The trip North to head South

I have been lax on blogging and as a result, much of details of this trip have drained out of the old memory sieve.


The trip really started with going out to the Mexican restaurant in Latham

http://www.elcharroalbany.com/

with Chuck and Mary for fajitas and some good wine.

Our first stop was Oneida where we attended a graveside memorial to Paul's aunt Eileen. Paul's sister Ellen arranged everything.  She had cared for Eileen for a number of years, as Eileen aged and then lost most of her memory.  The last time we saw her,
Eileen did not know who Elizabeth was or remember that Paul had died.
"And how is Paul? "she asked Elizabeth>
"Oh, about the same," Elizabeth answered, not wanting to add grief again to her conscious mind.

The service was very sweet with some memories and comments from the mourners.
Afterwards we went for pub food at a local place.

I met people who I had not met before.  All were welcoming and friendly.  We saw Margo again after a number of years.

Ten minutes away was our first night in a hotel, right across the street from Turning Stone, and I went and lost my money.  I played limit and $60 just drained, so I played no limit.  My big blind J-4 of spades flopped two pair, J-4-2.  I went all in, a guy called me with K-2.  He got the third 2 on the river.

I played some VP that included dice coming with multipliers.  It was fun.  I quit even on that.

We lunched with Ann Marie and celebrated her retirement.  Susan Maybeck came as well.  This was in Rochester.

Then we drove to Hamburg where we would stay 2 nights right near the Waterstone Grill.
http://waterstonegrill.net/
The next day we had a delightful tour and a good long talk with Rose, Gary's wife.

We saw the now newly commissioned Little Rock Battle Ship

  That night we met Bill Scharra, Mike Zimpfer and wives for a fine meal at the grill.

We stopped next on the way to Chicago in Maumee and went to a little diner there for diner meatloaf.  Real inexpensive and locals place.

In Chicago we stayed with Keith and Bern and kids

Frank and Slyvia visited, and we had our early Christmas.  It was fun to see all the kids.  We saw Ray Ray sing at a concert and dance at a tap recital,

Next to the school is an old church converted into an interesting house.

Ray Ray's turtle from her concert

Outside of the concert in the playground, I played at mowing the lawn.

I know I did a fine job because after I was done, there was not a blade of grass to be seen.

Before the tap dancing we went to a fancy breakfast.

Coffee and kids at breakfast was a treat. 

The day Frank and Julie cooked breakfast, there was a huge debate about where Frank's bacon or Keith's bacon was the best.  Opinions were very partisan.

That day with Sylvia also included gifts and chocolate lolly pops from Albany's Krause's, and some games of chess and clue and dominoes.

We had a grand Julie, Frank and Sylvia and had a good visit and some games.  Frank beat me twice at chess.  Such a show off!

However, I guess I have to be nice to him, because he also gave me a great book to read, one he read in Colorado and is still reading.  "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017"  It starts with two of the best pages On Trump I have ever seen, in spite of the fact that they don't mention his name in any of its forms.

Teju Cole's "Fable" 

http://farabaleweekly.com/2016/08/17/who-is-the-monster-that-lives-on-noise-in-teju-coles-fable/

And there was some posing.

We went into Sasha's class and we both read books to the kids as "mystery
 readers of the day.

This was Bern's favorite book as a kid.  It is a great story of a "too-big Christmas tree" that becomes a fine tree for a number of animal characters.  My photo is not here, but I did read, and it was a challenge with my bad eye.  My book was written for a friend of Bern's and was all about a hat maker and his friend.  Sad in parts.  Well done.

And at times the role modeling seems to be working

Gio loved his minecraft books from Uncle Frank.

One night Keith brought me to a poker game.  I lost.  But it was fun.  Most of it was tournament.  I am not good at tournament play, but really I just never had any cards worth playing.  I took few pots.  One was a bluff after playing so tight for so long.  Keith's old friend Mark was there and it was just grand to see him.  He ended up winning the tournament at three thirty AM, long after we had gone to bed.

From Chicago we drove to Indiana and had a grand meatloaf in Papa's Grill.  It was recommended by the hotel clerk at the hotel.

https://www.facebook.com/papasgrill
where I got the best meatloaf I've eaten.

And next  we headed for Nashville.
Nashville was fun.  We stayed neat the Gaylord.

http://www.roomreservation.com/hotel/gaylord-opryland-resort-convention-center.htm

 Elizabeth and her buddy Jack

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Monroe

and had a fine meal at the Backstage Grill and listened to the music of Sweet Honey.

https://www.facebook.com/sweethoneymusic

It was a great time.
We also toured the  Gaylord Convention Center, saw some ice skating, and enjoyed all the lights.  The white manger scene was amazing with figures larger than life all in white and surrounded by really huge trees all in white lights.
http://www.roomreservation.com/hotel/gaylord-opryland-resort-convention-center.htm

The next morning we went over to the mall for Starbuck's and found this carousal.  Santa was off duty and having morning coffee with his buddies.  He had a fine white beard and was dressed just in his Santa boxers and long sleeve shirt.

We also stopped at Cooter's where they have a huge collection of Dukes of Hazard memorabilia.  I used to watch this regularly with the kids.  It was amazing really.

Next door was a Willy Nelson collection that cost $10 to see.  Very overpriced.  We did get some sugar free Willie Nelson jam, however.  Looks good.  I hope soon to be baking with almond flour and then I'll have something to put the jam on that I can eat.

 Dewey and his buddy Bill Monroe

We walked up Broadway, drinking a bit of Buffalo Trace whiskey and listening to country music.  We ate at the  Acme Feed and Seed
These silver dollars looked real, but there were 40'000 of them across a long, long bar.  They were replicas.
  The Buffalo Trace whiskey, however, was real.


http://theacmenashville.com/

The plaque is hard to read, but it told of how the bar was made from 400 year old wood taken when a building was demolished.

I had a wonderful meal of fried pork bits in black beans and other spices with plantains.  Amazing.




We went up on the roof and saw the river.

Next we stopped for lunch near Atlanta and Jerry and Janice met us.

We had a fine and good visit and headed out for our last night in hotels.

We stayed in Albany, Georgia and ended up at the worst hotel of the bunch.  The room was fine, but the pool was cold, the Jacuzzi had no bubble feature and little red ants scurried here and there around the perimeter.  Lots of them.  I felt a little like a tootsie roll pop.
They had a huge popcorn machine in the lobby, but they were missing one ingredient so there was no popcorn.  Just the hint that some other day there might be popcorn.
There were two vending signs on our floor and not one vending machine.
But the room was fine.

And then we were here in Inverness to find that that house we found dirty last year was absolutely spic and spam with just some dirt through one window where they had power washed and perhaps the window had not been fully closed.
We were delighted to find the place in perfect or better shape.
We unpacked.
We went down to the best restaurant in the world.  Van der Valk.  It was seafood special night.  Eliz ate bourbon glazed salmon, I had crab stuffed flounder, and a fine gourmet salad and the only French fried that take me off my diet.  Wine/beer was included. Twenty dollars each.
We sat outdoors in the enclosed area overlooking the golf course with sand hill cranes calling to us.  The sunset was grand.
There were those gas heaters because the temp might have dropped below seventy and a gas open fire.  As the sun set, the small, old fashioned lamps came on.
It was just grand.

The owner came to greet us and we talked a while and made Christmas eve reservations.
What a treat;!
Back in the house we watched the original Spike Lee "The Girl Gotta Have it."  Coming up through Georgia we heard the NPR interview of Spike Lee and enjoyed it very much.  A new Netflix serial show is coming, updating the original.

And while I was patching this trip report together, there was a little noise.  I looked up to see this fellow moving slowly across the yard.  Elizabeth and I went to see him.  He was not very happy to see us, just hit back in his shell and hissed.  I was delighted and gave him a good bit of the carrot I was eating, and I see at my last check that he either ate it or took it home.
Elizabeth saw one other gopher tortoise today.  We never saw them before here.

Now the sun is setting and the sand cranes are gathering far across the pasture just behind our rental.Everything here seems the same except there are new folks next door. Young folks who seem friendly.  Last year the folks were a bit crabby although they did lend me a charcoal grill lighter.  Their kids were better.  Their dogs were fine.  But it is a bit quieter this year.

Nice to be writing outside with no bugs.  Not much like our first place with the canal behind the the no-seeums in swarms at this time of day.
Elizabeth is setting up a Christmas Point of Light beacon that spreads (we hope) tiny lights from wherever it is aimed.  She got one on sale today.  Thanks Chuck and Eileen for that idea  We won't get them to reflect branches of snow, but perhaps they will pickup the outlines of the palms.