On my own again....

Well, after a year of traveling with me, my mom had decided to move back to Arizona and get some normalcy back in her life. This "gypsie-thing" was not her bag. We had a fun year, though, and I am so glad we did it. Getting her car packed, well, that is another story.. You see, I came to California with just my car full of stuff... yes, it was packed on the verge of busting open, but hey, it all fit... Then mom met up with me in California.. She too, had just a car full... Somehow, in the 3 months we were in California, our stuff decided to be like rabbits and just magically multiplied!! So much, that I had to buy a 6 X 8 enclosed trailer just to get our crap outta there. So, we have been hauling a trailer around since then.. She says it is all my stuff, I say it is all hers.. Well.. last week when she was packing up, she had to make a couple of trips to UPS to ship stuff home. Then D Day came on Sunday when we tried to cram everything else into her car... She had bought a Rooftop bag that we were going to put extra stuff in, but we soon realized that we were 2 roof racks short of a load to make it work... Thank GOD.. because I didn't know how we were going to get the crap up onto the roof in the first place, and she FOR SURE was going to have a hell of a time getting it off.. A friend of mine had suggested the night before a rack-thingy that you put on the back trailer hitch and pile stuff on that. So, we headed to trusty ol' Walmart and picked up a rack. Luckily, a couple of friends from work were there.. (not much to do around here on a Sunday afternoon..) and they agreed to come over and help us put it together... Good thing, because we would still be trying to put the damn thing together. So, we got it all together and mounted on her hitch and loaded up. We wrapped it all up with a tarp to keep any rain out... It was then that my friend's boyfriend piped up saying that it might not be good to leave that sitting out like that 'cuz 'round here people just help themselves...(we totally live in the GHETTO!!!) Well, mom was leaving at the crack ass of dawn and none of us wanted to unload it and reload in the morning, so we took our chances... As it turns out, nothing was bothered and she left the next morning and should be almost to Arizona by now. I will miss her as we had a great year and it was fun to have her around and to get to explore new areas together.. even if one assignment was in Phoenix in the middle of summer... UUGGHH!! So, now it is just me and my 2 dogs, Bailey and Moco. I left them home today for the first time by theirselves and I hope they are OK.. I was going to lock them in the kitchen for the day, but they were both sacked out on the bed when I left, so I took my chances... Hope all is well there.....ZOIKS!!! I kept the curtains closed because Moco thinks he is a big, tough, cat killer and goes CRAZY whenever he sees the cats outside. Hopefully he hasn't scratche dthe door down... Wish me luck!!!!

BOOGITY, BOOGITY, BOOGITY!!!!

I went to Bristol, TN for a NASCAR race the weekend of March 21-22. My cousin, Duke flew in from Montana to go with me. A friend at work hooked me up with some tickets and some original, down home moonshine... WOO WEE.. that stuff is SERIOUS!! Duke and I took one sip and it gave a new meaning to "Fire in the Hole!!!" We pretty much stuck to beer the rest of the weekend. Saturday when we got there, we checked into our room.. we rented a room in a person's house about a mile and a half from the track. We didn't want to have to drive, and with the short notice, it was as close as I could get. People actually rent out bedrooms in their house to people like us who come to the race, and some of them stay, but our owners left for the weekend. It was kinda weird, but, hey, all we needed was a bed and a shower, right??? So after we got settled, we headed for the track and took in the Nationwide race. We had a great time and afterwards, shopped at all of the booths lining the streets. It was like a huge block party... We had a blast. That night we definately "got our drink on.." Hee hee... We got up early Sunday and headed back to the track. A bunch of people from work were going to meet us there as we all had tickets together. We made it down to where they were filming "NASCAR Raceday" and tried to get on TV, but I don't think they put us on.. We were right in the middle of it, though.. but I think the guy wearing a zebra striped dress and high heels aced us out of our 15 minutes of fame... We met up with my friends from work and headed to our seats. The race was great, however, it could have used a few more wrecks... Afterwards, since we were staying the night and a friend and his wife from work wanted to let the traffic clear out, we walked around and watched the people. I realized that Duke could make friends with anyone when he started chatting up some random guy at his campsite about hunting. We had to literally drag him away from this guy and his CRAZY wife...Then, to top it all off, the beer stands were closed, so ol' Duke came to the rescue and asked some guy if he would sell us his beer and he had had enough, so he sold us his whole cooler full... SWEET!!! That Duke, he is such a hoot!!! We had a blast!!! We spent the night and headed back to Lexington on Monday so he could catch his plane back to Montana. The weekend was a TOTAL success and I am so glad I did it. Next, I want to go to a race in Talladega and do Speed Week in Daytona.... Yeah!!!!!

Weekend update

We went to Gatlinburg, TN a couple of weekends ago and it was quite an experience. The city of Gatlinburg is basically one street lined with shop after shop after shop of the same junk, but of course, knowing m and me... we had to go in every one!!!  To get fueled up for all that shopping we ate at a place called "The Pancake Pantry"... OMG!!!!!  I had the best pancakes... yes, they were 12 million calories, but a true party in my mouth.... YUM YUM!!!  Later that day I even convinced mom to ride a ski lift up the hill to get a bird's eye view of Gatlinberg... Definitely worth it, although she was hating every minute of it, but made it to the top and back down... I was very proud...  The view was amazing... 

That night we had decided to stay in Pigeon Forge at a place called "The National Parks Resort Lodge" (sounds nice, doesn't it?) They had a deal that you could go to dinner and a show for a deal... Well, we checked in and got to our room and immediately turned around and left... Talk about false advertising....."Extra Large Rooms and Log furnishing"... MY ASS!!!!  You truly get what you pay for... for $49.95 a night the room was a shithole!!!!  It was so nasty we turned and burned so fast they didn't know what hit them. Finally we found a Hampton Inn that was great... Of course, we had to smuggle our 4 dogs in... yes, I said 4... mom has 2, I have 2... a real circus let me tell ya..... But, we got all settled and headed out to our "nice" dinner and "Tennessee ShinDig" show....   WOW.. The dinner was comparable to "The Golden Trough".. I mean Golden Corral and the show was so bad we left after the first act... We didn't need to go to Pigeon Forge to see a bunch of hillbillies perform.. all we need to do is step outside our front door here in Corbin.... 

It was a fun weekend all in all... Something to definitely remember... Don't know that I will ever go back, but hey... you gotta try everything once, right??

Last weekend we took another road trip to Asheville, NC. WOW, talk about beautiful!!! We drove through the smoky mountains to get there and even though nothing was blooming yet it was still gorgeous!!! We toured the Biltmore House and were truly awed.. It is the largest house in America and was so huge it took us all day to get through it.  We really enjoyed the Asheville area and mom even thought it would be a good place to live.... 

This weekend I am getting ready to go to Bristol, TN for the NASCAR race... WHOO HOO!!!  I am so excited. My cousin, Duke, is flying in from Montana today and we are heading out tomorrow. So, stay posted... Maybe my next post will be from Dale Jr's motor-coach... hee hee...