Great Road Trip of 2017.....Part Eighteen/Day Fifteen

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  

Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  

Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

So the next morning after Kim made her overnight waffles, she and I headed out to shop.  
Hubs and Joel took the rental car and went out to do "guy stuff".

                                                 

We hit Big Lots where I picked up some of these candy cigarettes for my younger two kids who were still living at home.  Nostalgia set in on me.....Candy Cigarettes were a big deal back when I was a kid.

BL also had skeleton animals that made noises and their eyes lit up when you pushed a button.  Back in 2017 these were a new thing.  I took a quick video of a buzzard and some other critter going off but I guess I had deleted that over the ensuing years.

Kim wanted to show me "her" Rite-Aid.  She said it was small and never had anything. Hahaha

Well here's a photo of the outside of her R-A.  All I can say is that her's is waaaay bigger than the one in my old town, like 4 x the size of it!  Heck, they even sold alcohol and had some specials on such so I picked up a few items for my two kids who still lived at home(and were well over drinking age).

Then it was back home(after hitting the Mickey D's drive thru for Diet Coke for Kim).

Their cat was being useful.

Holding down the tablecloth on the dining room table and being all adorable.

Then I went wandering around Kim's yard.  I found her chicken coop.

I had a conversation with her chickens.....

There was this old sign near the coop I am guessing Joel picked up somewhere on his work.....

Then we were off to Washington state(just over the Snake river from Lewiston Idaho)because Kim had to pick up some stuff(including sewing supplies for her business).

So I was able to cross off another state on my list of the US states I'd never been to.

Going over the bridge we saw the Port of Clarkston WA sign.  A few years later we'd go back to Washington for a cruise.

Meanwhile Hubs and Joel went to a museum about Jack O'Connor.  He was a famous sports/hunting

writer for Sports Life Magazine.

HERE is info on the Center devoted to him and a bit about his life.

Then they went to the Spalding Site on the Nez Perce lands.  Info HERE.  Hubs sent me this photo.........

No clue what this was all about.

Back to exploring Kim's backyard........

She had an homage to me on the deck! lol

Then there was the garden that went on for days.  And being August the harvest was coming in fast and furiously.

She also had a small koi pond on the end of the deck.....

Here's some of the day's picking.  That zucchini must have been a good hider to avoid detection until it got THAT big! lolz

And then we made a quick trip to the Dance Studio.  Kim had sort of sold it to someone at this point but she was still having to go in and help this new owner out and she was also still building dance costumes for shows.  I know she loved her dance studio but it was a real drain on her(both financially and physically)at that point.

I waited in the car while she ran in to deal with something.

Then after we got back to the house, Hubs and Joel returned from their adventure too.  It was decided to go out for dinner.  We all loaded into the car along with Kim's mom and off we went....

Some mural art on walls near the river.........

Downtown we passed by a historic cabin in the square.  It is known as the Miranda Cabin and is said to be oldest surviving structure in Lewiston, Idaho.

Info HERE

Then we hit the favorite gourmet dining spot Kim loves.  Being my friend she only takes me to the best places.*snort*

"Effie Burgers"

I am shocked that this place was never showcased on that "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" show on the Food Network!

What do they serve?   Well the biggest damned hamburgers I've ever seen!  They also serve Chicken sandwiches, Chicken Strips and Finger Steaks.  Sides are French Fries in various configurations, Onion Ringer, Mushrooms and Chicken Gizzards.  That's it. They also served drinks as well since you'd really need one to wash these massive meat bombs down. ;-)

To get a table big enough(well we had two tables pushed together)the staff had to put us in the back room next to the pool table.  I'm glad nobody wanted to play pool while we were eating there since we'd have had pool sticks poking us.

Now I tried to warn Hubs about an "Effie Burger".  If you noticed they serve "half" burgers as well as full ones.  This is because nobody(except a competitive eater or a sumo wrestler)can actually eat a whole Effie Burger in one sitting.  Heck, a normal person could eat off of one of these for two days!!

So even after warning Hubs he ordered a whole Effie Burger with cheese for just himself.  No way he was going to share this thing with me!

See the scale of that behemoth??  It's bigger than a persons head!

I had to order a half a burger for myself(and couldn't finish it, even though I hadn't had lunch that day too).

Kim, Joel and her Mom got 1 burger and split it three ways and also got fries.

A little video I took.  Sorry for the poor quality but it was mighty dark in there.

Not being a big pickle of burgers kind of gal as I took the last bites I was able I left a pile of pickle chips as well as the last of the 1/2 a burger.

And this is what was left of Hubs whole burger.  Don't make me say I told you so! hehehe

A shot of the flattop grill in the kitchen on the way out.  Dang those patties are a s big as dinner plates!

Between the alcohol advertisements on the wall and under the neon signs was one for parents.....lol

Me posing with the Effie's sign.  I swear those burgers were MORE than 8 inches and 1 lb. of meat!

On the sidewalk outside one solitary French fry  tried to make a break for freedom.  Run, little buddy, run!

The usual suspects under the Effie Burgers sign outside as we left.  I don't know if Hubs was holding his hat there by accident or using it to keep from losing his dinner. lol

We spent the evening back on the deck talking with Kim, Joel and Kim's mom.  At some point Kim's little sister came over with goodies.....freebie leftovers her work was giving out at some event that weekend.

I had smoker envy when I saw this massive smoker living on the back deck next to the house.  Evidently this was a retirement gift for Joel from his coworkers.  I know that Kim doesn't care for smoke meats(well I didn't back then)so it had been sitting unused.  I tried but there was no way I could figure out how to smuggle that thing into our sedan car and cart it back across the country to PA. ;-)

As the evening wound down we headed inside.  Kim went into the fridge to retrieve a candy bar for her Mom's evening snack(yes, Kim comes by her sweet tooth honestly).  2017 was the year they were putting funny sayings/words on M&M/Mars products.

Hey!  That candy bar should have been MINE!!lololz

Off to bed after packing up, as we were heading out the next day on our return trip home.

Sluggy

The Past 10 Days or So at Chez Sluggy

Well the "Great American Eclipse" came and went a week ago Monday.
Here in my part of PA we only got 72% totality.......

This photo was taken at our peak(2:41 pm).  Instead of looking like 2:41 in the afternoon it sort of looked like 4:41 in the afternoon. lolz

Daughter's dog in her usual spot chilling under my desk on Tuesday.

On Wednesday it was time to load College Boy up and take him back to school.  He had an audition on Thursday so he needed to be back and unpacked on Wednesday.

This semester he is sharing an apartment that two friends of his(sisters)rent.
He will only be there for 1 semester so this was the best situation for both him and me(me financially).  It is soooo much cheaper than being in a dorm! 8-)))
Since it is a 2 bedroom apartment he is getting the living room for his bedroom.
Before his crap......

After his crap......

He had it all organized and set up before going to bed that night.

Hubs took a couple more pics of the apartment........

Actually it's a nice little apartment with a cute kitchen.
Just wait until College Boy starts banging around in there....it won't be so clean and neat. lolz

You can tell a couple of "20 something" gals live here and not guys.  They even had a little garden out back. ;-)

On Friday last week Hubs and I ran errands.  I wanted to see if I was in time to get and can tomatoes this year from the local farm.

I drug out my canning jars and I had 32 quart size ones to use.

Smile calf!
Seems tomatoes are ripening slower than usual here this Summer so we were a couple of weeks early.

 We'll go back after Labor Day, calling first, to pick maters.  We got some corn and zukes while we were there so as not to waste the trip out.

Then we circled back to the town South of here to hit the Weis Fantastic Friday deals there.

The best deal was 4 bags of coffee for .72¢ a bag that I already blogged about.

On the way to the other side of town there I saw this massive furniture store that has been having a "going out of business" sale since before we moved to this area 17 years ago......

And they actually WENT OUT OF BUSINESS finally!!! lolz

It only took what?.....20 years!?!

Then we hit Aldi for a few things.  I gladly left these deep fried Twinkies in the store though.
ick.

Saturday I kept tabs on Hurricane Harvey down in the Gulf as it made landfall in Texas.  Historic levels of rainfall there and flooding!  Surprisingly the death toll has been low considering the size and scope of the flooding and people seem to be pulling together in this crisis.  Next month, when we have some free income I'll consider how best/where to send a check to help.

The rain is slated to crawl up the coast and inland into Louisiana including where our house there is located.
I'll have to reach out to our realtor there to keep tabs on things for us.

Last Sunday I picked the first ripe tomato out of our garden.
Yah!

Hubs also sat down with me lasts Sunday to go over our money situation.  Since the dust had settled on all the retirement things that were up in the air it was time to see where our $ was sitting and see what needing to be moved and where.
We threw a big chunk of the regular savings we have which were in some higher yield(ha! higher!!)online accounts into a CD.  This will earn us double what they'd been earning...almost double of NOTHING but still, it's a little more.  8-(
We still need to keep quite a bit liquid however because A-we have to pay for work on the house in LA still and B-we need to pay for our healthcare premiums(OUCH!)OOP and be reimbursed from our Retiree Medical Savings Account(RMSA).  Hubs still hasn't started the paperwork for that so no clue yet on how long they take to reimburse this expense.  bleh.

On Monday the mail brought this great offer........for a retirement home/senior assisted living.
Not even a free lunch which was offered to tour the facility would get me to go look at it. lololz

I guess if you retire, even if you retire YOUNG, that triggers a slew of old age services to be offered to you via mail and phone.
Oh yes, we are getting phone solicitations too for stuff like this.
I don't think Hubs nor I are decrepit enough yet to need assisted living. 8-(

Also on Monday Hubs and I celebrated our 35th Wedding Anniversary........

We were low key about it, and just went out to Chili's for lunch(using a free gift card we have had for AGES).
Then Hubs snuck out that evening and bought me some flowers and a card at Weis.
35 years.
Now I do feel old enough for the Assisted Living place. lolz

We did some weeding in the yard on Tuesday.

Here is what the flowers out front looked like mid June after the critters stopped nibbling on them.

And they have made a nice recovery by late August.

And I picked some more veggies from the garden-more tomatoes and our only Summer squash.

Now we've started a big project--dealing with the rotting wood under and around our French doors to our deck.
Oy vay!  What a mess!!

Actually Hubs isn't handy and isn't anywhere near qualified to redo this stuff so we are cleaning it out and cobbling something together to keep the elements out for this Fall/Winter and will have to hire someone to do the "real work" on it come Spring as it will be expensive.
Since it will mean replacing some sub flooring in the den too we'll probably go ahead and have the laminate flooring in that room replaced at that time since it needs to be done before we put this house on the market anyway.(There are holes in the flooring, etc.)
If I get ambitious this Winter I'll think about repainting the room as well, since it needs that also.

I always love to when you start to deal with house problems it's always like opening a can of worms and leads to more problems and money that needs to be spent.
Sigh.

I've got to get going here now.....it's Weis(PMITA)Markets Day and a trip to Rite-Aid for an Rx is also in order while I am out.

What's been going on in your world lately?

Sluggy