peachy just peachy

Well, really it's a "peachoid" ~ now who's ever heard of a peachoid  (that by the way, is a different link than the first, and perhaps this is the better link).  A peach pie, peach jam, peach cobbler, peaches and cream, just peachy but seriously - peachoid?  Well, once again, I don't make this stuff up.

As I do believe I mentioned earlier, we were headed to Gaffney, SC for the chassis maintenance and Sir Richard was going to chassis school ("Camp Freightliner) to learn all about his chassis ~ oh yeah ~ while the maintenance was being performed over a day and a half (Sir and I have a different tale for a different post for our time during that day and a half - later tho).  So Gaffney is just Gaffney ~ don't really know what to say about it ... depressed old town.  Surprisingly there is an "outlet mall" there and Freightliner is a major employer there, in fact I believe it is the major employer.  We once asked a waitperson there why they thought Freightliner would chose to locate there and the answer, not surprisingly, was "cheap labor" ....

The Freightliner service center is located on a side street off a fairly busy highway through town, in a rather new development with a community college campus (very small campus - one building) at the end of the road.  There is a pond near the campus that we take Sir to sometimes (also, that is where the peachoid photos were taken).  

While Sir was getting some smeggy water play I was enjoying the landscaping around the building - I'd never seen a magnolia blossom or bud up close ~ WOW

They are just beautiful - they petals are so "thick" and smooth.  The blossoms are quite large - five or six inches in diameter ~ just gorgeous.  Isn't that a "neat" photo below of all the spent stamens in the petals!  I gave myself a pat on the back for it!

Huh, Why, What, Why Why, Why???

A photo taken by my son Chad, four years ago, of his nephew, my grandson ~ Master Connor, when we were all in CA to celebrate Connor's first birthday!

Anyway, I refer to the photo above as "Pondering" Chad refers to it as "The Thinker".  

With all that said - I've been pondering several things lately myself ~ such as ....

1.  How is it that Mr. Clean Magic Erasers truly work and do what they claim to do?   I couldn't clean a house (38' or otherwise) without them ~ especially the bathroom and/or kitchen area or these damned stupid blasted off white leather front seats - how the heck do they do what they do?  

2.  I know, as Rick would gladly attest to, I can be a bit "uptight" (alright, I can be damned anal) about some things ~ like how laundry is folded ~ particularly tee shirts and towels, just don't touch them, as Rick again would attest, I will refold them so don't waste your energy ... With all that said, I am over the edge with a few (truly only a few, and the number is less now, than it was prior to "retirement" ~ right Rick??) things these days ~ yeah yeah yeah call it OCD or whatever monocur you chose.   With "all that said" ...

When I bought our 2002 Ford Escape in January of 2003 (I think it was, I am certain it was January and I'm sure it was a Ford dealer, because I was going for Subaru number seven - cash transaction, and the salesmen at that particular dealership, Planet Subaru in Norwell, MA wouldn't come out on the lot to talk with a customer, the customer had to go inside to the salesman - HUH - true story).

Anyway,  I started an envelope (as I'd done with every vehicle prior for as long as I can remember) of any maintenance or repairs that had been done on the vehicle - you know, every oil change, every tire, every sensor, every inspection sticker/report ... you probably get the picture - every everything that was ever done to or for the vehicle.  Well, alas the car needed new tires, so when we were in the West Palm Beach area (Lion Country Safari KOA to be precise) out came the aforementioned envelope to check just how long those Michellin tires had been on the vehicle.  Well, new tires were put on the vehicle yesterday (yes, Michelin again, not that any of that matters, but just a side note)

edit .... I started this post four nights ago and completed about 85% of what I had intended to write but decided it was time for some "shut eye" and went to save what I'd written, but alas I seemed to have mysteriously lost about two thirds of that ... so here I go again....  heck it may be the end of June before I complete and post this one ...

continuing with the story ... but where the hell is that envelope?  We've checked the car (three times at least), the coach (twice at least) and can not find the blasted envelope - seriously seven years of maintenance records poof gone .... where the heck can it be - couldn't have gone far but seems to have become lost in space ... this is probably my biggest pondering these days .. sad but true!

3.  Onward with ponderances.  Have you (or am I the only one in the entire universe ~ pretty darned unlikely huh) who's noticed that when I buy anything cotton knit, you know new tee shirts for Rick or myself, shorts, just anything cotton knit, within two darned washings I have these teeny tiny holes in them?  It is really bugging me because I just don't understand it and I've noticed this over the last several (10 or 12 perhaps) years and it's only lately that it is really "pissing me off" ... I hate buying something that I truly wear maybe twice before it has this defect (and NO there is no bleach involved).  I bought this great top at a Cato store in FL, wore it once and discovered this issue!  UGH, thankfully (I guess, in an odd sort of way, it is a very easy one for anyone with sewing knowledge to copy, but damned I didn't spend those dollar bucks to wear it only once or twice!)

4.  Books ~ why is it that I can't get out of the blasted Danielle Steele/Nora Roberts mind set?  Done a few Nicholas Sparks, but they just all seem to be the same, you can figure the ending by at least the completion of the second chapter.  I hate mysteries/horror stories (Stephen King ~ been there done that, just doesn't work in this chapter of my life), done several Andrew Greeley's (whatever his niche would be ~ sorry, but I truly don't know) in a former life, don't want biographies, HATE HATE HATE history .. what is left? 

I guess the big huge factor may be that many campgrounds have "book swaps" (they are really terrific!) but I always gravitate - guilty of ignorance of options - to the aforementioned authors.  Chad suggested Paper Back Book Swap, but for some reason, and I guess it is lack of "permanent address (don't call us transient though), I haven't signed up for this and truly it would be perfect for me because I always have at least six books I've read and currently have 15 unread .... UGH suggestions????

5. and 6.  My notes for this post were to include a "thought" about potato chips (seriously) and these fad diets that are so troubling to me as I watch those I love do them and wonder why?  Three day "cleanses" etc ~ I just don't get it, but I guess that's the chapter I'm at in my life and the health issues I deal with, without notice, that just throw us into chaos and someone would think this is just a dandy way to spend a weekend... enough Aunt Tracey with that, but gosh darn I don't understand ~ then again I do have to remember that I was 21 once and probably my aunts didn't "understand" me either (seriously, is that possible?)

Beyond all this pondering, we left Rock Hills, SC yesterday and came to Gaffney, SC. for the scheduled maintenance on the coach, as well as King Richard's school about his Freighliner chassis.   Sir and I will do, who the hell knows what, tomorrow and the next day ... the coach maintenance will be a day and a half, Rick will be in his class for two whole days.  I'm thinking about just getting a hotel room, taking my sewing machine and Sir Arlo and hanging out ... Sir sort of puts a different twist on things tho.  Oh well, if all goes well we will all three be out of here Wednesday morning headed to NC then WV then off into the wild blue yonder via Sioux Falls .... yippee back on the road again, at long last, back on the road to parts unknown again .....

Take me out for a mothers day adventure

Just so happens that Charlotte has a AAA baseball team (the Charlotte Knights) who are the AAA team for the Chicago White Sox.  Well, as luck would have it the Boston Red Sox AAA team, the Paw Sox, were in town over the weekend as we found out Saturday afternoon, so we decided that was the way to spend Sunday afternoon.  We had gone, of course, to Paw Sox games way back when so it was lots of fun to see them down here.  As it was when we were on vacation many years ago (when we went to Niagara Falls - my first time!) and the Red Sox were playing in Toronto ~ life gets so "weird" sometimes ~ ya just know you have to just go with it .... baseball is a sport we both love and when you are in an area and "your" team is there, well ya just gotta go for it!

The photo above was our first view of the field here, below both teams warming up.   

Below is a photo Rick took looking at the visitor dugout from across the stadium.  Great posture of yours truly in the photo huh!  WOW girl ~ bad ....  Oh well what can I say ... a fat girl being comfortable cheering on her team!  My mother, I know would be horrified.

One of the things we've found along the way is how fun these minor league stadiums are - they usually have a "party deck" area where your ticket includes, obviously the game, but food and beer or soda for the length of the game.  Unfortunately this stadium didn't have such a deck.  The other thing we've found is that the team mascots are very very involved with the fans ....

Above is a photo of Caroline in the purple and Homer in the white.  Below, what I'm talking about when I say that the mascots get involved and have fun with the fans.  That Homer is such a rascal.  He reminded me of Cagey at the Sioux Falls Canaries games ... so darned much fun ... wish my Connor was here with us, then again Connor may have gotten bored after the second inning!

In the photo to the left if you notice the people on the hill on the right hand side of the photo - well that is a picnic sort of area just outside where the kids rides ~ merry go round etc..  Another fun aspect of these smaller stadiums.  Although, Rick's research taught us that this stadium ("Knights Stadium") was built with the intention of being a major league stadium somewhere down the line - it was built 20 or so years ago, so I guess perhaps that was great planning but high hopes that didn't come to fruition!   

At the end of the game on Sundays children get to "run the bases" - how fun for a child - this child seriously considered running them, but then I remembered ~ dah, Tracey doesn't run, Tracey doesn't even do a fast walk these days!  So the next  photo is of the kids "running".  And next is Caroline congratulating someone as they round third!  Ya just gotta love it!

Below the water tower as you approach the stadium - hope you can enlarge the photo.

The adventure for today took us for a ride around this lovely huge Lake Wylie.  Yup we've been here before and realized as we arrived at our destination (T-Bones on the Lake) that indeed, we'd been there before as well.  I wish we could find a decent map of the area (truly the Rock Hill visitors web site was less than helpful, and to say not user friendly is an understatement).  Without the map I really can't get a feel of where we were in relation to where we are staying.  Maybe I'll figure it all out before we leave here on Saturday!  Well, maybe not!

Anyway, as we sat on the deck enjoying a great lunch, we watched these two turtle friends just hanging out!

Not to mention the grey (blue?) heron just hanging out ....

Or all these geese families.  Gosh darn those geese parents are great - they get very very loud when a dog is about ~ guess they don't like boxers ~ oh yeah, they don't like anyone or anything around their babies!

Below, my favorite guys and ugh oh ... honey is looking - just looking, seriously, there is no way we could accommodate one more toy, there just isn't room!

I'm in love ...

I'm so in love with central North Carolina.  We left Moncure (an interesting little tiny town) on Thursday and came here to Rock Hill, SC to Ebenezer Park a county run park, with mostly permanent locals but on gorgeous, very busy this time of year, Lake Wylie.

Anyway, we stayed off the interstate for all but the last 25 or so miles of the 150 trip.  Is this gorgeous country we went through or what?  Beautiful rolling hills through teeny tiny little towns for the most part.  I know there must be a way to put a google map here and highlight the route we took, but as yet I'm not savvy enough to figure it out.

The part of the trip that was on the interstate was through Charlotte, NC (right on the NC/SC border).  It was sort of culture shock for us after such a nice peaceful trip but Rick got us through it as always.  

Somewhere in Charlotte there is this humongous roller coaster.  Make no mistake, I am not a roller coaster fan by any stretch, but this sucker impressed me - do people really and truly spend money, like pay someone, to go on this monster?

So further research told me that this monster is at Carowinds in Charlotte - you know one of those places where you pay and arm and a leg and ride rides and play all day.  Anyway, I think this beast is called the intimidator - it sure as heck would intimidate me!  I don't think this is something Rick or I would be going on in this lifetime ~ how 'bout you?

laundry schmaundry

Seriously, how would a person give a fat flying anything about laundry (we all know for sure there will always be laundry right - it's been chasing me for 37 or so years so why take it quite so seriously?  How'm i doing here with the rationalizing?) when there are places like this a few miles down the road?

We left late this morning to go about three miles down the road to be certain that the fuel stop down there would accommodate us with the coach/trailer connected.  We didn't really want to go get fuel in the coach then come back to the campground and connect the trailer then head off into the wild blue yonder (well really to Rock Hill, SC).  

Well, the fuel stop looked just fine so what the heck - the options were, continue and "explore" or come home and clean the coach that hasn't been cleaned for a couple weeks because (yea yea yea) we did not have a water and/or sewer connection for the last week when we were in New Bern and as with the laundry, the cleaning got put on the way back burner!

So we ended up at Jordan Lake somewhere down the road.  OMG, one of the treasures we've found along the way  ... so peaceful, so beautiful just outstanding.

I was just chatting with himself about staying here for a few more days to continue the exploring (we aren't staying, we are leaving early, as early as we are able in the morning ... to hopefully get a "prime" site at our destination in SC - another story for another day).

With all that said this was a great day for Sir Arlo the wonder dog ~ the last few times he's been at a body of water he really hasn't cared about it so much ~ we can't quite figure what the deal is but today, well today he was his old water dog self and just couldn't get enough of it.  Don't know if it was because there wasn't a 30 foot treck out to where he could finally swim or what but he just kept going back after the tennis ball or any stick that was thrown to him ... over and over and over and over (get the picture??)

Rick used to (well and probably still does at times, but not as frequently) refer to Sir's tail (stub) as his rudder - well hopefully the photo below can be enlarged - check out how he's carrying the stick - a rudder, so to speak, in the front ~ unfortunately you can't see the rudder in the back!

After we finally tore ourselves away from the lake we headed to who knows where and ended in Apex (huh?  we never knew, in spite of the number of times I made arrangements for "my" people to fly into the area in a former life) for a great lunch at a local joint we found on the GPS (UGH another story for yet another day).  After which we truly did head home but needed to stop at the post office to mail something to my/our Muffin Princess and continued from there about 20 miles down the road to ummmm, the "local" Elks Lodge where Sir needed to do a photo op overlooking the swimming pool - 

And in closing - brother Jon this photo is lovingly posted for you ... the dash, however was not padded!  If you see a car like this does it put a smile on your face ( I hope, like it did me, with fond fond memories) or otherwise?  What year was that anyway and was the car white with a red interior or red with a white interior?  And it was a convertible wasn't it ("chop car as Owen or Joshua referred to Dad's mustangs way back when he had them  in Leyden)

with all the pomp and circumstance of a pre-schooler!

Yup congratulations class of 2010 ~ I'm certain the class of 2010 had no clue what "graduation from pre-school" means but what the heck, some parents (and Grammie and Rick) were there AND they got cake and had a "carnival" after they sang songs and got a piece of paper rolled up with a ribbon ~ so LET'S PARTY!!

And we'll play with these things hanging from our funny hats

And sing a silly song about a "bubble in our mouth" when we are trying so hard to be quiet and behave and only sing this song ...

And try and try and try to behave while we take inventory of the parents who come in and the anticipation of what we've been practicing for weeks ...

And when they call my name I will walk up to the director lady and get that piece of paper with a ribbon around it

And then I will take it over to my Mom, Grammie and my bestest favorite Rick

THEN I'll go outside and have a "carnival" to relax after all the pressure of the last few weeks preparation

And I'm gonna sit right here on this slide and have me some of that yummy chocolate cake - followed by a couple freeze pops, thank you very much.  And oh by the way, I'd like a few "taptoos" as well

AHHH we had fun and I was so happy that Grammie and Rick got to be there for this milestone!!!

Back in business (maybe baby, but maybe not)

Why is it that companies (technology companies to be specific) always feel they need to change things, update things make things better?  It is such a challenge and such a flipping nightmare for those of us technically challenged users.  Seriously, I've stressed for nearly a week over the inability to upload photos to the blog.  Well blogger decided they needed to change some option then a computer update happened and something else sent kaphoooey with exporting photos from iphoto to get them to the desktop, to then get them to the blog - are you confused?  If so, well now you know how I feel!!!

Anyway, hopefully King Richard has figured it all out and explained it so a pea brain like me can work with it (it'll be great if I remember it all in a couple days to do the next post, but that isn't too likely).

So, let's see if I can get these photos where I want and go backwards in time a week or so ~

When we were at the Elks Lodge in Fayetteville ~ great lodge, fun people, the city - well not so much, as a former resident told me on facebook "watch your wallet and carry a loaded gun in your car" ... that was truly the sense I got.  Anyway, we once again had their rv area to ourselves.  It is a huge open field surrounded by some wooded area and a swampy sort of area with lots of turtles - seriously lots of turtles.  Sir Arlo met Myrtle the turtle (while she taking a rest from looking for her girdle I suspect).  Sir had no clue what to make of old Myrtle - he didn't want to hurt her, in fact I think he was afraid to get too close but he sure was curious about this creature that had no head one second and the next she was looking at him.  It really was funny to watch him.

We left Fayetteville a week ago today and came up to the Croatan National Forest on the Neuse River in New Bern, NC.  We'd also been here before.  It is about three miles down the road from Joshua, Trisha and Connor and their beautiful new home - which Connor was very very proud to show off as well as his new neighborhood that he proudly gives a walking tour of every night.  He is a hoot and just such a  sweet and loving young man at the age of five!

Arlo spent his birthday enjoying a swim and a stick on the  banks of the Neuse River, as well as a  short tour of downtown New Bern to see the New Bern Bears.  What a lovely old and very historic downtown area they have.  This is another of those towns that have resin animals (as dogs we saw in NY and I posted and I know there are many others, but I'm having a senior moment for sure)

The rest of the day was spent ~ how would you expect???  Enjoying his birthday cake.