We still do the fondue meal deal at our house. The kids loves it and they enjoy prepping for it. We usually start with a cheese dip for bread, veggies. Then a broth with steak, chicken, veggies, and mushrooms. then it's a chocolate dip with fruit, marshmallows, and sweet crackers.
They make a big deal out of it, and I believe we are doing it for the oldest daughter's birthday as she turns 19 and will be home from college.
I can see oreos for the chocolate dip though, but the others don't sound like a good thing for a fondue!
Cody, it may be a sign of the times or maybe the electronics that rule our lives. For us, it's not the smart phone, it's the TV. Three rooms in the house are TV-free: the great room and the two bathrooms.
We rarely eat at the dining table. It gets used when we have guests but otherwise we eat in front of the TV in the master bedroom.
My dream home includes a 3-car garage. Liane's dream home includes a largish kitchen, a great room (instead of living, dining and family rooms) a largish master bedroom and a split bedroom plan. The master bedroom has a king size bed (with linen chest/dog step at the foot), three dressers, a loveseat, an Eames chair and ottoman (knockoff) and a 75" TV.
Even our family gatherings make a fondue setup difficult. The patio at our son's house has room for 16 people at the table so 10-20 family and family-adjacent guests sit in the living room and out in the gazebo. I also suspect there would be too many trips to the ER to treat Fondue Fork puncture wounds.
I love hearing stories like that Bob.
We eat in our coach a lot, but I'm not gonna lie, there are certain places that we have found some great places to eat so when we travel we do partake of the local eateries. Moreso now I think than when our son was younger and he traveled with us. Much of that was due to keeping costs down but also because some of the places like up in the mountains snowmobiling and in the middle of the sand dunes there just weren't restaurant options.
Even now however, my wife many times will do some meal prep the week or so before we leave so we have options to stay in or go out. Seems like when we go to rallies or gatherings, we tend to eat in the coach more often as we are with a group and many times by the time we run a trail, get back to camp, hurry to Happy Hour and visit and by the time that is over, we are too tired to go out so the wife just cooks something in the coach.
I am also glad she likes to cook and even enjoys cooking when we travel, but a bit simpler meals when traveling. We've had some great meals sitting in the coach eating dinner while watching a storm pass through. When my in-laws traveled with us before my MIL passed away, I would do more grilling as my in-laws enjoyed that. We would do a pot luck style meal with them when they traveled with us in their travel trailer.
I still enjoy getting the grill out of the basement storage now and grilling something for the wife and I but it's usually a much simpler meal than in years past.
I even carry a small gas fire pit with 5-gallon propane bottle for sitting around outside in the evenings, however, this year we never even got it out of the coach. Last year when we had some friends travel with us we used it a few times and I really miss sitting around the fire after dark visiting with friends. Unfortunately, I feel those days have slipped away from us as all our friends are hanging up the keys to their RV's and settling down at a home base somewhere.
Mike, thank you for the kind words.
I grew up loving the camping trips. I've shown photos of me when I was four or five, standing outside our umbrella tent, I know I was that age because the car in the background was our 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline. Our first travel trailer trip was a two-week Easter vacation warmup to Civil War battleground sites in the eastern United States. Those three 75-day trips criss-crossing North America living in a little 15-foot trailer made me dream of bigger and better trailers. A 75-day trip to Mexico in just a little station wagon, eating all our meals in restaurants made me dream of home-cooked meals and had me eating balanced meals (vegetables and broiled proteins) after a couple of weeks of fried breakfasts and burgers (or deep fried protein) and fries for lunch and dinner.
Early in our married life Liane, the kids and I spent a lot of our brief vacations camping in tents and eventually branched out to boat camping with a tent on shore. Set up the runabout to sleep four of us inside a camper top on the boat (not recommended if you don't some kind of [chemical] toilet on board). In October 1976, 14 years into our marriage, we spent a week at Disney World's Fort Wilderness living in a Fleetwood Terry trailer.
I thought I could entice Liane into the trailer travel life but she wasn't interested in having two cars, a speedboat and a travel trailer sitting in our front yard.
It was either the boat or a travel trailer and the boat won because our backyard overlooked the Hudson River and we had a one mile drive to a $20 a year yacht club with launch ramp and mooring.
Mike, we also had a Little Red Campfire for the new Super C coach we bought a couple of years ago.. it was still in the box a year later ...never had a trouble-free night where we were relaxed enough to use it.
Scott, our camping included a white (Amoco) gasoline Coleman stove until we took up camping on the boat. At that point we switched to a propane Coleman stove but quickly realized a giant gas fume tank under the boat floorboards wasn't a good environment for open flames. I looked like a very sad camper standing on the dock cooking meals (we have one of those Coleman folding leg setups for the stove). An open fire pit was the kind of luxury that never crossed our mind).
@Bob Heine
Thank you for sharing these wonderful stories! They sure bring back fond memories of yesteryear but mixed with nostalgia and yearning for magical days gone by.
@gman007, they tell me you can't go back but I disagree. A photo or movie can take me back like it happened this morning. One of our granddaughters was sitting in the backseat reading a book and politely told us to shut up with this line: "Please be quiet, I'm reading and making pictures in my mind." Talk about the mouth's of babes.
Mike
I really enjoyed your post and the only reason I gave it a sad reaction was because of the last paragraph. I hope that soon you can convince some of the old friends or find new friends to share the experience with again.
@gman007, I was saddened by that paragraph as well. For twenty years we were members of a Corvette Club in Ft. Lauderdale and traveled all over Florida and took group cruises (on ships) and group overseas trips. Many members bought their first Corvette while working part time in high school or college but that time was long past by the late '90s and the club disbanded as the more and more members retired.
@PugetDude
It is very unfortunate that you have had this long stretch of troubles.
It seems that you have paid more than your fare share of dues to bad luck gods! Surely, by now you have met your quota of troubles and hopefully things will turn around and you get to have less trouble and have more relaxing time.
The primary trouble was with the motorhome. Got a lemon, but it worked out OK in the end. Manufacturer finally stepped up and made us whole, after getting pulled backwards through a knothole for 8 months by their incompetent, immoral dealer.
Everything else is good!
@gman007 and
Scott, my only lemon was the Vega GT. Within months of taking delivery of the car I ordered from the dealer, Quarter size spots of paint popped off the driver's door. Took the car in for warranty repair and was told I had to wait for the factory rep to inspect the spots. By the time the factory rep checked the car, the rear quarter and back panel was popping similar size spots of paint and i was told the regional factory rep would have to approve the multi-panel re-paint. They almost matched the dark green paint. At 51,000 miles the head gasket blew and I was informeed it wasn't covered under the special warranty inspection. Neither was the rusted out tops of the front fenders.
New rule: when they've gotten into the Greek naming, National Weather Service reports should start off in the classical Greek style, such as, "Zephyrus, his peaceful ways abandoned, shall lift a wine-dark sea across beaches whiter than bone, just south of Sarasota."
@Squankum, anything would be better than the Chicken Little reports from the network news stations.
Wait a second ! before the rush to imports, have they yet used popular names like Tom, **** and Harry? How about Joe Blow and Jane Doe? Joe Six-Pack? Jane Q Public and John Q Public?
I am 100% sure that the highly literate and illustrious members here can come up with many many more appropriate domestic names!
@gman007, wouldn't using Tom, **** and Harry (and Sally) require a release from approval from NBC (and
3rd Rock from the Sun)?
The hurricane namers already skip names that start with
Q, U, X, Y, and Z. We'll never be threatened by Quentin, Quinton, Quincy and Quasimodo. Or Uma, Ulysses, Ursula, Upton and Unita. No Xander, Xena and Xavier or Yale, Yuri, Yasmine, Yvette, Yvonne, Yolanda and Youssef. And what's wrong with Zachary, Zander, Zachariah, Zelda and Zavier.
Hurricane Floyd always sounded like it would be epic.
Scott, hurricane names are retired when they cause major damage and have high death counts. Retirement lasts at least 10 years but a bunch of names, including Floyd will probably be avoided for a lot longer.
Heck, this is America! Sell the naming rights! Surely some boxer will want to be known as "Hurricane ___" and the boost to his image will surely outweigh him being associated with human tragedy in just one part of the nation....
Or, of course, "Hurricane Home Depot"... so people can be reminded where to buy plywood. Like they don't know where to buy plywood...
@Squankum, a lot of companies would probably pay big bucks to NOT use their name.
Heh heh. Eugene Levy as Floyd the Barber.
As for Joe Flaherty, well, he's not Sheriff Andy. RIP, Joe.
I'm feeling particularly old seeing black & white TV shows.
Well in 70s/80s there was a super talented fellow named Alex Hurricane Higgins (RIP)! He was no boxer but was an extraordinary and arguably the best ever snooker player! If you watch the attached video, you will appreciate why was he nicknamed Hurricane!
Btw watch not only how he sinks the balls but equally or more importantly how at the same time he positions the cue ball for the next shot.
@gman007, I may have accidentally watched some snooker matches. It was especially impressive no one was using a bridge -- I thought everyone did. Wish I had known about the retractable ones....
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
Bob Dylan wrote the song "Hurricane" about him.
Lou, I didn't pay much attention to that whole fiasco. I do have one Dylan album:
Blood on the Tracks. It was a gift from a friend who attended one of my quinquennial (every five years) train parties.
I have no time for these throwaway, 3-minute pop songs you kids today are listening to!
@Squankum, just another flash in the pan musician.
I didn't see you mentioning Ernie Kovacs there, so just to make sure there are no gaps in your education:
We were easily entertained back then. Watched an "I Love Lucy" chocolate factory assembly line skit more than twice.
Bob, I can't speak specifically about Charleston, but I know a little about some places just up the coast from it. Yes, after Hugo, zoning laws in many places required new construction to use a shipload of pilings and the "first" floor being way up in the air. Underneath is the garage, and at least in fancy neighborhoods, there are small elevators in these big houses.
We looked at a vacation home in the Florida Keys in the '70s. It was a reinforced concrete structure with a manufactured double-wide on top and a carport below. Probably not insurable but most of the $70K price was for the concrete structure and the tiny lot it sat on. It would make sense to just put $5,000 a year into an investment so you'd have the $79,500 in ten or fifteen years to replace the double wide. That's what this 3 Bed | 2 Bath | 28x56 | 1475 sqft one starts at.
The Thrill 3/2 doublewide mobile home is a great value for the price with 1,475 sq. ft. and 3 bedrooms 2 baths - 28 x 56.
www.truemobilehomes.com
Back in the day I was a regular at the World Snooker championship, in my home town. I kinda got to know Alex. At least he would recognize and acknowledge me in the audience.
Andrew, that's a really amazing display of skill and concentration.
I watched it and was impressed! As for his setting up the cue ball for positioning for the next shot, well, I don't know the game he's playing! Snooker, eh? I'll take your word for it!
I know very little about a lot of things but now that I have Artificial Intelligence at my fingertips, I know this about these table games. I am terrible at all of them.
"The main differences between pool, billiards, and snooker are the number of balls used, the size of the table and the size of the pockets:
- Number of balls
Pool is usually played with 16 balls, including a cue ball and 15 object balls. The number of balls can vary depending on the type of pool. Billiards is played with three balls: one red, one white with a spot, and one white without a spot. Snooker is played with 22 balls, including a white cue ball, 15 red balls, and one each of yellow, brown, blue, pink, black, and green.
- Table size
Snooker tables are usually larger than pool tables. English snooker tables are 12 feet long, while American snooker tables are closer to 10 feet long. Pool tables are usually 7 to 9 feet long.
- Pocket size
Snooker tables have six pockets, but the pockets are smaller than those on pool tables. Billiards tables do not have pockets.
The differences in equipment can also affect the style and strategy of gameplay."
