TWS, Day 10 Tennessee & Indiana

Scott and I went fishing in the Chattahoochee River in the morning while Sadie played water dog, sort of. The fish were literally jumping out of the water but neither Scott or myself didn't even get a single bite, let alone a creel full of fish. About mid-day, I reluctantly loaded the truck and set out for Indiana.

In some remote corner of Tennessee, I pulled into a BP truckstop to walk Sadie. After said walk, the truck wouldn't start. I have had this problem before. The first time was with my beloved Chevy pickup in California. When I stopped at the customer's, the truck was running fine. When I came out, it wouldn't start. It had a bad in-tank fuel pump. The second time, I was in Springfield Mass. I was driving my Jeep Cherokee and the same thing happened. One minute it was running fine and after I parked it, it wouldn't start. So when it happened with this Dodge pickup, I was pretty sure what it was. There was a truck mechanic on duty and he was able to get a replacement pump at nine o'clock. He said he would be back at eight Saturday morning to swap out the pumps so Sadie and I, having no other options, settled down in the truck for a long night. There was no motel to hole up in and it not only rained like hell with the wind howling and lots of thunder and lightening. The next morning, eight came and went and no mechanics. Nine also elapsed. Finally the two good ole boys showed and when they finally got to the task, they really knocked it out. It was still stormy as hell and I without any real "road testing" of the repairs, we hit the road. Without incident I will gladly add.

Saturday evening we arrived at John Runberg's barn in Nashville Indiana. John is a QC manager at the IU cyclotron. He lives in a hundred year old red wooden barn on a real working farm. Lots of cows, pigs and chickens.

There is a pond across the lane with ducks. Sadie loved chasing the ducks. The ducks weren't as enthusiastic. But all parties survived. After the Tennessee breakdown, this was a good place to settle in for awhile.

But all good things must come to an end, so Sunday evening we set off for Cincinnati.

Homeward bound

At 1513 yesterday, the BRT steamed into the marina parking lot and moored.

Ching ching, the bridge rang up ALL STOP and then SECURE ENGINES.

The Special Sea and Anchor Detail was secured and the Officer of the Deck shifted his watch from the bridge to the quarterdeck.

Liberty Call was piped and Sadie went ashore to pee & poop.

Holiday Routine was declared and I was designated a Late Sleeper.

We were, at long last, in our home port.

Film and more at eleven.

AWK

Forever, I've listened to hundreds of old farts blow tons of hot air about their grandchildren. I've politely listened while fantasizing in my mind about hoisting my gollywobbler while they endlessly yak on and on about their little houseapes.

Well here I go. Now it's my turn. I'm going to start cornering all of those SOBs whenever I make a visual contact and tell them about a real, live grandkid. Mine. While I was in Atlanta last week, Amy had the little guy. Seven Lbs. ten Ozs. I am told not only is he cute, and darling just like his gramps, see below

he is really smart. He is already, at 12 days old playing easy fugues on his toy piano and composing basic haikus with his finger tip in his soiled Pampers. He has also, already, turned down a job offer with the State Department. He wants to finish his education first. AWK, by the way, is the anagram for Alexander Wolf Koch.

Travels With Sadie, Days 13, 14 & 15. Cincinnati, Fort Wayne and back.

As you may, or may not, know; my aircard took a dump in Arizona two weeks ago. This means that I have to find the WiFi hot spots if I want internet access. It appears that McDonalds now has access at most of their locations now. It hardly matters however because I've been places lately that not only didn't have cellphone service, they didn't have a McDonalds.

Sadie and I left John Runberg's red barn Sunday night and arrived in Cincinnati early the next morning. The machine I was supposed to start-up needed a transformer, so we headed for Indiana for two days. We stayed at a Motel 6 in Fort Wayne for two nights. I stay at Motel Sixes at lot not because I am a cheapskate, which I am, but actually they are dog friendly, chain-wide. Motel Sixes are not know for their amenities, and true to form this one didn't have a WiFi. They did have a McDonalds across the street, but I couldn't get a usable signal. Being it was raining, lightening and thundering like hell, I didn't spend a lot of time in the McDonalds parking lot surfing the web. So needless to say, I mainly tried to catch up on my much missed sleep.

I inspected four machines in the area and will write up a quotation on refurbishing them. Today, Wednesday, we were, as Willy sang, back on the road again. For the next two nights, we will be staying at dog friendly Motel 6 in Cinci.

On the way, I saw the sign. Culver's, next offramp, 2 miles. After two miles, I pulled off and found the Culver's. One of the reasons, I am sure, why people in the Heartland are so heavy is Culver's Frozen Custard & ButterBurgers. If there was one of these near Long Beach, I would make a daily trip for a Turtle Sundae. A ButterBurger? I don't even want to know. I don't want to move to the Midwest.

One could say that there are four kinds of people in the world. One, there are people who have never heard of Cincinnati Chili. Two, there are people like me who have heard of it and never tasted it. The third class are people like DIL Amy, who knows about it and like it. And lastly, the fourth class are those who know it, but think it's not all that good. I, being a class two, thought that it was high time that that I matriculated to a higher class. So tonight I went over to Skyline Chili and bought a small 2-way. A two way is spaghetti topped with chili. A three way adds cheddar cheese, a four way adds diced onions or red beans and a five way adds onions and red beans. So there you have it, the complete knowledge base on Cincinnati Chili. I started out with a two way, to go. Back to Motel 6. To eat in my skivvies, with a cold beer. And the beer I had in mind was a Leinenkugel's. Next to the Skyline Chili place was a Kroger's Supermarket where I knew Leinenkugel's were lurking in the cooler. As I was reaching for the Leinie's out of the corner of my left eye I spotted it. A fifteen pack of Stroh's. If you live more than 200 miles away from Detroit, you probably never even heard of Stroh's Beer. It is the cult beer of the Eastern Great Lakes region. I figured, what the hell, I'm here in Ohio having Cincinnati Chili, what could be more appropriate than a Stroh's.

Conclusion, I have now been elevated to class three and a half. I have tried it but neither go nuts over it, nor do I dislike it. Basically, just another tick on my bucket list. It's cinco de mayo in Cincinnati, maybe I should have gotten a burrito supreme at the Taco Bell at the corner next to the KFC? Nah.

Travels With Sadie, Day Eight Denny & Alex

I know that this is a bit out of sequence but today has been one hell of a day so far.

I am in Cumming GA with old and dear friends Scott and Deb Douglas who I've known for over thirty years. Deb's mother Irene is also here. Irene is one of the nicest people that I've ever met and one hell of a cook to boot.

I started out the day by finding out that my friend of forty years Denny Moore has died. The whys and wherefores I still don't know because everyone back in California is at his funeral.

Before that could really sink in, my son Dave called to tell me that he is at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach and that they are inducing labor on Amy. My soon to be new grandson, Alex, is a week overdue and poor little Amy just can't lug the big galoot around any more.

So it is a classic example, for me, of one door closing and another door opening.

The circle of life.

Stay tuned. Film at eleven.

Literally.

Travels With Sadie, Day Seven Lanta

We got up early Tuesday morning and set out for Cumming Georgia which is a bit northeast of Atlanta. Alabama and Georgia is some pretty nice country, but it is also non-eventful so after eight and a half hours on the road, we arrived at Scott and Debs. They have two Golden Labs Chelsey the mom and Sugarbear, one of her pups. I was at the Douglas home exactly eight years ago when Celsey had her litter. Chelsey is this sweet female, I really hate to use the term bitch and Sugarbear is a big handsome dog who lives to chase things thrown into the brush and return with them in his mouth.

When I throw a stick or throw toy for Sadie, I end up as often as not, being the retriever and fetching the damned thing.

We hiked through the woods to the Chattahoochee with the three dogs and had a great time.

Travels With Sadie, Day Six. Moss Point MS

Kenny had Monday off so He and I and his wife Janice and his brother Tommy launched a 24' powerboat and set off through the bayous with a twelve pack of Bud to find us some alligators.

Tommy has been cruising the backwaters and bayous for over thirty years and guaranteed that we would see us some gaters. We didn't, but we had a hell of a good time putting around the bayous and swilling down the cold Buds.

We stopped at Huck's Cove Marina Bar & Grill but being it was Monday, it was closed. I guess I'm going to have to come back to Moss Point again, but not on a Monday, because the place looked like a real good place to hang.

I really liked the Gulf Coast along Mississippi and fully intend to be back when I can spend more time here.