Weekend in review and week ahead

This past Wednesday, we went to our first Whacky Wednesday at the Back Porch.  Connie didn't last too long in the heat, but she hung in there. 

We went to a new bar Thursday night (Lelo's, the former Wild Horse Saloon and Grill) for the Parrotheads of Port Aransas Fourth Thursday Happy Hour and Connie was a trooper.  Liked Lelo's.  The burgers/buns were fantastic.  It was a huge turnout.

Friday was a big test for us.  I went to play golf while Connie stayed home with the girls.  She got along famously.  First time I've done that since June 4th.  Always worried in Amherst since there were so few people there during the week.  That night, I had committed to work on the food committee for the Wings Party of the PHC and I helped at the beach party, while Connie stayed back.






Saturday night, I helped on the food committee at the Gala while keeping tabs on Connie at home.  Again, she did great -- there was even a beer or two missing when I got back.

This week is going to suck for her.  Last treatment, her port couldn't be accessed (as was the case towards the end at the Cleveland Clinic), and she had to go through her arm.  Made the decision to get her port replaced.  This week she's got a treatment on Monday (through her arm again), pre-op appointment at Shoreline Hospital Tuesday, the actual procedure on Wednesday, then a brain CT for the neurosurgeon in Cleveland gets done on Thursday.

Recap of a few days on the road...

We left Lake Cumberland on Wednesday around 9:30a and arrived at the Chattanooga Holiday Trav-L-Park.  Hadn't been to Chattanooga for probably 15 years.

Thursday, we went up Lookout Mountain just to see the view, which was awesome.  The drive up and the drive down were horrifying.  Hate that kind of driving (two lane road, twisty, straight up or straight down).  Ugh.  Saw two Class A motorhomes and could only imagine the drive.  Yikes.

We looked for a place to have a cocktail with a view and found the Boathouse Chattanooga which overlooked the Tennessee River.  Not much boat traffic, but the crewing teams were working out which was cool.

Decided while we were at the Boathouse to bite the bullet and put new tires on the truck, so we did that.  Why can't those guys tell time?  Said it would be "an hour, maybe an hour and a half".  We got there at 4:30p, left there at 6:50p.  Had a couple of beers across the street at a little neighborhood bar.  Had to leave once the locals got there, they were all smokers.  In Tennessee, if you make the place 21 and over, you can dictate the smoking laws.

Friday, we made the short run to Stone Mountain Family Park Campground.  Not our candy bar of a campground.  Total tree shade.  The sites were OK, but getting into them was a challenge (and one that I was up for).  After two aborts, we got the big spud in there.  Another thing, when it rained EVERYTHING was mud (no sunlight, no grass).  Liked its location, wasn't crazy about the sites.

Saturday, we went to the Yellow Daisy Festival.  Fantastic.  Over 400 craft vendors, but the ONE thing we were looking for (a flag holder with a light on top), nobody had.  Talked to a guy on Monday before we left (the campground was pretty much filled with vendors rig's) and he said he'd been doing this festival for 20 years and this one was about 2/3 of what it had been in the past.  Rained on Thursday, Friday and Sunday made it a bad one.  We were pretty wide eyed, but we went there on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.


Saturday night, we went to the Hudson Grille in Shady Springs to party with the Ohio State Alumni Club of Atlanta.  Great folks.  Shared a table with a Buckeye Alum and his girlfriend who was from Atlanta.  We had a great time, even though game didn't end up as we would have hoped.

Sunday was a good recovery day.  Sunday night, we went out with one of Connie's Wilmington HS friends that she hadn't seen for almost 30 years.  Ate at a place called Summit's Wayside Tavern and enjoyed the company of Nancy, Craig and Evan.  Food was good, company was terrific catching up on old friends and news from the Wil City.


Today (Monday) we made the short drive to Columbus, GA (actually Midland) and Lake Pines RV Campground.  Nice park, much more our style.  We can hear the shooting from the range at Camp Benning.  Check in guy said there might be artillery fire, but that didn't happen.  Nor did any paratroopers (that we could see from our site) which usually practice on Mondays.  Oh well.

Weekend with Fred and Vickie...

Our friends Fred and Vickie came down from Dallas on Thursday. They didn't bring their MotorHome to our park, rather they stayed in the "not a hotel" Days Inn.

We had beef BBQ waiting for them when they got in.  They stayed a little while, but everyone was tired and we called it an early night.

Friday, Connie's 50th birthday, she got fitted for her Cyber Knife mask in Corpus Christi.  This is just basically a mesh hard mask to keep her head still and enable the Doctor to be consistent with the radiation lasers.  We came back to Rockport, met with Fred and Vickie and went to the ChartRoom for dinner.  That turned out to be just a beer.  It was a beautiful view, but too cool for everyone.

Off we went to Hemingway's in Rockport.  There was some babe setting up for karaoke and a few tables in the bar and NO ONE in the main dining room.  Food was decent, a little overpriced for the portions.  Karaoke babe kicked up about half way through the meal and ambience went right to hell.  I couldn't eat fast enough to get out of there.

We asked our waitress where a good place to go with live music would be.  You know, for people your age (she was low 20's).  Her response:  "People my age are an endangered species in Rockport."  Very funny.  But true.

She told us about the Sugar Shack which she thought was going to have a live band on Friday nights.  What a great dive.  Age range was 20 to 75.  RV'ers, locals, fisherman.  Very diverse.  Connie was wearing out, so it was one beer and done.  Didn't get to hear the band, but we'll try it again someday.

Saturday was Belt Sander Races at the Pickled Pelican.  What a hoot.  Played a little (free) shuffleboard after the hotly contested races (J.D. Greene won the modified and we saw a track record), then picked up a couple of Little Caesar's for dinner at the rig.  Connie retired early, while Fred, Vickie and I played a hotly contested game of 3 handed hearts.  My ribs hurt from laughing so much.

Sunday, I paid for the over indulgence and felt bad for my friend Fred (who felt as badly as I did) but had to drive back to Dallas.  I think Connie was more active than I was today.

It was a great diversion from what had been going on and we're both thankful for such great friends.

Hey! The Boat Drunks are at Navy Pier today....

Bob was just getting set to relax and watch the PGA Championship on DirecTV outside when Connie says:  "Hey, the Boat Drunks are at Navy Pier today at 5:30!"

The Boat Drunks are a Trop Rock band that can be heard on Radio Margaritaville and are often featured at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville's around the country, but especially the Key West restaurant when the Meeting of the Minds is being held.

This was at 1:25p on a Saturday when the trains leave every two hours and the next train was going out at 2:25p which was a half hour away, not dressed to go into town and no showers done.  We caught a big break when Bob got an email alert that the train was going to be late because, as it turns out, the earliest we could have gotten there was 2:28p.

Train left at 2:55 and we were off to Navy Pier (again!)

Maybe one of the few things we dislike about Chicago is it's cash only, or it's not, or it's exact change, or it's..... you get the picture.  Part of the hustle to get ready was having $1.25 exact change to park at the train terminal, $7.00 per person exactly for the weekend METRA pass, and $2.25 per person per ride exactly for the CTA busses.  Got lucky that there's no charge to park on the weekend.  Got unlucky when we got to the METRA station and the CTA card vender wouldn't take bills or credit cards.  Walked over to Union Station, and there machine wouldn't add more credit to our CTA cards.  Just such a pain.  We like the old school of the conductors and trains, but their system for paying just sucks and is so inconsistent!



We got to Navy Pier just as the Boat Drunks were starting, had a few Landsharks, met some great people who were just back from the Cubs game, and was a nice little Parrothead getaway, plus a bonus, Mike Miller rejoined the band for this set.

It was a great night, but since we bought weekend passes for the METRA, we decided on the way back to head back in on Sunday and just hang around Wrigleyville since the Cubs were in town for a day game against the Reds -- double bonus.

We had driven around Wrigley on a couple of our trips to Chicago, Bob had been to a game.  Bob's game was probably 20 years ago on a baseball trip:  drove in, parked, did the game and left.  We both wanted to experience the bars and the OUTSIDE of Wrigley Field without having to worry about getting into the game, out on time, etc.

Got a few tips the night before from the girls we met, so we were kind of prepared.  No issues with the trains and we decided to take a nice walk from the METRA station over to the Red Line through downtown.  The Red Line drops you off right at Addison and the right field bleachers.  Headed down to Murphy's Bleachers bar, met some nice Reds fans.  Great place to start your day.

Went down the left field outfield to Bernie's which is down the 3rd base line for lunch.  Some gift shops highlighted our walk down to the Cubby Bear, which was our least favorite with no outside space.

Came back around the corner (where you could actually look in on the game from a double fence in the Right Field wall) and had a couple more beers at Murphy's before we hopped the Red Line back to downtown.

Took a different route to walk to the METRA station and found them blocking off a street and filming down by the Chicago Board of Trade building.  Couldn't tell what/when/how was going on, but it was drawing a crowd.