Drifus' Travels

Tuesday, we went down to the beach and enjoyed the water and laid in the sun. Eventually we went back to the cottage and showered. I had mentioned that I wanted to try the pizza place I saw on the island so we headed off to there. The place is called Pizza and Pasta, Beth had the lasagna and I had a double sausage/mushroom with banana pepper ring pizza and calamari (rather skimpy for the price/quality). Well the food here was great and better than the Bubble Room experience by far.

Well due to the 10 hours of driving yesterday it only took about 4 hours to get to Dre and Bev’s. Since we arrived in town a little early we thought we would get some geocaching in. We found 2 listed for Powder Springs Ga and drove to one located in a nearby park. We gathered the GPSr and PDA and headed into the park. By the looks of it the park had recently suffered some nasty storms, there were large pools of water and branches from trees down. Nonetheless we headed to our coordinates to locate the cache. The cache seem to be located just off of a paved path in the corner of the park about 30 feet. I stopped where I got the best reading and told Beth where we should start looking. I was in shorts and didn’t want to get into poison sumac or oak which is native to this area. Beth was in jeans so she was more protected for the thicker brush. We plodded around looking in “cache-like” locations but couldn’t find anything. Beth asked if I had smelled something and I noted that I did not. Well after giving up as it seemed to be muggled we stepped out of the woods back into the park. Again Beth noticed the smell and she looked down and noticed her shoe was almost half covered with POO, further investigation revealed that it also went up half of her pant leg. Well after some expletives from her and jokes by me we headed over to one of the large puddles and she rinsed off what she could. Once back at the car we got out some “baby wipes” to clean off and I grabbed two large ziploc bags to put her shoes and pants in. We got back in the car and headed toward Dre’s house, just inside her subdivision there was a house for sale, we thought what the heck and stopped and took a brochure to see how much houses in the area cost. It was a simple 2 story house retailing for $141,000, to us being from the Midwest that was CHEAP. (We later learned that Dre and Bev paid $70K for their house 20 years earlier).

Well just as we got to the house Dre called and asked where we were, “were just round the corner” we said and a minute later we were on the porch knocking. We knock on the door and Dre answered and announces that she is Beths’ cousin. Dre is about 5′ 5, dark brown with a touch of gray hair, kind of looks like middle age Carrie Fisher. We are then introduced to Bev who is about 5′ 7″ light brown to blond hair with a medium Bostonian accent. While I can not think who she reminds me of, she is beautiful in her own right.

Well I would write about what we talked about but I could not remember everything nor would there be enough space on the Internet to cover it. We talked about genealogy, family trees, alcohol, houses etc etc.

We did however become automatic members of the Kissin Cousins Club. It’s a club based in their basement/garage, it’s decorated with beads and album covers on the wall and other miscellaneous things. It’s really quite quaint and comfy. The membership entitles you to open access to 2 refrigerators properly stocked with beer, soda and fixings for most drinks. The added bonus is that Dre used to be a bartender at one time and can make a killer Long Island Ice Tea (my favorite). Well after a few hours getting caught up on the past we headed to the dinning room for dinner. We had Cornish hens, Caesar salad with rice pilaf and red potatoes, everything was delicious. We then retired to the living room for some more conversation. While we were talking, the subject of computers came up which lead to me setting up a wireless router for the ladies. This took quite long time since the computer was a few years old and not very well maintained. The long and short of it I got everything up and running. At about 2:30am we called it a night.

Well after 3 years since my last vacation we decided it was time to take a vacation together. Beth has always wanted to take me to Sanibel Island Florida. So after a few months of planning we booked and now months later it’s time to pack. After packing we load our rental car (Chrysler Sebring convertible) So we hit the the road about 2 pm and headed for Powder Springs, Ga.. Beth has family there, Dre and Bev are here second cousin and partner. We made it to Kimball, Ga and stopped at about 12:30am at a hotel for the night. The room was nothing special and needed some additional cleaning but adequate for a 7 hour stay. We stayed up for a little while to connect to the internet and check email etc. I was finally able to set my Out Of Office (OOO) at work and answered a few emails. We got up the next morning and headed over to Waffle House for a later than usual breakfast. Mandy was our waitress, she had that typical southern voice and her politeness was just the thing to help start off our vacation.

Well the final update on my injury that you can not see any scar, YEAH. As for other things we have had a fair share of bad storms roll through the RV park we are at. Until now all have either missed us or caused no damage. That all changed Saturday night / Sunday. We heard some kind of racket and then the power went out about 2am. The great thing about RV’s is that the furnace is 12v so we were still warm throughout the night (50′s at night this time of year?). When morning broke we heard chainsaws and limb shredders, with the power still out we figured we would go Geocaching and have breakfast. On the drive out of the park we noticed a large tree had fallen over onto an RV and onto the park owners home. I would have taken a picture but it felt like chasing an ambulance so I didn’t. The RV damage was in the back left corner, the mark left by the tree was about 4′ wide and 3′ down the side wall. I could not tell if this was the kitchen area or bedroom, either way it would have scared the heck out of me. Luckily no one was hurt and as of Monday the tree is all gone, a tarp is over the owners house and the RV just sits there (maybe waiting for insurance adjusters).

Well on to some other news of sorts. We are going on VACATION!!! After 3 years the time has come to see something else. We leave on the 15th and are driving to Power Springs, GA (about 17 hours / 800 miles) to visit Beth’s cousin and partner, then Saturday we are off to Sanibel Island, FL for a week. The weather is supposed to be nice with only 2 small changes of rain. We really have no plans but do want to get all of the Geocaches on the island. Sometimes an unscripted vacation is more fun, Beth and I travel together very well so this should be fun. I have purchased a camcorder and tripod so we should have plenty of media (pictures, movies) to bring back.