Skip to main content

Trip Up


I hitched a ride with JC who was down from G-Burg visiting her daughters in January.  JC is a former co-worker at Blick and has an old car so we ahem known each over a while.  She appreciated the company and help driving so we took off around 10:30 from St. Petersburg for a 2 day trip up to the wintry cold Illinois.  At my age I don't get real excited over things anymore, but this was a lot of fun and I generally kept it from people up there.  An added bonus was JC's willingness to navigate the big cities.    



This is Joey.  Joey is a 13 year old Chihuahua JC adopted when its previous owner dropped it off at the vet's requesting they put it down since they no longer could care for it.  It was my lap partner for the first few hours through Atlanta.  I don't like little skittish yappers, but as little skittish yappers it was a little skittish yapper.




Like most little yappers, this one seems to have anxiety issues when not with their owners.  Needy, constantly shaking, and hardly dog-like, Joey does have redeeming features: what appears to be an oversized disproportionate male member and it doesn't bark a lot.



This was an interesting front somewhere in Georgia.  



At a rest stop I noticed the "Dog Walk" sign directing them over to a yellow sign which read...


…something having to do with poisonous snakes.  Yikes!  "Hey Joey, let's take a walk, big boy."



This old abandoned building was once the home of Queen's in Clarksville, Tennessee.  It was just across the lot from where I stayed at the Super 8 for the night.  Queen's holds a great deal of sentimental memories for myself and the family.  Perhaps none more than for Brendan.  

We stopped here one time while staying at nearby Days Inn for one of our trips to see Brendan while he was stationed here with the Screaming Eagles.  It was a restaurant with a nice deck out front.  We all went there one summer night and were wined an dined by the Asian couple who owned it.  The food was excellent, the service top-notch and the owners certainly did everything they could to make for a memorable evening.  

Upstairs was a billiards room and more seating downstairs.  Brendan and his Army buddies would later come here and drop tons of money and stay all night.  It became their hangout and a nice bond developed between the the owners and the Army guys.  On subsequent trips down we were saddened by a "Closed" sign.  Wherever they are, I hope the guys who ran it are doing well, they know a lot about hospitality.  They set a standard for hosting that has rarely been reached since.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

Welcome back to a pretty neat tour of the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland Florida.  There's a lot to see and a couple of the old Geezer Gold Wing guys are already sitting down instead of walking around looking at the exhibits. That's John who is wore out and making a call to his wife.  In all honesty, John was pretty well bushed before the ride.  He told me his daughter's family was down from one of the Carolina's with the grand kids and he must have played with them too much.   He's about to take off on his own and head for home, but he's going to miss a couple of neat things out on Hangar A.   But, before we walk over there, we have lots yet to see here.  If you saw The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard Hughes, you'll remember that he went up in a plane during the filming of one of his movies to prove a point about flying.  He crashed trying to execute a roll and this is a picture of the plane he crashed.  No...

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week.  Except for me.  I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers.  These pics need no words.  Why muddy the waters?   They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley.  The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter.  If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one.  But, please, no more.