Sunday, August 15, 2021

Code Olivieri!

So there we were. Barb and I were enjoying the peace and quiet of the afternoon out on the porch. A whitetail buck deer munch’in on clover, redtail hawk sitting on a limb, chubby ole groundhog, barking French Bulldog….. truly a Pringleland Delight…. Does it get any better than this? (Lyrics stolen from Alabama…. Well, kinda)

All of a sudden there was a loud bang, a puff of black smoke and a whoop coming from the end of our driveway. “Did you lock the gate?” I asked Barb. “But they are hundreds of miles away, we should be safe” she said. Next thing we knew a rusty old Dodge truck towing a broken down 5th wheel appears over the horizon…. on our driveway!

“Code Olivieri, code Olivieri!” I yelled and sprung into action. Having practiced this drill monthly since 2014 we knew exactly what to do. I ran to the beer fridge and hid all the good beer, Barb ran to the kitchen fridge, hid all the steaks and pulled out at package of hot dogs. “How did they find us?” she screamed. “I don’t know, hide all the valuables!”

As they pulled up Barb and I each said a short prayer and a downed a shot of Fireball. By the time they got out of their truck we had hidden everything that needed hiding. Lisa leapt out of the truck, jumped up and wrapped both her legs around my waist. She gave me a kiss on my neck that I am pretty sure left a hickey that will take a week to fade. She then went over to Barb and gave her a kiss on the lips. "Do you want your gum back?" Barb said. "No, you keep it, I found it under a picnic table yesterday",  Lisa replied. Meanwhile, Dino opened his truck door and a pile of beer cans fell to the ground. He walked right by us, into the garage, opened the beer fridge and said “You have my favorite kind of beer!” “Cold?” I replied. “Nope, free!” he said as he popped the top on one and put one in each pocket.

“What an unexpected surprise” Barb said, “How long are you staying?”. “That depends, how much beer you got?” was Dino’s reply.

So started, what we now refer to “Black Tuesday”. They were here, we might as well try and make the best of it. 

The Olivieri rig set up in our RV spot

Once they were settled in we sat on the porch watch Dino drink beer after beer and got caught up. We had not seen them since October of last year so we had lots of catching up! They brought Moose in for a playdate and Zoey wasted no time investigating this new creature!

Umm, smelly!

The next day was build your own crepe breakfast followed by a Ranger ride through the National Forest.

Barb and Lisa jumped into the new Ranger while Dino and I were in the other one. We put on about 20 miles weaving in and out of the woods and valleys of the National Forest. 


Being Wednesday, we knew what we were having for dinner....burgers at the Pringle bar!
Then Dan and Bonnie came back to our place for a game of Cards Against Humanity. We laughed until the sunset, then laughed some more!


Poor Zoey was left inside while we were outside playing. She thought that was the meanest thing in the world and stared out the window and let us know it!


Thursday was set to be a play day. Dino and I shot out bows while the girls went for a walk. 

We did have an archery competition of sorts. We were sitting there and Dino said "How far do you think it is to that tree in the field?" A quick check with the range finder told us it was 244 yards. "Let's each put up $5 and whoever gets the closest wins" he said. "Will you have enough gas money to leave?" I replied. "Only if you run out of beer" he said.

So using our best medieval archery stances we launched our arrows toward the tree..... All or our arrows landed within 10 yards or so of each other with mine landing just a few feet closer to the tree!

 Then it was time to head off to Hill City. This week is the main week for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. As anyone who lives around here knows, it is not just at Sturgis but throughout the whole Black Hills. So we were going to drive through Custer and Hill City to see the festivities. 

As we were getting ready I hear Lisa in the garage scream, "Oh my God, it is so big!". Curious, I went to the garage to see what would amaze her like this. I knew for a fact it had nothing to do with Dino.....and I was right. I went out there and she points at a snake making its way up the windshield of the Jeep!

The top was open and it curled itself up on the sun visor on the drivers side. 


I am not afraid of snakes like I am afraid of spiders but I am not a fan of them either. So Dino and each grabbed a long piece of wood and  extricated it from the vehicle. This thing was over 4' long, maybe closer to 5'!

Crisis over, we all jumped in the Jeep and headed off to town. Could you imagine if that thing would have crawled out from under the seat while we were driving!?!?!? Both Custer and Hill City were packed with bikes. I think the average age of the bikers was well over 60 and everyone seemed to be having a good time. 


And no visit to Hill City is complete without stopping to see the worlds largest Smokey the Bear!
Friday, Barb and Lisa went to Rapid for a "girls day". Shopping, pedicures, lunch and even ice cream! Meanwhile Dino and I had a "guys day" with Kevin as we went to one of his job sites to help him set trusses on a garage he is building. I did not get any pictures as I was actually working hard but I am sure Dino took a few!

Many of you know I like to live a little on the edge. Well, Saturday I once again put my life at when I  when I let Dino operate the tractor and a chainsaw! 

Old McDino

Many of you may recall the last time someone operated a chainsaw within arms reach of Dino.... Read this post in case you missed it
Not wanting a grossly disfigured leg like Lisa, I stayed outside of the reach of the chainsaw. 

That afternoon we celebrated Zoey's 6 month birthday! 
She even got a doggie cookie which she was supposed to share with Dakota but as soon as she got it she ran into the bedroom and under the bed! We eventually got her out but she had a vice grip on the cookie and had to extricate it from her mouth before we could give Dakota some. 


That night it was off to the movies in Hot Springs. They have a theatre that originally opened in 1929. The outside still has that old time movie theatre feel but the inside was very comfortable and has a huge screen. We each paid out $8 and went into watch. Jungle Cruise starring Dwyane Johnson "The Rock". We had not been to a movie since 2017 when we went to see Jumanji down in Parker Arizona with.... you guessed it.... Dino and Lisa. What did we see back then? Jumanji, starring Dwyane Johnson. The movie was good but Lisa was kind of disruptive as she kept repeating "Yes, yes, yes!" on and off throughout the entire movie. I don't know but I think she likes Dwayne Johnson....

All in all, it was a great...wait.... All in all, we endured and survived the week, on Sunday morning we ran out of beer and they finally hooked up their rig and headed off to their next undisclosed location. As their rig crested the hill and disappeared out of sight I turned and hugged Barb. I noticed a tear running down her cheek. "It's okay honey, we survived". "But they know where we live and might come back without notice" she said. To that I triumphantly responded "Not without notice, I planted a tracking device on their 5th wheel so we will have plenty of time to lock the gates and hide if they ever come back in the area". Wiping her face, she gave out a weak smile and said "Thank you, you are the smartest and handsomest and most wonderfulest man in the world. (I hear that a lot). We turned, and walked hand in hand back to the house. About 1/2 way back to the house a cold chill ran down my neck as I realized that they have two rigs.... God help us all.....

29 comments:

  1. Hahaha!!! Looked like a good time, except for the snake!!

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    1. Wasn't that thing gross?!?! They are basically harmless and do eat mice so are good to have around but we do not want to see them! I am talking about the snake, not Dino and Lisa.....

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  2. Replies
    1. Physically yes, but the emotional scaring could take years to heal.

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  3. You are soooo funny. Sounds like you had a fabulous time with them in spite of all your grumbles. lol That was some snake! Yuck. Hopefully it does not decide to return to surprise you another time.

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    1. As long that snake stays out of sight and does it job without us knowing it is around we will be okay.

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  4. Good to see Dino behind the wheel of a Ford! And glad you were able to teach him how to use chopsticks with that snake.

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    1. It took both of us but Dino finally got to successfully use chopsticks!

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  5. Ok now Liz and I are genuinely scared to come out. Who knows what you'd write about us!

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    1. Oh, I am sure you would provide us with plenty of material!

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  6. Was that a Bull Snake? YIKES Wonder if Dino brought it with him????

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    1. I do believe it was a Bull Snake. I never thought about the fact that Dino could have brought it with him but who knows what is crawling in that rig?!?!!?

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  7. Good times! Did the dogs snd cat get along? I heard that movie was good. Cool snake!

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    1. Although Zoey was barking and following Moose around everywhere, Moose just pretty much ignored Zoey and walked through the house like he owned it. The movie was pretty good, I would recommend it!

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  8. Nice snake!!! The first thing I looked for was rattles!! Ummmm I think I'll stay in Arizona. Sounds like a fun time to me ... next time just have more beer ... maybe on tap!! I don't blame Zoey for not wanting to share ... I've been known to hit the bedroom and lock the door for a good cookie.

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    1. Rattles were the first thing I looked for as well. If a snake that big around here had rattles it would be very scary indeed!

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  9. Oh you had us both busting up this morning! Your property is beautiful, love that view! The Pringle Bar looks awesome and to have beer and burgers even better! Hill City was a busy place, glad to see all those people out for the event! How fun for Barb and Lisa to have a day of "normal" in Rapid City. Every time we open here, we get shut down. The snake YUK..I didn't even like looking at the pictures

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    1. We are truly spoiled here in South Dakota compared to much of the country! It was busy in every town we went through and everyone was having fun!

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  10. Some of the events I just don't remember the same way. I wonder why that would be? It was still a great time. Thanks for having us.

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    1. With the number of beers you drank, I am surprised you remember anything at all!

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  11. I'm always looking forward to reading your blog. This time Benno laughed so much that his dentures fell off! (Just kidding, he doesn't have any) but you are too funny and we enjoyed your post. I am surprised by the snake, the variety we have here are very shy and slitter away as soon as they detect people.

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    1. Glad we could give you guys a laugh. That is actually the first snake we have seen here other than a rattler that got run over on the driveway. I don't mind having them around, just not in the Jeep!

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  12. I'm the same as you - absolutely terrified of spiders, but not that concerned by snakes. However, if that thing slithered into my view while I was driving, I would drive directly into a tree. The tree wouldn't even have to be near the road. I would drive off the road and go find a tree and then drive directly into it.

    Glad you guys had such a fun week!

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    1. Well, that is a little extreme but there is no doubt you would have seen a Jeep come to a screeching halt (probably in the middle of the road) and 4 adults jumping around like a bunch of little school girls!

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  13. Great post. Poor Dino and Lisa to have survive an entire week with your antics! Happy six months to Zoey. That snake was gross! I would have to search the entire vehicle everytime we were about to get in.

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    1. Poor Dino and Lisa?!?!? What about poor us? All our beer is gone, all our wine is gone, the fridge is empty... it is going to take us a month to restock everything!

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  14. Nice Bull Snake. Good snake, will help with the rodents. See what happens when you settle down. The only solution to "friends" like that is to stay moving. All kidding aside, traveling friends are the best!

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  15. You are a great story teller as well as a wonderful blogger

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    1. Wow, you have been busy catching up on blog posts. Thanks for all the comments, hope things clear up there for you!

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