Or As I Like To Call It.....Ode To A Rest Stop

I knew that the NC Department of Transportation was adding another rest stop on US 17 north of Vanceboro, but I was shocked and saddened to see they closed the old one between Vanceboro and New Bern. Memories........................I'm not sure how long it was open but it seems as though I remember that place all of my life. Always a good potty break coming from Rocky Mount, and I still used it and it still smelled the same...........calm down, easy, easy, easy; the state must have bought the same disinfectant spray all of those years. A real throwback, but the new one looks like easy access. Speaking of easy access, I remember.................nope, not going to tell that story. After I bought the current iron horse I stopped there one night coming home from her first service in Chesapeake VA, by that time it was dark and February cold, so I stopped and ran warm water over my hands before the last hour of my nighttime adventure. I stopped there really late one night to relieve myself and was propositioned by a nice young lady on the way to the car. I behaved, yes, hard to believe, felt a lot of pity for the young lady and went home. Funny ending to that story was the following weekend when a relative, well actually an in-law..............nameless, asked "how much did she want for that?" Sorry, dark sided humor, go figure.

We'll see if this ever loads.................

It didn't and I'm tired and hungry and looking forward to 5 hours of dance recital tomorrow. Screw it, anyone know how to transfer from Handbrake to Youtube, or how to get the video into Handbrake, or......nevermind, more pictures.

Elizabeth isn't the first equestrian to hang with the Riley family:

Guess who? No one named Riley can answer.

Not sure who this kid is but I'll bet he is a Riley

Actual picture taken today from the back of a Chrysler minivan, the preferred minivan of zombies.

We had a great weekend, watched some racing and were all on the boat over the holiday. All of us behaved, the weather was nice but unfortunately did not catch any fish.

In VA and NC this week, working in SC and NC all next week. Might try and catch a fish Sunday if the weather will oblige. 

Welcome Dingbatters!

The Memorial Day weekend is upon us; I went out for some errands late this afternoon and watched as four cars ran the red light on Harbor heading South. They pulled out onto US Highway 24, the fourth car in line had a driver who I thought was recording these near-wrecks on her phone, seems as though she was merely texting. OK, I'm never in favor of more laws but let's go ahead and banish driving while distracted. That means phone, food, makeup in the mirror, fooling around with the 500+ channels on the radio (yes I know I'm guilty of all of these, wait, not the makeup thing), drinking your $5.00 iced coffee.........I mean everything. LEO sees you doing anything but driving, pulled over.Where's Ralph Nader when you need him? Later I sat through three green turn lights as people slowly pulled away when the light turned green. Why slowly? Because we, ahem I mean they were all looking at their handheld devices. Seat-belt laws made people use them, ban handhelds while driving! OK I'll stop.

Here's what TS Ana looked like:

We were fortunate. 

I forgot to tell you that when I was in Charlotte I looked for Tiger, never could find him. His game is so poor right now I think he spends a lot of time in the woods.

60 years old, and looking every bit of it. In Philadelphia and Hershey among other places this week, not my most productive week but I do enjoy that part of the country. My great-grandfather did a little soldering up there about 150 years ago, and I always heard they (that would be us, as in the South during those recent unpleasantries)  got there and didn't like it...in July 1863. I love it in that area. I wasn't able to go to Gettysburg this time but I enjoyed Hershey.

Got home a little late last night, the prop from Charlotte to New Bern decided to let most of the line of thunderstorms get in front of us before we came in. I was sitting in the #1 row, no, not first class, the seat that faces aft and I got to experience turbulence backwards. Fortunately I didn't throw up, I threw down but that's another story for another time. But here is the funny part, when we landed we had to sit in the plane because airport officials said there was too much lightning in the area for us to walk to the terminal. As the guy in front of me (remember I'm facing the stern) said" "ironic ain't it?" That vodka/tonic tasted a little better than usual when I got to 28557.

And speaking of psychos something has been bothering me lately. A couple of weeks ago I was in a hotel room, yes, most of my stories start that way........and I couldn't sleep.......another standard I know; anyway I turned on the TV and watched a couple of episodes of Bonanza on some network that only has ads for walkers, wheelchairs, stair-climbing wheelchairs, 911 dialers, tubs with doors, where was I? Oh yeah, they skipped right past the boner medicine into another age group completely. But I did enjoy watching the Cartwright family move from one dilemma to another. But after I went to sleep I thought about it, I just watched them kill a whole bunch of bad guys, then slap each other on the back and eat supper. (Michael Landon on Johnny Carson when Johnny asked if any of the Cartwright family was gay: "No none of us was, but fortunately Hop Sing was") Again, where was I? Oh yeah, hell Ben killed at least five one night by himself including his "friend" whose wife was hot for some of that Cartwright gold. No moral conscience? And this was 1960's family television brought to you by Chevrolet.

I'm done, it's 7:25 PM and Jackson, Elizabeth and Daisy are on the way, there's bacon and sausage to grill and two pounds of shrimp to steam. The weather looks good, I hope we are going to try for cobia tomorrow.

15 Minute Post

Been hustling all week capped off by over-sleeping (what? You're kidding!) this morning, but not to worry I have some leftover stuff from last week you might find amuuuuuuuuuuuusing:

A rider flew off the course, a split second later SWMBO wasn't smiling

 I missed sink o de mayo

 Inside Hoover Dam, always impressive

 As is the great American west scenery, still want to ride the bike out there one day

Video of my finger, and the Colorado River as it cranks back up under the dam, never did find the dam gift shop, I wanted to buy a dam t-shirt

 Birthday dinner at Benihana, always a good show and good food to boot!

 Daisy is learning tricks, she's trying to disprove Dink's analysis

In VA, DC and MD this week, I love making branch calls when you walk in and give the local customers a method to help move that heavy inventory they just unloaded at the back door. "I'm here to help"

And late Thursday night into Charlotte to take a new distributor to the PGA event. My new/old rep Justin has invited me since the first one here many years ago, I've only missed a couple through the years. We always have fun, entertain some customers and see a lot of familiar faces. Charlotte really knows how to do this thing. 

And as I entered my room last night I saw this old friend, I've always been confused with the endless possibilities of "what if?" But I obey the rules, you know Nietzsche said without order there is total chaos. No quotation marks there since he didn't really say that, but was incorrectly quoted in Blazing Saddles. "Oh blow it out your ass Howard," now that's a quote!

PA and NJ next week including a day at NAOHSM, home in time for Memorial Day.

Too Much To Absorb

It has been a very busy time; we arrived in Las Vegas last Friday, spent the entire day Saturday at the race track, Hoover Dam Sunday, show setup Monday, worked the show Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, broke the show down Thursday night, saw Jeff Dunham Thursday night........I'm tired just thinking about it.

Racetrack:

Cooper Webb wasn't able to race Saturday night due to a high ankle sprain during practice but we were able to spend some time with the champion and his family. The race was great, they put on an exceptional show and we were very entertained. The crowd was very young, lots of ink, and very well behaved. 

Supercross racing is short and very intense. I saw this on one of the YamaLube bikes, the team owner told us the riders are so focused as the race starts that they need this reminder:

Before the race we saw some stunts, I've really got to get busy learning some new tricks on my bike

Too bad we missed the greatest fight ever Saturday night (insert eye roll here)

I've eaten so  much good food this week; Benihana, steak, Italian, oh, did I mention In-N-Out? I need to run home to burn some calories. The Dunham show was funny, you get lost in the show and forget to look at what the ventriloquism art is all about. A slight of hand magician entertained us with tricks after dinner Wednesday night, and we were amused and entertained early Friday morning by two young ladies trying to make it back to their room; seems as though one bought a dress that was a little too short. You know it's eye-catching when people in this town turn and stare..............

Lots to do in a very short weekend, most importantly Keelyn's birthday in Sanford Saturday. VA/MD next week, but first a reminder:

Yes I'm ready, got a couple of weeks to go but I am ready.
Oh I forgot, guess who I saw in Nevada? Come on, guess. That's right:

Oh Well, Little Late

Got pretty busy before we left town today so here we are in NV. This is what I wrote many many hours ago, about 6:00 AM EDT.

It's now 12:10 AM EDT, we just got to the hotel after a quick In-N-Out dinner. Let's see, where were we early this morning:

FN Uploads

It's Friday morning and I've been trying to get one little clip posted on YouTube or on this blog, still trying. My upload speed is 55 mph If it gets through, here's what an exciting fishing trip looks like: lots of boredom and 60 seconds of exhilarating fun. SWMBO might add something here:__________

And by the way last weekend was a bit of a bust. The weather scared us off Saturday but we had a feast Saturday night regardless. Sunday was iffy but we went. Fortunately the trailer disengaged from the truck as we entered the parking lot, I saw fortunately because if it had been a little later the trailer would have been in the water. Seems as though I thought the straight receiver had a 2" ball on it....it didn't. Could have been a lot worse though. The day was rather uneventful, we caught some fish but not what we were looking....Virginia mullet. Luckily we had a nice seafood dinner anyway....shrimp.

Lewis Hamilton in a vintage Silver Arrows, on one of my favorite race circuits, Monza! 

Happy birthday to all of those young ladies with birthdays, including our granddaughter who is now engaged!

So in my close to be 60 years here's my advice:

Believe in yourself.

Be an adult, people will remember how you act in a crisis, anyone can steer the boat in calm seas.

Love the Lord and treat other people better than you want to be treated.

There you have it, so long. 

Off to Las Vegas in a few minutes, we're ringside for the fight tomorrow night. JK we are going for the national hardware show and since it's my birthday we're going out a little early. Tomorrow we'll be at the Supercross watching local Cooper Webb close out his national championship. Should be fun.

And that is about all I had to say 18 hours ago. Good night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!