Wike Family Happenings

Paris, The Quick Version, Part II

2012-02-09T20:09:00.001-05:00

This is the rest of the Paris highlights:

Norte Dame

I was showing the pictures to Grandpa and he said that his father slept in the church during WWI. He said that the roof had been blown off. So, so neat!

We didn't see a show here, too expensive.

One of the two very large department stores in Paris. It was crazy crowded there.

Ah, The Louve. Guess what, CROWDED!! This place is so freaking huge. We spent quit a bit of time there and didn't even scratch the surface. Museums just make me tired.

Had to fight the mosh pit to get this shot.

Just a cool subway station.

We saw this place as we took a boat ride through Paris. I just fell in love with the clock. I convinced myself that this was where the movie Hugo was shot. I was disappointed to find out that the majority of the movie was shot on a set in London. Oh well...

There is still so much more to see and do. London was more of an instance hit where Paris had to grow on me. If I had to pick to live in London or Paris, I'd definitely go with London.

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Paris, the Quick Version (sort of)

2012-01-17T20:11:00.001-05:00

Ok, here's the quick and dirty of the rest of our time in Paris. We visited Versailles. One thing we discovered is that the French often just ignore the last few letters of words. Take Versailles for instance. To spell it like it sounds, I would spell it Versi. Versailles was a short train ride outside of Paris. Again, keeping with the theme, tons of people and long lines. Also discovered that the French aren't very adapt at organizing crowds. The line to get in was just a random zigzag with no rhyme or reason to it. Versailles was built by Louis XIV.

We really could have spent more time here. It was really nice.

Next Paris icon, Arc de Triomphe.

Our hotel was within walking distance of this. We didn't go to the top. Again, crazy crowds.

I thought the Opera National de Paris Garnier was one of the prettiest buildings I'd ever seen. I loved it!! I'd never been inside an Opera House before. I could just imagine the audience in their tux and evening gowns. The pictures don't do it justice.

I'm getting tired. Another quick post to come later. I just can't get it all in one post after all.

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The Eiffel Tower

2012-01-15T17:53:00.001-05:00

Paris around New Years is apparently a popular time to visit, little did we know but how soon we realized. First night we were there we did the 'must' do tourist attraction, The Eiffel Tower.

We wanted to make sure we went when the weather was clear. So glad we went at night. So beautiful at night all lit up. We had to wait about an hour and a half to get in the elevator to go to the first level. After that we didn't have to wait too long to ride all the way up to the top. It was cold and windy but so awesome to see Paris from that vantage point.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the rocking toboggan!! Came in very handy!

Great views! We rode the lift (very European of me huh?) down to the first level then took the stairs down. I expected the Eiffel Tower to be over hyped and thus a disappointment. It did not disappoint in the least. So worth the wait in the cold.

I promise to not drag my vacation posts out too much this time...

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Location:Paris

Elf Ron

2011-12-19T20:14:00.001-05:00

It was time for our annual work Christmas activities. First, our building had a door decorating contest. My department was two time defending champion. We found out the day before that no one else in the building was going to participate. What can I say, they were scared. We didn't care, we decorated our door anyway. The theme was Christmas carols. Our door was based off of the classic, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer".

We tweaked it a bit to be "Our Budget Got Run Over By a Senator". We re-wrote the entire song. We even had it performed at the building Christmas lunch. What can I say, we're rock stars.

The big to-do at the building was a contest we had to raise money for a needy family. It was between me, Ron, and Alvera. Alvera is the HR Director. If you will recall, I plastic wrapped Ron's entire office one time. People put money in our respective jars. Bills were positive and coins were negative points. The person with the most points had to wear an elf outfit at the Christmas lunch. You've got to understand, Ron is a 6 ft 5 in black guy. Who wouldn't want to see him dressed as an elf?? He thought he was smart because he brought in a lot of coins to put in his jar. I was waiting until the last minute to make my move. I even requested help at the Principals meeting. At the last minute I put in plenty of money to ensure that I got the outcome I wanted.

Check out the rockin white shoes!! He wasn't happy but was a good sport. The best part were the ears. We says he's going to get me back but I couldn't have done it by myself.

This is the Finance department. Does this not look like a capable department??

We had to have our picture made with the Christmas elf!! So funny!! He may look like he was smiling but he was more gritting his teeth and mumbling under his breath.

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Two Wild and Crazy Girls

2011-11-27T17:06:00.001-05:00

Went to Concord to visit with Virginia and check out the new house. Oh, and meet the newest member of the family, Cookie. The house was great and seemed to be perfect for their little family. So happy for them! Cookie is indeed a pup. He, yes, Cookie is a he, is quite enthusiastic. He is adorable though. Susan and Samantha also came up to visit.

Here they are making sweet music.

We went out to lunch. Check out Virginia's outfit...had me cracking up.

Love the boots. Only problem was it was about 60 degrees outside. I harkened back to a softball game I had as a kid. Mom dressed me in these god-awful gold shorts. They did not come close to matching my uniform shirt. I can still vividly remember knowing that my mom had dressed me funny. At least Virginia will be too young to remember this. Kathy tried to blame it on Virginia by saying that she picked them out. I had to remind her that she was the parent here.

It got even worse. By the time we left the restaurant, this is what she looked like.

Tragic!!!!

We did have fun in the car grooving to some Temptations. Samantha has good taste in music. We danced and busted out some classic Temptations moves. Too fun!

On the way back Samantha showed us her wild side. She let her hair down, literally, and proceeded to do some head banging.

Just makes me laugh!!! That's her 'don't mess with me' rocker look. I tried to get her to do a classic rocker pose but she couldn't quite get it. Virginia got it though.

Now we just need to work on her rocker look.

Just thought I'd throw this one in.

After lunch I schooled Kathy and Susan with my dance moves. I dominated in some Wii dance game.

Virginia wasn't the only one with funny shoes. Susan left the house wearing her bedroom slippers. But with those two cuties a round no one is looking at us.

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Redneck Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T18:46:00.001-05:00

This post will not have pictures of your traditional Thanksgiving gathering. For entertainment we did some target shooting. We bought Mike's dad this for his birthday.

Our zombie was a notorious terrorist.

This was a good little target. It was supposed to 'bleed' when you shot it. It really didn't bleed a whole lot but I think we just weren't using big enough ammo.

We did some damage and we'll do some more later too.

We also did some skeet shooting. Brandon had a hand held thrower, which I sucked at. Thankfully, others were much more successful and it actually worked better than I thought it would for sure.

Fun times but I did miss my family and my sweet little nieces.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

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Fall Festival

2011-10-30T19:56:00.001-04:00

Saturday I went down to Fort Mill to visit the Millers. It was time for some quality time with Samantha. But first we had to eat lunch at her favorite place, Jersey Mike's. And she knew just what she wanted, a turkey sub. I tried to get her to call Mike and tell him where we were going because it is his favorite place too, but she was a bit phone shy.

The Fall Festival was a bit disappointing. Not only was there no face painting but Pickles the Clown wasn't there either. But Samantha is only 3 so she is easily entertained.

This was hard work.

Playing in the kiddie maze. This, surprisingly, was very entertaining for her.

Cutest pumpkin I saw all day.

No matter how many times she threw it in the hole, she reacted like it was her first time every time. I think she just liked Susan and me cheering for her.

Last thing we did was take a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. Susan made sure Samantha only picked out a pumpkin she could carry. Smart. After turning her nose up at the first ones we found, she ended up wanting those in the end.

The kid is lots of fun and is very silly!! She'll be a great big sis! It's always fun seeing Samantha. I do love her!!

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Carolina Ballonfest

2011-10-23T18:27:00.001-04:00

This weekend was the 38th balloonfest in Statesville. This is the longest running balloonfest in the country. There were 51 hot air balloons at the event. I volunteered to work at the event on Saturday. I sold food vendor tickets from 11 - 3pm. Thank goodness I had a partner because it was very busy. I did have time to take a picture of the Ghostbusters though...

These three were just walking around the event. It was hilarious.

After my shift Mike and I decided to go drive and park right outside the event to look at the balloons as they had their afternoon launch. We ended up being in the perfect spot to see the balloons.

We then drove down the road a bit and that's when we really got a good view of the balloons as they flew right overhead. We had the top down on the Jeep so it was perfect.

Then we went to get pizza and the balloons were still all around so we got a good view of them as they landed any where they could.

There was perfect weather this weekend for the event. There were so many people that they had to stop letting people in on Saturday. We really had a good time watching the balloons. They were so pretty and it's not something you get to see everyday.

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Fall Colors

2011-10-09T20:23:00.001-04:00

Sunday we took the Jeep to the mountains. We were hoping to see some of the Fall foliage. We took the Jeep because we figured the Parkway would be too crowded to be much fun on the bikes. We rode with the top down, even though it was a bit chilly.

Once we got on the parkway the leaves were awesome. I took these pictures standing up in the Jeep as we went down the road.

We also took the Jeep down some of the dirt roads off the Parkway that we've ridden the bikes on before. I really am loving the dirt roads. It feels like it's our little secret. They are so pretty and no one is on these roads but us (mainly). There are miles and miles of dirt roads off the Parkway between Linville and Lenior.

These pictures were taken from a dirt road just off the Parkway.

Needless to say, all that dirt and dust you see behind the Jeep did find its way into the Jeep.

It was EVERYWHERE!

We also had a hitch hiker too...

It was really great to see the leaves today. So beautiful. It is nice to live so close that we can make a short ride up there in a day. Hopefully we can make another ride up to the mountains before the leaves all fall off.

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Weekend Getaway

2011-10-02T21:56:00.001-04:00

Mike and I made another run up to the mountains this weekend. We were a bit early for all of the leaves to have turned colors for the fall but we've got to get away when Mike has time with his work.

We left work early on Friday and got up to Cherokee in time to do a bit of riding. Mike got a tip on a little dirt road from the hotel clerk. It was a nice little road that ran along a pretty creek. There were some nice country houses that set right on the creek. It was very serene. The road had some muddy ruts that were a bit intimidating for me. Mike rode my bike through them. We rode along until we didn't think we could go any further up the rocky road. Plus we had to be getting back for our bingo date. Good news is I didn't need Mike's help to go back over the muddy stuff!! Really wasn't that bad.

Yup, we went back to bingo and yup we were winners again. Well, I won on Friday. Mike won on Saturday. Yeah, we went back on Saturday too. What can I say, we love the bingo. And we got to sit in non-smoking this time. Now, back to my winnings, I won the first TWO games. That is unheard of!!! I've got skills. Mike also won on Saturday but had to split it five ways.

Saturday morning we were off again. It was a bit cold in the morning but not too bad. We again found some nice dirt roads. Some helpful hiker told Mike we could make it up this path he was just on. That is right after we made it around the gate that had the path closed. We decided no way would I be making this trek. We decided to ride two up on my small bike. This caused us to bottom out on some of the rocky sections. We couldn't make it all the way too the top because it was so rocky. We walked the last bit.

This was the 'trail'. Pretty crazy huh!! Mike is a rock star on the bike!!

Once we got to the top there was a lookout tower.

Views from the top...

Just imagine how awesome it will be when the leaves turn.

We made it back down alive and after lunch we did one more dirt road. This one had a bit of history to it.

This was part of the trail of tears. Poignant considering the area we were in.

It was a nice weekend. I could get used to these little bike and bingo getaways!!

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Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

2011-09-18T19:27:00.001-04:00

My adorable Grandpa Brown turned 80 on Sunday. My aunt Annette had the great idea to have a birthday party for him. Mom hosted at her house. Grandpa loved the party!! He deserved all the attention he got. He has always served as a role model for me. Growing up he was always fun to be around and was quick to pick on all us 'boys'. I'm very grateful that my nieces, his great grand daughters, are able to get to know him as well.

The yummy birthday cake!! Not only does it look awesome but it tasted awesome too!

The birthday boy looking festive in his birthday hat. Do you notice the party pooper in the picture?? He thinks he's surrounded by idiots!!

Everyone's in the birthday spirit.

Mike and I loved getting to spend some time with Samantha and Virginia while at the party. Those two are at a fun age. Mike and Virginia really bonded!! They were funny as heck playing together.

I think we've got a little softball player on our hands...carrying on the Ford tradition.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!! We love you!!!!

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Motorcycle Mania

2011-09-16T17:39:00.001-04:00

We spent last Saturday night at a small dirt track in Woodleaf. You know Woodleaf right??? Yeah, me neither. One of Mike's client's called and invited him to come. It was some amateurs and some professionals racing. It was pretty fun.

This guy was super good. And he was, I'd say, in this mid fifties. To look at him you'd guess him to be a doctor. Just goes to show that you never know.

They also had races for the little ones.

This kid was good. Usually in the kids races there'd be only two on track and usually one was much better than the other so it wasn't much of a competition.

Mostly the night was accident free. On the last race of the night there was a crash and the rider broke his hand. Word was it was a compound fracture.

It was good redneck fun.

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A Few Things

2011-08-22T20:05:00.001-04:00

About a month ago I went to visit Samantha at Mom's house. It was my last Friday off at work. Samantha and I had fun playing with Playdoh. But I would recommend Mom upgrade her stock.

Look at that blonde hair!!! And look how pretty she looks. She looks so grown up!

Gotta love her!

Dad sporting a Playdoh 'stach.

Now, to the present...Mike and I went to the mountains this weekend. We took the bikes. It was my first overnight trip on my bike. I think it was a bit of a test for me to see if I would do ok. I think I did ok. I really had fun. We stayed Friday night in Cherokee. Can anyone guess why??? If you said bingo you'd be right!! We first checked out the casino.

Congrats to me for having my ID checked upon entrance. It was just too dark for the guy to see the grey hair and wrinkles!
About 30 minutes later I'd already lost $20 bucks. Then we were headed off to play tribal bingo.

This bingo parlor was busier than Baltimore and I'd say it was more serious. It was definitely more smokey. Good lord those people can smoke. My strategy to find some old lady to look after us paid off again. After about 3 hours of bingo, we left with less money than we came with. Oh well, still fun.

Next morning we were off to Tellico Plains, TN. Very nice ride there. Mike did feel the need to pullover at one point and tell me that he'd ride about 10 miles then wait for me to catch up. Yeah, I'm not the fastest on tight roads.

I did have some technical difficulties right after this pic was taken. Who knew that the bike would not start with the kickstand down. Learn something new everyday.

The main reason Mike wanted to go to Tellico was to ride some dirt roads. Things were going well and I was digging it, until...we got to a section of the road that had some large gravel and that was not enjoyable. The bike was whobbly and just didn't feel the safest. I didn't wreck but it was a bit touch and go. I was wiped after that and so there were no more dirt roads after that. Sorry Mike.

This was a cool wood carving place we stopped at.

Random elk having an early dinner. He was not at all bothered by the large crowd.

Thought about staying at Pigeon Forge. Well, that place is crazy!!! It's the Myrtle Beach of the mountains. Gattlingburg wasn't much better. So, what is a person to do???? That's right....more bingo!!!!!

We did not leave this night empty handed. Mike split the next to last game and we had yet another profitable bingo outing, both nights combined. This was an impressive win given the large crowd. And we got to sit beside the same two ladies that we met on Friday.

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Baseball and Bingo

2011-08-14T20:01:00.001-04:00

Time for another baseball trip to Baltimore to see the Angels play. Of course we had to pick the hottest weekend of the year. You have no idea how hot it was. We flew up this time so we saw the Friday and Saturday night games and flew home on Sunday.

Saturday it was just too hot to do anything outside so we were looking for something to do inside. We looked at some brochures at the hotel and decided, what the hell, let's play bingo! We called a cab and off we went. We had no idea what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. It was obvious that we had no clue what was going on. My plan was to buddy up with some sweet old lady so she could show me the ropes. This wasn't your mama's bingo parlor. This place was serious. You had your standard paper cards but everyone also had a computer. The computer would play cards as well. You could also see on the computer what ball was going to be pulled next. This was also on TV screens around the room too. We found a spot to sit, got our dobbers out off a machine and we were ready to play. Each paper had 9 bingo cards to play. Mike and I were swamped playing just the 9 cards. All these other pros were playing 27 cards!!! We had a blast. Each game paid 100 bucks. I won a game but had to split it three ways. I also had a premature bingo call. I could see that the next ball was going to be a winner. They knew I was a newbie so all was good. I was so giddy. It was so exciting when the girl came over and counted out my cold hard cash.

Here I am with my winning card.

You don't see this everyday.

Mike would get mad if I'd talk during a game. You must stay focused.

The morning round was over at about 2pm. We had fun, won some money and still had time to kill. So, we were going to go have some crab cakes for lunch and then head back for round two. One problem, we had no car and would have to wait for a cab. No worries, my sweet old lady came through for us. She offered to drop us off at the restaurant. Wow, so, so nice!!! Bingo people are good people!!! We had a yummy lunch and were pumped for round two.

Best crab cakes ever!!!! A must in Baltimore.

We were no longer rookies, so we went all out and played 27 cards this time. Yeah, this did not work. We were heads down, daubing numbers, stressing, so much that we couldn't even take a moment to look to see if we had bingo. All these other people are machines. I'd chance a glance around and Mike and I were sweating and these people are kicked back chilling, waiting for the next number. We decided to drop back to 18 cards. I won again but again it was a three way split. Mike was still winless and we were down to the last game. This game was worth $300 big ones. You had to fill your card. Mike pulled it out. Well, actually, his computer won but it still counted. Bummer though, someone else had bingo too. Had to split two ways. I had to hear Mike complain about this for two weeks afterward. Bingo is my new addiction. I'm on the lookout for a local bingo place.

We made it to the game just on time and at 7pm game time, the temp was 101!!!!!

Friday I got Mark Trumbo's autograph. He was a super nice kid. But I was on a mission to get my main man's autograph. Who is my main man you may wonder. Well, it's none other than Jeff Mathis. Never heard of him, there's a reason, he may actually be the worst player in baseball. He is the catcher but I like him. He had a killer post season one year against the Red Sox so he is my hero. I tell Mike that I'm naming my next dog Mathis. So, we are right behind the dugout and I finally get his attention. I ask for the autograph and can you believe that this dude turned me down!!!! What the hell???? This dude should have jumped into the stands to sign. Who ever, ever asks him to sign??? Not to mention that I had to defend his honor the night before to some punk kids in the stands. I was stunned. Mathis, if you are reading this, you're still my main man. I'm sure you would have signed but I bet Sciocsa doesn't let catchers sign. I think I may write Sciosca and request that he make an exception so you can sign for your one and only fan.

We always have a great time in Baltimore. Now, not only will we get great baseball but we'll also have bingo to look forward to on our next trip!

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Doing The Aunt Thing

2011-08-07T13:32:00.001-04:00

This post is a bit late but still worth posting. I was off on Fridays this summer so I went down to Concord one Friday to visit little Virginia. She is getting more and more fun to be around as she continues to grow up.

When I got there we did a little coloring but we were really in a hurry to go to lunch. Virginia was too cute, she had to take her little purse.

She really was happier than she looks in this picture.

There, much better.

We went to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. This is a place that the Hildebrands visit often apparently as the staff seemed to know Virginia. Virginia kept pointing at the pictures of the mixed drinks that were on the table and said she wanted one. We joked to the staff about this and they surprised her with a mini virgin drink. That was just so sweet. And I have to say, she was really too adorable to ignore. Of course once she got her drink, she didn't seem to care for it. That's ok because Kathy and I sure enjoyed it.

Next we were off to Target. This is apparently one of Virginia's favorite places. She was very good the whole time and even helped me decide that some shoes I tried on weren't for me. She is a little shoe diva. I had fun pushing her in the cart. I gleaned from a post Kathy made that she wasn't so thrilled with our little adventure in the parking lot. That's OK, that's what aunts are for.

Next Kathy took me by to see their new house. Very nice!!! Congrats by the way!!! This is what Virginia looked like in the back seat.

Then like 5 minutes later she was asleep but she never dropped the sucker.

Once back home we painted a bit before I had to go. I really had fun and am enjoying being an aunt...no diapers and I seem to get only the good behavior!!!

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Doing The Aunt Thing

2011-08-07T13:31:00.001-04:00

Belize City

2011-07-31T17:18:00.001-04:00

We had an unexpected change of plans. Rather than spend the last day on the island and snorkeling on the reef, we left a day early and flew to Belize City.

This is our waitress. She was with us the entire time. When we changed locations, so did she. She was going to school to be a high school math teacher. She was just the sweetest.

Belize City is very poor. There is really only one name brand hotel, so we stayed there. It is right outside the tourist village. The tourist village was built for the tourists that come to port from the cruise ships. The catch is that no locals, other than workers, are allowed inside. We had to show a passport just to get inside. Pretty nuts huh?? It was also very evident that tourists from cruise ships don't see the 'real' countries that they dock at.

We spent this day walking around town a bit. Not too much to see. We did tour the old capital building.

Belize used to be a British colony and was called British Hondurus.

Local fishermen.

The next day we had some time to kill before our flight home. There are many pain in the ass locals constantly, constantly haggling the white and obvious tourists. We did meet one rather nice gentleman that took us on a brief tour around the city.

Here he is taking a break from our tour to pullover and buy some key limes from a street vendor.

The cemetery was in the median of the road...odd. It was interesting to see were the locals live. There do seem to be many schools but also much crime. Our guide said that he tries to not go out at night. Belize is a drug trafficking corridor from Columbia, to Mexico, then to the States.

Well, that's it for the vacation posts...finally. It wasn't the perfect trip but a memorable one none the less. Belize is a vey interesting country and really all the people we met were very friendly.

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Snorkeling

2011-07-24T16:10:00.001-04:00

After Snake Cay we did a bit of snorkeling. The conditions were not perfect as the water was a bit merky from all the rain. But we didn't know any differently and were pleased. We weren't at the barrier reef that Belize is known for but the smaller reef we were at on this day was really nice. We were to go to the barrier reef the next day. This also gave me a chance to try out my underwater camera.

I really think that if the water were clearer the camera would have taken great pictures!

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Location:Snorkeling

Snake Cay

2011-07-17T10:09:00.001-04:00

Again, we awoke to rain. It was rainy for most of the morning. Finally Mike and I got cabin fever. We decided to take the kayaks out in the drizzle. We were feeling pretty confident as we decided to go for the little island that was a mere speck off in the distance. We rowed and rowed and rowed. At one point we guessed how many more strokes we'd need to get to shore. I guessed 100 and Mike guessed 250. It took over 500!!!! What a relief to make it!!!!! Then, of course, we had to go back. Remember I mentioned earlier that I was a whiz at this kayaking stuff??? Well, I may have been exaggerating just a wee bit. On the way back, the current kept pulling my kayak to the right and I wasn't strong enough to stop it. I did two uncontrollable circles. Needless to say, there was a bit of panic. I'm not afraid of water, but I don't really like being way out on the ocean. Anyway, Mike was really no help. There was no hurried rowing from him to come to my rescue. He did tell me how to put the brakes on and lectured me on how panicking never helps in any situation. Thanks dear!!! Our guide was watching from the pier and must have noticed my 'performance' because he set out on the boat for a rescue. I had to refuse. I was determined to make it back under my own power and I did!!!

The island is the one way off in the distance on the right side of the picture. Not the two close ones. Trust me, it's like 10 miles away (wink wink)!!

So, after lunch it did clear up and we headed out for some snorkeling off the Cays. First we had to stop at the rangers station and pay our entry fee.

This dog loved having Mike rub it's head. He would just close his eyes and enjoy his head rub.

Before the snorkeling, we stopped at Snake Cay. We were hunting boa constrictors. We saw many cool crabs here as well.

Can you see the sand colored crab??

Ok, after almost giving up, we found a snake just as we were heading back to the boat. He had to be shaken down from a tree.

Yup, that's me holding a wild snake all by myself. Pretty cool. These little boas are obviously smaller than the boas people are accustomed to seeing.

Not only did I get to hold the snake. I also got a nice case of poison ivy to bring home as well!!

Next, snorkeling...

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Moho Cay

2011-07-13T21:12:00.001-04:00

Ok, this morning we were to go to our final destination, Moho Cay. Again, this would involve another trip down the river. This morning however, it was raining. We were pretty much stuck in our room until the time of departure. Things did start to look up as our departure time loomed. The skies did clear and we had great weather for the trip down and for the afternoon at Moho Cay.

Moho Cay, now this is paradise.

This is the view from our cabin.

This is our cabin. The island had 10 cabins but one was struck by lightening so they are down to 9.

These little critters were there to welcome us.

We spent the afternoon doing a little kayaking, which I was a whiz at by the way (more on that later) and sunbathing. I don't know if you can really call it sunbathing when you slather on 70 SPF sunscreen. I can tell you that it did it's job as I had some sunburn spots were I didn't get full coverage (which is not a good look).

A few more shots from the island.

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JC Day Two continued...

2011-07-11T20:14:00.001-04:00

I know the suspense has been killing you. We made it back to our room safe and sound after our canopy experience. Here are a few fun pics at the Seba tree (not the Saber tree as I almost called it). Mike thought that was hilarious.

All he's missing is a leopard print loin cloth!!

While we were resting, our guide, Antonio, came and got us because there were some wild pigs on the grounds having lunch.

There was a baby pig...ahhh!!!

There were four of them roaming around. We watched them from a raised platform.

After lunch we took a ride down the river. Well, I took a ride, Mike maned a kayak. He was a natural.

Here he is hard at work...

He paddled about 5 miles on this trip. This hard working man got in the boat when we made our way back home.

It was unbelievably peaceful out here. We were the only people around. It was totally isolated from the outside world. Really a site to see.

The whole point of the trip was to go down this little creek. Or as Antonio says, crick (just like a true Bayouean). We were on the hunt for crocodiles, or as Mike kept calling them, alligators. Since the water was high the crocks weren't resting on the banks so we didn't get a glimpse of any. However, trust me, they are there. How do I know? Because one scared the poo out of me when it raised it's tail and smacked the water close to the boat. He was within 5 feet of our aluminum canoe. So, for the rest of the time I was afraid of the boat turning over.

On the way back we did see some Black Howler monkeys.

Those black blobs in the tree are the monkeys. There was a baby here too. It was on it's mothers back.

This was a good day. We were limited as to our excursions because it is rainy season but we were still very pleased.

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Jungle Camp Day Two

2011-07-09T12:58:00.001-04:00

First thing this morning, after breakfast, we took a walk through the jungle. It is amazing how dense it is out here. Dense and quite. We didn't see too many animals but did see some neat trees and flowers.

This is a bit hard to see but this is a tree that fell during a hurricane 10 years ago. The trees branches have continued to grow because the roots are still in the ground.

The trees look like a tunnel.

We arrived at the canopy tree. This is a large Seba tree. They hoist you up using a harness. Once at the top, there is a walkway that you can walk around on and get a panoramic view. This is ideal for looking for birds early in the morning. We didn't get there early enough for this though.

Here comes Mike...

We both made it to the top. I don't think those little helmets would save our heads from being crushed like a melon should we have fallen. But they sure look cool huh?

This is the base of our canopy tree. These are amazing trees!!!

This was a long day so I'll save the rest for later.

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Jungle Camp

2011-07-08T19:29:00.001-04:00

This morning we said goodbye to Ballum Na Camp. First we took a little walk around the property. I think this was mainly to kill time.

These are the nuts from the palm trees.

After our walk we went to see some other local ruins. These were pretty cool. There were big stones with intricate carvings.

There were also similar ruins as to the ones we saw the other day. This site also had some tombs.

This was Mike's favorite tree. I think it is called the Seba tree.

After lunch we headed out to the Jungle Camp. This is where we started to get a bit disappointed in the trip. We were supposed to take a 2 hour canoe ride down the river to the camp. This location is only accessible by boat. Due to the fact that the river has risen so much because it's the start of rainy season, the canoe ride was not an option. So, instead, we had to take a 45 minute car ride to the ocean and catch a boat from there and ride into camp from the other side of the river where it wasn't so high. While not as cool, it was still neat.

These are the mangroves that surround the river. Our guide said these are important to protect the inland from hurricanes. The roots grow down from the branches into the water.

Soon we were at our next stop.

The water is so high that the steps that go up to the hotel were submerged in the water.

The rooms are located off of this walk way. Tonight we were supposed to take a boat out at night to look for wildlife but again, may not happen due to the swollen river. Maybe tomorrow night. Fingers crossed!!

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Ballum Na Excursions

2011-07-06T21:12:00.001-04:00

Second day, first excursion. First, let me just say, that I hope to be able to try some frog legs tonight. We were kept awake last night by the loudest frogs I've ever heard. I thought they were getting ready to mount an attack on the room. Then about 2 or 3 in the morning it started to pour rain. It was what you'd call a gulley washer.

9am the van leaves out. It's just me and Mike, a driver and the tour guide. This van we were in was not going to break any land speed records, let me tell you. We were on some pretty crappy dirt roads but even on the paved roads I think we topped out at 25mph.

Did learn that the resort owns 13,000 acres!!! The people that work at this location all live in the village just outside of the, for the lack of a better word, compound. Our tour guide, Nate, doesn't have electricity. Just think how different everyday life would be without electricity, or maybe how much simpler. The owner of the resort donated about 60 acres to the village so they could have more land to build new homes on. This is where Nate lives with his 3 kids. We drove through many small villages on the way to the ruins and saw many a people bathing or doing their laundry in the creek.

About an hour later we arrive at the ruins. There was no parking lot, just a grassy turn out. Again, we are the only people there.

We are making our way to the site. This place was discovered by a guy that was looking for treasures so he was not too concerned with preservation. Basically, he took a bunch of TNT to the place. They said that the height of the activity was around 750AD. As many as 10,000 people lived nearby.

Nate showed us around. There was a rubber tree on site. That was cool to see rubber from an actual rubber tree. They actually used the rubber to make a basketball like ball and played a game similar to basketball. One major difference, the loser was offered as a human sacrifice. Man, I bet LeBron is glad that tradition has changed!!

Off to our lunch site. Again, about another hour drive.

A glimpse of the roads we traversed.

This was our lunch site.

There are the prettiest flowers all around. I'll have to devote a whole post to just those pictures. Here is an action shot of lunch.

BTW, I would have never guessed that vacations would make me an expert on peeing outside with nature. Let's see, this makes the third, no wait, fourth, country that I've had to squat in the woods to relieve myself.

After lunch, we dove in for a swim. Well, it was more like a goofy, pansy walk on slippery rocks and into cold water. You just had to take the plunge and then you were OK.

Don't worry, we didn't have to go rescue him...we made it out all by himself.

It was hard work getting up to the falls. There was a strong current. We only took a brief swim but it was fun stuff.

When we got back 'home' we asked to see the jaguars being fed dinner.

They were let into their cages and they threw in the chicken. The cats would catch the first pieces in their mouths. Not something you get to see every day. Well, it looks like another storm is brewing, we may have to go frog gigging tonight!!!

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Welcome to Belize

2011-07-06T16:16:00.001-04:00

We got to Belize today. We flew from Miami to Belize City. We had to wait at the airport for a domestic flight to our resort. This was the plane we took.

It sat 13 people. This was a fun little flight. We made one stop to drop some people off then we were the next stop. We landed on a gravel runway. It is a private airstrip for the resort. There was no building, just a van to meet you. We were the only people for that stop.

After a short ride into the jungle we arrived at our resort.

The highlight of this location are two captive jaguars. Belize has a jaguar sanctuary and there are still wild cats in the jungle.

Up close and personal. Our room looks into the jaguars cage. We did see a bit of a cat fight when it was dinner time. They are fed in separate cages but that didn't stop the spotted one from taking a swipe at the black one.

Today there aren't any activities planned so we just wondered around. The coolest thing was seeing all the ants carrying leaves...tons and tons of ants.

So cool!! (omg....so many bugs!!!! I have to type a few words then swat at the bugs...must go inside soon).

We were also amazed at the size of the palm fronds.

It's almost dinner time and we'll find out about our excursion for tomorrow. Should be a fun and relaxing week!

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Go Karts and Keith

2011-06-26T18:50:00.001-04:00

Friday was a busy day. First Mike's firm had an outing to The Pit in Mooresville. This is a place that has indoor carting, among other things. There were 10 of us and we did two 8 lap qualifiers (one going the 'wrong way' on the track). This determined our starting order for our two 12 lap races. I started 9th in both races...not too impressive. This was quite a disadvantage as I was an entire straightaway behind to start. Turned out that was actually a good thing during the first race as there was a massive pile up in turn one and I just zipped right by and finished 5th. Second race, I was bumped from behind, on a straightaway mind you, from a no account coward. This spun me and I thus spent a good part of the race behind a much slower rider (I need to improve my passing skills). Finally got around him but didn't have enough laps to catch up to the punk than punted me so we could 'discuss' the earlier incident. It was loads of fun but I did end up with some pretty bad bruises on my back. I think it was just from how the seat hit me and then perhaps from a few on track incidents.

Next it was off to the Keith Urban concert. We had GREAT seats. I read a review in the paper that said that his show doesn't change much from year to year. I'd seen him about 5 years ago and yes, the show was very similar. That being said, I'd pay again to go see the same thing for a third time. He is just so damn talented. I'd go just to see him play the guitar. The man is crazy good on the guitar. So, fun times this weekend.

This is Yana in the back of the Jeep. I had the back rolled up and she could care less.

Jake Owen. He was very good too.

Susan and Lezlie, my concert buddies.

Keith out on a small platform in the middle of the floor. This was pretty much right in front of us. He did this at the last show I saw and I know that two of the three songs he sang while out there were the same at both shows.

A super sized screen...better to see that ever so handsome face with.

This was my second show of the summer and it was head and shoulders above the so called perineal Entertainer of the Year winner, Kenny Chesney.

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Congrats Brandon & Joni

2011-06-19T18:05:00.001-04:00

This weekend our nephew got married to his high school sweetheart. Joni has really been a part of the family for many years now.

We went to the rehearsal dinner Friday. It was outside and the weather was actually pleasant.

The yard was decorated very nice and had a vintage country theme going. Mike's mom and sister made most of the food and it was great as always! The kids put out the always fun corn hole game. Mike and I had a pretty good winning streak going until we came up against Mike's parents. They mounted a crazy comeback!!

Saturday was the wedding. Joni looked beautiful and the wedding went off without a hitch. The ceremony was not the traditional wedding ceremony in some respects but was very nice because it was unique to Joni and Brandon.

Mike was super excited to throw the lavender on the newly married. He had combined three bags into one and went for the upward toss in hopes of an up the nose shot! Don't know if he was successful or not.

Mike's parents with their grandson, Brandon.

The reception was at the Doc & Merle Watson theater at Wilkes Community College. This is where the Merlefest is held annually. I had never been there and it was such a cool place. It stuck to the country theme of the wedding. They had old black and white picture of the family on display and that was very neat. I love that kind of stuff.

And here is the happy couple.

The food was great, the place was great and I have to say this was a great wedding. We wish them many years of happiness!!!

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Saturday Bike Ride

2011-06-12T20:28:00.001-04:00

We took the bikes out on Saturday. It was to be my introduction to riding on dirt roads. It was also my reminder that I suck on the tight twisty roads. My performance was less than impressive. I was a bit disappointed but I just need more experience. I can do the nice, fast sweeping curves, but who can't. Anyway.....

We hit the dirt roads and at first I was not feeling the excitement. Then Mike told me to stand on the pegs and it was much better. He was right, that made it much more enjoyable. I could go faster and I felt much more comfortable on the bike. As the day went on I also got a bit better at the turns. It was a lot of fun, but it was also hard work.

10 minutes after this was taken, my bike was on the ground. Yeah, I was worried about this one spot and it got me. We had taken a sharp left hand turn down hill to go down to this spot. So that meant there would be a sharp, uphill right hand turn back out. Well, hills and turns at the same time are not my strong suit, much less on dirt and gravel. Not to panic, just go left a bit and turn in a circle to get going in the right direction. The plan was working well, I just didn't have enough speed and had the bike turned pretty sharply. Well, it started to go and there was no stopping it. It fell right over. It was a no speed drop, didn't really qualify as a crash. I have crash bars so the bike was not scratched one bit. On these roads we'd seen maybe three cars all day. As soon as my bike hits the ground, here comes a truck around the bend. Of course!! Sucky girl rider had to get help from a stranger to get her bike up. Mike was walking back to help too. No big deal, we carried on.

It rained a bit and needless to say I took it slow. We were back on pavement then. It didn't rain too much and it was hot as heck on the ride back. We did see these cool Jeeps at a dealership in Asheville.

I think I need one!!!

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First a Concert Then a Rally

2011-06-05T17:55:00.001-04:00

Thursday Susan and I went to the Kenny Chesney concert. I really wanted to go to see Billy Currington. We was to start playing at 7:45. Due to traffic, Susan got there at 7:42. Just on time. Since I didn't have the tickets, I must say that I really enjoyed standing by myself at the gate looking like a lonely loser. The loser appearance was made even worse because of my sad outfit, which I will not get into during this post.

I took my smaller camera to the concert so you'll have to trust me when I tell you that the guy in the middle of the stage is Billy Currington. I was there and if I had not seen him onTV I could not pick him out of a lineup. Needless to say we were not on the front row and the screens were no help because of the glare from the sun.

After three failed attempts to do a self portrait some chick took pity on us and offered to take our picture. I have this annoying habit of tilting my head up when my picture is taken. God I hate having my picture made.

Even though we couldn't get a good look at Billy, he was none the less entertaining. I would still like to see him at a smaller venue.

So then it was on to Kenny. I've never bought one of him CDs so I wouldn't say I'm his #1 fan but I was curious as to what all the fuss is about.

From what I could gather after the first song, all the fuss is about a short, balding, cocky little dude who thinks he's a rapper not a country singer. He had some really annoying habits. First, while holding the mike with one hand, he would do this rap thing with the other. Next time you see me ask me to demonstrate. Next, he thought it was cool to constantly flick the brim of his cowboy hat. Finally, he must have gotten this move from the hair bands of his youth, he would sing a few words and then stab the mike stand forward as he'd lean back. Again, I'll be glad to demonstrate. Every thing was just so contrived and not at all genuine. Don't get me wrong, he has good songs but the show and his 'moves' reminded me of what a little kid would do in front of the mirror and think he was 'the bomb'. But what do I know, people continue to flock to see him year after year.

Friday night I went to our SOS (Save Our Schools) Rally. It was sponsored by some parent organizations in an effort to rally support for education funding. I was a volunteer. My duty ended up being giving out door prize tickets to people as they entered. Most people took one after you explained to them that it was free. I did this for like an hour and a half and I was beat. I am really getting old.

This is my co-worker (and sweetest lady I know) Theresa. She worked the entrance with me. As you can see there were lots of things for the kiddos to do. We actually had a pretty good turn out.

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Road Trip

2011-05-30T17:02:00.001-04:00

We took a road trip this weekend. We left on Friday after work and stayed the night in Greenville, AL. Where were we going and why you may be wondering...destination was Baton Rouge, LA and the why, well, I'm sure you can guess. I'd never been to Miss. or Louisiana so I got to see two new states. We drove right past the two big auto plants on the Georgia/Alabama line. One was Kia and the other was Hyundia.

This pic doesn't do it justice, these places were massive.

We drove across some unique landscapes. Sections of the road went across swamp or bayou areas. The land is so low that the road was right at the same level as the tree line. Very interesting. Baton Rouge is right on the Mississippi River so we had to make sure we went over it.

I didn't do too good on the pictures but it's hard to take pictures from a moving car. Take my word for it, this is a large river.

We got what we came for...

FOR ME!!!! That's right, I was ready for an upgrade and I love it!!!

We headed back East and stayed the night in Biloxi, Miss. Mike said that it was very different since the last time he'd been there. He was there before Katrina. There were many buildings just no longer there and there were no floating casinos to be seen. We talked to a native and he said that the casino/hotel we were staying at was closed for two years after the storm. He said that many of the casinos and restaurants were rebuilt further inland. You could tell that many of the buildings were new. Hard to imagine what those people have been through, much less those from New Orleans. We ate at a local seafood restaurant. It was a neat place.

We headed home Sunday morning and that's when things got interesting. We were driving Mike's dad's Explorer because we figured it would pull the trailer with the bike easier than our Jeep. Well it did for a while. Then at a gas stop we noticed that there was oil all over the back of the car and the trailer and the bike. Needless to say, this was not good. We were near Greenville, SC so we decided that I'd just ride the bike the rest of the way. We called John, my co-worker who knows about cars, and he said to put oil in the rear differential. We did this and just went slow down the interstate. Let me must say now much I enjoyed being viewed as the slow chick on the bike doing about 65 down the interstate. Then getting on 321 and having the pleasure of being passed by two cruisers. Yeah, that didn't suck.

We were headed to T-ville but didn't quite get there. Mike could tell it was about to give out so we stopped close to Hickory and Mike's parents came and called AAA. Hate it for Mike's parents but we'll get it fixed. Really wasn't too bad but no one likes to end a road trip with their car on the back of a roll-back.

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Dan Nicholas Park

2011-05-22T20:17:00.001-04:00

Today Susan and Kathy were kind enough to come to Salisbury's Dan Nicholas Park so I could see the kiddos.

This is Kathy showing off her parenting skills. She discovered that she'd put Virginia's shoes on the wrong feet. Brilliant!!!!

We first checked out the model airplanes that were flying right outside the park.

Then it was off to the playground. Samantha is a mad woman on the playground. She played all over the big kids part by herself. She would climb up to the highest part and slide down the twisty tube slide (which was dark she informed us). She would also climb up the ladders that were really too big for her but that didn't stop her. Virginia was more content to sit at the table in a play train and just chill with the other kids.

After some convincing we ventured off to the train and carousal. Both seemed to like the train at first then we went in a tunnel with some music and Samantha didn't care too much for that. Samantha sat out the carousal but Virginia was a rock star.

She rode a horse all by herself, I was very impressed.

Check out these cute farm animals...

Samantha really loved the playground so while she played, Kathy and I took Virginia to the petting zoo. It was really more off a 'look at the animals from a far' zoo. She seemed to like the animals though.

It was hot as heck but it was fun playing with the little ones. They are adorable and are growing up fast. Just a few more pics before I go....

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Wedding Shower

2011-05-01T19:27:00.001-04:00

But first, Thursday was our 10 year wedding anniversary. Hard to believe huh? It's been the best 10 years of my life. Mike and I are definitely made for each other. I kind of gave him a hard time on Thursday morning because I didn't think he realized it was our tenth anniversary. I should have known he wouldn't let me down. He had flowers send to work. They are beautiful. Thanks sweetie...love you!!!!

Now, to the wedding shower. Mike's nephew, Brandon, is getting married in June. He and Joni have been dating since high school so she is already a part of the family, they are just finally making it official. They are great kids and I wish them all the best.

The shower was hosted by Paula Daniels. She goes to Brandon's church. She is such a sweet lady. The Daniels have a large house on top of a mountain in T-ville. It was the talk of the town when it was built about 6 years ago. So, I was excited to get to see the house. It did not disappoint. It was very nice and Ms. Daniels was very generous and just let us snoop all around. The best part of the place is the view!

Back to Brandon and Joni...they got some great stuff and it was a nice shower.

The happy couple and their cute shirts.

Mike's mom doing her usual picture face!!

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Saved the Best for Last

2011-04-23T22:01:00.001-04:00

Machu Picchu...there are no words to adequately describe this place. It is truly amazing. I'm talking blow your mind amazing. Just how in the world was this place built?? Mike and I both agree that this is by far the most amazing thing we've had the privilege to see in our limited travels.

The trip to MP from Cusco was brutal. We left the hotel at 5:45am. The following was the journey:

Waiting at the train station

- shuttle from hotel to bus station
- 2 hour bus ride to train station
- 1.5 hour train ride
- 30 minute bus ride to MP

The train and bus ride to the park was beautiful. The mountain range by itself is worth the trip, much less MP.

This was from inside the train. The bus ride up to MP was a long, tight, twisty road and we were in a large charter bus. The cost of getting into MP was about $150. Peru makes quite a bit of money off of tourism at MP.

Ok, here are some pics... We were very lucky that it wasn't raining. Nuno said that he'd been there about 7 times and this was only the 2nd time that it was not raining.

You see that mountain in the back?? That's called Huayna Picchu. Believe it or not, there are ruins up there too. You can walk to the top and that's what some in the group wanted to do. So we thought, what the heck. At the start of the trail you had to sign in. They only allow 400 people on the trail each day. You have to sign out when you make it back too, to make sure you did indeed make it back. Trust me when I tell you that this trail would never ever be allowed at a National Park in the US. I didn't do the best job of capturing the steepness of the trail in pictures.

It was very steep with limited hand rails. If you fell, you'd get hurt, if not worse. The steepness was made doubly hard by the altitude. MP is about 8,000 ft above sea level and this made it hard to catch your breath. It took about one hour to get up to the top.

This was looking down. This is a true look at just how steep some of the sections were.

We conquered the trail. That's MP in the background.

This was at the top.

We saw this lady at the top. She carried this kid all the way up!!!! You can not imagine how hard this had to gave been. No way no how could I have done this.

It is almost impossible to imagine how the Incas built this place.

We made it back down and spent some time looking around the rest of the ruins.

I'll never forget visiting this place. I hope that it will forever be preserved and not ruined by too many tourists.

One last picture. We rode along this river on the train ride to MP. This was the roughest river we'd ever seen. It looked like chocolate milk.

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Vacation Posts Interrupted

2011-04-17T18:57:00.001-04:00

Yana, my sweet, sweet baby...I took some pictures of her this weekend playing with her new favorite toy. The Kong has been replaced as the love of her life. Her new obsession is, well, I don't know what it's called. She can only play with it for a while and while supervised. This new obsession's not Yana proof and I end up buying a new one at least once a month.

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Lake Titicaca

2011-04-15T19:29:00.001-04:00

We visited Lake Titicaca on a guided tour from our hotel. Like I said in the last post, there are people that live on floating islands out on the lake. This sounds really neat but I have to admit that I was disappointed. The place had lost it's authenticity. There are a number of different islands on the lake. And the charter boats rotate daily which islands they visit. The inhabitants wave at you as you arrive and they are very eager to see you. They are so eager to see you because they want to push their wares on the gullible tourist. The tourist trade is the way these folks make a living and is really the only reason they continue to live on the islands.

Don't get me wrong, it's still neat that they live on these floating islands and it is not an easy way of life. The islands are made of reeds that grow on the lake. The roots of the reeds are the base for the islands and the part that grows above the water is used as the floor of the island. They have to continuously replace the reeds that serve as the base of the island. It is also used to make the houses and even some boats. The houses have small solar panels that are used to create electricity for some homes. We were warned to not eat the fish or drink the water as the waters are polluted from sewage.

We sit around and listen to some history of the islands. Then, as soon as the guide is finished, the locals pounce. The were like assassins, we didn't even here them coming. They just appeared right behind you. They wanted to show you inside their houses. Once you agree to go into their house, they've got you. They are clever, they know enough English to tell you their name and ask you what your name is. Then they keep calling you by your name. After you look at their house, they try to sell you stuff. And don't try to buy from someone else, you are their dumb tourist.

OK, enough words, more pictures.

As we're making our way to the islands, we pass these islands that have pigs on them. This was cause for another memorable Fukundo quote: " There's a pig in the water!" We thought it was funny.

They're saying, "here comes another boat load of suckers".

The islands are large enough to support some large buildings. The kids go to school on the islands and there is a hospital too.

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Sights Along the Way

2011-04-09T16:35:00.001-04:00

We are in Peru now.

It took like 3 hours to cross the border. They had you going all over the place to get paperwork stamped by various people. Most of these people seemed to have jobs created for no other reason than to give people a government pay check. We went to two people on a row to get stuff stamped and they didn't look at a single thing on the paperwork, just stamped us and we moved on.

Once we got over the border, within 30 miles we'd had to stop at two checkpoints. Good grief!!! At one stop, the cop made us go into the building and he took his sweet time recording our passport info in a manual ledger. There was a little store at the checkpoint and we surmised that his wife probably owns it. Peru was not impressing so far. The main difference was the sand looked gray rather than tan.

We were headed to Lake Titicaca the next day. It was a bit rainy and we got separated from the group as everyone stopped to put on rain gear. We saw this motorcycle cop as we headed out for the day.

The ride was pretty nice.

We saw this swinging bridge and had to stop. It doesn't look very big but it was still kinda scary. It moved a bit and I was ready to get off.

We stopped at this little town to wait on the group. This truck went through the town yelling something on a load speaker. I guess it was advertising food for sale. The lady carrying something on her back is actually carrying a baby.

We drove though the poorest, saddest town we'd ever seen. It's hard to explain without you actually having been there. The conditions were just decrepit. The roads were terrible, the air was filled with diesel fumes and it was very trashy.

There were tons of these little tuk tuks running around town.

This is a blurry picture but I think you can get the gist. There were dogs going through the trash. Unfortunately we had to come back through this town the next day and there were people going through this same pile. Very, very sad.

We did finally get to Lake Titicaca and it was beautiful.

The lake is famous for being the highest navigational lake in the world. Furthermore, there are people that live on floating islands on the lake.

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Flying High (continued)

2011-04-07T20:23:00.001-04:00

I know that everyone has been anxiously awaiting this post (ha).

Mike decided that he wanted to go hang gliding. So, the hotel called someone for us. This person said that the winds weren't good for hang gliding so we settled for hang gliding with a motor. Basically, the guy is strapped to a big fan.

Everyone knows that heights are not my favorite thing. We got out to the dunes and Mike goes first. They start to take off and the chute gets tangled. That was all it took, I told Mike he should take the camera to take pictures because I wasn't going. That was that. That's the reason there aren't too many pictures of Mike.

Maybe you can tell how high he was. They did a few aerobatics which were impressive. They landed at the same spot they took off from. It was a bit of a crash landing but they lived.

So, based on the fact that Mike lived, I said what the hell, I'll go for it!!!!!

Me before takeoff, making sure I listen to every dang thing this guy has to say. Surprisingly, I wasn't really nervous. My stomach wasn't churning, I was pretty calm really.

He says run so I run like my life depends on it!

The hard part was that you didn't really have a seat. You were
strapped to the pilot and basically had a harness holding you up. Not to give TMI, but it was a bit rough on the nether regions. Not to mention that it was quit the workout on the abs. I held onto the harness straps for dear life. The pilot kept rubbing my arms and telling me to relax and enjoy the ride. I did enjoy the ride but there was no relaxing to be had.

It was enjoyable and I'm glad I did it but I won't be signing up to do it again.

As for the landing, I'd give Mike a 2 and I'd give me a 10!!! It was perfect. The pilot said it was a fast landing because there wasn't much wind. I rock!!

The pilot wanted us to write something in his client book. I wrote, "I prayed the whole time that I wouldn't die and I didn't".

Our trusty pilot and girlfriend and two very relieved people.

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Flying High

2011-04-04T12:58:00.001-04:00

This day Mike and I rode by ourselves to Arica. It was a short ride and so the group wasn't going to leave until about 11:30. We just wanted to head on out and see what there was to do. The road was pretty interesting. It looked to me like we were surrounded by big mounds of sand.

I didn't like it one bit as it seemed like we were riding just at the edge of this big mound of sand with no guard rails and lots of wind. I just wanted down.

Once we got into Arica we just drove around the town checking out the locals. It is amazing just how poor they appear to live. I say appear because you'd see kids getting out of school wearing their uniforms (which indicates a private school) and then they'd walk home to houses that would have been razed in the States.

We drove to a high point of the town to get a good look down.

Then Mike gets a wild hair that he wants to go hang gliding....to be continued.

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Iquique

2011-04-02T08:02:00.001-04:00

This day was not too exciting. It's been a few days since we were there and I can't really remember anything very exciting. I guess the most exciting thing was that Stanley wrecked. Luckily he was fine and the bike was only slightly damaged. We waited at a gas station for word on Stanley and while there we took pictures of these beauties.

We were by the water and there was a big port. A ton of these critters were hanging out scavenging. We rode though a pretty large copper mine. Everyone remembers the miners that were rescued in Chile right? Chile has many, many mines.

Iquique is a coastal town and had some pretty nice views.

This was the view from our hotel balcony.

I just remembered something funny from this day. You have to remember that these countries have an unbelievable number of homeless dogs and cats. They just roam the streets and live off of scraps. Very sad really. Anyway, we were sitting outside for dinner. From where we were sitting, we could look inside and see the salad bar. All of a sudden Fukundo yells out (in English) "there is a cat on the table". A cat had jumped up on the bar and was helping him or her self. And this was a nice place. We found it funny that Fukundo was startled but yelled in English when his native tongue is Spanish and his English is still a bit broken. I guess you had to be there.

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Geysers and Hot Springs

2011-03-31T19:24:00.001-04:00

We had a rest day in San Pedro. Mike and I usually choose not to rest on these days. Mike had decided to try put a road that was on the map. There were not many choices. Nuno, tour guide, and Julie, rider, were at Nuno's bike at the same time we were leaving and as it turns out, they were going to the same place so we went together. We are glad that we went together because I know we had more fun with them than we would have had by ourselves.

We took a dirt road (most of the roads in this town are dirt) to a park that has geysers and hot springs. The most crowded time is in the early morning because the geysers are active then. Since we were there at about noon, we had the whole place to ourselves.

As it turns out there is a little natural pool that is formed from a hot spring. You can get in the pool and enjoy the warm water. No one had come prepared to get in the water but we didn't let this stop us. We just striped down to our skivvies and got in.

This is Nuno. Check out what a beautiful location this was.

Those three heads are Mike, me, and Nuno. The water was pretty hot in some spots and you'd have to move to a cooler spot. Also, if you dug your toes in the sand it would be so hot on your toes it would burn them. We spent about an hour just relaxing in the pool. This was just so much fun. What a memory!

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Chile, Here We Come

2011-03-30T15:59:00.001-04:00

Today we entered Chile but before we got to the border there was some really fun riding. These pictures are at a scenic overlook that shows part of the road we just rode up.

After this it was a short drive to the salt flats. This was so cool!!!! I'd never seen anything like it. We drove the bikes right out on the lake. And yes, it did taste like salt.

Me and Fukundo, one of our guides. He is so so nice and has a great smile.

There were holes in the salt, as Mike is demonstrating here.

There is water underneath the salt and man is it crystal clear.

After this fun, it was off to the border.

Here we are with a friendly border guard.

Check this bike out...do you think they have enough stuff?

Getting out of Argentina was a breeze but getting into Chile was more of a challenge, but still not too bad. It was not as modern as Argentina and they opened all of the luggage. This is the border crossing.

We made it though and stayed the night at the border town of San Pedro.

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On The Road Again

2011-03-29T18:55:00.001-04:00

The group was off to Purmamanta today. We went down part of the road that Mike and I took yesterday. We did stop at the sight of an old waterfall. It was pretty neat to see where the water had worn away the rock.

Check out this sweet ride...

We stopped for lunch in Salta. This is a pretty big city. These are a few sights from the city:

The rest of the day I don't have too many pictures because I was hanging on for dear life. We were on a really tight, narrow road.

There was a slight mix up (or so we thought) with our hotel. We got there and were told that we didn't have a reservation. The tour guide went up the road and was able to get us in at another place but we would have to share rooms. This hotel had cabins and the couples were to share a three room cabin. After I had taken a cold shower, we were told to change cabins that we each had our own cabin. The tour guide realized that this was the place we were actually supposed to stay!!!! It was a very pretty place with a great restaurant. I had the best dessert there that night.

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Best Ride Ever?

2011-03-29T06:22:00.001-04:00

I'm behind in my posting, just have not had the time. This post is about a ride we took on a rest day last Friday while in Cafayette.

Our guide, Fukundo, recommended a loop for us to take. He failed to mention that the first part of the loop was dirt. That was fine though. The ride was so good because the roads were good and the scenery was just awesome. There was always something to look at. The first part of the ride was more of a desert type scenery, the second part was really a beautiful green, and the last part was more of a red, canyon scenery. There were also some hairy water crossings. Apparently there has been a lot of rain here this summer. I took a crap load of pictures on this day. These are the highlights:

I like this one because it has the colorful vineyard in the foreground with the mountains in the background.

I think this is just the coolest picture with the distinctive line of clouds.

The pictures of the green mountains don't do it justice. You can't imagine how beautiful this was. I imagine this is what New Zealand would look like.

Just a few more intreating sights from the day:

Notice the water in the road?

You never know what might be around the next corner.

I'm sure the wooden bridge is safe!

This was my favorite day of the trip so far. I like it even more because it was just Mike and me. The rest of the group missed out on most of this stuff.

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Salta

2011-03-25T22:03:00.001-04:00

Nothing really interesting happened yesterday. This was the most exciting thing we saw all day.

Yum, half a cow!!!

Today was the first good day of riding. Unfortunately it started out a bit rainy but it cleared up at about lunch time. We started to get into the Andes Mountains in the Salta region of Argentina. When it wasn't foggy or raining, it was really nice. The roads were twisty mountain roads but they were really bumpy with lots of potholes. We told our guide from Argentina that he needs to pay more taxes.

Pretty good huh??? That's because we were stopped to get gas. This was also at the gas station.

This picture makes me laugh!!

There were cactus along the road. That was unexpected.

There were a few water crossings. This was a more tame crossing. Mike, of course, made a big splash. We got water on our helmets the 'wave' was so high. That reminds me, Mike got hit in the helmet by a bird today. When we stopped at a light we noticed that he had a few feathers stuck on his helmet. The bird did not make it.

Our buddy Stanley dropped his bike today in a sharp curve. That's the Stanley story for today. Oh yeah, he did ask the waitress when she brought our drinks 'what took you so long?'.

A few more mountain pics...

Salta also has lots of wineries. We are staying at a winery that has a hotel. This place is plush!!! Really, really nice. They have fresh water or juice for you when you get here as well as refreshments. Check this place out...

They eat dinner late here. Some restaurants don't even open until 9 pm. If you know us, that's almost bedtime. We are getting ready to meet for diner at 8:30. I think I'll have try the local wine. We'll check in tomorrow.

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Gas? Who needs gas?

2011-03-23T19:40:00.001-04:00

Today had lots of 'incidents'. First, take a look at this group of girls on one moped.

The day started off pretty uneventful. We even came across come gauchos herding their cattle.

The rest if the day should have been pretty uneventful but it was not to be. When we got to our first gas stop, we ere missing one bike. Some fellow riders said that Stanley (mister, 'I don't like to see stuff') had pulled over the to side and waved then on. Well, we was the one that was missing and he'd pulled over quite a ways back.

Mike, the tour leader on the bike and the tour leader in the support truck with the trailer took off to find out what was going on with Stanley. Two hours later of waiting at a gas station, Mike gets back with news that Stanley's bike has a faulty fuel pump but it can be fixed tonight.

And we're off again to a late lunch stop. I don't think that we would have stopped here if we hadn't had such a long delay so this was something good that came from the wait. The lunch was tasty and at a really nice location.

We were doing good the rest of the afternoon and drove through a pretty big town, which is always interesting. At a four way intersection, there are no stop signs in either direction. It is like a big game of chicken, crazy! The driving is crazy as well. If you have a bike then you just lane split, go to the front of lines and basically put your bike anywhere you want to.

We made it through there and went over this nice bridge.

Then it all went to hell. Mike thought we were farther away from our final stop than we were. He pulled up along our guide and told him he needed gas in 60 kilometers. Well, Fukundo thought he said 5 kilometers and so he was worried. We get off the bridge and passed a gas station on the other side of the road. Fuk takes off through the median, which was a pretty descent up and over. I knew this was not going to be good because some in our group did not want to attempt and they didn't so we were separated. We got to the station and Fuk came over and wanted to know how we could be using so much gas and that's when the misunderstanding became clear. He was needless to say worried. We didn't get gas and took back off. Meanwhile the others had turned around at a legit turnaround and were seen going in the other direction. Fuk went back across the median to get them. We waited a while and we were soon reunited.

Drama needless to say. Poor Fuk, we felt terrible. It is his first tour with Ayres and he gets this group of crazy tourists. He's a nice young kid and I'd hate for him to get in trouble for trying to look out for us.

Anyway, it turns out that Stanley's bike was just out of gas. The gauge was broken and so he had not gotten gas on the entire trip because it kept saying he didn't ned any. I guess he never stopped to think about how far he'd ridden on one tank of gas. Let's hope that tomorrow is a lot smoother day and everyone knows when they do and don't need gas.

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We Were On A Missiones!!!

2011-03-23T06:41:00.001-04:00

We left out this morning and it wasn't too hot, but it more than made up for it later. We've been told that the first three riding days were not so good, and today was not the best. We rode on a straight road with not too much to look at. I took some shots of the local scenery.

We stopped for lunch and not too many people even ate since we'd left the hotel late this morning and some had a late breakfast.

After lunch we stopped at some ruins of a Mission. There is this funny older man on the trip and he said he'd stay with the bikes because "he doesn't like to see stuff". It was hotter than heck walking around outside looking at the ruins wearing our riding gear. But we toughed it out because we'll probably only be here once. This place was pretty interesting.

Notice the other columns behind the tree??? Well, there used to be a column where the tree is now. Or rather, there still is a column where the tree is, the tree grew around the column.

This is Anna. She was at the place where we parked our bikes at the Mission. She is 8. Mike had the good idea to bring bubble gum to give to the kids we see along the way. She enjoyed her gum, but I think she swallowed it. Very sweet girl.

Then it was off to Posadas. A fellow rider described it as an 'armpit city'. The traffic was interesting.

The hotel is less than desirable. There is very little hot water and it comes with hardly any pressure. Mike and I did walk around town a bit and it's not too bad. We each got an ice cream cone with one scoop each for 5 pesos, or about $1.25 for both. It looks like that will be our afternoon treat. You can't beat that price.

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Iguazu Falls - The Real Deal

2011-03-21T19:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was just a teaser. Today was when we really got a good look at just how magnificent these falls really are. We took a boat ride to the foot of a portion of the falls.

Of course the point of the trip was to get drenched and drenched we got. It was much better than the boat ride at Niagra. The weather was just beautiful and so we got some really nice photos. I'll try to just show the highlights, but it's hard to pick just a few as they are all so good (it's the subject, not the photographer).

The rest of the day we spend walking the trails and looking at the falls from all different vantage points. We saw some nice animals along the way. That reminds me, when I got up this morning and went out on the balcony, I saw about 5 toucans in a tree just off of the balcony. So neat...

Our other animal friends...

We took a train to another set of falls, Delderado (not even close to the correct spelling). Once you get off of the train, it's a pretty decent walk along some catwalks out to these falls. This was the most impressive part of the day if you ask me. The power of these falls was just unreal. And you were so close. I loved it!!!

We also couldn't resist getting the bike out so we rode into town. That was nice to see the real stuff, not the hotel, park stuff. We'll be on the bikes tomorrow and we're ready to get going.

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Iguazu Falls - a preview

2011-03-21T17:17:00.001-04:00

Our hotel is the only hotel on the grounds of the national park. You can see the falls from the balcony off of the lobby.

After a brief nap and a refreshing shower, we took a walk to the falls. Unfortunately they had started to close the trails. None the less, we still had quite good views. I've never heard of this place before, but let me tell you, these falls are impressive. They are not as high as Niagra, but they go on forever.

Pretty impressive huh? We will spend tomorrow getting a closer look.

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It's the getting there that sucks!

2011-03-21T17:09:00.001-04:00

Sitting at a restaurant in the Miami airport watching some basketball games. Have to pay for the Internet, that sucks. Oh well, we've got 5 hours to kill.

Had to trek all the way to the other side of the airport. My shoulder bag must weigh a ton. I had to lug a backpack that contains my helmet. Then I've got this other bag I'm carrying with all our 'stuff'. Mike carried it for a bit and said he was surprised that the thread still held together it was so heavy. He said he didn't know I was so tough!!! I need a massage after that journey.

We are now in Buenos Aires and have already changed airports. No one warned us but if you had an American, Canadian, or Australian passport then you had to pay $140/person to enter the country. They conveniently took American Express. Not to worry though, that fee is good for ten years. The flight over was 9 hours. Did I sleep? No. Am I irritable? Yes. Do I look like crap? Oh yes! LAN was the airline we flew. They are out of Argentina. Let me tell you, the foreign airlines are much better than the US airlines. The seats were better. The food was better. It was even served with real utensils and plates. There was free wine and beer!!!

This was the view from the airport. You can see the city in the background. We were told that about half of the population of Argentina (20 million) lives in Buenos Aires.

Local drink. It had a citrus flavor to it.

We flew into Iguazu Falls. Again on LAN and again they had free snacks and drinks. The airport was very small. Look at the picture of our plane on the tarmac, it's the only plane around.

Our tour guides met us at the airport and warned us to be careful with our skin, in other words, "my God, have these people never been out in the sun?".

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Week in Review

2011-03-13T17:50:00.001-04:00

So, since I can do my blog so easily with my Ipad now, I've decided to maybe do a journal of my week.

Monday:
Worked until 9:00 p.m. We had a Board planning meeting that started at 5 p.m. So, for the first 3.5 hours of the meeting I just sat there and tried to look interested. Thank goodness I was still there at the 3.5 hour mark. Now I'm watching a little bit of Top Gear until bedtime....10 p.m.

Bonus, I did stop by Burke Outlet (new to Statesville) and scored a nice top for $3!!!!!

Tuesday:
Work was no big deal. The big accomplishment for the day was getting the fantasy baseball ready to go. It was a hassle as I had to coordinate the schedules of four people. It was a bit like herding cats but it should all work out. Mike has already posted smack to Subweanie and she hasn't even joined the league yet. Should be fun but the goal of the Ford girls will be to have anyone win but Mike!!!!

Wednesday:
I still love Boston Rob. Still my favorite all time Survivor.

Thursday:
I HATE MY HAIR!!!! UGH!!!!!

Friday:
Another Friday trip to Wal-Mart and another opportunity for the Girl Scouts to accost me to buy some cookies. Listen kid the answer is the same this week as it's been the past 4 weeks, "no thank you". Now back off.

Saturday:
Finally took my bike to the shop to get some much needed maintenance. It should be good to go once I get back from vacation. Mike and I went to Charlotte for dinner and a hockey game. The Checkers lost but it was still better than sitting on my couch. Go Heels!

Sunday:
We are out of gas. That means no gas logs, no stove, no oven...no food!!! The neighbor's dog (who I love) peed on me and then I set my cell phone down in a little puddle of pee. Happy Sunday!

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Just Because I Can

2011-03-06T18:56:00.001-05:00

Just playing with my new blogging app. Isn't she adorable!!! I'm also practicing my typing. I'm trying to get quicker at using it like a real keyboard.

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Posting with the Ipad

2011-03-05T19:48:00.001-05:00

Attempt two

I had a nice long post done on attempt one that took forever to post and I lost it because I was impatient. So, I tried with a much shorter post and saved a draft before I attempted to upload. Now I'm attempting to edit the post. Let's see what happens.

Editing and reposting worked perfectly. I have discovered that you can't edit posts created with Blogpress from Blogger. You've got to go back to the app and then repost. No big deal.

Today I've made a lot of progress with my Ipad and it should be even more useful. I bought a camera connection kit and can now add pics directly from my camera to the Ipad. Yippee!!!!! Then I found this app!

I'm having to use this so I can add pictures directly from the Ipad to the blog. It is actually much easier to add pictures with this app than it is with blogger. So, I'm happy and will try to post more often.

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Day in the Park

2011-02-20T15:20:00.002-05:00

Saturday I went down to Rock Hill to spend some quality time with Samantha. I had wanted to see both Virginia and Samantha. Unfortunately, Virginia wasn't feeling good. So, hopefully next time I can see both girls. We went to a park near Susan's house while Joe taught a lesson. We'd hoped to see some ducks but I guess it's still too cold for the ducks. Samantha took it pretty well. She wanted to see the ducks but was quickly distracted by the swings. These were big people swings. I sat her up there and pushed her for a bit. I actually held on to the back of the hood on her jacket. I had a fear of her falling off. That's all I need!!!

That was fun for a bit then it was off to the playground. There was one play set and it had a little slide or you could crawl up a tube to a bigger slide. Samantha had the hang of the little slid right off the bat. She's slide down, say 'Again!!' and then go back to the steps to go again. We talked her into going up the tube to the big slide (it didn't take much convincing). This required Mom to climb up some impossibly steep ladder to get to the top of the slide to meet Samantha. Samantha needed a little help getting out of the tube. Then Susan would kind of lower her a little ways down the slide and then let go. Samantha was funny to watch coming down the slide. Her eyes would get big like she was scared but she loved it!!! She went over and over again. By the end she would sit at the top and slide down by herself. There was a four year old there that was too scared to go down the big slide. But not Samantha, she's a dare devil!!!! I couldn't help but wish I could go down the slide too!!

She was very cute and played very well with the other kids on the playground. You'll just have to take my word it as to how cute she was. I have no pictures to post. I took some cute pictures but had no memory card in the camera so the pictures are saved on the internal memory of the camera. This is all well and good but the cord that connects the camera to the computer doesn't work. So, since the pictures are not saved on a card, I can't use the card reader to get them to the computer. I think they are forever stuck on the camera. That's a big bummer!!!

After the park we went to meet Joe for lunch. Samantha surprised me as she knew where in town we were. She told Susan to turn into one shopping center because there is a restaurant she likes there. Then on the way home, as we got close, she said 'We made it!!'. She knew we were almost home. She is a very cute and sweet girl and she always makes me laugh. I love me some Samantha!!! Can't wait until I get to see her again.

Since I don't have any park pictures, this is a picture that Susan sent me. This is the Wild Child...

Happy 60th!!!

2011-01-23T16:35:00.006-05:00

Well, we are able to pull it off. We held a surprise party Friday night for my parent's 60th birthday. Their birthday was Saturday but we celebrated a day early. Getting everything set up was like a little covert operation. First, Susan arranged to take them out to dinner on Friday night with Samantha so the plan was initiated. She told them that her husband Joe was out of town. They left at about 5:40 for dinner. Little did they know that I was parked right around the corner just waiting on the word (or text as it were) from Susan. As soon as they left, the mad dash was on to rush in the house and get ready for the guests.

Joe showed up a few minutes later with most of the food. He and Susan cooked all day and did a fantastic job. Also, my mom's sister Annette and her husband Robert were kind enough to show up early as well. Thank goodness they did because I don't think we'd have been ready for the guests without the extra hands. So, we scurried around and were ready when the guests started arriving.

That's when things got a bit hairy. This was the part I was worried about the whole time. We'd (ok, I did the invitations) put instructions on the invitation to drive to the end of the street and we'd shuttle them back up to the house. We wanted to make sure that when the folks got back from dinner they wouldn't see any extra cars and get suspicious. Well, in hind sight, this was not the best plan. I should have told them to pull in the driveway so we'd know they were there and then we'd take the cars down. At about 6:35 the phone rings and it's Ms. Mauney, one of the guests. She said "Myra?" Nope, it was me and they were at the end of the street waiting for their ride. Don't know how long they were down there...oops!!! Luckily my parents friends are very good natured. They laughed it off and I told them that we had no clue what we were doing and they agreed.

So, everyone was at the house safely and we were awaiting the next text from Susan. It came not too much later that they were paying the bill. The house guests planned the attack (where to stand) and what to say. In the mean time we entertained ourselves watching a slide show of old photos that Susan and Joe put together. I'd never seen a lot of those pictures and it was very cool to see my parents so young.

We got the final two texts that they were in the neighborhood and finally 'here'. We turned off all the lights and were 'shhhing' everyone. While in the garage my mom heard 'something' inside the house and was worried that they were being robbed (as if). So, my Dad heroically told them to stay inside and he went in first (I'm sure we was just pandering to my mom). I'd say they were sufficiently surprised. We knew they had no inkling that anything was going on. Except for Mom hearing something, it was almost perfect!!

This was the cake. I work with a lady whose mom makes cakes. She made one for a baby shower at work and it was yummy. So, I enlisted her to make the cake for this party. It was the perfect size and she left a nice little spot for the candles.

This is the arrival. My sister took a good video of it and posted it on her blog. If you watch it you can really see that they were truly surprised!!

Shot of all the guests. Just about everyone we invited came. Mom and Dad have such a great group of friends. They've been friends for I don't know...20+ years. I hope I'm half as lucky as they are and am blessed with true lifelong friends!!

Not only are they good friends but they are serious nuts. They always have a good time together. They brought lots of gag gifts. Larry even re-gifted an old man cane that Dad had given him 5 years ago when Larry turned 60. Five years of waiting...that's serious dedication.

It took both of them to blow out all those candles!!!

Mr. Mauney in the floor playing with the grandkids. He got down in the floor a few times to play. He married all three of us. I think that is so special. I loved that a close family friend was able to marry Mike and I. He is such a genuinely sweet man. I hadn't seen him in years and he just has a way of making you feel like we see each other every day.

Thanks so much to Susan and Joe for doing so much work to pull this off!!!! I was so excited about the party as it got closer and closer. Thank goodness it wasn't a complete disaster!! I'm so glad that we did it and I think Mom and Dad really enjoyed it. Love you Mom and Dad!!!!

Happy Birthday Samantha!!

2011-01-17T17:28:00.004-05:00

Sunday we celebrated Samantha's 2nd birthday at her Grandma Judy's house. It was lots of fun. Samantha seemed to know that it was a special day that was all for her. She was sillier than usual.

Here she is opening one of her presents. She was cute because before she'd even see what it was she would get so excited about her present. She was pretty good at getting the gifts unwrapped. Her cousin Virginia stood right beside Samantha while she opened her presents. Virginia was so well behaved. She didn't try to help or take the presents. You could kind of see on Virginia's face that she wanted to jump in there but she didn't. It was very sweet!!

When they're together, they seem to be pretty good friends. Samantha likes to give Virginia hugs and kisses.

Mom and Dad got Samantha a tricycle. Virginia was the first on the bike and Samantha rode on the back. After some practice, I'm sure Samantha will get the hang of it.

Little Virginia is so cute. She loves balloons. She entertained herself by throwing the balloon up in the air. I have the cutest picture of Virginia from Samantha's 1st B-day party. Virginia's sitting in her car seat, sound asleep, with a balloon tied to her wrist. So, two parties for Samantha and two balloons for Virginia.

I just had to throw this one in there because this picture is a perfect example of Samantha's personality. Doesn't she just look so full of herself!! The kid is hilarious. Her mother is partly to blame. She's taught Samantha to say "See ya" instead of goodbye. It cracks me up.

It's been fun watching Samantha and Virginia both grow up over the last 2+ years. It's amazing the difference in their personalities. I predict that Samantha will be more of a handful than Virginia. Hmmm, just like their mothers!!!

London - The Highlights

2011-01-01T15:13:00.009-05:00

We left for London on Christmas night. I guess you could say this was our Christmas gift to each other. We got into London on Sunday morning at about 7:30. After a little nap, we were off to explore.

These pictures are a bit out of order but that's just too bad because I can't rearrange them easily.

Big Ben. Notice the ferris wheel in the background. This is the London Eye and is the tallest ferris wheel in the world. We took a ride on the London Eye and were able to get a good view of London.

Westminster Abbey. No pictures allowed inside. This place was something else. So much history there. So many people buried there. This was a very interesting and beautiful place.

Harrods. This is a huge store. It is also an expensive store. One thing London has is large stores. There was another store we went to, Selfridge, that took up an entire block and needed its own zip code. These stores are so big that people are standing around handing out maps.

This is an ancient Roman bath at, of all places, Bath. We drove there on our last day, Wednesday. This was a really neat place. These baths were around at about 34 AD!!! 34 AD!!!! And the lead lining at the bottom of the bath is the original lining. It was very neat to see all the well-preserved ruins here.

This was on Sunday in Green Park. We just walked around exploring. Sunday was Boxing Day and this is a national holiday and it is also a big shopping day. There were tons of bargain shoppers out and about. We did a bit of shopping ourselves.

Hyde Park at night. Mike tried Mulled Wine here for the first time. It was basically hot red wine. It was pretty good. We walked all around here trying to find a bathroom. One thing we learned is that London doesn't believe in a lot of public restrooms or trashcans.

Buckingham Palace. We saw the changing of the guards on Monday. There was a big crowd so we weren't really that close. I really don't know what the fuss was about. But, now I can say that I've seen it.

This is another out of order picture. Does something look odd about this picture? Yup, Mike is driving on the wrong side of the car. We took the Tube to Heathrow and rented a car. This was an experience but really Mike did a great job. There were only 3 curbings. Thank goodness for GPS is all I have to say. If we didn't have the GPS, we'd still be trying to get out of Windsor. Those round-a-bouts are tricky.

Tower Bridge. I LOVED this. This is iconic London. It is just so pretty. We got here right as the sun was going down, which is about 4:30 (London is farther North than you may think). We took a tour and walked around the bridge and checked out the engine room.

This picture would have been good except for...what's up with my hair!!!

St. Paul's Cathedral. There were no photos allowed inside but take my word for it, it was breathtaking. We walked up a ton of stairs to the top (well, almost the top) of the dome.

Windsor Castle. This is not very far from Heathrow and it was the first stop on our road trip. The Queen actually lives here part of the year. We had to go through metal detectors to get in. Again, no pictures allowed inside. It was very opulent and very hard to believe that someone lives like that. Talk about money!!!

Here we are again at the bath. Again, this would have been a good picture if only Mike was actually looking at the camera. We meet a native Londoner at Windsor Castle that lives in Texas now. He convinced us to go to Bath rather than Stonehenge. It was a very good suggestion.

Finally, this is Trafalger Square. Our hotel was right across the street from here. This is a gathering place in London and is within walking distance of Buckingham Palace, West Minister Abby, Big Ben, and Parliament. It is a good central location.

The weather was good. It was cold but you just wore your cold weather gear and you were good. It only rained one day but it really just drizzled off and on. Wednesday was overcast and foggy but it could have been much worse. I'd been wanting to go to London for awhile and it didn't disappoint.

We're Back!!!

2010-12-19T14:33:00.003-05:00

After at least a five year hiatus, we were back at VIR (Virginia International Raceway). Mike used to go there often to ride his motorcycle on the track. He hung that up a few years ago. Well his wild hair has grown back and now he's back on the track except this time it's in a car. We bought an old Porshe 911 right around Thanksgiving. The weekend after Thanksgiving we were up at VIR for his first track day.

This is an event were people bring their cars and right on the road coarse. There are about 4 different groups based on experience and ability. Since this was Mike's first time he had decided to have an instructor ride with him. There were all kinds of cars there with the most popular being Porshes, Corevettes, and BMWs. There were a few Mini's and Mustangs as well as some Mustangs. It was neat to see all the cars on the track.

Mike went up Friday night and I got there Saturday at about noon. Just our luck, it was cold as all heck. It actually snowed toward the end of the day on Saturday. I don't know if this was caused by the snow or not...

This was the only wreck of the weekend (a BIG difference between the cars and the bikes). This was a nice Viper. No one was hurt. There were some pretty serious drivers out there and this was one of the nicer cars. Sucks for him. As you can see, there is snow on the ground.

This is the scene at the end of the day on Saturday. Mike kept getting better and better as the day went on. I took my Jeep up there so I was able to drive around todifferent parts of the track and watch the cars. I took my Ipad and downloaded a stopwatch app and was able to track his time.

This was the scene at the track on Sunday morning. I bet not too many people have seen VIR with snow on the ground. It was very pretty. I drove around and took a few pictures before it melted.

It melted before too long and it didn't keep the cars off the track at all. Sunday was fun and Mike got lots of track time. I don't have the exact times but I think his time improved from 2:54 to 2:38. He only scared his instructor once!! The fastest car we timed did the course in 2:01!! Wow, that's fast.

Here's Mike's little car on the track. A lot of the other cars had more horsepower than him but his instructor said that with the setup he had he probably couldn't go much faster. We'll probably do about 3 track days a year. Nothing too crazy.

I'm Thankful For...

2010-11-28T09:30:00.005-05:00

With Thanksgiving this week, I thought is only appropriate to compile a list of the things I'm thankful for. In no particular order...

Sunday morning walks with the dogs (or, actually, it's usually just Foggy because Yana is too lazy to go).

Ice Cream - especially Food Lion's Strawberry Cheesecake, yummy!!!
DVR. How in the heck did I live without this invention for so many years??
Big bear hugs from my dad.
That my husband doesn't mind that I'm not a prissy girl.
My job
My bed. I looove getting under the covers at night. Ah, it feels so good!!
Yana. What can I say...she is a nutcase!

My electric skillet. Why oh why did I not buy one of these earlier in life??
Discovering Fantasy baseball and football.
That my sister Susan is a good sport when Mike mercilessly trash talks her Fantasy team.

Jack Reacher. Only the most bad ass character in literature today!
Short drives to work.
That my husband is my best friend.
XM radio
That Mike hasn't killed me while trying to type an email on that God-for-saken blackberry while driving.
Sports
The McRib
My patience. Just checking to make sure you're paying attention :)

Heated bathroom tile. Forget welfare, heated bathroom tile should be a government subsidy.

21. The E-Trade baby

Of course, I'm thankful for all my friends and family. It was good to see my little nieces on Thursday. They are funny, funny kids.

This Is How I Roll

2010-11-15T19:10:00.004-05:00

Pay back's a ....well, you get the point. It was time for some revenge on my co-worker, Ron. I don't know if you remember, but last Christmas we pulled a prank on Ron. We had all decorated our door for Christmas. We took his door off of the hinges and hid it. It was classic!!!

Well, Ron isn't one to roll over and just take it. In April, Ron (well, I believe he made his co-workers do it) filled my entire office with PE balls. There were exercise balls, soccer balls, footballs, beach balls, etc. I couldn't get the door to my office open. I have to admit, it was a good one.

I just waited until it was time. I had to get Ron back when his guard was down. Also, Christmas is just around the corner so I needed to remind him that you don't mess with Finance!! John (my co-worker) and I tried to stay late one night. We went to dinner and got back at about 6:15 and Ron was still at work. We had to abort the mission. Then, a few weeks later, I stayed until about 5:30 and we was still there again. Does the man never go home??? So, that was it. I decided to just come in one weekend and make it happen.

This is what Ron found on the outside of his door last Monday morning:

This is what he found once he opened the door to his office:

Pretty impressive huh?? I'll tell you, a 200 yard roll of plastic wrap will go a long way. Just to top it off, there was final piece to the prank. We have a meeting every Monday morning. Everyone sits in the same chair. So, I plastic wrapped that chair too. I left him a pair of scissors sitting on the table in front of his chair. It was great. Everyone, including Ron, was impressed.

Now, I know that my time will be coming. I just don't know when or where. I do know that it will be an all out war during this year's Christmas door decorating contest. I'll be accepting suggestions for my next prank because I need all the help I can get.

Keeneland

2010-11-07T19:24:00.003-05:00

Last weekend, Mike and I left work early on Friday and we were off to Kentucky. Let me just say that I love Kentucky. It really is a beautiful state. I love all the horses and the horse farms. People love to tell you that some Shak has a house and horses there. Someone told us that Queen Elizabeth has a house there and that she keeps her brood mare there as well. We went to pick up a motorcycle (surprise, surprise). We got it Friday night so we were able to ride it around a bit on Saturday morning. We just explored some back roads around the Frankfurt area. It was a bit chilly but the scenery was worth it.

It just so happened that it was the last weekend of horse racing at Keeneland. We'd never been to a horse race before. We do love some dog racing, so we figured we'd like the horse racing too. It goes without saying that horse racing is a much more refined sport than the dog racing. The race track at Keeneland puts the dog track in the parking lot of the Daytona Speedway to shame. We didn't know what to expect. There were a lot of people there. Some were dressed like us (in jeans) and then others were dressed up fancy.

This is the outside of the track.

This is the inside of the track. We paid a little extra to get a reserved seat. You could stand down by the rails but you really couldn't see too good. We had a good view of the entire track, the finish line and the tote board (so we could watch the money roll in). Just like the dogs, you can place $2 bets. We started off strong (beginners luck).

Notice how you can see the horse farms in the background.

These are the race horses being led to the starting gate.

And they're off....

We had fun watching the races. Our only complaint is that it took too long between races. There was about 30 minutes between races. So, you'd have about 2 minutes of racing and then 30 minutes of down time. During that down time, we'd walk down to see the horses that were about to race.

They'd walk them around these old oak trees. You could look at the horses and pick out the winner before you place your bet. If you were someone of importance, you could be inside that area and be up close and personal with the horses.

Then the jockeys would mount the horse and walk past the crowd, under the seats, and out onto the track.

We left before the last races but it was definitely worth doing.

Sitting Dux

2010-10-31T15:29:00.012-04:00

After much anticipation, trash talk, and no preparation what so ever, the Sitting Dux made their dodgeball debut on Tuesday. I sent out the all call to my admin co-workers to form a dodgeball team and only one, Kelly, answered the call. She recruited her 9 year old daughter, Quinn. Three down, three to go. Dale Fox, the 57 year-old Driver's Ed coordinator was my next recruit. He ended up being our ace in the hole. He recruited our other two players - Scott and Josh, two P.E. teachers and members of the district softball team (I think).

This is the team...

Pretty intimidating huh??!! Check out the two younger guys, Scott and Josh, on the back row. I met them for the first time at the game on Tuesday. Wow, they were way too over-qualified to play on the Sitting Dux. Sorry guys!!

We go in the gym and we find out we're the 7th game. So, we have six games to watch and learn. Well, actually, what Kelly and I learned was that we were scared. This was serious business. These dudes could hurl a dodgeball. I had envisioned PE class dodgeball that I played at Robinson Elem. You know, everyone get in a circle and throw a rubber kick ball at the people in the middle. Well, like most things, dodgeball has come a long way since then. Now, you play with small, light weight balls and each team is on opposite sides of each other. One thing Kelly and I knew for sure, we didn't want to be the last person left on our team.

Our team was up and we hadn't even talked strategy. This was going to be bad. Each game has a 3 minute time limit. Here we go...

This is the dash to the balls at the beginning of the game. Notice how we sent the 9-year old to get one of the balls and I'm nowhere to be seen. That was my strategy. All I can say is I have no idea what happened from there. I couldn't even tell you what the other team looked like. Balls were flying every where. It was utter chaos. I had no dilutions of grandeur. I just tried to stay in the back and not get hit. There are two things that I do remember vividly. First, Dale hit some guy right in the crotch. Secondly, one of our big dudes had the shot of the tournament. I looked up and right in front of me, the young kid on the other team took a bullet dodgeball right to the face. He went down like a ton of bricks. Go team!!! Mike said that the guy on our team, Scott, that hit the kid threw it harder than anyone he'd seen so far.

Check out my cat-like agility. Doesn't our team look like we mean business!!!

An action shot. These guys would get a running start and then hurl that little ball. Scott is getting ready to unleash on someone. This could have been the face shot for all I know.

Anyway, back to the game. It sounds like all is going well, right. A crotch shot and a face shot. What more could a team ask for?? I'll tell you what, two actual players rather than two lamo girls that sit behind a desk all day. Well, that's what it came down to. Two lamo girls were all that remained of team Sitting Dux. Before I even knew what had happened, I sense that it's me and Kelly left and one other person from the other team. If Kelly and I had even half a brain between us, we'd have just moved back and tried to out last the other team until time ran out. Then we'd have won. But before I knew it, Kelly was hit. Then, my worst nightmare came true. It was just me and this other dude in a stand off. I looked up and there was 43 seconds left on the clock.

I'm in the middle of the gym with all eyes on me. God, this sucks!!! I don't hear my team giving me any words of encouragement. Not that it would have helped any. I had such a rag arm. I couldn't throw those little balls to save my live. I didn't want to just lob it over there because then he'd catch it and I'd be out. So, I tried to keep it hard and low. I had two balls and he had two balls. I gave him a fake throw, he flinched just a bit. Then I let loose on him. Not even close. It wasn't long until I was hit. Game over. Dodgeball over. Team done. It was one and done.

Check out our cool shirts though. Thanks to Dawn, John and Kathy for the shirts. If nothing else, we had the coolest team name and shirts. If those three guys would have had anyone else on their team, they'd have gone far. As it turned out, the team that beat us won the whole thing!!!

Well, we learned some valuable lessons this year and we'll be back and re-tooled for next year. Although, I think word will be out about my athletic inability and it'll be even harder to recruit for the team. I doubt that Scott and Josh will want to be associated with the Sitting Dux next year. I'm going to get me one of those little dodgeballs and start taking aim at the dogs so I'll be prepared for next year's tournament.

http://iss.schoolwires.com/southhigh/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=511262
You can go to this site to see a video montage of the event.

Mr. & Mrs. Mull

2010-10-17T12:42:00.006-04:00

Our niece, Asheigh, got married this weekend. We used to tease Ashleigh that she just made up this supposed boyfriend of hers. Jason, her now husband, was always 'working' whenever Mike and I were around. Well, I guess she showed us. She went and married this fictional boyfriend. Asheigh is a genuinely nice, sweet, caring young lady. Jason seems like he's a good guy who loves Asheligh very much. We, of course, wish them never-ending happiness.

The wedding went off without a hitch (as far as I could tell). Ashleigh looked beautiful, as always. The family did surprisingly well. I just knew there would be lots of waterworks but everyone seemed to hold it together. Ashleigh and Jason seemed to be enjoying themselves and didn't look nervous at all. The kids in the wedding party were entertaining but didn't steal the show.

Ashleigh and Jason drove away from the church in a very cool classic Mustang.

They actually just drove around the block and came back to the church for pictures.

The light is bad but this is Mike's parents and the proud grandparents.

The proud father of the bride.

The happy couple leaving the church to a shower of bubbles. Of course Mike splashes Ashleigh with the liquid from the bottle rather than actually blowing bubbles. At least he didn't hurl the actual bottle at them.

Ashleigh trying to stuff her dress in the car. I don't know if you noticed, but Jason is a rather tall fellow. He looked a bit cramped in the car too.

The wedding party. There were 8 attendants and six kids. WOW!!

This cutie was a 'miniature bride'. She wore a mini replicia of Ashleigh's dress.

Heard While Watching the Cowboys Game

2010-10-10T17:43:00.014-04:00

In addition to the never ending 'updates' on how his fantasy team was pounding my underperforming, sorry excuse for a fanstasy team, I got to hear the following:

We had to watch the game on mute because of a certain announcer who will be named later:

"The officials gave the Titans 14 points!!"

"Phil Sims is a dumb ass!!"

He emailed CBS to complain that Phil Sims is a dumb ass.

"The officials only call penalties against the Cowboys!!"

"If they overturn this call I'm throwing something at the TV!!"

"It was the officials fault that we lost to the Redskins!!"

"He can run for Miles and Miles and Miles". A not so clever reference to Dallas receiver Miles Austin.

"Phil Sims is a dumb ass!!"

"I'm gonna stop watching football."

And my personal favorite:

"Break him in half and then jump on his face!!!"

The Mother Land

2010-10-02T11:14:00.010-04:00

Last trip post!!! We left Banff and headed back to the States. On the road to Idaho, four rams crossed the road right in front of us. We'd never seen these before on any of our travels. We'd been seeing signs warning about them but had yet to see any. We pulled over and did a little stalking. It was exciting because they didn't care about how close we got. They crossed back across the road and climbed a bit up the rocks. They just stared at me as I took pictures.

We stayed the night in Spokane, Washington. This was my first time in this state. We got up the next morning and heard some brief weather report that mentioned there was a wind advisory. Didn't really think anything about it. Well, we sure were thinking about it as we made our way to Seattle. This was hands down the worst time either of us has ever had on a bike. We've ridden in rain, snow, heat...but this wind was horrible. It was actually scary at one point. I've never really been scared on the bike before either. I've ridden on the back of sport bikes at track days and haven't been scared. This wind would literally move the bike around. We pulled over to take a break just before we crossed this bridge.

It was a very slow drive the rest of the way to Seattle. I was sooo glad to finally get there. We spent two days in Seattle.

We didn't go up in the needle because it cost $18 a person. What a rip off!!

This is the waterway in downtown Seattle.

This is the famous Pike's Place Fish Market. It was kind of hard to find. It reminded me a bit of the markets in Morocco.

There were lots of vendors selling flowers. They were very affordable. A bundle like above was $5-$10.

We watched what looked to be a homeless guy play chess with someone else. They were really good. It was just a neat thing to see. You don't see that in downtown Statesville.

We flew home from Seattle. It was a great trip with everything from the remoteness of Alaska to the big city of Seattle. I can't wait for our next adventure.

McBride to Banff

2010-09-19T19:41:00.005-04:00

I know, I'm getting tired of the vacation posts too. I'm almost done and since I just don't have the creative energy for any more scrapbooks, I'd at least like to document out trip through these lame and boring posts.

I actually have pictures from this day's ride. We had not originally planned to go to Banff but had extra time so we went. First we went through Jasper National Park. It was overcast so that was a bummer. Then I lost the ticket we bought to get into the park and thought we were going to have to pay twice but the sweet ticket taker took pity on us and let us by without a ticket. I love Canadians.

We hit our third province on this day.

Jasper was really beautiful but like I said it was overcast so I didn't get too many good shots. We did pull over at this waterfall.

Of course I get up there and my camera runs out of battery (which happens quite a lot, I think it's the constant turning on and off). So I had to trek back to the back. When I return, this is the site I see...

Yeah, that's Mike. Climbing up to the waterfall. Wait, it gets better...

He still has his helmet on!!!! What the #$%^!!!! He looks like a Power Ranger. I think he scared all the kids away. I don't know why he was acting so silly. So, from this embarrassing moment on, any time we stopped to take in the sites, the helmet stayed on!! Super fun!!

Lake Louise was in the area so we made sure to see it. No pictures posted though. This is a ritzy place with a Fairmont (very expensive hotel, google it). I really didn't see what the big deal was. So, then we were off to Banff. Banff is not but maybe an hour from Lake Louise and it too has a Fairmont hotel. We met a nice couple in Lake Louise who were from the area. They said that Banff has a lot of Asian tourist. They said that when times were good companies in Japan would send their executives and their families to Banff as a treat. Sure enough, there were lots of Asians in Banff.

This was just a random shot along the way.

We get to Banff and it is pretty small but a nice place. Below is the Fairmont they had. Just for kicks we stopped to ask about the rooms for the night. I think they were starting at over $400. We passed. This hotel is over 100 years old. We decided to try a bed and breakfast. The place we stopped was full for the night but the owner was so nice. She gave us a brochure of the B&Bs in the area, recommended one, and let us use her phone to call. She even gave us cookies too!!

We stayed in a ladies basement for $100 that night. It was very nice. B&Bs are the way to go. She was just outside of town but we could still walk into town for dinner.

This is the Fairmont in Banff.

This big fella was right in town. There is a river in the middle of town and he was just grazing by the river. Obviously hunting is not a big tourist activity in Banff.

This is where we had dinner this night. Mike was going to buy a shirt but they only had extra large.

Our next stop is our last...Seattle!!!

South Hazelton to McBride

2010-09-05T21:08:00.005-04:00

This will be a quick post. Today was a day of nothing. We needed to get a new rear tire. Mike made arrangements to get our tire changed in Prince George. The catch was we had to buy the tire from one store and take it to another store to get it mounted. So, I had the honor of holding a tire on the back of the bike. Luckily it was a very short ride.

While coming through town I noticed an indoor Curling Rink. I was super excited. We were mesmerized by the curling at the Olympics. I mean we would tape matches!!! So, I was determined to do some curling of our very own. We found the number and I called to see if they were open to the public. Well, long story short, the girl I talked to thought I was a dumb tourist. Duh, curling is a winter sport!!! Well of course I know that but the rink was indoors for goodness sake. I think they could have ice during the summer since they're indoors. My curling dreams were crushed.

While waiting for the tire I spotted this sign across the street. It was the most interesting thing I'd seen all day so a picture had to be taken.

So, we're off with a fresh tire. It was still pretty uneventful.

This is Mike trying to fish a dead bird out of the bike. I can't remember when the bird got lodged in the bike. While we were at the dealership Mike proceeds to tug on the bird and just ended up ripping it's tail feathers off. We had no luck with the bird and best I can guess, the bird is still lodged in the bike. We didn't disclose this fact upon selling the bike to some unsuspecting fella. I bet he's wondering what that smell is???

We stopped in McBride. They had some pretty flowers at the hotel. We ate at the restaurant the hotel had. It took for freaking ever to get our food. But luckily once it arrived it was pretty good.

Not much to see today.

Deese Lake to South Hazelton

2010-08-30T17:48:00.008-04:00

This was one of my favorite days. Today we went to Hyder, Alaska. For about the past week we've been in Canada. Hyder, AK is on a little spit of land that is Alaska but it is only accessible from Canada. From Hyder you can't get to another US town, you can only get to Canada. That's pretty weird to me. I would think that the currency would be a pain.

This was a random horse standing in the road. There were signs about free range horses. You don't every day see a horse standing in the middle of the road.

This takend when we stopped at a little rest stop.

As you get close to Hyder, you can see glaciers along the roadside.

Once we got to Hyder (and crossed the border, yes there were guards and the whole works) we were starving. The only place open was The Bus. They cook inside a converted school bus. They had the best food!!! I had a shrimp sandwich. That was a neat place.

We really were low on gas but we didn't get gas before we got into Hyder. Gas was back across the border in Canada. We didn't want to go to the hassle of going back across the border so we decided to brave it. While eating we talked to a fella that vacations there every year and he said we needed to drive along this dirt road and climb up into the mountains to see the Toe of the Salmon Glacier. It was about a 20 mile ride. We figured we could make it.

We hadn't got very far from our lunch stop and right on the road, just around a corner, was a bear walking right toward us!!! Mike stopped the bike and we didn't know what to do. The bear growled at us, turned around, and finally walked off the road into the woods. Thank goodness because bikes don't go in reverse!!

This is the only picture I got of it. But I think it's kind of cool because you can see the pad on the bottom of it's foot.

So, we drove on up this road. It was a gravel road that went up a mountain. It was a slow go but it was worth it. It was so beautiful!!

We finally made it to our destination and it was a spectacular view. We were told that we could go farther along the road and get a look at the glacier from the back side. We would have, but we had no gas.

We made it back down the mountain. Mike turned the bike off and coasted as much as possible. I'm still not sure if he did that because he thought he needed to or if he just thought it was fun.

Hyder is known for it's bear watching. When the fish start to swim upstream, the bears flock to the stream. They've built an overlook just along the stream. Apparently, at the right time of the year, you're guaranteed to see a bear fishing. We were a few weeks early.

This is the sign leading into Hyder. I took this picture as we were leaving.

This is a picture of one of the glaciers on the road leading into Hyder. I took this as we left. WE just picked a town and found a hotel and stayed for the night. We've learned to not make reservations on these trips because you just never know how the trip will go. Our friends we'd met the day before saw us at the hotel and stopped too. Apparently we'd gotten the last room. That was the last we saw of them as they were headed back to Idaho. I hope they made it home safe.

This was a really good day!!

Whitehorse to Deese Lake

2010-08-22T19:05:00.005-04:00

Our next stop was supposed to be Watson Lake but we knew we could make it farther than that. So the night before we just found a random place, Deese Lake, a little farther down the road and made reservations. As we were leaving from Whitehorse, we talked to some other bikers that said they were told not to stay at Deese Lake. Oh well, I guess we'll see what we're in for.

Today the road was much more scenic than the previous day and we finally saw some wildlife. First we saw one bear. Then, just a little ways down the road, we saw a mama bear and her two cubs.

That was very exciting. They were just so cute and were your typical babies. They were playing around and just having fun. Then they'd realize that mama had gotten a little bit from them and they'd hurry to catch up. We watched them for a bit.

That's one big mama!!

This is the Signpost Forest at Watson Lake. It's a little redneck stop along the way. It actually is a must see. It goes on forever. We actually found a sign from Kings Mountain and a street sign that looked to be from Charlotte. It was Statesville Ave!! How about that...we're from Statesville!!

We made it to Watson Lake by lunctime. It was a good decision to go a little further down the road today.

This was a sign at the start of the Cassiar Hwy. We were headed to Hyder, AK. It was across the street from where we eat lunch. While at lunch, another couple drove up two-up on the same kind of bike we had. They were about our age. It turned out we were headed in the same direction. We didn't ride together but we saw them for a few days in a row. It was kind of nice to have some riding buddies.

This is where we stayed in Deese Lake. There was nothing to worry about. It was actually the best place we'd stayed so far (other than Wiseman) and it was the cheapest. We had a very nice room for $86. The main house had only 5 rooms (I think). There was another building that had about 4 more rooms. If you stayed in the house, you got a continental breakfast. There was a restaurant across the street. We decided to just walk up the road to a little grocery store for dinner and just bring it back to the room. The hotel had a common kitchen area that we could use. While looking around at the grocery store I noticed a good example of just how expensive food is up here. A half-gallon of Breyer's Ice Cream was $12!!!!

Today was fun and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The Cassiar Hwy looks really promising!

Dawson City to Whitehorse

2010-08-09T20:23:00.003-04:00

This day was not the most exciting of days. I really can't remember much about the drive. So, that being said, here are the pictures...

This was taken at a little pull off we stopped at to take a break.

This cute little structure was a visitor information center.

We stopped at a little store to take a break and saw these little fellas. We'd seen them for a few days but this was the first opportunity to get pictures. We hadn't seen too much wildlife so far, so we were easily excited.

Also at this stop was this adorable horse. Notice the little sign. I wanted to pet him so bad and he seemed to want to be petted but I had to obey the sign. Sad!!

We stayed in Whitehorse. This is the biggest town in the Yukon. We stayed at a Westpark, which is a chain of motels in the Yukon and BC. The hotel had a Vaudeville show. Mike suggested we get tickets, I think because he could tell that I hadn't had the most exciting day. It was actually very entertaining.

Fairbanks to Dawson City

2010-08-01T17:52:00.004-04:00

The 'adventurous' part of the trip is over, more or less. The majority of the rest of the trip is on paved roads.

This morning when we left out it was raining. That was a bummer because I'd wanted to visit North Pole, Alaska, which is right outside of Fairbanks. For obvious reasons, this town has a Christmas theme. But since it was raining, we didn't stop. We did see a bit of the town from the main road and all the light poles were painted red and white to look like candy canes. I'm sure it would have been a neat little tourist trap.

We saw these mountains from a distance. We made it up the Dalton and back with no real fear of running out of gas. Our first day off the Dalton and we had some gas worries. We were cruising along and then I realized that Mike had slowed down considerably and I knew what that meant. He was trying to conserve gas. I always have a fear of running out of gas so I tried to stay calm. Just when we thought all hope was lost, we see a gas oasis ahead. Our problem wasn't the miles between gas stations, it was the headwind we were riding against that day. That really hurt the gas mileage. Anyway, we got gas and a mental breakdown was avoided!

There were many sandy hills with lots of little rocks and stones along the road. People had taken the rocks and written messages on the hills. There were tons and tons along the roads.

The road did turn to dirt for the rest of the day. On the way to Dawson City, we went through Chicken, Alaska. This town was originally a mining town. There are maybe 4 year round residents. They have no running water and the mail is delivered via plane twice a week. Chicken is a bit of a must see if you're in that area. They have made the most of their unique name and had a restaurant, salon and tourist shop. It is also an RV Camp and had many campers. It was a neat place and we were looking forward to seeing it.

Downtown Chicken

One guess what this is...

After we left Chicken we eventually made it to the Canada border. This was a very remote crossing. Even though it was remote, the Border Guard was very serious. Anyway, we crossed the border while on the Top of the World road. Even though it was a bit overcast, it was still very scenic. This road did seem to go along the top of the mountain range forever and ever.

We knew we had to take a ferry to get to Dawson City and were getting worried because the road never seemed to go down the mountain. It did finally descend just before you got to the river. The ferry is the only way to get to the town from this side. I guess you just don't get there from this side during the winter. The ferry ride was only like seven minutes.

Dawson City is also an old mining town. The city is an historic site and all the buildings are still pretty much original. It looks like an old town you'd see in a western movie. We didn't have any reservations but found a like hotel. It rained a bit that night too so we didn't get to look around the town too much that night. We got up the next morning and walked around and found a bakery to get some breakfast.

Deadhorse to Fairbanks

2010-07-26T18:48:00.004-04:00

Yeah, that's right, we went all the way from Deadhorse to Fairbanks in one day. That wasn't the original plan. We'd planned to stay in Wiseman again but we'd gotten an early start. Part of the reason we'd started early is because I miss-read my watch and we got up at like 5:30. I watched a bit of the Wimbledon final and then we got started. We were in Coldfoot by about 1:30 so we decided to just go all the way to Fairbanks. This gave us an extra day on the trip to play with. There was already one extra day built into the itinerary so now we had two extra days.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It was right outside of Deadhorse. It was a small body of water and it's hard to tell where the water ends and the sky begins.

Here I am on the pipeline. There are many signs that say not to climb on the pipeline. I decided it was worth the risk...not too many cops along the Dalton!!

This was Atigun Pass. Mike wanted a picture of how the guardrail has taken a few hits over the years.

Trust me, that brown blob is a grizzly bear. Well, it was definitely a bear of brown color. I'm going with Grizzly!

Here's my sweetie...after we'd conquered the Dalton.

The ride to Fairbanks was pretty long. We got in about 7:30-8pm. It rained a bit on the way back. We stopped to get some lunch/dinner at the Hot Spot (at the Yukon Bridge). It was yummy. We met a nice guy from London that was riding his bicycle. That's right, I said a bicycle. He'd been to Deadhorse and was on his way back to Fairbanks. Could not imagine!!

Wiseman to Deadhorse

2010-07-20T18:45:00.005-04:00

After a good breakfast, we were off to the end of the Dalton Highway. The day started off good. The weather was nice and the road was still good.

This is just a picture from the road. You can kind of see the pipeline on the right of the picture.
This is a view as we went over Atigun Pass. This Pass is always made out to be very dramatic for the Ice Road Truckers. I'm sure it is tough when the road is covered in snow and you're driving an 18-wheeler, but it really wasn't too tough. It may not have been tough but it was really pretty. In fact, the scenery along the entire road was very pretty.

You can see the pipeline a bit better in this picture. It's on your left here. It would switch from one side of the road to the other. Sometimes you'd go over the pipeline on a bridge. Other times, the pipeline would go underground and pop up on the other side of the road.

We didn't see too much for awhile. After we got over Atigun Pass, it got really foggy. You really couldn't see much of anything. I bet there was a herd of muskox right along the side of the road and we missed them!!

It did clear up eventually. We stopped for a lunch along the side of the road. Contrary to what you may have expected, the farther north you went, the worse the mosquitoes got. As soon as we'd get off the bike and take our helmets off, the mosquitoes would converge. We didn't get bit because we'd brought OFF with 98% deet. This is a picture to try and give you an idea as to just how many there were (look closely). During our lunch break I had the pleasure of using a shrub as a restroom. Luckily I'd had the forethought to bring some TP just for this stretch of the road. There was one outhouse close to Coldfoot but I didn't have to go then!! So, I can just imagine the mosquitoes on my tush as I went to the john!!

As we got closer to Deadhorse, the road became pretty slippery and tough to drive on. Road crews were putting down fresh...stuff, don't know for sure what you'd call it. We got right behind the machine that was putting it out and it hadn't been scrapped across the entire road yet.

This is the work crew. We did at one point get stuck on the right side of the pile. That stretch wasn't too much fun.

This is a pretty sad picture of Prudhoe Bay.

We did finally make it to Deadhorse. This is Mike getting gas. I like the gas pictures because you can see the quite unique gas pump.

Just to prove it, this is the bike in front of the famous sign at the Deadhorse General Store.

This was our room at Deadhorse. The hotels are expensive because you have very limited options. This little slice of heaven cost $190/night!! These were originally housing for the pipeline workers. It appeared that the oilfield workers stayed here as well. Not only was the decor excellent, the smell was to die for. The whole place pretty much smelt like pee. Oh well, what are you gonna do? We did have a bathroom in the room and surprise, surprise...a TV!

The only option for dinner was the buffet offered by the hotel. This too was expensive. It was $20/person. That night was Mexican night. It wasn't too good. The cafeteria did have a very large TV and it was showing the NASCAR race at Daytona!! That was kind of humorous. All the way at the top of Alaska and we're watching NASCAR!

This was a fun day and was just exciting being there. We didn't actually see the Arctic Ocean. I know, I know, we went all that way and didn't even see the ocean. If you want to see the ocean you have to take a tour of the oilfield. We didn't plan on doing this but inquired about it once we got there. You have to allow 24 hours in order to clear security. Apparently many a tourist has tried to sabotage the oilfield?? We decided to pass.

Fairbanks to Wiseman

2010-07-17T20:14:00.006-04:00

This was the day that the trip really began. This was the reason we were on this trip. Mike wanted to ride the Dalton Highway. A road made famous, or semi-famous, by the show Ice Road Truckers. I think the road was always famous among so called adventure riders.

The road starts not far north of Fairbanks. The road is about 500 miles of mainly dirt. It's final destination is Prudhoe Bay or Deadhorse (much cooler name). There is only gas three places along the route with the final gas stop before Deadhorse being Coldfoot, which is 24o miles from Deadhorse. This distance is no problem for a car but it would be close on the bike.

We didn't really know what to expect and were hoping for the best. We planned to ride to the halfway point of Wiseman. I've got lots of pictures...

This is Mike getting gas after lunch at the Yukon Bridge. You can see how dirty the bike already is. It rained that morning.

The road ran parallel to the Alaskan Pipeline. You can't see it in this picture but I'll have pictures later. I thought seeing the pipeline was pretty cool. The road was better than we expected and at some points Mike was able to go as fast as 70mph. There wasn't too much traffic (as you can imagine) but it did have more traffic than I imagined it would.

Here we are crossing the Arctic Circle. Alaska had people stationed there to take your picture.

This was the bike after our first day on the Dalton!!

We stayed in Wiseman. The hotels are pretty expensive and are kind of dumpy in Coldfoot and Deadhorse. Mike had heard that we should stay in Wiseman, which is 18 miles north of Coldfoot. We had to mail a deposit to Igloo #8, so I wasn't sure what we would find when we got there. As you can see from the above picture, we were not disappointed and definitely came out better than staying in Coldfoot.

This was one of the highlights of the trip. Wiseman is a very unique community. I'm not sure how many people live here but I'm guessing about 15. There are a few houses. The family operates a bed and breakfast. Their home is on site and the guests stay in one of two guesthouses. One house has two rooms and a shared bathroom. The other (ours) is a cabin unto itself with it's own bathroom. It was very nice.

The family was very unique and friendly. The mother was from Munich, Germany and met her husband (from Wiseman) while he was on vacation in Germany. They have two children I'd guess to be 12 and 10. The family used solar panels and generators for power. The kids are obviously home schooled as the nearest school is over 250 miles south in Fairbanks. They had 4 huskies that they tie to themselves while cross county skiing. I couldn't imagine living this life but they truly seem to love it!!

This is a moose leg. Each dog had a leg to gnawl on. They said that they try to kill about two moose each year. They of course eat the meat.

This was just a short walk from the house in Wiseman. It was beautiful.

They were having 24 hours of daylight while we were there. You'll have to take my word for it but this picture was taken at midnight. It was pretty weird. You'd just pull the curtains and try to sleep.

This picture isn't clear but I love it. One of the dogs was very jumpy around people. We eventually became friends. She even rolled over and let me rub her belly. She was a sweetie!!

I was very leery of this part of the trip but was pleasantly surprised.

Anchorage to Fairbanks

2010-07-15T20:37:00.004-04:00

Mike and I just returned from this year's vacation. Mike talked me into riding a motorcycle up the Dalton Highway in Alaska. The rest of the time we explored Canada. We went to the Yukon Territory, British Columbia, and Alberta. We ended in Seattle. Mike tells me that in 14 days we drove about 4,700 miles.

The trip was very nice and we luckily had good weather (mostly). These pictures are in reverse order of what I intented. I'll have to fix that problem on the next post.

We got into the hotel in Anchorage at like 5:30am East Coast time or 1:30am Alaska time. Got up after a descents night sleep and went to pick up the used rental bike we purchased. The shop recommended that we take a slight detour on our way to Fairbanks. They suggested the Hatcher Pass. This was a dirt road and it was beautiful. It was a very good recommendation and got the trip off to a good start.

Mike tried to ruin that good start by losing our tank bag after a gas stop. Upon realizing the bag was missing we retraced our steps and couldn't find the bag. We went back into the gas station and no one had turned it in. There was another gas station just a short distance up the road so we stopped there too. By some miracle, they had our bag!!!! Someone saw it drop off the bike and thought we'd come from that gas station. They took the time to stop and turn the our bag into the store. What a super nice thing to do!!

I think this is on the way to Fairbanks.

Hatcher Pass

Hatcher Pass

And we're off...this was the cleanest the bike would ever be!!

Mountain peaks as seen from the plane.

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T18:27:00.004-04:00

We visited our respective Fathers this weekend. Both nieces were at Dad's house on Saturday. They were very cute together. Virginia gave Samantha a big hug!! Very sweet. Dad was teaching both girls bad habits, they were jumping on the bed (not Dad, but the girls). It was good to see everyone.

The proud Father with all his ladies!!!

Virgina on the horsey.

One of my favorite pics. Samantha saw the camera and this is the face she came up with. The girl is hilarious!!

We visited Mike's Dad today. They'll be heading down to the beach for a few days this week. Unfortunately, Mike's sister's beach condo burned down this week. Luckily no one was there and no one was hurt. Mike's folks are going to go down and survey the damage.

It was a busy weekend visiting the family. Happy Father's Day, we love you!!

Wicked Weekend

2010-06-13T19:09:00.003-04:00

We went to see Wicked this weekend. I loved it!! It was only the second Broadway show I've seen. The other was Little Shop of Horrors, which, coincidentally, I saw at the Little Theater in Gastonia as a kid. So, I've actually seen that show twice. Anyway, the set was amazing, the actors were amazing and the story was unique. It put a different spin on the Wizard of Oz story. I can see why it is such a nationwide hit. Mike, of course, was not as enthused as myself. He said it was torture. I really don't see how anyone could say it was torture. I just asked him if he was ready to see the next show in the Broadway series coming to Charlotte (Mary Poppins) and he asked me if I were crazy. I may have to make this my yearly anniversary request if I want to see anymore shows. Even then I doubt I'll be able to get that every year. If anyone is going to a show, let me know, I'm not afraid to be the third wheel!!

Happy Monday

2010-06-07T20:20:00.002-04:00

I just love love love this song. Billy Currington is underrated!! This is a feel good summer song. Turn up the volume and enjoy.

P.S. Ignore the complete strangers in the video and enjoy the music.

Wastin' the Week Away

2010-06-06T20:01:00.003-04:00

Some final pictures from St. Louis. Some actual ballgame pictures, just to prove that we did go to some games.

This week was pretty uneventful. The highlights:

Discovered the wonderous product that is Oxiclean. I 'oxicleaned' some white capri's that I love and it dutifully removed the stain.
Got my haircut slightly different...not a single person noticed the difference.
Played Mike in Fantasy Baseball this week. It's close as of right now, but I did do something that no one else has accomplished to date. I beat him in stolen bases!!
Had to go to Wal-Mart on Saturday instead of Friday. Everyone knows that I don't like to get thrown off my schedule.
Presented a schlorship on behalf of the SECU Foundation at Statesville High on Tuesday.
Mowed the grass. This has become a weekly occurance. You're welcome Mike!!
Watched my fair share of the Women's College World Series. Sorry to see Hawaii lose.
Started reading the latest Lee Child book. So far so good.
Will probably turn my other book back into the library unfinished. It's just not that good. I'd avoid checking out 'The 24th Letter' if I were you.
Took the dogs for a walk and nearly killed Yana. She literally fell out at the house and I hosed her down with a refreshing shower from the garden hose.

This week is shaping up to be just as exciting and entertaining as the previous week. I am looking forward to seeing Wicked on Saturday.

Right now we're watching Ice Road Truckers. We're doing 'recon' for our upcoming vacation. We'll be riding on that very road the first of July.

Have a nice week!!

St.Louis - Part II

2010-05-30T16:30:00.004-04:00

We saw the Angel's lose Friday night's game. The St. Louis pitcher hit a grand slam. Needless to say, it was a long game.

Saturday morning we decided to take a long cab ride to Grant's Farm. We weren't planning on going but heck, how often will we be in St. Louis? Dad recommended that we check it out. It was another interesting cab ride. This cabbie was in his 70s. He had lots of opinions as to what's the matter with America these days. I'd have to admit that we agreed with most of what he had to say.

Grant's Farm is also owned by the Busch Family. This was also free and of course...free beer!!! This was a farm owned by Ulysses S. Grant at one point in time. I can't really remember how it came to be in the Busch Family. It may have been through a marriage. Anyway, you take a tram ride through some of the farm and you're on the lookout for some free range animals.

Then they dump you out at the mini zoo. They had an elephant, kangaroos, monkeys...etc. The best part was the baby goats. You could buy baby bottles of milk for $1 and then go in the pen and feed the baby goats. These goats were old pros at attacking the tourists with the milk. The meaner goats would literally ram the smaller goats out of the way. If they weren't drinking your milk, they were trying to eat your clothes. We really enjoyed this. We tried to find the smaller, punier goats to feed.

This farm also had some Clydesdale's. There were even some adorable babies. I read something that said most of the Clydesdale's are born in Montana. Anyway, this was a fun little trip to fill the time before the 1:15 game.

This would have been a good picture if not for the 'dust' particles that the camera picked up.

As promised, a baby Clydesdale.

Beer Garden at Grant's Farm.

Can't you see why this was so much fun?? How adorable!!

St. Louis - Part I

2010-05-23T19:40:00.007-04:00

This weekend we went to St. Louis for our annual baseball trip. We usually go to Baltimore to see our beloved Angels. However, MLB didn't keep the usual Angels weekend trip to Baltimore so we were forced to go to St. Louis. We flew in on Friday and saw the Friday and Saturday games. The Angels lost Friday and won Saturday. Which is what usually happens on our trips. I don't think that we've seen them ever win both the games we've gone to see.

Since we got there early on Friday we went to the Anheuser Busch Brewery tour. You can't go to St. Louis and not visit the home of the King of Beers!! We took a cab and meet a really nice cabbie from Iraq. He educated us all about how Iraqis raise pigeons and have pigeon races - don't know if I believe that or not.

Anyway, the tour was free and they gave everyone (21 or older of course) two free beers - yippee!! This place was amazing!!! The brewery sits on 100 acres. Granted we only saw a small bit of the facility. The enormity of the place was unbelievable. They took you on this tour and you were able to see how the beer is made. I thought that the neatest thing was the bottling facility. We really enjoyed this tour and did I mention we got free beer!! (I really don't like beer, but it was neat.)

This beautiful place is actually a part of the working brewery. I can't remember what part of the process happens here. That cool chandelier was purchased during the World's Fair - which also brought us the Arch.

You can't visit the brewery and not see the Bud dog!! He was wondering around the stables that housed some Clydesdales (of course). This dog was well behaved and stayed behind the ropes. Just like Yana would do!!

Just look at all those bottles of Buds!!

This is the building that housed the bottling operations. It is massive inside.

Another pic of that really pretty building that was a part of the brewing process - again, not sure what part...but it was pretty.

Just a neat sign.

Interesting fact: The first time that the Clydesdale's were hitched to a wagon was at the end of Prohibition. They told us that they delivered a beer to the White House for Roosevelt.

Interesting fact: They said that the Midwest consumes the most beer.

If you're in St. Louis, you gotta visit the brewery. It was a very well thought out tour and what can I say, Bud knows how to promote their product. Mike had a Bud Light Lime for dinner on Saturday.

American Idol

2010-05-17T17:31:00.002-04:00

The Twins' hometown kid is staying anchored to home.

All-Star catcher Joe Mauer and Minnesota completed an eight-year, $184 million deal, a contract which will inevitably be hailed within baseball as an example that teams like the Twins do have a chance to keep their homegrown talent.

The deal, which includes a full no-trade clause, ranks in scope with only Alex Rodriguez's 10-year, $275 million contract and Derek Jeter's 10-year, $189 million contract.

Mauer is generally regarded as the American League's best player and may be baseball's most coveted player, given his unique set of skills. Mauer, who turns 27 next month, already has won three batting titles and two Gold Glove Awards, and last year, he began to hit for power, posting a 1.031 OPS.

It took a realization on all sides that Joe Mauer had to be a Twin, forever and ever to make this extension happen. If Mauer had become a free agent in the fall, he probably would have been the most coveted free agent since Rodriguez reached free agency after the 2000 season. With the use of total free-agent leverage, Mauer might have commanded a deal for something in the range of $250 million in the fall.

But all along, Mauer -- taken by the Twins' No. 1 overall in the same year that Mark Prior was eligible for the draft -- indicated a desire to remain with the Twins in his hometown of St. Paul surrounded by family and friends. It appears that he will play his entire career for the Twins.

The above was summarized from an ESPN Magazine article. I just wanted to come clean about my growing obsession with this little cutie. What a good guy he is!!! Who couldn't love a nice young guy who choose loyalty over making a few extra million bucks. He'll be making $184 million vs. a possible $250 million had he tested the free agent market. For once, someone with some sense realizes that $184 million is plenty of money to live a pretty descend life.

He grew up in Minnesota, was drafed by the Twins, and will play his whole career as a Twin. What a story!! In today's day and age of free agents and following the money, he is a breath of fresh air. I've heard nothing but good things about him and he's an athlete that you can actually have your kids look up to. Not to mention he's my #1 player on my Fantasy Team!!!

Mother's Day Weekend

2010-05-09T21:20:00.005-04:00

I must apologize right off, I have absolutely no pictures of any mothers to post!! I know, I suck. We were pretty busy this weekend. First we went to Taylorsville to have a cookout to celebrate our nephew's fiance's college graduation. Joni has worked really hard and we are very proud of her. Now, let's keep our fingers crossed that she can find a teaching job.

The boys played horseshoes. Mike wasn't half bad but his dad was the real pro!!! I was fortunate enough to be on his team. We smoked Keith (my brother-in-law) and Mike. It was embarrassing.

An action shot!!!

Sunday we went to Gastonia to visit Mom for Mother's Day. We went to their favorite local place for lunch...Milanos. It was busy, of course, but we didn't have to wait too long. Lunch was good. Susan, Joe, and Samantha came by at about 2pm. Samantha was a hoot as always. Check out the cute pics.

The next biker in the family!

She was funny playing with this toy. She would really slam the balls back in the hole. Pretty funny!!

Doesn't she look innocent!!!

It was good to see the family this weekend. We enjoyed our time with both families. I hope all the mother's had a great weekend!! We love you all!

Poor Little Yana

2010-05-02T17:39:00.002-04:00

It started out innocently enough. About two weeks ago I noticed a little pink knot on Yana's back. Over the course of the next two weeks, the little pink bump got bigger and bigger and it just wouldn't heal. It didn't hurt her and it didn't appear to itch. But it was just gross so I decided to take her to the vet on Tuesday. I left her there and they called and said it needed to come off. They really didn't know what it was. They said it could be a round cell tumor or a mass cell tumor. I think it was a cyst. We'll never know. I decided to not have it tested.

When I picked her up she looked just like the same ole Yana, except for the wrapping around her body. I didn't feed her as much that night and she knew it. She barked and barked until I figured out she was still hungry. So, after getting more food, she was satisfied. The rest of the week she acted like nothing was the matter.

The stitches come out on Thursday. She's a trooper and is just too cute!!

This is the wound.

How can you not love that face!!!

Another Week of Nothing

2010-04-26T20:11:00.003-04:00

Well, again, another boring, run of the mill week. I find that it's time for my weekly blog post and I don't have any material, pictures, or interesting stories. I did finish a good book - Once a Spy by Keith Thomson. I also saw a good movie "Sunshine Cleaning". I watched it via NetFlix over the internet. I gave it 5 stars. For some reason I got really weepy over the movie. It was also another week of not a phone call from any family members. I'm beginning to wonder if I've been excommunicated from the family. I guess I'll break down and lose the stand off and call Mom once I get done with this post. I'm taking Yana to the vet tomorrow. She's had this nasty, disgusting sore on her back for almost two weeks now. It doesn't hurt or itch her but it just won't get any better. It just seems to be getting slowly worse. I hate to go to the vet for something totally unnecessary, but I think it's time to go. I had a miserable week on Fantasy Baseball. I lost 2-7-1. My childhood hair band hero, Brett Michaels, is in the hospital for a brain hemorrhage...get well soon Brett!! I put a bird feeder out last week and not a single bird has graced it. Birdseed doesn't go bad does it?? I filled the feeder up with seed that's at least two years old. Ok, I think I'm done typing what ever comes to mind. Until next week...

Just Random Stuff

2010-04-19T17:18:00.005-04:00

Didn't really have much going on last week so I guess I'll just ramble on about random things that happened last week...

First, I need to show you how Mike fixed his drippy bathroom faucet. First, how a normal faucet should look

Ok, next, Mike's sink after he 'fixed' it...

Notice anything a little off about this picture?? The handles are in the off position but are not in the 'normal' off position. In his defense, the sink does not leak anymore.

I had ordered an outfit from my new favorite catalog (Chadwicks) and was excited that it finally came. It was some leggings and a long shirt/dress thing. It looked really cute in the catalog. I tried it on and Mike asked me if it was a maternity dress!! Not quite the reaction I was going for. Needless to say, it's going back.

I've decided that I need to do something about my lilly white legs. I bought a bottle of Jergen's Natural Glow. It is supposed to enhance my 'natural glow'. I hope I don't end up some gross orange color. If I do, I will not be posting a picture of that.

I was sitting outside on Friday night on my lawn talking to my neighbor and playing with her dog. In doing so, I felt a bump (on the dog, not me). It was a tick. My neighbor proceeds to just rip it off with her bare hands and then squish it to death. I was a bit shocked!!

Mike and I put out some mulch on Saturday and my neighbor's little girl, Kassidy wanted to help. I asked her if people call her Kassie or Kassidy. She said "You can call me Kassie as long as it's Kassie with a 'K'." We said, oh, we were saying Kassie with a 'C'. (funny)! So, she spread mulch and then helped me wash the dogs. Nothing like a little child labor to help you get through your Saturday chores (right Mom and Dad!!).

Finally, I'm obsessed with my Fantasy Baseball team. I check my results as soon as I get home everyday. I can't check at work (which is actually a good thing). Once I've set my line up, I talk about how my team is doing constantly. Mike is not pleased. He said he wished we'd never done it because I'm annoying. How long has he known me?? Shouldn't he know by now that I'm a bit obsessive compulsive!!

That's all...maybe I'll have something interesting for next week...but kinda doubt it.

Weekend Getaway

2010-04-11T19:06:00.007-04:00

Mike sprung a nice surprise on me on Thursday. He wanted to take a weekend trip to Tellico Plains, TN. We took the bike. I did not take mine. Three reasons: 1. It was a long trip (we rode 480 miles on Sat.) 2. I wasn't so confident of my skills on tight mountain roads 3. Sometimes it's nice to just hang out and take in the sights. I hope to take my bike on our next little excursion. I'll never get better if I don't practice. Mike will just have to pass a few hundred less cars when I'm along.

Anyway, we rode on some really, really nice roads. We rode Hwy 143 in NC and it was Hwy 165 in Tenn. It was a pretty popular road with bikes and fast cars. The scenery was great and would be spectacular in the fall once the leaves have changed. Many of the leaves in the higher elevations had not come in yet. This went through the Nantahala National Forest. There were already some kayakers braving the cold water.

I knew Mike must have wanted to go there because of some dirt roads. And sure enough, we road on some nice dirt roads (except for a few potholes here and there). We needed the practice on dirt roads for our upcoming vacation to Alaska.

We stayed the night in Murphy, NC. The next morning we took Hwy 64 and it again went through the Nantahala National Forest. This too was a nice road and it would also be great when the leaves change colors. We saw some great waterfalls. This road went through Highlands and Cashiers. We turned off 64 onto Hwy 215 and this was really nice also. All in all we had nice weather and got to see some pretty scenery. It was a really nice weekend getaway. I hope to go back in the fall.

Enjoy the pics...

Bald River Falls in Tellico Plains, TN.

Hiawassee Dam in NC (our could be GA?) - don't get dizzy looking down. We saw this because we decided to take a side road into Murphy because we were stuck behind some slow traffic. It was a good detour.

View from the top of the dam.

We came across this waterfall on Hwy 64 outside of Highlands, NC.

This was just up the road from the previous waterfall. I thought this was pretty neat.

Random lake

Dirt road near Indian Boundry Lake in Tenn.

Covered bridge near where we eat lunch at Tellico Beach.

Hwy 143/165

Just picture how nice this would be with the leaves in full color.

Well, that sucked!!

2010-03-29T21:12:00.002-04:00

Well, Sunday was a wash out. After many years, we were headed back to Martinsville for a race. I was looking forward to it. Martinsville never disappoints. Well, up until now. I knew it wasn't a good sign when we checked weather.com on the drive up and there was a Flood Warning issued for Martinsville. Needless to say, it was rained out.

I even bought a JPM hat and was excited to embarrass Dave (our friend that went) by wearing it. We put on all our rain gear and walked to the track, in the rain. We set in our seats, in the rain, and watched them dry the track. It actually stopped raining and the track was getting dry. I did have a bit of hope...until it started to rain again. We gave up hope and hoofed it back to the car. At least I got home in time to watch The Amazing Race. Oh wait, I couldn't watch The Amazing Race because crazy Eric Thomas had to keep breaking in to give us an 'update' on the weather. Thanks Eric, but I think I can remember what to do in case of a tornado. I don't need to be reminded every five minutes. I can even remember it today...1. get out of a mobile home. But don't do it in a car because #2 is don't be in a car!!!

I took a few pictures at the track but just didn't feel like uploading them. I'm pretty sure they sucked anyway. I could have gone back today but just didn't feel like trekking back up there and parking in all that sloppy mess. It's just as well, I would have been disappointed at the outcome.

Totally off the subject, but I heard the most disturbing song on the radio Saturday morning. It was a duet with Brett Michaels and....Miley Cyrus!!!!!!!!!! Ugh, gross me out!!! It was creepy!!! Brett, that was not a good career move. It just screams desperation. It was just wrong on so many levels. I still get the 'gross me out' chills just thinking about it.

It's About Time

2010-03-21T17:18:00.002-04:00

After living in the house for about 15 months, we figured it was about time to get some landscaping. I took a few pictures so you could see how it turned out. We were pretty pleased.

On another note...we've been putting out deer feed right outside of our fence. The deer have been enjoying their nightly snacks courtesy of yours truly. Well, it may not have been such a good idea to put the food quite so close to the fence. As we were looking out of our living room window yesterday evening, we noticed that two of the spindles of our black aluminum fence were bend in toward the yard. This was right where the deer food is. As we investigated further, we noticed, almost directly across the yard, another set of fence spindles pushed out toward the unfenced portion of the yard. It would appear that a deer (probably a baby) got into the fence, ran across the yard, and then proceeded to get out of the fence. Needless to say, the deer food has been moved away from the fence. I would have taken pictures, but luckily Mike was able to bend the fence back into place. Wow, we really bought a sturdy fence huh!!

Enjoy the landscaping pictures!

Old As Dirt!!

2010-03-14T19:18:00.002-04:00

Yup, Susan is old as dirt!!! Ok, not quite, but close. Saturday was her 30th B-day. As a gift, I got her some essential items for those in their 30s - Depends, Hemorrhoid Cream, and a nice housecoat. She was appreciative. I think Sam liked the box they came in more than Susan liked the items in the box.

Susan and Joe invited the crazy Fords to their house for dinner on Saturday. Sad huh...Susan had to throw a party for herself! We're slackers, what can I say. Unfortunately, we were a few short. Kathy and Virginia couldn't come because Virginia has RSV and is contagious. Mike decided to stay home because he had a stomach ache. So it was just me and Mom and Dad. Joe and I spent some time railing against stupid people and some against educators (sorry Mom). After my angry venting session, I was ready for dinner. And boy was it good!!! Joe is a dang good cook. We had yummy Chicken Enchiladas. As Joe said "They stick to your ribs!".

After dinner we had a Wii bowling tourney. I tried to teach Sam to do the international Loser Sign to Dad. I beat him down in bowling!!! Then I made Joe drag out the Wii Fit board because I'd never seen one. That was some funny, funny stuff. What can be funnier than cheering for your Dad's Wii character to get whacked upside the head by a virtual soccer cleat?? Not to be outdone, the Wii Hula Hooping game was a knee slapper. Mom said she needed the Depends because she was gonna wet her pants laughing at Dad. Susan was just down right sad at that game. It was disgraceful.

It was fun times!! Happy Birthday Sis!! You're still young at heart and that's all that matters!!

I Couldn't Figure It Out Myself

2010-03-09T18:47:00.003-05:00

I started the 'Dead Ant' song myself and I couldn't figure out what it was (even though I thought I did).

It all started when Mike said "Come see this dead ant!" I was of course tripping all over myself with excitement to go see this dead ant. For some reason, I just started singing:

Dead ant

Dead ant...you get the picture!!

You know when you do something or say something and it's just hilarious to, well, only to you. That's how the Dead Ant song was. I just was tickled with myself for being so witty so quick. I had a good laugh at my own funny self. Mike, however, didn't find it too funny. I told him it was the theme song from Jaws, duh. I proceeded to sing it all day. Then, I had an epiphany, and realized it was not the theme song to Jaws, it was the theme song to The Adams Family, duh. I told Mike it was actually the Adams Family song and he didn't argue.

Then, I posted the Dead Ant song on the blog and come to find out, it's actually the theme song to the Pink Panther. Somehow, that made it even funnier!!! I crack me up!!! Mike said he knew all along it was really the Pink Panther song (err, the muscial score) but didn't tell me since I was so dumb to not know the song - twice!! Again, I just giggled at my dumb ass self!! It's still funny actually!! I've now started to sing the Dead Ant song every time I do something stupid, which seems to happen pretty dang often.

Can you figure it out???

2010-03-07T19:07:00.002-05:00

Repeat the following out loud:

Dead ant

Dead ant

Dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant dead annnt

Dead ant dead ant

What does that remind you of???

Ode to the Winter Olympics

2010-03-02T20:04:00.004-05:00

We really enjoyed the Winter Olympics this time around. We watched pretty much every night. What we loved most of all was...Curling!!!

Once you figured out the rules and realized all the strategy involved, you couldn't turn it off. For instance, what weight should be thrown? Should they throw the draw, just peel, or try to freeze to the shot rock?? If they have the hammer, should they try to blank the end?? If the other team has the hammer, should you try for the force. It's all about getting your stones in the house. But you don't want to put the stone behind the T-Line. And of course, you've got to guard the house. If you've got a good Skip, you're golden.

We'd sit and watch for hours. We'd check the TV schedule and make sure to catch the matches. If we were not going to be here, we'd tape the matches. We didn't want to miss a moment. Some may say that Curling is boring. As one girl at work put it "I'd rather watch grass grow." I'd beg to differ. What could be more exciting than watching grown men and women slide down the ice on one slippery shoe and sweep like their lives depend on it.

I think Mike and I are going to freeze water on the driveway next winter and have a little Curling tourney of our own. Only 4 more years until my Curling needs will be met again.

Carolina Adventure World

2010-02-22T20:02:00.005-05:00

My last post was about buying dirt bikes. So, naturally, this post is about riding the dirt bikes. Mike just couldn't wait until the weekend, so he went by himself to ride on Friday. He went to Carolina Adventure World in SC. We'd never been there before. He left me a funny (to me anyway) message on my phone Friday while I was at work. He said, "Well, I rode for about 20 minutes. Then got my bike stuck in the mud, couldn't get it out. Had to walk for probably 1 mile before I found someone on a 4-wheeler. He pulled me out. Then my bike wouldn't start. He pulled me (riding the bike) behind the 4-wheeler. Then we crashed...that hurt!!." Side note: I just saw a new E-Trade baby commercial...those are brilliant!!

Anyway, that wasn't such a successful outing. But it has been 6 years since we last rode. So, we both rode down on Sunday to give it a shot. All I can say is, I didn't kill myself. It wasn't for a lack of trying though. My bike and I did not get off to a good start. It was idling too high (reeving too high). That didn't do me any favors. Then, I forgot that I shouldn't use the clutch on the downhills because I don't get any engine brake. Long story short, I was going too fast downhill. I had a run-in with a tree. The tree won. I hit the handle bars pretty hard, but did learn that the chest protector is a valuable piece of safety equipment. I knocked the wind out of myself and my ribs hurt like hell. After Mike decided I was going to live, he had a jolly ole time mocking me. It wasn't so funny though when he couldn't get his bike running again. We had to leave his bike on the trail, take mine across a creek to get back to the road to the parking lot, and ride two-up back to the car.

After lunch, we went back to retrieve his bike. Luckily it started. He finally remembered the trick to keeping his running and we decided to give it another shot. I have to admit, going back out on the trail was not on the top of my list of things to do. However, Mike fixed the idling issue, I remembered not to use the clutch in the downhill, and finally (and most importantly), I went very, very slow!!!! There was more dropping of the bike, but that was much better than a sudden stop by way of a tree!! The trail was very very muddy and rutted out. It wasn't my favorite course. I made it harder on myself by going so slow. I had to really muscle the bike around a lot. Next time, yes, I'll risk life and limb again, I'll be more confident.

Today, my neck is really sore, my ribs are in pretty much constant pain, and my left thumb is sore and bruised. My ribs kinda feel like you have a swimmers cramp all the time. What could be more fun huh?? Take a look at the bikes after it was all said and done...

Oh yeah, but first, a good picture of Foggy I found on my camera.

Valentine's Weekend

2010-02-14T19:47:00.013-05:00

Mike and I went to Atlanta for a romantic weekend. We had a candlelit dinner....YEAH RIGHT!!!

We went to Atlanta to pick up a dirt bike that Mike bought. Yup, that's right. We're back in the dirt bike riding business. I've got a bigger bike this time around (not bigger than Mike's, bigger than the bike I had a few years ago). I hope this doesn't cause my wrecks (there will be many) to result in any serious injuries (there will be non-serious injuries for sure). Should be fun!!

We had some snow on Friday night (see below) so the roads were a bit touch & go. We had two scary slides. But after about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, it was smooth sailing. Since we were going to Atlanta, we tried to make the best of it. We went to the Aquarium and World of Coke. After the World of Coke, we were walking back to the Marta Station and decided to stop and eat at the Mellow Mushroom. We didn't spend a lot of time in Atlanta, but we really had a nice time. It was a nice Valentine's weekend after all.

This was the backyard Saturday morning.

Road in front of the house. Kathy said she had 5 inches. We live 1 mile from her and had about 3 inches. We've had this discrepancy before. I know she showed a ruler but I still have my doubts...anyway.

It was tough to get good pics through the thick, really scratched plexi glass. But here's a few shoots. The Aquarium was really cool. It is advertised as the largest in the world.

We made a last minute decision to go to World of Coke. It was right across from the Aquarium. It was actually pretty neat.

At the end of the tour/museum, there were soda fountains set up for each area of the world. This picture is from the Africa station. There were 64 different sodas. We tried them all, except for the USA flavors. Some were good, some were pretty gross. By the end, I felt disgusting!!!

Just because I figured out how to use the video feature of my camera:

Deer...Finally!!

2010-02-07T10:34:00.005-05:00

After many attempts (we all remember the peanut butter nailed to a tree), we've finally gotten a glimpse of some deer in the yard. We've been putting cracked corn out and they've been eating it. Susan also got us some Deer Feed for Christmas and they really seem to like it.

Well, they actually came out during the day. Mike was home and had the dogs in the basement. The dogs had been in the basement most of the week because of the snow. So, the deer were probably feeling safe coming up to the fence during the day. I was not home to witness the visit but Mike was able to get some good pictures for me. There were three here at one time. He wasn't able to get all three in one picture though.

But first...a picture of a blue jay (I think) munching on some corn this morning.

OK, trust me, there are two deer in this picture.

I know you can see the deer in this picture.

Aren't they just adorable!!!