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.

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, 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

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.

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, 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

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

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

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Bob's Blah Blog:

Six year anniversary of the attack on America by Usama Bin Laden...do not forget the Americans and others murdered by him and his terrorist ilk.

Coe, Moe and I were in Paris, France when we learned of the attack. We had just toured the Eiffel Tower and ran into a group of American women (nurses) we had befriended while standing in line for the tour. They asked if we remembered them, which we thought was an odd question, but we said yes. They informed us the World Trade Center buildings had been bombed and collapsed. They said they had confirmed the information by calling family members in the Virginia area. We could hardly believe it. Corinne knew immediately OBL was behind the attack.

Sirens were blaring through out Paris as emergency vehicles responded to an unknown location as we exited the subway system near Notre Dame Cathedral. In fact, we had to exit the subway at an early stop since the train was prevented from going further. We later found a Paris policeman who could speak some english and asked what was happening. He gave us some non-descript answer, so we didn't really find out what the problem was in Paris. Back at our hotel, we watched CNN on tv and could hardly believe our eyes. It was difficult to go to sleep being in a foreign country knowing your homeland was being attacked.

In the morning, we had to catch an early train to Munich, Germany. We walked from the hotel across a plaza in the quiet darkness to the underground railway. We were extremely cautious of our surrounding and people we passed. On the train, there were only a small number of folks in our car. When we reached the train station, there were lots of travelers. We found some American's and spoke briefly with them. They recognized us as being American because we were wearing tennis shoes. Only Americans wear tennis shoes in Europe, they told us. Great, just what we needed to hear.

The girls spent our last French Francs on sammiches for lunch on the train to Munich. They were very good and we still speak about how good they were. Maybe they just tasted good because of the stress we were under, or maybe they were just that good. The ride to Munich was about 8 hours long. We enjoyed seeing the countryside, churches, farms and castles as we rode along, our thoughts never far from what had occured the day before. Arriving at Munich, we were greeted by Babs and her parents. They were so sorry to have heard about the tragic events the day before.

We found most of the older Germans we met during our few days in Munich were very supportive of the Americans. They fondly recalled the Berlin Air Lift and the generosity of the American troops at the end of WWII with the bringing of food and clothing and other necessities to them. Candle light vigils where held in the town square. We were interviewed by a newspaper reporter who overheard us speaking english during lunch near the Glockenspiel. Bab's was suspicious of him, at first, but he carried credentials for a reputable news organization and she acted as our interpreter for the interview. Mainly, he just wanted to know our feelings and how we were coping with the attack. For the most part, we felt safe in Europe, but did take precautions wherever we went. We tried not to speak while in any group of people we could not identify as being German. Munich has a large contingent of Muslim residents and others who are obviously of mid-eastern descent. For the most part, I think we felt safe, but always had safety in mind.

On to better stuff......

Odd-servation. We visited a cemetery where they had Sinners buried. There were several headstones marked Sinner. We did not know what they did or why they had been so identified as being Sinners, but I guess the people who put up the stones know better.

It is raining today. At one point, it came down quite hard for about 10 -15 minues. Sitting in the coach and closing my eyes, it sounded like riding the BART train through a long tunnel or riding the high speed train in the "Chunnel" from England to France, or from France to England if you are French . If there was motion involved while I was sitting, I would have believed I was actually on one of those trains. By the way, riding the train through the Chunnel is no big deal. They don't announce when you're about to enter it or when you are exiting it. Its just a railroad that goes under water and is non-eventfull. No champagne, either.

On Sunday, we toured the countryside, looking at cemeteries and trying to guesstimate where the land of Corinne's ancestors was located. We stopped and spoke with several homeowners along the way hoping to glean some information. They often pointed us in the direction of someone else deemed to be the local historian in the area. We came across a married couple, in their eighties, named Martha and Ev (Everett). They met during WWII when he was a Marine in the South Pacific and she was a nurse on a hospital ship in the South Pacific. They fell in love, married, had children, retired together. We enjoyed meeting them and they gave us some very good information and places where to possibly find additional information. They also said they would check with some neighbors who were in their nineties who had been in the area longer than they. Their neighbors had been school teachers in Dover and although weak in body, were strong of mind and should be able to provide details of the area.

We also stopped to talk with a possible distant cousin of Corinne who, at least, had the same last name of Paup. What is unusual, the people and family here pronounce the name as Powp
(P-ow-P, or Palp), not Pop as it is pronounced west of the Mississippi. Sorry I don't have a dictionary to use and show the phonetic pronounciation. I think it has something to do with the German pronounciation of vowels.

We also stopped at a historic landmark plaque on the side of the Thomas Pettit house. Somewhere back in time a Paup married a Pettit daughter. When Corinne went up to the house to photograph the plaque, the owner came to the door just as she was going to ring the bell. He was very friendly and extremely interested in learning about the historical significance of the house and the Pettit family. He and his wife purchased the home because they wanted a piece of history. He offered to give us a tour of the home which, of course, we jumped on. It was nicely decorated and he explained about the building materials used, what changes had been made by previous owners, what he and his wife had changed, etc. The original floorplan of the house is basically the same as originally built around 1798. He gave us a couple of shards of pottery they found in the corn field or garden, and sent us some old photos of the property he had obtained. We will recipricate with any information we develop on the Pettit's or the house.

We decided on Sunday to again extend our stay here in the park. We went to the Ranger's office to do so, and were told some other smuck wanted to use this site beginning on Thursday. There are some 300 sites in this campground, why is it when we are using one, some other smuck wants to make us move so they can use it? I am beginning to think our name has an "*" next to it which means "mess with Bob whenever possible." Am I being paranoid? No! Realistic? Yes!

Yesterday, we went to the Dover Library. Corinne saw a 1964 Ford Fairlane 500 resembling the one she learned to drive when she was 15. She is not sure if the car she learned in had two or four doors. She took a few pictures. Today, she wishes she had gone into the building and asked who it belonged to, and if she could drive it. Sheesh, like someone is going to just let her drive off in their green, 1964 Ford Fairlane 500 two-door speed-about. But then again, maybe they would.

Speaking of driving, I have seen on several ocassions, roadsigns that read: Watch Children. I have been looking for these supposed Watch Children, hoping to pickup a young Rolex, or two, as gifts for friends.

It has been humid the past couple of days, so maybe the rain we are having will cool things off. Yeah, maybe.

We haven't won a Poweball Lottery, yet.

America the beautiful.

Bobo

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Bob's Blah Blog:

Hello, Hello, Hello.

Did everyone see the new picture of Usama "Butt" Laden? Is he wearing a fake beard or what? We looked at it and we think its phoney, tony baloney. Maybe he is taking chemo and has lost his hair? Take a good look at it it. If its real, its not good advertisment for "Just for Men" hair dying product. If I owned the company, I'd sue for some reason, like, like, like....I don't know, but I would.

Sorrow in the JR Nation. Junior Earnhardt didn't make it to the Chase this year. But he tried and isn't that all we can really ask for? Give it your best effort, and if you fall short, at least you have nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, who wants to be racing with those other neer do wells? He doesn't need them, they need him. Yeah.

We called our friend Anita S., the "Payroll Queen" the other day. She was absolutely thrilled to hear from us...must have been her first phone call of the day. She is retiring end of this month. Good for her. Known her for 25 years, all those years working in the Business Office, as old-timers call it. She found it odd we called our Garmin guidance system the "Queen" as she, too, is a "Queen." She waxed fondly about all the times she had to tell me where to go over the past 25 years (and it wasn't always to a nice place). That made us think about her truism, so we renamed the Garmin "Anita the Roadway Queen." So there, life has gone full circle. Hopefully, Gerri, the "Princess in Waiting," will ascend to the throne (First Desk) and assume the "Queenship" when Anita becomes the Immediate Past Queen. All hail the Queen.

Speaking of Anita the Roadway Queen, well ok, writing about Anita the Roadway Queen, someone (and I mean Corinne) said she would be lost without it on these backroads of York. I told her "as long as I am with her, she will never be lost." Is that smooth or what?

Found some pretty good info at the York County Heritage Trust center this past week. Almost done here, I think. Talked with a man there yesterday who recalls when back in the 60's when he was a young buck, going out to the Paupp farm to look at headstones. They were written in Deutsch (German for our none German speaking readers). He took his grandpa out with him to decipher the etchings, but when they got there, some other people with shovels were already there and they were digging. Everyone felt uncomfortable with each other, so the young buck and his grandpa decided it was best for them to leave. The other folks were probably grave robbers. He never went back to site, so he doesn't know what happened with the graveyard. My only concern with his story is his memory of where the graveyard was exactly. He seemed to recall it being across the Big Conewago Creek, which would not be Paupp land.

Also, reading about the history of Dover and the BCC, many huge floods came down the creek and they could have easily washed the graves away if they were down in the lowland near the creek. It is unknown where the graves were exactly, so who knows. An ancestor wrote a book about the first 200 years of Jacab Baab and he could not find the graves. He had three theories, or stories about where they were. Some say they washed away, some say they were on the neighbor's (in-laws) land, some say they are on the Baab farm but nobody remembers where they were buried. The farm was some 100 acres, so its anybody's guess where to look. We have found lots of other family grave headstones dating back to the 1800's and maybe one or two readable dating back to the late 1700's. Does anyone know of a process to clean headstones of algea, dirt etc, to bring out the etching to make it more readable?

Odd-servation: We visited a Giant grocery store the other day. Walking thru the parking lot, I noticed the shopping cart corral where patron are supposed to return the cards after use. What made this corral so unusual, to me, was the sign reading "pick up and return carts here." I don't know just how heavy shopping carts are, but I have no inclination to pick one up and carry it to the corral. Not for them, not for anyone. That's why they have teenagers working as carryouts. Can you image some "old mo or joe" reading that sign and doing what it said to do? I smell a disablity coming on.

A lot of the houses back here have a large star on one side or the other of them. Some are plainly painted, some are fancy. Most are the same size, but some are larger than the smaller ones. I asked at the YCHT center what that was all about. They said the stars are mostly just decorative in today's world, but the really old ones were used to hold the beams of the house and roof together where they all came together. After thinking about it for awhile, it made sense. Corinne noticed a medical symbol on one house and thought it probably indicated in the old days where a doctor lived. That makes sense, too.

Some other house, and some with the stars, have a small light lit in each window of the house at sunset. Not sure of the purpose, but it makes the house look nice at dark. Must be a holdover from olden days, like in the Hotel 6 radio commercial, "we'll keep a light on for you." Wouldn't it be nice to come home to a light in the window knowing it was for you and not for the burgulars ransacking your place?

Got the dually fixed. Apple Ford in Red Lion, PA did a good job and it only cost us $41 for a rental vehicle for the day. Seems they found a conflict between the exhaust system and a motor mount which they needed to neutralize. Anybody (Michael and Lynda S) have any idea what the heck they are talking about and why they would be in conflict?

Writing about Lynda S. reminded me of the dream I had last night. Seems we were at work with Sujo and decided to go for a walk or something. Ended up at my mom's house. Lynda was walking and Sujo was riding on the handlebars of my bicycle (lucky her). It took us forever to get to my mom's, so I decided to borrow one of the six or seven assorted vehicles (cars, trucks lawn tractors) parked in the driveway to drive us back to work. Only problem was, which vehicle to use as everyone had someplace to go and the cars were full of crap and what a disaster. Speaking of crap, only one toilet in the house was working at the time, and there were boarders living upstairs. It was getting dark. I was walking down the street with a little brother or maybe a nephew and there were cats, except one cat had been breed with a gerbil and looked very ugly. The little brother or nephew told me the animal belonged to my brother Charlie. I have analyzed this dream and figured out the meaning of it is...not to go to work. I guess I also shoudn't eat I-talian food before bed anymore.

Bobo

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Bob's Blah Blog:

Woah! Here it is September already. Some of the trees are starting to turn color back here. The mornings are cool. Not much to report on. Been spending all our time in the York County Heritage Trust (YCHT) center doing genealogy research. Corinne is finding good stuff. Lots of PAUP family here.

The old houses are really neat. Most are multi-story, either rock or red brick. Some are wooden. Large lots, probably old farm land passed down in the family. Lots of old barns and out buildings. Not too many motorcycles, even tho Harley has a plant here. We will try to tour it...maybe pick up a free one or two.

Lots of row houses here. Some look better than others, depending on the neighborhood. They sell for anywhere between 50K to 100K. Most have 4 or 5 bedrooms and 1 bath. Hmmmm, that could be a problem.

Odd-servation about banks. Driving to York, I saw three different banks. The first bank sign read: People's Bank - What's next? The next bank sign down the road read: Citizen's Bank. The third and last bank sign read: Community Bank.

See the progression here? People, Citizens, Community. I keep looking for the County, State or World Bank to complete the picture.

Took the dually into the shop yesterday for the vibration we hear. The mechanic at Apple Ford said he thought it is coming from the exhause system, but this was his first experience with it. He was going to defer to the diesel mechanic who has more training and experience. We got a rental Taurus and left the truck with them.

We decided maybe to take in a movie last night to give someone's (and I mean Corinne's) brain a rest from looking at hundreds and hundreds of documents at the YCHT center. We were in Red Lion (south of York) at Apple Ford and plugged the movie theatre search into the Queen and followed her percise directions. I don't know what she was thinking, but she took us onto a dirt road that climbed a mountain and we ended up on the otherside, at a cemetery. We continued on and made it back to a paved roadway. Continuing to follow her directions, we ended up in a residential area. We continued to follow and when she finally told us to turn left and arrive at "Via Point" it was someone's house and the street dead-ended. I wanted to go knock on the door to see what movie(s) were playing there, but Corinne forbade me from doing so. We backed up, turned around and made our way to a shopping center strip mall. We found a movie theatre, but nothing we wanted to see. We thought maybe the Queen was confusius about directions, so we reprogrammed her to take us back to the original theatre (residential house) she took us to. Lo and behold, she took us down the road and we would have ended up at that house once again. Maybe there was a theatre there at one time, but not now. I doubt anyone would put a theatre in the middle of what once was a corn field...but, this is Pennsylvania, ya know.

Anyway, we decided to head back to the coach, but first needed dinner, or supper or food to eat. The lady at the YCHT told us about a place named Roosevelt Tavern just down the street from the center. Their fame is Cream of Crab soup. That sounded good to us, so we made our way there, not using the Queen, of course. The soup was pretty good, thick with lots of flavor. I added a bit of dry sherry to mine to boost the taste to the next level - BAM! Corinne had a Monte Christo and a cup of the soup, and I had a Cesar Salad with chicken. Pretty darn good.

Leaving the Tavern, we again relied on the Queen to get us to camp. We got to see lots of different countryside. She seems to like to take us on varied routes, which is ok, because we see different stuff, not just the same 'ol same 'ol. We always get home, so, who's to complain?

At the campground, "Mr. Ranger, Sir," was still in the office so we stopped in to extend our stay here until next Monday. We have lots of cemeteries to find and photograph, and Corinne is not feeling well. Either allegies or a cold. Fact is, she is still in bed right now and it's nearly 9 am. I think she needs the rest. Before retirement, she was always the last person up, if she wasn't the first one up. Post retirement, she is the first person up and I am the last. Very seldom do I get up first, now.

Getting back to "Mr. Ranger, Sir," our space is already reserved for the weekend by some other smuck, so we will have to change sites. Fortunately, there are a couple of others still available. It would make more sense to move the smucks, but they requested this space, so they get it. Thats an oddity I have noticed, whenever we go into a restaurant or DQ or someplace, there is hardly anyone inside, customer-wise. Then by the time we leave, its packed. I think people watch me or us and see what we are doing, then they want to do it, too. Could I be wrong or just imagining this phenominom...I thinks not.

Yesterday, we had lunch at Wiener World. You would think they serve hot dogs at Wiener World. I think there were 4 hot dogs on the menu. Lots of other stuff and sammiches and gyro's etc., but only 4 hot dogs. I had a Texas Red Hot with everything on it. Everything on it consisted of diced onion. That's it, just onions. Ooooo, glad I didn't get it plain, maybe it wouldn't have a bun. Hey, Marlys, this would be right up your alley...plain, no good stuff on it.

We watched the Dale (Earnhardt) movie the other night. It was good. If you have CMT on cable or satellite, try to catch it.

They have grocery stores here called Giant. They are huge, nicely stocked and plenty of room in the aisles so two carts can pass by each other without anyone having to climb into one of the carts to allow the other to pass. Prices are so-so. I guess they are right for the location.

Corinne is trying to figure out how to transfer photos to a website so you all can see them, too. We will let you know when that is accomplished.

Well, Corinne just got up, thanked me for letting her sleep. I guess I will sign off and get to gettin. We have some State College sticky buns to grill on the stove for breakfast. Saw them on the Food Network's show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. They take a sticky bun, cut it in half, put butter on the grill and cook it till the bottom is crisp. Yum, lick your lips good.

Bobo

Monday, September 3, 2007

Bob's Blah Blog:

Howdy, all. Been awhile, as you have probably read. Now in a small burg named Dillsburg. Central Pennsylvania, south of Harrisburg.

Getting down to business....a few odd-servations of mine.

Some gas stations in PA, West VA and maybe even in North Carolina have different names for the different grades of fuel. One, BP I think, has Regular, Silver and Ultimate. Silver and Ultimate WHAT?? Did you know there is a Bank of Gassaway in WV? Have banks opened branches in gas stations to help finance a fillup?

For those who have issues with people getting on to freeways, or should I say not knowing how to get onto freeways, accelerate to the speed of traffic on the highway. Don't putz along at 25 - 45 miles per hour praying someone will let you merge. Pulling a large trailer and confronting merging traffic is dangerous. These morons just drive along like they are Aunt Bee on a Sunday afternoon drive. "Shall we drive?" Some are on cellphones, some are talking to their passengers, some have their heads where the sun don't shine.

Passing through West Virginia, we came across a place called Fancy Gap. Not to be outdone, down the road was the town of Bland.

We camped one night at Sutton Lake State Park. We were right on the lake and had a great view of water not flowing or moving or doing anything. It was a long way off the highway and up on top of a hill or something since it seemed we drove uphill most of the way to get to it. We did see some really nice and some not so nice houses and farms. I kept listening for banjo music, if you know what I mean, Vern.

We were in Kannapolis, the birth place of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and someone's (and I mean Corinne) dream boyfriend. We toured Lowe's Motorspeedway, as I wrote about earlier, but nobody challenged me on calling it the "Monster." Truth is, I was testing y'all to see who really was NASCAR savyy and who wasn't. Lowe's is the "Beast of the Southeast" not the Monster. Did I mention we got to ride on the track at 83 mph in a nine or ten passenger van? Zoom-Zoom.

Anyways, we visited Dale Earnhardt Incorporated (DEI) and Jr Motorsports, along with Hendrick Motorsports. All three had great museums, with Hendrick being the best. Lots of cars, displays, trophies etc. All had gift shops, too. Imagine that. At Jr Motorsports, Dale Jr. had a small musuem, most of it dedicated to his liking of Elvis. He even had a lifesize (if there is such a thing of the KING) statue of Elvis. When I stood next to it to get my picture taken, he poked my belly and said in his drawl..."hey, lets get a sammich." Sounded good to me. The story behind the statue was someone in Dale's family found in while on vacation somewhere and thought Dale Jr. would like to have it. However, being on vacation posed a problem, so, like in Family Vacation where grandma dies, they just tied him to the roof of their car and drove him back to Kannapolis. Can you just imagine a Trooper stopping the car and Elvis saying, "hey, lets get a sammich, Trooper."

Also at Jr. museum, was a Madame Truseau full size wax figure of Junior. It was so life like I swear I saw his hand grab Corinne's or, vice versa. This same thing happened in Hawaii on our honeymoon and we saw Tom Selleck on Halloween filming for Magnum PI, only Tom wasn't a wax figure. I guess since Corinne left with the one who brung her, I must be more specialer.

We made it to Pittsburgh last Friday afternoon and to Brandon's house with the coach. The Queen (the Garmin GPS) took us in a couple of odd directions, but we got there. Also, had a brief rainstorm while parked in a grocery store lot trying to find a camp or RV park. Ended up at Indian Brave campgrouds about 25 miles north of Pittsb. Located in a small town named something I don't recall now. But, we made a wrong turn and ended going the wrong direction on a very narrow street. It was a classic main street town, with shops and busineses in old buildings and what looked like friendly people who stopped and pointed at us. I guess they were friendly.

We had dinner with the kids at an I-talian family restaurant. We had eaten there on our last time in Pittsb and decided to go back there again. Not too busy, good food, reasonable prices. We stopped at a Bruster's Ice Cream store (good Ice Cream if you haven't tried it yet). Corinne and I shared something that I can't remember at this time. Whatever it was, it had ice cream and pecans, and chocolate fudge and caramel sauce. Oh, yeah, it was called a Pecan Ball. Brandon doesn't care much for ice cream since his illness 2 1/2 years ago, so he didn't have any, which was a good thing since he was driving our truck and we needed to get fuel. Sam's Club on top of the hill had diesel and we were running on fumes.

The next day, we were just leaving the campground when we decided we better check with the management to see if it would be okay to stay a few more days. Because the office was closed, I called the number I had. At first, the lady said it would be okay, then said "no, at least not at the same site we were in." Seems she had some folks coming in later and they wanted two sites together so they could be "best camping buddies" or something. She said we could move to site 300 if it would work for us, so we drove back into the campgrounds and "schecked it out." 300 would have been okay, so we went back to our coach to either move to 300 or find another campground to move to. Just as we got back to the coach, Brandon or someone called and said they found a cat sitter and we could go to Hershey, PA for the weekend. We then spent the next hour and a half trying to locate a campground in Hershey area that wasn't booked up for the Labor Day weekend. Finally, we found the Wal-Mar Manor or whatever it is called and they said we could drop anchor there. Yeah! Anyway, we met our next door neighbors at Indian Brave and they were from Denver. They said they wanted to buy an Alfa Coach but were told their Chevy PU wouldn't pull it. They have the same size truck as I do, so I and they don't know why they were told that. They have a 100 pound freezer in the basement of their coach. Pretty cool, or is it Pretty Froze? We talked for quite awhile and they are fulltimers with 3 storage lockers full of household goods back in Denver.

On the road to Hershey, we got on the PA Turnpike, which for you keeping score at home is a toll road. The crazy thing about it was you never knew what the speed limit was. It went from 55 to 65 then back to 55 and back to 65 for no apparent reason. Whatever the speed limit was and whatever speed I was going, I was always being passed. We got off the turnpike in Carlile, PA and what a mess it was. I guess every trucker on the road got off there too. We found the Flying J and got fuel. It wasn't all that busy, which was a surprize. We also caught up with Brandon there. After fueling, we made our way to this campground and dropped the coach. Some guy here, who reminded me of Ron Bruce (retired AHP and now a Sheriff in Colorado) came over to talk. He just looked like Ron. Maybe his brother or something. Anyway, he told us about where its good to eat in Dillsburg. We ended up at Baker's Restaurant, which is a diner-style eatery. The food was good, varied and a great selection. I had fish, Corinne had chicken with brocolli sauce. The kids had breakfast.

On Saturday, we went to the Hershey amusement park. It was lots of fun, crowded and warm. We rode many rides, especially the old wooden rollercoasters. Those new-fangled steel upside down, roll you over spin you around coasters are just too scary for us (and I mean Corinne and me). We like the old school coasters...they are scary enough. Times past, we have ridden those new coasters, but now, we are retired and want to live to enjoy it.

Leaving the park at closing time, we were entertained by fireworks. Good show and I honked the car's horn to let Mr. Chocolate Bar know our approval. Did you know chocolate straight from the factory tastes different that chocolate that has been sitting on a shelf for a while?

Sunday, we visited the Hershey Gardens which are fabulous. Roses, trees, rocks, grass, butterflies, other flowers. Very fragrant, and beautiful. I think we all enjoyed the gardens. We also toured the Hershey Museum, which had some nice exhibits, but wasn't all that great. There was an old clock called the Apostolic Clock which took its creator 11 years or something to finish. Multi-function and intricate action every hour at a quarter to the hour, it would operate. It was built in 1887 something like that.

The weather has turned to cool, for the most part. Nice not to have the ever present humidity. The truck has developed some type of vibration which we will need to get checked out. Not sure what it is, but rattles when at idle.

Happy birthday to Brandon's grandma, Hope, who turned 86. The kids went back to Pittsburgh this afternoon so we are again empty-nesters.



Before the kids left, we visited the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. What a fabulous place. The Senate, House and Supreme Court are all housed under the same roof. Probably the Gov, too, but not sure. Ornate, gold leaf, paintings, marble, granite, and that's just the restrooms. Actually, makes the Arizona Capitol look pale in comparison. I used to have tourists come into the House of Reps to see our building and Chambers. After seeing other state's facilities, visitors probably are not very impressed by AZ. Bill Y., I will be sending you some literature to share with the troops.


We visited a cemetery near York today. Saw a couple of headstones worth mentioning. One was LEASE. Lease what? The grave? The headstone? Not planning to stay long enough to buy it outright?



Another was TEST. Again, Testing what? Whether you are gonna like it? Too hot? Too Cold? View not good enough? Don't like your neighbors? Not sure you like being dead, so just giving it a test drive..er...lay?



The third was FAMOUS. Famous for what? The Really silent partner of Amos? Predecestor to Almost Famous? What is fame, anyways?


As Alannah Myles sings: "Black Velvet and that little boy smile, Black Velvet and that slow southern style. A new religion that'll take you to your knees, Black Velvet, if you please."


I'll have my sammich with bananers and bacon. Thank you, thank you very much. (curled upper lip)


Bobo has left the internet.