Road Food

After taking care of business getting the new Florida homestead underway it was time for me to hop on a plan and head for home. This of course sounds far more simple than it really is! Here's the story:
It was an early rise, about 5:30AM so I could get a shower and a couple of cups of coffee in before I hit the road. I said my goodbyes and thank yous to Mr. and Mrs. FC (awfully nice of them to get up that early on a Sunday to see me off!), and then toss my bags in the car and head for the airport.

Tampa is about 3-3.5hrs drive if you stay on hwy-19 all the way or about 2-2.5hrs if you hop on to the Sun Coast Parkway (approx. $5.00 in tolls). I opted for the parkway and set off with the top down. About 1/2 way there I see the clouds building and darkening, but I was almost there so I powered through and only got hit with a few sprinkles before I reached the airport rent-a-car return. At that point it starts lightening, thundering, and raining.

I make it through security and get to my gate only to find that the flight will be delayed because of the storm that has settled in, but it is supposed to move off in a few minutes. The storm does finally move out and we end up only being about 30min late for take off. (Don't worry I'll get to the food part of this post in a minute)

We actually made up time in the air and land in Chicago only about 5 minutes behind schedule, which didn't matter to me because I now had 3 hours to make my next flight. I have to add that I absolutely hate O'Hare airport because as usual I land at one end of the airport and my next flight is at the other end! On top of this the gate for the next flight will change at least 3 times before the departure time, so I never know where to actually settle in for the layover, other than in front of the departure listings monitor!

(OK here comes the part about the food!)

So while I'm passing the time I find a Goose Island Brewery kiosk and plop my butt down in a chair to sample a Honker's Ale, Mmm tasty! Feeling a bit hungry and realizing where I was I opted for a local Chicago delicacy: The famous Chicago Dog. This is a huge beef hot dog that is smothered in onions, relish, tomatoes, mustard, little hot peppers, and a dill pickle!

Check this thing out (pictured with a Honker's Ale and bag of salt & pepper kettle chips for a completely nutritious meal, and the good thing is that they have a loan officer available so you can take out a second mortgage to afford this scrumptious feast!

So finally the time comes to head for the gate (which of course had changed again to the other end of the concourse). The arriving flight has just cleared the aircraft and they announce that they will begin boarding the flight for Calgary, Canada!? Yes, that's right they have four different flights scheduled to leave this same gate within about 15 minutes of each other. Here comes the entertainment, after boarding the 1st class passengers they announce that there's been a mistake and the plane is actually the one heading to Cincinnati, Ohio. So they get all the passengers that had climbed aboard back off, get us on and we are on our way. About an hour later we land and I'm back home once again!

In about 2 weeks I'll have to repeat the trip to meet with the General Contractor and Excavator once again after having the under brush cleared from the interior of the property. I think I'll try to get a route that takes me somewhere (ANYWHERE), but through Chicago!

Did the Earth Move?

No not this time, just the plants!

I'm down here at the PFHQ for a couple of days while taking care of some of the details to get the Wise Acre homestead moving forward, and yesterday FC and I were able to see a demonstration of a new implement of doom for unwanted jungle thicket.

I'm not sure what it's called, but this thing can rip through the brush faster than I can snap a picture, grind it into mulch, and leave the ground virtually untouched!
Then it mulches what it cuts









They plan to use it on our little piece of heaven because it is so precise that you only take out the jungle life you want to and no trees get damaged in the process. This leave it to the tree plucker to come in and grab the specific trees that have to come out.

Sort of like land clearing surgery instead of mass destruction!

This morning it was an early rise to head back out to the property to go over plans with the tree remover dude and the builder guy. This should get things started and get us closer to being here!

Oh, Check out the rental ride I snagged to get from the airport to here!
The top opens up with a bit of James Bond flare! ;-)

Pretty sweet huh?










Next time it's going to be a truck of some sort so I (with the help of FC) can haul tools reset posts, cables, keep out signs, etc. after the brush clearing.

So now the project starts!

Help From a Friend

A couple of weeks ago we received a phone call from one of our soon to be neighbors. She informed us that someone just drove up on our new property with a 4-wheeler and dumped off a bunch of deer carcases!
This was a bit disturbing, as you can imagine, but it was at least comforting to know that a soon to be neighbor took noticed that something wasn't right and took the trouble to contact our realtor to get our number and give us a call. This was after she had already alerted the local law enforcement! The next time I'm down there I'll make sure I stop by and thank her for taking the trouble and formally introduce myself.
Anyhow, the older section of land already had a fence on the road front side and I had strung up a chain and keep out sign, but the new property had an uninterrupted access which is where the perpetrator struck. I say had because a good friend of ours helped us out by placing fence posts with a cable across the entrance to impede this type of activity in the future!

Check out the professional job!












Thanks FC, I'll pay you back this weekend! ;-)

Prepping for Bike Week?

Last night was "Bike Night" at the local Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant. We met up with a few friends, thinking there would be a few bikes show up, and were amazed at the sight!

When we arrived there were already about 10-15 bikes in the lot, and we were able to get a seat. As we sat bikes continued to roll in one after the other for the next couple of hours. At the peak we estimated between 700-800 bikes!



A few views of the lot about 30 minutes after we arrived


Custom pipes












There was a live band and everyone seemed to behave themselves despite the flashing of several colors from some of the local riding clubs!
It was a little interesting maneuvering through the traffic and obstacle course of randomly scattered parked motorcycles when we went to leave, but I just look at it as practice for Daytona Bike Week.
What do you think Lightnin, maybe next March?

The Indiana Brewers Cup

This past weekend I had the privilege of being a judge in the prestigious Indiana Brewers Cup beer competition. Its the contest for the Indiana state fair and its open to both home brewers and professional breweries!
When I signed in at the registration desk on Friday evening I find that I'm assigned to judge Belgian Strong Ales; "Awesome" I say to myself, or at least I think I did! We had 10 beers in our round and most of them were good, but one stood out above the rest. It was a Belgian Strong Golden Ale and was as close to Duvel as you can get without being there! ;-)

I asked the photographer if he minded taking a few "action" shots while we were judging and he agreed. The following is the pictorial representation of the beer judging process:

Pouring the beer

Smelling the beer

Looking at the beer

Scoring and writing down notes

Tasting the beer

More scoring and notes


That pretty much sums it up. Yep it's a tough job, but somebodies got to do it! ;-)


We had to drive through a thunderstorm the entire way home, and at one point I thought I saw Dorothy and Toto fly by, oh sorry we're not in Kansas anymore!

Rabbit Hash Kentucky

Rabbit Hash, Kentucky is a tiny little town that sits along the Ohio River straight across from Rising Sun, Indiana. It's off of the back roads so it makes a nice place to ride the bikes to, and that's just what we did this past Friday. The weather was perfect sunny with temperature in the low 80's F. it made for a nice ride and we went from there over to Penn Town, Indiana to stop at "The Old Brick" for some of the world's best chicken (sorry no pictures of the chicken this time, but you can visit some of my old posts to see that)!

Green leaves and blue skies! Hey I recognize that bike in the lower left corner.

It's not exactly a secret to the motorcycle riding community.


Some weekends they have crafts for sale and the craftsmen working their various arts for you to see, so it's a nice place to visit when the weather cooperates!

One Mean Bike!

We've been pretty regular customers at the bikini bike wash and when we went up there the other day there was a custom drag bike parked out front. The owner did all the work on this thing himself.

Personally I wouldn't want this to ride, but it is pretty nice to look at!

The tag says it all!



If it's a nice day tomorrow Lightnin and I are planning to celebrate a day of freedom, provided by our ancestors whooping up on the British, by taking our bike out on a ride!