Our RV Adventures

We’re up in Katy for the weekend, visiting with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, as well as Chris and Linda down from Kingsland. Unfortunately, Miss Piper already had plans.

And not only are we celebrating Father’s Day, but tomorrow, June 21st, is Brandi and Lowell’s 10th Anniversary.

Wax On, Wax Off . . .

This is our last day here in Victor, ID, which is just over the mountains from Jackson, WY. My first chore after getting up this morning (well, after coffee, anyway) was to figure out where the heck we’re staying for the next 4 days. But after thinking about I decided to go ahead and lock down our park in Billings, MT where we’ll be staying after we leave Cody, and right before we head to Gillette for the Escapade on the 29th. And I’m glad I did.

As it turned out I got the last site at the Billings Trailer Village RV Park, where we’ve stayed 5 or 6 times since 2008. Then it was back to finding a spot for us in Cody starting tomorrow.

And as it turned out, I lucked out on the first call, well partially. I was able to reserve 3 nights at Yellowstone Valley Inn & RV Park about 20 miles out of Cody, back toward Yellowstone. Because of that it will cut 20 miles off our trip tomorrow. And the guy said he has some construction people that are supposed to leave tomorrow so he thinks he will be able to give us the 4th day. So we’re good to go tomorrow at least.

After lunch I tackled something I’ve never done myself, but have always had someone do it for me. I washed and waxed our rig. Oh, and the truck too.

I decided to try Turtle Wax Zip Liquid Car Wash and Wax since I’d read good things about it. I just put a couple of ounces in a bucket and added water. Then I would pick an area about 8 feet wide, hosed it down with water and then used an extension brush to swab the coach sides. Then after letting it soak for a few minutes, I rinsed it all off and used a soft cloth to dry and polish the area.

It only took me about two hours to do the coach, and only about 30 minutes to do the truck. And they both turned out pretty good.

After finishing up and stowing all my cleaning stuff away, Jan and I headed into Victor to have our last meal here at Big Hole BBQ. We’d eaten here our first night, and because it was so good, we wanted to eat there again before we leave.

It doesn’t quite live up to the ‘Big’ name, however. It has 3 tables inside, as well as 7 chairs at the bar, two tables out front,

and three tables upstairs on the deck.

Jan had a couple of delicious Shrimp Tacos, and I had a really good Pulled Pork Sandwich. It must have had a pound of meat on it. And of course, some of their great beans, and all of it topped off with their spicy BBQ sauce.

A really good finish to our visit here.

After dinner we walked next door to a small grocery store to get some buns and a few other things to have for dinner in our rig tomorrow night. That way we won’t have to drive into Cody for dinner.

We’ll probably head out around 10am tomorrow for our 180 mile trip up to Cody, passing through both Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

Thought for the Day:

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

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A 66-year-old Marine Corps veteran, Larnell Evans Sr., the great-grandson of Anna Short Harrington, is very upset that that Aunt Jemima is being phased out. Harrington took over as Aunt Jemima in 1935 after the death of Nancy Green.

Evans says that “it hurts” to know that Quaker Foods’ answer to current events in America is to “erase my great-grandmother’s history.”

“This is an injustice for me and my family. This is part of my history, sir. The racism they talk about, using images from slavery, that comes from the other side — white people.”

So far, we’ve lost Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, Cream of Wheat, and now . . . Eskimo Pies.

But somehow I don’t think Inuit Pies has quite the same ring to it.

So when are they going to take Michael Jordan off the Nike ads?

And even cities are trying to get in on the fun. Duluth, MN is trying to get rid of the word ‘chief’ from several city positions and titles, including Police Chief and Fire Chief. However these two people aren’t too thrilled about the idea.

Police Person? Fire Leader?

And the Houston Realtor Association is no longer going to use the term ‘master’ bedroom. Instead it’s now going to called the ‘primary’ bedroom.

So I guess Senior Master Sergeants and Chief Petty Officers are on the way out, too.

Another in our Where We Were 11 Years Ago Today series.

June 19, 2009

Schooners and Container Ships…

Today is our last full day in Charleston.

We decided to take a Charleston Harbour Tour to see some more of the history of the place.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a real breakfast so we stopped off at an IHOP on the way to the docks.

While we were waiting for our tour boat, we got a good look at the new (2005) Ravenel cable-stayed bridge.

The pylons are 575 high, the roadway is 186 feet above the water, and the bridge has a main span of 1,546 feet, the longest among cable-stayed bridges in the Western Hemisphere. And it’s 8 lanes wide plus a walking/bike lane.

It’s a big one.

We also could see the USS Yorktown moored right across the river from us.  It’s now a floating museum, along with a submarine, a destroyer, and a Coast Guard cutter.

We should get a closer view on our tour.

Finally our tour boat was ready to leave the dock.  Luckily we were able to get some seats on the top deck, somewhat in the shade.

Heading out from the dock we passed some of the large, expensive houses along the river.

And everywhere you turn, there are boats and more boats, big ones, little ones, boats everywhere.

The far point of our trip took us by historic Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

We had thought about taking one of the tours that stops at the Fort, but with temps supposed to hit 97-100 today we decide to just wave as we went by.

So we did.

Heading back around the bay we part Fort Moultrie, another fort involved in the Civil War.

A closeup of the USS Yorktown and a Navy Hawkeye AWACS aircraft.

Next we passed a larger container ship being unloaded.  Charleston is one of the largest container ports in the US and one of these ships can be unloaded at the rate of 40-60 containers per hour.

After our 90 minute tour wrapped up, we headed over the Ravenel Bridge to Mt Pleasant.  We were looking for a Whole Foods Market to pick up some Aunt Gussie’s Organic Sugar-Free Cookies.  We really like them and Whole Foods seems to be the only place we can find them reliably.

By now it was almost 4 pm so we headed back over to Meeting St. to eat at Hyman’s Seafood.  We were told to be sure and eat here before we left and this was our last chance.

And it was certainly worth the visit, although Jan and I both ordered from the Deli menu instead of the seafood menu.

Jan had a fantastic chicken salad sandwich and I had a Reuben on grilled rye.   We both ordered the regular size sandwiches, which was good since we couldn’t have eaten the large ones.

We also had the potato salad and hushpuppies.

The hushpuppies were a little different.  They were more sweet than I’m used to.  But it all worked out since they made a nice dessert.  This was good since we really too full to order a real dessert.

Hyman’s is another one of those places you seem to find in Charleston where the family and the business have been around for ever.

The family has been in business on this block since 1890 and in the restaurant business here since 1986.  The 5th generation is now involved in running things.

The staff is very friendly and took a lot of pains to be sure we were happy.  We spent several minutes talking to ‘Mr. V.’, who seems to be a roving good will ambassador for the place.

And we were lucky.  We got there about 4:30 pm and were seated right away.  However later arrivals were not so lucky.  There was a long line outside when we left  about 6 pm.  Here’s what it can look like when they’re busy.

Be sure and check out their website at Hyman’s Seafood. It’s an interesting site.

Well, tomorrow we’re heading for Asheville, NC.  We want to visit the Biltmore Hotel there, and then stop off at my cousin’s in Graham, NC on our way to Virginia Beach and Kill Devil Hill.

Thought For The Day:

Why does the need to pee intensify by a million when you are trying to unlock the door to your house?