NYC Video

Just playing with the video thing, see if it works. This was to show the hustle and bustle of Time Square.

NYC Day #8

Day #8
I don’t know when I have been happier on this trip. It is 6:40 CDT and we are in good ole Bama.
Over the last day or so, I noticed the best seat in the bus was the back row that had 3 seats together (instead of 2). Boo and Justin have been occupying these seats the whole trip. Yesterday afternoon I started promising them I would remove them if I had to by midnight. At 10:45 we stopped at a rest area in Penn. And they got out for a break. This was my best chance! I slipped in unnoticed, and actually fell asleep before they got back. When they arrived, they whinned and cried, but a few well placed kicks on Boo and a body slam that put Justin on the floor made the point! I am a mean old man!
The Lunesta had already gone to work and I was out in a few minutes. I slept VERY well. Woke up to use the bathroom, and I felt sure it was 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning. One of the nearby kids was awake and I asked him what time it was, 5:50 he said! No way! Slept from 11:30 till 5:30, that is a victory! I hadn’t gotten that much sleep any night in the hotels. Tried to go back to sleep, but the bus started to slow to a stop, “what the heck”? Looked out the window and saw a state sign saying Alabama the beautiful!!!! WOW, we weren’t supposed to be home till Noon. We must have been busting a move last night. I am soooooo happy! I just can’t explain, I have dreaded last night’s leg of the journey the most.
Some random thoughts on this trip:
It is really good to be a man- average waiting line at bathrooms 3 minutes, for the girls it was 30 minutes
Sleep aids are good! No, great!
I hate waiting in lines!
I hate having a structured itinerary
Burt snores something awefull!
Most of these kids are really good kids
Bus drivers in NYC don’t make enough money
There is not enough money for me to live in NYC
Buses need power adapters for computers, WIFI would be a good idea.
Feeding BBQ to southerners in NYC on dress up night is not a good idea.
Digital cameras are too easy, we took over 500 pictures
MP3 players don’t get loud enough to drown out “Sweet Home Alabama” and “I’ve got friends in low places”.
Next time, claim the back seat from Day #1!
Or better, don't let there be a next time.....

NYC Day #7

Praise God, the last day! We loaded up the buses with our junk, and entered the big city for the last time. The traffic was the lightest we had seen, apparently New Yorkers actually take off for Good Friday. No line, no waiting at the Lincoln Tunnel!
Burt and I took the boys to Rockefeller center. We saw the outdoor ice rink, the NBC store, and got our 1.5 seconds of fame as we waved behind Al Roker as he did the weather. We were 3 rows back and you wouldn’t have seen us if you were looking. We got tickets for the “Top of the Rock”. Which is the observation deck of 30 Rock. Pretty cool view, I imagine it was almost as good as the Empire State Building. It is on the 76 floor and had an incredible view of the city.
Did the tour at Radio City, which was pretty neat. Got an inside look at how concerts and productions are done. A lot of history in this place, built in 1932and has been an entertainment staple of NYC ever since. Burt and I got our picture taken with a Rockette!
After the tour was over we had free time till our 2:00 reservation at Hard Rock Cafe. We checked out the Ed Sullivan Theater where late Night with David Letterman is filmed. He had to go by "Hello Deli" to see Rupert Jee, I had no idea who this was, but I am sure most of you do. See attached pic. We decided to take a chance and ride the subway. We boarded at 50th Street and rode up to 116th Street at Columbia University. Got off, took a few pics, and got right back on. Had a homeless guy slumped over in the seat across from us! Sad how many homeless “live” in that town.
Shopped our way back to Hard Rock picking up all the usual cheesey tourist stuff: snow globe, New York sweat shirts, knock off Pashmina scarfs, etc.
We are now on the highway in New Jersey beginning our long haul back to Moody-Burg. It is 4:40 EDT, and we are to drive all night and be back at the school by noon Saturday. UUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. Bummed some Lunesta from Mom before we left home, hope that stuff is really good! Else I will be blogging more tonight!

NYC Day #6

We headed to Ellis Island this morning to tour the museum there. We got off the bus at 9:30 and were told to catch the ferry to Ellis Island, eat lunch, catch the ferry to Liberty Island, then catch the ferry to Battery Park. Be at the bus no later than 12 sharp. The line for the ferry to Ellis was close to 400 people. Air temp. was 45, wind speed 30-40. Nice day to stand outside in a line. I haven’t mentioned this before, but at all the National Monuments, we were strip searched. Any potential terrorist targets seem to have this policy. We reached Ellis at 10:30, there was just as long of a line there to go to Liberty, so things were looking bleak for making Battery Park by 12:00. The word came from the guide that we were getting a time reprieve. So we checked out some of Ellis Island and had lunch. We were to be at the line for the Liberty ferry by 12:25. All were present and accounted for, except the ferry! Did I mention the wind? Long, long line and howling, frigid wind. At 1:40 our ferry arrived, but it was a much smaller boat already loaded to the hilt for Liberty. At the last moment the guide decided we were skipping Liberty Island and heading back to Battery Park on a different ferry. Unfortunately, 3 of our group had already boarded the ferry to Liberty! Nice, they got to grab a taxi for the restaurant we were to be at by 5:30.
So, we missed out on Lady Liberty, got a few pics from a distance. We made the 1 hour plus trip back to the hotel for an hour to get ready for the dress up night. Got a few winks in! Everyone gussied up and headed for Dallas BBQ in Manhattan. Whose idea was it to take a bunch of Bama rednecks to a BBQ joint in NYC, I don’t know. Dinner was decent, and we were off to Broadway to see The Lion King. Quite the production if you haven’t seen it. It’s hard to explain, but suffice it to say, a really neat show. We did get a chance to run around Time Square before the show, so several of us went to the ESPN Zone. Clay was in heaven! Picked up a few souvenirs then headed for the show.
Tomorrow is the last day! We get a decent amount of free time to do what we want. Not sure what we are doing, but it will be nice to go where we want and not be on such a tight schedule. I hope we go back to the Empire State Building!
I have been mostly complaining about the trip, but it has really been fine. It just seems like we spend much more time in lines or on the bus than actually seeing the sights. It’s all good. They are doing as good of a job as possible with such a task and so many people. It turns out that most the area is having their Spring Break right now, so all the attractions are packed.
Right now we are on the bus heading back to the hotel and have just come thru the Lincoln Tunnel. When you come out on the New Jersey side, you get an incredible view of Manhattan all lit up. It is truly amazing.

NYC Day #5

Day #5 We headed back to the Big Apple and picked up our guide “Frances” for a whirlwind tour of Manhattan. We saw the buildings where many celebrities live including The Dakota where John Lennon was killed.

We visited Ground Zero to see where it all went down. It has changed a lot the last few years, as the first several floors of the Freedom Tower has already been built.

We had lunch at the world famous Nathan’s Hot Dogs. By far the best hot dog…ever!
We toured the Museum of natural History for an hour or so, looking for the world’s largest diamond, but never found it. It is allegedly worth $50 Million.
We ate dinner at Bubba Gump’s in Time Square. Unbelievable amount of humanity at Time Square. It was cold and nasty with wind and rain, still thousands of people hustling up and down the street. Fitting 170 of us inside Bubba Gump’s was a nice trick, too.
After dinner, we went to the Empire State Building. With the weather we had, it was zero visibility. Still very cool! You could barely make out the streets and buildings below. The wind was incredible, I guessed it was near 60 MPH, blowing mist and rain. I will try to upload some video when I get home. The wind currents were ripping around the building creating visible eddies…very cool!
Tomorrow we are off to Ellis and Liberty Island.

NYC Day #4

Day #4 we headed out of Lancaster. PA for Philadelphia. Not the cleanest city in the world. First stop was at the museum where “Rocky” ran the steps. So all 170 had to do it, chanting the “going strong now” chorus. I think it’s a law, I don’t know.
Got to tour the Independence Hall and learn some interesting facts about the constitution and the first Congress. Obama and Billary were in town yesterday, never saw them but Obama was a block away while we were there. BIG WHOOP!
Everyone was treated a Philly Cheese steak sandwich, also BIG WHOOP. It was in a food court of a mall, I guess that version of cheese steak would be similar to eating BBQ in Birmingham at Century Plaza, just not the REAL thing.
A short bus ride later, we were in the Big Apple. I wish I could have enjoyed the scenic skyline, but duty called. I had to send out 7 estimates and timesheets for the crew back home. Air card worked perfectly, pretty cool stuff. We had some free time to shop and tour China Town. Very crowded, very dirty. I am not much of a “haggler” so I didn’t score any great deals. BUT, I did find a hat that I have been wanting. It’s a Chris Sharp inspired Himalaya toboggan. It’s goofy but very warm and fits my “idiom”. Private joke!
Had dinner in a tiny Chinese Restaurant, which is a trick with 170 of us. Had to sit with a group of hens, won’t be doing that again. What a bunch of whiners, the food was bad, the service was bad, not enough food, what meat is this, etc.
Finished with dinner at 8 and got to wait for the bus on a busy East Broadway for 1 hour. The poor bus drivers have no where to park in NYC so they had to come a long way to get us. Much gnashing of teeth. A bunch of red neck teenagers blocking the sidewalk for a whole block is not something the locals appreciate. Did I mention Boo’s Grandma accosted a taxi driver that nearly hit one of our kids? Pretty funny, got to hear a classic Taxi driver bomb dropping tantrum.
God has definitely done a work in my life regarding patience. Somehow, the long waits, the loud kids, the lines at restaurants have not bothered me too much. 5 years ago, I would have had a stroke by now. Just going with the flow is not easy for me.
Back to the hotel by 10 for more work. Convinced Burt to take some Benadryl for his sinuses, did NOT help the snoring. Tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy cold day, fun!

NYC Day #3

Okay, 2 Sominex + Dawg tired+ A.C. = Good night’s sleep!
Up at 6:00 this morning and had a humongous breakfast! Apparently apple pie is okay for breakfast, here (I’m good with that). I tried a local favorite that I had heard about called “Scrapple”. Not the best thing I have ever eaten, I was told its pig parts left over after they have gotten all they wanted for hot dogs and Vienna sausage, then fry it in butter!
Rode an hour or so to Gettysburg. It was neat seeing the place that changed our nation. The tour was a little brief for me, but interesting.
Spent the afternoon driving around Lancaster County gawking at the Amish. There is an entire industry here taking yahoos like ourselves around taking pictures of and learning about how different the Amish are. Yes, they have different values than we do. Yes, they are very strict on themselves. But, we all have our quirks and oddities, and WE don’t have tour buses driving through our neighborhoods. I think their deal is they like living in the past and they take pride in their lack of taking pride! They value depriving themselves of most everything we consider our right.
We ate dinner at a place called “Good and Plenty”, nuff said. They serve you platters of good wholesome food and shovel it faster than you can eat. Tried another local favorite called “Shoe Fly Pie”. Also, not the best thing I have ever had. Yana described it as Pecan Pie without the pecans. I am not sure that quite does it, it’s a crust with maple syrup poured in and sugar and flour doused over the top. The homemade Ice Cream made up for the funky flavor.
Day 3 a success; good night’s sleep, no one died, tried some new food, saw interesting sites.
2 Sominex already in the system, A.C. running, wish me luck!

NYC Day 2

News flash, Burt snores like a banshi! Got very little sleep last night. They claimed I snored also, but it’s hard to snore when you are not asleep. Note to self, 1 Sominex is not enough!
The hotel last night was nice enough, but they don’t believe in air conditioning. The room was 76 degrees when we got there, had to leave the window open all night and it was still warmish this AM.
Got to see Natural Bridge for the first time, it was dark last night. Quite the hike down the gorge to see it. Pretty cool stuff. The hike back up took a little longer than expected, we missed Burt’s Palm Sunday sermonette. Sorry.
The replacement for Bus #3 arrived as promised, so we had a comfortable ride to Monticello. Quag number 3. Allegedly everytime they made this trip before, it was no line, no waiting at the historic home. Not so today. We arrived around 10 AM and were supposed to leave at 12. We arrived on time, but the lot was full of buses. Our luck. They gave us our tickets, time to be guided…1:10! Did I mention it was 10 something? No restaurant there, just an overpriced gift shop. Tooled around for nearly 3 hours before our tour. I have to say, that was my favorite stop so far. The home of Thomas Jefferson. The man stayed busy for sure. Declaration of Independence, congress, governor, secretary of state, vice president, and president twice. He was a farmer and inventor, not to mention an architectural genius. Lots of very unique designs and inventions.
Left Monticello for Lancaster, PA. Another long leg of our journey. Burt and I watched his favorite stupid movie “Airplane”. Lots of one liners there, too; “Yes, and don’t call me Shirley”, “I picked a bad week to stop sniffing glue”, Mrs. Cleaver saying “I speak jive”, and “It’s big and white, with a red stripe…kinda like a giant Tylenol”. If you haven’t seen it, you won’t get it.

NYC Day #1

Tons o' fun so far! Had to be at the school at 5:45, left at 6:20. We lucked up and got a bus with the least amount of people out of the 4 buses we had. burt and I managed to get two seats each, so we didn't have to get too cozy.
Burt and I watched Monty Python's "Holy Grail" on the laptop, always a treat! "Bring out your dead!", "Very small rocks", "Come and see the violence inherent in the system", "I'm being repressed!", and so on.
BTW, Mom's Air Card worked very well. It's nice having an internet connection while running down the highway. Also nice checking the radar when you're driving in lightning and rain for 6 hours straight. We managed to stay right in the middle of the mess all the way to Virginia.
Did I mention we didnt have as many folks in our bus? Short lived. The newest bus in the fleet broke down and the remaining 3 buses had to take on the 47 passengers and luggage from bus #3! Yeah! Got to sit by a stranger, crampt up against the window for 2 hours. Then got moved to sit with another person I knew somewhat. Got to hear more than I wanted from her.
So, at this point we are 1 hour behind schedule.
We drag into Roanoke VA about 6 o'clock. I am sure the resturaunt would have preferred us getting there on schedule instead of their busiest time. You know they gotta love seeing 170 folks drop in at one time. Luckily it was a cafeteria, and we were in and out in about an hour.
Arrived at Natural Bridge Inn just before 8:00. I wont explain the luggage quag, but let me say this is a very old Inn with one very slow elevator. So 170 people had to lug their luggage up 6 flights of stairs. The men got to do theirs, the women's, and the girl's, also!
So far, everything about as expected. Loud obnoxious boys, squeeling chatty girls, crampt long bus rides.
The good news is the replacement bus is to be here in the AM. The other good news is our 14 hour ride today is the longest we will have till next Friday night, and I have mucho sedatives for that trip! I warned Burt, I am gonna start taking one sleeping pill per 30 minutes until I pass out. May need paramedics to wake me up in Moody next Saturday morning!

That's what I am talking about!

Took my future former friend Quinn to our neighborhood lake today. Spent a couple of good hours of fellowship and harping on eachother. The fishing really kind of stank till we headed back to the ramp. Happened to knock a big-un in the head!

Good day either way. She weighed about 7 pounds and was stuffed with eggs.

More Fishing News

Had my second big tournament of the year this weekend. This time at Eufaula, AL.

Extremely diverse conditions this week. Left at 2:30 A.M. Thursday to get to the lake in time. It was pretty cold and foggy, had to run by GPS as I had less than 30 feet visibility.

The first placed I stopped, caught several nice fish and finished the day with a good catch. The high that day was around 80!

Woke up Friday morning to pouring rain, opted to roll over and wait it out. Did not catch near as many Friday, but saw lots of gators! Couldn't get a good close up, they were skiddish, but that's not a bad thing when you are in a boat that looks like a zebra! They give me strange looks, they may have been talking with their African cousins and found out how good zebra's taste!

Anyway, got paired with a local that hasn't fished a tournament in 3 years, and was just going for the ride. Well, he got more than he hoped for. The fish I found on Thursday was a 25 minute ride up the river in 25 MPH winds. We ran into a wall of rain as we neared our spot. Shortly after arrival, the rain turned to sideways snow. Always nice when fishing in March! Did I mention is was 80 degrees 2 days before? We only caught a few there and moved further up the river to a few other locations.

After catching a few more fish, we returned to our first spot. My partner had a 5 fish limit at this point and I had only 4. Within 5 minutes, I caught my 5th fish, then another fish that allowed me to cull a smaller fish. While unkoohing my fish, my partner said "get the net, big one!". He wasn't kidding, a beautiful 6 pounder.

Time to head back, we managed to stay out of the really rough water til we neared the launch site, we hit 3' white capped waves. Much like a riding a bull!

We had surmised my partner had a 15 to 16 pound limit and would probably get a decent check. We weighed in, and his sack weighed 17.63! He was in first place and had big fish thus far. Did I mention there were 173 very good anglers in this tournament? Pretty cool stuff. Unfortunately for him, a professional angler fishing the tournament came to the scales with 19 pounds and bumped my partner out of first place. Too bad for him, but still a great finish.

I finished somewhere in the top 20, which is good for me on this lake.

No more fishing for a few weeks, I get to go to NYC with Moody Jr. High for a week next week! Fired up about spending many hours on a bus trip with 200 teenagers! Outstanding!

Wish me luck!

Have any sedatives?

Back to Fishing

Not all of my posts will be at the deeper end, some will be fishing related.
My first tournament of 2008 was interesting but disappointing.
My friend Lee and I left at dark:30 Thursday morning for Guntersville to begin our "pre-fishing" for the Bassmaster Weekend Angler Series held today. Haven't fished a tournament since December 8th, and haven't really fished at all since then.
Your going to heckle me about this, but I am way out of fishing "shape". Getting up at 3:30, on the water at daylight, off near dark, freezing cold, aching muscles. I hear you snickering! It's true, I have a real passion for fishing, especially tournament fishing, but it does take a physical toll (when your old and fat like me).
Do you remember the weather Thursday? Launched the boat at 19 degrees and Lee chose to run 12 miles up the river at 68 MPH. I don't know the formula for wind chill, but I can tell you that's pretty dang cold!
Slow day of fishing but what fish we caught were great quality. We had a 6 pounder and 3 in the 3 to 4 pound range.
Friday was much more pleasant! 37 degrees and raining! Caught more fish, but only two keepers. The good news was one bass was 5 pounds.
I am fishing this trail as a "Co-angler". That means that even though a have a perfectly good (yet odd) boat, I chose to fish this trail from the back of someone else's boat. Lee is the best fisherman I know, and I get to "practice" with him a few days before each tournament, in the attempt to learn some new stuff. The bad side to this is you get "paired" out with someone else for the tournament that you don't know, and you have to hope that he knows what he is doing.
For the second year in a row, this trail started at Guntersville and for the second year in a row I got "paired" with a guy that was on no fish! He had pre-fished alot and had found some great fish, but they all miraculously vanished today. Neither of us caught a keeper fish all day! The most beautiful day all week, and the fishing blew!
Oh well, just another chance at humility! God seems to have a pretty clear plan for me and my ego. Every time He lets me win a tournament or succeed in business, He backs it up with a gut check! Funny, He knows me pretty well! He knows my ego cannot stand too much success, and that is a good thing! Keeps me remembering who is in charge and what I am here for.
P.S.- someone needs to show me how to keep the lady readers from entering sarcastic comments on my posts. I have a feeling they are soon to come! Of course I fully expect the sarcism from Burt, Quinn and Malimar (however that is spelled).