Russell’s Travel Center

 Posted by at 2:10 am  Nick's Blog
May 272023
 

Every time we passed Russell’s Travel Center on Interstate 40 in eastern New Mexico, I have joked that we needed to stop at the “family business,” but until a trip out West last year, we never got around to it. When we finally did, I was amazed at how much we had missed! You can bet we won’t pass it up again!

As most road warriors know, much of Interstate 40 follows the original route of US Highway 66, the Mother Road, and Russell’s Travel Center pays homage to that Great American Highway with an authentic Route 66 Diner, a free classic car and memorabilia museum that brought back more memories than I could believe, a full-service store, and more.

The facility is just one of many businesses that a couple named Emory and Barbara Russell (no relation to me) have created through the years with hard work and dedication and a lot of faith. A logger by trade, Emory and his family left Montana in 1964 and moved to Cimarron, New Mexico so Emory could find work in logging. However, they arrived to find that the area had been hit by the worst rain and flood conditions in over 60 years and there were few jobs to be found. There were also no homes to be found, so the Russells, with their four children, lived in a tent for the first summer they were there.

If that wasn’t hardship enough, Emory was injured on the job and laid up for quite some time. Meanwhile, Barbara had started a hamburger business, which earned them enough money to scrape by, and Emory helped her with it and became very popular with their customers as the business grew. At that time the small town of Cimarron did not have a grocery store. Always one to recognize an opportunity, Emory decided to build one, which opened in 1971. Over the years the business became successful and expanded many times. Eventually the Russells owned several grocery stores, along with a drive-in restaurant, laundromat, car wash, and residential properties. They opened their first truck stop in Springer, New Mexico, in 1995, and continue to grow their business with new and larger facilities, now with the help of their adult children.

Being both old car aficionados and history nuts, Terry and I loved every inch of the free museum and spent quite a bit of time browsing through the displays. They have all kinds of vintage automobiles on display from the 40s, 50s, 60s, and even earlier. There were several I wanted to take home with me, but none of them were for sale. That’s probably just as well because my budget never does meet my list of wants.

I love old Mustangs, and this convertible would have looked very nice sitting in my garage.

But if you prefer old pickup trucks (and who doesn’t?), there were quite a few nice ones to choose from.

And if you like old cars, you have to like old gas pumps, too, right? They had some nice ones on display.

But there’s more than one kind of horsepower.

Of course, if your tastes are more whimsical, how about a giant M&M, or some Betty Boop characters?

Elvis? He’s right around the corner!

From old jukeboxes to Coca-Cola memorabilia, early transistor radios, and every kind of advertising sign you could imagine, they are all right here for you to see at Russell’s Travel Center.

Just be careful when you open doors because you never know who’s going to be sitting behind one. This old geezer had a lot to say!

Along with the museum, store, and diner, there is also a chapel that is open 24 hours for silent meditation, with Sunday services at 11 AM. And don’t worry about getting in and out, there is room for any size eighteen wheeler, RV, or car at Russells. I can’t wait to get back there again! Russell’s Travel Center is located at Exit 369 from Interstate 40 and never closes. For more information, call (575) 576-8700 or visit their website at http://www.russellsttc.com/index.php

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Crazy Days In Big Lake, the third book in my Big Lake mystery series. Everybody seems to have gone crazy in the little mountain community. Neighbors are threatening violence, eco-protestors are on the march, flower children are camping in the nearby forest, two of Sheriff Jim Weber’s deputies have gotten into a fistfight in the ButterCup Café, the grocery store manager has locked himself in his office and won’t come out, bears are chasing dogs into houses, and somebody has stolen the town’s mascot. As if that isn’t enough to deal with, a mild-mannered retired couple have shot an intruder during a home invasion. By the time this wild tale is finished, more blood will be shed and the good people of Big Lake will be left wondering just how well they really know their neighbors.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

 And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Happiness is where you are now or it is nowhere at all.

Well, Darn It!

 Posted by at 1:24 am  Nick's Blog
May 262023
 

Yesterday was an eventful day for us. Terry started the day by making us some mixed berries and half a bagel each for breakfast and then baked some delicious blueberry muffins. Just about the time they were ready to come out of the oven a very nice young lady named Jackie and her mother Lisa arrived from the Atlanta area to pick up the Glimakra loom that Terry was selling. We had a nice visit with the two ladies, including sampling Terry’s muffins fresh out of the oven, and they were very impressed with some examples of Terry’s weaving work.

Then we got the loom loaded into their Subaru SUV. It was already disassembled from the trip from Florida, and we weren’t too sure everything was going to fit, but with everything inside except for the two side pieces of the frame, which they tied down on the rack on the roof, they were good to go. We wish Jackie well with her loom, and I’m sure she will create some beautiful things with it.

I have been wanting to tackle some of the weeds on the back and side of the property that were getting way out of hand, so once Jackie and Lisa left, I used the new bush hog mower on the back of my Kubota tractor to see what I could get done with them. I’m really impressed with the mower, it does a great job. This is the road that goes to the back of the property to the barn, freshly mowed.

Of course, then I had to mess up, wouldn’t you know it? The road on the north side of the property line was completely overgrown to the point where some of the weeds were higher than the front end of the tractor. I decided to tackle that next. Everything was going along fine for a while, but then I dropped the two right-side tires into an overgrown ditch, and the tractor tilted so far that it was hard to stay in the seat because of the angle. Meanwhile, the left front wheel was off the ground. I was sure glad I was wearing the seat belt and had the roll bar up!

I tried putting the tractor in 4-wheel-drive to see if that would help me, but both wheels on the right side were in mud and I couldn’t get any traction. Well darn it! I walked up to the front of our place and got the Kawasaki Mule and Terry to help me. Parking it up higher on solid ground, I ran the Mule’s winch cable down to the tractor and hooked it to the left side of the frame. I knew it wasn’t strong enough to pull the tractor out, but I was hoping that it would at least stabilize it so it wouldn’t go over any further.

From watching YouTube videos and reading online tractor forums, I knew that I should be able to use the front bucket to lift the tractor up a little bit and get it moving with kind of a crab walk. But the ground was so soft that the bucket just dug in and we didn’t get anywhere.

The next step was to bring a pallet down from the barn and try to put the bucket down on it to do the same thing, while also using the Traction Boards I bought off Amazon a while back under the tires on the left side. Still no luck, and I knew it was time to get some help.

The great thing about living in the country is that your neighbors are always there to help you, and two of them from down the road, Brent and Calvin, came down to see what they could do. Now, I had never met these two gentlemen before. I actually called somebody else for advice and he contacted them for me. They looked the situation over, and Calvin went home and got his big John Deere tractor, which makes my little Kubota look like a toy, and in no time at all, he had me out on solid ground. I tried to pay them for their trouble, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They said that’s what neighbors are for. Thanks, guys, I really appreciate it.

While they were helping me, Terry was on the Husqvarna riding lawnmower mowing the front and side yards and around the fruit trees and other areas.

Once I had a chance to get a long drink of water, I decided to try my luck with the overgrown pasture. I have put off mowing it because of all the clover out there, which was full of bees for several weeks. But in the last week it has all died off, so I figured the bees have everything they are going to get from me for a while.

The bush hog made short work of that, and while I only saw a few bees, five or six snakes went slithering away while I mowed. I do not like snakes. Not even a little bit. Not big snakes, or little snakes, or even sticks that look like snakes. I was glad I was up on the tractor instead of down on the ground with them.

I thought I would get the pasture done before dark, but I ran out of time with just a little bit on one side to finish up yet. I will knock that out tomorrow, because it’s going to start getting much hotter in the next few days.

All in all, it was a good day even if it was frustrating and a bit hairy for a while there. With a lot accomplished, we called it an evening and had a light dinner of sandwiches, and I treated myself to another one of Terry’s blueberry muffins for dessert.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Crazy Days In Big Lake, the third book in my Big Lake mystery series. Everybody seems to have gone crazy in the little mountain community. Neighbors are threatening violence, eco-protestors are on the march, flower children are camping in the nearby forest, two of Sheriff Jim Weber’s deputies have gotten into a fistfight in the ButterCup Café, the grocery store manager has locked himself in his office and won’t come out, bears are chasing dogs into houses, and somebody has stolen the town’s mascot. As if that isn’t enough to deal with, a mild-mannered retired couple have shot an intruder during a home invasion. By the time this wild tale is finished, more blood will be shed and the good people of Big Lake will be left wondering just how well they really know their neighbors.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

 Thought For The Day – Whoever has the most fun wins.

New Primary Care

 Posted by at 12:45 am  Nick's Blog
May 252023
 

Terry and I have been looking for a new primary care doctor since we first moved here, and we had narrowed it down to Pickens County Primary Care in Reform, about 10 miles west of us. We had our first appointments there yesterday afternoon and we were very impressed.

Terry’s appointment was for 1:30 and mine was for 2:00, but they took us both in together, which we prefer, right at 1:30. Everybody from the nurse who took all of our information and medical history to the nurse practitioner we actually saw were completely professional but also very friendly, and took all the time that we needed to get acquainted and talk about our own medical histories and family medical histories. They didn’t make us feel rushed at all, which is not always the case at a practice where they get people in and out as quickly as they can.

I had several prescriptions that were expired, and I had been out of some of my medications for a couple of months now. They immediately phoned in new prescriptions to Walgreens in Northport. They have their own lab right there, so they took blood and urine and then sent us on our way, with appointments to go back in three months unless we need something sooner. All in all, it was a very pleasant experience.

Driving the other direction into Northport, we decided to have dinner at Red Lobster because my prescriptions were not ready yet. The one thing we missed terribly from living on Florida’s Central Coast is all of the great seafood we enjoyed there. Red Lobster is about as close as you’re going to get here, but it was good.

After dinner we stopped at Publix to pick up a few things, then went across the street to Walgreens to pick up my prescriptions, and got home just before dark. It was a busy day, but we got quite a bit accomplished. Today the lady who is going to buy one of Terry’s Glimakra looms is supposed to pick it up. Terry will be glad to have it sold to somebody who will enjoy it, since she has no room for it here, and I will be glad to have a little more room in the garage.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Crazy Days In Big Lake, the third book in my Big Lake mystery series. Everybody seems to have gone crazy in the little mountain community. Neighbors are threatening violence, eco-protestors are on the march, flower children are camping in the nearby forest, two of Sheriff Jim Weber’s deputies have gotten into a fistfight in the ButterCup Café, the grocery store manager has locked himself in his office and won’t come out, bears are chasing dogs into houses, and somebody has stolen the town’s mascot. As if that isn’t enough to deal with, a mild-mannered retired couple have shot an intruder during a home invasion. By the time this wild tale is finished, more blood will be shed, and the good people of Big Lake will be left wondering just how well they really know their neighbors.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

 Thought For The Day – We are sometimes taken into troubled waters not to be drowned, but to be cleansed.

A Cool Day

 Posted by at 12:33 am  Nick's Blog
May 242023
 

I spent much of the day yesterday sending out my free author’s newsletter to my subscribers, announcing my newest book, A Changing World. If you’re not already on the mailing list for the author’s newsletter and would like to be, send me your e-mail address at editor@gypsyjournal.net. I promise not to spam you, and I never share e-mail addresses with anybody.

The book is already doing quite well. At about 11 o’clock last night it was ranked at 11,231 out of all the millions of books on Amazon. I sure won’t complain about that. I have also heard from several readers who have started the book who say they are really enjoying it. I like that even more. 😊

Yesterday was a very comfortable day here at our place. The temperature never got above the low to mid-70s and a nice breeze was blowing that kept it feeling cool outside. Probably one of the nicer days we’re going to have for quite a while, because the weatherman says this time next week it will be 90.

I took advantage of the nice temperature to go out to the garage and spent a couple of hours trying to sort and get things arranged out there. It’s been a mess ever since we moved in, with unopened boxes piled here and there. Terry’s been looking for the battery and charger for her Black and Decker weed trimmer, which have somehow gone missing in the moving process. I didn’t find them, but I did find some other things we’ve been looking for. Terry says she is sure they’re here somewhere, and eventually we will stumble upon them.

When I got done in the garage, I sat out on the back deck for a half hour or so just listening to Terry’s wind chimes and enjoying the day. When we bought the house, there were several birdhouses that had been put up by the previous owners and we have never noticed any birds around them. But yesterday this little guy was busy coming and going from one of them. We also had a couple of rabbits in the yard. That’s fine, just stay away from the garden. The photos aren’t great because I took them with my phone from a distance.

The ground is still pretty wet from all of the rain we had the day before, but it’s supposed to be dry for the next couple of days and I’m hoping it will firm it up enough for me to be able to get some mowing done with my brush hog. Let me correct that; in this area everybody calls it a bush hog, which is actually a brand of mower but is used as a generic term, kind of like any copier used to be called a Xerox.

It’s funny how languages evolve like that. When we lived in Florida we were on the Intracoastal Waterway, which is the correct name for it. But 90% of the people called it the Intercoastal Waterway, including at least one television weather reporter. Or how in some parts of the country people drink soda and in other places they call it pop.

Today we have our first visits with our new doctor at Pickens County Primary Care in Reform, which is about ten miles away. Since we are out of all of our prescriptions from Florida, I’m hoping we can get them called in while we are there.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I feel like drove into sign hell.

 Thought For The Day – When you say yes to others, make sure you’re not saying no to yourself.

It’s Alive!

 Posted by at 12:59 am  Nick's Blog
May 232023
 

Well, it took a while, but yesterday afternoon the e-book version of A Changing World, the fifth book in my Tinder Street family saga, finally went live on Amazon. If you have been following the series, which begins just before World War One and will eventually go through the Vietnam War, this book covers the period from 1935 to 1940. Times were very hard in America, which was still in the grip of the Great Depression, while in Europe, Hitler’s Nazis were conquering one country after another and Japan was massacring hordes of Chinese people. While many did not want the United States to get drawn into another foreign war, it seemed inevitable. As the decade drew to a close it became more of a question of when, not if, we would become a part of the conflict.

I really enjoy writing this series, especially in the decades we’re talking about now because it is part of my own family’s history. I remember hearing stories when I was growing up about how difficult things were for my parents as young newlyweds back then. Some of the things that happen in this book are directly from their experiences in that time.

After the last few hectic days working on the book, I told Terry we needed to get out for a while, so we drove into Northport for an excellent Mexican dinner at Pastor’s Kitchen. On our way we ran into a real frog strangler of a rainstorm, and it was all the pickup’s windshield wipers could do to keep up with it. Even then the visibility was very poor. Fortunately, about the time we got to the restaurant it slacked off enough that we could get inside without getting drenched.

With our tummies full, we went across the street to Publix to pick up a few things, and it was beginning to rain again as we were loading our groceries into the truck. Fortunately, it was not as bad as it had been earlier, and we lucked out again because when we got home it was just about over with, so we could carry everything in without getting drowned.

Today I will send out my free author’s newsletter announcing the new book, along with a short story by Angela and Scott Morales that I think you will enjoy the irony of. Scott is one of my online author friends. He retired from the Fort Wayne, Indiana, Police Department and also worked as a deputy and crime scene investigator at the East Baton Rouge, Louisiana Sheriff’s Office. Check out his book Strawberry Concrete on Amazon.  If you’re not already on the mailing list for the author’s newsletter and would like to be, send me your e-mail address at editor@gypsyjournal.net. I promise not to spam you and I never share e-mail addresses with anybody.

In other news, I said in a blog a while back that I was looking for a German shepherd to adopt, and I have a lead on a couple of different rescues that might be exactly what I’m looking for. I will know more in a few days, and if it comes to fruition, I will certainly have some pictures to share with you.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – A successful marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time.

Sometime Today

 Posted by at 12:30 am  Nick's Blog
May 222023
 

I had hoped my new book, A Changing World, would be live on Amazon by now, but I was wrong. Hopefully it will be, sometime today. I have had books go live in less than an hour, and other times, though rarely, it has taken over a day. As soon as I get the word it is available, I will be announcing it on Facebook and sending out my free author’s newsletter. If you would like to be on my newsletter mailing list, which is different from the blog, please-mail me at editor@gypsyjourna.net.

Now that the book is finished, and before I dive into my next one, I hope to have some time to get on the tractor and try out my new brush hog. The grass in the back is about to take over. Thank God kudzu has not reached our area yet. There is a reason they call this invasive species “the plant that ate the South.”

One plant that I am happy to see starting to grow is one of the fig trees that a neighbor gave us. She actually gave us two of them and they were no more than just spindly twigs. We planted them along with our other fruit trees and they did not seem to be doing anything at all for a long time. We thought they weren’t going to make it, but when I was out checking the trees the other day I saw that one of them has a bunch of leaves growing out of it. The neighbor, Miss Kay, said they were fig trees but didn’t specify any particular kind. I’m hoping they are actually Fig Newton trees. Those are my favorite kinds of figs.

Speaking of growing things, I’m sure glad we pulled up that ground fabric from the garden last week. Longtime reader Rick Devoy sent me this picture yesterday. Is that how they grow catnip?

Congratulations Bud Wang, winner of our drawing for a copy of the new hardcover edition of the RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

We had 34 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – I hate mosquitoes. I know I am delicious, but does that mean I have to give out free samples?

Wet And Soggy

 Posted by at 12:55 am  Nick's Blog
May 212023
 

A few days ago, Travis and Geli came over and helped me get the mid-mount mower out from under my Kubota tractor and the brush hog mower attached to the three-point hitch on the back of the tractor. Getting everything lined up for the three hitch connections was a challenge, and then, as always, hooking up the PTO shaft seemed downright impossible.

The tractor’s PTO and the implement’s PTO shafts each have grooves and splines that can only line up one way and getting them to mesh is way beyond frustrating. People who have been around tractors a long time tell me it’s easy once you get the hang of it, but you could never prove it to me based on my experience.

But we finally got it done, and now I have to level it. That is supposed to be another “easy” task. We shall see about that.

I wanted to try to get some of the tall grass that is threatening to take over the back of the place cut, but not long after we got the brush hog attached it started to rain and kept it up for two days. Everything is wet and soggy, and when just pulling the tractor out to take a picture with the brush hog attached, the mower’s rear wheel was leaving ruts in the ground.

That’s probably just as well, because Terry has been busy doing a final read-through of A Changing World and I have been making corrections as needed. It always amazes me that after being proofread four times by very good proofreaders, typos still manage to slip by. Fortunately, most are in punctuation, but there are other misplaced words that need correcting, too.

Besides making Terry’s suggested corrections, I spent much of yesterday getting my free author’s newsletter ready to send out as soon as the new book is live on Amazon. Hopefully that will be sometime this evening,

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for a copy of the new hardcover edition of the RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Don’t worry about getting older. You’re still going to do dumb stuff, only slower.

Critter Scammers

 Posted by at 1:04 am  Nick's Blog
May 202023
 

I got a lot of response to yesterday’s blog about maybe getting a pet or two, in blog comments, comments on Facebook, and some emails. The consensus seems to be that we will know when the right animal(s) comes along, and Terry and I both feel that way.

It’s no secret that there are a lot of scammers in this world, and Facebook seems to be alive with them. I made a couple of comments about German shepherds and polydactyl cats in different groups on Facebook and I have been inundated with messages from people who all have exactly what we are looking for. All I have to do is send them a deposit of anywhere from $50 to $250 and either the animal will be ready to pick up or it will be delivered to us. And the strange thing is that they almost all use the same pictures of the same animals with the same backgrounds, and when you ask them where they are located you get vague answers.

One person who had not only a year old female AKC German shepherd but also a twelve-week-old polydactyl cat, finally told me that he was in Savannah, South Carolina. When I asked him where that is, he told me it was close to Georgia. When I pointed out to him that there is no Savannah in South Carolina, he didn’t try to argue the point. just wanted me to send him a deposit for the animals. Figuring it’s no sin to lie to a thief, I asked for his address and told him that my son is a cop in Savannah, Georgia, and I would send him by with the payment to pick up the animals. Suddenly the only sound I heard was crickets.

Somebody else, who said she was in Birmingham, Alabama, had a purebred German shepherd female that was housebroken and professionally obedience trained. She said she paid over $3,000 for the dog, which is possible because a purebred dog from a champion bloodline can be very expensive. However, she only wanted $200 for it because God called her to a mission in South America to work with orphans, and she was leaving next week. Again, when I tried to tie her down to a location and said I would come out that very day and get the dog, she wanted me to send her the money online and then she would reply with the directions to her home. I told her I wasn’t comfortable with that, and Birmingham was only about an hour from us, so I would come up that very afternoon. No, she wanted the money first before she would give me an address. When I declined, she replied with a text using some very vulgar language that I’m not sure missionaries are allowed to use. Lord, save me from your people!

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is a copy of the new hardcover edition of the RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Have you ever met someone so stupid that you feel bad for their dog?

Is It Time?

 Posted by at 1:10 am  Nick's Blog
May 192023
 

We are both animal lovers, and in the past, both before and after we were together, we have had cats, dogs, a horse, a goat, a couple of parrots, and tropical fish, to name a few. Terry loves cats and had a magnificent lynk/manx/Himalayan mix named Sasquatch for many years. He got his name because he was also polydactyl, which means he had multiple toes on both his front and rear paws.

I am partial to dogs, except for those barking rats that some people want you to believe are dogs. I have had springer spaniels, an Irish setter, and quite a few German shepherds, which in my opinion is the best dog breed in the world.

After we lost our last pets, we both decided we were not going to have any more because the heartbreak of losing them is so damned hard. But now we are asking ourselves if it’s time to rethink that position.

I confess I have been looking at German shepherds on several Facebook groups, as well as polydactyl cats and kittens. For both of us, a pet is a part of our family. We don’t believe in letting them run loose, and anyone who gets a dog and then makes it spend their life tied up in the backyard does not deserve one.

Over the years, different people have told us about a dog or cat that was available, but our hearts were not ready for that. And not just any old animal will do. As Terry says, it has to speak to her, and there has to be a connection. Will we find a furry friend or two who speaks to us? I guess time will tell. If it really is time, we’ll know it when we meet it.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is a copy of the new hardcover edition of the RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I never said a word about overcompensation.

Thought For The Day – What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility.

Timed It Right

 Posted by at 12:55 am  Nick's Blog
May 182023
 

Yesterday started with a visit from a nice gentleman named Lamar, who operates an exterminating service called Pest Man. I had been referred to him by longtime reader Donald Hann, who lives in nearby Reform, when I mentioned the carpenter bees that were boring holes in a rocking chair on our front porch as well as a couple of other places. Lamar is a very nice man who obviously knows his business, and after talking to us a bit about the issues we were having, we agreed on having the service done by him, with follow-ups as needed, and he set to work doing his thing.

I needed to go to Tuscaloosa Tractor to pick up the brush hog mower they had been holding for me, so after hooking up the cargo trailer to the pickup, I left on that errand. When I got out on the highway I noticed that there had been quite a bit of rain overnight, though there was no indication of it at our house. On the way I picked up our son Travis at his house so he could go with me.

Brad Bosch, the excellent salesman at Tuscaloosa Tractor that I have worked with right from the start, had everything ready for us when we arrived. He spent a few minutes going over the mower with us, explaining how it attaches to the tractor. Then we got it loaded into the trailer. He also talked to us about the problems we’ve had getting the mid-mount mower attached. He gave me a couple of tips, and I think I know what I’ve been doing wrong that was not allowing us to connect it. However, between the brush hog and Terry’s Husqvarna riding lawnmower, I’m not sure I will need the mid-mount mower at all. I think between the two of them we can do just about everything that needs done around here.

Speaking of Terry and the riding lawn mower, while we were gone she was on it mowing some of the grass, but she had to stop because of the thunder and lightning when it started to rain. As Travis and I were driving back to the house it began pouring, and I was not looking forward to trying to get the brush hog unloaded in the rain. But we timed it right, because within about a mile of the house the rain stopped.

Brad put the brush hog in the trailer using a forklift, but at home, because it sits so low on one end, it was hanging up on the ramp and we were having problems getting it off. So we used the winch on the Kawasaki Mule to pull it off. That thing comes in handy for so many jobs around here that I wonder how we got along without it.

With the trailer unloaded and parked, we took Travis home and visited with him and Geli for a little bit, admiring one of their garden areas. They grow so much that it’s just amazing.

Look at the size of the leaves on this plant compared to Terry’s hand.

I wandered down a path down the hill behind the garden and came upon this site. My kid has kind of a twisted sense of humor. At least, I hope so, because if not, I don’t want to know what he’s up to!

There was more good timing on our part. It had not rained at all at Travis’ house, but not long after we got home it really began coming down in a deluge. But when the rain did finally let up, it left everything looking absolutely beautiful out across the pasture.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is a copy of the new hardcover edition of the RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I’m not sure if this is someone who really shouldn’t be trying to teach anyone anything or somebody who passes gas with an English accent.

Thought For The Day – Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.

That’s 52!

 Posted by at 12:35 am  Nick's Blog
May 172023
 

Yesterday afternoon I finished A Changing World, the fifth book in my Tinder Street family saga and my 52nd book overall. It came in at 96,753 words. Terry edited and proofread the last four chapters, and after making her corrections, I sent it off to Judy and Roberta to be proofread again. I hope to have it out by the weekend.

This will be my first book for this year. Usually I have one book out by now and I’m close to knocking out a second one, but with buying our house here in Alabama, moving, and everything involved in that, I am way behind schedule. My last book release was on Christmas when Big Lake Drunk came out. I plan to take a few days to catch my breath, then I will be back at it, working on my next project.

We had a lot of clouds and some scattered showers yesterday, which helped keep the temperature a little better in check. Once the last chapters of the book were done, I went out to Terry’s garden to pick up the last of the ground cover fabric and store it in the garage to be used for something else I have planned later. While I was out there, I noticed that some of her vegetable plants are beginning to really take off.

After I finished that, I spread some grass seed and fertilizer on some of the bare patches in both the front and backyard, hoping they will take and things will start to fill out some more there. We do have quite a bit of grass growing in the backyard where they scraped off the ground cover and re-sloped the yard, then planted seed and covered it with straw. But there are a lot of areas where the new grass has not come up, and I know that once the rainy season starts we’re going to be dealing with mud again if we don’t do something.

Today is supposed to be a repeat of yesterday weather-wise, and I hope so because there are some things I need to get done. One of them is going to Tuscaloosa Tractor Company to pick up a brush hog mower for the back of my Kubota that they have been holding for me since before we left to go to Florida for Terry’s appointments at Mayo. I will use it for maintaining our trails and other areas where the tractor’s mid-mount mower or the Husqvarna riding lawnmower are not up to the job. If Travis isn’t busy, I’m going to ask him to come with me, and maybe they can give us a lesson on hooking up the mid-mount mower, which we still have not been able to figure out even after watching all kinds of YouTube videos.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Isn’t this just common sense? Does water need a warning label?

Thought For The Day – When people tell me “You’re going to regret that in the morning,” I sleep in until noon because I’m a problem solver.

Mid-May Q&A

 Posted by at 1:02 am  Nick's Blog
May 162023
 

I’m back with more questions from blog readers about RVing, my writing activities, what’s happening in our lives since we hung up the keys, and all kinds of other things. While I try to answer all questions individually, I also share some here occasionally.

Q. Nick, have you done an internet search for remote-controlled lawnmowers? You can sit on your porch and mow the steepest lawn using a joystick.

A. No, but I will now. 🙂

Q. I have signed up for your free drawings for one of the RV camping journals every time but have never been lucky enough to get drawn. Can I buy one on Amazon or someplace else online?

A. Yes, you can purchase them on Amazon, or even better, Barbara House, who publishes the camping journals, has set up a special 20% discount for my blog readers on her website. It’s good for everything there, not just the RV journals. You can access it at this link.

Q. I know you are into guns, and I have a question. My husband’s birthday is coming up and he has always wanted a gun called a Kimber. It’s a handgun is all I know about them. I asked a neighbor who is a security guard and he said they are overpriced junk. Do you know anything about them?

A. Your security guard neighbor doesn’t have a clue. Kimbers are far from junk. They are top quality handguns, and their price reflects that. Between Terry and I, we have six Kimbers and they are all excellent. But you need to find out what kind of Kimber your husband wants. They make both semiautomatic pistols and revolvers in many different sizes and calibers for many different uses.

Q. Now that it’s getting so hot in Alabama, are you regretting your decision to move there?

A. No, it’s just as hot all summer long in Florida, too. Every place in the country has something negative about it, whether it be hot summers, cold winters, tornadoes or hurricanes, traffic jams or mudslides. Choose your poison.

Q. Nick, I know you joke around a lot, but I really have to ask. Does Miss Terry get upset when you talk about buying her a riding lawnmower or a rototiller or tools instead of jewelry or something romantic?

A. Terry can have anything she wants. She has a few pieces of jewelry, but she is not into things like that. She really does love tools and is quite good with them. Better than I will ever be, for sure. She also loves kitchenware and gadgets for the kitchen and has a good supply of things like that.

Q. We met a very nice man named Carey McGleish at one of your Gypsy Journal rallies in Arizona and really hit it off with him. I know that at one time he was snowbirding at a campground somewhere on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Yuma, but we have lost touch. Are you still in contact? If so, could you please give him our e-mail address and tell him Jim and Gail from Pennsylvania would like to reconnect?

A. Unfortunately, we have not heard from Carey in quite a few years. We miss him. I see he has a Facebook page, but no posts since 2017.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I’m so confused.

Thought For The Day – Laughter is like a windshield wiper. It doesn’t stop the rain, but it allows us to keep going.

Cool It!

 Posted by at 12:45 am  Nick's Blog
May 152023
 

As I said the other day, it’s already getting darned hot here in Alabama. The temperature yesterday was 91 degrees, and we have quickly discovered that the sunroom at the back of our house, which we use for our office, can get downright uncomfortable. That’s because of all of the windows and the fact that this is an addition to the house, and the single air conditioning vent doesn’t really do us much good, nor does the ceiling fan. We can walk from the office into the living room and feel at least a 10 or maybe even 20 degree difference in temperature, if not more.

It got so hot yesterday that Terry and I talked about moving our desks into our huge master bedroom, which stays nice and cool, but we really didn’t want to do that. When we first moved into our home in Florida, we purchased two Frigidaire window air conditioners. One was mounted in the garage and ran 24/7 nonstop and was still running when we sold the house. The second unit was to be used in the living room in the event of a power failure. We only did that once or twice, using one of our Honda generators to power it. It was more than enough to keep us comfortable in the living room until utility crews could get the power up and running again. We brought it with us when we moved here, and yesterday we installed it here in the back of the house to hopefully make our office more comfortable.

It was during the afternoon, and by the time I got ready to write the blog, close to midnight, it was feeling much better back here. Of course, we won’t know for sure how much good it does until sometime today when the sun is out and starts heating things up again.

One good thing about this early summer, or whatever it is that we are experiencing, is that our rose bushes are going crazy. The other day Terry picked a bouquet of rosebuds for our daughter-in-law Geli, and she’s got another bouquet of them on our kitchen breakfast counter now.

I also mentioned a while back that the ground fabric we put down in our garden was not doing any good at all. It kept pulling up and beating the plants in any kind of breeze, even though we used multiple metal staples designed for that purpose to hold it in place. Besides which, grass was growing up under it anyway. So the other day when Travis and Gila were here, we pulled it all out. That was a waste of time and money.

Being the wonderful, caring husband and all-around prince that I am, I went to Plan B and bought Terry a nice Honda FG110 gas powered rototiller to help her maintain the garden. It’s a small unit that will get between the rows of plants and between the individual plants themselves. What did you think I was going to buy her for Mother’s Day, a vacuum cleaner? I’ve got a more class than that!

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – I love being married. It’s so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.

Happy Mother’s Day

 Posted by at 12:45 am  Nick's Blog
May 142023
 

Note: I posted this Mother’s Day blog a few years ago, and I hope you will enjoy reading it again. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Moms out there! I hope you have a wonderful day surrounded by lots of love. If you have not called your Mom to tell her you love her yet today, go do it right now. She’s waiting to hear from you.

My own dear mother has been gone many years now, and I miss her every day. She was a sweet lady who was loved by everyone who ever met her. Life didn’t always treat her kindly. She outlived five of her eight children, but she overcame her heartbreak each time, picked up the pieces, and went on with her life.

She was a typical stay-at-home mother, like many women of her generation. She took pride in having a clean house and taking care of her family. She tried to learn to drive a car once, and her only time behind the wheel, she put my dad’s DeSoto in a ditch. That was enough driving for her!

She was also as fierce as a mama bear defending her cubs. Long before I came along she had a hard birth bringing my brother Frank into the world and the doctor ordered her to stay in bed for several weeks. This was in 1931, and my dad was a young deputy sheriff. He had made some enemies among a group of local ne’er-do-wells who swore to get even. They knew where my parents lived and made it known they might show up some day when he was at work. Sure enough, they did, walking right into their bedroom. My mom was nursing the baby, but laid him beside her, pulled the .32 revolver my dad had left her from under her pillow, and fired a shot into the ceiling above their heads. As plaster rained down on them, she said the next shot would be in somebody’s head. I don’t think they heard her because they were too busy running over each other trying to get out of Dodge. In the weeks that followed, my dad sought out each of them and convinced them never to show their faces around the area again.

Mom never lost her sense of humor, no matter what happened. She passed that on to me, and it has helped me deal with plenty of setbacks in my own life. As the youngest of her children, I was always her baby, even when I became a grown man with children of my own. I know I gave her fits sometimes, and though she was a short little round woman, she could hold her own.

I’ve been asked a couple of times to repost this story I told a few years back about my mom, and it’s the most hilarious memory of her I have, though it didn’t seem at that funny at the time.

When I was a young soldier, I was offered an opportunity to go to jump school and fell in love with the romantic idea of jumping out of airplanes for a living and wearing the coveted silver wings of an Airborne trooper. I called my dad to tell him that I had been accepted to jump school, and his first words were, “Why the hell would you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Only bird shit and fools fall out of the sky.” His next words were, “DO NOT tell your mother about this until you’re done! I have to live with the woman!”

So we kept it our secret until I made it through school, and then Dad brought Mom down to Fort Benning, Georgia, for my graduation. She didn’t know what I was graduating from, just some Army training school. On graduation day, we were to jump onto a drop zone where our families were waiting to see us. So bright and early on graduation morning, my parents and a hundred other people were brought out in buses to the drop zone and ensconced on bleachers.

One officer after another made his little speech and then it was time for our dog and pony show. Far above, we got the word and began our jump. Meanwhile, on the ground, my mom had gotten frustrated waiting for her son to show up, so she walked up to one of the men in uniform on the ground and said, “My son is supposed to be graduating today. Do you know where he is?”

“Right up there, ma’am,” he told her and pointed to the paratroopers floating to the ground. That’s when all hell broke loose.

My chubby little mother pushed past the soldiers assigned to keep civilians off the drop zone and shook off their restraining arms as she stormed out into the middle of the graduates as they hit the ground and did their landing rolls, yelling, “Nick, where are you? You get your butt down here right this minute! You know better than that! I didn’t raise you to break your legs doing something this stupid!” I swear I could hear her while I was still a hundred feet in the air!

And all the while, confused young paratroopers were getting to their feet and trying to collapse their chutes as she stormed up to them, demanding to know where I was. Meanwhile, my dad (and much of the audience) was rolling around on the bleachers laughing their heads off.

Needless to say, when all the confusion died down, I had a lot of explaining to do! I’m not sure which put the fear of God into me more, facing my mom or a hastily called meeting with our battalion commander. But she did calm down enough to pin on my wings, and I was the only graduate that day to get a standing ovation!

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. I love you, and I miss you.

Thought For The Day – Some mothers are kissing mothers, and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. – Pearl S. Buck

It Did Its Job

 Posted by at 12:30 am  Nick's Blog
May 132023
 

If the weather the last couple of days, since we got back from Florida, has been any indication of what’s to come, I think it is going to be a long, hot summer. We are only into May and it’s already in the upper 80s. That’s no surprise, of course, because we knew it was going to be hot and humid here in the summer, just like it was in Florida. The only difference there is that living so close to the ocean, we did get a sea breeze that kept things a little more tolerable.

But not by much. I don’t care where I am, when the temperature gets above 80, I feel it. Even in Arizona, where they always say it’s a dry heat, I find lots of reasons to stay inside when the thermometer starts to climb. As for that dry heat nonsense, fire is dry, too. That doesn’t mean I want to be in one.

I was outside checking out the garden yesterday afternoon when the wind started blowing and dark clouds rolling in. I got inside just as a storm system came through. All we got was some thunder and lightning, while other areas around us did get quite a bit of rain.

As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, our Dish TV system died while we were out of town earlier in the week. Yesterday Dish sent a service technician out, and as it turned out, it was a simple problem. There were some pretty strong thunderstorms while we were gone, and something happened to knock out the surge protector for the TV and Dish system. That’s what it’s supposed to do, and it did its job, sacrificing itself to prevent further damage. It was a simple matter of installing new surge protectors in the living room and bedroom and we were up and running again.

A few readers have asked me why there is no free drawing this week. Knowing we would be out of town and not sure when we would be back, I didn’t plan on doing one. However, I neglected to say that in the blog, and I apologize. We will have a new drawing starting next Thursday.

I’m not sure what’s on the agenda for today. Travis and Geli are coming over sometime in mid-afternoon, and we need to go into Northport and do some grocery shopping and run some other errands. Who knows? If we do that after the kids leave, and if I play my cards right, I might even convince Miss Terry that we need to go to Mr. Chen’s for some Chinese food.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – It’s no fun not having anything to do. The fun is having something to do and not doing it.

Ouch And Ouch Again!

 Posted by at 1:03 am  Nick's Blog
May 122023
 

After our hectic three-day trip to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and back home again, neither one of us was in a hurry to get out of bed yesterday. And when we finally did, neither of us had much gumption to do anything at all. Terry’s third Vego raised garden bed had been delivered before we woke up, so I carried it out to the back deck for her, which was about the most energetic thing I managed to accomplish all day long.

We had bagels for breakfast, then spent part of the day catching up on e-mail that got neglected during the trip. One e-mail I received was from somebody who was upset with my book Big Lake Massacre about a violent robbery at a medical marijuana dispensary that left several people dead. He wasn’t upset about the violence in the book, but because I was promoting the use of marijuana.

He said if I was going to be turning people into junkies, he was never going to read any of my books again. I wanted to write back and tell him I was sorry to hear that, then tell Terry we were going to have to sell the house and all of our possessions and live on the street because we wouldn’t get the royalties from any books that he might purchase in the future. I was also tempted to tell him that medical marijuana oil was one of the few things that gave me relief from my back pain, and as soon as I started using it, I no longer took any of the opioids that the VA had been giving me for so many years. But in the end, I just ignored it because there’s no point in trying to confuse somebody with facts when their mind is already made up.

About 3:30 I felt like I had hit a brick wall and just could not function anymore, so I parked myself in my recliner and slept until about 5. When I woke up, I couldn’t find Terry, and I figured she must have finally gotten fed up and was visiting with a divorce lawyer. Who could blame her, right? As it turned out, she was out in the garden taking up some more of the ground fabric, which had pulled loose again and was beating the plants up in the breeze.

Except for a couple loads of wash, and a light dinner of chicken quesadillas, that was our day. But our evening proved to be interesting.

Sometime while we were gone our Dish receiver died, and after having the tech from Dish talk me through several things that didn’t work, they set an appointment to come out this afternoon to fix it. In the meantime, we could still watch Amazon Prime and other things over the Internet on our television.

We very much enjoyed an excellent documentary on author Judy Blume and her career on Amazon Prime. If you’re one of the seven people in America who doesn’t know who this prolific author is, her books for preteens and young teenagers have helped several generations of America’s youth understand themselves and the changes in their bodies, emotions, and lives as they were growing up. If you think book banning is something new in America, you will be surprised to hear about what was going on in the 1980s, when Ms. Blume’s books were considered pornography aimed at children. Talk about déjà vu! I was also surprised to find out that she and her husband own a bookstore in Key West, Florida. I wish I had known that when we were down there. We would not have missed it.

While we were watching television Terry spotted something crawling on one of the window blinds, so I got a Kleenex to grab it, thinking it was some kind of harmless little bug. As it turned out it was a wasp, and the darn thing stung me on my right thumb. That hurt like hell, and I dropped the Kleenex and the wasp inside of it on the floor. Then, like a fool, I tried to pick it up with my other hand, and it stung me on that thumb, too! I’m glad I didn’t step on it because I wasn’t wearing shoes! I have enough trouble walking around as it is.

Miss Terry, AKA Superwoman, came to my rescue and dispatched the ugly critter while I put some ice on my thumbs and did a little bit of sniveling. Okay, maybe it was a LOT of sniveling! And for those of you who think that Terry is this wholesome girl next door, turned excellent cook and weaver and all-around amazing human being, I want you to know she’s got a mean streak in her. Instead of kissing my thumbs and making them feel better, she asked why I was dumb enough to try and pick it up a second time and laughed at my feeble attempt at an explanation. I guess that’s what happens when you’re married to the court jester, right?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – I’m in big trouble if people find out I really don’t have Tourette’s.

Bonsai And Beef

 Posted by at 1:05 am  Nick's Blog
May 112023
 

One of the odd things we have found living in Alabama is that while the local Publix grocery stores stock several different varieties of their Greenwise bagels, which are the house brand, they don’t stock the Greenwise egg bagels, which are my favorite. Many times all I want for breakfast is a bagel or half a bagel and glass of milk. When we’ve asked at the Publix stores here, they say they have never heard of them. But every Publix I was ever in in Florida has them. So the first order of business after we checked out of the Hampton Inn in Jacksonville yesterday was to hit the nearest Publix and buy seven packages of their egg bagels. Terry will put them in the freezer and I’ll be good to go for a while.

We left Jacksonville somewhere around 10:30, made our way to Interstate 10, and headed west. If I had a nickel for every mile we’ve ever traveled on Interstate 10 over the years I would have to buy a bank vault to hold all of them. We stopped at the Busy Bee near Live Oak, Florida for gas and a quick snack, and then we were back on the road.

Eventually we made it to US Highway 231 and took it north. A few miles up the road there is a place that sells bonsai trees, and every time we’ve driven by we keep saying we’re going to stop, but we never do. So yesterday we did.

I knew it was my kind of place when I saw this sign out front.

Bonsai is a Japanese term for “tray planting,” the Asian art of growing and training miniature trees in containers. This little mom and pop business has been featured in Southern Living magazine, and they had all kinds of bonsai trees, from very small to huge. Terry has always wanted a bonsai tree, and she found a nice one to come home with us.

In another 15 miles or so, we crossed into Alabama and were soon in Dothan, where we stopped at an antique mall and spent an hour or so looking at all the goodies on display. It always tickles us to go into these places and see things that we grew up with, now called antiques. Then again, at age 70, I guess we’re antiques, too.

We enjoy browsing at antique shops, and a couple of times I’ve seen the little town of Brundidge listed as the Antique Capital of Alabama. Brundidge is just a few miles south of Troy, where we had planned to spend the night, so we took a detour through town. I don’t know who came up the idea of it being the antique capital of the state, but all we saw was a bunch of vacant stores in the downtown area. One had been an antique mall at one time, but that was quite a while ago.

Back on US 231, we stopped at the Santa Fe Cattle Company for dinner. There was a time in my life when I could happily eat red meat seven days a week, but now I seldom have it once a week. But sometimes a guy just needs some beef. I had a rib eye steak and Terry had steak tips with sauteed onions and peppers, and both were very good.

Usually when we go from Florida to Alabama or back we stop at the Hampton Inn in Troy for the night. This breaks the trip up nicely. That’s what the plan was, and then we thought we might visit a couple of antique malls in Montgomery and another one in Prattville on our way home today. But as it turns out, they were booked solid except for one handicapped room, which was going for a premium price. So we decided to heck with it, we would just drive the extra three hours home.

When we were a little over 100 miles from Tuscaloosa, it was starting to get dark, and my night vision is bad, so we switched drivers and Terry drove the rest of the way. By the time we got home we were both worn out and more than ready to wrap this trip up.

I don’t think we’re going to do much of anything today except catch our breath and enjoy being home. After driving over 1,000 miles in three days, and Terry’s long day at the Mayo Clinic, we need it.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day –Everyone has the right to be stupid; it’s just that some people abuse the privilege.

A Long Day for Terry

 Posted by at 12:13 am  Nick's Blog
May 102023
 

Yesterday was a long day for Terry. She had a checkup at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida as part of the continuing follow-up for radiation enteritis caused by the treatment needed to save her life when she was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer in 2000.

Back then, her first oncologist gave her six weeks to live, but he had no clue how stubborn my wife is. She fired his butt on the spot and we found a new doctor that said he could save her with radical treatment but warned her it would be very rough and that there would be a price to pay down the road. She has been paying that price for many years now, but she is alive and extremely grateful for every day. And the good folks at Mayo have helped her deal with the issues caused by her treatment.

She started the day yesterday with a CT scan. The worst part of that was the barium oral contrast she had to drink along with the barium oral contras right before the procedure. If you have ever had these, you know they can give you a huge internal warm flush and can also really mess up your stomach. Terry had both reactions. The good news is that the scan did not find any new or unusual changes to be concerned about.

The next appointment was to check on the status of the Interstim device that was implanted back in 2019. Terry received one of the last models that were not MRI compatible, and eventually the battery will age out and they will have to replace it with one that is. It looks like that will happen in the next year or so.

After that she had an invasive physical examination and Heidi, the specialized nurse practitioner, went over the results of the CT scan and talked about her symptoms, medications, and such. We can’t say enough good about the wonderful folks at Mayo. Not only are they 100% professionals, they care about their patients on a personal level, never talking down to patients or their families and answering any and all questions in detail.

Between the 8½ hour, 500-mile drive from our house in Alabama to here on Monday and the long day at the hospital yesterday, by the time we got back to our hotel we were both pretty tuckered out. We rested for a while and then, since we had not eaten all day, went to dinner at a place called the Seafood Kitchen. It was recommended as a small restaurant where the local people go for good seafood, and not at all touristy like so many places near the beach.

We sure made the right choice, because our waitress Lanie was a delight, and the food was awesome. Terry had the special of the day, blackened triggerfish, along with a baked sweet potato and okra. She shared some of her fish with me and it was delicious. I opted for blackened shrimp, French fries, and applesauce, and would order it again if triggerfish was not on the menu.

With Terry’s Mayo appointments out of the way for the next three months, both of us are looking forward to getting back home, where we still have a lot to do, and our own comfy bed to sleep in. Thank you everybody who posted Facebook comments or sent messages wishing Terry well. We appreciate all of you.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – How something winds up is never dependent on how much you worry about it.

Paying The Price

 Posted by at 12:05 am  Nick's Blog
May 082023
 

I have been around long enough to know that there’s no free lunch. Everything in life comes with a price tag, and yesterday Terry and I were paying the price for all of the work we did in the garden the day before.

We were feeling some aches and pains when we went to bed Saturday night, and when we woke up yesterday morning, we both were so stiff and sore we could hardly move. The weather had turned much warmer, with the high up into the mid-80s, which made it a good day for taking arthritis-strength acetaminophen, using my cane, and spending my time at the computer working on my Tinder Street book.

Miss Terry is not a sniveler like me, but I know she was uncomfortable, too. But that didn’t stop her from giving me a back rub first thing in the morning to help me loosen up enough to get out of bed. She spent the rest of the day doing laundry, bookkeeping, and baking her delicious oatmeal raisin pecan chocolate chip cookies. Then she topped it all off with meatball sandwiches for dinner. They say karma comes around and gives you what you deserve, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what I ever did to deserve someone as precious and wonderful as her.

It’s going to be a very busy week for us and I don’t know how much time I will have to get online. So if you don’t see a blog tomorrow or the next day, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you or fallen off the edge of the Flat Earth.

Congratulations Liz Rademacher, winner of our drawing for a six e-book box set of my friend, USA TODAY bestselling author Claude Bouchard’s Vigilante series. Doesn’t everyone fantasize a bit about vigilante justice? Haven’t you ever read or heard of some despicable act of violence and secretly wished you could have the opportunity to make the predator pay? Welcome to the Vigilante series, a growing collection of suspense bestsellers best described as thrillers and mysteries which will have you cheering for the assassin as justice is delivered in a clandestine fashion. But remember, this is fiction, so it’s not a crime.

We had 65 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – If you didn’t see it with your own eyes, or hear it with your own ears, don’t invent it with your small mind and share it with your big mouth.

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