Pine Grove Furnace

Took the beach house to the mountains for the weekend.  V&R came up and spent the day Saturday.  We stuck a roast in the slow cooker and went off hiking.

Love this pic.  V laughing, Butch explaining something, and R trying to figure out what Butch is talking about.

 
This is the Appalachian Trail museum.  They've converted one of the old buildings into a nice little display.  They also have services for those thru hikers that may need a little help.

 This is the sign that indicates the halfway point of the AT.  Custom is that when thru hikers get here they are treated to a "half" gallon of ice cream.

 Which sounded like a really good idea at that point, so while we didn't go for all that ice cream we did treat ourselves to some.

 

 The Iron Masters mansion is being restored and

looks so much better than it did when we were here last.  At that point I thought they were going to let it fall down.  But, thanks to stimulus monies, the museum and this house are being saved.  A side note....see the steep steps leading up to where Butch and R are standing?  The 3rd step from the bottom has 2 risers on it.  We saw 3 people trip up it while we were standing there....and one of them worked there! 

A wild ferocious animal that accosted me on the trail!

 

 This was at the mansion house.  I did go over and think about giving it a swing, but when I saw the shape it was in, there was no way my butt was going to be responsible for pulling down that whole tree.

Pretty autumn pictures that I know are cliche' but I still like them

September Trois

It was a lovely evening at Jimmy's topped off by watching the van towed off and having a cab fare of $45.  Nice.

We didn't have anything planned for Thursday, so it was okay that it would take the garage all day to get it fixed.  We hadn't counted on the fact that they had no body in the garage on Thursday, they were all out on the road, so no van.  We ended up blasting in there at 5pm on Friday.  A $60 buck cab fare that time.....bastard.  That was when they got it done.  I was a nutcase (alright, as usual) cause we had tickets to the murder mystery dinner at the house of blues and had to pick up wine from Carolina vineyards before then.  We made it.  Yeah, i know, it's me, what do you want.... whatever.

we spent a little time at Jake and Elwoods' after dinner.  i got a big ole shot of Jose gold and a beer and a smoke, and damn i was happy.  butch just shakes his head.

 Don't know if you can make them out on these pictures, but the courtyard at the HOB had these huge spiderwebs in them.  The inhabitants could have taken down a bird.  Come to think of it, i didn't see any around...



The bar at the House of Blues



September-Part Deux



Myrtle Beach

I'm here, I've finally got a beer, get that camera out of my face!

We had to get up and do the timeshare high pressure bullshit buy more of what you already don't want sales pressure meeting on Monday morning.  The dude should have taken the hint when he asked how i was doing and my reply was, "you're cutting into my beach time".  We managed to extract ourselves from him after only 45 mins.  We sent up to the suite and were trying to decide what to do first when i kept hearing this beeping outside.  Well, if you ready the earlier post, you know it was a fire alarm going off.  here is the promised photos of all the fire equipment that North Myrtle Beach Fire Dept sends when a 1000 room resort is on fire.

 I'm hoping that they knew there really wasn't a fire, and that this wouldn't be all they would send in the actual event of an emergency!  i mean seriously, there were 3 guys.  what the hell would they have been able to do?

All Clear

I had to laugh later, of all the things we grabbed when we went out of there, the money in the safe, and the car keys were the two things  we didn't remember.  Maybe that had something to do with what happened later in the week.

the Stranded on a Sand Bar at Jimmy's

Ahhhh, what i'd been waiting for!

These photos were all taken before the van decided to stay at the sand bar.  We were much happier then.

Butch on a boat with a hurricane

I told him look scared the earlcaine is coming in, and this is what i got.  our "table" was actually the stern of a boat.  that's why you see the flying bridge and fishing poles in the background.



September-Part 1

We started the annual September tour with a quick little jaunt to Atlanta.....over labor day.  The weather was great and we had a blast with the people camped around us.  Butch just had to take some pics of the weather. 

just a few close friends here

the front of our "beach house" and the guys next door.  it's always a good thing to have neighbors that have a flat screen outside!

great sunset over the track

We got back home in one piece except for my mind that I lost in labor day traffic.  

It was pretty late when we got home and we only had 3 days before we left for Richmond.  So we yanked everything racing out of the motorhome and into the van.  In addition, we were going to the beach directly from the race, and needed to pack everything for that too.  It was a crowded van, but as a (in)famous person once told me...."Babe, this ain't my first rodeo".  We've had quite a bit of practice at creative packing.

Had a blast at richmond with Rich (big dog) and his wife sandy.  you know the race drill, bullshit, beer, and eating too much.