This past week has been a busy one. We’ve been Christmas shopping, working on the RV (new name still pending), going to the beach, going to see movies, and eating pizza.
My parent’s neighbor, John, has been helping us to get the refrigerator to work right. We haven’t gotten it to work yet, but we’re getting closer. We also got the toilet unplugged (a problem I didn’t share previously), and I sanded and re-painted the stairs.
The kids have been working hard on their school work this week, so we treated them with a trip to the beach. The East Coast of Florida has been experiencing red tide over the past few weeks. The worst of it is north of where we are in St. Lucie County, but when Kim and the kids visited the beach, it was littered with dead jelly fish. Last year, not knowing what it was, Louis picked up a jelly fish and was stung on both hands. He was much more careful this year.
We also went to see two movies this week. On Thursday we went to see the Golden Compass and Friday night we saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Kim, Louis and I liked both movies. Shelby liked National Treasure, but didn’t like Golden Compass. She’s not a big fan of fantasy movies.
We had heard that Golden Compass (rated PG-13)was not appropriate for kids, but then last weekend I read that the book had been selected as one of the best books for kids. We decided to find out for ourselves. The story was very inventive and in my opinion was good for kids, but it was pretty violent. There was a lot of killing of people and animals. I don’t have a recommendation either way.
We also found time to visit DaVinci’s Pizza in Port St. Lucie. I’ll post a review soon.
In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Review: Sir Pizza
Sir Pizza is a chain of pizza restaurants in central Tennessee. They have been in business for 40 years and in 2007 received the “Ruthie Award” for best pizza restaurant in Rutherford County (TN). We visited the store on TN Hwy 231 in Murfreesboro.
The theme at Sir Pizza is medieval. Knight helmets are used as lights, family crests grace the walls, and the furniture is dark and heavy. In my opinion, it’s an unusual décor for a pizza restaurant, but no one asked me.
We visited Sir Pizza on a Tuesday night which is 2-for-1 pizza night. Erica, our waitress, explained that we could get two pizzas for the price of one. We had never run into such a deal, so we questioned her about the promotion. She advised us that we would receive one free pizza for every pizza we ordered. We ordered a medium sausage and mushroom pie, and a small cheese pie for Louis. Erica said we would receive a free medium sausage and mushroom pizza as well as a free small cheese pizza. What a deal!
We had high hopes for Sir Pizza, but I’m afraid we were let down. The crust at Sir Pizza was crisp and had a sweet taste. This was probably the best part of the pizza.
The sauce was rather blah. Kim detected a slight wine taste in the sauce, but I suspect that the taste was something else. In any case, the sauce did not have much taste.
Sir Pizza went pretty light on the cheese. The sausage was finely ground, but again, didn’t have a lot of taste. The mushrooms were cut large and there were a fair number on the pizza.
Obviously, we were disappointed in the pizza at Sir Pizza. However, the thing that made our experience even worse was the poor service. It took way too long to get our pizza. Then, when we went to pay, we were charged for the two medium pizzas and given the two small pizzas for free. Kim argued about this with the guy at the counter. He finally agreed to charge us for a medium and a small and give us a medium and a small for free. However, he never apologized and he obviously wasn’t happy with giving in.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d give the pizza at Sir Pizza a 5. However, considering the poor service, I’ll downgrade their score to 4.
The theme at Sir Pizza is medieval. Knight helmets are used as lights, family crests grace the walls, and the furniture is dark and heavy. In my opinion, it’s an unusual décor for a pizza restaurant, but no one asked me.
We visited Sir Pizza on a Tuesday night which is 2-for-1 pizza night. Erica, our waitress, explained that we could get two pizzas for the price of one. We had never run into such a deal, so we questioned her about the promotion. She advised us that we would receive one free pizza for every pizza we ordered. We ordered a medium sausage and mushroom pie, and a small cheese pie for Louis. Erica said we would receive a free medium sausage and mushroom pizza as well as a free small cheese pizza. What a deal!
We had high hopes for Sir Pizza, but I’m afraid we were let down. The crust at Sir Pizza was crisp and had a sweet taste. This was probably the best part of the pizza.
The sauce was rather blah. Kim detected a slight wine taste in the sauce, but I suspect that the taste was something else. In any case, the sauce did not have much taste.
Sir Pizza went pretty light on the cheese. The sausage was finely ground, but again, didn’t have a lot of taste. The mushrooms were cut large and there were a fair number on the pizza.
Obviously, we were disappointed in the pizza at Sir Pizza. However, the thing that made our experience even worse was the poor service. It took way too long to get our pizza. Then, when we went to pay, we were charged for the two medium pizzas and given the two small pizzas for free. Kim argued about this with the guy at the counter. He finally agreed to charge us for a medium and a small and give us a medium and a small for free. However, he never apologized and he obviously wasn’t happy with giving in.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d give the pizza at Sir Pizza a 5. However, considering the poor service, I’ll downgrade their score to 4.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Hot Off The Presses: Column #2
Here's the second column I wrote about our trip. This one will be printed in the January issue of the Kickapoo Free Press.
Postcards From The Road
When Bad Things Happen To Road People
It has been said that you learn more when things go wrong than you do when they go right. If that is true, then I am now officially brilliant.
The first few weeks of our great big road trip have seen one problem after another. And the problems started just a few minutes after we left home.
In Westby, we pulled into the Ace Hardware to top off our propane tank. While pulling up the small hill into the parking lot, our motorhome got stuck on the ice. I couldn’t go forward, so I tried to back up. That was a mistake. When I backed-up, our tow dolly jack-knifed and our van (which was on the tow dolly) slammed into the corner of our motorhome. The damage wasn’t too bad, but the incident was an omen of things to come.
As we struggled to move the motorhome, the folks at Ace Hardware and Mr. Tire came to our rescue. They helped us get the van off the tow dolly and then put some sand on the ice so the motorhome could get enough traction to get up the hill.
As we were doing this, I noticed that we had run over a screw with the left front tire of the motorhome. The guys from Mr. Tire took a look at it and thankfully, the screw hadn’t penetrated too deep, so the tire wasn’t leaking air.
Before we left, Richard from Mr. Tire helped us add air to the tow dolly tires. As he was doing this, he noticed that the left wheel on the tow dolly was really loose. The nut that holds the bearing in was almost all the way off, which could have allowed the wheel to fall off the tow dolly. That would have been a mess.
I once read that it’s less important what happens to you in life than it is how you react to what happens to you. With that in mind, we decided to look at our little misadventure in Westby as a blessing rather than a curse. After all, if we hadn’t gotten stuck on the ice, we wouldn’t have found the screw in our tire and we wouldn’t have known that the wheel on the tow dolly was falling off. I guess it’s all in your perspective.
Space prohibits me from detailing all of our misadventures, but the results have been a cut hand, a sprained thumb, a scrapped leg, and a damaged tow dolly. The capper occurred on a Saturday night when we were on our way to visit with friends in Tennessee. On the way to their house, we hit not one, but two deer with our van. A buck and a doe were trying to cross the road. We hit the buck with the right front of the van and the doe ran head first into the right side of the vehicle. The deer both ran off, but our van was pretty badly damaged.
According to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” So even though we’re feeling a bit beaten down right now, we apparently are growing stronger with each mishap. I guess that’s one silver lining that is coming from all of the clouds of bad luck.
Fortunately, the bad luck hasn’t stopped us from seeing some great sights. During our first few weeks we’ve visited the Stones River National Battlefield, seen the unbelievable Christmas decorations at the Opryland Resort, and we attended a fantastic concert by Nashville native Jonell Mosser. We’ve also had the opportunity to visit with friends and family.
I’m a big believer in karma. With all of the mishaps we had during the first few weeks of our trip, I’ve got to believe that we are due for some very good karma the rest of the way.
Postcards From The Road
When Bad Things Happen To Road People
It has been said that you learn more when things go wrong than you do when they go right. If that is true, then I am now officially brilliant.
The first few weeks of our great big road trip have seen one problem after another. And the problems started just a few minutes after we left home.
In Westby, we pulled into the Ace Hardware to top off our propane tank. While pulling up the small hill into the parking lot, our motorhome got stuck on the ice. I couldn’t go forward, so I tried to back up. That was a mistake. When I backed-up, our tow dolly jack-knifed and our van (which was on the tow dolly) slammed into the corner of our motorhome. The damage wasn’t too bad, but the incident was an omen of things to come.
As we struggled to move the motorhome, the folks at Ace Hardware and Mr. Tire came to our rescue. They helped us get the van off the tow dolly and then put some sand on the ice so the motorhome could get enough traction to get up the hill.
As we were doing this, I noticed that we had run over a screw with the left front tire of the motorhome. The guys from Mr. Tire took a look at it and thankfully, the screw hadn’t penetrated too deep, so the tire wasn’t leaking air.
Before we left, Richard from Mr. Tire helped us add air to the tow dolly tires. As he was doing this, he noticed that the left wheel on the tow dolly was really loose. The nut that holds the bearing in was almost all the way off, which could have allowed the wheel to fall off the tow dolly. That would have been a mess.
I once read that it’s less important what happens to you in life than it is how you react to what happens to you. With that in mind, we decided to look at our little misadventure in Westby as a blessing rather than a curse. After all, if we hadn’t gotten stuck on the ice, we wouldn’t have found the screw in our tire and we wouldn’t have known that the wheel on the tow dolly was falling off. I guess it’s all in your perspective.
Space prohibits me from detailing all of our misadventures, but the results have been a cut hand, a sprained thumb, a scrapped leg, and a damaged tow dolly. The capper occurred on a Saturday night when we were on our way to visit with friends in Tennessee. On the way to their house, we hit not one, but two deer with our van. A buck and a doe were trying to cross the road. We hit the buck with the right front of the van and the doe ran head first into the right side of the vehicle. The deer both ran off, but our van was pretty badly damaged.
According to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” So even though we’re feeling a bit beaten down right now, we apparently are growing stronger with each mishap. I guess that’s one silver lining that is coming from all of the clouds of bad luck.
Fortunately, the bad luck hasn’t stopped us from seeing some great sights. During our first few weeks we’ve visited the Stones River National Battlefield, seen the unbelievable Christmas decorations at the Opryland Resort, and we attended a fantastic concert by Nashville native Jonell Mosser. We’ve also had the opportunity to visit with friends and family.
I’m a big believer in karma. With all of the mishaps we had during the first few weeks of our trip, I’ve got to believe that we are due for some very good karma the rest of the way.
Hot Off the Presses: Column #1
In addition to recording our travels here on this blog, I am writing a monthly column in the Kickapoo Free Press, a monthly newspaper/magazine distributed in Southwest Wisconsin. Here is the first column that was printed in the December issue of the paper. In my next post, I'll include the January Column.
Postcards from the Road
Realizing A Lifelong Dream
In 1942, at the age of just 15-years old, California teen John Goddard sat down and wrote out a list of 127 adventures he wanted to achieve during his lifetime. He dubbed the list, “My Life List.” The list of adventures included things like explore the Nile River, study primitive culture in New Guinea, and climb Mt. Everest.
I read about Goddard in 1998 and his story prompted me to make up a life list of my own. By Goddard’s standards, my list included some rather tame adventures. But more important than the intensity or difficulty of the adventures was the fact that I had actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and had created my very own “Goddard List.”
One of the 38 adventure goals I set for myself was to someday take my family on an extended cross-country trip in an RV. At the time, I had a three-year old daughter and there didn’t seem to be any rush in realizing my RV dream. There was plenty of time to achieve this cross-country adventure.
Since that time, I’ve had a fairly busy life. We’ve moved five times, had another child, started a business, and I’ve battled cancer. Up until now, I’ve had plenty of excuses not to buy an RV and hit the road. In fact, it’s always easier not to do something than to commit to doing it. If you really want to, you can always find a reason not to do something. Excuses are easy to come by, but making a commitment regardless of the available excuses is a lot harder to do.
Now, nine years after making my Goddard List, with my RV adventure so far unfulfilled, it’s time to make a decision. Either we are going to take the plunge and realize our dream (it became “our” dream a few years ago), or my Goddard List is just going to become a collection of someday wishes. I’ll either be a “doer” in life who makes things happen, or a dreamer who let’s things happen.
In making the decision of whether or not to go on this cross-country trip, there are a lot of things to consider. How will our business fare with both Kim (my wife) and I gone? How will we educate our kids? Do we have the budget to stay out on the road long-term? How will we get our mail? Where will go?
We’ve thought a lot about it. We’ve considered all of the issues and we’ve finally made a decision. We’ve decided to take the plunge. We’ve decided that we would rather take the risk and make the most of the experience than live with the regret of never trying. We’ve made the commitment and we’ve decided that now is the right time to live the adventure.
By the time you read this, assuming everything goes according to plan, we will be living on the road. The plan is to take off on or around Thanksgiving and not come back to Viroqua until June of 2008. I’ll be writing a monthly column chronicling our travels and I hope you’ll follow along. It should be a great ride.
Postcards from the Road
Realizing A Lifelong Dream
In 1942, at the age of just 15-years old, California teen John Goddard sat down and wrote out a list of 127 adventures he wanted to achieve during his lifetime. He dubbed the list, “My Life List.” The list of adventures included things like explore the Nile River, study primitive culture in New Guinea, and climb Mt. Everest.
I read about Goddard in 1998 and his story prompted me to make up a life list of my own. By Goddard’s standards, my list included some rather tame adventures. But more important than the intensity or difficulty of the adventures was the fact that I had actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and had created my very own “Goddard List.”
One of the 38 adventure goals I set for myself was to someday take my family on an extended cross-country trip in an RV. At the time, I had a three-year old daughter and there didn’t seem to be any rush in realizing my RV dream. There was plenty of time to achieve this cross-country adventure.
Since that time, I’ve had a fairly busy life. We’ve moved five times, had another child, started a business, and I’ve battled cancer. Up until now, I’ve had plenty of excuses not to buy an RV and hit the road. In fact, it’s always easier not to do something than to commit to doing it. If you really want to, you can always find a reason not to do something. Excuses are easy to come by, but making a commitment regardless of the available excuses is a lot harder to do.
Now, nine years after making my Goddard List, with my RV adventure so far unfulfilled, it’s time to make a decision. Either we are going to take the plunge and realize our dream (it became “our” dream a few years ago), or my Goddard List is just going to become a collection of someday wishes. I’ll either be a “doer” in life who makes things happen, or a dreamer who let’s things happen.
In making the decision of whether or not to go on this cross-country trip, there are a lot of things to consider. How will our business fare with both Kim (my wife) and I gone? How will we educate our kids? Do we have the budget to stay out on the road long-term? How will we get our mail? Where will go?
We’ve thought a lot about it. We’ve considered all of the issues and we’ve finally made a decision. We’ve decided to take the plunge. We’ve decided that we would rather take the risk and make the most of the experience than live with the regret of never trying. We’ve made the commitment and we’ve decided that now is the right time to live the adventure.
By the time you read this, assuming everything goes according to plan, we will be living on the road. The plan is to take off on or around Thanksgiving and not come back to Viroqua until June of 2008. I’ll be writing a monthly column chronicling our travels and I hope you’ll follow along. It should be a great ride.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Seeking Refuge in Florida
It’s Friday night and Shelby and I are sitting in Panera’s in Jensen Beach, Florida. It’s not exciting, but it’s good to be in the warmth of Florida. It’s also good to be visiting with my parents for a while.
On our way to Florida, we decided to skip our trips to Birmingham, AL and Atlanta in favor of seeking the shelter of Mom and Dad’s house. We’re kind of like young birds out for our first flight. It’s good to be out on our own, but it sure is nice to know when there is trouble, we can fly back to the safety of our nest. The only difference is we aren’t young anymore (and we don’t eat worms). Even so, it sure is nice to have Mom and Dad’s place to use as a port in a storm.
I spoke to my friend Neil Wallace today. We were supposed to stop in Birmingham to see Neil and his wife Gail. As it turns out, Neil is in Chattanooga right now refereeing the Division I-AA national football championship between Appalachian State and Delaware State. It’s an honor to be picked to ref such a high profile game. Congratulations, Neil. You must be doing a good job. Of course, that’s no surprise. You always do.
Tomorrow we will be visiting my sister and her family in Wellington (near West Palm Beach). The weather is supposed to cool off tomorrow (down into the 60’s), so the kids are kind of bummed that they won’t be able to swim. I know all of our friends back in Wisconsin feel REALLY bad for us. They are dealing with a foot-and-a-half of snow on the ground, high winds, and temps in the single digits. I guess temps in the 60’s here in Florida aren’t so bad (although I’ll probably have to trade in the shorts for jeans – boo hoo…).
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
What's In A Name?
Early on, we started referring to the RV as The Big Rolling Turd in honor of the motorhome in the movie RV. It was a funny name and it seemed especially appropriate considering the poor condition of the RV’s interior.
Since then, we’ve had the interior of the RV steam cleaned and put in new carpet and laminate flooring. The interior has also been cleaned from top to bottom. It’s not brand new, but the RV looks (and smells) a heck of a lot better than it did when we bought it.
Our friend Caryl Holthouse suggested that maybe we have been having so much bad luck because of the negative name we had given to the RV. It makes sense. Think negative thoughts, get negative results. Think positive thoughts, get positive results.
With that in mind, we have stopped calling the RV The Big Rolling Turd. We are currently looking for a new name. My suggestion was “Kerouac,” in honor of Jack Kerouac, the author of the great book, On The Road. However, I couldn’t get any agreement from my family. Kim said the name gives her the creeps and Shelby said Kerouac sounds like a drug. Louis thought it was a monster, as in “Run away from the Kerouac.”
So I’m not going to get my way with the new name, but my unenlightened and overly-critical family can’t come up with a new name of their own. That’s where you come in. We are inviting all of our loyal readers (both of you) to chime in on a new name for our RV. If we like the name you come up with and we decide to use it, we’ll probably claim that we came up with the name ourselves, but at least you’ll know that you were involved.
Let us know what you think we should call the RV. Remember, we want positive results, so the name you suggest should be positive.
Good luck, and as always, please, no wagering.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Stones River National Battlefield
We’re all sitting in a Panera Bread catching up on email and visiting via IM. We went to Stones River National Battlefield today. The Battle of Stones River started on December 31, 1861 and lasted three days. When it was all over, nearly 24,000 people were dead (more than 13,000 Union soldiers and more than 11,000 Confederate soldiers). Many of the Union soldiers killed at Stones River are buried at the Stones River National Cemetery.
The National Battlefield includes a driving tour to significant spots not only in the park, but around Murfreesboro. We took a few pictures, but when you think about what happened in this place, it makes the mood kind of somber. It didn’t feel right to run around the park taking pictures.
We’re supposed to receive the new swivel pan for the tow dolly tomorrow. If we do, the plan is to leave on Wednesday and head down to my parents in Florida. The first week of our trip hasn’t exactly turned out the way we had hoped, and it has been much more expensive than we expected, but I can feel that things are starting to turn around for us. I expect things to get better from here on out.
The National Battlefield includes a driving tour to significant spots not only in the park, but around Murfreesboro. We took a few pictures, but when you think about what happened in this place, it makes the mood kind of somber. It didn’t feel right to run around the park taking pictures.
We’re supposed to receive the new swivel pan for the tow dolly tomorrow. If we do, the plan is to leave on Wednesday and head down to my parents in Florida. The first week of our trip hasn’t exactly turned out the way we had hoped, and it has been much more expensive than we expected, but I can feel that things are starting to turn around for us. I expect things to get better from here on out.
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