So last night we stayed at my 92-year-old grandmother Romey's house in Rockingham, North Carolina. We parked our camper hidden behind her house, because she was worried people might drive by, see it, and try to break into the camper.
Little did we know we parked right on top of a huge colony of red fire ants.
I wake up at 9:00, and Lily is still fast asleep so I lounge around for an hour, reading a magazine. Lily wakes up at around 10:00, and Romey "asks" us if we want breakfast. Apparently cereal isn't good enough for Lily and me - she practically insists cooking us eggs, sausages, grits, toast, and coffee. We appease my 92 year old grandma by accepting the offer, but only under the condition that I help her, to which she replies, "Now don't you worry baby I'll fix it, now sit down with 'ya girlfriend and read your magazine."
Lily and I sit down with Romey and enjoy our wonderful breakfast, and after I am able to sneak next to the sink and start cleaning the dishes. She notices the second I turn the water on, and she demands, "Oh baby I'll take care'v those." Like an offensive lineman protecting the quarterback from a blitzing linebacker, I cut her off, "Romey I'll take care of these finish your breakfast!" She's the boss and we're the guests, but I'm three times her size and there's now way she's doing these dishes. I'm relaxed, enjoying my time with Romey, and now I'm helping.
Meanwhile, Lily sneaks out to the camper to grab her deoderant. She opens the door and sees an ant crawling across the step. Then a few more on next step up, then...
"Uh honey we have red ants in our camper," Lily says as I'm scrubbing away. I shrug, figuring it's just a few and we just need to clean up a bit and they'll go away. "Lots of ants", she says, sensing that I don't understand the urgency of the situation. "Like, all over the place." I walk out and jump in the camper. She wasn't kidding. They're crawling everywhere - on the floor, on the stove, in the stove, in the oven, on the cushions, under the cushions, in the sink, on the walls...everywhere. Red ants bite. And when they bite, it hurts...a lot.
Lily jumped in the driver's seat and moved the camper out of the yard and into the driveway. Romey points out the huge anthill we accidentally parked on, and covers it with sawdust-like at poison in a bag. We finished the bag in the camper - we put the stuff on every surface, in every crevice we could think of. It did a pretty good job of shriveling up those pesky little things. A couple hours later, with nary a single little ant left in sight, we vacuumed and scrubbed the place like crazy. Now we're on the road, and it's a lot better, but we've seen and killed about ten more ants since the first monstrous onslaught. There's bound to be some stragglers, but hopefully the vast majority met their maker.
Still, our short stay with Romey was great. We spent some quality time with her, and she taught me how to make her southern fried chicken! She sent us packing with a fridge full of food...chicken, sweet potato pudding, cake...I feel like I'm being fattened up for Thanksgiving. Now we're headed through North Caroline, South Carolina, and Georgia on our way to my sister's house in Atlanta, where I'll be cooking up a storm in preparation for the arrival of Mia Heather, my neice-to-be. And then...who knows?!?!
-Wax
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Capital City adventures
Yesterday we left the Washington DC area, after spending four nights. We arrived pretty late on Wednesday night, after driving the entire way from New Rochelle, NY, an all-day drive. Ben's cousin Josh and his wife Stephanie very kindly let us stay in their driveway on really short notice. Thursday was spent not doing a whole lot, and in the evening we had a nice dinner with Josh and Stephanie, and their kids Elizabeth and Matthew. Ben made a baked penne dish that came out quite tasty. Friday we went into DC very early. We meant to go to the zoo for just a couple hours, but it ended up being more like five or six. I got some good pictures which I will be posting in the next couple of days. We relaxed for a few hours, and then met up with Allison to walk around DC and go to dinner. We went to Jaleo, a tapas place owned by Jose Andres. It was pretty good, but not outstanding; the tapas we had in Spain were, of course, way better. We were truly disappointed by Andres' rendition of patatas bravas, but the sangria was really good. More about that on Ben's food blog.
After dinner we went to a bar called "Poste" which is located in the old post office building (so shouldn't it be called "Post"?). They looked like a kind of trendy place, but they had a huge outdoor seating area and lots of home-infused liquors. I got a faux-Dark and Stormy: instead of ginger beer and rum, I got ginger-infused rum and ginger ale. It was really really good. I can't remember what Allison and Ben got, but they both ordered drinks with some of the infused vodkas. After a couple drinks, we wandered back to Allison's and got some sleep.
Since Ben and I only got to the zoo on Friday, we wanted to make sure we caught at least two museums on Saturday. The first one we went to was the National Air and Space Museum, where we again spent a lot longer than we expected. We paid way too much for McDonalds lunch (the only food available) and spend another hour or so there. I was originally really excited to go there, but I realized that I'm a lot more interested in where people go into space than how they get there. Some of the shuttles and satellite displays were pretty cool though. After taking in as much as we could handle, we made our way to the International Gallery, where they were having a special exhibit on Jim Henson! It was the coolest exhibit I've ever been to. Even though I didn't grow up watching Sesame Street or Fraggle Rock or The Muppet Show, I've seen the latter, and I was able to appreciate most of the exhibit. Henson was a funny, creative, and wonderful artist and person.
Last night we stopped at Misty Mountain Camp Resort around 7pm. Ben grilled some sausages, onions, and potatoes over the fire. Today we got on the road around 1pm and are now heading down Route 29 in Virginia on our way to Ben's grandma Romey's house in North Carolina. We drove about 50 miles through the George Washington National Forest, which was a really pretty drive, though a very gas-guzzling hilly drive. Every gas fillup is getting cheaper and cheaper, per gallon anyway. We just filled up for $3.459/gal, and not five minutes later passed a station listing $3.359/gal! Our current trip stats are about 1900 miles, about $1000 on gas, and 9.33 overall mpg.
-Lily
After dinner we went to a bar called "Poste" which is located in the old post office building (so shouldn't it be called "Post"?). They looked like a kind of trendy place, but they had a huge outdoor seating area and lots of home-infused liquors. I got a faux-Dark and Stormy: instead of ginger beer and rum, I got ginger-infused rum and ginger ale. It was really really good. I can't remember what Allison and Ben got, but they both ordered drinks with some of the infused vodkas. After a couple drinks, we wandered back to Allison's and got some sleep.
Since Ben and I only got to the zoo on Friday, we wanted to make sure we caught at least two museums on Saturday. The first one we went to was the National Air and Space Museum, where we again spent a lot longer than we expected. We paid way too much for McDonalds lunch (the only food available) and spend another hour or so there. I was originally really excited to go there, but I realized that I'm a lot more interested in where people go into space than how they get there. Some of the shuttles and satellite displays were pretty cool though. After taking in as much as we could handle, we made our way to the International Gallery, where they were having a special exhibit on Jim Henson! It was the coolest exhibit I've ever been to. Even though I didn't grow up watching Sesame Street or Fraggle Rock or The Muppet Show, I've seen the latter, and I was able to appreciate most of the exhibit. Henson was a funny, creative, and wonderful artist and person.
Last night we stopped at Misty Mountain Camp Resort around 7pm. Ben grilled some sausages, onions, and potatoes over the fire. Today we got on the road around 1pm and are now heading down Route 29 in Virginia on our way to Ben's grandma Romey's house in North Carolina. We drove about 50 miles through the George Washington National Forest, which was a really pretty drive, though a very gas-guzzling hilly drive. Every gas fillup is getting cheaper and cheaper, per gallon anyway. We just filled up for $3.459/gal, and not five minutes later passed a station listing $3.359/gal! Our current trip stats are about 1900 miles, about $1000 on gas, and 9.33 overall mpg.
-Lily
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Great time in New York
After a short layover back in Waltham, and more than a few hundred dollars spent on brake repairs for our camper Inigo, over the past few days we stayed in New Rochelle, NY with my brother Aaron, sister-in-law Diana, and nephew Seth. We were really spoiled in New York - we got our cute kid fix playing with Seth, our doggy fix playing with their dog Missy, and we ate lots of great food, including a really top notch meal at Craft in Manhattan (more on food blog). Last night, Aaron and Diana sent us to a really fun outdoor theater (Shakespeare's Twelth Night) on a cliff overlooking the Hudson River, where we drank wine and ate a nice picnic dinner before the play. The play itself was a riot - great actors, great music...just a lot of fun all around. It was really a treat.
Today we drove all the way to Washington, D.C. from New Rochelle. It was probably too much driving in one day for us. We really want to make the most of our time in D.C. though so we wanted to be here all day tomorrow. We drove through New Jersey where we got gas for $3.51/gal compared to $4.17/gal in New Rochelle. If only we had some kind of reserve tanks that we could fill up in Jersey.
We're staying with our cousins Josh and Stephanie for a few days a little bit outside D.C. We'll be spending time with my friend Allison whom I haven't really seen in a few years. Then we're off to Atlanta to visit my sister Carrie, possibly through Charlotte, N.C. where we might stay with my grandmother Romy for a night or two. The camper is really chugging along great, which is a turn in the right direction!
-Wax
Today we drove all the way to Washington, D.C. from New Rochelle. It was probably too much driving in one day for us. We really want to make the most of our time in D.C. though so we wanted to be here all day tomorrow. We drove through New Jersey where we got gas for $3.51/gal compared to $4.17/gal in New Rochelle. If only we had some kind of reserve tanks that we could fill up in Jersey.
We're staying with our cousins Josh and Stephanie for a few days a little bit outside D.C. We'll be spending time with my friend Allison whom I haven't really seen in a few years. Then we're off to Atlanta to visit my sister Carrie, possibly through Charlotte, N.C. where we might stay with my grandmother Romy for a night or two. The camper is really chugging along great, which is a turn in the right direction!
-Wax
Saturday, August 2, 2008
The end of our stay in Rockland
Right now we are heading down rt. 95 back to Boston for a few days. We had such a great time over the past few weeks in Rockland, and we'll miss everyone at Primo.
Yesterday we spent the day at Old Orchard Beach. We got caught some rays, swam in the ocean, rode on some fun rides, and walked into some cool shops. The night before we had dinner at Bresca in Portland on recommendation from a couple Primo employees, and it was excellent (for more detail, check out my food blog). Last night we stayed in Biddeford again and saw another movie (Hellboy 2) at Smitty's Theater, which is just about the coolest movie theater ever.
Once again we quietly stayed at the Walmart in Biddeford overnight, and Lily and I are both annoyed at how many other campers use Walmart parking lots as their own personal campgrounds. Walmart is very generous to allow RVers to stay overnight in their lots free of charge, but visitors are expected to be quiet and only stay for a short time. Last night there were about 20 RVs staying at Walmart. Some of them were running their obscenely loud generators. Some people were outside in the parking lot playing music and drinking beer. This morning before we left, the parents of a few families traveling together decided it was okay to let all of their kids run around and play in the parking lot. On our way out, we saw a few trailers unhitched with their pick-up trucks or SUVs gone, probably out on a day trip. It's horrible how disrespectful these people are. And to top it off, most of the RVs are big and expensive, so why can't these people just pay the $40 for a spot at a campground and do whatever they want?
After our few days in Boston, we're off to see Aaron, Diana, and Seth in New York for a few days. Then we're headed to D.C. to visit Matt and Allison, and then we're off to Atlanta for a couple weeks.
-Wax
Yesterday we spent the day at Old Orchard Beach. We got caught some rays, swam in the ocean, rode on some fun rides, and walked into some cool shops. The night before we had dinner at Bresca in Portland on recommendation from a couple Primo employees, and it was excellent (for more detail, check out my food blog). Last night we stayed in Biddeford again and saw another movie (Hellboy 2) at Smitty's Theater, which is just about the coolest movie theater ever.
Once again we quietly stayed at the Walmart in Biddeford overnight, and Lily and I are both annoyed at how many other campers use Walmart parking lots as their own personal campgrounds. Walmart is very generous to allow RVers to stay overnight in their lots free of charge, but visitors are expected to be quiet and only stay for a short time. Last night there were about 20 RVs staying at Walmart. Some of them were running their obscenely loud generators. Some people were outside in the parking lot playing music and drinking beer. This morning before we left, the parents of a few families traveling together decided it was okay to let all of their kids run around and play in the parking lot. On our way out, we saw a few trailers unhitched with their pick-up trucks or SUVs gone, probably out on a day trip. It's horrible how disrespectful these people are. And to top it off, most of the RVs are big and expensive, so why can't these people just pay the $40 for a spot at a campground and do whatever they want?
After our few days in Boston, we're off to see Aaron, Diana, and Seth in New York for a few days. Then we're headed to D.C. to visit Matt and Allison, and then we're off to Atlanta for a couple weeks.
-Wax
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