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