Sunday, October 25, 2009

Salisbury, NC



Here are some more pics of the town of Salisbury, near Lexington, NC and the lake we stayed on.  It's a pretty nice town, Salisbury, that is. This is their "famous" wall mural and I couldn't resist this shot. Too much time on my hands and not a lot of imagination!!  Lots of historythere.  Kind of like a big Amelia Island maybe?  Anyway, another spot to mark off in our book "1000 Places To See Before You Die".  I think it's in there.  But the lake and the birds were nice and I got some new flower pics as well.  We are beginning to plan our 2010 trip; up thru the Natchez Trace, Graceland, Hot Springs, AR and then slowly go up the Mississippi River.  We'll be in Jax until April and are enjoying time with friends and family.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

It's All About The BBQ!


I've heard a lot about "Lexington style BBQ" so we decided to take a little detour and head to Lexington, NC from TN to find out what's so special about the way BBQ is prepared in this part of the country.  We went to two places, Lexington BBQ which has been featured on TV and a local favorite well off the beaten path - Cooks BBQ.

Our 1st place was Cooks BBQ not too far from the camp ground.  The place is a place where locals eat and it literally located in the very back of a residential sub-division.  Weird.  They did have brisket ( which is called sliced beef in this part of the country) so we shared a combo platter of BBQ delights which included ribs, pulled pork, brisket, hush puppies and a pitcher of iced tea.  We couldn't eat it all, so we took it home and made two more meals out of it the next day.  I liked the food and it was cheap!


The second place was Lexington BBQ, which I saw on TV.  It was so hard to find ( not on our GPS) that we had a heated discussion on the way... but we finally found it.  It sucked.  Not worth the trip.  Just plain pulled pork.

Lexington style BBQ is dryer than the BBQ's of the south west and the primary meat is pork.  As a matter of fact, Lexington BBQ serves ONLY pulled pork.  No brisket, no ribs, no nothin!  Didn't like it much.  I can season and cook a Boston Butt in my crock pot in the RV that comes out with more flavor than Lexington BBQ.


This was our parking spot

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Back In Tennessee!!!!!

Ok, so we made it out of Florida and of course, our timing was impeccable!  We sat through 2 months of 90° plus weather and 95 per cent humidity..............but wait!  It all went away the day we left!!!  Oh well, the mountains are spectacular and so is my son.  I love the beard!  He and his friend Patrick (a great guy, also a GREAT BIG GUY) came for dinner last night.  I guess I didn't remember how growing guys eat...................sorry boys if you didn't get enought steak and shrimp.  It is so good to see my son; it's been 10 months!  Plus, he is giving us the privilege of painting his bedroom tomorrow, so that's really really nice of him.  We'll be here for about a week and then off to Charleston, SC to spend some time with Nicole.  She's ALSO allowing us to help her move.  Gosh, we such thoughtful children.  God Bless Yooz Guyz!!!!!  Please take a look at the pics below.  There's one of Grandma in there at her birthday celebration.  The lake is Lake Watauga, right about  20 miles from here.  Very pretty, too bad we won't be here in 3 weeks when the leaves turn.  Don't forget to scroll down to the next post.  It's got all the pics from Amelia Island and Crystal's 29th Birthday Party!!
Thanks for reading and welcome Heidi!!!  It's so good to see you again....................

Fun On Amelia Island, FL

So, after holing up in the RV, and adjusting to the heat and humidity, we starting visiting our great friends on Amelia Island.  We spend almost a week there house and doggie sitting (Maxie, the min-pin) will get into all the liquor and have parties if she doesn't have a babysitter.  Plus, her mom and dad went to Denver to see Jay's son get married.  Anyway, long story short, we partied hard when they got back; then went back a couple of weeks later to Debbie's daughter Crystal's 29th Birthday Party!  Steve grilled a bushel of oysters; we had oyster shots and Margaritas....................good food, good party.  I got to catch up with a lot of folks I hadn't seen in years.  Oh, BTW, Crystal is a model for Ford Modeling Agency and she was on her way to New York City for a Cosmopolitan photo shoot...............hope you got the job Crystal!!!  And here are the pics..................................all pretty much "G" Rated!!!!

Click to see pics of Amelia Island