only make that assumption not actually having won a lottery. Its a dream come true, much like being married to me. (at least that's what I've been told, not actually having been married to myself.) Corinne had imagined the photo would show her g,g,g,g,etc. grandpa with a long beard. Not. He is clean shaven. And handsome with white hair. Unlike me, with flesh colored hair and a black and white beard and a little ponytail-thing going on behind me.
Corinne doesn't like me sporting a beard, so I don't get many kisses from her. I do get some discouraging looks when I try to fancy my beard up by teasing it, parting in in the middle of my chin, twisting the ends. I'm just trying to make myself more attractive to her, kind of like what the male birds do when they are courting the fine female feathered fowl. I think she is a-scaried some other hottie is going to try and steal me away by promising me an "all you want" everyday kiss-buffet.
Doing laundry the other night in Fulton, Illinope, we meet some crazy lady named Marge who wanted to know if I was the guy she met at the laurdromat before. I told her no, this was my first time in this burg and first time in this laundromat. She was missing her bottom front teeth, talked a mile a minute, had been to AZ in the summertime driving with only her brassier on, and her ex-husband had shot and killed someone in Apache Junction (justifiable according to her). She said it is too hot in AZ for her. I told her they couldn't make it hot enough for me and I usually ended up wearing a jacket most of the time. As I said, she was a bubble off level (or center, if looking left to right) which just made it easier for me to communicate with her. We talked about all kinds of stuff and I gave her all kinds of crap. She sometimes caught on but it was good fun for both of us. We ended up going to dinner with her and buying at the Paddlewheel Pizza place where we had tacos for dinner.
She filled Corinne in on the details of a couple of shootings (killings) her ex-husband was allegedly involved in when they had a tavern in Chicago 40+ years ago. We will have to do some snooping when we get back to Phoenix. Marge forgot she told me her name when I first met her, so when she was leaving the laundromat, I said "goodbye Marge." That freaked her out because she didn't know how I knew her name. I thought briefly about making up something but I was good and just told her the truth. Man, I could of really had some fun with that.
Bob-servations:
Went to a couple of cemeteries today and found some interesting headstones....
There is a lot of Anguish buried in one cemetery. It is a result of death? The thought of being buried? Where they are buried? Another stone listed the name as "Goer." They may have been a Goer before dying, but they are now a goner. Two other graves had markers side by side which listed the last names of the occupants as: Yahum and Yohum. Hmmmm.
At a Ford dealership I visited along the way, I read the available accessories wish-book. In it I found the following info referring to power mirrors: Power mirrors are for vehicles with power mirrors only. Well, no duh!
Along the roadways, I have read signs with the following message written on them: "Lots for sale." Lots of what? I ought to copy down the phone number listed and inquire what it is they have "lots of" for sale. Maybe Corinne doesn't have any and could use some.
Saw a restuarant in Thomson, IL which is located just outside of the Thomson Correctional Facility. The name of the restaurant is: "Work Release Restaurant." Now there's someplace I don't wanna eat, specially if the cook is a resident-worker, know what I mean?
Saw a Catholic Church near Galena, Il whose name is" "The Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist. Can you do that? Is that allowed? Name a church using another religion in the title? How does that work? Catholics dance and drink. Baptists don't, last time I checked. What about BINGO? Corinne saw an "Episcopal Methodist" congregation. What the heck is going on? I thought the US Constitution guaranteed the separation of Church and states it right in the wording.
Moving on...Found a road in Michigan named "Coe Road." Don't see no "Bob Road" or "Bob Blvd"; "Bob Byway"; Bob Business Route"; or "Bob-a-loop". Must have something against Bobs. I did see a "Bobo Cafe" but didn't get a picture. You can ask Corinne and she will back me up on this.
Hey, a big shout out to Courtney (Corinne and Maurine's daddy)for his 79th birthday on the 10th. Also, to Brandon and the little lady for their 2nd wedding anniversary. Oh, and not to forget, Bobo turned a big 53 on the 3rd. Many a trucking company are honoring Bobo's birthday by putting a big "53" on their larger trailers. Usually, the numbers are up near the front of the trailer on the sides. Sometimes on the back of the trailer, too. Check it out. When you see one, honk at the driver and wave (use all your fingers - please) so they will know you know Bobo, too. Thanks to my truckin' good-buddies! (Miss Lynda, thanks for remembering my b-day and sending an email card.)
Ate at Poopy's Tattoos restaurant in Savana, IL. Outside the doors, for a sitting area, they had what I refer to as "Weiner Pigs." They are concrete-casts of pigs that are elongated and flattened on the top for a sitting area. One of the weiner pigs had a Corona beer next to it. I hate drunk weiner pigs, don't you?
I will finish with quote I found when we were in Utah, but I lost until just recently when I found it at a library in Michigan. The quote is by Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) and reads:
"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."
My sentiments exactly!
Bobo
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Well, its Sunday, noon, and someone is still asleep. Since I am the one writing this blog, you pretty much can guess who "is is" and who "is isn't" and be correct.
Last night, we met up with the kids at the Waterfront area for dinner and a movie. We, of course, trying to follow Queen Anita's verbal directions and only having a limited sense for where were wanted to go and how to get there, got all turned around in downtown Piqqsburgh. I knew the Waterfront was east of downtown. Corinne thought it was by the Point, where two rivers turn into three. The queen? Who knows what she thought, she just wanted us to turn right. When we would turn right, she would say "recalculating" meaning we turned the wrong right. What the H E Double Hockey Sticks does that mean? If she says turn right and we turn right, doesn't that mean we turned right? No wait....our mistake....we forgot the queen is British. The Brits don't drive on the right side of the road. So rightfully, when she says turn right, what she really means is, turn right, not left, right? Anyway, we got to the waterfront right on time.
We decided on eating at Mitchell Fish Market, a well known chain in the Pfishburgh area, and it had a pretty cool sounding name, to me at least. We went inside and were greeted at the hostess desk, asked if we wanted to eat outside (not because we were not dressed all fancy and party-like) on inside, smoking or non-smoking. We choose inside, non-smoking. I also just happened to mention my name was "Mitchell, Bob Mitchell." She said unless its "Cam (Cameron) Mitchell, it didn't mean much to her. I said "well, maybe Bob is my middle name and I am undercover." She responded, "well come right this way Cameron Robert Mitchell." Hmmmm, I thought, pretty sharp. As I walked past her I said, just like my dad would have said under the same circumstances, "You're alright, your job is safe." Man, sometimes I scare myself.
We had a great meal of seafood. The girls had the combo plate, Brandon had seared rare tuna (cooked rare, not rare hard to find rare) and (hey, Moe and Pete) I had San Francisco Cioppino which the waiter said if I didn't like I would get my money back and he would serve me something else. I think I heard that story one time in New York City's Little Italy and it was a lie. Anyways, the Cioppino was good, but not as good as what I get at some restaurant I frequent at Fisherman's Wharf in "The City." Hopefully I will remember the name of the restaurant before finishing this blog so I can share it with you. Everyone enjoyed their dinner, but nobody would eat raw oysters as an appetizer with me so I ate them myself. Missin' out.
We went to a movie after dinner and saw Jodi Foster in The Brave One, a blatant rip-off of Charles Bronson's The Vigilante (or some title like that) from the 70's or 80's. However, it did have a suprise ending which I will not give away here. I liked it. I think everyone liked it. I once saw Jodi Foster in New York City when we were there in the late 1900's. It was late at night, I was going into a McD's in Times Square and she was getting into a car. The girls (and I mean Corinne and Maurine) say I made that up, but I think not. I think they are confusius and don't think she would be coming out of a McD's being she's a big star and everything. Its my story, not theirs, and I can put anybody I want into it, big star or not, and Jodi did have a big movie coming out at that time, and after all, it is New York City, not Podunk, Egypt where no big stars live.
Well, its Sunday, noon, and someone is still asleep. Since I am the one writing this blog, you pretty much can guess who "is is" and who "is isn't" and be correct.
Last night, we met up with the kids at the Waterfront area for dinner and a movie. We, of course, trying to follow Queen Anita's verbal directions and only having a limited sense for where were wanted to go and how to get there, got all turned around in downtown Piqqsburgh. I knew the Waterfront was east of downtown. Corinne thought it was by the Point, where two rivers turn into three. The queen? Who knows what she thought, she just wanted us to turn right. When we would turn right, she would say "recalculating" meaning we turned the wrong right. What the H E Double Hockey Sticks does that mean? If she says turn right and we turn right, doesn't that mean we turned right? No wait....our mistake....we forgot the queen is British. The Brits don't drive on the right side of the road. So rightfully, when she says turn right, what she really means is, turn right, not left, right? Anyway, we got to the waterfront right on time.
We decided on eating at Mitchell Fish Market, a well known chain in the Pfishburgh area, and it had a pretty cool sounding name, to me at least. We went inside and were greeted at the hostess desk, asked if we wanted to eat outside (not because we were not dressed all fancy and party-like) on inside, smoking or non-smoking. We choose inside, non-smoking. I also just happened to mention my name was "Mitchell, Bob Mitchell." She said unless its "Cam (Cameron) Mitchell, it didn't mean much to her. I said "well, maybe Bob is my middle name and I am undercover." She responded, "well come right this way Cameron Robert Mitchell." Hmmmm, I thought, pretty sharp. As I walked past her I said, just like my dad would have said under the same circumstances, "You're alright, your job is safe." Man, sometimes I scare myself.
We had a great meal of seafood. The girls had the combo plate, Brandon had seared rare tuna (cooked rare, not rare hard to find rare) and (hey, Moe and Pete) I had San Francisco Cioppino which the waiter said if I didn't like I would get my money back and he would serve me something else. I think I heard that story one time in New York City's Little Italy and it was a lie. Anyways, the Cioppino was good, but not as good as what I get at some restaurant I frequent at Fisherman's Wharf in "The City." Hopefully I will remember the name of the restaurant before finishing this blog so I can share it with you. Everyone enjoyed their dinner, but nobody would eat raw oysters as an appetizer with me so I ate them myself. Missin' out.
We went to a movie after dinner and saw Jodi Foster in The Brave One, a blatant rip-off of Charles Bronson's The Vigilante (or some title like that) from the 70's or 80's. However, it did have a suprise ending which I will not give away here. I liked it. I think everyone liked it. I once saw Jodi Foster in New York City when we were there in the late 1900's. It was late at night, I was going into a McD's in Times Square and she was getting into a car. The girls (and I mean Corinne and Maurine) say I made that up, but I think not. I think they are confusius and don't think she would be coming out of a McD's being she's a big star and everything. Its my story, not theirs, and I can put anybody I want into it, big star or not, and Jodi did have a big movie coming out at that time, and after all, it is New York City, not Podunk, Egypt where no big stars live.
Continued from Sunday....it's now Monday morning....
Before leaving Racoon State Park we needed to dump our waste tanks and fill up the fresh water tank. One of the waste tanks, the one that everyone uses, the one that holds the stinky stuff, smells the worst, and is most important, would not drain. Apparently some BIG clog of stew (if you know what I mean and I think you do do) was blocking the drain pipe and no amount of pinching off the valve could persuade it to move. We decided to head out on the road and hopefully the motion of the ocean would stir up the crap and we could empty it at the next campground. At Dillon State Park we tried to dump the dumper, but the motion of the ocean was not the potion and the coach was still constipated. We ended up giving the tank a non-potable water enema, which caused "movement" in the bowels of the coach. The tank ran like a gringo after a 3-day drunken trip south of the border to visit some guy named Montezuma. All the "s**t" flowed out. The lesson to be learned here is to use plenty of water when you're flushing and to keep your foot on the peddle even if you are pooped out (so to speak).
We are now at Dillon State Park in zany Zanesville, Ohio. Apparently Zane Grey has some connection to this burg, if we have time we'll visit his museum and find out what it is. We do not have phone service at the campground, so we cannot be called there and don't have internet access either. Leave messages if you call our cell phones and we'll get back to you when we can.
We're heading to the Football Hall of Fame in Canton tomorrow then on to "Indianaville" to visit family.
Bobo
PS: Someone says (and I mean Corinne) the restaurant in Frisco is Scoma's. I was also informed we saw Eric Roberts there, he's Julia Pretty Woman Roberts' bro, once. I will have to take her word for it because I didn't know who he was then, and I still don't.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Morning at Racoon Creek State Park, Beaver County, PA. Why would they name this Racoon Creek if this is Beaver County? My guess is because the place is infested with Racoons. We see them as roadkill wherever we travel on the roads around the campgrounds. No, not in the campgrounds (by the looks of some of our neighbors, the remains are getting scooped up for making "'coon stew") but, on the highways leading to and from here. Racoon Stew...now there's a dish worth writin' home about, ya know what I mean, Vern?
Bob-servations...
Along Hwy 22/30, there is a road sign advising the Hankey Farm is the next exit. Hankey Farm? I guess that's where they grow the hankies for noses and other uses. I would have never guessed hankies were farm raised...I thought they only grew in the wild. Wonder if they are from seedling or perrenials.
Saw a gravemarker or two for Mitchelltree. What the heck is a Mitchelltree? On the same subject, almost, St. James or Villa Maria graveyards in Mercer County is the burial spot for church clergy, mainly nuns. Found one whose name was Sister Mary James Mitchell. Now isn't that interesting? Who ever thought nuns died? The ones I remember from grammar school were at least 200 years old, except for the young ones who were barely 100.
Rolling on down the road...
We went and did laundry on Thursday because we were taking the day off and it was raining (and we had dirty clothes). Felt like a laundry day. At the laundry there were several people, mainly a woman with a child and a guy with his ballcap on backwards, another guy who played with the little girl child of the woman (although he wouldn't go around the corner to were the woman and the man with the backward hat on were), and a couple of other peeps of no consequence. Anyway, while the machines did there magic on our clothes, I went outside and stood on the stoop to watch the rain and leaves falling from the trees (more on that later). Anywhose, the guy who was playing with the little girl came outside and stopped next to me and said "my wife left me a week ago and she already has a boyfriend." I responded "hmmm." He walked away, got into his red car, sat there for a minute wiping his eyes (must have been crying) and then drove away. I understood this to mean, the woman inside with the child was his wife.
So, this was his wife in the laundry with their child, and the dude with the backwards hat is the new boyfriend. He was a happy guy, signing and sounded like he was Rocky Balboa or someone. Corinne said the woman was a meth queen. I didn't see her that way, but then, what do I know about meth queens? Beauty queens, yes, meth queens, no. I then thought, oh great, the crying guy is gonna go get his gun and come back and ventilate these two people and then himself, maybe sending us to the big dirt nap along the way. I told Corinne about it and then sat by the windows facing the roadway so I could keep a watchful eye out for this guy and run out the door, if need be (remember big chicken wings, this is one of the times when you can find them in the wild). The cheating couple finally gathered up all their stuff and the little girl and left before the jilted husband returned. When he did come back, I didn't see any weapons on him, but I sure did keep a close eye on him and I certainly was not going to wear my hat backwards or sing like I was Rocky Balboa....no matter how many times someone (and I mean Corinne) begged me to. She just loves Rocky Balboa, she told me.
Speaking of keeping an eye out, do you remember one-eyed Jack Williams, governor of AZ? People said to keep an eye out for him because he had one out for you. I kinda "see" the humor in that, but my memory is "patchy", at best. Maybe I should get "lashes" for not keeping the "lid" on this. (Its my blog, I can say what I want.)
Back to falling leaves: During the rain storm and accompaning wind, the leaves were falling like snow. Matter of fact, I once caught a glimpse out the window of the laundromat and thought it was snowing because of the way the leaves were coming down. They are really starting to turn color now. Reminds us of our motohome trip back in the late 1900's when we went up the eastern seaboard during Indian Summer.
There is a cryogenics company somewhere along Hwy 30 leading from the campground. One day we were passing the business with the kids and Corinne said she would "have me cryogized." I told her it would be ok as long as she used her own arms and hands to hold me under the cryogization juice. Brandon (and you gotta know Brandon to understand the importance of this), said, "that would make him a Bobsicle, wouldn't it?" Now that's funny! Corinne later told me, and I thought the same, Brandon's got Bob humor....like father, like son.
Passing through Imperial or Fayetteburg, we came across "Cole's Pub" so, a big shout out to Marlys for that.
We stopped at a McDonalds for a light mid-afternoon snack yesterday in Robinson, PA. It was the most unusual McD's I have seen. It didn't even look like a Ronalds McDonalds place, and without the sign, no one would have guessed it was a Mickey D's. Anyway, when we got inside, Corinne decided what she wanted, told me and then scurried off to the Rhonda McDonda restroom. This left me to place the order, which I waited and waited and waited to do. I thought Corinne would be back from her appointment with Rhonda McDonda before I got a chance to place the order....and there was only ONE, SOLO, UNO, SINGLE, ACE, SOLITARY, ITEM, person in front of me the whole time. The problem was the "old momo", okay, sweet elderly lady behind the counter taking the order, taking payment, giving change, making french fries, picking the order, getting a drink and getting it all back to the customer was just moving as slowly as possible. The guy in front of me only wanted some McNuggets or something. He was still waiting AFTER I got my order, and that was no short time.
This was absolutely the worst working crew of folks I have ever seen screwing up a McDonalds, and I am a firm believer most McD crews are at the bottom of the food chain. There didn't seem to be any coordination. People (and I mean the younger ones) were just standing around twiddling their thumbs where the sun shouldn't shine, and letting the "ol mo" do all the work...and like I wrote, she was slow.
After taking the order of the poor guy in front of me, she started to gather up his food, but then stopped because the McNugbutts weren't ready. So, she just stood there and did nothing...until she saw me waiting to place my order. When she came to the counter, she asked for my order which I most promptly placed...but, she wasn't ready to key it into the register for some reason. So, I had to wait for her to wake up from her nap and push the buttons. I gave her my money and she had to cipher how much change I would get back (.72). Then, she toddled off to fix my food while the younger folks did not much of anything except serve the drive-thru customers, if at all. The lady began by scooping up fries, which took an inordinate amount of time considering the task. I finally did get my order, but it was at least 10 minutes later than when I walked into the place. I wanted so badly to speak to the manager but restrained myself from doing so (darn medications!!). The dear sweet elderly lady was doing the best she could. The young punks were doing the worst they could, but they were in the wrong work stations for their capabilities.
In stark contrast, we were at a KFC, Long John Sliver's store awhile back, during lunch time when it was busy, and the crew there were egg-salad. They communicated effectively with each other, they had the order taker, food processor, delivery system working at high potential. I wanted to tell the manage there about how good his crew was, but I didn't. I think he already knew. Anyway, not to rag on the old lady, but the manager or lead Crew person should have taken control at the McD's and recognized the problems they were having. Isn't that why they go to McD U?
And another thing...we once stopped at a McD's and Corinne wanted a spicy chicken sammich. I wanted something to eat, too, but cannot remember what right now. So, when the girl inside the little box in the drive-thru asked for our order, I told her we wanted a chicken sammich, whatever it was I wanted and a soda. Turning to Corinne, all proud of myself for remembering the entire order, she said to me, "spicy chicken." Ooops. I turned back to the girl in the little box and said, "spicy chicken sammich" thinking a customer had their choice of "reglar" or "spicy" chicken. The girl in the box said, "we don't have spicy, that's Wendy's." Well, excuuuuuse me. She then gave us our total and said pay at the first window. No other option to change the kind of sammich we wanted, no chance to cancel the order, no chance to beg forgiveness for our stupidity, for not knowing a McD's from a Wendy's chicken sammich. I turned to Corinne and said something like, "I guess she told us, didn't she" or, "well, that was rude" or, " I guess we don't get an option here." Anyways, Corinne was certain I was going to say something to the the biblical moneychanger at the first window, but I didn't. (darn meds are ruining my life.) By the way, the voice of the girl at the first window sounded just like the girl in the little box in the drive-thru. Corinne said, as she munched on the Mc"D unspicy chicken sammich, they must have put extra pepper on it for her because it was spicy hot. Don't that beat everything, if you want a spicy sammich, have 'em put pepper on it.
Next, we went to the Senator John Heinz Historical Museum in Piesburgh to do some geneology. It was 3p when we got there, and they closed at 5p. It cost us 18 damn dollars to go there for two hours, crimony! What a rip off. The library part of the museum should be free, but they are not in the free business, I guess. It would have been nice if the place was open to say, like, 8p so we could really enjoy the joint, but noooooo! They have to close at 5. Corinne did say the lady was helpful, but I was bored. They barely had anything on display in the library for me to look at and enjoy. I did use the Heinz Head (restroom) and it was nice. So there.
Still haven't found my little red notebook I use for making my notes in. Looked in the big rig, looked in the pockets of my pants (before I washed them if you were wondering), looked in the coach...still no red book. I bet someone stole it cause it was mine and so valuable. Corinne said the last time she saw it was in my hand at the cemetery in Willmington Twp, I guess one of them dead guys is holding it for me until the afterlife.
Shout out to Craig H. who finally opened his email and wrote us back. Hey, Craig-ers!
Anyone else NOT getting the photo albums because they haven't written back? Huh? Anyone else??? I believe Corinne is working on sending out all the albums she has put together, for now.
Not likening myself to MLK, but I had a dream last night. I told Corinne about it this morning and she fell asleep well before I was finished telling her about it. So, I will only mention the key items of the dream for you here and you will pretty much be able to put the pieces together. Fire engines; police radio; bullets; cars; office; Xmas stuffed toys; hockey players; cheese and chili pepper (like a chili rellano) stuffed hamburgers; fish stuffed with cheese and chili pepper (like a chili rellano) hamburger; water; my mom and sister Carolyn; Dave Thompson; Pete Padilla; the Fairbanks; the Meaneys; retirement; Rod C.; Lynda S.; Gary H.; DPS helicopter on the roof; Gov. Napolitano; and, me. What a fabulous dream as you will find once you have it all assembled.
Corinne is still sleeping from my telling her about my dream. She hasn't slept well for the past few nights. Maybe I have found a magical formula for sleep...deprivation and listening to my dreams. If you dosed off reading this blog....WAKE UP!!!
Like Roy Orbison sang....Being crazy got me dreaming wierd dreams, the whole day through. Being crazy got me dreaming strange dreams, nighttime too. You can dream you're crazy, too.
Bobo
Morning at Racoon Creek State Park, Beaver County, PA. Why would they name this Racoon Creek if this is Beaver County? My guess is because the place is infested with Racoons. We see them as roadkill wherever we travel on the roads around the campgrounds. No, not in the campgrounds (by the looks of some of our neighbors, the remains are getting scooped up for making "'coon stew") but, on the highways leading to and from here. Racoon Stew...now there's a dish worth writin' home about, ya know what I mean, Vern?
Bob-servations...
Along Hwy 22/30, there is a road sign advising the Hankey Farm is the next exit. Hankey Farm? I guess that's where they grow the hankies for noses and other uses. I would have never guessed hankies were farm raised...I thought they only grew in the wild. Wonder if they are from seedling or perrenials.
Saw a gravemarker or two for Mitchelltree. What the heck is a Mitchelltree? On the same subject, almost, St. James or Villa Maria graveyards in Mercer County is the burial spot for church clergy, mainly nuns. Found one whose name was Sister Mary James Mitchell. Now isn't that interesting? Who ever thought nuns died? The ones I remember from grammar school were at least 200 years old, except for the young ones who were barely 100.
Rolling on down the road...
We went and did laundry on Thursday because we were taking the day off and it was raining (and we had dirty clothes). Felt like a laundry day. At the laundry there were several people, mainly a woman with a child and a guy with his ballcap on backwards, another guy who played with the little girl child of the woman (although he wouldn't go around the corner to were the woman and the man with the backward hat on were), and a couple of other peeps of no consequence. Anyway, while the machines did there magic on our clothes, I went outside and stood on the stoop to watch the rain and leaves falling from the trees (more on that later). Anywhose, the guy who was playing with the little girl came outside and stopped next to me and said "my wife left me a week ago and she already has a boyfriend." I responded "hmmm." He walked away, got into his red car, sat there for a minute wiping his eyes (must have been crying) and then drove away. I understood this to mean, the woman inside with the child was his wife.
So, this was his wife in the laundry with their child, and the dude with the backwards hat is the new boyfriend. He was a happy guy, signing and sounded like he was Rocky Balboa or someone. Corinne said the woman was a meth queen. I didn't see her that way, but then, what do I know about meth queens? Beauty queens, yes, meth queens, no. I then thought, oh great, the crying guy is gonna go get his gun and come back and ventilate these two people and then himself, maybe sending us to the big dirt nap along the way. I told Corinne about it and then sat by the windows facing the roadway so I could keep a watchful eye out for this guy and run out the door, if need be (remember big chicken wings, this is one of the times when you can find them in the wild). The cheating couple finally gathered up all their stuff and the little girl and left before the jilted husband returned. When he did come back, I didn't see any weapons on him, but I sure did keep a close eye on him and I certainly was not going to wear my hat backwards or sing like I was Rocky Balboa....no matter how many times someone (and I mean Corinne) begged me to. She just loves Rocky Balboa, she told me.
Speaking of keeping an eye out, do you remember one-eyed Jack Williams, governor of AZ? People said to keep an eye out for him because he had one out for you. I kinda "see" the humor in that, but my memory is "patchy", at best. Maybe I should get "lashes" for not keeping the "lid" on this. (Its my blog, I can say what I want.)
Back to falling leaves: During the rain storm and accompaning wind, the leaves were falling like snow. Matter of fact, I once caught a glimpse out the window of the laundromat and thought it was snowing because of the way the leaves were coming down. They are really starting to turn color now. Reminds us of our motohome trip back in the late 1900's when we went up the eastern seaboard during Indian Summer.
There is a cryogenics company somewhere along Hwy 30 leading from the campground. One day we were passing the business with the kids and Corinne said she would "have me cryogized." I told her it would be ok as long as she used her own arms and hands to hold me under the cryogization juice. Brandon (and you gotta know Brandon to understand the importance of this), said, "that would make him a Bobsicle, wouldn't it?" Now that's funny! Corinne later told me, and I thought the same, Brandon's got Bob humor....like father, like son.
Passing through Imperial or Fayetteburg, we came across "Cole's Pub" so, a big shout out to Marlys for that.
We stopped at a McDonalds for a light mid-afternoon snack yesterday in Robinson, PA. It was the most unusual McD's I have seen. It didn't even look like a Ronalds McDonalds place, and without the sign, no one would have guessed it was a Mickey D's. Anyway, when we got inside, Corinne decided what she wanted, told me and then scurried off to the Rhonda McDonda restroom. This left me to place the order, which I waited and waited and waited to do. I thought Corinne would be back from her appointment with Rhonda McDonda before I got a chance to place the order....and there was only ONE, SOLO, UNO, SINGLE, ACE, SOLITARY, ITEM, person in front of me the whole time. The problem was the "old momo", okay, sweet elderly lady behind the counter taking the order, taking payment, giving change, making french fries, picking the order, getting a drink and getting it all back to the customer was just moving as slowly as possible. The guy in front of me only wanted some McNuggets or something. He was still waiting AFTER I got my order, and that was no short time.
This was absolutely the worst working crew of folks I have ever seen screwing up a McDonalds, and I am a firm believer most McD crews are at the bottom of the food chain. There didn't seem to be any coordination. People (and I mean the younger ones) were just standing around twiddling their thumbs where the sun shouldn't shine, and letting the "ol mo" do all the work...and like I wrote, she was slow.
After taking the order of the poor guy in front of me, she started to gather up his food, but then stopped because the McNugbutts weren't ready. So, she just stood there and did nothing...until she saw me waiting to place my order. When she came to the counter, she asked for my order which I most promptly placed...but, she wasn't ready to key it into the register for some reason. So, I had to wait for her to wake up from her nap and push the buttons. I gave her my money and she had to cipher how much change I would get back (.72). Then, she toddled off to fix my food while the younger folks did not much of anything except serve the drive-thru customers, if at all. The lady began by scooping up fries, which took an inordinate amount of time considering the task. I finally did get my order, but it was at least 10 minutes later than when I walked into the place. I wanted so badly to speak to the manager but restrained myself from doing so (darn medications!!). The dear sweet elderly lady was doing the best she could. The young punks were doing the worst they could, but they were in the wrong work stations for their capabilities.
In stark contrast, we were at a KFC, Long John Sliver's store awhile back, during lunch time when it was busy, and the crew there were egg-salad. They communicated effectively with each other, they had the order taker, food processor, delivery system working at high potential. I wanted to tell the manage there about how good his crew was, but I didn't. I think he already knew. Anyway, not to rag on the old lady, but the manager or lead Crew person should have taken control at the McD's and recognized the problems they were having. Isn't that why they go to McD U?
And another thing...we once stopped at a McD's and Corinne wanted a spicy chicken sammich. I wanted something to eat, too, but cannot remember what right now. So, when the girl inside the little box in the drive-thru asked for our order, I told her we wanted a chicken sammich, whatever it was I wanted and a soda. Turning to Corinne, all proud of myself for remembering the entire order, she said to me, "spicy chicken." Ooops. I turned back to the girl in the little box and said, "spicy chicken sammich" thinking a customer had their choice of "reglar" or "spicy" chicken. The girl in the box said, "we don't have spicy, that's Wendy's." Well, excuuuuuse me. She then gave us our total and said pay at the first window. No other option to change the kind of sammich we wanted, no chance to cancel the order, no chance to beg forgiveness for our stupidity, for not knowing a McD's from a Wendy's chicken sammich. I turned to Corinne and said something like, "I guess she told us, didn't she" or, "well, that was rude" or, " I guess we don't get an option here." Anyways, Corinne was certain I was going to say something to the the biblical moneychanger at the first window, but I didn't. (darn meds are ruining my life.) By the way, the voice of the girl at the first window sounded just like the girl in the little box in the drive-thru. Corinne said, as she munched on the Mc"D unspicy chicken sammich, they must have put extra pepper on it for her because it was spicy hot. Don't that beat everything, if you want a spicy sammich, have 'em put pepper on it.
Next, we went to the Senator John Heinz Historical Museum in Piesburgh to do some geneology. It was 3p when we got there, and they closed at 5p. It cost us 18 damn dollars to go there for two hours, crimony! What a rip off. The library part of the museum should be free, but they are not in the free business, I guess. It would have been nice if the place was open to say, like, 8p so we could really enjoy the joint, but noooooo! They have to close at 5. Corinne did say the lady was helpful, but I was bored. They barely had anything on display in the library for me to look at and enjoy. I did use the Heinz Head (restroom) and it was nice. So there.
Still haven't found my little red notebook I use for making my notes in. Looked in the big rig, looked in the pockets of my pants (before I washed them if you were wondering), looked in the coach...still no red book. I bet someone stole it cause it was mine and so valuable. Corinne said the last time she saw it was in my hand at the cemetery in Willmington Twp, I guess one of them dead guys is holding it for me until the afterlife.
Shout out to Craig H. who finally opened his email and wrote us back. Hey, Craig-ers!
Anyone else NOT getting the photo albums because they haven't written back? Huh? Anyone else??? I believe Corinne is working on sending out all the albums she has put together, for now.
Not likening myself to MLK, but I had a dream last night. I told Corinne about it this morning and she fell asleep well before I was finished telling her about it. So, I will only mention the key items of the dream for you here and you will pretty much be able to put the pieces together. Fire engines; police radio; bullets; cars; office; Xmas stuffed toys; hockey players; cheese and chili pepper (like a chili rellano) stuffed hamburgers; fish stuffed with cheese and chili pepper (like a chili rellano) hamburger; water; my mom and sister Carolyn; Dave Thompson; Pete Padilla; the Fairbanks; the Meaneys; retirement; Rod C.; Lynda S.; Gary H.; DPS helicopter on the roof; Gov. Napolitano; and, me. What a fabulous dream as you will find once you have it all assembled.
Corinne is still sleeping from my telling her about my dream. She hasn't slept well for the past few nights. Maybe I have found a magical formula for sleep...deprivation and listening to my dreams. If you dosed off reading this blog....WAKE UP!!!
Like Roy Orbison sang....Being crazy got me dreaming wierd dreams, the whole day through. Being crazy got me dreaming strange dreams, nighttime too. You can dream you're crazy, too.
Bobo
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Thursday, September 27, twenty 07
Bob's Blah Blog:
Hey, all. I have misplaced my little red notebook where I record the things I want to blog about, so I guess I'll just have to rack my pea-brain and wing it, for now. More about wings later.
We are still in "Pencil-vania," not to be confused with "Penni-available." We are camped at another one of their state parks, this one called Racoon Creek State Park, about 25 miles due west of Pittsburger where the kids live. More about this later.
Lets start with some...Bob-servations:
A road sign here read "Wear your seatbelt for the next million miles." That's not encouraging if you need to make a rest stop really bad, know what I mean?
Saw a man riding a motorcycle wearing a cowboy hat. He actually had a helmet on, but the cowboy hat was hanging around his neck for dear life. Maybe he had a passenger on the bike hanging on so tightly it only looked like one person, not two?
Found a gravemarker that read COFFIN. No duh! Like anyone was gonna dig it up to find out what was buried there.
Okay, now to other good stuff...
Did you know there is a Mars and Moon, PA? There might be others, but those are the two we have come across. I haven't seen the Mars police cars, but the ones in Moon are marked Moon Police across the trunk. Imagine someone being a doper and seeing one of these cars on the side of the road. Moon Police. That ought to freak 'em out.
The three rivers which flow through, around and in Pissburgh have huge bridges across them. The bridges are painted different colors to identify them to the residents. The Yellow bridge, the Blue bridge, the Green bridge. One bridge is called the Hot Metal bridge because some foundry used to move hot metal over the roadway to the other side via the bridge. If that bridge were to fail and somebody was beneath it, they would be cooked.
Another bridge has pieces falling off it. So, to remedy the problem, netting was suspened underneath it to catch the falling pieces. But that's not enough, so they built a solid structure underneath the bridge just in case the netting was insufficient. Why not just fix the problem properly and save yourself some money?
We went to a restaurant, actually a bar, with the kids the othernight and had chicken wings. These were no ordinary chicken wings, they were BIG CHICKEN WINGS, not to be confused with "big scaredy cats," which are completely different. The wings were whole wings (not pieces is pieces and parts is parts) deep fried and coated with whatever sauce (hot, BBQ, garlic, honey mustard) or just plain with no sauce. Cost on Tuesday nights, after 7p and before 10p, six for $3. Beer specials begin at 8p. One plate of these monster wings would be enough for anyone, almost. Along with celery and blue cheese or ranch dressing, you "gots yourself a meal." And, watching the Pitt. Pirates beat the D-backs made the meal complete.
We also went to a movie with the kids. It was called Stardust. I would recommend it, ok, I do recommend it (thanks, Sujo) for anyone wanting to see a light comedy. Has big stars in it playing oddball parts. Has a unicorn in it, that's freaky.
Been doing genealogy up in Mercer county. Found Corinne's great grandpa's, to the sixth degree, records. Went to the cemetery where he is buried, but could not locate his headstone or footstone. Did you know some folks have footstones? How would anyone know if its a head or foot stone? Someone could visit the graveyard and completely be standing at the wrong end talking to the dead. How embarassing would that be? Anyway, lots of markers are so old and worn they can't be read. We think this is the situation with Daniel Paup, and a James Paup who are buried there.
Saw one marker with the name Hoey. Made me wonder if there wasn't a whole lot of Hoey buried there, which I discovered was the case. Other markers looked as if the sprinkler system sprayed across the face of them because they were worn and eroded away from water damage, like sandstone in the bend of a river or creek. You would, well maybe not you, but I would think some caretaker could see that happening and make an adjustment so as not to destroy the markers.
We also had dinner one evening at a place called "The Church Brewery." It is an old church, Catholic I presume, converted into a restaurant. They had a German theme going on that night for Oktoberfest. There are stained glass windows, pews, and a pipe organ still installed. I presumed it was a Catholic church because what other religion would allow beer brewed and served?? Personally, I would dress the wait-staff in cleric garb, like nuns and priests, have confessional looking entrances to the restrooms, a collection plate to bring you your bill, rulers to whack customers who aren't ready to order in a timely manner, and hymnals for menus. Now that would be a tourist attraction. Sorry if I offended any of my non-Catholic friends, but I don't know enough about other religions to come up with theme related garb for them, but surely the possibities are abundant. The beer and food were great. The cooks wouldn't even check on the Sauerbraten until 6:30, so we had to sit in purgatory eating hot pretzels before the wait staff could place Brandon's order of sauerbraten. It was a hell of a wait, but well worth it.
We finally got to see some Amish folks riding their buggies down the roads. We have seen them in a few different locations, but never in their buggies on the roads. Pretty cool. What a life that would be. Also saw a couple of Amish farms and even saw, although I don't think it was Amish, a very large house with six, count 'em, 6 garages. A dream come true for someone (and I don't mean Corinne).
A happy birthday shout goes out to my sisters Mary and Carolyn, and brother James, whom all celebrated the passage of another year this past week. Seems like only last year they had a birthday...hmmm.
We took the day off yesterday to just relax and get things straightened out. Being retired is alot like working. Work 5 days, take 2 days off. I needed to work on the generator and get it better situated in the back of the truck and, reorganize, ok, just organize the basement of the coach, it never was organized to be reorganized. I found lots of room available in the basement after getting it cleaned out. Maybe I'll buy some good junk on the way back to Phx. I think what I would really like is a tractor, an old tractor that runs, maybe a one cylinder tractor, so I could putt-putt around the neighborhood. That would be fun. And I could park it on the front lawn like they do back here so all my neighbors could see it. Now that would make me popular. Just kidding... it wouldn't make me popular, but it would be cool.
For Don R. at the House, started to watch the Deadwood series. For you others, if you don't like cussin', killin', drinkin', and sexn' don't watch it. I watch it for the literary content, of course.
Bobo
Hey, all. I have misplaced my little red notebook where I record the things I want to blog about, so I guess I'll just have to rack my pea-brain and wing it, for now. More about wings later.
We are still in "Pencil-vania," not to be confused with "Penni-available." We are camped at another one of their state parks, this one called Racoon Creek State Park, about 25 miles due west of Pittsburger where the kids live. More about this later.
Lets start with some...Bob-servations:
A road sign here read "Wear your seatbelt for the next million miles." That's not encouraging if you need to make a rest stop really bad, know what I mean?
Saw a man riding a motorcycle wearing a cowboy hat. He actually had a helmet on, but the cowboy hat was hanging around his neck for dear life. Maybe he had a passenger on the bike hanging on so tightly it only looked like one person, not two?
Found a gravemarker that read COFFIN. No duh! Like anyone was gonna dig it up to find out what was buried there.
Okay, now to other good stuff...
Did you know there is a Mars and Moon, PA? There might be others, but those are the two we have come across. I haven't seen the Mars police cars, but the ones in Moon are marked Moon Police across the trunk. Imagine someone being a doper and seeing one of these cars on the side of the road. Moon Police. That ought to freak 'em out.
The three rivers which flow through, around and in Pissburgh have huge bridges across them. The bridges are painted different colors to identify them to the residents. The Yellow bridge, the Blue bridge, the Green bridge. One bridge is called the Hot Metal bridge because some foundry used to move hot metal over the roadway to the other side via the bridge. If that bridge were to fail and somebody was beneath it, they would be cooked.
Another bridge has pieces falling off it. So, to remedy the problem, netting was suspened underneath it to catch the falling pieces. But that's not enough, so they built a solid structure underneath the bridge just in case the netting was insufficient. Why not just fix the problem properly and save yourself some money?
We went to a restaurant, actually a bar, with the kids the othernight and had chicken wings. These were no ordinary chicken wings, they were BIG CHICKEN WINGS, not to be confused with "big scaredy cats," which are completely different. The wings were whole wings (not pieces is pieces and parts is parts) deep fried and coated with whatever sauce (hot, BBQ, garlic, honey mustard) or just plain with no sauce. Cost on Tuesday nights, after 7p and before 10p, six for $3. Beer specials begin at 8p. One plate of these monster wings would be enough for anyone, almost. Along with celery and blue cheese or ranch dressing, you "gots yourself a meal." And, watching the Pitt. Pirates beat the D-backs made the meal complete.
We also went to a movie with the kids. It was called Stardust. I would recommend it, ok, I do recommend it (thanks, Sujo) for anyone wanting to see a light comedy. Has big stars in it playing oddball parts. Has a unicorn in it, that's freaky.
Been doing genealogy up in Mercer county. Found Corinne's great grandpa's, to the sixth degree, records. Went to the cemetery where he is buried, but could not locate his headstone or footstone. Did you know some folks have footstones? How would anyone know if its a head or foot stone? Someone could visit the graveyard and completely be standing at the wrong end talking to the dead. How embarassing would that be? Anyway, lots of markers are so old and worn they can't be read. We think this is the situation with Daniel Paup, and a James Paup who are buried there.
Saw one marker with the name Hoey. Made me wonder if there wasn't a whole lot of Hoey buried there, which I discovered was the case. Other markers looked as if the sprinkler system sprayed across the face of them because they were worn and eroded away from water damage, like sandstone in the bend of a river or creek. You would, well maybe not you, but I would think some caretaker could see that happening and make an adjustment so as not to destroy the markers.
We also had dinner one evening at a place called "The Church Brewery." It is an old church, Catholic I presume, converted into a restaurant. They had a German theme going on that night for Oktoberfest. There are stained glass windows, pews, and a pipe organ still installed. I presumed it was a Catholic church because what other religion would allow beer brewed and served?? Personally, I would dress the wait-staff in cleric garb, like nuns and priests, have confessional looking entrances to the restrooms, a collection plate to bring you your bill, rulers to whack customers who aren't ready to order in a timely manner, and hymnals for menus. Now that would be a tourist attraction. Sorry if I offended any of my non-Catholic friends, but I don't know enough about other religions to come up with theme related garb for them, but surely the possibities are abundant. The beer and food were great. The cooks wouldn't even check on the Sauerbraten until 6:30, so we had to sit in purgatory eating hot pretzels before the wait staff could place Brandon's order of sauerbraten. It was a hell of a wait, but well worth it.
We finally got to see some Amish folks riding their buggies down the roads. We have seen them in a few different locations, but never in their buggies on the roads. Pretty cool. What a life that would be. Also saw a couple of Amish farms and even saw, although I don't think it was Amish, a very large house with six, count 'em, 6 garages. A dream come true for someone (and I don't mean Corinne).
A happy birthday shout goes out to my sisters Mary and Carolyn, and brother James, whom all celebrated the passage of another year this past week. Seems like only last year they had a birthday...hmmm.
We took the day off yesterday to just relax and get things straightened out. Being retired is alot like working. Work 5 days, take 2 days off. I needed to work on the generator and get it better situated in the back of the truck and, reorganize, ok, just organize the basement of the coach, it never was organized to be reorganized. I found lots of room available in the basement after getting it cleaned out. Maybe I'll buy some good junk on the way back to Phx. I think what I would really like is a tractor, an old tractor that runs, maybe a one cylinder tractor, so I could putt-putt around the neighborhood. That would be fun. And I could park it on the front lawn like they do back here so all my neighbors could see it. Now that would make me popular. Just kidding... it wouldn't make me popular, but it would be cool.
Got a CARE package from Moe. Sent me warm clothes to wear. Now its warm here, again. Thanks! Moe, you're the best!! If we need something shipped, Moe's our go to gal. "Moe's Ship & Go."
For Don R. at the House, started to watch the Deadwood series. For you others, if you don't like cussin', killin', drinkin', and sexn' don't watch it. I watch it for the literary content, of course.
Bobo
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 007
Bob’s Blah Blog:
This is a TEST, and not a Blog.
Had this been an actual Blog
You would have been instructed
To sit back, relax and enjoy.
Because this was a TEST
And not an official Blog,
Resume whatever you were doing
Before the TEST.
I was trying to find out if
I could write a blog on MS Word
and copy it so as not to tie up
someone's (and I mean Corinne) phone.
The test worked. Yeah.
Bobo
This is a TEST, and not a Blog.
Had this been an actual Blog
You would have been instructed
To sit back, relax and enjoy.
Because this was a TEST
And not an official Blog,
Resume whatever you were doing
Before the TEST.
I was trying to find out if
I could write a blog on MS Word
and copy it so as not to tie up
someone's (and I mean Corinne) phone.
The test worked. Yeah.
Bobo
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 007
Bob's Blah Blog:
Hot diggity, dog diggity, umph what a thrill it is..... More of this later.
Ok, really haven't done a whole bunch of anything worth writing about, but then, that's what I think everytime I sit down to write.
We posted our first photo album this week. If you DID NOT get it, please notify Corinne. We asked for a response if you received it and could open it, but not everyone has responded, so we don't know if they received it or could open the album. If you wants, you gots to asks.
We have stayed in the same camp site now probably longer than any one we have moved out of. I had to check my reciept this morning just to make sure I wasn't wrong. I wasn't. We are moving westward tomorrow, come hell or high water. I have reserved us a campsite at Racoon Creek State Park about 20 miles due west of Pittsburger. Will stay there at least 6 nights...we'll see. Getting hot here, too. Was like 75 today.
Spent many a day and some evenings in Gettysburg, East Berlin, Latimore, Upper and Lower
Bermudian, Dover, York, and Harrisburg. Spent more than a few miles navigating the roadways to and from camp to site back to camp. Again, Anita the Queen, took us on some mighty unusual routes, not the shortest route, not the fastest route, but any ol' route she wanted.
We did finally get to spend some time at the Gettyburg battlefield museum and on the fighting grounds. We watched what is called the Electric Map that some guy created. Little lights lit up as the battle was explained, showing the Union positions and the Johnny Rebs positions prior to, during and after the battles of July 1,2,3, 1863. This show gave us a lot better perspective of the battle when we went out to the battlefield, looked at the monuments, markers and maps, of which there are some 3000. What a bloody battle it was on the third day. It is surprising the war lasted another 2 years after that.
Bob-servations:
On one trip to Gettysburg, I noticed a street in East Berlin named Cheapside Street. Now, does that mean it was a cheap, side street, or the cheapside of the street? My guess, is means a cheapside of the street as some of the row houses didn't look as good as the ones across the street on the goodside of the street.
Since being here in Dover/York/Harrisburg, its been a regular cesspool of crime. One day when we were leaving the York County Heritage Trust, the Popo had the streets blocked at Philadelphia and Queen (not our queen) for a stabbing homicide investigation. A 15 year old boy stabbed his mom's boyfriend to death (guess he didn't like his new daddy). Then, a week later, we saw on the news of somebody getting shot in their car at the same location (guess they didn't like the guys caddi [-lac]). Then last night, on North street in the 2100 block in Harrisburg, just down the street from where we were today, two or possibly three people got shot, two dead. (guess the shooters wore masks but not hatties.)
We got an email from Sandy O. complaining there were no photos of animals we have seen along our way. A reply was quickly fired back to her animal, Zach, a beautiful German Shepard neutured male (ouch) that we were including photos of animals, in particular one little hot poodle in Louisville KY... Ooh La La. Also letting Zach know his "surrogate mother" (Sandy) MUST be editing his email and making sure he doesn't see anything inappropriate, like a hot little poodle from out of state. We signed the email from Your real Dad and Mom (just so he would know who really loves him.) Just for fun, we sent him a nice picture of a black and white cow to look at. He loves seeing animals on TV. Speaking of animals, someone (and I mean Corinne) thinks I look like some kind of wild animal with my scraggly beard and almost a pony-tail hair uncut. I be handsome ya know, just ask my momma, she tell you I be handsome.
Now, back to Hot dogs. We were in Downtown Harrisburg this morning/afternoon doing research. It was about 3p and we had done all we could stand for the day, so it was time to leave and go find some food. We thought, hmmmm, Fuddrucker's...no, too far away. Chinese...no likey places found by the Queen. Mexican...yeah, right, good mexican food east of the Mississippi? Hardly. Anyways, we just started driving with the intent to go to Dillsburg to the Ford dealership to have the Big Rig's oil changed when we happened upon a quaint little corner restaurant named "The Spot." Sometime either this morning or yesterday morning, one of the local TV stations, WGAL, I think, was doing a live broadcast from there for some reason or another. Corinne pointed out the broadcast to me when it was on because I wasn't paying attention to the TV because I was checking my gmail to see if anyone sent me an email, which NOBODY did. Anyways, we looked longingly into each others eyes as we gazed upon The Spot restauant and said "dare we?" It was so impulsive, so sudden, so out of character, so hungry of us. We parked the big rig and wandered into the place. The front door was propped open with a stick of wood and a sign on the side of the building read they were going out of business after 7 decades in the same spot. They were thanking everyone for their loyalty and support over the decades and invited them in to have one last dog before they closed for good on September 30, 007. Corinne went in first and started taking pictures of the place, lined with photos of big shots and celebrities or whomever they were. The owner kiddingly told Corinne she would have to slip him a $1 under the table if she wanted to take photos. I gave Corinne a dollar and told her to go give it to him in front of his friends and call his bluff. She did, and he wouldn't take her money. She got the photos for free, plus the cost of lunch. We had two dogs with everthing, which, unlike eating at Wiener World, came with mustard, onion and chili. WW only had onions on their dogs. Ha! eat that Wiener World. The dogs were big and juicy, with good chili and just the right amount of mustard and onion on them. We ate and left, as quietly as we entered. So long to The Spot, you have been a good friend to us. So, we sing, Hot digitty, dog diggity, umph what a...
We did our laundry tonight in Dover at our favorite little laundromat, whatever its name is. An older mother and her son, both half to three-quarters of a bubble off center, came in after us. The mother continued to look at a really dirty pair of levis her son had brought in and would fold them up and talk to herself and unfold them and fold them and talk to herself. Corinne thought she may have been speaking to us, but I wan't gonna have no part in that conversation. Anyways, the EMS folks came because some other old lady had fallen down just outside of the laundromat and we, being crack (not cocaine or butt) observers of the unusual, didn't even know anything had occurred until the EMS and Popo came. Guess we really are retired, now. They took her off to the doctor or somewhere with a skinned knee or something.
Anyway, getting back to laundry, somehow, a pair of blue Hanes underwear got mixed in with our bedding. Now, I hope they were inside the washer when we put our bedding in, or else I am going to wonder, when was Corinne wearing Michael Jordan Hanes underwear? I know they weren't mine. We left them there in case someone came looking for them. Good way to get a free wash, tho. The things you learn when you pay attention.
Oh, what a wonderful day!
Bobo
Hot diggity, dog diggity, umph what a thrill it is..... More of this later.
Ok, really haven't done a whole bunch of anything worth writing about, but then, that's what I think everytime I sit down to write.
We posted our first photo album this week. If you DID NOT get it, please notify Corinne. We asked for a response if you received it and could open it, but not everyone has responded, so we don't know if they received it or could open the album. If you wants, you gots to asks.
We have stayed in the same camp site now probably longer than any one we have moved out of. I had to check my reciept this morning just to make sure I wasn't wrong. I wasn't. We are moving westward tomorrow, come hell or high water. I have reserved us a campsite at Racoon Creek State Park about 20 miles due west of Pittsburger. Will stay there at least 6 nights...we'll see. Getting hot here, too. Was like 75 today.
Spent many a day and some evenings in Gettysburg, East Berlin, Latimore, Upper and Lower
Bermudian, Dover, York, and Harrisburg. Spent more than a few miles navigating the roadways to and from camp to site back to camp. Again, Anita the Queen, took us on some mighty unusual routes, not the shortest route, not the fastest route, but any ol' route she wanted.
We did finally get to spend some time at the Gettyburg battlefield museum and on the fighting grounds. We watched what is called the Electric Map that some guy created. Little lights lit up as the battle was explained, showing the Union positions and the Johnny Rebs positions prior to, during and after the battles of July 1,2,3, 1863. This show gave us a lot better perspective of the battle when we went out to the battlefield, looked at the monuments, markers and maps, of which there are some 3000. What a bloody battle it was on the third day. It is surprising the war lasted another 2 years after that.
Bob-servations:
On one trip to Gettysburg, I noticed a street in East Berlin named Cheapside Street. Now, does that mean it was a cheap, side street, or the cheapside of the street? My guess, is means a cheapside of the street as some of the row houses didn't look as good as the ones across the street on the goodside of the street.
Since being here in Dover/York/Harrisburg, its been a regular cesspool of crime. One day when we were leaving the York County Heritage Trust, the Popo had the streets blocked at Philadelphia and Queen (not our queen) for a stabbing homicide investigation. A 15 year old boy stabbed his mom's boyfriend to death (guess he didn't like his new daddy). Then, a week later, we saw on the news of somebody getting shot in their car at the same location (guess they didn't like the guys caddi [-lac]). Then last night, on North street in the 2100 block in Harrisburg, just down the street from where we were today, two or possibly three people got shot, two dead. (guess the shooters wore masks but not hatties.)
We got an email from Sandy O. complaining there were no photos of animals we have seen along our way. A reply was quickly fired back to her animal, Zach, a beautiful German Shepard neutured male (ouch) that we were including photos of animals, in particular one little hot poodle in Louisville KY... Ooh La La. Also letting Zach know his "surrogate mother" (Sandy) MUST be editing his email and making sure he doesn't see anything inappropriate, like a hot little poodle from out of state. We signed the email from Your real Dad and Mom (just so he would know who really loves him.) Just for fun, we sent him a nice picture of a black and white cow to look at. He loves seeing animals on TV. Speaking of animals, someone (and I mean Corinne) thinks I look like some kind of wild animal with my scraggly beard and almost a pony-tail hair uncut. I be handsome ya know, just ask my momma, she tell you I be handsome.
Now, back to Hot dogs. We were in Downtown Harrisburg this morning/afternoon doing research. It was about 3p and we had done all we could stand for the day, so it was time to leave and go find some food. We thought, hmmmm, Fuddrucker's...no, too far away. Chinese...no likey places found by the Queen. Mexican...yeah, right, good mexican food east of the Mississippi? Hardly. Anyways, we just started driving with the intent to go to Dillsburg to the Ford dealership to have the Big Rig's oil changed when we happened upon a quaint little corner restaurant named "The Spot." Sometime either this morning or yesterday morning, one of the local TV stations, WGAL, I think, was doing a live broadcast from there for some reason or another. Corinne pointed out the broadcast to me when it was on because I wasn't paying attention to the TV because I was checking my gmail to see if anyone sent me an email, which NOBODY did. Anyways, we looked longingly into each others eyes as we gazed upon The Spot restauant and said "dare we?" It was so impulsive, so sudden, so out of character, so hungry of us. We parked the big rig and wandered into the place. The front door was propped open with a stick of wood and a sign on the side of the building read they were going out of business after 7 decades in the same spot. They were thanking everyone for their loyalty and support over the decades and invited them in to have one last dog before they closed for good on September 30, 007. Corinne went in first and started taking pictures of the place, lined with photos of big shots and celebrities or whomever they were. The owner kiddingly told Corinne she would have to slip him a $1 under the table if she wanted to take photos. I gave Corinne a dollar and told her to go give it to him in front of his friends and call his bluff. She did, and he wouldn't take her money. She got the photos for free, plus the cost of lunch. We had two dogs with everthing, which, unlike eating at Wiener World, came with mustard, onion and chili. WW only had onions on their dogs. Ha! eat that Wiener World. The dogs were big and juicy, with good chili and just the right amount of mustard and onion on them. We ate and left, as quietly as we entered. So long to The Spot, you have been a good friend to us. So, we sing, Hot digitty, dog diggity, umph what a...
We did our laundry tonight in Dover at our favorite little laundromat, whatever its name is. An older mother and her son, both half to three-quarters of a bubble off center, came in after us. The mother continued to look at a really dirty pair of levis her son had brought in and would fold them up and talk to herself and unfold them and fold them and talk to herself. Corinne thought she may have been speaking to us, but I wan't gonna have no part in that conversation. Anyways, the EMS folks came because some other old lady had fallen down just outside of the laundromat and we, being crack (not cocaine or butt) observers of the unusual, didn't even know anything had occurred until the EMS and Popo came. Guess we really are retired, now. They took her off to the doctor or somewhere with a skinned knee or something.
Anyway, getting back to laundry, somehow, a pair of blue Hanes underwear got mixed in with our bedding. Now, I hope they were inside the washer when we put our bedding in, or else I am going to wonder, when was Corinne wearing Michael Jordan Hanes underwear? I know they weren't mine. We left them there in case someone came looking for them. Good way to get a free wash, tho. The things you learn when you pay attention.
Oh, what a wonderful day!
Bobo
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sunday, September 16, Bond, James Bond 007
Bob's Blah Blog:
First off, I just have to tell you how cool, cold it is here right now. Yesterday, it only got to about 65 degrees for a high and somewhere in the mid 40's overnight. Felt SO GOOD. Hehe. But you know what? I didn't pack any warm clothes to wear. It was 110 in Phoenix when we left and all I could think about was getting north to the cooler weather. So, here we are in Dover, PA and its cooler weather and still 110 in Phoenix...that just seems so right on so many levels.
Been doing a little traveling around the past few days. We went to East Berlin where President Reagen made his famous plea: "Mr. Gorbachav, tear down this wall!" Well, guess what, we found no evidence of the wall and no evidence of it ever even being in East Berlin, PA. Our youngest, Brandon, once visited into East Berlin, GE when he was on an exchange program with a German school. The family he was staying with lived in Berlin, and the father, Dr. Kandlebinder, often would travel to East Berlin, past the wall to conduct business there. The West Germans, from what I hear, were not thrilled with the wall coming down as the East Germans lived under socialism and expected the gov't to take care of them. When the wall came down, they expected the same to continue.
We visited Gettysburg a couple of times, once to do some genealogy and once to go see a movie. More about the movie later. We drove through the Gettysburg battlefield along Seminary Ridge where the Union soldiers held the high ground against the Johnny Rebs. Lots of monuments and markers where the different state militias, armies, soldiers, regulars, volunteers, whatever they called themselves, were holed up for the fight. We will have to go back and take a tour of the battlefield to really get a good understanding of what happened on the 3rd of July 1863.
Now to the movie. We made a specific trip to the Gettysburg Gateway Cinema center to go to a movie. When we got there at 520 p. the next movie to be shown was called Field of Freedom. It started at 530p. We got our tickets, I made a pitstop, if you know what I mean, and Corinne got popcorn and a soda. We got to theatre #2, if your are keeping score at home, and the film was already in progress, but just started. We thought the theatre was empty because we didn't see anyone else, and the lobby was empty except for workers. Anyway, Corinne said she thought we were the only ones there. I agreed and asked if she wanted to get naked and watch the movie. She said OK. But, we didn't, which was a good thing because when the movie was over, 1/2 and hour later, there was an older couple seated right behind us. Yikes! that would have been embarassing (for them), not us, we have seen each other naked, so no surprises there. Now, we certainly did not expect the feature lenght, $8 per person Field of Freedom movie to be only 1/2 and hour long, so when it ended at 6 p, we thought we must have gone into the wrong movie theatre and just caught the end of the movie. We sat there as more people came into the theatre for the next showing and we decided we will just stay and watch the movie when it restarted. Well, when the movie started, it began right where we came into the theatre at 530p. Hmmmm, something not right here. We watched the movie, again, and I thought about standing up at the end and asking everyone if they, like us, thought they paid $8 good American dollars to see a full length feature film. But, I didn't, restraining myself since I have made a jackass of myself on an ocassion or two...or 40 times. What we actually thought at the first viewing was the movie was one of those that starts at the end and then they give a retrospective of what lead up to the point they started the movie at.
Anyways, the movie gave a good overview of what happened on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, so now, when we go to the battlefield, it will make more sense.
Odd-servations:
1) There is a brewing company in Gettysburg called Gettysbrew. Cool name...wonder what it tastes like?
2) Driving on a road out of the campground, the speed limit changed from 55 to 45 as we approached a cemetery. There appeared to be no other reason for the reduced speed other than ghosts must walk slower across the road than non-ghost.
3) It is against the law in PA to sell postcards. Well, not really, but just try to find one in a Walgreens or CVS store or Wally-World or ???? As former President George Herbert Walker Bush says: "Not gonna do it."
We went to Philadelphia on Friday and took I-76 which is also known as the Pennsylvania Turnpike. You have to pay to drive on it. It is about the worst road to drive on, bumps, holes, speed limits that rise and fall for no known reason, and they charge people to use it. Something wrong here. I think when I get back to Phoenix, I will organize a Phx. based protest the use of the PA turnpike and encourage everyone in the Phx. area not to drive on it. We'll see just how long it takes them to fix it, then.
At Philly (I call it Philly), we ate at the Reading (pronounced Redding, for some reason) Marketplace. It is adjacent to the convention center and has about 50 or so food places, beer hall, farmer's market, steaks, seafood, baked goods from the Amish, etc, etc. etc. We ate at Ricky's Steaks which sells Philly Cheese Steak sammiches. I got a Works sammich and Corinne got a Chicken Parmasaen sammich. Not too bad, but I wouldn't say it was the best I've ever had, because I haven't found one that I would consider the best, yet. We also go ice cream in a cup and took a blueberry/peach pie home for later on.
We took a bus tour of the downtown and points of interest. Was a pretty good tour, except we could hardly hear the guide over the noise of the bus engine and the yakitty-yak women sitting behind us talking about everything but what was on the tour. We moved to a different seat when one opened up and could hear the guide and not the yakitty-yaks. I would recommend, if you visit Philly, to take the bus tour. Saw lots of sights we would have not seen and got some behind the scenes info on stuff.
We went to see Constitution Hall and the Liberty Bell and the national park site in downtown Philly. At Const. Hall, we had a national park guide whom we could hardly understand because of his accent. Don't know what country he was from, but my guess is Massachuchetts. He was kind of wierd, too, zipped his jacket up while inside, but unzipped it to go out. Corinne said he reminded her of someone, but I don't recall who she said it was. Probably Junior Earnhardt.
Giving a shout out to Donna S. who left us a voice mail on Friday cause she didn't know where we were. Donna, we are in Dover, Pennsylvania.
On Friday night, it rained most of the night. During the night, we were suddenly awakened by a loud pop or two or more. We both thought maybe we were being fired upon or someone was throwing rocks at our coach. I finally determined it was acorns falling off the oak trees we are parked under. We cannot figure out why they sound so loud when they hit the roof, but its like a gun going off.
We were forced to move from space 232 to space 105 because some other schmoe wanted to our site. I told "Mr. Park Ranger, Sir" longterm visitors to the campground ought to have priority over some smuch who only wants to be here on Saturday and Sunday, forcing the weekly camper to move so they can campout. Government of the people, for the people, by the people, except, not all the time. Sounds like my experience at the House...the rules apply to everyone, but not just all the time, tho. Anyway, the point of mentioning moving to site 105 is we don't get Dish Network satellite 119, so we can't watch the NASCAR race today.
Met some really nice folks yesterday while we were trespassing on their land. Actually, we thought it was public land as it was across the road from a house and is an old cemetery. The people were really nice, named Bushey. Their ancestors came here in the 1700, and although the cemetery is named after their family, they have nobody living or dead buried there. I knew a man named Bob Bushey when I worked in Buckeye, (Western Gateway to Danger) AZ. Bob owned or leased Tonopah Chevron service station in Tonopah, AZ. Anyways, we stood and chatted with the folks for quite awhile (I thought maybe they were stalling us until the sheriff got there or something.) They were nice, and even offered to let us come to their house and clean up after scrounging thru their cemetery. We did find some Petit gravemarkers, which Corinne believes she has some relation to.
Well, I guess that's about all "I has to say" for today. Think I'll go outside and enjoy the mild 60 degree weather and think about all my friends back in "old HOT Sticker-Town."
Bobo
First off, I just have to tell you how cool, cold it is here right now. Yesterday, it only got to about 65 degrees for a high and somewhere in the mid 40's overnight. Felt SO GOOD. Hehe. But you know what? I didn't pack any warm clothes to wear. It was 110 in Phoenix when we left and all I could think about was getting north to the cooler weather. So, here we are in Dover, PA and its cooler weather and still 110 in Phoenix...that just seems so right on so many levels.
Been doing a little traveling around the past few days. We went to East Berlin where President Reagen made his famous plea: "Mr. Gorbachav, tear down this wall!" Well, guess what, we found no evidence of the wall and no evidence of it ever even being in East Berlin, PA. Our youngest, Brandon, once visited into East Berlin, GE when he was on an exchange program with a German school. The family he was staying with lived in Berlin, and the father, Dr. Kandlebinder, often would travel to East Berlin, past the wall to conduct business there. The West Germans, from what I hear, were not thrilled with the wall coming down as the East Germans lived under socialism and expected the gov't to take care of them. When the wall came down, they expected the same to continue.
We visited Gettysburg a couple of times, once to do some genealogy and once to go see a movie. More about the movie later. We drove through the Gettysburg battlefield along Seminary Ridge where the Union soldiers held the high ground against the Johnny Rebs. Lots of monuments and markers where the different state militias, armies, soldiers, regulars, volunteers, whatever they called themselves, were holed up for the fight. We will have to go back and take a tour of the battlefield to really get a good understanding of what happened on the 3rd of July 1863.
Now to the movie. We made a specific trip to the Gettysburg Gateway Cinema center to go to a movie. When we got there at 520 p. the next movie to be shown was called Field of Freedom. It started at 530p. We got our tickets, I made a pitstop, if you know what I mean, and Corinne got popcorn and a soda. We got to theatre #2, if your are keeping score at home, and the film was already in progress, but just started. We thought the theatre was empty because we didn't see anyone else, and the lobby was empty except for workers. Anyway, Corinne said she thought we were the only ones there. I agreed and asked if she wanted to get naked and watch the movie. She said OK. But, we didn't, which was a good thing because when the movie was over, 1/2 and hour later, there was an older couple seated right behind us. Yikes! that would have been embarassing (for them), not us, we have seen each other naked, so no surprises there. Now, we certainly did not expect the feature lenght, $8 per person Field of Freedom movie to be only 1/2 and hour long, so when it ended at 6 p, we thought we must have gone into the wrong movie theatre and just caught the end of the movie. We sat there as more people came into the theatre for the next showing and we decided we will just stay and watch the movie when it restarted. Well, when the movie started, it began right where we came into the theatre at 530p. Hmmmm, something not right here. We watched the movie, again, and I thought about standing up at the end and asking everyone if they, like us, thought they paid $8 good American dollars to see a full length feature film. But, I didn't, restraining myself since I have made a jackass of myself on an ocassion or two...or 40 times. What we actually thought at the first viewing was the movie was one of those that starts at the end and then they give a retrospective of what lead up to the point they started the movie at.
Anyways, the movie gave a good overview of what happened on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, so now, when we go to the battlefield, it will make more sense.
Odd-servations:
1) There is a brewing company in Gettysburg called Gettysbrew. Cool name...wonder what it tastes like?
2) Driving on a road out of the campground, the speed limit changed from 55 to 45 as we approached a cemetery. There appeared to be no other reason for the reduced speed other than ghosts must walk slower across the road than non-ghost.
3) It is against the law in PA to sell postcards. Well, not really, but just try to find one in a Walgreens or CVS store or Wally-World or ???? As former President George Herbert Walker Bush says: "Not gonna do it."
We went to Philadelphia on Friday and took I-76 which is also known as the Pennsylvania Turnpike. You have to pay to drive on it. It is about the worst road to drive on, bumps, holes, speed limits that rise and fall for no known reason, and they charge people to use it. Something wrong here. I think when I get back to Phoenix, I will organize a Phx. based protest the use of the PA turnpike and encourage everyone in the Phx. area not to drive on it. We'll see just how long it takes them to fix it, then.
At Philly (I call it Philly), we ate at the Reading (pronounced Redding, for some reason) Marketplace. It is adjacent to the convention center and has about 50 or so food places, beer hall, farmer's market, steaks, seafood, baked goods from the Amish, etc, etc. etc. We ate at Ricky's Steaks which sells Philly Cheese Steak sammiches. I got a Works sammich and Corinne got a Chicken Parmasaen sammich. Not too bad, but I wouldn't say it was the best I've ever had, because I haven't found one that I would consider the best, yet. We also go ice cream in a cup and took a blueberry/peach pie home for later on.
We took a bus tour of the downtown and points of interest. Was a pretty good tour, except we could hardly hear the guide over the noise of the bus engine and the yakitty-yak women sitting behind us talking about everything but what was on the tour. We moved to a different seat when one opened up and could hear the guide and not the yakitty-yaks. I would recommend, if you visit Philly, to take the bus tour. Saw lots of sights we would have not seen and got some behind the scenes info on stuff.
We went to see Constitution Hall and the Liberty Bell and the national park site in downtown Philly. At Const. Hall, we had a national park guide whom we could hardly understand because of his accent. Don't know what country he was from, but my guess is Massachuchetts. He was kind of wierd, too, zipped his jacket up while inside, but unzipped it to go out. Corinne said he reminded her of someone, but I don't recall who she said it was. Probably Junior Earnhardt.
Giving a shout out to Donna S. who left us a voice mail on Friday cause she didn't know where we were. Donna, we are in Dover, Pennsylvania.
On Friday night, it rained most of the night. During the night, we were suddenly awakened by a loud pop or two or more. We both thought maybe we were being fired upon or someone was throwing rocks at our coach. I finally determined it was acorns falling off the oak trees we are parked under. We cannot figure out why they sound so loud when they hit the roof, but its like a gun going off.
We were forced to move from space 232 to space 105 because some other schmoe wanted to our site. I told "Mr. Park Ranger, Sir" longterm visitors to the campground ought to have priority over some smuch who only wants to be here on Saturday and Sunday, forcing the weekly camper to move so they can campout. Government of the people, for the people, by the people, except, not all the time. Sounds like my experience at the House...the rules apply to everyone, but not just all the time, tho. Anyway, the point of mentioning moving to site 105 is we don't get Dish Network satellite 119, so we can't watch the NASCAR race today.
Met some really nice folks yesterday while we were trespassing on their land. Actually, we thought it was public land as it was across the road from a house and is an old cemetery. The people were really nice, named Bushey. Their ancestors came here in the 1700, and although the cemetery is named after their family, they have nobody living or dead buried there. I knew a man named Bob Bushey when I worked in Buckeye, (Western Gateway to Danger) AZ. Bob owned or leased Tonopah Chevron service station in Tonopah, AZ. Anyways, we stood and chatted with the folks for quite awhile (I thought maybe they were stalling us until the sheriff got there or something.) They were nice, and even offered to let us come to their house and clean up after scrounging thru their cemetery. We did find some Petit gravemarkers, which Corinne believes she has some relation to.
Well, I guess that's about all "I has to say" for today. Think I'll go outside and enjoy the mild 60 degree weather and think about all my friends back in "old HOT Sticker-Town."
Bobo
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