Fireworks and Broken dish.

Since tomorrow is the 4th of July, we decided to buy some fireworks.  We stopped at a Wal-Mart store to see if they had any.  They didn’t, just some poppers.  In fact they don’t have any fireworks for sale in this town.  When I was traveling, the towns all had big tents set up selling fireworks.  Not here, they must have not allowed it.  Now, about 18 miles away, there are several places that sell fireworks.  TNT, Blackcat, Dragon fireworks and who knows the other names. 

After Wal-Mart we saw this restaurant that had a sign that kids meals were $1.99.  We went in.  I ordered a chicken pot pie.  They brought out this big pot pie.  It was on a very hot plate and the dish was really hot.  I started cutting up the puffy crush to let out the steam.  I then took a bite of chicken and it was so tender and good.  I then started to get another bite and noticed the dish was cracked and broken all the way across.  I told the waitress that the dish was cracked and broken and I didn’t want to eat the pot pie because there could be a piece of broken dish in the food.  They took it away and I ordered something else.  The owner came over and told me that had never happened before and she was so sorry.  She said those dishes cost $18 each and she could not believe it broke because it was pretty new.  

The pot pie was so good, but I didn’t order another one.  I had bad luck with one, I didn’t want to push it.  After we ate we drove to where all the firework stores were.  The stores were very busy.  We got a few different fireworks and paid for them.  Tomorrow we will light them.

MyTravels: Jack Daniel’s whiskey tour.

This is a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey 90 proof.   We went to Lynchburg, TN.  I wanted to go see how whiskey was made, so we drove there and took the tour.  It was free.  First they show you a movie and then drive you over to this cave.  Inside the cave is the pure water they use.  You just see the opening.  They have it roped off.  There is an amazing breeze blowing out of the opening of the cave, it is so cool.  The cave is a constant 55 degrees.  They also put up a statue of Jack Daniels.    They show you the grain they use.  They use corn, rye and barley.  They then show you these giant vats of the mash, bubbling and fermenting mixed with yeast. 

 They then drip the liquid  through 10 feet of charcoal.  They made the charcoal from a certain wood.  He opened up one of the charcoal lids real quick and it smelled like a strong whiskey.  They put it in barrels that they made and age it for many years.  They have millions of barrels.  The ones we saw were from 2005 and they were still not ready yet.   Some of the barrels were leaking.  I didn’t lick them.  We also saw the bottle process of  the whiskey too.   

They don’t let you take pictures when you are inside but you can take pictures outside.  It is a dry county so they can’t let you take the whiskey, but they can sell collector bottles.  I got the one at the top of this post.  It is only sold there.  You register the bottle online and they send you a certificate.  They even took our group picture and put it on their web site to grab.

I am over on the left side in the red shirt.  The guy is in front of me crouching down.  I liked him.  He grew up there and his dad and grandpa worked for Jack Daniel’s and he is even related to Jack Daniel’s.  It is a neat place to tour, if you ever want to go see it.

The spider in the bathroom

We went camping at Grove Recreation Area.  It is a Federal camp ground.  There is a big lake there to put your boat in the water.

The campgrounds are the nicest I have ever seen.  The camp spaces are paved with a tent area.  There is a separate huge area that you also use all for you with a picnic table and fire pit. 

The bathroom always had spiders in it.  This big Daddy long leg spider was always sitting on the wall right by the door, all the time.  It did not move.  It did move at night but during the day it was always there, right under the mirror.  I blew on it and it did wiggle a leg and reach up and touch the mirror. 

There was this big brown spider on the floor that scared me.  It was as big as my hand with thicker legs than this one.  I stomped my foot by it and it ran at me.  I ran out of the bathroom. 

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of our trailer and vehicle with the canoe on top of it.  There were lot of trees all around.

We took the canoe to the water and put it in the water.  Hubby slid it off the vehicle and we held it and lowered it to the ground.  Then he flipped it over and my son banged it into my leg.  The boat is heavy and it hurt my leg to hit it.  It made a huge bruise on my leg and it has been a week since it happened and it is still bruised and still hurts.

We paddled around the lake.  It was a lot of fun, but it was hot.  We paddled into this cove.  Rocks jut out around the edge.  I noticed this huge rock was under the water, jutting out and then was deep right under and around it.  We slowly paddled up to it and I got out and tied the canoe up to a bush.  I then walked out on the rock, it was under water.  There were a lot of fish swimming around in the shallow part.  The water was warm.  As I walked, it was a little slippery and muck was stirring up in the water.  The fish were darting off in all directions.  I jumped into the water and went under.  I swam around in the water and my son jumped in to.  We kept going back onto the rock and jumping into the water.  It was a lot of fun just splashing around.  No other noise, no other people.  My husband was still sitting in the canoe.  We said “Come on, jump in.”  He finally did get in.  I float on the water and my son was wearing his life jacket.  My husband does not float and didn’t want to tread water.  He got back into the boat.  He was sitting down and moving stuff around and the next thing I know is the boat tipped over and he fell into the water.  The canoe filled up with water and our shoes were floating beside the canoe.  It was really heavy to try to turn over and get the water out.  We finally got the water poured out and we all got back in and paddled around the lake some more. 

The sky was getting dark, clouds were covering the sky.  We got the canoe back on our vehicle and went back to camp and found the shower house and got a shower.  When we got back to the trailer, the sky was turning really dark.  It was thundering and lightening.  Thunder was booming really loud.  The lightening was close.  It started raining and poured rain.  It rained the next day too.  We packed up the next day because of the rain.  We came home a day early.

Off again.

Whenever I go to the grocery store I check the used DVD movies that are for sale. If they look good or are marked down to $5, I buy them and save them for when we go camping. We have a small TV and at night we sit down and watch a movie. I am running out of movies to watch.

Yesterday I scoured the movies at Dollar General. I already have the movies that I was interested in, so I didn’t get any. At the grocery store, I did find a movie for $7.99. It is called Aeonflux with Charlize Theron. I also found one on my shelf at home that I bought and forgot about. The Wicker Man with Nicolas Cage. That one was $5. On the back it says “Profoundly disturbing, blood chilling suspenser, fantastically creepy performances.” by the New York Post.

Now that I read that……I don’t know if I want to watch it. I think I have to go find, see a trailer on that movie on the Internet.

The other day I bought a big 5 pound package of mozzarella cheese. (It was $8 at Sam’s Club). I spent some time this morning cutting it up and vacuum packing it. I measured out 5 oz sizes for making pizza. I am going to make a pizza in my Nesco roaster when we are camping. We are taking our canoe and try it out on a lake. We are going near Corbin, KY to a Federal park. It is a really nice park. I will take pictures.

Now, to find that trailer on that movie…..

A use for my Nesco

I have a popup, or tent trailer.  We went to the beach on Monday and stayed for 5 days.  There was a grocery store about one mile from the campground that we shopped at.  A Piggly Wiggly.  It was a very nice store.  Every day I would buy enough ground sirloin to make hamburgers for dinner.  One night we had hotdogs.  I bought this hotdog cooker, it rolls the hotdogs around and around, like at a convience store.  We checked out a couple of restaurants that served seafood.  The prices were sky high.  This one place wanted $36 for a fish dinner.  I walked away after reading that menu.  I can make a burger for $1, why would I pay for dinner that costs so much.  So we ate in, I cooked each night.  I came home and thought there has to be more options for better meals.  I bought a Nesco roaster last November to cook some turkey in.  Never used it since.  It is a little oven.  I am going to take that with me and cook muffins and pizza.  I tried it out today.  I made some muffins and cooked them in the roaster oven.  They came out perfect.  I then went to K-mart and bought a pan to cook a pizza,or a cake in.   I am going to be eating good, the next time I go camping, which will be in one week.   We are going to a lake in KY.  We are taking our blow up boat and go out on it on the lake and swim and have fun.

The waves scare me.

We just got back from Myrtle Beach, well actually Huntington Beach, South Carolina, it is 15 miles from Myrtle Beach.  The water was so warm.  It was a little wavy.  One day I got up enough courage to go stand in the waves.  These people were using these body boards to ride the waves.  I went out far enough and just floated and got the big idea to float in on the wave on my stomach.  Wrong thing to do.  I jumped into the wave and it pushed me down, went over the top of me and just rolled me around.  It was strong and it just kind of pushed me down for a while.  I decided not to do that again.  We then went a bought a body board.  After getting dragged around by the waves, I didn’t really want to go back into the water.  I was standing in the water, letting the waves go by.  They are really strong.  You have to stand sideways to keep your balance.  I saw this really heavy woman standing in the water, letting the waves hit her.  She was a little further out than I was.  A really big wave came by and it hit her.  I bet she weighed around 300 pounds, maybe more.  The wave knocked her over and she fell into the water.  The wave washed over her.  She then could not get up and the waves just kept going over her.  She would try to get up, but each wave just kept knocking her down.  She would look and hold her nose as each wave washed over her.  She was floundering around on her belly, trying to get up but she couldn’t.  Then her friend that was with her, came out to her and grabbed her arm, trying to help her up.  She could not pull her up because she was so heavy.  It took a few tries but the woman finally stood up as her friend pulled and pulled on her.  She then went back to her beach chair and just sat there and did not go back into the water. 

My husband and son did the body board pretty good.  My husband made me use it.  I did not want to.  He drug me out to where the waves were breaking.  I was scared.  I just kept thinking that a shark could eat me.  When a big wave came, he let go and there I was going across the water.  Then it stopped and then another wave hit me and I was in the shallow water and my knee was scraping the sand.  It was like rubbing my knee with sand paper.  I didn’t do it again. 

I just stood there and watched them use the board.  

Row your boat.

Today is the last day of school for children.  My son is now a 6th grader.  Yesterday they had a graduation for the 5th graders.  My son wanted to dress up.  They told him to dress up for this graduation, so I took him shopping.  I just got him a button down shirt and it came with a clip on tie.  I took it home and ironed it and told him to just wear it with his blue jeans.  He wore the outfit the next morning.  He was the only one in the whole class that dress up that much.  He didn’t care, he liked it.  There were a few girls who wore dresses.  A couple of boys wore a button down shirt.  Most of the kids wore shorts and a tank top or t-shirt.  Some of the stuff looked like they pulled it out of a dirty clothes basket.  The program lasted 2 hours.  They gave out medals and awards.  I am proud to say my son got called up for a medal for his grades.  He got 8 A’s and one B.  They gave out all the straight A students a medal and they gave all the A-B students a medal.  He also got a honor certificate for best in Science class from his teacher.  The principal even said he looked really nice.  I am glad this school year is over and now it is time for some fun. 

We bought a canoe at Sam’s Club today.  We have a lot of things to go to this summer.  Monday we are going to go to Myrtle Beach for a few days.  I won’t take the canoe there because that is the ocean.  There are a lot of lakes to go to later on.  Then I will be sitting in the sun, paddeling the canoe.  Jumping in the water and swimming and having fun. 

I bought a new swimsuit today.  K-mart has them onsale for half off.  I hate trying on swimsuits.  They look cute on the hanger but on me, they make me want to run and hide.  When I paid for it, the clerk said “Did you find one OK?”  I said “It does not matter, they all look awful on me.  It makes me not want to buy one.”  She said “Me too, I hate looking at myself in a swimsuit.”  I looked at her, she was thin and looked nice, but she didn’t even like the way she looked in a swim suit.

dream

I had the strangest dream last night.  I don’t  usually remember my dreams, but I tried really hard to remember this one.

I was at work.  The desks were lined up on a hill.  (I have not worked in years, but my old boss was in this dream). 

For some reason I glanced back and saw my friend and this glass box was going to fall down and surround her.  I told her to watch out.  All of the sudden my boss called me up to her desk.  I walked over to her and she said “Why did you warn her?” 

I warned her because she is a good friend.  She told me “Go back to your desk and type 40,000 times that you will keep your mouth shut.”

I went back to my desk that had a computer on it and tried to type something and it would not type.  I kept thinking tha I would not be able to write that 40,000 times.  It really bothered me.  Then stuff started dissappearing, like my computer screen.  Then all of the sudden I was outside trying to walk back to the room that I was in before.  I finally made it back but everyone was in this room enjoying this show and I was not allowed in.  My boss said I better get busy, I was in a lot of trouble.  I finally got this ride from some guy to go back home.  I guess we were all out of town.  I got into his car and he kept crashing into stuff, like a train, and then we slid sideways and crashed into something else.  I finally got out of his car and went back to the room where all the people that I worked with was.  I could hear this great band playing but I could not get in to join everybody because I had to type that stupid punishment thing.  I then woke up. 

I guess deep down, I hated that supervisor.  I used to work in Scope.  It was typing all day long.  I would enter arrest charges, when the booking sheets came over from the jail.  Once a year you got your evaluation.  The boss calls you in and says you are doing great, but try to increase your entries a little more.  She never entered the stuff and didn’t even know how to answer a hard question.    My friend that was in the dream never worked with me.  I don’t know why she was in the dream.  She lives in Colorado and I have not seen her in years.    It was just a stupid dream.

Growth

This is really tiny, but it is the start of a cucumber.  I have a lot of these on my plants I planted.  They are growing fast.  We have had a lot of rain so the plants are growing and growing.

This is on my squash plants.  It is a beautiful yellow flower.  There are a lot of them ready to open up.  I can’t wait to see them grow.

The green beans are growing.  This plant didn’t take long to start growing  beans. 

 Last week I went to the back of my yard and planted some seeds to grow cantalope, watermelon and a pumpkin.  I don’t know if they will grow, I hope so.  I planted a pumpkin plant last year and it didn’t do too well. 

So far only a few onions are growing.  Most of them are not.  I think it got too wet from all the rain. 

Oh yeah, I wanted to tell everyone.  Campbells soup is giving away tomato seeds.  just visit

HelpGrowYourSoup.com/seeds            You go there and enter a code from a can of soup and they will send you seeds. I did it so I have the seeds for next year.  They also send them to schools too.  I love Campbell’s tomato soup.  I think it is neat that they are giving away their seeds. 

I often go sit out by my garden and just look at it.  My favorite color is green, so looking at all the green plants growing makes me happy.  I love how the cucumber wraps itself around the wire. 

We went shopping today.  I was walking into Kroger and this lady was walking out to her car, talking on her cellphone.  She was talking loud.  People tend to talk really loud on their phones, so everyone can hear them.

This is what I heard.

“I tell you I HATE everyone today.  I hate hearing them when they open their mouths.  I HATE them.”

Gee, wonderful, something I wanted to know.  Well lady, I HATE you talking on your cellphone so loud that the whole world can hear about how you HATE everybody. 

Whenever we go into a store to look for something, it seems that people come up and stand right in front  of you to see what you are looking at.  It really upsets my hubby.  The people will just stand right in front of him and then walk away without even buying anything.  I told my husband the next time someone does that, just fart.  Fart really loud.  I bet they would move really fast.  We were in the store the other day looking for something and my hubby farted really loud.  “Euwwww, that is awful.” I said.   It never fails though, like when you go to a show, it is really packed.  There is one seat open next to you and some old guy comes up and sits right next to you in that one seat.  Then he proceeds to fart for the entire show and you are gagging and dying, and you look at them and they act like they didn’t. 

My son says there is this one teacher at his school and she walked up and down the room, farting the whole time.  She just farts all the time and acts like she didn’t.  That is just gross.