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deathpixie) wrote2002-08-28 05:30 pm
deathpixie) wrote2002-08-28 05:30 pm
Entry tags:
Playing catch up. :)
Right, I've got lots of time to sit and update you all on my travels, Gerg being passed out in his room after having his wisdome teeth removed, Mel being all read-y in the corner after a crappy night, and Dex being at work. There's talk of Vietnamese food this evening when Darryl (the other denizen of Chez Bloor at the moment) gets back, which is good, because I love Vietnamese food.
Mmmm, chilli as a condiment like salt and pepper...
So, where was I the last time I had anything to say in any detail? Oh, that's right, at Heatherly's house, just about to head south to Tennessee to stay with the wonderful Dr Harper. :)
The drive down was remarkably enjoyable, for someone who travels generally by any other means than a car. Hilly did most of the driving, as it was her car and I was a tad rusty on driving a stick after five years of wussing out on automatics, and we managed what Mapquest called an eight hour trip in six. Mainly because we only stopped for fuel and bathroom breaks once, and had a generous supply of healthy and non-healthy food in the car: nothing to do with me speeding, not at all. *looks innocent* Garlic dip, mmm.
(Aside: I think I need to eat again. I'm developing a food obsession)
Since no-one else has told the story of the Pagan Man, I will. :) Hilly has, for those who don't know, a number of bumper stickers on her car, including a couple dedicated to the Goddess. Any way, once we hit the main freeway to Kingsport, we get involved in one of those inadvertant games of tag with a forest-green ute. After the third or fourth pass, he pulls a pentacle pendant out of his shirt. Yes, he too is pagan. Also in his late thirties, quite good-looking, and just Hilly's type. :) So we keep teasing her about him, we continue the tag, and then eventually have to take the exit for our fuel stop, bidding farewell to the Pagan Man as we do.
The stop took about fifteen to twenty mintues. I'm driving this time, and we head up the interstate once again. We pass several cars, including a red ute - "That's not the Pagan Man, is it?" jokes Mel, and HIlly does her non-blush thing. I'm chuckling away to myself, concentrating on driving on the opposite side of the road to normal and not using the windscreen wipers to indicate direction changes (the switches are round the other way to me), when I spot a forest green ute. "Guys," I say, "YOu wont' believe this, but there he is." And it was. We played tag again for another couple of passes, and then he holds up a sign as we pass asking "RU following me?" This would have lead to a conversation via signs if I hadn't swerved reading his sign and scared the crap out of him (and me), and sent him fleeing up the road despite attempts to catch up.
So, after all this adventurousness, we got to Kingsport, which is a small-ish city just inside the Tennessee border. It's set at the bottom of some lovely green mountains, in the middle of corn fields and it's all very pretty. Epona's house was pretty easy to find, being, as she described, a Barbie Dream House with pink shutters. She lives in half of it, and has a nifty spiral staircase to get to her bedroom and the loveliest porch out the back for lazing around on during a hot summer's day. She's also one of the few neat-freak ficcers, which is good, since now I know I'm not alone. :)
Being car-lagged, we had a quiet night watching Farscape, drinking beer and eating pizza. As it was, we didn't sleep until three, something which seems to be a habit when I visit ficcers. After a late-ish start and blueberry pancakes, we drove up into them thar hills and then walked about twenty minutes to the Laurel Falls. They are a small, but very pretty, collection of waterfalls, with one of those almost-cliched pools at the bottom, prefect for swimming in. It was cold, but exhilarating, adn we swam for perhaps a couple of hours. I'm still cursing I didn't take a camera up there - I could have made serious money with pics of the Waterpool Nymphs, aka HIlly and Epona, doing swimsuit poses. *ducks and flees*
Dinner was had at a rather excellent Mexican place (where Hilly's guacamole addiction was sated), and we returned for more Farscape and beer and the talking that ficcers do. It's possibly the best part of this trip, catching up with people and talking to them, really talking, instead of the usual noise and confusion of Cons.
The next day, being Monday, Epona had to go back to work, and we continued on our merry way South towards Atlanta, Georgia. We stopped in Knoxville, still in Tennesee, to have lunch with yet another ficcers, Alestar, who Mel and Hilly have met previously, but I hadn't. We had lunch at Al's sometime workplace, the Olive Garden, which is an Italian restaurant chain with very good soup and salad deals. Again, much talking - and laughing, I don't think I've laughed as much as I have on this trip for ages - and we met a friend of Al's and a metaphor was born.
See, this friend breeds mice, and she was telling Al about their progress and just how many she has now. And once she had gone back to work, Al explained that this friend really needed to get out more and have a social life, because she was way too much into the mouse breeding thing. And thus "breeding mice" became a euphenism for someone spending all together too much time at home. Because the next thing you know, you have a Mummy Mouse and a Daddy Mouse and it's all over.
After lunch, we continued Atlanta-wards, having stopped at Al's house to call QueenB and let her know rough arrival times and for Al to offer us furnishings and such. *grins* We got to Atlanta just in time for their afternoon thunderstorm. Actually, we'd been hitting a lot of thunderstorms in our travels south - that kind of climate and the time of year. Great stuff.
(to be continued - Geg has arisen and demands feeding). :)
Mmmm, chilli as a condiment like salt and pepper...
So, where was I the last time I had anything to say in any detail? Oh, that's right, at Heatherly's house, just about to head south to Tennessee to stay with the wonderful Dr Harper. :)
The drive down was remarkably enjoyable, for someone who travels generally by any other means than a car. Hilly did most of the driving, as it was her car and I was a tad rusty on driving a stick after five years of wussing out on automatics, and we managed what Mapquest called an eight hour trip in six. Mainly because we only stopped for fuel and bathroom breaks once, and had a generous supply of healthy and non-healthy food in the car: nothing to do with me speeding, not at all. *looks innocent* Garlic dip, mmm.
(Aside: I think I need to eat again. I'm developing a food obsession)
Since no-one else has told the story of the Pagan Man, I will. :) Hilly has, for those who don't know, a number of bumper stickers on her car, including a couple dedicated to the Goddess. Any way, once we hit the main freeway to Kingsport, we get involved in one of those inadvertant games of tag with a forest-green ute. After the third or fourth pass, he pulls a pentacle pendant out of his shirt. Yes, he too is pagan. Also in his late thirties, quite good-looking, and just Hilly's type. :) So we keep teasing her about him, we continue the tag, and then eventually have to take the exit for our fuel stop, bidding farewell to the Pagan Man as we do.
The stop took about fifteen to twenty mintues. I'm driving this time, and we head up the interstate once again. We pass several cars, including a red ute - "That's not the Pagan Man, is it?" jokes Mel, and HIlly does her non-blush thing. I'm chuckling away to myself, concentrating on driving on the opposite side of the road to normal and not using the windscreen wipers to indicate direction changes (the switches are round the other way to me), when I spot a forest green ute. "Guys," I say, "YOu wont' believe this, but there he is." And it was. We played tag again for another couple of passes, and then he holds up a sign as we pass asking "RU following me?" This would have lead to a conversation via signs if I hadn't swerved reading his sign and scared the crap out of him (and me), and sent him fleeing up the road despite attempts to catch up.
So, after all this adventurousness, we got to Kingsport, which is a small-ish city just inside the Tennessee border. It's set at the bottom of some lovely green mountains, in the middle of corn fields and it's all very pretty. Epona's house was pretty easy to find, being, as she described, a Barbie Dream House with pink shutters. She lives in half of it, and has a nifty spiral staircase to get to her bedroom and the loveliest porch out the back for lazing around on during a hot summer's day. She's also one of the few neat-freak ficcers, which is good, since now I know I'm not alone. :)
Being car-lagged, we had a quiet night watching Farscape, drinking beer and eating pizza. As it was, we didn't sleep until three, something which seems to be a habit when I visit ficcers. After a late-ish start and blueberry pancakes, we drove up into them thar hills and then walked about twenty minutes to the Laurel Falls. They are a small, but very pretty, collection of waterfalls, with one of those almost-cliched pools at the bottom, prefect for swimming in. It was cold, but exhilarating, adn we swam for perhaps a couple of hours. I'm still cursing I didn't take a camera up there - I could have made serious money with pics of the Waterpool Nymphs, aka HIlly and Epona, doing swimsuit poses. *ducks and flees*
Dinner was had at a rather excellent Mexican place (where Hilly's guacamole addiction was sated), and we returned for more Farscape and beer and the talking that ficcers do. It's possibly the best part of this trip, catching up with people and talking to them, really talking, instead of the usual noise and confusion of Cons.
The next day, being Monday, Epona had to go back to work, and we continued on our merry way South towards Atlanta, Georgia. We stopped in Knoxville, still in Tennesee, to have lunch with yet another ficcers, Alestar, who Mel and Hilly have met previously, but I hadn't. We had lunch at Al's sometime workplace, the Olive Garden, which is an Italian restaurant chain with very good soup and salad deals. Again, much talking - and laughing, I don't think I've laughed as much as I have on this trip for ages - and we met a friend of Al's and a metaphor was born.
See, this friend breeds mice, and she was telling Al about their progress and just how many she has now. And once she had gone back to work, Al explained that this friend really needed to get out more and have a social life, because she was way too much into the mouse breeding thing. And thus "breeding mice" became a euphenism for someone spending all together too much time at home. Because the next thing you know, you have a Mummy Mouse and a Daddy Mouse and it's all over.
After lunch, we continued Atlanta-wards, having stopped at Al's house to call QueenB and let her know rough arrival times and for Al to offer us furnishings and such. *grins* We got to Atlanta just in time for their afternoon thunderstorm. Actually, we'd been hitting a lot of thunderstorms in our travels south - that kind of climate and the time of year. Great stuff.
(to be continued - Geg has arisen and demands feeding). :)