Last night, on our way to our North Carolina kampsite, the most amazing thing happened. For hours, we were surrounded by heat lightning in the clouds which was really beautiful. It looked like flashes from cameras lighting up the sky non-stop, really a second didn’t go by without more lightning somewhere in the sky. But suddenly, it started to downpour again and the lightning became bigger bolts accompanied by loud thunder.
All of a sudden, the biggest bolt of lightning I’d ever seen seemed to strike the highway a hundred or so yards in front of us, and lit the entire world up with the brightest white light we’ve ever seen. It looked like someone had taken a flood light and shined it right in our faces. It only last a few seconds, but it was paralyzing—I think we both covered our eyes! And then, the loudest crack of thunder—as if the world split in half. Neither one of us could speak for a few seconds, and then we weren’t sure if we could laugh or not yet, in case something like it happened again. For a few minutes, every time a little lightning flashed, I could still see the impression of that enormous bolt, like the flash of a camera that continues to echo behind your eyelids when you blink.
I finally said to Bobby, “I honestly thought that lightning hit us.”
He said to me, “I thought we were dead. I thought we saw the light they always talk about.”
Our biggest challenge on this road trip has been the fight against the elements. It is amazing that in our daily lives we have set ourselves up so comfortable that weather doesn’t really harm us other than making us late for work, occasionally. You don’t realize just how powerful something like weather is until you a rolling down the road in a mobile home and lightning is trying to make contact with your GPS signal.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Comin to ya/On a Dusty Road
Bobby serenades me during
happy hour at a bar in Myrtle
Beach......
So what we’ve learned about Myrtle Beach in the few days that we’ve been here is that the weather is insane. Most of the day is sunny and beautiful, but nearly every day at around five o’clock the sky turns black, the wind picks up, and there is a downpour. The rain usually lasts about an hour or less and is just enough to mess everyone up a little bit. I think Mother Nature gets a good laugh watching all of the hot, sweaty tourists scramble for cover once a day.
Our second night in Myrtle Beach was Bobby’s birthday. I bought us tickets to see the Legends in Concert show, which some people might have seen before, especially in Las Vegas. It’s all impersonators of the musical legends: Michael Jackson, Elvis, Madonna, The Beatles, etc. Our seats were front and center, second row. This would be an awesome seating arrangement under normal circumstances. However, at the Legends show, it’s a little awkward to be up so close to these people who are literally dressed up like a celebrity and have to act like they truly believe they are that celebrity—and they can easily make eye contact with you and hear what you are saying to your neighbor.
I literally felt like the people on stage kept looking at us while they were singing, and both of us were worried they would try to somehow include us in the show…”Martina McBride” pulled some guy up on stage and made him dance and tell his wife how much he loved her….and Jake from the Blues Brothers sat next to some teenage girl and sweat all over her until she was embarrassed to tears. Besides, Bobby didn’t know, but I had told the lady at the ticket counter that it was his birthday, thinking maybe they would just give him a shout out, but after the Jake and Elwood performance, I was starting to worry that they were going to do something to Bobby that would end our honeymoon earlier than planned.
Luckily, they did just give him a happy birthday shout out, but they called him “Bobby Conkon”. We have discovered that down south no one understands the name Conlon. Even after spelling if for them and saying it several times, they will still call us Connon or Colon, like as if those names are more common…
But I digress. Michael Jackson impersonator was unbelievable. He looked, sounded, and moved just like Michael Jackson. The Elvis impersonator who closed the whole show was also really good. His voice sounded just like Elvis, and whether you like Elvis or not, you have to admit that some of his songs have unbelievably difficult notes that he can hold. This guy was great sounding, but was a little goofy looking, so it was hard not to kind of stare. At one point, he began singing a slow ballad, just him alone with a guitar, and I really felt like he was looking right at me. It was beginning to feel kind of awkward, so I nudged Bobby to tell him but before I could say anything Bobby looked at me and said “I think he’s looking at you!” Suddenly, the Elvis spoke right into the microphone: “I’m singing to her, sir, not you.” And the whole audience burst out laughing and they put a spotlight on us and he continued singing at me which was for some reason unbearable.
In all of the tourist spots they always have someone with a camera ready to take your picture and then try to sell it to you. Because after awhile it gets sort of annoying, Bobby’s new thing is to make crazy faces when they are trying to position you to get your photo. They obviously want the best picture they can so that you’ll buy it, and no matter how much they tell us to smile, Bobby will make crazy faces or pretend he’s taking a bite out of my head. All the while, I’m oblivious to this and smile nicely for the camera. The people who then try to sell them to us get a good laugh when we ask them to find our photos and they spot Bobby’s crazy face in the mix.
We are heading to Washington DC for our final leg of the trip. Heading up through North Carolina tonight.
happy hour at a bar in Myrtle
Beach......
So what we’ve learned about Myrtle Beach in the few days that we’ve been here is that the weather is insane. Most of the day is sunny and beautiful, but nearly every day at around five o’clock the sky turns black, the wind picks up, and there is a downpour. The rain usually lasts about an hour or less and is just enough to mess everyone up a little bit. I think Mother Nature gets a good laugh watching all of the hot, sweaty tourists scramble for cover once a day.
Our second night in Myrtle Beach was Bobby’s birthday. I bought us tickets to see the Legends in Concert show, which some people might have seen before, especially in Las Vegas. It’s all impersonators of the musical legends: Michael Jackson, Elvis, Madonna, The Beatles, etc. Our seats were front and center, second row. This would be an awesome seating arrangement under normal circumstances. However, at the Legends show, it’s a little awkward to be up so close to these people who are literally dressed up like a celebrity and have to act like they truly believe they are that celebrity—and they can easily make eye contact with you and hear what you are saying to your neighbor.
I literally felt like the people on stage kept looking at us while they were singing, and both of us were worried they would try to somehow include us in the show…”Martina McBride” pulled some guy up on stage and made him dance and tell his wife how much he loved her….and Jake from the Blues Brothers sat next to some teenage girl and sweat all over her until she was embarrassed to tears. Besides, Bobby didn’t know, but I had told the lady at the ticket counter that it was his birthday, thinking maybe they would just give him a shout out, but after the Jake and Elwood performance, I was starting to worry that they were going to do something to Bobby that would end our honeymoon earlier than planned.
Luckily, they did just give him a happy birthday shout out, but they called him “Bobby Conkon”. We have discovered that down south no one understands the name Conlon. Even after spelling if for them and saying it several times, they will still call us Connon or Colon, like as if those names are more common…
But I digress. Michael Jackson impersonator was unbelievable. He looked, sounded, and moved just like Michael Jackson. The Elvis impersonator who closed the whole show was also really good. His voice sounded just like Elvis, and whether you like Elvis or not, you have to admit that some of his songs have unbelievably difficult notes that he can hold. This guy was great sounding, but was a little goofy looking, so it was hard not to kind of stare. At one point, he began singing a slow ballad, just him alone with a guitar, and I really felt like he was looking right at me. It was beginning to feel kind of awkward, so I nudged Bobby to tell him but before I could say anything Bobby looked at me and said “I think he’s looking at you!” Suddenly, the Elvis spoke right into the microphone: “I’m singing to her, sir, not you.” And the whole audience burst out laughing and they put a spotlight on us and he continued singing at me which was for some reason unbearable.
In all of the tourist spots they always have someone with a camera ready to take your picture and then try to sell it to you. Because after awhile it gets sort of annoying, Bobby’s new thing is to make crazy faces when they are trying to position you to get your photo. They obviously want the best picture they can so that you’ll buy it, and no matter how much they tell us to smile, Bobby will make crazy faces or pretend he’s taking a bite out of my head. All the while, I’m oblivious to this and smile nicely for the camera. The people who then try to sell them to us get a good laugh when we ask them to find our photos and they spot Bobby’s crazy face in the mix.
We are heading to Washington DC for our final leg of the trip. Heading up through North Carolina tonight.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Funny Pics from Knoxville/DollyWood
Old Fashioned photo I forgot to flip.....
Funny sign at Dolly Wood :) Dolly had a little museum filled with all of her childhood things, this chalkboard was in there that she wrote on and I thought it was very nice.
Bobby's found this crazy t-shirt and we laughed so loud in the store....
At Bob Evans everything was named Bob!
And the Road Goes on Forever
We couldn't figure out why our GPS was saying that it took almost eight hours to get from the edge of Tennessee to South Carolina. When you look at them on a map, they look so close! At about 9 o'clock on Monday night, we figured out why it takes just that many hours to get there.
There is no real high way between Tennessee and the Carolinas. There is only this winding two lane road that twists through the Smoky Mountains for miles and miles. When you are on the road, the tree covered mountains tower on either side of you, and the bends in the road are 90 degree angles. Trucks bust down this road doing 70 mph, but thankfully, Bobby was nice and cautious. Not that I don't have total faith in the RV, but when you see signs warning that there is a hill with a 7% grade (are we supposed to know what that means??) coming up and pictures of trucks at a steep angle on the yellow roadsigns, one tends to get a little nervous. This road was like five hours on a Dollywood ride. Lol.
Aside from the awesome places we are visiting, driving in the RV and camping all over the place has been such an awesome experience. I tried taking pictures of the roads we are traveling and the campsites, but it just doesn't do the scenery justice. I think that even when we are back home, we will make camping at KOAs a habit. It's a great mini-vacation, to just get away from the TV and mail and the mundane. I'll post some more pictures of just funny things we've been doing and things we've seen.
This is space command to Zoom.....
Well, if you're like me then when you read something you hear the author's voice in your head. While we were at Graceland I read everything with an Elvis accent, Wrigley Field signs were all written in an exaggerated Harry Carey voice, Dollywood was a sweet lil Miss Parton southern drawl and this blog has been my sweet singing Shanny voice so far.....until now. First of all, that sign I hit was camouflaged and anyone would have hit it, The Ol' 76 is about 200 feet long and often has a mind of her own and goes wherever she wants. Okay, maybe not, I drive around this great country like Mister Magoo just driving around and bopping up and down singing "On the road again" and "radar love". Sooooo where did she leave off ? I think after the last transmission on Snoop Bloggy Blog we spent a few days in Pigeon Forge at Dollywood. It's like Disneyland but replace the mouse with butterflies and exchange all of the children with sweaty rebelflag weilding rednecks. Lots of rides, food and shows. We went to the Dolly Parton museum and went onto her tour bus. Pardon my french but that day was hot as heck so the surprise rainstorm was a treat. However the flash floods and Tennessee Trash wet tee shirt contest couldn''t have been worse. The rain made the ground slicker than an ice skating rink for anyone wearing Crocs with socks : ) and the rain only accentuated what we were trying to avoid seeing. I'm not writing this trying to be mean or negative but it just seems that people down here are a little slower, a little fatter, just a little dumber and a WHOOOLE lot more racist. Not my first option of crowds to be stuck in wearing transparent, rainsoaked tankinis. Okay anyway, we decided that night driving would be best for the old girl b/c she doesn't seem to like the heat anymore than I do, so we left around 8ish for our 7 anda half hour trip to Myrtle Beach. The original plan was to drive a few, sleep a few then finish in the morning but we were rocking, dancing, texting, singing and guzzling Joe so we kept on keeping on and landed at a WalMart around 4:30. I've loved this whole RV thing so far... driving it, starting it, driving with my arm out the window, talking to other RV guys and especially using RV terms ((okay, I'll admit I bought a book called RVing For Dummies, but I've learned a whole lot of cool lingo)) so that night we "boondocked" which means that didn't have the water/sewer/electricity hookup so we slept with a battery powered fan. We woke up and checked into our Kampsite, which is 1 block from the beach, and went out on our bikes for lunch and beers, which seems to be the only thing we've been doing on this honeymoon aka superlong vacation. We swam, got dressed and wentto Broadway at the Beach which was PACKED so we put our name in for dinner reservations at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville only to findoutthat there was a three and a half hour wait. Boardwalk at the Beach is like a Salem Willows meets Hampton Beach meets Faneuil Hall, lots of stores, food, activities, fish feeding spots, kids, singers and what not... so we did what you'd expect us to do..... we went to the movies and saw Grownups. We've been swimming in 6 different swimming pools so far, have visited 2 countries and have visited 11 states at this point. Today is my 33rd birfday aka Larry Bird aka Varitek aka Rolling Rock aka Carter Estate and I'm thankful for all of the birthday wishes I've been receiving from friends and family. Last night our family received bad news about Cousin Michelle's battle with cancer so please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she gears up to endure a stronger round of treatments. ++++ We miss everybody and keep listing things that we miss most, usually starting our list off with Chinese food and Sox games on tv only to be followed by Wallace, Flax Pond and oh yeah.... you guys, JK we do miss everyone and can't wait to get home to talk about the wedding and look at pics together...... Elvis Impersonator show tonight and Barefoot Landing..... talk to ya soon - - - Bobby Conlon
*PS- we have an AWESOME bumper sticker collection going on here.
*PS- we have an AWESOME bumper sticker collection going on here.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
For some strange reasaon it had to Be/It Was All A Dream About Tennessee
We are in Nashville Tennessee, the country music center of the world. It is easy to see why all aspiring country singers have to go to Nashville. It is a city like any other except that every single bar up and down Broadway street has 24 hours of live music. The way the bands make their money is just by passing around a big tip jug every hour. We stopped at a bar around 12:30 in the afternoon just for some AC and a drink and there was a young girl singing with a band of old guys playing behind her, and the bar was full--on a Friday afternoon at a place that doesn't even serve lunch!
Besides every bar having music all the time, every store sells Boots. There is probably about ten Boot shops on the strip and one bar that even sells boots, no kidding. We had a drink at a place called Tootsie's Orchid Bar that had signed posters and photographs of every famous country singer you can imagine. Minnie Pearl, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, etc.
The first night we were there we went to The Grand Ole Opry which if anyone doesn't know is a live radio show that they do three times a week at the Grand Ole Opry theater. They have about sixteen acts that come on and sing and tell jokes and stories, etc. Since the Grand Ole Opry was flooded this past spring, they are still holding the show but at the Ryman Auditorium right in dowtown Nashville where it originally was before they built the Opry house. We had such a good time at the Opry, we even got to see Little Jimmy Dickens and Vince Gill who performed at the end of the night and brought his daughter out to sing with him. We could see his daughter and Amy Grant watching him perform in the wings, it was very cool.
We figured that on our way to Myrtle Beach we will make a few pit stops, one of them being Knoxville, Tennessee. Knoxville is the big city right next to a small town called Pigeon Forge which is at the base of the Smoky Mountains. Pigeon Forge is where Dolly Parton is from and we are going to go to Dollywood! Does Tennessee hold the record for the longest state from East to West in the US? It HAS to! Four hours from Memphis to Nashville and four and a half hours from Nashville to Knoxville!
To quote the famous line of Minnie Pearl... "How-deeeeeeeeeeee!"
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