Chez Sluggy as a Vacation Destination-Part 1

It all began innocently enough.
An online blogger friend mentioned she had taken some time off from work, vacation time, but had no plans to go anywhere.
So I emailed her and said if she wanted to get away from where she lives for a few days, I had a spare bedroom/bed since the Daughter left home in May and she was welcomed to come stay here.
Of course, I also told her that this is the armpit of Pennsylvania and if she came to visit there wouldn't be a grand high class time to be had.....just normal every day type stuff and maybe we could go see something interesting/fun while she was here.

And the blogger friend actually took me up on my offer.
Shocking, right? lol

I love having company but nobody EVER takes me up on coming to visit....until now.
I must say I was giddy as a schoolgirl with anticipation!
My life is so boring.....I hope she wouldn't be disappointed.

Thus begins how Sluggy and Tanner met last month.

I was coming off of a Colonoscopy the Friday before and #2 Son had 3 wisdom teeth extracted the day Tanner said she would like to arrive.  So the decks were clear for her arrival on Wednesday.

Wise planning on her part......come for 3 days and not a whole week.  It's always scary meeting someone for the first time, ya know?  So going to stay at someone's house you are meeting for the first time, it's wise to only commit for 3 days and not 7, because frankly, even though you've "known" each other for months or years online, you really don't "know" each other.
Making it only a 3 day trip meant enough time to have fun together and to get to know each other better but not too much time in case we didn't "mesh" in person.
And besides, being around the awesomeness that is Sluggy for 7 whole days could just wear a person out.*
*Read the above sentence with a full load of sarcasm.*

So dependent on #2 Son having a successful extraction Wednesday morning, Tanner was slated to arrive sometime before dinner that evening and depart after lunchtime on Saturday.

And Tanner and Samantha made good time on the road(thank the lord for avoiding Philly at rush hour!)and cruised into Chez Sluggy around 3ish in the afternoon.

I guess having a strange large woman "of a certain age" grab her when she got to the front porch and hugging her to death didn't make her run screaming back to her car, because she came inside. lolz

Here's Tanner in my kitchen.  She hasn't even taken off her backpack and sat down.
Isn't she the cutest thing?!  Even after hours in a hot car she's perky and cute.
Why would anyone this cute and young want to hang out with old boring me?
I still can't answer that one.....

We spent the evening talking, making friends with the doggies, talking, eating dinner and talking some more.
Man, can that girl talk!
I have met my talking match it seems.
Pfffftt, I thought we'd have trouble finding anything in common and stuff to talk about...lolz

On Thursday, the first full day of her stay at Chez Sluggy things started slow.  We hung around the house, ate breakfast, chatted, I think we ate lunch?, and talked some more.  
Tanner really didn't want to be "doing" lots of stuff while she was here, so this was going to be a low-key kind of visit.
I like low-key. 
The major activity was just sitting around and getting to know each other.


For a change of scenery, in the afternoon I took Tanner for a ride to show her a "good time" in my town.
First we went to a cemetery.

Yes, a good time in my town when you are with Sluggy means you get to go to a cemetery.
Besides, I had 4 F.A.G.(Find A Grave)photo requests at a certain nearby cemetery I wanted to fulfill so I hauled Tanner out there with me.
And she proved to be a trooper and walked around looking for the headstones.  We never did find the folks we were looking for but I got some shots of other headstones to post on that website so the trip wasn't a total loss.

I could have sworn I had taken a shot of Tanner surreptitiously while she was walking the graveyard but I must have deleted it from my camera, so you have to just believe me when I say Tanner went walking through a cemetery.
I don't think she was feeling the love however during this activity.....

So we headed out to our next stop, the Burger's Farm Stand in St. John's PA.

                                     Not Tanner.

I needed tomatoes and some fruit so we hit the farm stand and procured said items.

They have a small enclosure with baby farm animals at the farm stand so I took Tanner's photo standing in front of it.

I tried to convince her to pet the goat but she declined.  The donkey in the background there is quite the vicious animal and had his own sign about staying away from him as he bites(and kicks too I think?).  I don't think Tanner is a farm animal lover in the "up close and personal" sense....

Here is a gratuitous shot of a chicken wandering around the farm stand area for Linda and any other chicken fans out there........

After the thrill of the farm stand, I rode Tanner around our town to show her the sights.......the grocery stores(two, count 'em two!), the banks, the post office, the gas stations, the high school, the Subway, the Laundromat, the post office, the doughnut shops(two, count 'em two!), the pizza shops(a mind numbing number of those), the Rite-Aid and the Burger King.  That about sums up the sights in my town.

While at Burger King I spend lavishly on Tanner and I for a spur-of-the-moment mid afternoon treat.


Since we are/were a couple of hot babes, we hit the drive-thru and sat in the car and ate ice cream cones so we could get unflattering silly photos of each other to share with the world.

 Tanner looking all sexy-like with ice cream shoved on her face.....

Sluggy showing off her tongue work......ewwwwww!

Thanks for the great photograph Tanner!
 *Read with much sarcasm*

Yes, I have no shame and a dragged Tanner down with me.  ;-)

The rest of the evening was spent talking and eating a smoked barbecued fest and then talking some more.
By 11pm I was plum worn out and we hit the hay.
I tell ya this Tanner gal is high maintenance...... 8-))

More of our adventures in Part 2 coming soon.



Sluggy