Our RV Adventures

First off, I want to wish my best friend and cohort in mischief, Nick Russell a very happy birthday. It’s great to see ya’ll again.

Today, another one in our ‘Back Home in Titusville Tour’, we checked in with an old high-school friend of Jan’s, had a really good meal, visited family graves, had some more great food, did some grocery shopping, then came home and took a nap.

We needed it after all that.

We left the rig about 10am heading for Molly’s Seafood Shack out on Cocoa Beach. We were meeting up with Carol Burkott, an high-school classmate of Jan’s from when they both were in school in Chicopee Falls, MA.

Both their fathers were in the Air Force, and they were also members of the same church. Then a few years after Jan’s father retired down here, Carol’s family did also.

Carol was grand-baby sitting so she had 1 year old Alexander and 3 year old Leilani with her.

Both were very well-behaved. and Alexander and I had a good time playing with Alexander.

Molly’s is a local favorite, and folks were waiting in the parking lot for the place to open at 11:30. And the food showed why.

Jan had a nice salad, and then got the  Shrimp Tacos.

I had a cup of their Roasted Chicken and Crab Corn Chowder,

and then went with the Southern Style Shrimp and Sausage Cheese Grits, and a ear of Roasted Corn, along with a really good Jalapeno Corn Muffin.

Everything was really delicious and will be on our list for a repeat visit next time we’re in the area.

Finishing up, with Carol et. all, following in her car, Jan ran into the nearby WalMart to buy flowers, and then we all heading back up toward Titusville to visit the graves of Jan’s parents, brother, sister, and niece.

Jan’s father died in 1994, and then Jan’s mother died in 2007.

I loved the inscription of Trudy’s gravestone, “I KEPT BREATHING AS LONG AS POSSIBLE”. Something both Jan and I aspire to, also.

Jan’s brother Wayne was buried here in 2000,

as well as Jan’s niece, Jaime, who was stillborn in 1981 to Jan’s younger sister, Beverly.

Then Beverly died in 2013 and her ashes were scattered over the family graves.

This leaves Jan’s sister, Debbie, her only remaining relative who lives in Illinois.

Leaving the cemetery, and saying our goodbyes to Carol, we drove a little further north to the house where Jan was living when we met in 1967.

It really looks good. One thing we both remembered was that in 1967 there was a chain link fence surrounding the yard with a gate. The first time I came over to pick Jan up for a date, she opened the gate so I could drive into the yard.

And in doing so, she managed to slam the gate up against  the side of my Triumph Spitfire. She said that from the pained look on my face she figured she’d never see me again.

She couldn’t get rid of me that easy, but it did hurt.

By this time it was almost 5 and we were getting hungry again. So since Jan had been ‘jonsing’ for some of the Clam Chowder at Dixie Crossroads. I had let her taste some of mine last week, and now she wanted her own.

We both got a bowl this time,

which was large enough to have some to take home.

Then we split an order of broiled shrimp with their Steamed Veggies.

One thing we’ve noticed on this visit is the prolifteration of ‘chowders’. Maybe it’s got something to do with all the ‘Yankees’ moving down here from up north. But it’s kind of new here, at least to us.

Finishing up, and before heading home, we stopped off at the nearby Publix Supermarket for a few things.

Tomorrow we’ll get back together with Nick and Terry for more fun and frolic.

Getting back to yesterday’s Shack adventure, Nick and Terry, along with friend Jim, took us to one of their favorite spots, The SeaShack, up in New Smyrna Beach.
Sunday is a good time to go, because a lot of  their menu items are half price. Always a good thing.

Jan got her fav Wedge Salad, but this time with Shrimp,

while I started off with a cup of their New England Clam Chowder / Roasted Red Pepper and Crab Bisque Swirl.

Like a swirled vanilla/chocolate ice cream cone, this is a swirl of both their soups, and it’s really great.

Next up for me was a Shrimp Lover’s Bucket, what in Louisiana/Texas we call a ‘Low Country Boil.

Whatever it’s called, it was fantastic.

And Rachel, our waitress, could match Nick quip for quip, which made the meal even better.

And tomorrow?

Well, with Nick and me together, who knows?

Thought for the Day:

I’m actually not really that funny. Sometimes I’m just mean and people think I’m joking. I’m not.

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A long day, so I thought I’d repost our visit to North Dakota in August 2011. Prairie Dogs and Dinosaurs. What more do you need?

After yesterday’s exhausting quixotean quest for the large pale cetacean, we opted for dinner and a movie. After checking local reviews, we decided to try Country Kitchen, a national chain. They have locations in 22 states, but we’d never heard of them. But luckily for us, the reviews were right. I had a double cheeseburger and Jan had a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Both very good.

As far as the movies go, we didn’t have a lot of choices – Cowboys and Aliens, Captain America, and The Smurfs 3D.

But two out of three weren’t bad. We saw Cowboys and Aliens last night and decided to see Captain America tonight. And we did.

We both really enjoyed C & A. Good story, with a lot of twists, great effects, and anyway, any movie with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and big, nasty aliens, has got to be good.

This morning was a tourist day, so we started it off with breakfast at Country Kitchen. After all, if it was good for dinner . . .

And after a great breakfast, our first stop was Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND, about 35 miles west of here on I-94.

After getting our National Park Passports stamped at the Ranger Station, and checking out Teddy’s Maltese Cross cabin on the grounds, we headed out on the 36 miles scenic loop around the park.

And of course the first thing that caught Jan’s eye were the prairie dogs. Lots and lots of prairie dogs.

Whole towns of prairie dogs, as a matter of fact.

It’s like they have their own personalities.

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Here, the wife is giving her husband a smooch before he goes off to a hard day of finding seeds, leaves, grasses, and roots, and also dodging hawks. Life can be rough on the prairie.

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These three neighbors had a spat over who went down the wrong burrow, and now they’re not speaking.

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The guy on the right just discovered he’s on camera.

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These two are getting ready to race. and the other is doing the “Ready, Set, GO!”

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And we did see some really beautiful scenery. This park is part of the Dakota Badlands and it shows.

There are several herds of wild horses in the park, and we saw quite a few.

And toward the end of our drive we also saw this female deer high up on a ridge grabbing a snack.

Leaving the park we headed back east on I-94 a few miles and stopped off at Painted Canyon, which is really just a continuation of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

It’s easy to see why they call it Painted Canyon.

Again heading back toward Dickinson, but still within the park boundaries, we saw one of the several large bison herds in the park.

Passing through Dickinson, and going about 10 miles out the other side, we turned south on the Enchanted Highway. Following up on Nick and Terry we saw some more of the really neat, very large, metal sculptures along the way.

This grasshopper was huge, but I kept looking for the giant seagulls.

A pheasant family, complete with chicks.

And Jan got this great shot of a field of sunflowers.

Again coming back into Dickinson we checked out the Dakota Dinosaur Museum.

Although not as extensive as the one we saw in Thermopolis, WY last week, they did have some interesting stuff like this cast of a T-Rex skull, found just 200 miles from here in Montana.

And this very nice display area.

This is a REAL Triceratops skull, weighing about 1500 pounds. The weight of these fossils is why most of the assembled skeletons you see in museums are fiberglass casts. They would weigh 10’s of tons and would be very difficult to suspend safely. It’s not really purple, it just looks that way under the light.

And Jan and I both really liked their large collection of beautiful rock specimens.

By the time we left the Dino Museum it was almost 5 pm, so we decided to check out a place Nick and others had recommended, although Nick couldn’t remember the name of the place he was trying to recommend.

It’s really sad to watch a mind just go like that.

It turned out to be the Dakota Diner, and once again the recommendations were spot on. The place was jam-packed and really, really good.

After dinner we came back to the rig for a while and then headed out to see Captain America at the movies.

The movie, subtitled “The First Avenger”, was very well-done, and held very close to the original comic book origins. I hated it when they take a known character and then just completely change the storyline.

This Captain America movie is the final one that will unite Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, along with other superheroes in next summer’s “The Avengers” movie.

Tomorrow . . . Fargo.  The city, not the movie.

Thought for the Day:

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King Jr.

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