Double Take

  I drove my 1995 Chevy G20 green van to Discount Tire to get work done. I thought going the day after Thanksgiving would be ideal. I found out it's one of the year's busiest days. So, to kill time, I brought in one of the books I authored, Travel Life "n" Carey On... to read. I noticed the man across from me, also waiting, was wearing a Make God Great Again shirt. Of course, I had to comment, which spurred a good conversation. We agreed on everything politically, and he purchased one of my books.

As we conversed, I looked into the service area, and my van was in the bay. I then glance out into the parking and do a double take. What? There's my van.

The mechanic then drives my van into the bay next to the other green van.

The attendant at the desk said Now that's weird we hardly ever get G20 vans in here, and they are both green and 95!

The only difference was that mine is a shorty, his was the Gladiator conversion, and mine is the Sherry conversion but everything else, the same windows, color, and year! Now that's odd.

Ithaca part 1

 Some trips start slow; this trip started slow only the first few hours on the road.

Rich had made plans months ago for his annual fall vacation. He made plans to go to Ithica, NY, and asked if I was into going. Very few trips did I not have a hand in planning this one I had none.

I took the green Sherry and, so far, fairly impressive mpg at 18, which is great considering I am driving an old van with the aerodynamics of a brick.

My ole girl needed a set of wiper blades. I bought some before take off but never put them on. By the way, have you seen the price of wipers? This econo set was purchased at O'Reilly, and they were still yikes high! Well, the stop at one of the best, if not the best, roadside rests in Chautauqua Lake, which I have written about in the past, garnered no success in removing what I believe to be the original wipers from '95.

So we stopped in Cuba, NY, to fill up my bread with cold cuts to complete the half-made sandwich that I started building at home. And what a pleasant surprise. They have a phenomenal cheese shop called the Cuba Cheese Shop Cuba Cheese Shoppe Inc.. I bought some terrific goodies. Then, a short drive through town was an old-style Carquest Auto parts store. I told Rich, let's stop; I will buy new wipers and let them put them on. Well, I was blessed. The wiper blades were 50% off. There was a short wait before they could install them, so a walk through town to kill time landed me in the Cuba Cheese Museum and Opera House. 

I recommend seeing the museum and having a snack and coffee at the adjacent store. They have connecting doors so you can go from one place to the other without leaving.

A free tour and some chit-chat with Paul, the friendly guide, before heading back to the parts store. 

They had the wipers put on in zero time. The next stop was the Giant Food Mart to buy deli meat, then onto Ithica. So that was our first leg of the journey.

Yellow Dog Village Pennsylvania

 Hey Gang, no long story but lots of photos for you to enjoy.

USFL

 A big shout out and thank you to the man in the right in the photo below.

Went to the USFL game between the Stars and Generals and he gave us tickets to enter the game and didn't want anything for them.

God Bless you sir whoever you are.

Unfortunately Cookus and the Philadelphia Stars the team I was pulling for lost to the NJ Generals.

My Vehicles

 

WV - More photos - John Gets His Meatloaf

After the smelly ham episode in New Market, Virginia it was time to clear the nose and head back to our hotel because a quick decision was made to spend another night.

Please note, don't let my spoiled eating experience in New Market scare you. The whole town is fairly neat and a great walk through with lots to see and other places to eat. The coffee at Jackson's Corner Cafe & Coffee House was terrific, the Home Store is well worth a browse so is Jon Henry General

Store.

Cynthia relaxing and dreaming how do I get this couch home

John gets his meatloaf.

Ever have a hankering for something? Well John wanted meatloaf and no matter where we went it seemed they either didn't serve it or it was yesterdays special. But John wanted meatloaf and we were finally about to get it and we did.

The best place we ate at was the last place we ate at and was the first place the hotel suggested we eat at and John wanted to eat at. Glad you followed that. It turned out for the better because we had the bad meals out of the way and saved the best meal for last and John got his meatloaf.

The place was the Cider Press of Inwood, West Virginia.

The prime rib was beyond filling and tasty

 The food and service were top notch. And the market attached to it had some tasty goods like cherry donuts that were fab. Its worth a 300 mile journey just to eat and of course get those cherry donuts.

After this had a good night's sleep, this time the fridge just chilled and didn't talk, not a whimper or bang.

Here are a few more photos of Broadway and New Market, Virginia

WV - Continuing On

So where was I? Oh yeah in the town of Broadway. 

After looking at the driving turd we found our way to Broadway, no Carey didn't get lost and end up in NY city, this Broadway is a little art town in Virginia. Broadway is one of the top ten places to live in Virginia.  

 What a neat visit. Some really old relics and some antique stores. The best one was The Cat's Meow Boutique. This is a place to visit, I mentioned it in my last blog posting. The antiques and collectibles were mostly real and real affordable.

The owner Ronnie Dove is some character. If you go in to just buy merchandise you're missing half the experience. Ronnie is some story teller and so funny. 

                                                 Here's  Ronnie Dove and below his card.

Ronnie told us in his store are certain items marked with a fish. When those items sell 100% of it goes to missions. Ronnie also told us he made a promise to God that the first sale of each day goes to Him. Now that is dedication. I could have sat there for a whole lot longer listening to his stories and jokes but with little time we had to move on.

 

Next stop was New Market. Historic but sadly it has somewhat withered since the last time I wandered into town back in 2000. However it still does have charm and things to look at.

After walking this way and that way through New Market  hunger set in. Two ladies recommended an old '50's style diner. Down the street we marched looking forward to eating at a place the locals loved and was featured in numerous TV shows. And lo and behold as we approached it I had a flashback - I remembered this place! I ate here way back. This place brought a laughter back to me recalling an event that happened with a waitress but won't write about that here, it will make my fourth book.

Sadly my memory of great food was spoiled by what they  served me which was - spoiled. Yes places do serve green ham and well... I don't know about the eggs. 

The waitress insisted that's the way ham is suppose to smell, like stinky feet. Gee she made it sound so appetizing I almost wanted to sprinkle it with Dr. Scholls. No matter how much she insisted that foot odor signaled it was fine I couldn't do it, to me it was rotten and it was.

The one thing Southern Kitchen is still cooking is the peanut soup that is quite unique and if they served it to the Confederacy maybe that's why they lost the war. Our waitress remarked people buy it by the buckets. Maybe they have pet elephants. You try it and tell me your thoughts. I mean it wasn't bad, definitely different but not for me.

Two meals and two meals that left me hungry so far the food was a no go on this trip. Well I shouldn't say that, it made me go in more ways than one.

That's all for this posting.

Gotta Go-Go!

Carey 

WV part 2 - The Talking Fridge

 OK Its always something. Today - day 2 - was a good day but wow what a rough time sleeping. That dang fridge in my room it kept me up until I decided to unplug it.

Three times I woke up with banging and a vibrating noise. The third time it was so creepy sounding I turned on the all the lights in the room to make sure no one was in here. Not that all the lights were needed, a single match could have illuminated the entire room. So, it had to be the fridge, I pulled it out, unplugged it and immediately my sleep/sound machine died. 

See I work third shift and got use to sleeping with white noise, not the kind from a KKK rally, I think you know what I mean. It was odd, unplug fridge my battery-operated machine dies! Years ago, when I forgot to bring my sleep contraption, I would unplug the cable or antennae from the TV turn it on, and raise the volume. I tried that and all I got was silence. Digitals TVs are not the same. So, I slept with no shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhshhhhhhhhhhh.

In the morning I explained to the lady hey, I had a talking fridge and had to shut it up, its pulled out of the cabinet and unplugged, I wasn't trying to steal it, I was trying to shut it up. By the way, after unplugging it, the room did get quiet. 

Today was Johns turn to look at a car, this time in VA. Off we went. The Taurus billed as nice was um not so nice, actually it was junk. One quick look and um no thanks you. Why do people lie? Tell me it's a driving turd and I may consider, but don't say it's nice and then it ends up being a turd. 

Since we drove all that way to VA John was a good sport, so we walked through the town of Broadway and met an interesting gentleman who runs an antique shop. He told me the story of why Mennonites have long ear lobes and high foreheads, but you need to ask him, I won't tell you. I'll post his name and photo another time.

Why Carey is in WV - Another Astro

 

I hate everything about today! But will get back to that statement.

In ’88 I bought a ’85 Astro in ‘93 bought a ’94 Astro in ’05 bought a ’97 Astro in ’15 bought a ’92 Astro in ’22 bought a ’97 Astro and today ’23 bought a 2000 Astro which brings us to the reason why Carey is in WV. They stopped making the workhorse Astro in 2005 and the pickings are getting slim so here I am buying another.

I rented a new Hyundai Elantra – I HATE IT! The dashboard cartoon graphics for gauges are hard to read, the stupid center display is distracting, safer to use a cell phone in my opinion, the seats are stiff built for a fast take off. Then it came to me, again in my opinion, foreign cars are built to drive American cars are built to travel in. OH and the stupid no key. I don’t know how many times I accidently started the car while trying to open the trunk. DUMB!

We got to our Astro destination on time. Then we had a major panic, right before our eyes her child disappeared. Everyone was frantic, except me I stood there. A good ten minutes before the lady looked in her van and there was her three old year old playing a game. DUH!

I took the Astro to a garage she knew and they were dumber than a Hillbilly in the big city for the first time. Yeah it sure do have a exhaust leak but where, and yeah I see the oil leak but that’s an old oil leak, I don’t see no oil dripping on my shoe, the idler arm and pitman arm are good, no that’s the pitman arm and that’s the idler arm yeah they good.

I told her these people are stupid I have to tell them what to do, lets go get another opinion. At least their opinion was free but our time wasn’t so I should have charged them.

Next garage gave me a list of things needing done. But now don’t go saying I said its safe to go all the way back to Cleveland. I applaud their disclaimer, even out here there is a lawyer waiting for a buck to be made.

I bought it.

Then we went out to eat, after three attempts of ordering food that they suddenly ran out of I settled on something. She came by the table I said don’t tell me you are out again, I am going to kill you. Did I just say that? My Italian mother crept out of me, oh boy. In the end she thanked me for being so pleasant and understanding and laughing at the ordeal, she said the meal and the onion rings were free. Now that’s class. I left her a very generous tip, so it all worked out.

In the restaurant met an interesting man whose name will remain anonymous. He was a cop, then turned sheriff for the county and actually took down two corrupt FBI agents. When he retired, he told me, I can tell you, I won the Power Ball.

At the hotel now. I repeat – I HATE EVERYTHING OF TODAY. There is no alarm clock, since everyone has smart phones, Hampton Inn got rid of theirs. What about people like me, or people who forget their charges. I said soon a white round room won’t be far off and pleasant to stay in.

OH and those tiny little bottles of shampoo and hand crème, no more.

I hate today….

 

Till tomorrow – Gotta GoGo!

                             Carey