Away For a While

[Innkeeper]

Well, we got home last evening. It was a nice and interesting trip. Some general observations: If some people are staying off the road we didn’t miss them. Very heavy traffic on all interstates, and we stayed off the real busy ones such as I-95. If you travel through the Southeastern States in July, expect thunder storms. The most inexpensive gas was in South Carolina; $3.74.9.

We spent the first night on the road in Harrisburg, PA and had a nice dinner at Friday’s. We pulled into town in a thunderstorm. The second night was in Huntersville, NC just north of Charlotte. We arrived during a violent thunder storm on the whole northern part of I-77 in NC. It was very tough driving. We had a great dinner Longhorn Steakhouse. On Friday afternoon we got to Cordele, GA and checked into the Lake Blackshear Resort and Golf Club.

We had a thunderstorm that night, but around 40 of the 80 folks that showed up managed to stay under cover and enjoyed a light dinner with lots of brew at their marina restaurant. We should point out at this point that of the 80 people all but about three were related. Bev’s aunt was one of ten children, and the offspring of six of them including children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were there, as well as one of two surviving sisters.

On Saturday we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in the main conference center. Later we went out on the lake in a party boat with by brother and sister in-law, and the family of one of Bev’s closest cousin’s children. The rain held off.

That night we celebrated the birthday dinner. The dining room was dry, but there was a bar we could order from. The bartender was fantastic; not a showman, but really knew his business. I ordered a glass of Cabernet. He pulled the plug on an open one, took a sniff and poured it down the drain. He pulled the plug on a second one, and poured my glass and a taste for himself. He asked what I thought. I said it was oxidized, and he agreed and poured all of it down the drain. He then opened an Estancia Cab and took a sniff to make sure it wasn’t corked. It was very nice. I informed the other winos that the Cab was fresh. The dinner was wonderful and entertaining.

Sunday we headed north. Just north of Macon before noon we encountered a very severe thunderstorm. It was just about the worst we ever encountered. It was with us all the way up to Atlanta. It let up some on the beltway; however there was an accident that held us up for about an hour before we could get onto I-85. It rained for rest of the day. We arrived back in Huntersville beaten and tired. We went back to the Longhorn and had another great dinner with a couple of glasses of Blackstone Merlot.

The next day was drop dead beautiful. The front got through. There was not even any haze, just blue skies all the way up the Shenandoah Valley to Harrisburg. We had a fair dinner at Ruby Tuesday. As you can tell, we did not have a lot of time to search out the neat places to eat.

We stopped for dinner yesterday afternoon at the Oxhead Tavern in Sturbridge, MA. It was wonderful, and I washed it down with a lovely local ale. We arrived home at 7 pm.