Weather Permitting!

The sky's were threatening, but not producing! Eventhough we didn't get the much needed rain a nice cold front came through and cooled us back down to the mid 80's for the high today. It was a welcomed change from the upper 90's lower 100's that we've been experiencing.

We had some friends over for dinner last night, and we were all hoping for the storm that didn't come. Oh well, the food and company was good anyway!

Last night was Italian night. We started with a traditional Sausage, Kale, and White Bean soup.

This was followed by some Ricotta and Spinach stuffed Shells (It looks sort of like Lasagna and was every bit as good), and garlic bread.

Followed by some homemade Tiramisu (we tried to slice it into reasonable sized servings which lost some of it's photogenic appeal).

Not pictured was a nice antipasto plate of various olives, artichoke hearts, cheeses, and salami. Sort of pictured was the wine, a nice Sangiovese-Merlot blend, which went well with the entire meal.

Back to Work

I started back to work on Monday, so I really don't have much to report since I've been playing catch-up with the the daily grind! After 10 days off it's been hard to get back into the swing of things!

My hops are so dried out that I think I can sell them for straw (they don't even rate a photo, can you believe that!). The rain just keeps passing us up, either going North or East of us. We get to see the thunder-boomers building up, but they move over us before they dump the much needed moisture.

The last set of storms blew North of us and dumped a ton of rain in that part of Ohio. I-75 is currently closed just North of Dayton and they think it's going to be a few more days before the water recedes enough to open it back up!

Well that's all I've got for today. Hopefully we'll have something more blog-worthy to report this coming weekend.

Land Ho! (Paradise Gained)

We did it, we found and secured what will become our final residence! It's taken years to get to this point, but we've finally made it. All of the traveling that we've done has been great, but it's finally time to anchor ourselves to one spot that we can actually call home. Oh sure the road is still going to call to us as we both have been bitten by the traveling bug, but we do finally have our permanent base camp.

Our quest was not only for a place to build our dream home, but to also try to grab enough property that we could leave some of it in it's natural state. We ended up with a 3acre plot of land that will allow us to do both.

As you can see by the photos it has already been cleared, but in this part of the world Nature quickly takes back anything that is left unattended. This means that I'll likely be spending my vacations down here keeping what needs to be cleared clear, and maintaining the nice fence that the previous owners provided.
The topography is typical sub tropical described as a "Hammock" of live oak and mixed various undergrowth including: palmettos, poison ivy, possibly some wild muscadine, etc.



Our intent is to clear only what we really need for the house and a garden, thin only what is needed to allow sunshine where desired, and then leave the rest to do as it was before we arrived. In other words we'll basically put a natural barrier between us and our neighbors, mainly for their protection! ;-)



Both Lightnin and I are so excited that we can barely wipe the smiles from our faces. We're now looking forward to visiting it as often as possible, while working on the design of our home. We'll keep you posted on the progress!

Road Trip - Days 9 and 10 (The long road home)

Day 9

Once again we awake to the sounds of crowing, yes the rooster is still alive and kicking.

We had a little time to kill before meeting with the realtor to sign the papers on our new property, so we spent that at the coffee shop blogging and looking at Cyprus home design. Once the paperwork is completed we are able to hit the road (The "we" I'm referring to now is of course Lightnin and I as I have traded my "Ballast Buddy" for my lifelong copilot for the trip home). We need to make it to Atlanta this evening for a stop over at Lightnin's Sister's house. She and her Husband (a fellow Dave!) are more than just family to us. We've been friends for years and always try to stop to see each other whenever possible.

The drive was uneventful (thankfully) because we were traveling on I-75 North. When we arrived they had prepped a fantastic meal of grilled roasted Lamb and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. The appetizer was Fried Green Tomatoes, with Goat cheese and a Remoulade sauce. They also had a nice selection of wines that went great with the meal. After dinner we talked, laughed, and basically caught up on everything that had happened since we last got together. It had been a long day, and this ended up being a fun long night

Day 10

We awake early once again, having been properly trained by roosters during the past week. ;-)

It's a hot humid day again, so not too bad for traveling (with the top up and the air on of course). We hop back on I-75 for the long trek back home, but as my copilot/navigator takes a short nap I plot a new course, we're going to cut across to US-127 when we get to Chattanooga, TN.

Once awake, and briefed with my idea, the copilot is ready with the camera to show the advantages of the roads less traveled.

This is what lies between us and home, it looks sort of like the start of the road trip to me (I'm hoping Lightnin can handle the turns that I'm pretty sure we're gonna' see).

She held up like a trooper and snapped these photos (look familiar FC?). It was sort of llike a mini-dragon.

OK there's always been the divide between roasted or boiled peanut fans, but this one was news to me! I had to try them, and they are amazingly good! (sorry for the blurry photo, it was taken after we got home from the long day of driving). Just another example of something you wouldn't necessarily find traveling the interstates!

After having put 2,708 miles under my butt, in only ten days, it felt good to be home again. It has been a fun and monumental trip. I was able to shed the feelings of "wanderlust" once again and it's back to work tomorrow. Although I wonder where the next road trip will take me (rumor has it that it might involve a Jeep), but for now I at least know where I'm going to end up, on a little 3 acre slice of heaven!

Road Trip - Days 7 and 8 (Cedar Key, and more)

Aha, I woke up before Vader (the Rooster) and had thoughts of sneaking our to crow at him first, but then had this horrible thought that it would scare him to death and then how would I explain that one to FC. So I just laid there for a couple of minutes relishing in my victory of being up before he woke me. Hey wait a minute, that's not actually a victory after all!

No property to look at today so after I blogged yesterday's post it was off to Cedar Key! I could smell the salt mash before I could see it. Finally the site I've been waiting for, Cedar Key.











I took the advice of my friends and stoped at Tony's to grab a bite for lunch. I opted for the fried oyster sandwich and Red Stripe. That's a full dozen oysters piled on that baby, and it was quite possibly the best fried oyster sandwich I've ever eaten even though I did break the rules about eating shell fish in a month without an "R" in it. Although if you pronounce it like a pirate it works out Aurrrrgust! ;-)







Then it was back to the PF HQ to get the wings going for dinner.








Here's the wings after draining off the secret marinade

Where there's smoke, there's wings!

And the finished product, Mmmm tasty.

Oh I almost forgot to mention, as of about 8:30PM last evening I became a full fledged Florida property owner! Yep, I found our little slice of heaven, just take a look.

Well I must say good bye to my dear friends because it's back on the road again for the long trek back north, so I'll finish the stories of the trip once I get back home.

Last leg of the road trip to come.............

Road Trip - Day 7 (Land Shopping, Bats, and Storms)

Up with the sun once again! I'm telling you if that rooster keeps this up he's going in the marinade with the wings!


Well back out to find my property! I met with the realtor early in the morning and wasn't able to get to the coffee shop, which was why I'm a day behind writing the rest of Day six. We head out into the wilds of this part of Florida looking for just the right spot for Lightnin and I to settle down. I'm properly dressed to push through the think brush, forest, and jungle that I may encounter, complete with gloves this time (hey, I may be an idiot, but I'm no fool!). Here's a small sampling of some of the area that I'm looking at:







Believe it or not this is Florida.

Hey here's a palm tree, how did that get here?!

After FC arrived home that evening he noticed that a gopher (a tortoise, not the fury little pest from "Caddy Shack") was out for a stroll so I had to capture it on film.

After that he took me over to one of the nearby wildlife sanctuary's to see a bat house that was built neat the Suwanee. We arrived just before sunset, so there was a good chance we'd be able to see the mass Exodus of the flying mammals for their nightly feeding frenzy.

While we were waiting an approaching storm gave us a bit of entertainment. This is common for the afternoons/evenings here this time of year. The heat and humidity build up into an impressive crescendo, finishing with a spectacular light show displaying Nature's beautiful fury!

Back to the bats. We could hear the sounds of rustling and squeaking coming from the bat house so we knew it wouldn't be long now. First a single bat emerges and flies off, followed by another, then another. All of a sudden the entire house empties, it was like a waterfall of bats leaving the house and flying off to devour as many mosquito's as they possibly could before coming back at dawn to rest again the next day. What an impressive sight, and the price was a mere few bites by gnats and mosquito's, well worth the effort.

On the way home we were able to witness the light show that we knew was going to follow the building storm we had seen earlier. Nature provides plenty of entertainment, you just have to take time to look around!

Today I'm going to goof off a bit more and head over to Cedar Key with the top down before heading back to the PF HQ to cook my famous wings. If possible I'll post some photos of that tomorrow. Lightinin flies in this afternoon so we'll see.

And the Road Trip continues........

Road Trip - Day 6 (Goofing off Continued)

When I posted last I wasn't able to tell you how I goofed off because it hadn't happened yet, so here's the rest of that story:

After I left the coffee shop, Mrs. FC called to let me know she was taking off at noon and that I should come to where she works and we would head for Gainesville to see the Megaladon exhibit (A huge extinct, prehistoric shark), and the Butterfly Garden. I thought "OK that sounds like fun!", I'm easily entertained and that would offer not only fun but a chance to learn something too!

Well, we stopped for lunch and when we went to leave the little key fob thingy for my car wouldn't work to unlock the car and disable the alarm. So much for site seeing! We headed for the nearest GM dealer to see if they could help. They couldn't do much without both of the remote entry key fobs, and since Lightnin had the other one back in Cincy we were pretty much out of luck. So with a bummer of a feeling hanging over me we decided it would be best to head to the store to get what we needed and head back to the PF HQ before the car decided to do anything else odd.

This wasn't all bad though because Mrs. FC and I had a chance to visit again after all these years. You see I knew her before she was Mrs. FC. When I first moved to UWF, I was fortunate enough to meet up with FC, and he and I became fast friends. He graduated and moved on to make his mark in the world, I transferring from a university in Kansas, had to make up for credits that wouldn't transfer so I was still there for awhile. Well during the time that he was gone the future Mrs. FC came to school. She and I met and immediately had a strong brother/sister relationship, honestly we both seemed to feel that we had known each other all our lives and sort of helped to watch each other's backs.

Anyway FC, having had a taste of the "real world" decided to come back and complete his Masters at UWF and asked if I would be his roommate. Of course I was happy to accept, we'd had so much fun before and besides he needed to meet my new friend!

I'm a bit fuzzy on all the details, but I think there was a small get together in the common area (hey we're no dummies and stayed in the coed dorm where the boys and girls were separated by a small lobby used as sort of a DMZ). Anyway this really cute blond comes over and starts talking to me, FC's eyes were popping out of his head so I introduced my two good friends. I'm pretty sure it was love at first sight on both sides. The rest is pretty much history.

I'm just trying to figure out who owes me for connected them with the best person they could ever meet, and who I owe for sticking them with the other one! I'll let them be the judge of that! ;-) None the less I gained two good friendships that I am lucky enough to be able to reconnect with by visiting one home!

Road Trip - Day 6 (Goofing Off)

Up with the sun once again, even though I had absolutely nothing at all on the agenda today!

I sit and visit with FC, and Mrs. FC while they get ready to go to work. Just before Mrs. FC gets ready to leave I notice a slight itching on my right hand and Mrs. FC, knowing that I've been tromping around in the wilderness, immediately asks to see it. "Yep, looks like you found some Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and/or Poison Sumac. Here put this cream on it no more than three times each day, and if it gets worse we'll get something stronger and try that"! I head her professional advice, and while I'm typing this it looks like all signs of the irritation are completely gone after just the first application of the ointment. I think I'll stick with the 3 doses today though, just to make sure!

Well, not sure what I'll do with the rest of the morning, but it's actually quite comfortable right now, so I think I'll wrap this up section of the "Road Trip Journal" and drive around with the top down for awhile and soak in some of the local scenery. Mrs. FC may try to take some time off this afternoon to goof off with me, and show me some of the nearby sites that I may not be able to find easily by myself. If so it will be pretty fun, if not it will be pretty fun too and either way I'm sure I'll have something to write about tomorrow.

Stay tuned for more........

Road Trip - Day 5 (Shopping for land)

Yesterday morning was a repeat of the day before. I had every intention of sleeping in and then putsing around town, but the combination of my internal alarm clock and FC's Rooster's were there to make sure I got up with the sun.

I wasn't going to meet with the realtor until 1:00PM so I had the entire morning free. I headed into town to the coffee shop where I could get hooked up on the wireless access to blog yesterday's post (Same as I am right now). Then I washed the lime rock road spray off of the roadster before it had a chance to eat through the clear coat, and headed to "Super Wally World" to shop for the ingredients to start the marinade for my secret wings recipe. I knew that I needed to get this back to the Pure Florida HQ before FC got home, or he'd most likely put it out into cyberspace for all the world to see (this fear was confirmed by his children, although I won't reveal exactly which of them spoke up first because I depend on them for directions, etc. while FC is at work this week).

After having succeeded in my tasks, I was ready to go out shopping for land. I had an aggressive plan, to whittle down 8 perspective properties to only two in the first day so that Lightnin and I could discuss (Long Distance) and make on offer on the top contender.

With the guidance of the realtor we drove all over the countryside tromping around and checking out every property on my list. Pushing through thick undergrowth, vines, and other assorted vegetation we made it through each piece of land in amazingly quick time. I now had the arduous task of knocking 6 of these off the list. A couple of hours later I'm there, and make the call to Lightnin to have here check them out on-line to see what she thinks.

After a few minutes of discussion, and a few hours of decision making, we picked our favorite plot of land. I call the realtor back and make our offer. The tension builds as we wait for a return call. About an hour later we get the disappointing news that the current owner states his final price, but it's still too high for the property of interest.

Oh well, like I stated earlier my plan was aggressive and this is only the first day. I tell the realtor that we'll just keep looking and maybe we'll be lucky enough to find just the right spot, at the right price!

More Road Trip Ahead..........

Road Trip - Day 4 (Internal Alarm Clock)

We blogged late into the night on Saturday night and then planned to sleep in and hit the road back to the "Pure Florida HQ", home for my passenger/ballast for the road trip. Opening my eyes I see that the sun has not risen yet, however that annoying internal alarm clock had sounded off and I was wide awake. I try to be as quiet as possible, sneaking into the bathroom to shower and trying to let FC get some sleep, but when I emerge (clean and fully clothed by the way, I anticipated a snide comment from Lightnin here!) he had awaken too. We loaded up the little roadster and hit the road once again.

We decided to take the back roads rather than the interstate so we could see the scenery and possibly see some of the weird and abnormal points of interest that you can only get on the "road less traveled". We weren't disappointed witnessing both weird and abnormal, but I'm afraid that photos would not have done this story justice and we'll just leave it at that for now!

After a long 12 hr drive we pull into the drive of my good friend's home, safe but not quite sound (same condition we left in). We unpacked and were welcomed by the rest of his family, told a few of our tales from the road and went to bed. FC starts work again tomorrow, but my trip is still in motion. Hopefully I can turn off the IAC and sleep in tomorrow!

More Road Trip ahead.......

Road Trip - Day 3 (Continued)

This is the story I had meant to post, but I was a bit overcome with a flood of different emotions at the time I posted. We had been up late on Friday night, awoke early on Saturday, put the car through a demanding drive all day, and then posted late at night again on Saturday.

Also, I forgot to mention that every time you see the FC, it is a link to Pure Florida where you can get his version of the events that took place.

Here's the rest of the story:
We awoke early on Saturday morning with the buzz of anticipation about the day ahead (or was it the coffee?). We ate a reasonable breakfast, keeping in mind that we were about to drive on some of the hilliest, windiest, most exciting roads either of us had been on, in a "Go-cart on Steroids".

If you look at Saturday's post you can see the map and photos of the group of Pontiac Solstice's and Saturn Sky's lining up getting ready to go. We strategically placed ourselves in the middle of the pack to get the forward and mirror shots of the line of vehicles going through the curves.

Our route started at Deal's Gap and went south on US-129 to the Cherohola Skyway, and then finishing up on the "Tail of the Dragon". Later we would find out that luck was on our side because we placed ourselves behind won of the most flamboyant drivers of the bunch.

It was better to have her in front of us than behind us!

Here's a good view of some of the curves on the Skyway.

Here's a few of the beautiful views that FC was able to snap while we were on the road.

We took a much needed break at the crest (around 5400Ft) to allow us to savor the adrenaline rush that we were all feeling at this point, and to allow the rest of the group to catch up.

After more driving we stopped at the halfway point to grab some lunch, and then hit the road again. The lunch was fantastic, and the staff was efficient and friendly. FC, being a bit insecure of the opinion that the rest of the group might be forming of the two of us, went for the BBQ sandwich. I, being secure with my manhood, opted for the Shrimp Salad wrap with Veggie Slaw.

After lunch we jockeyed for positioning, and then completed the rest of the run. The second concluded with the famed "Tail of the Dragon" (318 turns in 11 miles). Since we had already driven this stretch 3 times the previous day it didn't hold many surprises, but because of the traffic and the nature of the road we remained steadfastly alert all the same (Did you like that one Sir Thomas?).

After the ride was over we went back for a closer look at one of the sites we had seen earlier for a short dip of the hat into the cool stream.

More Road Trip ahead............

Road Trip - Day 3 (The Official Run and Mixed Feelings)

Today was the actual official event of the Solstice/Sky weekend, Driving "The Tail of the Dragon". I'll get to that in a minute, but first I want to talk a little bit about my mixed feelings today!





FC showed a photo of me washing my car yesterday, getting it ready for today's event, but the photo didn't clearly show the shirt I was wearing. Here's a pictue of both the front and the back of that shirt.











My mixed feelings are that I'm excited about this weekend's event, but at the time both FC and I were posting last night my son was boarding a plane for his second tour of duty in the desert. He is currently answering the call of duty, and for that I am very proud! Unless you are a parent of a child that is actively serving I doubt that you can understand completely the feelings that I am currently experiencing. I'm not going to dwell on that to all of you right now, but I at least needed to get this off my chest. It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with this conflict, because no matter which conflict there is controversy will always surround it. However, you do need to understand that until there are no more differences of opinion, politics, religion, or what ever any two humans of different beliefs can possibly argue about, there will always be a need for someone to try to keep the peace, and protect those who cannot protect themselves. I'll leave you with this thought, that was provided by one of the nice folks that we've met this weekend: " Thank God we have people like your son who are willing to make that sacrifice for the rest of us"! I just want him to do a good job and return home safely!





Thanks for bearing with me, now let's get back to the event of the day. I'm going to be brief, and just share a few of the phots of the day with caption, and give more details in the next few days (along with more photos).

Here's the map of the route we took
















Lining up getting ready to go. At this point only about half of the group was here.







More folks joined the group. Lightin, don't you think my baby could use this upgrade?










Out ont he road! As the saying goes "If you're not the lead dog, the view is always the same"!



























Or is it?!









To be continued............