Thursday, Nov, 4 - San Antonio, TX
Today, we spent the day in San Antonio visiting various sights. We arrived in San Antonio yesterday afternoon, after traveling almost 600 miles from Las Cruces, NM, where we left from on Tuesday morning. I have to say that this drive through West Texas was the most boring drive since we first went "on the road" in September, 2008! There ain't nothin' out there, folks! We didn't even see any wildlife. Guess it's just too desolate for them, as well. Occasionally, we passed through a small town, but these were very few and very far between. This is not a good place to experience a mechanical breakdown, and we didn't, thank goodness! But, fortunately, we made it into San Antonio without any problems, and are staying in a campground about 12 miles southeast of the city, on I-35 in Van Ormy, Texas.
As I mentioned, above, we spent today seeing the sights in San Antonio. We started out by visiting The Alamo. I have not been here since 1963, and I could not believe what the area around the Alamo Shrine looks like. Back in '63, there was absolutely nothing like the hotels and shops which surround the area today. Even within the grounds of the Alamo, new buildings have been constructed to house various things, such as the museum, which houses memorabilia from the John Wayne movie "The Alamo". Also, there have been lots of changes made within the Alamo itself. There are NO PHOTOS allowed inside the Alamo; rooms have been closed off, only allowing you to see into the room; and there are now lots of garden areas around the Alamo, which didn't exist back in the '60s. One other thing I noticed, the floors are now tiled with stone. Back in '63, they were dirt floors!
After touring the Alamo, we walked the short distance to the River Walk. Again, this did not exist back in '63. In fact, back then it would have been suicide to visit that area. It had a reputation for being "home" to many gangs. There were many crimes committed there, not the least of which was murder! Not a good place to find yourself back then. Now, however, the whole area has been transformed into a wonderful place to visit. There are many shops and restaurants along the way; barges to ferry you to places along the way if you are too tired to walk; a theater with seats of grass; and a peaceful place to sit quietly, if desired. I would recommend this as a "must see", if you ever find yourself in San Antonio. It takes less than an hour to walk totally around the River Walk, even at a leisurely pace.
From the River Walk, we continued over to the west side of the city to "El Mercanto", the Old Market Place. This is a series of small shops inside of a large building. There is a walkway through the building, with shops on either side of the walkway. You can find lots of hand-crafted items, along with many production items here. Unfortunately, we were not able to take any pictures in here, but the shops were quite interesting.
Later this afternoon, we visited Lackland Air Force Base, where I spent part of my enlistment in the Air Force. I really don't remember much about the base, mostly because, as a recruit, you don't really get to see very much. We ended up here by mistake, while searching for a Post Office. The GPS directed us to the base, indicating that there was a Post Office there. Turns out that there is a Post Office on the base, but they wouldn't let us get to it! I never realized, during my training days here, how big this base actually is! I believe that part of the reason that it is so big today is that it has taken over part of what used to be Kelly Air Force Base, where I finished up my enlistment. Kelly has been closed, and most of the facility has been "privatized". The airfield, which was once part of Kelly, is now a part of Lackland. When I was stationed here, Lackland and Kelly were located across the highway from each other. The highway, now called Military Drive, cuts through Lackland AFB now.
Tomorrow we will continue our push toward Tampa, FL. We will probably spend one more night in Texas, since we still have over 300 miles to travel through it, and part of that trip takes us through Houston (Oh, Joy!!).
As usual, our photographs are here: Gallery.me.com/cbenoitiii
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Visiting with the Collinets in Tucson, AZ
Tucson, AZ - Sunday, October 31 (Happy Birthday, AJ!)
My last post, almost two weeks ago now, was from Camp Verde, just prior to our visit to Jerome and Sedona. We also visited Montezuma's Castle, a National Historic Site, there in Camp Verde, AZ. You may have already seen the photos of those visits, as I posted them, but did not write a blog.
Since then, we have traveled to Mesa, where we worked an RV show this past week, from Wednesday, 10/27 through Saturday, 10/30. The show closed Saturday at noon, so we decided to pack up and head down to Tucson on Saturday afternoon. It was a short drive of about 2 hours (allowing about 20 minutes for a fuel stop).
We arrived in the Tucson area at about 5PM Saturday afternoon. We found a campground which is located about 15 miles from the Collinet's home. The campground, the "A bar A", is in the town of Marana, AZ, and it is right off of the Interstate (see photo gallery). This morning, we decided to go out to breakfast, and I found a coffee shop not too far from our campground, in Marana. The restaurant is named the "Sky Rider Coffee Shop" because it is located at the Regional Airport in Marana. We took a few photographs outside the coffee shop (also in the "gallery").
Later, around noon, we headed over to Susan and Jean Claude's home for lunch. As luck would have it, Susan and Jean Claude's sons, Christian and Jeremy, were there. Christian, who lives in Colorado, was there for a visit with his daughter, Drew. Jeremy, who lives about 5 minutes from his mom and dad, was there with his wife, Nancy, and their two daughters, Quinn and Jade. We took lots of photographs of our visit. Unfortunately, after I captioned the photos we took and posted them to my gallery, when we reviewed them, none of the captions appear. This makes it extremely difficult to identify who's who in the pictures. So, in an attempt to let you know who is in the pictures, I will try to familiarize you with everyone by listing everyone in the family photo we took.
This is a group photo, and, from left to right, the members are: Christian and daughter, Drew; Jean Claude, Nancy, Quinn, Jeremy, Jade and Susan.
OK, on to our visit! Upon arrival, we met Christian and Jeremy, who were in the driveway. We haven't seen either of them since they were very young boys. Susan and Jean Claude came out and, after hugs and handshakes all around, we went inside for a tour of the house, which is very charming, warm and inviting. Susan and Jean Claude have only lived in this house for about a year, having moved from a bigger, two-story house about a mile from this house. After our tour, we all sat out on the patio to catch up on all those things one never gets to talk about for long at "family gatherings", because there are so many family members to chat with. As we travel around these United States, whenever we get to a location where we have relatives, it is always a priority for us to visit. We get so much more out of these visits because we can really spend time and catch up without interruptions. After a while, we were joined by Nancy, Jeremy's wife, who was working. Nancy is a sign language interpreter. The only family member we did not get to meet was Nicole, Susan and Jean Claude's daughter, who lives in the Phoenix area, and was not able to get to Tucson.
Next, we were treated to a sumptuous luncheon on the patio-not your typical lunch. The weather here is so beautiful that you can enjoy sitting outdoors for meals and not be bothered by BUGS (mosquitoes, yellow jackets, etc.). As we enjoyed our lunch, we got to know the boys, Christian and Jeremy, and Nancy, whom we have never met. We also got to know Lucy, Jean Claude's companion chihuahua (unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of her). Finally, it was time for us to leave. The girls, Quinn, Drew and Jade, were anxious to carve their pumpkins, and the dads were on-deck to do the carving! We departed with a promise to return to the area for a longer visit.
This was a wonderful visit with family, our gracious hosts who were so very welcoming. Thank you Susan and Jean Claude. We hope to return to this area and spend some serious time.
Tomorrow, we begin the loooooong trek to Florida (about 2000 miles). Stay tuned for more posts as we travel east!
Here's the link to the photos: gallery.me.com/cbenoitiii
My last post, almost two weeks ago now, was from Camp Verde, just prior to our visit to Jerome and Sedona. We also visited Montezuma's Castle, a National Historic Site, there in Camp Verde, AZ. You may have already seen the photos of those visits, as I posted them, but did not write a blog.
Since then, we have traveled to Mesa, where we worked an RV show this past week, from Wednesday, 10/27 through Saturday, 10/30. The show closed Saturday at noon, so we decided to pack up and head down to Tucson on Saturday afternoon. It was a short drive of about 2 hours (allowing about 20 minutes for a fuel stop).
We arrived in the Tucson area at about 5PM Saturday afternoon. We found a campground which is located about 15 miles from the Collinet's home. The campground, the "A bar A", is in the town of Marana, AZ, and it is right off of the Interstate (see photo gallery). This morning, we decided to go out to breakfast, and I found a coffee shop not too far from our campground, in Marana. The restaurant is named the "Sky Rider Coffee Shop" because it is located at the Regional Airport in Marana. We took a few photographs outside the coffee shop (also in the "gallery").Later, around noon, we headed over to Susan and Jean Claude's home for lunch. As luck would have it, Susan and Jean Claude's sons, Christian and Jeremy, were there. Christian, who lives in Colorado, was there for a visit with his daughter, Drew. Jeremy, who lives about 5 minutes from his mom and dad, was there with his wife, Nancy, and their two daughters, Quinn and Jade. We took lots of photographs of our visit. Unfortunately, after I captioned the photos we took and posted them to my gallery, when we reviewed them, none of the captions appear. This makes it extremely difficult to identify who's who in the pictures. So, in an attempt to let you know who is in the pictures, I will try to familiarize you with everyone by listing everyone in the family photo we took.
This is a group photo, and, from left to right, the members are: Christian and daughter, Drew; Jean Claude, Nancy, Quinn, Jeremy, Jade and Susan.OK, on to our visit! Upon arrival, we met Christian and Jeremy, who were in the driveway. We haven't seen either of them since they were very young boys. Susan and Jean Claude came out and, after hugs and handshakes all around, we went inside for a tour of the house, which is very charming, warm and inviting. Susan and Jean Claude have only lived in this house for about a year, having moved from a bigger, two-story house about a mile from this house. After our tour, we all sat out on the patio to catch up on all those things one never gets to talk about for long at "family gatherings", because there are so many family members to chat with. As we travel around these United States, whenever we get to a location where we have relatives, it is always a priority for us to visit. We get so much more out of these visits because we can really spend time and catch up without interruptions. After a while, we were joined by Nancy, Jeremy's wife, who was working. Nancy is a sign language interpreter. The only family member we did not get to meet was Nicole, Susan and Jean Claude's daughter, who lives in the Phoenix area, and was not able to get to Tucson.
Next, we were treated to a sumptuous luncheon on the patio-not your typical lunch. The weather here is so beautiful that you can enjoy sitting outdoors for meals and not be bothered by BUGS (mosquitoes, yellow jackets, etc.). As we enjoyed our lunch, we got to know the boys, Christian and Jeremy, and Nancy, whom we have never met. We also got to know Lucy, Jean Claude's companion chihuahua (unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of her). Finally, it was time for us to leave. The girls, Quinn, Drew and Jade, were anxious to carve their pumpkins, and the dads were on-deck to do the carving! We departed with a promise to return to the area for a longer visit.
This was a wonderful visit with family, our gracious hosts who were so very welcoming. Thank you Susan and Jean Claude. We hope to return to this area and spend some serious time.
Tomorrow, we begin the loooooong trek to Florida (about 2000 miles). Stay tuned for more posts as we travel east!
Here's the link to the photos: gallery.me.com/cbenoitiii
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Oh, Beautiful, for Spacious Skies....
Camp Verde, Arizona - Tuesday, October 19
In my last post, I promised that I would post pictures of Monument Valley if the rain did not prevent us from touring it. That was Sunday. We did have some rain, but it did not start until shortly after 6:30AM Monday, but it was over and the sun appeared by the time we were ready to pull out of the campground. After stopping for breakfast, we did, indeed, visit Monument Valley, and the scenery there is nothing short of fantastic! The photographs have been posted, and you may view them in my "gallery". The link appears at the end of this post (as usual).
For those who have not had the opportunity to visit Monument Valley, you MUST put it on your "bucket list" of things to do before you die! All I can say is that the scenery there, the rock formations, the plains, everything, is breathtaking. Around every corner there is another unbelievable sight to behold. As we were driving through, taking our photos, I said to Kathy, "I don't think it is possible to view the majestic sights we have seen in this country and not believe that there is, indeed, a GOD in Heaven who created it."
From Monument Valley, we traveled down to Flagstaff, AZ to spend Monday night (in a Wal-Mart parking lot). We also took photographs on the drive to Flagstaff, because the scenery changed, yet again! Toward the end of those photos, you will see photos of the San Francisco Peaks, which rise to a height of approximately 12,500 feet above sea level. Some of the peaks are actually shrouded in clouds and cannot be seen in the pics. The point at which we took the photographs, along US89S, was over 7,000 feet, just before dropping to below 5,000 feet into Flagstaff.
This morning, after breakfast, we continued south, now on I-17, to Camp Verde, where we will spend the next few days before continuing to Mesa for our show. The campground where we will be staying is about 25 miles from Sedona, right off of the Interstate. This is one of the best campgrounds we have visited on this trip. All the lots are paved with concrete; there is a pool and spa (hot tub), which are still open, a store, a lounge with FREE coffee, and the most beautiful views. Be sure to check out those photographs, as well. Wilson and Beasley are in heaven here! The weather is perfect, as well.
Tomorrow we will visit historic Jerome in the morning, then we will take in Sedona after lunch. We will take pictures of whatever there is to photograph, and those will appear in my "gallery" soon.
Here is the link to my "gallery":
http://gallery.me.com/cbenoitiii
In my last post, I promised that I would post pictures of Monument Valley if the rain did not prevent us from touring it. That was Sunday. We did have some rain, but it did not start until shortly after 6:30AM Monday, but it was over and the sun appeared by the time we were ready to pull out of the campground. After stopping for breakfast, we did, indeed, visit Monument Valley, and the scenery there is nothing short of fantastic! The photographs have been posted, and you may view them in my "gallery". The link appears at the end of this post (as usual).
For those who have not had the opportunity to visit Monument Valley, you MUST put it on your "bucket list" of things to do before you die! All I can say is that the scenery there, the rock formations, the plains, everything, is breathtaking. Around every corner there is another unbelievable sight to behold. As we were driving through, taking our photos, I said to Kathy, "I don't think it is possible to view the majestic sights we have seen in this country and not believe that there is, indeed, a GOD in Heaven who created it."
From Monument Valley, we traveled down to Flagstaff, AZ to spend Monday night (in a Wal-Mart parking lot). We also took photographs on the drive to Flagstaff, because the scenery changed, yet again! Toward the end of those photos, you will see photos of the San Francisco Peaks, which rise to a height of approximately 12,500 feet above sea level. Some of the peaks are actually shrouded in clouds and cannot be seen in the pics. The point at which we took the photographs, along US89S, was over 7,000 feet, just before dropping to below 5,000 feet into Flagstaff.
This morning, after breakfast, we continued south, now on I-17, to Camp Verde, where we will spend the next few days before continuing to Mesa for our show. The campground where we will be staying is about 25 miles from Sedona, right off of the Interstate. This is one of the best campgrounds we have visited on this trip. All the lots are paved with concrete; there is a pool and spa (hot tub), which are still open, a store, a lounge with FREE coffee, and the most beautiful views. Be sure to check out those photographs, as well. Wilson and Beasley are in heaven here! The weather is perfect, as well.
Tomorrow we will visit historic Jerome in the morning, then we will take in Sedona after lunch. We will take pictures of whatever there is to photograph, and those will appear in my "gallery" soon.
Here is the link to my "gallery":
http://gallery.me.com/cbenoitiii
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The Great Southwestern United States
Monument Valley, Utah - October 17, 2010
We traveled from Farmington, NM to Monument Valley, UT today, arriving here at about 3:30PM We had great weather to travel, as you will see in the photographs. Yes! I finally figured out how to put my photographs up onto the web from my new Mac Book Pro! In fact, it is even easier to post photos to the web from the Mac using iPhoto than it is using Picasa on the PC.
We recently finished doing a show in Farmington, NM, which ran from last Thursday through Saturday. The show was pretty good and we met lots of great people, both attendees and vendors, at the show. I am amazed at how friendly the people are out here in the Southwestern US. Everywhere we went, people were friendly and helpful. Whenever we asked questions, we were given lots of information, and people seemed genuinely interested in the fact that we traveled here from Massachusetts. That, along with the weather, which has been nothing short of FABULOUS, is what brings us back here. We both love it out here. The landscape scenery is just breathtaking!
On the way to Monument Valley, we made a stop at the Four Corners Monument, which is where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet. The interesting thing about this monument is that, if you do it right, you can touch all four states standing in one spot! Also, as you look around, there are vendors selling various hand-made items. These vendors are all Navajo Indians who live in this area. the Monument is located on Navajo Reservation land, which surrounds the site. If you purchase items from a vendor in each state, the Sales Tax will be different. Arizona had no vendors because their booths were under construction.
Tomorrow, we will attempt to tour Monument Valley. I say "attempt", because rain is predicted, which does not make for good photography. If we do manage to get some photographs, I will post them to the web. If it does rain, it will be the first rain we see since we left Pennsylvania on September 20th.
We are in a campground here in Monument Valley, Utah, for tonight. Tomorrow we will move the motor home down to the Visitors' Center at Monument Valley, if the weather cooperates. Our campsite is located in the middle of a canyon, with walls of red sandstone surrounding us. It is just gorgeous here!
OK! Enough about the Southwest! Here is the link to the web site where you can view my photographs:
Click on this link: http://gallery.me.com/cbenoitiii
You will be able to see all of the photographs I have posted to date, and you will be able to view them all as a slideshow.
We traveled from Farmington, NM to Monument Valley, UT today, arriving here at about 3:30PM We had great weather to travel, as you will see in the photographs. Yes! I finally figured out how to put my photographs up onto the web from my new Mac Book Pro! In fact, it is even easier to post photos to the web from the Mac using iPhoto than it is using Picasa on the PC.
We recently finished doing a show in Farmington, NM, which ran from last Thursday through Saturday. The show was pretty good and we met lots of great people, both attendees and vendors, at the show. I am amazed at how friendly the people are out here in the Southwestern US. Everywhere we went, people were friendly and helpful. Whenever we asked questions, we were given lots of information, and people seemed genuinely interested in the fact that we traveled here from Massachusetts. That, along with the weather, which has been nothing short of FABULOUS, is what brings us back here. We both love it out here. The landscape scenery is just breathtaking!
On the way to Monument Valley, we made a stop at the Four Corners Monument, which is where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet. The interesting thing about this monument is that, if you do it right, you can touch all four states standing in one spot! Also, as you look around, there are vendors selling various hand-made items. These vendors are all Navajo Indians who live in this area. the Monument is located on Navajo Reservation land, which surrounds the site. If you purchase items from a vendor in each state, the Sales Tax will be different. Arizona had no vendors because their booths were under construction.
Tomorrow, we will attempt to tour Monument Valley. I say "attempt", because rain is predicted, which does not make for good photography. If we do manage to get some photographs, I will post them to the web. If it does rain, it will be the first rain we see since we left Pennsylvania on September 20th.
We are in a campground here in Monument Valley, Utah, for tonight. Tomorrow we will move the motor home down to the Visitors' Center at Monument Valley, if the weather cooperates. Our campsite is located in the middle of a canyon, with walls of red sandstone surrounding us. It is just gorgeous here!
OK! Enough about the Southwest! Here is the link to the web site where you can view my photographs:
Click on this link: http://gallery.me.com/cbenoitiii
You will be able to see all of the photographs I have posted to date, and you will be able to view them all as a slideshow.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Sleep Numbers, Buffalo Burgers, et al.
Santa Fe, New Mexico - October 10
Santa Fe is such a great place to visit. Lots to see and do here, in addition to its having wonderful restaurants. We arrived here on Saturday afternoon and checked into a campground just to the northeast of the city. After getting settled, we drove into the city and walked around a bit, had a bite to eat, and went to Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. This was our second visit to the city of Santa Fe. We were here exactly one year ago this weekend, again, on our way out to Farmington, New Mexico. If you get the opportunity to visit New Mexico, be sure to make the city of Santa Fe one of your "must see" cities.
While here, we did experience a minor problem. We have one of those "Sleep Number" beds in our coach. Last year, we realized that the mattress has a tendency to expand in this thin high desert air. What clued us in to this was the fact that all of the bags of snacks we brought, which we had not yet opened, were looking like they were about to explode! Our bed has the same tendency! We were able to deflate it somewhat last year, but this year, as luck would have it, neither of our controllers are working for some reason. So, having no way to deflate the mattress, it got as hard as a rock!! I knew that this could not be a good thing, so I began making some calls. However, it being Sunday morning, I had no luck contacting the company. So, being the resourceful person I am, I began calling stores in the area to see if they sold Sleep Number mattresses. I finally found a store in Albuquerque and they were able to guide me through deflating the mattress a bit so that it would not explode. However, I still cannot use either of the controllers - they are both "dead".
This afternoon, we went out for a late lunch/early supper, and ended up at a little place down the road from our campground. It is called "Harry's Road House". We had noticed it yesterday, and every time we passed by, the parking lot seemed to be full.
Now you know that, if a restaurant is packed, it MUST BE GOOD, right? In this case, it was true. When we arrived, the lot was, indeed, full! We managed to find a place to park, out back. We discussed whether we would even go in, because it was sooo busy. In the end, we did go in, and we were seated immediately! This place was deceiving in size, to say the least. Kathy had a margarita and I had a frosty Corona - both were delicious, and reasonably priced! Dinner for me was a Buffalo Burger with fries. I had never had a buffalo burger before, so I was a bit leery. I had heard that they are as good as, if not tastier than sirloin. I was pleasantly surprised when I took my first bite. It was delicious, and cooked to perfection, medium. If you get the chance to try a buffalo burger, go for it! You will not be disappointed, I promise!
Prior to coming to Santa Fe, we spent a night in Tucumcari, New Mexico, where we visited the Dinosaur Museum of Mesalands Community College. This was a pretty good take. I took pictures, and the albums links follow this post. For our grandson, Aaron, we met a real-life Paleontologist! His name is Axel Hungerbuehler, Ph. D., and he is a Professor of Natural Science at the college. He is also the museum Curator. We took his picture, along with one of his students, who works at the museum store.
While driving around the town of Tucumcari, we noticed lots of murals painted on the side of various buildings around the town. We also photographed these, and the link for those photos also appears below.
Tomorrow morning we head west to Farmington to prepare for our show, which begins on Thursday morning. Check back soon for my next post, from Farmington.
Here are the album links:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/NewMexicoOct2010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TucumcariNMOct2010?feat=directlink
Santa Fe is such a great place to visit. Lots to see and do here, in addition to its having wonderful restaurants. We arrived here on Saturday afternoon and checked into a campground just to the northeast of the city. After getting settled, we drove into the city and walked around a bit, had a bite to eat, and went to Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. This was our second visit to the city of Santa Fe. We were here exactly one year ago this weekend, again, on our way out to Farmington, New Mexico. If you get the opportunity to visit New Mexico, be sure to make the city of Santa Fe one of your "must see" cities.While here, we did experience a minor problem. We have one of those "Sleep Number" beds in our coach. Last year, we realized that the mattress has a tendency to expand in this thin high desert air. What clued us in to this was the fact that all of the bags of snacks we brought, which we had not yet opened, were looking like they were about to explode! Our bed has the same tendency! We were able to deflate it somewhat last year, but this year, as luck would have it, neither of our controllers are working for some reason. So, having no way to deflate the mattress, it got as hard as a rock!! I knew that this could not be a good thing, so I began making some calls. However, it being Sunday morning, I had no luck contacting the company. So, being the resourceful person I am, I began calling stores in the area to see if they sold Sleep Number mattresses. I finally found a store in Albuquerque and they were able to guide me through deflating the mattress a bit so that it would not explode. However, I still cannot use either of the controllers - they are both "dead".
This afternoon, we went out for a late lunch/early supper, and ended up at a little place down the road from our campground. It is called "Harry's Road House". We had noticed it yesterday, and every time we passed by, the parking lot seemed to be full.
Now you know that, if a restaurant is packed, it MUST BE GOOD, right? In this case, it was true. When we arrived, the lot was, indeed, full! We managed to find a place to park, out back. We discussed whether we would even go in, because it was sooo busy. In the end, we did go in, and we were seated immediately! This place was deceiving in size, to say the least. Kathy had a margarita and I had a frosty Corona - both were delicious, and reasonably priced! Dinner for me was a Buffalo Burger with fries. I had never had a buffalo burger before, so I was a bit leery. I had heard that they are as good as, if not tastier than sirloin. I was pleasantly surprised when I took my first bite. It was delicious, and cooked to perfection, medium. If you get the chance to try a buffalo burger, go for it! You will not be disappointed, I promise!Prior to coming to Santa Fe, we spent a night in Tucumcari, New Mexico, where we visited the Dinosaur Museum of Mesalands Community College. This was a pretty good take. I took pictures, and the albums links follow this post. For our grandson, Aaron, we met a real-life Paleontologist! His name is Axel Hungerbuehler, Ph. D., and he is a Professor of Natural Science at the college. He is also the museum Curator. We took his picture, along with one of his students, who works at the museum store.
While driving around the town of Tucumcari, we noticed lots of murals painted on the side of various buildings around the town. We also photographed these, and the link for those photos also appears below.
Tomorrow morning we head west to Farmington to prepare for our show, which begins on Thursday morning. Check back soon for my next post, from Farmington.
Here are the album links:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/NewMexicoOct2010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TucumcariNMOct2010?feat=directlink
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Branson, Missouri
Clinton, OK - Thursday, October 7
Branson, Missouri is the place to visit if you like shows, i.e., musicals, variety shows, comedy shows, whatever. You can find it all here in Branson. We were very pleasantly surprised at how great a place this is to visit. We were expecting something entirely different from what Branson actually is. We had heard that it was the "Las Vegas" of the mid-west. Nothing could be further from the truth. It doesn't have the "glitz" of Vegas, nor are the shows as bawdy (no nudity, no foul language, no off-color jokes), just good, clean fun. Most of the headliners here we NEVER EVEN HEARD OF! They did, however, put on very classy, entertaining shows. Other stars you would have known were way past their heydays, but still put on fabulous shows. Case in point, the Andy Williams Show. We saw this show on Tuesday evening, and even though Andy Williams is 83 years young, he can still belt out the tunes! We thoroughly enjoyed his show, which reminded us of his TV Variety Show of years ago. His revue consisted of four sisters who sang and danced and accompanied Andy on several numbers, the Warnock Sisters; a violinist who is billed as "the world's fastest fiddle player"; a singer who does impressions of various "old timers", such as Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, to name a few. He was very good. To top it all off, he also had an "Elvis" impersonator who was excellent. He really looked like, acted like, and sang like the late Mr. Presley! As I said, a fabulous show, and well worth seeing, if you get to Branson in the not too distant future. Another show we got to see was "SIX", which is billed as the "hottest show in Branson". This show consisted of six brothers, the Knudsons, who sing and perform musical sets using only their own voices! One brother does percussion (drums, etc.); another does a trumpet; one does the bass fiddle (awesome!). Sitting there, you would swear there you were listening to a live band accompanying them. This show was electrifying, if I may say so; thoroughly entertaining. We left the theater feeling like we had seen a broadway performance!
OK, the best part of the shows would have to be the fact that we only paid $30 for two tickets to each show!!! How did we manage that? While walking downtown in Branson, we stopped into a store where they were selling discounted show tickets. Little did we know that these so-called "discounted ticket" shops are fronts for time-share type vacation packages. Soooo, we ended up spending Tuesday afternoon listening to a presentation for "Stormy Pointe", a "Nantucket-style" development on Table Rock Lake! I felt bad for the young man who got us. We let him go through the whole spiel, take us down to see the "houses", then bring us back for the "kill"! I told him that we were only there for the "cheap tickets", and had no intention of buying into anything, no matter how good a deal it might be!!! We got our tickets and ran!
We really need to spend more time in Branson to see everything there is to see. We found out on Wednesday evening that there was so much more to see there when we got together for cocktails with Lynn and Bill Groninger, the couple who own the campground we stayed at. They own a home here in Branson, and have lived there for 17 years! We met them down in Tampa last January at the Tampa RV Super Show. They had the booth right next to ours, and we got to know them. When we got the opportunity to visit Branson, we contacted them and made arrangements to stay at their campground. They are a lovely couple, and graciously entertained us with cocktails at their home. We got to meet Lynn's mom, Bucky, who shares their home. The campground they own is Branson Shenanigans RV Park, and is located on the west side of Branson, on the "Yellow Route", which is the main drag where most of the top-rated shows and hotels are located.
We also got to visit Branson Landing, which is located along the shores of Lake Taneycomo (which stands for "TANEY COunty, MO"), and is lined with high-end shops like Chico's, Coach, et al. It is also home to some of the best restaurants in Branson. The restaurants up on the "strip" are mostly "buffet-type" restaurants, while the restaurants down at "the Landing" are much nicer, and offer full menus of entrees. We had lunch at a restaurant called "The Texas Land and Cattle" restaurant. This was the best meal we ate while in Branson, even though it was only lunch! We had their "Signature Sirloin and Wedge" salad, which is served with 8 oz. of sirloin, cooked to perfection and sliced, a large wedge of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and topped with bleu cheese dressing - awesome!
We are now sitting in a casino parking lot in Clinton, Oklahoma - the Lucky Star Casino, which is operated by some indian tribe, Cherokee, I think. We have a 50 amp electrical connection (no charge). When we got settled and put out our slides, a van came and picked us up and drove us to the casino, where we had a 'burger for dinner. As it happens, tonight is "Men's Night", which means men get a $10 voucher to play a slot machine. I signed up and got my voucher for $10. After we ate, we picked out a "Wheel of Fortune" slot to play. I put my voucher into the machine and began to play. I hit a couple of minor winners, but nothing significant. As my credit was getting down, I began to "double" my bets, to see if I could do any better. As luck would have it, I hit for 1600 points (quarters), in addition to the credits I already had. We walked out of the casino $408.50 richer than we walked in with! Not bad for a free play, eh?? That will help pay for our fuel to Farmington and Mesa.
I have to apologize for not having any pictures to put up here. I am using my new Mac Book Pro, and I don't yet know how to put them here. Maybe I should use my old DELL PC when I blog. Oh, well....
OK, that's all for now. Gotta get some sleep - early start tomorrow.
Branson, Missouri is the place to visit if you like shows, i.e., musicals, variety shows, comedy shows, whatever. You can find it all here in Branson. We were very pleasantly surprised at how great a place this is to visit. We were expecting something entirely different from what Branson actually is. We had heard that it was the "Las Vegas" of the mid-west. Nothing could be further from the truth. It doesn't have the "glitz" of Vegas, nor are the shows as bawdy (no nudity, no foul language, no off-color jokes), just good, clean fun. Most of the headliners here we NEVER EVEN HEARD OF! They did, however, put on very classy, entertaining shows. Other stars you would have known were way past their heydays, but still put on fabulous shows. Case in point, the Andy Williams Show. We saw this show on Tuesday evening, and even though Andy Williams is 83 years young, he can still belt out the tunes! We thoroughly enjoyed his show, which reminded us of his TV Variety Show of years ago. His revue consisted of four sisters who sang and danced and accompanied Andy on several numbers, the Warnock Sisters; a violinist who is billed as "the world's fastest fiddle player"; a singer who does impressions of various "old timers", such as Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, to name a few. He was very good. To top it all off, he also had an "Elvis" impersonator who was excellent. He really looked like, acted like, and sang like the late Mr. Presley! As I said, a fabulous show, and well worth seeing, if you get to Branson in the not too distant future. Another show we got to see was "SIX", which is billed as the "hottest show in Branson". This show consisted of six brothers, the Knudsons, who sing and perform musical sets using only their own voices! One brother does percussion (drums, etc.); another does a trumpet; one does the bass fiddle (awesome!). Sitting there, you would swear there you were listening to a live band accompanying them. This show was electrifying, if I may say so; thoroughly entertaining. We left the theater feeling like we had seen a broadway performance!
OK, the best part of the shows would have to be the fact that we only paid $30 for two tickets to each show!!! How did we manage that? While walking downtown in Branson, we stopped into a store where they were selling discounted show tickets. Little did we know that these so-called "discounted ticket" shops are fronts for time-share type vacation packages. Soooo, we ended up spending Tuesday afternoon listening to a presentation for "Stormy Pointe", a "Nantucket-style" development on Table Rock Lake! I felt bad for the young man who got us. We let him go through the whole spiel, take us down to see the "houses", then bring us back for the "kill"! I told him that we were only there for the "cheap tickets", and had no intention of buying into anything, no matter how good a deal it might be!!! We got our tickets and ran!
We really need to spend more time in Branson to see everything there is to see. We found out on Wednesday evening that there was so much more to see there when we got together for cocktails with Lynn and Bill Groninger, the couple who own the campground we stayed at. They own a home here in Branson, and have lived there for 17 years! We met them down in Tampa last January at the Tampa RV Super Show. They had the booth right next to ours, and we got to know them. When we got the opportunity to visit Branson, we contacted them and made arrangements to stay at their campground. They are a lovely couple, and graciously entertained us with cocktails at their home. We got to meet Lynn's mom, Bucky, who shares their home. The campground they own is Branson Shenanigans RV Park, and is located on the west side of Branson, on the "Yellow Route", which is the main drag where most of the top-rated shows and hotels are located.
We also got to visit Branson Landing, which is located along the shores of Lake Taneycomo (which stands for "TANEY COunty, MO"), and is lined with high-end shops like Chico's, Coach, et al. It is also home to some of the best restaurants in Branson. The restaurants up on the "strip" are mostly "buffet-type" restaurants, while the restaurants down at "the Landing" are much nicer, and offer full menus of entrees. We had lunch at a restaurant called "The Texas Land and Cattle" restaurant. This was the best meal we ate while in Branson, even though it was only lunch! We had their "Signature Sirloin and Wedge" salad, which is served with 8 oz. of sirloin, cooked to perfection and sliced, a large wedge of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and topped with bleu cheese dressing - awesome!
We are now sitting in a casino parking lot in Clinton, Oklahoma - the Lucky Star Casino, which is operated by some indian tribe, Cherokee, I think. We have a 50 amp electrical connection (no charge). When we got settled and put out our slides, a van came and picked us up and drove us to the casino, where we had a 'burger for dinner. As it happens, tonight is "Men's Night", which means men get a $10 voucher to play a slot machine. I signed up and got my voucher for $10. After we ate, we picked out a "Wheel of Fortune" slot to play. I put my voucher into the machine and began to play. I hit a couple of minor winners, but nothing significant. As my credit was getting down, I began to "double" my bets, to see if I could do any better. As luck would have it, I hit for 1600 points (quarters), in addition to the credits I already had. We walked out of the casino $408.50 richer than we walked in with! Not bad for a free play, eh?? That will help pay for our fuel to Farmington and Mesa.
I have to apologize for not having any pictures to put up here. I am using my new Mac Book Pro, and I don't yet know how to put them here. Maybe I should use my old DELL PC when I blog. Oh, well....
OK, that's all for now. Gotta get some sleep - early start tomorrow.
Monday, October 4, 2010
The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful!
Branson, Missouri, Monday, October 4:
We arrived in Branson this afternoon at about 2:30PM, after a pleasant drive from Little Rock, AR, where we spent one night. We traveled to Little Rock from Shreveport, LA on Sunday. As most of you know, we worked an RV show in Shreveport from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. We had a great time doing this show. The people in charge were very nice, as were the attendees. They just made all the vendors feel welcome and important. Speaking of the vendors, we were with a great group of vendors here. The weather cooperated, and we were able to sit outside at the end of each day and talk and get to know each other better. On Thursday evening, a group of about 20 of us all went out to dinner at a local restaurant for catfish. It was my first time eating that "southern delicacy". All I can say is that the company and conversation was better than the meal! We had lots of laughs (and beer!).
Another note from the Shreveport show - we attended a Catholic Mass on Saturday afternoon at the Rally. The celebrants (Priests) were two brothers who are chaplains for FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association), Eastern Region. Both are now retired and are full-time RVers. They spend their "off-time" in Virginia, and they travel to rallies on the eastern part of the country for FMCA. Anyway, long story short, when we were getting the motor home set up at the campground in Little Rock, AR, the two priests also checked in, and parked a couple of spaces away from us. I introduced myself, and we had a long, interesting conversation, which is how I learned so much about them.
So, interesting title for this post, eh? We were supposed to meet Don, Toni, Deara and Rick here tomorrow. However, since D & T just moved into their new home, they decided to cancel the trip and stay home to work on the house. So, I thought I would dedicate this blog post to them. The weather here is beautiful, and they are not here.
Branson, Missouri, is quite an interesting place. It is a lot like Vegas, with shows and restaurants everywhere you look, but no casinos/gambling (not that we've seen yet, anyway). What we have discovered, though, is that everything here is on a hill!! It is very hilly here, not flat, like Vegas. That makes walking a challenge, especially for us old folks. But, if you're into vegas-style shows, but don't like the vegas-style prices, this is the place to come. The show prices seem to be quite reasonable, compared to what we paid to see shows in Vegas. We have not actually seen a show, as yet. We may take one in tomorrow night. We will spend tomorrow sight-seeing around the town. Hopefully, we'll get lots of pictures to post.
FYI: Wilson and Beasley are both doing very well on their prescribed diets. They are happy and playful, and loving the weather. Kathy and I are also well, knock on wood!
Stay tuned for my next post and stay healthy!
We arrived in Branson this afternoon at about 2:30PM, after a pleasant drive from Little Rock, AR, where we spent one night. We traveled to Little Rock from Shreveport, LA on Sunday. As most of you know, we worked an RV show in Shreveport from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. We had a great time doing this show. The people in charge were very nice, as were the attendees. They just made all the vendors feel welcome and important. Speaking of the vendors, we were with a great group of vendors here. The weather cooperated, and we were able to sit outside at the end of each day and talk and get to know each other better. On Thursday evening, a group of about 20 of us all went out to dinner at a local restaurant for catfish. It was my first time eating that "southern delicacy". All I can say is that the company and conversation was better than the meal! We had lots of laughs (and beer!).
Another note from the Shreveport show - we attended a Catholic Mass on Saturday afternoon at the Rally. The celebrants (Priests) were two brothers who are chaplains for FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association), Eastern Region. Both are now retired and are full-time RVers. They spend their "off-time" in Virginia, and they travel to rallies on the eastern part of the country for FMCA. Anyway, long story short, when we were getting the motor home set up at the campground in Little Rock, AR, the two priests also checked in, and parked a couple of spaces away from us. I introduced myself, and we had a long, interesting conversation, which is how I learned so much about them.
So, interesting title for this post, eh? We were supposed to meet Don, Toni, Deara and Rick here tomorrow. However, since D & T just moved into their new home, they decided to cancel the trip and stay home to work on the house. So, I thought I would dedicate this blog post to them. The weather here is beautiful, and they are not here.
Branson, Missouri, is quite an interesting place. It is a lot like Vegas, with shows and restaurants everywhere you look, but no casinos/gambling (not that we've seen yet, anyway). What we have discovered, though, is that everything here is on a hill!! It is very hilly here, not flat, like Vegas. That makes walking a challenge, especially for us old folks. But, if you're into vegas-style shows, but don't like the vegas-style prices, this is the place to come. The show prices seem to be quite reasonable, compared to what we paid to see shows in Vegas. We have not actually seen a show, as yet. We may take one in tomorrow night. We will spend tomorrow sight-seeing around the town. Hopefully, we'll get lots of pictures to post.
FYI: Wilson and Beasley are both doing very well on their prescribed diets. They are happy and playful, and loving the weather. Kathy and I are also well, knock on wood!
Stay tuned for my next post and stay healthy!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Is There a Doctor in the House???
Before I begin this blog's subject, I came across this picture on my computer while getting ready to post tonight's entry and I had to include it. Last month, after we returned from Louisville via Red Bay via Louisville via Hershey, We got to spend some time with all of our boys! Chad flew in from LA with Renee; Mike, Lisa and Ava came up from Newport, RI, where they had spent the early part of the week, and we were all together for the first time in a long time. It was really great to actually spend time as a family, without outside influences, and just talk and reminisce. As part of our weekend activities, we played "Banana-Grams", which is kind of like "Scrabble", only free-style. If you've never played, take it from me, this is a great game and can be lots of laughs, as evidenced by the photograph! OK, on to today's topic.
Shreveport, LA - Friday, September 24
We arrived in Shreveport this afternoon from a small Mississippi town called Canton. Ever hear of it? Canton, MS in host to the Nissan Manufacturing plant. It is quite a large facility out in the western side of Canton, right off of I-55. As we were driving through Canton on our way to the campground, there were banners hanging on the light posts describing Canton as a city with a "bright future", and others touting it as the "home of NISSAN". The town itself is not very impressive. Kinda like Mayberry, RFD, if you know what I mean.
What were we doing in Canton, you might ask? I refer you to the title of this blog entry. Earlier in the day, after leaving Tiffin Motor Homes in Red Bay, AL, we decided to travel down to Jackson, MS via the Natchez Trace Parkway. If you will remember, we drove north to Nashville on "the Trace" last month, again after leaving Red Bay. Anyway, we stopped for lunch on "the Trace" and Kathy made sandwiches while I walked the dogs. Shortly after having lunch, I started experiencing what I can only refer to as severe abdominal distress (cramps). It got so bad that we pulled over again and I stretched out on the couch for a while to see if I could get the cramping to stop. After a while, when I realized that they weren't going to stop that easily, we continued on our way south to Jackson. As the afternoon wore on, the cramping seemed to be getting progressively worse. We decided to find a campground to spend the night where I might possibly find medical assistance if we needed it. The closest campground happened to be in Canton, so.... Long story short, after getting set up in the campground, I started feeling feverish, so I took a couple of Tylenol and went to bed. When I awoke a couple of hours later, I felt much better, as the cramping had subsided completely (phew! Thank God for that!!).
Needless to say, I did not eat anything last night! This morning I awoke feeling so much better and more rested than I had felt since we left Hamilton two weeks ago. I had a light breakfast (cold cereal/banana), and experienced no recurrence of the cramping. After a 4.5 hour drive, we arrived here in Shreveport a few days early for our next show, which starts next Wednesday and runs through Saturday. We have never done this show before, so we are hopeful that it will be a good one.
Stay tuned for my next post and I will have news on this show. Until then, hope everyone is well.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
On The Road Again....
Wednesday, September 22 - Red Bay, AL
When last I posted a blog, we had spent a week in Louisville, then made another trip down to Alabama to have the motor home worked on. We were in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures in the high 90's.
We are now back in Alabama to have more work done on the motor home, and the temperatures are still up in the 90's during the day. It is now 7:45PM and the temperature outside is currently 85 degrees. Oh well, at least it's not snowing and freezing cold.
We left Hamilton on September 11, headed to Hershey, PA, to work another RV show. We made a brief stop in Rye Brook, NY to visit Mike, Lisa and Ava before heading out, since we will be "on the road" now until November, when we will end up back in Florida.
The show in Hershey was pretty good, but very long! We arrived in Hershey on Sunday, 9/12, and checked into the campground. Then we headed out to the show venue, the Giant Center in Hershey, to set up our booth. The show began on Monday morning with what they refer to as "Trade Days", when RV dealers come to the show to look at the newest models and place orders. The trade days went from 9AM to 4PM on Monday and Tuesday. The actual show opened to the public on Wednesday at 9AM and ran until 8PM daily, through Saturday. On Sunday, the last day, the hours were 9AM to 5PM, then we had to break down our display and pack it up. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the motor home, and were in bed early. On Monday, we visited the Chocolate Factory, where Hershey candies are made. We were on the road by 1PM, headed down to Atlanta to pick up more product.
We spent Monday night in a Walmart parking lot in Virginia. We were awakened on Tuesday morning at 6:45AM with some guy knocking on the door. When I got up to see who was there, we were informed that we would have to move out because they were painting lines in the parking lot! So much for sleeping in! We were out of there by 7:30AM. We drove to South Carolina on Tuesday, arriving in Townville, SC shortly before 5PM at a campground where we spent that night, so that Kathy could get some laundry done. We were about 90 minutes from Atlanta.
This morning we rose and set out for Atlanta to make our pick-up. Now, I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but the "human compass" (me) screwed up when mapping our route. We had planned to park the motor home in a Walmart parking lot and drive the car to make the pick-up, since we were not sure of the area and did not know if we could actually drive the motorhome into the area. The Walmart I selected was northwest of Atlanta, in Marietta, while our pickup was on the southeast side of the city, in Forest Park. When we realized our (my) mistake, we drove the motorhome down to the Forest Park area and found the location of our supplier. As luck would have it, they were located in an industrial area, with plenty of room for the motorhome.
After making our pick up, we left Atlanta and headed out to Red Bay, Alabama, where we are now. We have an appointment tomorrow morning to have the jack leveling system checked out, then we will head west, again, toward Shreveport, where our next show will be held. This one starts next Wednesday, but we have to be there by Tuesday to set up.
Check back often for updates. We will be doing some sightseeing along the way to Shreveport.
When last I posted a blog, we had spent a week in Louisville, then made another trip down to Alabama to have the motor home worked on. We were in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures in the high 90's.
We are now back in Alabama to have more work done on the motor home, and the temperatures are still up in the 90's during the day. It is now 7:45PM and the temperature outside is currently 85 degrees. Oh well, at least it's not snowing and freezing cold.
We left Hamilton on September 11, headed to Hershey, PA, to work another RV show. We made a brief stop in Rye Brook, NY to visit Mike, Lisa and Ava before heading out, since we will be "on the road" now until November, when we will end up back in Florida.
The show in Hershey was pretty good, but very long! We arrived in Hershey on Sunday, 9/12, and checked into the campground. Then we headed out to the show venue, the Giant Center in Hershey, to set up our booth. The show began on Monday morning with what they refer to as "Trade Days", when RV dealers come to the show to look at the newest models and place orders. The trade days went from 9AM to 4PM on Monday and Tuesday. The actual show opened to the public on Wednesday at 9AM and ran until 8PM daily, through Saturday. On Sunday, the last day, the hours were 9AM to 5PM, then we had to break down our display and pack it up. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the motor home, and were in bed early. On Monday, we visited the Chocolate Factory, where Hershey candies are made. We were on the road by 1PM, headed down to Atlanta to pick up more product.
We spent Monday night in a Walmart parking lot in Virginia. We were awakened on Tuesday morning at 6:45AM with some guy knocking on the door. When I got up to see who was there, we were informed that we would have to move out because they were painting lines in the parking lot! So much for sleeping in! We were out of there by 7:30AM. We drove to South Carolina on Tuesday, arriving in Townville, SC shortly before 5PM at a campground where we spent that night, so that Kathy could get some laundry done. We were about 90 minutes from Atlanta.
This morning we rose and set out for Atlanta to make our pick-up. Now, I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but the "human compass" (me) screwed up when mapping our route. We had planned to park the motor home in a Walmart parking lot and drive the car to make the pick-up, since we were not sure of the area and did not know if we could actually drive the motorhome into the area. The Walmart I selected was northwest of Atlanta, in Marietta, while our pickup was on the southeast side of the city, in Forest Park. When we realized our (my) mistake, we drove the motorhome down to the Forest Park area and found the location of our supplier. As luck would have it, they were located in an industrial area, with plenty of room for the motorhome.
After making our pick up, we left Atlanta and headed out to Red Bay, Alabama, where we are now. We have an appointment tomorrow morning to have the jack leveling system checked out, then we will head west, again, toward Shreveport, where our next show will be held. This one starts next Wednesday, but we have to be there by Tuesday to set up.
Check back often for updates. We will be doing some sightseeing along the way to Shreveport.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Can You Spell HEAT WAVE?
Wednesday, August 4 - Shepherdsville, KY
I don't know about anyone else, but I can't remember a time in my life when the weather was this hot for this long! We arrived in the Louisville area on Monday, July 19th and the temperature was in the 90's. It stayed there all week, and when we left the area on the following Monday and headed to Alabama, the temperature was still in the 90's. In Alabama, same thing - 90's every day we were there! Since we left Alabama and went to Nashville, then on to Louisville again, the temperature has remained in the 90's. Well, I am happy to say that today we finally got out of the 90's - today's high hit 102 degrees! Yippee!! Add to that the fact that the dew point has been in the 70's, that takes the Heat Index up to about 110 every day. We have not been able to sit outside the motorhome at any time since we left Massachusetts on July 17th.
On a happier note, our parts for the motorhome came in today, and we will be at the repair facility tomorrow AM by 8 to have them installed. With luck, we will be on the road headed home by noon. Barring any unforseen problems after that, we should be pulling in to the driveway sometime on Saturday. We had planned to stop in Pennsylvania to check out the show venue we will be working in September, but we may just decide not to do that. If we do decide to stop, weather permitting heat-wise, we will not make it home until Sunday.
Today it was so hot that we decided not to do any sightseeing or distillery touring. Instead, we went SHOPPING, where it was cool, at least! We stopped at the local Michael's and TJMAXX/Home Goods stores and spent time in the coolness. Yes, we have A/C in the motorhome, but in this heat, the coach only cools down to about 78, but it gets warmer around 4 - 5PM, when it is hottest outside. At the present time, 8:15PM, it is 95 outside and 77.5 inside. As soon as the sun goes down completely, it will cool off enough to sleep comfortably. The roof A/C units (2) have been running constantly since we left on July 17th! Bet they can't wait for this heat to subside, so that they can get some rest!
OK, I've only had one reader comment on last night's little test question regarding the label on our bottle of Maker's Mark #46 (or any bottle of Maker's Mark, for that matter). Here's another hint to help you out: look particularly at the spelling of the words! You'll have to read last nights post to be able to look at the label (unless, of course, you happen to have a bottle handy). Leave your comments at the end of last night's blog, or send me an e-mail with your answer (if you have one).
One last thing before I sign off - we spoke to Steve and Sherry Metz, The DIP Kids, earlier this evening. They are here in Louisville, believe it or not, and we are hoping to get together with them tomorrow morning before we leave the area. They are here for the National Street Rod Show, which is being held at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition, where our show was held two weeks ago. In case you don't know, Steve and Sherry are the couple who is responsible for teaching us the "DIP" business! We are very excited to see them, it's been almost a year since the last time we got together with them!
Check back soon for a report on whether or not we got to see them. Not sure if I will post tomorrow night. I may just wait until we get home. But be sure to check back often. Seems that I've been posting a lot more lately. Guess I'm on a roll, eh?
OK, I'm outta here!
I don't know about anyone else, but I can't remember a time in my life when the weather was this hot for this long! We arrived in the Louisville area on Monday, July 19th and the temperature was in the 90's. It stayed there all week, and when we left the area on the following Monday and headed to Alabama, the temperature was still in the 90's. In Alabama, same thing - 90's every day we were there! Since we left Alabama and went to Nashville, then on to Louisville again, the temperature has remained in the 90's. Well, I am happy to say that today we finally got out of the 90's - today's high hit 102 degrees! Yippee!! Add to that the fact that the dew point has been in the 70's, that takes the Heat Index up to about 110 every day. We have not been able to sit outside the motorhome at any time since we left Massachusetts on July 17th.
On a happier note, our parts for the motorhome came in today, and we will be at the repair facility tomorrow AM by 8 to have them installed. With luck, we will be on the road headed home by noon. Barring any unforseen problems after that, we should be pulling in to the driveway sometime on Saturday. We had planned to stop in Pennsylvania to check out the show venue we will be working in September, but we may just decide not to do that. If we do decide to stop, weather permitting heat-wise, we will not make it home until Sunday.
Today it was so hot that we decided not to do any sightseeing or distillery touring. Instead, we went SHOPPING, where it was cool, at least! We stopped at the local Michael's and TJMAXX/Home Goods stores and spent time in the coolness. Yes, we have A/C in the motorhome, but in this heat, the coach only cools down to about 78, but it gets warmer around 4 - 5PM, when it is hottest outside. At the present time, 8:15PM, it is 95 outside and 77.5 inside. As soon as the sun goes down completely, it will cool off enough to sleep comfortably. The roof A/C units (2) have been running constantly since we left on July 17th! Bet they can't wait for this heat to subside, so that they can get some rest!
OK, I've only had one reader comment on last night's little test question regarding the label on our bottle of Maker's Mark #46 (or any bottle of Maker's Mark, for that matter). Here's another hint to help you out: look particularly at the spelling of the words! You'll have to read last nights post to be able to look at the label (unless, of course, you happen to have a bottle handy). Leave your comments at the end of last night's blog, or send me an e-mail with your answer (if you have one).
One last thing before I sign off - we spoke to Steve and Sherry Metz, The DIP Kids, earlier this evening. They are here in Louisville, believe it or not, and we are hoping to get together with them tomorrow morning before we leave the area. They are here for the National Street Rod Show, which is being held at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition, where our show was held two weeks ago. In case you don't know, Steve and Sherry are the couple who is responsible for teaching us the "DIP" business! We are very excited to see them, it's been almost a year since the last time we got together with them!
Check back soon for a report on whether or not we got to see them. Not sure if I will post tomorrow night. I may just wait until we get home. But be sure to check back often. Seems that I've been posting a lot more lately. Guess I'm on a roll, eh?
OK, I'm outta here!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Another Day in Louisville
Shepherdsville, KY - Tuesday, August 3
This morning, as I was walking the dogs, I noticed that the whole herd of donkeys, etc., was grazing by the fence closest to us at the campground. Of course, Beasley was barking at them the whole time we were out there
. I brought the dogs back to the motorhome and got the camera and Kathy. We went back out by the pasture to see if we could get any good pictures of the animals before the ventured back to the middle of the pasture. The link to these pictures appears, below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/GrandmaSFarmAnimals?feat=directlink
After photographing the animals, we checked with the Cummins dealer, where we are going to have the final repairs done on the motorhome, so see if the parts from Tiffin had come in. They had not, so we decided to do a bit of sightseeing along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. This is the highway where 6 bourbon distillers are located. Because we got a late start this afternoon, we only got to tour one distillery, so we chose to visit the Maker's Mark Distillery , which is located in Loretto, KY. The other distillers include: Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve. These can all be found along, or not far off of, Route 245.
Our tour of Maker's Mark was very interesting and informative. This distillery only uses the barrels the bourbon is aged in ONE TIME! They are then sold to a company in Scotland. Another fact we learned about Maker's Mark is that each bottle is hand-dipped into RED wax heated to 360 degrees to seal the bottles. The reason for this goes back to when the Samuels family began to produce bourbon in the 1800's. Mrs. Samuels was very fond of French Cognac, and those bottles all bore a wax seal. In addition, when you see Maker's Mark on the shelf, the bottles resemble French Cognac bottles in shape. Another fact we learned is that all the employees in the bottling plant of the distillery switch jobs every half-hour.
Our tour ended in the tasting room, where we got to try two samples, one of each variety of bourbon, Standard and #46. The "Standard" version is 90 proof, while the "#46" version is 94 proof. We liked the "#46" version, so we purchased a bottle at the store counter. We have not opened it yet, but I fear that it will get opened before this night is over!!! I only hope that we have some left when we get home, so we can offer some to whomever would like to try it..
OK, here's the test to see of you might be worthy of sampling this bourbon. I have included a picture of the bottle of #46 we purchased. I would like you to study the picture and let me know, either by commenting on the blog, or via e-mail, the ONE SIGNIFICANT and DISTINCTIVE feature of Maker's Mark. Hint: study the label very closely! On second thought, maybe the print is too small to read, so I'll just say, if you happen to see a bottle of Maker's Mark somewhere, study THAT label - they all have the same distinctive feature. Also, notice the RED wax and how if hardens on the bottle. That's why no two bottles of Maker's Mark are the same, because of the wax.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TheKentuckyBourbonTrail?feat=directlink
This morning, as I was walking the dogs, I noticed that the whole herd of donkeys, etc., was grazing by the fence closest to us at the campground. Of course, Beasley was barking at them the whole time we were out there
. I brought the dogs back to the motorhome and got the camera and Kathy. We went back out by the pasture to see if we could get any good pictures of the animals before the ventured back to the middle of the pasture. The link to these pictures appears, below.http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/GrandmaSFarmAnimals?feat=directlink
After photographing the animals, we checked with the Cummins dealer, where we are going to have the final repairs done on the motorhome, so see if the parts from Tiffin had come in. They had not, so we decided to do a bit of sightseeing along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. This is the highway where 6 bourbon distillers are located. Because we got a late start this afternoon, we only got to tour one distillery, so we chose to visit the Maker's Mark Distillery , which is located in Loretto, KY. The other distillers include: Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve. These can all be found along, or not far off of, Route 245.
Our tour of Maker's Mark was very interesting and informative. This distillery only uses the barrels the bourbon is aged in ONE TIME! They are then sold to a company in Scotland. Another fact we learned about Maker's Mark is that each bottle is hand-dipped into RED wax heated to 360 degrees to seal the bottles. The reason for this goes back to when the Samuels family began to produce bourbon in the 1800's. Mrs. Samuels was very fond of French Cognac, and those bottles all bore a wax seal. In addition, when you see Maker's Mark on the shelf, the bottles resemble French Cognac bottles in shape. Another fact we learned is that all the employees in the bottling plant of the distillery switch jobs every half-hour.
Our tour ended in the tasting room, where we got to try two samples, one of each variety of bourbon, Standard and #46. The "Standard" version is 90 proof, while the "#46" version is 94 proof. We liked the "#46" version, so we purchased a bottle at the store counter. We have not opened it yet, but I fear that it will get opened before this night is over!!! I only hope that we have some left when we get home, so we can offer some to whomever would like to try it..
OK, here's the test to see of you might be worthy of sampling this bourbon. I have included a picture of the bottle of #46 we purchased. I would like you to study the picture and let me know, either by commenting on the blog, or via e-mail, the ONE SIGNIFICANT and DISTINCTIVE feature of Maker's Mark. Hint: study the label very closely! On second thought, maybe the print is too small to read, so I'll just say, if you happen to see a bottle of Maker's Mark somewhere, study THAT label - they all have the same distinctive feature. Also, notice the RED wax and how if hardens on the bottle. That's why no two bottles of Maker's Mark are the same, because of the wax.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TheKentuckyBourbonTrail?feat=directlink
Monday, August 2, 2010
Nashville, TN and Louisville, KY
Monday, August 2 - Shepherdsville, KY
AS promised in my last post, here is the report on Nashville and Louisville.
NASHVILLE: We just chilled on Friday night after we arrived at the campgound, which is approximately 15 miles north of the city, just off of I-65. We awoke early on Saturday morning and went to breakfast at a little "homey" place which we found last year, on the last day of our trip here. We liked it so much that we promised to visit again if we ever got back to the Nashville area. So, we arrived at the restaurant, Mason's is the name, and we noticed that the parking lot was full already. We were about to turn around when I spotted a space off to the side. After parking, we entered the restaurant and immediately saw that it was FULL! The waitress asked us if we would be interesed in sitting at their "family table", which had two empty seats. We agreed, and were seated. Long story short, we got to talking to the men seated at this table (there were no women sitting at the table, so Kathy was the only female), and got some valuable information about where to go in Nashville to see great acts. One gentleman we spoke with was actually a performer, a Country Music singer! His name is Grant Randolph, and he was very interesting to talk to. We had mentioned in conversation that this was the 2nd consecutive year we spend our wedding anniversary in Nashville, so before he left, he went out to his car and came back with a copy of his latest CD for us as a gift. One of the songs on his CD was written for him by the great Vince Gill, who is a Legend here in Nashville, and Country Music in general!
After breakfast, which was great, as usual!, we went into the city and visited the Country Music Hall of Fame. We missed this the last time we were here because we got there just before closing, so we made sure we got there early enough to go through the museum. This was a great take and we got some good pictures. I hope you excuse us if there are duplicates, but we used two cameras, so that I could shoot pictures with the "older" camera, which has fewer pixels, so the pictures are smaller than those taken with Kathy's camera and easier to upload with a "slow" connection. We have WiFi here in the campground, so..... Speaking of pictures, if you have not seen photos of the devastating floods which hit Nashville last spring, click on this link: Nashville Flood Photos
After visiting the Hall of Fame, we drove around the city to see what we could see - it was just too hot to be walking around outside, with temps in the high 90's and the Heat Index at 108. We ended our day in Nashville with a nice dinner at Demo's, which is a great Steak and Spaghetti restaurant we visited last year and loved!
LOUISVILLE: We left Nashville on Sunday morning heading up to the Louisville area, to the campground we are curently staying in, in Shepherdsville, KY. After getting settled, we drove into the city to do some sightseeing. The first place we visited was the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum. This was a great take, and we truly enjoyed the tour of the factory. The factory is in operation 7 days per week and it turns out an unbelievable 1.8 million, yes, I said "MILLION", bats each year! Only a fraction of that number, about 88,000 bats go to players in the Majors and Minors. The rest of the bats are made for Retail Sales to sporting goods outlets, or are "Specialized" souvenir, or commemorative bats. They also make special PINK bats, which are used by most of the Major League teams on Mother's Day! One factoid I was not aware of is that bats are made of either white ash, or maple wood. Barry Bonds switched to a maple bat at the end of his career. To distinguish between the two, look at the label on the bat - on white as, the label is "burned" into the bat, like a "brand" on cattle. The Maple bat has a mylar label affixed to it because the wood is too soft to burn the label. Also, the label on the maple bat has a large "M" on it, to denote that it is MAPLE. All in all, this is one place that I would recommend to all lovers of baseball! The history here in the museum is "awesome".
After leaving the bat factory with our souvenir miniature bats, we drove down to the Churchill Downs Museum and Race Track. Again, we tried to visit here last year, but we were "rained out" (see "The Most Terrifying Day of Our Lives" from July of 2009). The tour of Churchill Downs is fascinating, but I, for one, couldn't wait to get out of the hot sun. This tour takes us outside for the whole tour, and it was soooo hot, I swear you could fry an egg on the pavement! If you visit Churchill Downs, be sure to take this tour, but do it on a cool day!! Anyway, the history here is as interesting as the history at the bat factory. There are dozens of barns, or stables, located out behind the track itself. During the racing season, these barns house thousands of horses. When we were there, there were only about 900 horses in the barns. We did not take the tour of the barns - not enough time. This is another "must see" in Louisville, if you should ever visit here.
Here are the album links. As I said, there may be duplicate pictures because we used two different cameras.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/CountryMusicHallOfFameNashville?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/CountryMusicHallOfFameNashville2?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AtTheLouisvilleSluggerFactory?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AtChurchillDowns?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/ADayInLouisvilleKY?feat=directlink
AS promised in my last post, here is the report on Nashville and Louisville.
NASHVILLE: We just chilled on Friday night after we arrived at the campgound, which is approximately 15 miles north of the city, just off of I-65. We awoke early on Saturday morning and went to breakfast at a little "homey" place which we found last year, on the last day of our trip here. We liked it so much that we promised to visit again if we ever got back to the Nashville area. So, we arrived at the restaurant, Mason's is the name, and we noticed that the parking lot was full already. We were about to turn around when I spotted a space off to the side. After parking, we entered the restaurant and immediately saw that it was FULL! The waitress asked us if we would be interesed in sitting at their "family table", which had two empty seats. We agreed, and were seated. Long story short, we got to talking to the men seated at this table (there were no women sitting at the table, so Kathy was the only female), and got some valuable information about where to go in Nashville to see great acts. One gentleman we spoke with was actually a performer, a Country Music singer! His name is Grant Randolph, and he was very interesting to talk to. We had mentioned in conversation that this was the 2nd consecutive year we spend our wedding anniversary in Nashville, so before he left, he went out to his car and came back with a copy of his latest CD for us as a gift. One of the songs on his CD was written for him by the great Vince Gill, who is a Legend here in Nashville, and Country Music in general!
After breakfast, which was great, as usual!, we went into the city and visited the Country Music Hall of Fame. We missed this the last time we were here because we got there just before closing, so we made sure we got there early enough to go through the museum. This was a great take and we got some good pictures. I hope you excuse us if there are duplicates, but we used two cameras, so that I could shoot pictures with the "older" camera, which has fewer pixels, so the pictures are smaller than those taken with Kathy's camera and easier to upload with a "slow" connection. We have WiFi here in the campground, so..... Speaking of pictures, if you have not seen photos of the devastating floods which hit Nashville last spring, click on this link: Nashville Flood Photos
After visiting the Hall of Fame, we drove around the city to see what we could see - it was just too hot to be walking around outside, with temps in the high 90's and the Heat Index at 108. We ended our day in Nashville with a nice dinner at Demo's, which is a great Steak and Spaghetti restaurant we visited last year and loved!
LOUISVILLE: We left Nashville on Sunday morning heading up to the Louisville area, to the campground we are curently staying in, in Shepherdsville, KY. After getting settled, we drove into the city to do some sightseeing. The first place we visited was the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum. This was a great take, and we truly enjoyed the tour of the factory. The factory is in operation 7 days per week and it turns out an unbelievable 1.8 million, yes, I said "MILLION", bats each year! Only a fraction of that number, about 88,000 bats go to players in the Majors and Minors. The rest of the bats are made for Retail Sales to sporting goods outlets, or are "Specialized" souvenir, or commemorative bats. They also make special PINK bats, which are used by most of the Major League teams on Mother's Day! One factoid I was not aware of is that bats are made of either white ash, or maple wood. Barry Bonds switched to a maple bat at the end of his career. To distinguish between the two, look at the label on the bat - on white as, the label is "burned" into the bat, like a "brand" on cattle. The Maple bat has a mylar label affixed to it because the wood is too soft to burn the label. Also, the label on the maple bat has a large "M" on it, to denote that it is MAPLE. All in all, this is one place that I would recommend to all lovers of baseball! The history here in the museum is "awesome".
After leaving the bat factory with our souvenir miniature bats, we drove down to the Churchill Downs Museum and Race Track. Again, we tried to visit here last year, but we were "rained out" (see "The Most Terrifying Day of Our Lives" from July of 2009). The tour of Churchill Downs is fascinating, but I, for one, couldn't wait to get out of the hot sun. This tour takes us outside for the whole tour, and it was soooo hot, I swear you could fry an egg on the pavement! If you visit Churchill Downs, be sure to take this tour, but do it on a cool day!! Anyway, the history here is as interesting as the history at the bat factory. There are dozens of barns, or stables, located out behind the track itself. During the racing season, these barns house thousands of horses. When we were there, there were only about 900 horses in the barns. We did not take the tour of the barns - not enough time. This is another "must see" in Louisville, if you should ever visit here.
Here are the album links. As I said, there may be duplicate pictures because we used two different cameras.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/CountryMusicHallOfFameNashville?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/CountryMusicHallOfFameNashville2?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AtTheLouisvilleSluggerFactory?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AtChurchillDowns?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/ADayInLouisvilleKY?feat=directlink
Friday, July 30, 2010
Red Bay, AL to Nashville, TN
Friday, July 30 - Nashville, TN
Having completed our service work at Tiffin Motorhomes in Red Bay, AL, at about 2PM Central time, we decided to head out for Nashville, TN for a day or two. We traveled along the Natchez Trace Parkway, which we entered in Mississippi, and followed for approximately 150 miles into Tennessee, just south of Nashville.
If you have never traveled this parkway, you have to put it on your "bucket list". The scenery is gorgeous every inch of the way. In addition, there are NO TRUCKS on this roadway, so it is very smooth and relaxing to drive. We did take a few photos along the way, which you can view after reading this post. However, for the history and more photos of places to visit along the parkway, click on the highlighted link, above. There, you will find lots of information about the Trace, much more than I can give you here.
We are currently staying in a campground just north of Nashville, TN, on Highway I-65. We arrived here late this afternoon from Alabama, as I mentioned above. Tomorrow, we will take some time to visit some of the local attractions in Nashville, such as the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, whatever we can find the time to visit. Who knows, maybe we'll even bump into someone "famous"!
On Sunday, we will head north to Louisville, again, to do the sightseeing we didn't get to do last week when we were there. Hopefully, this time we will not encounter the violent storms we had here last year at this time. We'll keep our fingers crossed!
Be sure to return to this blog for updates on our visit to Nashville and Louisville.
Here is the link to the web album with pictures Kathy took along the Natchez Trace Parkway: http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TravelingAlongTheNatchezTraceParkway?feat=directlink
Having completed our service work at Tiffin Motorhomes in Red Bay, AL, at about 2PM Central time, we decided to head out for Nashville, TN for a day or two. We traveled along the Natchez Trace Parkway, which we entered in Mississippi, and followed for approximately 150 miles into Tennessee, just south of Nashville.
If you have never traveled this parkway, you have to put it on your "bucket list". The scenery is gorgeous every inch of the way. In addition, there are NO TRUCKS on this roadway, so it is very smooth and relaxing to drive. We did take a few photos along the way, which you can view after reading this post. However, for the history and more photos of places to visit along the parkway, click on the highlighted link, above. There, you will find lots of information about the Trace, much more than I can give you here.
We are currently staying in a campground just north of Nashville, TN, on Highway I-65. We arrived here late this afternoon from Alabama, as I mentioned above. Tomorrow, we will take some time to visit some of the local attractions in Nashville, such as the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, whatever we can find the time to visit. Who knows, maybe we'll even bump into someone "famous"!
On Sunday, we will head north to Louisville, again, to do the sightseeing we didn't get to do last week when we were there. Hopefully, this time we will not encounter the violent storms we had here last year at this time. We'll keep our fingers crossed!
Be sure to return to this blog for updates on our visit to Nashville and Louisville.
Here is the link to the web album with pictures Kathy took along the Natchez Trace Parkway: http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TravelingAlongTheNatchezTraceParkway?feat=directlink
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
A Bit of Americana in Alabama
Wednesday, July 28th - Red Bay, Alabama
We arrived in Red Bay on Monday afternoon about 5PM Central time, having driven down from Louisville, KY after "The Rally". We are here to have the motorhome serviced before we head back up to Massachusetts.
Shortly after we arrived a thunderstorm moved in from the south. During the height of the storm we noticed that the motorhome was engulfed in the heavy rain, but the sun was shining through the windows on the north side, which seemed strange because lightning and thunder was all around us, as well. The storm passed before the sun set, but we had heavy rain showers the rest of the night. By morning, the campground was all mud and deep puddles. The good news is that the leak we had repaired last month is holding.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we traveled into Mississippi for lunch (about 5.5 miles west). We ate at a little cafe in Belmont, MS. The food and the prices were great! We had time to do this because the way the service works here, if they do not call you by 11:30AM, you are not on the list that day. We came in here with no appointment, so we have to wait for what they refer to as "Express Service", where they assign two technicians to work on your problems for three hours. Whatever they can get repaired in the three hours from your "list" is what gets done. Fortunately, we do not have many things on our "list". The main problem we have is no dash A/C. If they can resolve that problem within the three hours, we will leave happy!
This morning, they came to our coach to let us know that we will most likely get into the Express Service bay tomorrow noon. Knowing that we would not have to move the coach today, we used the time to do some exploring in the area. Last night we met a couple from Kansas, who are also vendors at shows. They were also up in Louisville at "The Rally", but we did not get to meet them there. Anyway, I spent most of last night sitting outside talking with Gene, while Kathy spent the time in our coach with Sheila. Sheila wanted to purchase some of our dip mixes, since she never got a chance to visit our booth at the show. While talking to them, we found out about a couple of places which should be on our "must visit" list while here in Red Bay. One place is called "Swamp John's Restaurant", which we did go to for lunch this afternoon.
The restaurant is located in an old gas station which has been converted into a restaurant (the pumps are still standing in front of the place). The food was excellent, and very affordable! The menu consists of sandwiches of all types, from BLTs to 'burgers and pulled pork, etc.; and plates of BBQ Pork, Chicken and catfish. If you "google" "swamp johns restaurant", you will be able to read a review of this restaurant, which has 2 other locations. The other place of interest we visited was the "Coon Dog Cemetery", which is located in Colbert County in Alabama. 
If you click the link, you will be directed to the home page for this tourist attraction. This is the only cemetery of its kind in the world, and ONLY Coon Dogs can be interred here. We looked at some of the 185 or so grave markers and found that lots of dogs came from other states and other parts of Alabama. Be sure to check the link to this unique attraction. It has a very interesting history.
That's it for this edition of the Chuckwagon Journal. If we get our repairs done tomorrow, we will be heading home either late tomorrow afternoon, or on Friday AM. Be sure to check back here after for updated postings.
Remember, if you would like to leave a comment, at the bottom of the post, simply click on the word "comments" and type your comments in the box at the top right of the screen. Click on the "Anonymous" radio button under the "comments" window then click the "Publish" button. Voila! Your comments will magically appear on the left side of the screen. All I ask is that you sign your comments in some way that I can identify you. That's all there is to it!
Remember, if you can't fix it with a hammer, it's probably an electrical problem!
We arrived in Red Bay on Monday afternoon about 5PM Central time, having driven down from Louisville, KY after "The Rally". We are here to have the motorhome serviced before we head back up to Massachusetts.
Shortly after we arrived a thunderstorm moved in from the south. During the height of the storm we noticed that the motorhome was engulfed in the heavy rain, but the sun was shining through the windows on the north side, which seemed strange because lightning and thunder was all around us, as well. The storm passed before the sun set, but we had heavy rain showers the rest of the night. By morning, the campground was all mud and deep puddles. The good news is that the leak we had repaired last month is holding.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we traveled into Mississippi for lunch (about 5.5 miles west). We ate at a little cafe in Belmont, MS. The food and the prices were great! We had time to do this because the way the service works here, if they do not call you by 11:30AM, you are not on the list that day. We came in here with no appointment, so we have to wait for what they refer to as "Express Service", where they assign two technicians to work on your problems for three hours. Whatever they can get repaired in the three hours from your "list" is what gets done. Fortunately, we do not have many things on our "list". The main problem we have is no dash A/C. If they can resolve that problem within the three hours, we will leave happy!
This morning, they came to our coach to let us know that we will most likely get into the Express Service bay tomorrow noon. Knowing that we would not have to move the coach today, we used the time to do some exploring in the area. Last night we met a couple from Kansas, who are also vendors at shows. They were also up in Louisville at "The Rally", but we did not get to meet them there. Anyway, I spent most of last night sitting outside talking with Gene, while Kathy spent the time in our coach with Sheila. Sheila wanted to purchase some of our dip mixes, since she never got a chance to visit our booth at the show. While talking to them, we found out about a couple of places which should be on our "must visit" list while here in Red Bay. One place is called "Swamp John's Restaurant", which we did go to for lunch this afternoon.
The restaurant is located in an old gas station which has been converted into a restaurant (the pumps are still standing in front of the place). The food was excellent, and very affordable! The menu consists of sandwiches of all types, from BLTs to 'burgers and pulled pork, etc.; and plates of BBQ Pork, Chicken and catfish. If you "google" "swamp johns restaurant", you will be able to read a review of this restaurant, which has 2 other locations. The other place of interest we visited was the "Coon Dog Cemetery", which is located in Colbert County in Alabama. 
If you click the link, you will be directed to the home page for this tourist attraction. This is the only cemetery of its kind in the world, and ONLY Coon Dogs can be interred here. We looked at some of the 185 or so grave markers and found that lots of dogs came from other states and other parts of Alabama. Be sure to check the link to this unique attraction. It has a very interesting history.That's it for this edition of the Chuckwagon Journal. If we get our repairs done tomorrow, we will be heading home either late tomorrow afternoon, or on Friday AM. Be sure to check back here after for updated postings.
Remember, if you would like to leave a comment, at the bottom of the post, simply click on the word "comments" and type your comments in the box at the top right of the screen. Click on the "Anonymous" radio button under the "comments" window then click the "Publish" button. Voila! Your comments will magically appear on the left side of the screen. All I ask is that you sign your comments in some way that I can identify you. That's all there is to it!
Remember, if you can't fix it with a hammer, it's probably an electrical problem!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Rally, Louisville - July 22
Louisville, KY - Thursday, July 22; DAY 1
Today was the first official day of The Rally here in Louisville. We arrived in the Louisville area on Sunday afternoon and checked into a campground about 20 miles south of the city proper. After getting settled at the campground, we drove into the city to check out the show venue and get the "lay of the land". This area of the country is in the same HEAT WAVE pattern as most of the rest of the country is experiencing. It is in the mid-nineties and very humid every day/night. The parking lot where we are located at The Rally is directly in the landing path of the nearby Louisville Airport, and the flights come in about every 2-3 minutes from about 6AM until past 2AM every single day! Add to that the fact that the A/C in the coach can't keep up with the temperature outside, and you get the some idea of our living conditions here. Oh, yeah, we are also parked on a paved lot, so the heat rises from beneath the motor home to add to the misery.
Anyway, as I mentioned, today was the first day of the show and the crowds were huge! Kathy had to run back to the motor home twice to get more DIP, and we still had 3 or 4 empty containers by 4:30PM, and the show closed at 5PM. Today's pretzel count was 10 pounds, and about 1/2 pound ended up on the floor, crushed into the carpeting! This was a "feeding frenzy" today. Lots of "grazers", and maybe half of them actually bought something! Not complaining, just stating facts. At times, watching the "grazers", it seemed to me that they were competing with each other to see who could get the most dip on a pretzel (or pretzels). One young lady, who was there with another vendor, stood in one spot dipping into the Shrimp Dip until it was almost gone. She returned later, after we had put a new container out, armed with a hand-full of Cheez-Its, and went right into the Shrimp again! She saw me looking at her, so she left. However, she was nervy enough to return as we were closing up to see if she could get any "left-overs"! Twit!! At shows like this, I guess we just have to bite our tongues, grin and bear it. Ya can't teach people manners if they don't learn at home, eh?
At the present time, approximately 9:30PM, Kathy is making more dip samples for tomorrow's onslaught. I have already been out to buy more sour cream and pretzels. I bought 17 pounds of pretzels tonight and I hope that will get us through tomorrow. I have already cleaned out two local stores, so if we need to get more, I'll have to find other sources. This show will continue until 2:30PM on Sunday, and I hope that we have the resources to survive 'til then. Stay tuned for that report.
We do have one competitor here. A company called All Star Dips. Their pricing was very similar to ours, which we thought was very good for us, since we have a really exciting booth area, we put out the pretzels and let people help themselves, whereas, All Star hands out their pretzels, one-at-a-time, to the customers, and their dip samples, which are displayed in coolers similar to ours, are in containers with covers on them, with a small hole in the cover, about 1" in diameter, to dip the pretzel into. However, they changed their pricing after seeing our prices in an attempt to out-sell us. No Way, Jose!!! People appreciate the fact that we do not try to limit their ability to sample our dips, and our packets make more dip than All Star's.
All-in-all, today was a GOOD day for us, sales-wise! Our main concern, at this point, is that we will not have enough dip packets to get us through the show. Our wicker dip coolers are selling well, and we do have plenty of them in inventory to get us through Sunday.
LIFE IS GOOD!
Wilson and Beasley are hangin' in there. They spend their days in air-conditioned comfort, get two squares per day, and plenty of water. When we get back to the motor home at night, they are really excited to see us, but then, after eating, they retire to the bedroom and sleep!! What a life, eh?
Stay tuned for updates!
Today was the first official day of The Rally here in Louisville. We arrived in the Louisville area on Sunday afternoon and checked into a campground about 20 miles south of the city proper. After getting settled at the campground, we drove into the city to check out the show venue and get the "lay of the land". This area of the country is in the same HEAT WAVE pattern as most of the rest of the country is experiencing. It is in the mid-nineties and very humid every day/night. The parking lot where we are located at The Rally is directly in the landing path of the nearby Louisville Airport, and the flights come in about every 2-3 minutes from about 6AM until past 2AM every single day! Add to that the fact that the A/C in the coach can't keep up with the temperature outside, and you get the some idea of our living conditions here. Oh, yeah, we are also parked on a paved lot, so the heat rises from beneath the motor home to add to the misery.
Anyway, as I mentioned, today was the first day of the show and the crowds were huge! Kathy had to run back to the motor home twice to get more DIP, and we still had 3 or 4 empty containers by 4:30PM, and the show closed at 5PM. Today's pretzel count was 10 pounds, and about 1/2 pound ended up on the floor, crushed into the carpeting! This was a "feeding frenzy" today. Lots of "grazers", and maybe half of them actually bought something! Not complaining, just stating facts. At times, watching the "grazers", it seemed to me that they were competing with each other to see who could get the most dip on a pretzel (or pretzels). One young lady, who was there with another vendor, stood in one spot dipping into the Shrimp Dip until it was almost gone. She returned later, after we had put a new container out, armed with a hand-full of Cheez-Its, and went right into the Shrimp again! She saw me looking at her, so she left. However, she was nervy enough to return as we were closing up to see if she could get any "left-overs"! Twit!! At shows like this, I guess we just have to bite our tongues, grin and bear it. Ya can't teach people manners if they don't learn at home, eh?
At the present time, approximately 9:30PM, Kathy is making more dip samples for tomorrow's onslaught. I have already been out to buy more sour cream and pretzels. I bought 17 pounds of pretzels tonight and I hope that will get us through tomorrow. I have already cleaned out two local stores, so if we need to get more, I'll have to find other sources. This show will continue until 2:30PM on Sunday, and I hope that we have the resources to survive 'til then. Stay tuned for that report.
We do have one competitor here. A company called All Star Dips. Their pricing was very similar to ours, which we thought was very good for us, since we have a really exciting booth area, we put out the pretzels and let people help themselves, whereas, All Star hands out their pretzels, one-at-a-time, to the customers, and their dip samples, which are displayed in coolers similar to ours, are in containers with covers on them, with a small hole in the cover, about 1" in diameter, to dip the pretzel into. However, they changed their pricing after seeing our prices in an attempt to out-sell us. No Way, Jose!!! People appreciate the fact that we do not try to limit their ability to sample our dips, and our packets make more dip than All Star's.
All-in-all, today was a GOOD day for us, sales-wise! Our main concern, at this point, is that we will not have enough dip packets to get us through the show. Our wicker dip coolers are selling well, and we do have plenty of them in inventory to get us through Sunday.
LIFE IS GOOD!
Wilson and Beasley are hangin' in there. They spend their days in air-conditioned comfort, get two squares per day, and plenty of water. When we get back to the motor home at night, they are really excited to see us, but then, after eating, they retire to the bedroom and sleep!! What a life, eh?
Stay tuned for updates!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
On the Blog Again....
Thursday, July 8, South Hamilton
When last I posted, we were on our way to do a show in Georgia, then another in North Carolina on our way home from Florida. Also, we planned a stop in Rye Brook to visit with Mike & Lisa and Ava. All that took place without much incident. The best part of that trip was seeing Ava and her parents. We spent a couple of days with them and had lots of time with our darling granddaughter, Ava. She is beautiful - but how could she miss with parents like Lisa and Mike!!
We arrived in Hamilton on Thursday, May 6th to a very excited 6-year old grandson, Aaron. He had so many things to show and tell us about! Interesting how very fast these young ones grow up when we're not around. Aaron seems so much older than his six years, and he'd grown so much since we saw him last February in Florida. Since then, we have had so much fun with him that we wish we could be here more often. He loves to play games, and he is really good at it. His mind is so sharp, and he picks up the rules, etc., very easily. It's really FUN to play these games with him.
At the end of May, we had to leave, again, for a week, or so. We had a show out in Michigan, along the shores of Lake Michigan, in Berrien Springs. While there, we got a chance to go into Chicago to pick up inventory for our business. What an experience that was! The GPS was directing us to places where we felt unsure and the construction was everywhere. Needless to say, Chicago was not fun. We finally made our connection, picked up our inventory and got back on the road. Thankfully we were not in the motor home for this excursion.
After the show, we had a couple of days to kill, so we visited Shipshewanna, IN, which is an Amish settlement. The shops and stores there, along with the people, have convinced us that we MUST return and spend more time here, because one day is not nearly enough time to see everything. Also, we discovered that there are two campgrounds in town, and so we WILL DEFINITELY return to this little town next year, as we do plan to do the Michigan show again. In fact, there is so much going on out in this part of the country in the late spring that we may spend more time here next year, before we come back to Hamilton.
On June 5th we attended the Madore Family Reunion (click here for photos), which was planned and organized by Lisa Willwerth, Anne Marie's daughter. The weather was great and the location, Tuck's Point in Manchester, MA was a wonderful spot facing the harbor. We had over 100 in attendance and they came from all over including, Oregon, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Florida and of course, Massachusetts. We celebrated Anne Marie's 80th birthday (she looks awesome), and Mike's 90th birthday, he also looks great. When I grow up I want to be just like them!!! There is something about those Madore genes. We spent time catching up and reminiscing about the "old days".
More recently, we headed up to Stowe, VT with friends, Charlie and Kathy Burch, to spend a little time shopping, eating and generally having fun, before heading over to Essex Junction for our next gig. While in Stowe, we visited a winery (only I did any tasting! - hic!). We stopped at the Ben & Jerry's plant in Waterbury, the Cabot Creamery Outlet, and the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, where we got some unbelievable deals on K-Cups for our Keurig coffee makers (boxes of 12 cups for $2.50 each, and sample packs with 2 samples of 11 varieties for $5.00). If you have a Keurig, and you happen to find yourself in the Waterbury area, you MUST stop at the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in the village. It's not hard to find, and the stop is worth it.
Our show in Essex Junction was quite successful. We sold lots of dips and coolers! The Canadians were the biggest spenders at this show, thank you very much! This show was during the "heat wave" which struck the Northeast over the July 4th weekend, but we were in air-conditioned comfort at the show. Unfortunately, because this show was scheduled over the July 4th weekend, we once again missed the Fourth of July "Roy Family Bash" by the lake in Salem, NH hosted by Dick and Elaine who always go all out for this gathering!! We did, however, make our absence less painful by supplying the party-goers with a big pot of baked beans and a couple of containers of "Chucks Nuts"!
One sidelight I feel I must share with you with regard to the Essex Junction show is our "Sour Cream Safari"! On Saturday, during the first day of the show, we realized that we would have to make more of our dips for sampling, since what we started out with was not going to get us through two more days! So, I googled "Sam's Club", and found one over in Plattsburg, NY, which is just across Lake Champlain from Burlington. According to our GPS devices, it was a distance of only 29 miles! However, once we started out, after the show, it turned into a full-blown safari! We left the fairgrounds in Essex Junction at about 5:15PM, after feeding the dogs and taking them for a walk, and loading them into the car for the trip. It was after 7:00PM when we finally parked in the Sam's Club lot in Plattsburg, some 85 miles later!! Seems that the bridge, which crosses the lake into Plattsburg, was out, and so we had to take the long way around. We arrived back at the motorhome at 9:30PM, then had to start making the dips! It was close to mid-night by the time we crawled into bed, and we had to be up at 6:00AM to get ready for day #2. It would have been faster, and cheaper, just to have gone down to the local supermarket to buy the sour cream, but, who knew?? Hindsight, as they say, is 20-20!
While in Essex Junction, we met some wonderful people, who we will count as good friends now! That is part of the reason why we enjoy doing these show so much - the people we meet! We have met so many wonderful people doing these shows, between other vendors, and the people who run the shows we attend, and we keep in touch with most of them. The other vendors we have met have become closer friends, since we see each other at many shows. We look forward, very much, to each and every show because we know we will see friends again.
We had been scheduled to do a fair in Maine this weekend, but after arriving at the fairgrounds yesterday morning, and spending about 4 hours working with the fairgrounds staff to try and alleviate some of the problems we discovered after we arrived, we decided to opt out. The electrical hookups for the motorhome were not sufficient to provide us with uninterrupted power for the weekend, and we just couldn't take the chance that the breaker would trip. Our dogs, Wilson and Beasley, would be in the motorhome alone during the show hours, and with the heat and humidity up there, we were not confident that the A/C would keep operating while we were out. Also, our display booth would have to be set up outdoors, in the sun, so we were afraid that our dips might spoil in the heat of the direct sunlight. I must say, though, that the fairgrounds staff were very understanding, promising to refund the monies we had paid to attend.
So, now we're back in Hamilton until July 17th, when we head out, again, this time to Louisville, KY, where we will be working at the Good Sam Club International Samboree. After the Louisville show, we will have to travel further south to Red Bay, AL, to have work done on the motorhome - an on-going problem which has plagued us since we purchased the coach last September. We are hopeful that this will finally get resolved this time.
Keep checking back from time to time, as I will be blogging on a somewhat regular basis (I hope). I may not always have any pictures to post (I have none for this post), but I will be blogging, I promise!
Until next post, stay safe, cool and dry!
When last I posted, we were on our way to do a show in Georgia, then another in North Carolina on our way home from Florida. Also, we planned a stop in Rye Brook to visit with Mike & Lisa and Ava. All that took place without much incident. The best part of that trip was seeing Ava and her parents. We spent a couple of days with them and had lots of time with our darling granddaughter, Ava. She is beautiful - but how could she miss with parents like Lisa and Mike!!
We arrived in Hamilton on Thursday, May 6th to a very excited 6-year old grandson, Aaron. He had so many things to show and tell us about! Interesting how very fast these young ones grow up when we're not around. Aaron seems so much older than his six years, and he'd grown so much since we saw him last February in Florida. Since then, we have had so much fun with him that we wish we could be here more often. He loves to play games, and he is really good at it. His mind is so sharp, and he picks up the rules, etc., very easily. It's really FUN to play these games with him.
At the end of May, we had to leave, again, for a week, or so. We had a show out in Michigan, along the shores of Lake Michigan, in Berrien Springs. While there, we got a chance to go into Chicago to pick up inventory for our business. What an experience that was! The GPS was directing us to places where we felt unsure and the construction was everywhere. Needless to say, Chicago was not fun. We finally made our connection, picked up our inventory and got back on the road. Thankfully we were not in the motor home for this excursion.
After the show, we had a couple of days to kill, so we visited Shipshewanna, IN, which is an Amish settlement. The shops and stores there, along with the people, have convinced us that we MUST return and spend more time here, because one day is not nearly enough time to see everything. Also, we discovered that there are two campgrounds in town, and so we WILL DEFINITELY return to this little town next year, as we do plan to do the Michigan show again. In fact, there is so much going on out in this part of the country in the late spring that we may spend more time here next year, before we come back to Hamilton.
On June 5th we attended the Madore Family Reunion (click here for photos), which was planned and organized by Lisa Willwerth, Anne Marie's daughter. The weather was great and the location, Tuck's Point in Manchester, MA was a wonderful spot facing the harbor. We had over 100 in attendance and they came from all over including, Oregon, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Florida and of course, Massachusetts. We celebrated Anne Marie's 80th birthday (she looks awesome), and Mike's 90th birthday, he also looks great. When I grow up I want to be just like them!!! There is something about those Madore genes. We spent time catching up and reminiscing about the "old days".
More recently, we headed up to Stowe, VT with friends, Charlie and Kathy Burch, to spend a little time shopping, eating and generally having fun, before heading over to Essex Junction for our next gig. While in Stowe, we visited a winery (only I did any tasting! - hic!). We stopped at the Ben & Jerry's plant in Waterbury, the Cabot Creamery Outlet, and the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, where we got some unbelievable deals on K-Cups for our Keurig coffee makers (boxes of 12 cups for $2.50 each, and sample packs with 2 samples of 11 varieties for $5.00). If you have a Keurig, and you happen to find yourself in the Waterbury area, you MUST stop at the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in the village. It's not hard to find, and the stop is worth it.
Our show in Essex Junction was quite successful. We sold lots of dips and coolers! The Canadians were the biggest spenders at this show, thank you very much! This show was during the "heat wave" which struck the Northeast over the July 4th weekend, but we were in air-conditioned comfort at the show. Unfortunately, because this show was scheduled over the July 4th weekend, we once again missed the Fourth of July "Roy Family Bash" by the lake in Salem, NH hosted by Dick and Elaine who always go all out for this gathering!! We did, however, make our absence less painful by supplying the party-goers with a big pot of baked beans and a couple of containers of "Chucks Nuts"!
One sidelight I feel I must share with you with regard to the Essex Junction show is our "Sour Cream Safari"! On Saturday, during the first day of the show, we realized that we would have to make more of our dips for sampling, since what we started out with was not going to get us through two more days! So, I googled "Sam's Club", and found one over in Plattsburg, NY, which is just across Lake Champlain from Burlington. According to our GPS devices, it was a distance of only 29 miles! However, once we started out, after the show, it turned into a full-blown safari! We left the fairgrounds in Essex Junction at about 5:15PM, after feeding the dogs and taking them for a walk, and loading them into the car for the trip. It was after 7:00PM when we finally parked in the Sam's Club lot in Plattsburg, some 85 miles later!! Seems that the bridge, which crosses the lake into Plattsburg, was out, and so we had to take the long way around. We arrived back at the motorhome at 9:30PM, then had to start making the dips! It was close to mid-night by the time we crawled into bed, and we had to be up at 6:00AM to get ready for day #2. It would have been faster, and cheaper, just to have gone down to the local supermarket to buy the sour cream, but, who knew?? Hindsight, as they say, is 20-20!
While in Essex Junction, we met some wonderful people, who we will count as good friends now! That is part of the reason why we enjoy doing these show so much - the people we meet! We have met so many wonderful people doing these shows, between other vendors, and the people who run the shows we attend, and we keep in touch with most of them. The other vendors we have met have become closer friends, since we see each other at many shows. We look forward, very much, to each and every show because we know we will see friends again.
We had been scheduled to do a fair in Maine this weekend, but after arriving at the fairgrounds yesterday morning, and spending about 4 hours working with the fairgrounds staff to try and alleviate some of the problems we discovered after we arrived, we decided to opt out. The electrical hookups for the motorhome were not sufficient to provide us with uninterrupted power for the weekend, and we just couldn't take the chance that the breaker would trip. Our dogs, Wilson and Beasley, would be in the motorhome alone during the show hours, and with the heat and humidity up there, we were not confident that the A/C would keep operating while we were out. Also, our display booth would have to be set up outdoors, in the sun, so we were afraid that our dips might spoil in the heat of the direct sunlight. I must say, though, that the fairgrounds staff were very understanding, promising to refund the monies we had paid to attend.
So, now we're back in Hamilton until July 17th, when we head out, again, this time to Louisville, KY, where we will be working at the Good Sam Club International Samboree. After the Louisville show, we will have to travel further south to Red Bay, AL, to have work done on the motorhome - an on-going problem which has plagued us since we purchased the coach last September. We are hopeful that this will finally get resolved this time.
Keep checking back from time to time, as I will be blogging on a somewhat regular basis (I hope). I may not always have any pictures to post (I have none for this post), but I will be blogging, I promise!
Until next post, stay safe, cool and dry!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Long Time, No Blog!
Elko, Georgia, Sunday, April 18
It's been a while since my last post (9 weeks, to be exact, but who's counting?)
Since my last post, quite a bit has happened. We took a couple of weeks off from doing shows, from Feb. 16th to March 5, to relax(???) after a busy January and February. I will not bore you with more pictures from shows we've done since my last post. Guess you've seen enough shots of our booth and our shows.
During our hiatus we've visited with Dick and Elaine in Venice, FL at their new condo, which is very, very nice, by the way. We had lots of laughs with them. Be sure to ask Dick about his "haircut experience" in Venice. We had quite a laugh over that one.
After returning to Port St. Lucie from Venice, Chris, Jen and Aaron flew down to visit us for a few days. They arrived on a Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning, when they departed for Venice to visit with Jen's grandmother. While they were here, we visited a couple of zoos, a nature preserve at the seashore and, of course, the swimming pool at our resort. Mimi and Pepere had lots of fun with them and wished that they could have stayed longer.
After Chris, Jen and Aaron left, Don and Toni came in on Monday afternoon, after flying into Fort Lauderdale and driving up to PSL. Meanwhile, Uncle Bob and Sidney came over from Cape Coral on Sunday, but they waited until Monday to come out to visit us at the resort. We spent the afternoon chatting, while waiting for Don and Toni to arrive. When they finally did arrive, we all went out to dinner to Olive Garden. Bob and Sidney stayed over on Monday night, since it was too late to drive back to Cape Coral after dinner.
While Don and Toni were with us, we had lots of fun and lots of good food. We visited some of our favorite "haunts", plus a few new ones. One of the "highlights" of their visit was the infamous "lot crawl" at our resort. This has become an annual event at the resort and it involves the participants driving around in golf carts to various "themed" lots for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. The drinks flow freely, and everyone has a great time. At the end of the evening, everyone returned to the clubhouse, where there was a live band and dancing and MORE DRINKING!
A "not so High-light" of their trip came on the afternoon we had planned to go to lunch down in Stuart, FL, at a neat little restaurant called the Key Lime Tiki Bar and Grill. As we were heading out, we got a call that the wicker dip coolers we had ordered were being delivered. We decided to turn around so that we could meet the truck at the resort. On the way back, we got a call from the driver that they were lost and were not able to find us. After ascertaining their location, I advised them to park their truck and we would find them. Getting their exact location proved to be a problem, since they are Mexican, and their English skills were somewhat lacking. I finally figured out that they were parked in a school parking lot, and the name of the school was "Citrus Grove Elementary School". We tried to find the school with the GPS, but could not. However, since we had a kind of general idea where they were, we headed out to find them. After driving around for about 30 minutes and not finding them, we stopped at a Fire Station to ask the whereabouts of the school. As luck would have it, they never heard of the school. In fact, the ONLY school with that name that they knew of was up in Vero Beach, some 30 miles north. Undaunted, I climbed back into the Odyssey and continued down the same road we originally were on, thinking that this HAD TO BE the right way, based upon the last conversation I had with them. As luck would have it, after another 15 minutes of driving, we found the school!! The reason it would not come up on my GPS is that it was a brand-new school, and it was in another county, south of St. Lucie.
Two hours and twenty minutes later, we had our delivery, and Don got two bags of "HOT" peanuts from the Mexicans.
After Don and Toni left, we headed north to Titusville, FL, to spend the month of March with John and Nancy. While staying in Titusville, we did two more shows in Orlando, which is only about 40 minutes away. We also had an opportunity to set up our booth at the Great Outdoors Fun Fair, which is an annual event at TGO. We had a ball doing the fair. While at TGO, we met lots of John and Nancy's friends and shared a few meals with them. We decided that we really liked being up in Titusville for the month, since there was so much to do there, and it is centrally located (more so than Port St. Lucie) to the shows we do in Florida. We have made a decision to try to rent our lot at Port St. Lucie next season and spend the season up at The Great Outdoors.
We left TGO on March 27th to travel up to Red Bay, AL to have some work done to the coach. We spent 5 days in Red Bay while our coach was being serviced, but they were enjoyable, relaxing days. The work was finally completed on Friday afternoon, so we headed out of Red Bay with intentions of going down to the Florida panhandle to spend some time relaxing at the shore. We got just south of Birmingham, AL before stopping for the night at a Walmart. While there, Kathy spoke to Nancy and we learned that there was going to be a shuttle launch on Monday morning. Nancy suggested that we come back to TGO for Easter dinner with them, then we could take in the launch on Monday morning. Needless to say, we quickly changed our plans and headed back to Titusville, arriving there Saturday evening. Easter dinner on Sunday was wonderful. We were with all of the people we had come to know while we were there in March, and we were treated to a sumptuous repast of lamb, turkey, lots of salads and vegetable dishes, and some fabulous desserts! Mmmmmmmmm!!!!
On Monday, we arose at 4AM to get ready to go down to see the launch. We went with a group of about 8 people, and we went to the local Moose Lodge, which is located right on the intra-coastal waterway, directly across from the launch pad (about 8 miles away). We arrived at the Moose Lodge at 5:15AM, and they were serving coffee and donuts prior to the launch. This is a BIG DEAL down here every time they launch a shuttle. People come from everywhere to see this! The parking lots are filled with cars and motorhomes; there isn't an available parking spot on the road or along the parks bordering the waterway. We were fortunate enough to have John, since he is a member of the Moose, and that's how we ended up there. Anyway, the launch was scheduled to take place at 6:21AM, weather, et al, permitting. As it turns out, the weather was perfect - clear skies, almost no wind - ideal for the launch. The actual launch (click this) went up at exactly 6:21AM, and it was SPECTACULAR to see in person!! If you ever get the chance, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Unfortunately, there are only 3 launches left before the shuttle program is dismantled. We are so glad we got to see one before the program ends.
We left TGO again on Tuesday, April 13th, headed for Dothan, AL for another show. We are now in Elko, GA relaxing before we head into Perry, GA for another show this Thursday. From Perry, we will be heading up to Concord, NC to do another show before we finally begin the trek back to MA. Our only other stop will be in Rye Brook, NY to visit with Mike, Lisa and Ava.
See y'all real soon!
It's been a while since my last post (9 weeks, to be exact, but who's counting?)
Since my last post, quite a bit has happened. We took a couple of weeks off from doing shows, from Feb. 16th to March 5, to relax(???) after a busy January and February. I will not bore you with more pictures from shows we've done since my last post. Guess you've seen enough shots of our booth and our shows.
During our hiatus we've visited with Dick and Elaine in Venice, FL at their new condo, which is very, very nice, by the way. We had lots of laughs with them. Be sure to ask Dick about his "haircut experience" in Venice. We had quite a laugh over that one.
After returning to Port St. Lucie from Venice, Chris, Jen and Aaron flew down to visit us for a few days. They arrived on a Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning, when they departed for Venice to visit with Jen's grandmother. While they were here, we visited a couple of zoos, a nature preserve at the seashore and, of course, the swimming pool at our resort. Mimi and Pepere had lots of fun with them and wished that they could have stayed longer.
After Chris, Jen and Aaron left, Don and Toni came in on Monday afternoon, after flying into Fort Lauderdale and driving up to PSL. Meanwhile, Uncle Bob and Sidney came over from Cape Coral on Sunday, but they waited until Monday to come out to visit us at the resort. We spent the afternoon chatting, while waiting for Don and Toni to arrive. When they finally did arrive, we all went out to dinner to Olive Garden. Bob and Sidney stayed over on Monday night, since it was too late to drive back to Cape Coral after dinner.
While Don and Toni were with us, we had lots of fun and lots of good food. We visited some of our favorite "haunts", plus a few new ones. One of the "highlights" of their visit was the infamous "lot crawl" at our resort. This has become an annual event at the resort and it involves the participants driving around in golf carts to various "themed" lots for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. The drinks flow freely, and everyone has a great time. At the end of the evening, everyone returned to the clubhouse, where there was a live band and dancing and MORE DRINKING!
A "not so High-light" of their trip came on the afternoon we had planned to go to lunch down in Stuart, FL, at a neat little restaurant called the Key Lime Tiki Bar and Grill. As we were heading out, we got a call that the wicker dip coolers we had ordered were being delivered. We decided to turn around so that we could meet the truck at the resort. On the way back, we got a call from the driver that they were lost and were not able to find us. After ascertaining their location, I advised them to park their truck and we would find them. Getting their exact location proved to be a problem, since they are Mexican, and their English skills were somewhat lacking. I finally figured out that they were parked in a school parking lot, and the name of the school was "Citrus Grove Elementary School". We tried to find the school with the GPS, but could not. However, since we had a kind of general idea where they were, we headed out to find them. After driving around for about 30 minutes and not finding them, we stopped at a Fire Station to ask the whereabouts of the school. As luck would have it, they never heard of the school. In fact, the ONLY school with that name that they knew of was up in Vero Beach, some 30 miles north. Undaunted, I climbed back into the Odyssey and continued down the same road we originally were on, thinking that this HAD TO BE the right way, based upon the last conversation I had with them. As luck would have it, after another 15 minutes of driving, we found the school!! The reason it would not come up on my GPS is that it was a brand-new school, and it was in another county, south of St. Lucie.
Two hours and twenty minutes later, we had our delivery, and Don got two bags of "HOT" peanuts from the Mexicans.
After Don and Toni left, we headed north to Titusville, FL, to spend the month of March with John and Nancy. While staying in Titusville, we did two more shows in Orlando, which is only about 40 minutes away. We also had an opportunity to set up our booth at the Great Outdoors Fun Fair, which is an annual event at TGO. We had a ball doing the fair. While at TGO, we met lots of John and Nancy's friends and shared a few meals with them. We decided that we really liked being up in Titusville for the month, since there was so much to do there, and it is centrally located (more so than Port St. Lucie) to the shows we do in Florida. We have made a decision to try to rent our lot at Port St. Lucie next season and spend the season up at The Great Outdoors.
We left TGO on March 27th to travel up to Red Bay, AL to have some work done to the coach. We spent 5 days in Red Bay while our coach was being serviced, but they were enjoyable, relaxing days. The work was finally completed on Friday afternoon, so we headed out of Red Bay with intentions of going down to the Florida panhandle to spend some time relaxing at the shore. We got just south of Birmingham, AL before stopping for the night at a Walmart. While there, Kathy spoke to Nancy and we learned that there was going to be a shuttle launch on Monday morning. Nancy suggested that we come back to TGO for Easter dinner with them, then we could take in the launch on Monday morning. Needless to say, we quickly changed our plans and headed back to Titusville, arriving there Saturday evening. Easter dinner on Sunday was wonderful. We were with all of the people we had come to know while we were there in March, and we were treated to a sumptuous repast of lamb, turkey, lots of salads and vegetable dishes, and some fabulous desserts! Mmmmmmmmm!!!!
On Monday, we arose at 4AM to get ready to go down to see the launch. We went with a group of about 8 people, and we went to the local Moose Lodge, which is located right on the intra-coastal waterway, directly across from the launch pad (about 8 miles away). We arrived at the Moose Lodge at 5:15AM, and they were serving coffee and donuts prior to the launch. This is a BIG DEAL down here every time they launch a shuttle. People come from everywhere to see this! The parking lots are filled with cars and motorhomes; there isn't an available parking spot on the road or along the parks bordering the waterway. We were fortunate enough to have John, since he is a member of the Moose, and that's how we ended up there. Anyway, the launch was scheduled to take place at 6:21AM, weather, et al, permitting. As it turns out, the weather was perfect - clear skies, almost no wind - ideal for the launch. The actual launch (click this) went up at exactly 6:21AM, and it was SPECTACULAR to see in person!! If you ever get the chance, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Unfortunately, there are only 3 launches left before the shuttle program is dismantled. We are so glad we got to see one before the program ends.
We left TGO again on Tuesday, April 13th, headed for Dothan, AL for another show. We are now in Elko, GA relaxing before we head into Perry, GA for another show this Thursday. From Perry, we will be heading up to Concord, NC to do another show before we finally begin the trek back to MA. Our only other stop will be in Rye Brook, NY to visit with Mike, Lisa and Ava.
See y'all real soon!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Brooksville RV Show, visit to Venice, etc.
Estero, Florida - Thursday, February 11, 2010
We arrived here in Estero this afternoon. The weather was/is very nice for the trip and after we arrived. We spent the past three days visiting with Uncle Rich and Auntie Elaine in Venice. We got a chance to see their new (to them) condo, which just happens to be in the same complex as Terry and Wenke Holmes' condo. Their condo is very nice and in a beautiful location. Unfortunately, their furniture did not arrive as promised, so they are sitting on folding chairs in their living room. They do have bedroom furniture, though. I spoke with Uncle Rich this afternoon, and they found another furniture store and hope to have their living room furniture by next Wednesday!!
As the title mentions, we just finished doing another RV show, this one in Brooksville, Florida. Of all the shows we have done, we were most favorably impressed with the Brooksville show.
Our motorhome was parked within 100 yards of the vendor tent, so once we got set up, taking care of the dogs during the show was a piece of cake. We could walk back to the motorhome in less than two minutes. We truly enjoyed doing this show, as the people who attended were motorhomers, like us, and they appreciated all the vendors and bought lots of products. Also, the people who run the show were very attentive and caring to the vendors. As they explained, if not for the vendors, there would be no RV show. It was nice to feel appreciated!
For this show, since we could not get a corner booth, I came up with a booth design which makes any booth location a "corner" booth.
The new set-up worked out very well, and people were very appreciative that they could get closer to the items we had for sale. Unfortunately for us, we ran out of wicker coolers, and only had ceramic one to sell. We had purchased some new ceramic coolers, which we had shipped to Brooksville, and we displayed them for the first time at this show. They were well accepted, and we sold half of them during the show.
Tomorrow, we will finish setting up our booth here in Estero, at the "Big Boy Expo". We got a head-start on it this afternoon, but decided to wait until tomorrow to finish it up, since the show doesn't open until Saturday morning at 10:00. This will be the shortest duration show we have done, 2 days. The show opens Saturday morning and will close at 5 PM. It will open again on Sunday morning at 10 AM and will close at 5 PM. We will pack up the booth and load everything into the motorhome and car after 5PM on Sunday, then head back to Port St. Lucie on Monday morning. Keep your fingers crossed that this will be a good show for us. This is a showcase for "big boy toys"!!
Here are the links to the photo albums for today:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/IPhone2010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARVRally23To72010?feat=directlink
We arrived here in Estero this afternoon. The weather was/is very nice for the trip and after we arrived. We spent the past three days visiting with Uncle Rich and Auntie Elaine in Venice. We got a chance to see their new (to them) condo, which just happens to be in the same complex as Terry and Wenke Holmes' condo. Their condo is very nice and in a beautiful location. Unfortunately, their furniture did not arrive as promised, so they are sitting on folding chairs in their living room. They do have bedroom furniture, though. I spoke with Uncle Rich this afternoon, and they found another furniture store and hope to have their living room furniture by next Wednesday!!
As the title mentions, we just finished doing another RV show, this one in Brooksville, Florida. Of all the shows we have done, we were most favorably impressed with the Brooksville show.
Our motorhome was parked within 100 yards of the vendor tent, so once we got set up, taking care of the dogs during the show was a piece of cake. We could walk back to the motorhome in less than two minutes. We truly enjoyed doing this show, as the people who attended were motorhomers, like us, and they appreciated all the vendors and bought lots of products. Also, the people who run the show were very attentive and caring to the vendors. As they explained, if not for the vendors, there would be no RV show. It was nice to feel appreciated!For this show, since we could not get a corner booth, I came up with a booth design which makes any booth location a "corner" booth.
The new set-up worked out very well, and people were very appreciative that they could get closer to the items we had for sale. Unfortunately for us, we ran out of wicker coolers, and only had ceramic one to sell. We had purchased some new ceramic coolers, which we had shipped to Brooksville, and we displayed them for the first time at this show. They were well accepted, and we sold half of them during the show.Tomorrow, we will finish setting up our booth here in Estero, at the "Big Boy Expo". We got a head-start on it this afternoon, but decided to wait until tomorrow to finish it up, since the show doesn't open until Saturday morning at 10:00. This will be the shortest duration show we have done, 2 days. The show opens Saturday morning and will close at 5 PM. It will open again on Sunday morning at 10 AM and will close at 5 PM. We will pack up the booth and load everything into the motorhome and car after 5PM on Sunday, then head back to Port St. Lucie on Monday morning. Keep your fingers crossed that this will be a good show for us. This is a showcase for "big boy toys"!!
Here are the links to the photo albums for today:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/IPhone2010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARVRally23To72010?feat=directlink
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Catching Up from Brooksville, FL
Tuesday, Feb. 2 (Groundhog Day) - Hernando County Airport, Brooksville, FL
We arrived in Brooksville yesterday morning in the rain. The drive down from Ocala was short and uneventful, and we arrived in good spirits, despite the rain. After checking in, we were led to our site for the duration of the show. We are parked in a grassy field, directly across from the entrance to the Vendor Tent, about 100 yards away.
After getting the motorhome set up, we made our way over to the tent and began to set up our booth. The booth configuration we are using is something I thought up before we arrived here. I came up with a configuration which provides us with a "corner booth", even though we do not have a corner.
This is new for us, and we will try it out to see how it goes. Stay tuned for a final critique of this setup.
Looking back over the last couple of shows, Fort Myers was a good show for us. We will certainly keep that show on our schedule. Ocala, on the other hand, was not so good for any of the vendors (that we spoke to, anyway). That show (Ocala) opened last Thursday, 1/28. Traffic was pretty good, but nobody came to buy anything, so we had a "slow" day. In the end, we covered our booth and camping expenses, but nothing else. The rest of the show went downhill from there! In fact, on Saturday, a day when every vendor expected things to improve, the rains came. By early afternoon, it was raining so hard that they closed the gate and people who came in were allowed to enter for free. The show coordinator came to each vendor and told us that we could close down our booths if we so desired. Since water was dripping on our products from a couple of holes in the tent, we decided to close up. We were out of there by 2PM. We hoped that Sunday would get better, but it was soooo cold that not that many people came out, and those that did were not spending. Bust!!! As a result, we will not do the Ocala show again.
So, now we are in Brooksville, FL, at the FMCA Southeast Area Rally. We have decided that we really like doing the FMCA rallies. We went to a "pot luck" supper last night, sponsored by the Family Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we are new members, since Fort Myers). That was a great time. We met lots of other vendors and got lots of valuable feedback on other shows, in addition to having some good "comfort food". Tonight, we were invited to another dinner meeting with the Professional RV Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we have been members since Farmington, NM, last October). After a short meeting, we were treated to some very tasty sandwiches, potato salad, cole slaw, chips, etc. Again, we met more vendors who imparted more information about shows. As a result, we are now considering changing our show schedule for the coming months so that we can do more FMCA rallies.
Please be sure to check out the photo albums below. I have included photos not yet seen from Fort Myers, and from Ocala and our set-up here in Brooksville. I certainly hope you enjoy the photos.
Here are the links to the web albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShow118242010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OcalaRVShow128312010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARally2372010?feat=directlink
We arrived in Brooksville yesterday morning in the rain. The drive down from Ocala was short and uneventful, and we arrived in good spirits, despite the rain. After checking in, we were led to our site for the duration of the show. We are parked in a grassy field, directly across from the entrance to the Vendor Tent, about 100 yards away.
After getting the motorhome set up, we made our way over to the tent and began to set up our booth. The booth configuration we are using is something I thought up before we arrived here. I came up with a configuration which provides us with a "corner booth", even though we do not have a corner.This is new for us, and we will try it out to see how it goes. Stay tuned for a final critique of this setup.
Looking back over the last couple of shows, Fort Myers was a good show for us. We will certainly keep that show on our schedule. Ocala, on the other hand, was not so good for any of the vendors (that we spoke to, anyway). That show (Ocala) opened last Thursday, 1/28. Traffic was pretty good, but nobody came to buy anything, so we had a "slow" day. In the end, we covered our booth and camping expenses, but nothing else. The rest of the show went downhill from there! In fact, on Saturday, a day when every vendor expected things to improve, the rains came. By early afternoon, it was raining so hard that they closed the gate and people who came in were allowed to enter for free. The show coordinator came to each vendor and told us that we could close down our booths if we so desired. Since water was dripping on our products from a couple of holes in the tent, we decided to close up. We were out of there by 2PM. We hoped that Sunday would get better, but it was soooo cold that not that many people came out, and those that did were not spending. Bust!!! As a result, we will not do the Ocala show again.
So, now we are in Brooksville, FL, at the FMCA Southeast Area Rally. We have decided that we really like doing the FMCA rallies. We went to a "pot luck" supper last night, sponsored by the Family Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we are new members, since Fort Myers). That was a great time. We met lots of other vendors and got lots of valuable feedback on other shows, in addition to having some good "comfort food". Tonight, we were invited to another dinner meeting with the Professional RV Vendors Chapter of FMCA (of which we have been members since Farmington, NM, last October). After a short meeting, we were treated to some very tasty sandwiches, potato salad, cole slaw, chips, etc. Again, we met more vendors who imparted more information about shows. As a result, we are now considering changing our show schedule for the coming months so that we can do more FMCA rallies.
Please be sure to check out the photo albums below. I have included photos not yet seen from Fort Myers, and from Ocala and our set-up here in Brooksville. I certainly hope you enjoy the photos.
Here are the links to the web albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShow118242010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OcalaRVShow128312010?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BrooksvilleFMCARally2372010?feat=directlink
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tampa Bay RV Super Show Wrap-up and Fort Myers RV Show Setup Day
Thursday, January 21 - North Fort Myers, FL
We arrived here in Fort Myers on Monday afternoon. Since we were not able to begin our setup until Wednesday morning, we had two glorious days to relax in the warm Florida sunshine here in Fort Myers. Wilson and Beasley appreciated the "down time", because they got to sit outside and enjoy the weather, as well.
To recap Tampa, approximately 50,000 (+/-) attended this show. Most were seasoned RV show attendees and behaved accordingly. Others were only there to see what they could get for FREE! After a particularly busy onslaught at our booth, the vendor in the booth next to ours told me about one older gentlemen who "grazed his way through" every one of of our samples, then took a handful of animal crackers (which we put out for sampling our "sweet treat" dips), then proceeded to walk over to the next booth, look around, then ask the vendor at the booth "got anything for free?", as he munched on our crackers. In the 5-day show in Tampa, we went through 80 pounds of pretzels, and 8 pounds of animal crackers. It got so bad with people taking animal crackers to sample the savory dips and cleaning them out that we removed the cookies altogether, and only served pretzels!
I can't tell you how many asinine remarks I heard during the course of the 5 days about our "NO DOUBLE DIPPING" signs. I got so tired of hearing the stupid remarks that I had to walk away from the booth for a while. One pea-brained idiot actually asked if he could use all ten fingers, would that be considered "DOUBLE DIPPING"? I just looked at the idiot and turned away. I actually believe that some people should take a course on attending trade shows where vendors have promotional items available for the attendees. If you are going to take the freebie, at least be courteous enough to listen to the vendor's speil. Instead, they try to take the items without being detected. Geez! But, I have to tell you on that the evening of the opening day in Tampa, a dinner was held for all vendors (free), and they awarded "door prizes". Kathy won the very last, and biggest prize, $100! Kinda took the sting out of all the negative stuff that came later.
Before I forget, to see pictures of the vendors at the Tampa Bay RV Super Show, simply click the link below:
http://www.tampabayeye.com/rv-show/01-16-10/index.html
OK! Enough about Tampa! On to Fort Myers. I have included pictures of our setup process at the end of this blog. Setup day was Wednesday and the show opened this morning at 10:00AM. This was a very busy day for The 'DIP'lomats! Right from the start, we had crowds around our booth all day long. We had the only "free food" booth at the show where you could graze your way around our booth. The people attending todays opening day were seasoned RV show veterans, and behaved as they should. We had a very successful first day, and only went through 9 pounds of pretzels. We have 3 days to go here, and we are looking forward to each one. This is a good show for us, as we are with other vendors we have worked with in the past 3 shows, and we have made many new friends.
To top it off, our booth is the best looking booth at any of the shows we have attended, to date.
Stay tuned to this site, as updates will be coming regularly (I hope).
Here is the link to the web album for this entry:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShowSetupDay?feat=directlink
Thursday, January 21 - North Fort Myers, FL
We arrived here in Fort Myers on Monday afternoon. Since we were not able to begin our setup until Wednesday morning, we had two glorious days to relax in the warm Florida sunshine here in Fort Myers. Wilson and Beasley appreciated the "down time", because they got to sit outside and enjoy the weather, as well.
To recap Tampa, approximately 50,000 (+/-) attended this show. Most were seasoned RV show attendees and behaved accordingly. Others were only there to see what they could get for FREE! After a particularly busy onslaught at our booth, the vendor in the booth next to ours told me about one older gentlemen who "grazed his way through" every one of of our samples, then took a handful of animal crackers (which we put out for sampling our "sweet treat" dips), then proceeded to walk over to the next booth, look around, then ask the vendor at the booth "got anything for free?", as he munched on our crackers. In the 5-day show in Tampa, we went through 80 pounds of pretzels, and 8 pounds of animal crackers. It got so bad with people taking animal crackers to sample the savory dips and cleaning them out that we removed the cookies altogether, and only served pretzels!
I can't tell you how many asinine remarks I heard during the course of the 5 days about our "NO DOUBLE DIPPING" signs. I got so tired of hearing the stupid remarks that I had to walk away from the booth for a while. One pea-brained idiot actually asked if he could use all ten fingers, would that be considered "DOUBLE DIPPING"? I just looked at the idiot and turned away. I actually believe that some people should take a course on attending trade shows where vendors have promotional items available for the attendees. If you are going to take the freebie, at least be courteous enough to listen to the vendor's speil. Instead, they try to take the items without being detected. Geez! But, I have to tell you on that the evening of the opening day in Tampa, a dinner was held for all vendors (free), and they awarded "door prizes". Kathy won the very last, and biggest prize, $100! Kinda took the sting out of all the negative stuff that came later.
Before I forget, to see pictures of the vendors at the Tampa Bay RV Super Show, simply click the link below:
http://www.tampabayeye.com/rv-show/01-16-10/index.html
OK! Enough about Tampa! On to Fort Myers. I have included pictures of our setup process at the end of this blog. Setup day was Wednesday and the show opened this morning at 10:00AM. This was a very busy day for The 'DIP'lomats! Right from the start, we had crowds around our booth all day long. We had the only "free food" booth at the show where you could graze your way around our booth. The people attending todays opening day were seasoned RV show veterans, and behaved as they should. We had a very successful first day, and only went through 9 pounds of pretzels. We have 3 days to go here, and we are looking forward to each one. This is a good show for us, as we are with other vendors we have worked with in the past 3 shows, and we have made many new friends.
To top it off, our booth is the best looking booth at any of the shows we have attended, to date.
Stay tuned to this site, as updates will be coming regularly (I hope).
Here is the link to the web album for this entry:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/FortMyersRVShowSetupDay?feat=directlink
Monday, January 18, 2010
The "SUPERSHOW"
Monday, January 18 - Fort Myers, FL (Martin Luther King Day)
We have arrived in Fort Myers from Tampa. Our trip took approximately 2 hours, leaving Tampa at noon and arriving here at the Civic Center in North Fort Myers at 2PM.
This blog entry will cover the Tampa RV Supershow at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, FL.
We left Port St. Lucie on Sunday, January 10th, at noon. We spent most of the morning loading up the motorhome at our storage unit. Our trip to Tampa was uneventful, except for the fact that we had to wait in line at a Flying J fuel stop in Tampa for over an hour to get propane. Based upon our experience here, we should have been prepared for what we encountered at the RV Supershow. While waiting in line for propane, people with 20lb. tanks kept cutting in front of us in the line. Several times, I had to get out and go over and rap on their windows to tell them where the end of the line was. Several people looked at the length of the line and decided not to wait for propane. Others refused to budge!
SUPERSHOW Recap:
The show started on Tuesday with "Industry Day", where all the vendors and dealers get to walk around and check out the other vendors and dealers booths. We had to be in our booth (at least one of us) during "Industry Day", in case other vendors wished to purchase dips. This was probably the longest day of the entire 5 day event.
Wednesday was opening day for the public. According to our information, there were well over 11,000 attendees on Wednesday! This "grazer" is a person who starts at one end of the samples display and tries every one of our flavors, some more than once, then moves on to another vendor display. We had so many "grazers" on Wednesday and Thursday, that I had to go out and purchase another 65 bags of pretzel sticks, hoping that would get us through to the final day of the show. We made it!
But here's what I learned during these last 5 days in Tampa - people are inherently greedy and feeling entitled to do as they please because they paid to gain entrance to the show. Some observtions: We use large containers to serve our pretzels and cookies for sampling the dips. People coming to our booth would reach into these containers and pull out handfuls of either, to the point where we went through 12 pounds of cookies (we buy the 4lb plastic containers at BJs or SAM's clubs), and 40 bags of pretzels from Wednesday through Thursday evening. On Friday, we attempted to cut down the volumes we were going through by putting tongs into each container for people to use to get a pretzel or cookie. What we observed was that they would put the tongs into the container and try to get as many pretzels/cookies as possible, thus dropping half of them either into the dip samples or on the floor! Some people even grabbed handfuls of either and continued walking toward the next booth, without even sampling the dips. By Friday, we discontinued putting out cookies, only pretzels. This helped, somewhat.
What I learned from this show was that children, especially the younger ones, have to be watched very closely. Our containers for the pretzels and cookies are very tall, so much so that they are really too high for children to get anything out of using the tongs. Now, you would think that parents would be aware of what their children are doing while the parents are sampling the dips. They are not, nor do they care! As a result, we have to watch them and try to keep them from reaching their little hands (who knows where their hands have been) into the containers (both dip and pretzel/cookie), or "double-dipping" (what small child understands the term "double-dipping?). At times, we have to reach out and physically prevent them from dipping into a container after they have taken a bite out of the pretzel they are holding. Some parents are visibly pissed that we would have the audacity to touch or reprimand their child and they verbally assault us, others apologize and take control of the child. One such confrontation on Sunday afternoon almost came to blows when a father accused me of "terrorizing his 5-year old". A scary moment, indeed!
We have not had time to tally up the results of our first big event, but we feel that, in spite of everything, we had a good show. Most of the attendees were very friendly and in a "buying" mood. We met some new friends, and some old friends (vendors), whom we hope we can remain in touch with. Most of them have been doing this for many years, and they know the ins and outs of these shows, which are good ones, which are not-so-good ones. This is valuable information for us, since we are just starting out. We are looking forward to the Fort Myers show, which starts on Thursday morning and runs through Sunday afternoon. I will post another entry following that show.
From Fort Myers, we will be heading up to Ocala for another show beginning on January 28, and continuing through Sunday, January 31. Stay tuned!
All in all we had some fun, met lots of people and made some $$$. We find that we are meeting and making friends from all over. As we travel, we hope to visit new friends all over the US.
Here's the link to the web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TampaRVSuperShow?authkey=Gv1sRgCKCopoaBy9np-wE&fat=directlink
We have arrived in Fort Myers from Tampa. Our trip took approximately 2 hours, leaving Tampa at noon and arriving here at the Civic Center in North Fort Myers at 2PM.
This blog entry will cover the Tampa RV Supershow at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, FL.
We left Port St. Lucie on Sunday, January 10th, at noon. We spent most of the morning loading up the motorhome at our storage unit. Our trip to Tampa was uneventful, except for the fact that we had to wait in line at a Flying J fuel stop in Tampa for over an hour to get propane. Based upon our experience here, we should have been prepared for what we encountered at the RV Supershow. While waiting in line for propane, people with 20lb. tanks kept cutting in front of us in the line. Several times, I had to get out and go over and rap on their windows to tell them where the end of the line was. Several people looked at the length of the line and decided not to wait for propane. Others refused to budge!
SUPERSHOW Recap:
The show started on Tuesday with "Industry Day", where all the vendors and dealers get to walk around and check out the other vendors and dealers booths. We had to be in our booth (at least one of us) during "Industry Day", in case other vendors wished to purchase dips. This was probably the longest day of the entire 5 day event.
Wednesday was opening day for the public. According to our information, there were well over 11,000 attendees on Wednesday! This "grazer" is a person who starts at one end of the samples display and tries every one of our flavors, some more than once, then moves on to another vendor display. We had so many "grazers" on Wednesday and Thursday, that I had to go out and purchase another 65 bags of pretzel sticks, hoping that would get us through to the final day of the show. We made it!
But here's what I learned during these last 5 days in Tampa - people are inherently greedy and feeling entitled to do as they please because they paid to gain entrance to the show. Some observtions: We use large containers to serve our pretzels and cookies for sampling the dips. People coming to our booth would reach into these containers and pull out handfuls of either, to the point where we went through 12 pounds of cookies (we buy the 4lb plastic containers at BJs or SAM's clubs), and 40 bags of pretzels from Wednesday through Thursday evening. On Friday, we attempted to cut down the volumes we were going through by putting tongs into each container for people to use to get a pretzel or cookie. What we observed was that they would put the tongs into the container and try to get as many pretzels/cookies as possible, thus dropping half of them either into the dip samples or on the floor! Some people even grabbed handfuls of either and continued walking toward the next booth, without even sampling the dips. By Friday, we discontinued putting out cookies, only pretzels. This helped, somewhat.
What I learned from this show was that children, especially the younger ones, have to be watched very closely. Our containers for the pretzels and cookies are very tall, so much so that they are really too high for children to get anything out of using the tongs. Now, you would think that parents would be aware of what their children are doing while the parents are sampling the dips. They are not, nor do they care! As a result, we have to watch them and try to keep them from reaching their little hands (who knows where their hands have been) into the containers (both dip and pretzel/cookie), or "double-dipping" (what small child understands the term "double-dipping?). At times, we have to reach out and physically prevent them from dipping into a container after they have taken a bite out of the pretzel they are holding. Some parents are visibly pissed that we would have the audacity to touch or reprimand their child and they verbally assault us, others apologize and take control of the child. One such confrontation on Sunday afternoon almost came to blows when a father accused me of "terrorizing his 5-year old". A scary moment, indeed!
We have not had time to tally up the results of our first big event, but we feel that, in spite of everything, we had a good show. Most of the attendees were very friendly and in a "buying" mood. We met some new friends, and some old friends (vendors), whom we hope we can remain in touch with. Most of them have been doing this for many years, and they know the ins and outs of these shows, which are good ones, which are not-so-good ones. This is valuable information for us, since we are just starting out. We are looking forward to the Fort Myers show, which starts on Thursday morning and runs through Sunday afternoon. I will post another entry following that show.
From Fort Myers, we will be heading up to Ocala for another show beginning on January 28, and continuing through Sunday, January 31. Stay tuned!
All in all we had some fun, met lots of people and made some $$$. We find that we are meeting and making friends from all over. As we travel, we hope to visit new friends all over the US.
Here's the link to the web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TampaRVSuperShow?authkey=Gv1sRgCKCopoaBy9np-wE&fat=directlink
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