One week and 1618 miles: miles 487 - 916

We left Bethany's house fairly early on Wednesday morning (mile 487) and headed for Baltimore MD.

You've 'arrived' when you have
your own, personalized
timpani stool

I had contacted one of my former students (James Wyman) who had recently been appointed principal timpanist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  James met us outside Meyerhoff Hall when we arrived into town and gave us a tour.  What a beautiful facility.

Very proud of James.  Taught a lot of talented students, some of whom wanted to make music a profession.  Was worried James was never going to leave NE Ohio area and his talents wouldn't be truly appreciated.  He looks to be in a terrific place.

Stayed the night at the Holiday Inn Columbia in Jessup, MD (different bed #3).  Lots of Munzees around, capped quite a few of them, put out a few.  Had dinner at T.G.I. Friday's which was a bit of a disappointment, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

Thursday, we did some morning business at the hotel, had a great breakfast (for a hotel) then headed to the Inner Harbor.  We'd been there before, but we decided to do a different corner than we had been to before.  Afterward, we headed to Fort McHenry.

Oh, say can you see
(this flag?)

As a band director, I had told the story of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner many times.  I had seen the actual banner quite a few years ago at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.  However, I had never been to Fort McHenry.  Its different when you tell a story vs. you're standing where the story actually happened.  Love that part of history.

Our purpose for our trip to Baltimore was at hand as we boarded the Grandeur of the Seas.  She had a fire in late May which had kept her out of service until Thursday.  We did a 1 night cruise to nowhere and saw most all of her staterooms and public rooms.

They've done a pretty good job of modernizing her.  Neither of us were overly impressed with the way they chopped up the Viking Crown Lounge, but otherwise,  we liked everything about her.  Was excited to see the new aerial display in the centrum but walked away a little disappointed.  Its possible I set the bar too high.

Also had the pleasure to meet face to face one of our newest outside agents (Janelle) and her husband (Jeff).  She's 'Nancy Newbie' (her term) in the travel business, but she reminded us of us.  Gathering every insight, trying to get ideas, learning about the industry, etc.  She's going to do very well in the business.

Spent the night in an oceanview room (different bed #4), had a decent (although too early!) breakfast the next morning and off we headed (mile 916) for Cleveland on Friday.

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.

Ducks and Ribs in one day....

Wow!  Two posts in two days!  Not sure we can keep up this pace.

As we mentioned yesterday, our friends Fred and Vickie had left Memphis, and there were a couple of things we were going to do together.  Bob is anal about planning.  Connie just wants to know what time the bus is leaving.  She'll be on it.  Fred and Vickie are on the loose plan which works great for them.

One thing we've learned by coming to an area and staying for a month (or longer!) is it's so easy to say we're going to do this, this, and this.  Then put it off.  Until you're at the end of your time and you haven't done nearly what you'd like to.  For us, if we don't allocate a day to do this, a day to do that, we have found that we don't get things done.

So, looking at our last two weeks in Memphis, it was time to start allocating days to hit our targets.  One was the Ducks at the Peabody Hotel, and this morning was a great fit.  Pretty fascinating story you can read here.

We got to the Hotel at 10:25a for the 11:00a parade.  Very well heeled crowd.  Hotel "bouncers" were very good to say that there's no standing in the lobby and since they do it every day, twice a day, had the routine down.  We had great seats, everything was very calm until the last second.  Then it was bedlam.

5 minutes prior to the ducks,
and you'll notice the chair
to our left is empty.

5 minutes before it started, a woman took the chair to our left and asks if we can still see.  We could.  Then her husband/boyfriend, we'll call him "Dick" comes rolling in and kneels right in front of us with this huge, telephoto lens.  "Now, we can't."  He slid a little over towards Mrs. Dick.  We knew this guy was going to be trouble.  Sure enough, the elevator door opens, and "Dick" goes all paparazzi on the ducks in front of us and 'boom', it's over.  It was a little underwhelming.

You can see our video here.

The hotel itself was wonderful.  It's the essence of modernizing something while maintaining it's beauty of the time period.  The lobby phones were rotary dial, circa the 30's.  There was a piano built specifically for Francis Scott Key.  The ballrooms were terrific.  Beautifully preserved, but yet 2012 functional.


After the Peabody, we headed off to find Memphis' best ribs at Charles Vergos' Rendezvous.  It had a 2nd street address, but was basically in the alley behind 2nd street and the Holiday Inn that faced the Peabody.  They weren't 'open', which meant they weren't serving a full menu.  But, you could get a large or small order of ribs, baked beans and slaw (like we've never had!).  It was terrific, and probably had 10-15 tables full (with many of the people we saw over at the Peabody.)  Top 5 for rib places for us (Maybe Connie's #1).

Repairs Happen!

Just as we did when we lived in a brick and mortar home, there are just stretches when nothing is going on.  Similar here in the rig.

Not similar are the accommodations that need to be made when repairs have to happen.  While changing the tire last week that blew on the way here from Nashville, we noticed the spring leaf had broken (which might have been the root of the tire problem).  A simple search of "broken spring leaf Keystone" got a pretty good rash of problems from around this era.

With the Thanksgiving holiday upcoming, we decided to take it in next Monday, which begs the question:  where are we going to live for a couple of days while it's being repaired?  Easy answer:  find a pet friendly hotel in the area and work from there.  So, we'll be taking the show to a local Candlewood Suites and hoping for a quick turnaround at the repair shop.