Vacation, Day 8, 10/28/2009, Part 4

Blue skies over Talladega and the campground mean it should be OK for Milton to move the trailer to their regular camping spot, which essentially makes the bottom of a U, with usually two of their friend's rigs making the two arms of the U which is open to the road.


He skillfully backed the hitch in the truck's bed into the trailer's connector.


You have to head in the right direction so that the doors on the trailer would open into the U.


Milton directs Ian as he backs onto the planks placed there to keep the wheels from directly resting on the ground, in case it rains again.


The tarps are moved and covered with blue indoor/outdoor carpet.


Actually the tarps and the carpet are secured at the corners and every now and then with metal spikes to keep everything in its place, plus they're duct taped together along their overlapping edges. Speaking of everything, look at all of the stuff unloaded the day before and toted across the road. Some people came to help, the ones from the previous vacation post, the ones with the short, swiveling flag poles holding the American flag and a Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 flag.


Kay and Tinkerbell sit and rest for a bit.


Now Milton and Ian begin to work at putting up the E-Z Up canopies. First off comes the storage bag.


Then you spread it out.


And more.


All the while making the E-Z Up larger and larger.


Now Ian and Milton each stand at a leg, raising it to the desired height.


Tinkerbell plays with her favorite toy, an empty plastic water bottle, on a section of the indoor/outdoor carpet yet to be covered by an E-Z Up canopy. Look how she's holding on with her front paws!


Kay's hanging her purple Halloween bat lights in the E-Z Up.


The skeleton will join the bat lights later on. He's waiting on top of the folded out white plastic table, covered with Kay's plastic table cloth.

Vacation, Day 7, 10/27/2009, Part 5

First, you have to understand something about Milton. The man can cook! So inside the trailer we've got all sorts of stuff to cook with, to cook on, and to cook. Let's see what came out of there!



You'll get to see this little beauty in action later on.


OK, you also need to know that I don't cook out, grill, or smoke food. I eat out. That's it. (Of course, I cook at home, in the kitchen, then I eat in.) So I cannot remember for sure what this is, but I believe it's a smoker, and maybe it could be a grill, depending where and what you put in it to create the heat. (If I weren't in a time zone that often means Milton and Kay are already asleep when I need to ask them a question, I'd call one of them right up and find out for sure.)


Out comes the ladder.


Good thing curiosity didn't take out the doggie 'cause Tinkerbell's some kind of curious, standing at the backdoor, lookin' in to see what's coming out next.


She's a blur, just to the right of the golf cart 'cause she's seen Milton take a seat and put the key in so that he can start it and drive it down the ramp. Also to the right of the golf cart, you can see boxes of bottled water, a yellow plastic jug that I think holds cooking oil for that Cajun Fryer, either Kay or Ian's golf clubs, a white plastic table folded in half, a whole bunch of extension cord, and no telling what else.


A second later, and she's in one of her all-time favorite spots, with her beloved Milton talking to her. See the blue baskets behind them? That's the something free from the Fred’s Store in McComb, Mississippi.. Later on you'll see them in action.


Looks like Tinkerbell's concerned about the golf cart's descent, with Milton at the wheel.


The golf cart's on the ground. Tinkerbell's the picture of innocence. Looks like she's thinking, "Me, a side-seat driver? Nah."


Time for an exercise break for Tinkerbell and Ian!

Vacation, Day 7, 10/27/2009, Part 1

The day has dawned! The day I join Milton and Kay again, along with their grandson Ian, for our trip to Talladega. So here we have photos of goings on at Aunt Baker and Uncle JL's before we got in her car for the ride to meet them at the Pelahatchie exit on I-20 East.

On the left, Raphael. On the right, Squirt, the turtle who joined the family when "Finding Nemo" had come out. See the Squirt toy in Raphael's box? That's where I got the name for him.


Ginger in her favorite spot on the back porch. My Daddy made that seat, and two more like it, from VW bucket seats attached to plastic milk crates.


Isn't their home lovely?


On the way out of town, we passed Puckett's hamburger joint--it wasn't open that early in the day.


Pretty countryside, from Aunt Baker's car.


My lunch, while we waited for their arrival in the parking lot of the truck stop.


Here they are! Kay's truck pulls the "toy hauler." You will not believe what is inside that we will eventually unload outside, then move a day later!

Three Doors Down Cafe, A Fine Food and Drink Series, No. 1

In honor of all that eatin' we'll be doin' down South--see the lengthy paragraph below--this is the first in a series of fine food photos I've taken lately at Three Doors Down Cafe, SE 37th and Hawthorne, in Southeast Portland. I took them right before I either ate or drank it all right up! I do want to point out that since the menu changes pretty often at 3DD, I might be sharing photos of food that is not currently on the menu. Suffice it to say that no matter what you order, you will be sufficiently satisfied. Are all those S-words superfluous? Yeah, but I don't care. As you well know, I'm a fan of going overboard to make a point.

Delicata squash, pancetta, green onion, chevre cheese risotto. I tell you what, if you needed some comfort food, you'd have been so pleased with your decision to dine on this hearty, smooth entree.


I had a glass of Gruner Veltliner, a white, that went very well with my entree.

The Lengthy Paragraph

First, let me explain that Mama and I are going on a two-week vacation, flying to New Orleans on Oct. 21, where we will be picked up by our BFF Kay. We're spending the night in the French Quarter, then heading to her home in Smithdale, Mississippi, where we will spend the night. On Friday we're going to have lunch at The Dinner Bell in McComb, Mississippi, with Kay and her husband Milton before heading to Jackson. We'll be with my brother Howard and his wife Vanessa--yippee!!--from Friday until Monday. They're the sweetest ever, concerned about Mama and the stairs to the upstairs guest bedroom and my allergies to cats, they're putting us up in a nearby Embassy Suites. Oh, I forgot. On Friday afternoon I have an appointment to tour Eudora Welty's house, a National Historic Landmark and one of the nation's most intact literary house museums, reflecting Welty's life there over seventy-six years. Saturday night we hope to gather with family and friends at Sal & Mookie's, a New York Pizza & Ice Cream Joint in Jackson, Mississippi. On Monday we'll eat lunch at Hamil's Southern Cookin' and Bar B Que Buffet in Ridgeland, Mississippi, then we'll head to my Aunt Baker and Uncle JL's in Puckett, Mississippi--we'll eat mighty fine home-cookin' there, let me tell you! On Tuesday, Kay and Milton and their grandson Ian will pick me up on I-20, after Aunt Baker takes me to meet them at a service station, and we'll head to Talladega, Alabama, for NASCAR heaven at the Talladega Superspeedway for two races--on Halloween, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Mountain Dew 250 and on Nov.1, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Amp Energy 500. While we're camped out near in the speedway in Milton and Kay's RV, we'll eat Milton's grilled and fried good food--Kay'll probably cook some, too, 'cause she always does! Big time yummy! We're even going trick-or-treating around the campground on their golf cart--Kay's taking all sorts of decorations for it and the RV. I'll join Mama again at Aunt Baker and Uncle JL's on Monday at some time or other, depending on when we leave Talladega. Then on Tuesday Mama and I will go to spend the night at a hotel near the Jackson airport, resting up for our flight home on Nov. 4.

Whew!

All of that to say that I'm trying to put together some posts ahead of time--to save time, I'm discontinuing the daily dahlia, just for now. I don't know how many I'll get to complete nor do I know how much Internet I'll be around while we're on the trip. I do know that I will be taking photo after photo after photo.