It's That Time Again

It's been a wonderful, restful time off. We had a ball on our lil road trip to Atlanta. I wish it hadn't rained so much, cause there is lots of stuff I wanted to do in the yard. We only got to work in the yard 1 day and it was really too wet then. We only scratched the surface of our gettin' ready for Spring gardening. One thing is for sure, there was ample time for "couch potatoing" and Sunday afternoon naps. I ship out tomorrow, bright and early for the whole month of February. As always, I'll keep the camera handy and try to take some nice pictures to share with you. Til I'm home to blog again, I hope you are safe and happy.I'm sure Peggy is looking forwards to her 'take' on things and will post while I'm gone. As always, I ask that yall leave us a comment and let us know how you are and what ya think. It means a lot to us and we love hearing from you. That is the motivation that keeps us blogging, and thanks for it. Well, see ya in March; til then ,may God bless you and yours.

Hunkering Heron

Well, in case ya aint noticed, ever since the movie "Dukes of Hazzard" came out, every 'talking head', on every news broadcast, went to lots of trouble to work the phrase "hunker down" into their commentary. Why, during the hurricanes, ya heard "Hunker down" every few minutes for months. You don't hear it as often anymore, now that the 'new' has worn off it, but still on occasion, ya learn that someone is hunkering down somewhere. Not news-worthy, in my opinion; guess das why ya don't see my chubby, fuzzy face on tv anchoring the nightly news. I can see it now: "This is Cappy coming to you live from Colorado, where folks are hunkering down in the threat of blizzard conditions". Rest assured, that aint happening. For those of you unsure what 'hunker down' means, I use the pictures I took of a young blue herron one cold, drizzly morning as an example.

Our Atlanta Road Trip

1-24-07 True to form, we embarked on our lil trip at the "crack of noon". We aint mornin' people and we definately aint punctual. Typical departure times for us range from noon, to midnight or later. We like driving at night and try to avoid rush hours. With that in mind, we plan duckin' through the woods, skirtin' Nawlins and takin' I-12 to Slidell, then north on I-65. To get there we gotta traverse some narrow, curvy roads through the lake region of S.E. Louisiana and that's always fun for us. This time, though, we gonna pay close attention to where we are going. We have been known to laugh and sing our way past a turn and wind up several hours outa da way.

Plan 'B' Jan 24 12:30

Ok, so, cause of the rain and wind we decided to take I-10 to I-55 to I-12 to Slidell, La. Back to I-10 to Mobile, AL, then I-65 North. Lots of turns, we know, but see all the "I's"? They mean way better roads and speed than our afore mentioned route through da swamp.

Jan 24 @ 3 pm

We just crossed into Alabama, 1 Hubig pie(cocunut creme my favorite) 2 bags of M&M's, a lemonade and a diet Coke later. Currently singing along in awful harmony to the Nitty Gritty Dirtband's version of "Praise the Lord, I Saw the Light!"

1-24 @ 6 pm

We just merged onta I-85 in Montgomery, Alabama. We caught the very tail-end of rush hour but it wern't bad at all. With ole 'Slow Hand' banging out da blues on da juke box, we sail on into the night singing "Wonderful Tonight". Peg's driving, and I just finished my second beer. :-)

jan 25 @9:15

Well, we found an Econo-lodge just south of Atlanta last night, that had a king-sized bed and was on the first floor, so we could park right by the door. The only bad thing was that it smelled a lil smoky. "Hadji", our night-clerk said the only room to fit our request was full of ashtrays. This was not a problem though, since we quickly altered the smell from cigarette smoke to hickory smoke, when we warmed up some left-over smoked chicken in the microwave. After a good night sleep, a tank of gas, and a couple cappachinos, we are off in search of the museum.

Jan. 25 @1pm

We went straight to the museum like we knew where we were going, a rarity for us. The exhibit from the Lourve was wonderful. The pencil sketches and studies were amazing. Most of them never before exhibited. I was impressed by the fact that many of the sketches were from the artists' sketch pads, and represented studies on works they were going to paint. Many of the completed works no longer exist. Several of them had grids super-imposed on them by the artist, who used them to "blow up" to mural size, to adorn the wall or ceiling of some church or castle. The thought that some ole painter held the sketches we were seeing, in one hand and painted a 150' masterpiece on some wall or ceiling with the other hand, really amazed me. Anyways das what impressed me the most. Peg, I'm sure, will have much more to say bout the art work later. I leave that to her. So now we off in search of something to eat on the way home.

jan. 25 3:45 pm

When it comes to road food, Peggy and I like to get off the interstate into little towns. The "interstate oasises" that have sprung up around almost every exit are convenient with their Gas and fast food one-stop store, but for 'Real' food ya gotta get into the lil towns off the interstate and look for a place thas been in business longer than the interstate has been in existance. We found a jewel of a lil Georgia town called Newnan, bout 4 miles offn da interstate. It was a quaint lil southern town with a very nice stately collection of old homes in it's historic district.Peggy and I wandered several blocks of the tree lined streets enjoying the old southern architecture and just imagining what it must be like in the Spring all ablaze with bloomage. Matter of fact, we plan to come back in the Spring and find out for ourselves; the place is just that pretty. To make this lil side adventure all the more special, we stumbled upon a neighborhood bbq joint. Hank's Hickory BBQ resturant was a wonderful find, full of Southern charm and hospitality, decorated with assorted tacky paraphenalia, dominated by a Pig collection. Peggy and I felt right at home. For the Ribs to be any bettter I'da had to cook em ma self. Seriously, these were the best smoked Ribs I've bought in several years, and this from a guy who buys lots of bbq. Peg had a big ole salad that she couldn't eat half of and I had my first ever bowl of Brunswick stew. It was tomato corny, meaty, smoky delicious. I can't stress enough this advice to my fellow travelers: (Take this from some fun lovin chubby foodies) LEAVE THE FAST FOOD BEHIND! Go just a few miles off the interstate towards a dot on the road map, look for the old part of town; ya just may find some history along the way. Go eat at someone's place. Usually the sign reads a first or family name, followed by the word restaurant,diner or grill, or in this case "BBQ". You will seldom ever be disappointed, and most often meet some wonderful people that are genuinely glad you stopped in, just like the good folks at Hank's.

Home Again, Home Again, Gig-adee-gig

We Blew back into town last night(Jan. 25) 2 minutes later than my E.T.A of 11P.M. It was a wonderful trip, and we wasted no time unpacking da truck and crawling into bed for a nice long nap with da dawgs. I'm sure Peggy will have much more to say bout the museum part including pictures, but for now, here is my abrieviated version of our lil 2 day road trip.