Mansplaining. It is a necessary means of communication when explaining something to women. I don't think I do it. Barb thinks I do. I call it detailed information. She calls it me thinking she is stupid. For example. We needed some nuts and bolts for a part that broke off medicine cabinet in the rig the other day. She was going to the store to get some food, and I asked her if she could pick up some two small nuts and bolts while she was there. I explained to her in a loving way, that the bolts had to be long enough to reach through the items we were bolting together, yet not so long that it protruded above too far and the diameter wide enough to fit through the hole but not too wide. She was intently listening with adoring eyes. Well, that is what I thought anyways. When I was done explaining all this to her, her response was, "Do you think I am Fxxxxing stupid?"
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Mansplaining
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Florida!
The other thing I realized is that they are in there. Bouncing around that empty space that I call my brain. I said I had no memories of Jr. High. Then all of a sudden, brief glimpses started to appear. No specifics, just walking through the halls. But it is a memory!
We left Jessica's early Monday morning on the 27th just after the kids got on the bus. By the end of the day, we were in our 4th state of the day having left Pennsylvania, traveling south on I81 through Maryland and West Virginia before landing for the night in Arrington, Virginia.
We had several adventures throughout the day. Our first was driving Skyline Trail through the Shenandoah National Park. If our count is correct, this is the17th National Park we have visited. The first 31 miles of the trail was closed due to ice so we jumped on at the Thornton Gap entrance and headed south from there.
The roads were mostly clear, and we practically had the place to ourselves. We saw deer, owls, one lone bobcat that crossed the road in front of us and lots of beautiful scenery.
Exiting the trail at Waynesboro, we stopped at Silverback Distillery outside of Waynesboro. This has been on our list for a while. An all women run distillery; they have won many awards. We chatted with the server for about an hour and tasted several of their offerings before moving on.
Preparing a Smoked Old Fashion
Our Harvest Host for the evening was Blue Mountain Barrel House where Barb got a flight and we each got a burger before calling it a night.
As we continued south we had to stop at The Blind Pelican in Holly Springs, NC. If you recall from last year, this is where Barb got the Bloody Mary of all Bloody Mary's. This year, we just opted for food. Delicious!
We also stopped at an RV dealer to look at a new pickup truck camper. Barb has it in her head that she wants something newer and has been looking at Host campers on line. In the past 18 months we have not been near a dealer that has one, but now we were and we stopped and looked at it. The good news is that we got in and out of there without a salesperson seeing us. The bad news is that this layout will not work with us and the dogs. We need something you can access without having to open any slides. Plus, this one was on sale for..... wait for it. $93,000! For a pickup camper! Nope, we are continuing to look. It was pretty though.
Our Harvest Host for that night was Dirt Bag Ale House, a veteran owned brewery in Hope Mills, NC. If you are ever traveling through this area, they have some very good beers, a great atmosphere and nice accommodations for overnighters.
It feels really good to be back on the road. We continued south with the promise of warmer weather. Our camper was still winterized, meaning no running water for us, but it looks like we will not be seeing any more freezing temperatures. We just need to find a fresh water source to fill our tanks and flush the antifreeze.
Our next overnight was supposed to be Congaree National Park in Georgia. Another first for us. But when we got there, we discovered that we you can only tent camp there. So instead, we walked the boardwalk and carried on.
Instead we landed in Orangeburg at a Cracker Barrel. A decision that almost ruined our entire trip. Whenever we stay in a parking lot at night, we try to situate ourselves near the edge where we are protected from others driving in the lot. And we did at Cracker Barrel as well, we had a fence on one side and the an open space on the other. Other rigs were pulling in for the night and setting up around us when this truck and a travel trailer pulls in. We watched him out the back window as he tried to pull into the spot next to us. It was obvious when he turned to pull in next to us that he did not take it nearly wide enough and that his trailer would not clear our rig. We watched in horror as he continued to go forward and there was nothing we could do about it. He was pulling in on the side that our door was on and he was so close, we could not open our door. He finally stopped and I hear him yell, "Holy Shit!". He was literally within an inch of hitting us. Then he started to back up. But now he had the back of his truck pointed at our camper as he backed up! He finally reached the point where our door was between his truck and his camper giving me enough room to open the door and jump out, luckily he saw me otherwise he would have run me over. It was obvious he had not idea what to do so I said, "I'll just move my truck". He insisted that he "Had it", but I insisted in moving our truck getting totally out of his way. He finally got parked and I slide back into our spot. Whew!
You know what he did then? He pulls out a yellow generator (yes, the dreaded loud yellow one), hooks it up and turns it on. Right there in the Cracker Barrel parking lot! After a restless night, we got up and got out of there before he moved his rig.
That was the extent of our excitement on our travels south. We landed at the Quail Roost RV Park in Crystal River on February 1st and are all set up here for a month.
Sunday, January 26, 2025
What Are Your First Memories?
I read a blog post the other day about the writers first memories. The writer said her first memory was from when she was 2 years old. I was blown away. I have written before about my poor memory, but it got me to thinking what my first memory was. I have virtually no memories of my childhood. Brief glimpses now and then, but only brief. I have almost no memories of junior or senior high school. I do have memories of things outside of school; my first deer, ducks, pheasants, but I really had to think about what my first memory was. Thinking back, I came up with 7 or 8 years old.
Barb often teases me about my memory, I can watch a movie 4 times a year like it is my first time, I remember bits and pieces, somehow, she remembers every aspect of each and every moment of our life (mostly about things I screw up). It also made me wonder if life was like the movies I've watched multiple times and I was able to replay those lost years, would I remember any parts? Would something happen where I would say to myself, I know what happens next or would every moment be a surprise? The brain is a bizarre thing.
So, what is my first memory? I don't not remember my age specifically, but I am able to deduce it base on the other participants. We were driving from Spooner to Shell Lake Wisconsin in our Rambler convertible. If my sister Becky is reading this right now, I know her heart just skipped a beat as she knows what is next. She was in the vehicle too. I think all told it was her, my dad and my brother Bob. A car crossed over the centerline causing us to hit the ditch to avoid a head on collision. The only problem was, that there was no ditch, just an embankment, a very steep embankment going down and go down we did. We never rolled, but I distinctly remember that rough ride down, hitting the bottom and us coming to a stop. I was trying to jump from the vehicle and my brother Bob pulled me back in. If Becky was in the vehicle, she had to be 16 or 17 meaning a I was 7 or 8. I have other memories that may be earlier, but I have no way to validate exactly how old I was so those remain a mystery to me.
But on to things I do remember, like what we did this past week. It was a rough week. It started out with Shane and Jess having to have their well looked at. It had been losing pressure over the past few months so Shane dug up the well head and called a guy to come look at it. Bad news, they need a new well. The well guy showed Shane (and the rest of us) that they have a terracotta well casing. He had heard of them, but never seen one himself. Now he has.
The good news is the well is still operational. Next up was the fireplace in the living room. It was abandoned years ago, in fact in the '70's when their furnace was installed, they used the chimney to vent the furnace. Since we were working in that area anyway, we decided to build a false wall and center the mantle with the room. As you can see from the picture below the mantle was no longer centered after the previous owner added the 1/2 bath downstairs.
So, we went into demolition mode. That decision ended up being a blessing and a curse. Here is something interesting I ran into during demolition mode while taking the trim off the wall. Look at these nails. I know many of you seen them in your lifetime, but these types of nails were not made after 1915. Crazy!
On day 2 of my 6-day stint, Shane got it too and was out for 6 days as well.
Keep in mind, we have everything ripped apart and no running furnace and you recall how cold it was last week right? They could not even get any repair places to return their calls. They have electric heaters in each room, but it was still freezing in their house. Thankfully Jessica and Barb were able to carry on with painting the bath and pantry.
Of course, this had to happen on the coldest and snowiest week of the year. With both Shane and I out of commission, that left Barb and Jess to do the shoveling and other chores.
Friday, the girls made sushi for supper. Kendall has been begging for it for almost a week. Look at these three generations, triplets, born 20 something years apart. At least there is no mystery of what they will look like as they get older!
Saturday we were able to get out to Kendall's basketball game. Pretty dang entertaining. Here is Kendall attempting a free-throw.
So, what all did we accomplish? Not as much as we wanted, but everything we could given the circumstances. In the bathroom we ripped out the old linoleum getting down to the original wood floors, gave it a new paint job and replaced the toilet. Still needs a new vanity, light and mirror which they have yet to pick out.
We could not enclose the old fireplace area until the venting gets fixed for the furnace. Besides that, they no longer want to stick with their original plan and are now thinking about installing a pellet stove in that room.
Our time here is done, almost three weeks. Now it is time to hit the road and hopefully find some warmer weather! But before we do that, I told Barb that there is a new movie that just came out that I want to watch. When I told her the name of it, she just shook her head, mumbled "Lord help me" and walked away. I don't know what that was all about. The movie, maybe you have heard of it, is called, The Notebook.