July 17, 2010 -- South of the Border

For those of you not familiar with it, South of the Border is a cheesy tourist trap, located at the North and South Carolina border, at the intersection of I-95 and US Highway 301. For almost the entire length of North Carolina (Southbound) and South Carolina (Northbound) you are besieged with billboards, spaced a mile apart.

We got a late start today, and decided on a short ride. SOB is only 45 miles away. Riding on the Interstate may be faster, but it's not really much fun. We opted for the Highway 301 route, and pulled out around 2. We had to travel a short way along the main Beach route (US Highway 76 and 301), but the eastbound traffic wasn't too bad. Across the median, the westbound lanes were crowded and moving slowly; must've been the vacationers leaving the beach.

Once we turned north to follow 301 we left the traffic behind. The route from Pee Dee to Dillon is mostly two-lane blacktop, and 55 MPH, so with no traffic it's an easy ride. The temperature was in the upper 90's, and the air was warm, so there were no cool breezes. Not too bad through Sellars, but it got warm as we stopped at traffic lights in Latta and Dillon. Once we left Dillon the traffic eased up and we arrived in South of the Border in no time. The giant sombrero stands out, pointing the way. You can pay (I think it's a dollar) to ride the elevator to the top.

Spanning both sides of 301, SOB is designed to extract as much cash from the tourists as it can before they continue on to their destination. They have several souvenir shops, assorted restaurants, coffee shops and an ice cream store. We parked in what appeared to be the only shaded parking spot available, and went to one of the souvenir shops to get a shot glass for our collection, before crossing the street for Coke Floats (made with Pepsi -- go figure).

Something new, the Reptile Lagoon, caught our attention, so we headed over. The building is air conditioned, and we figured it would be as cheesy as the rest of the place. We were pleasantly surprised. Most of the displays are small, with assorted smaller caimens, crocodiles and alligators from around the world. In the center of the building was a large display of American Alligators, and there were dozens of them. Since the temperature was comfortable, the lizards were active, and interesting to watch as they swam around. There were assorted snakes in glass displays: pythons, rattlesnakes, copperheads, boas and more, from around the world. There were even a few tortoises, as large as beach balls. We followed the path around and exited (of course) through the gift shop.

We headed out after that, heading south again on 301. As we came down the highway, we came past a snake in the middle of the road, about 6 foot long and black. We couldn't tell whether it was sunning itself or dead, but didn't stop to find out.

Back to Florence by about 5:30, and we headed for Stephano's for dinner. As always, the best Italian food in Florence. Then, back home again.

Not an exciting day, but the ride was good, the company better.

Swegel-Tedesco Reunion Day 2

When we left Kent and Joanne's on Saturday night, the Pavlovich boys (Michael and Ray) were still singing with Bill and Chris -- I think the Sambuco lubricated their voices -- but we gave up and headed back to the Gravity for the night.

The Gravity was a good choice -- clean, quiet, working TV. For what we were doing, you don't need more. A place to put your stuff, and a place to sleep. Wifi would have been good, but we weren't there much anyway.

Sunday morning weather was beautiful -- low 70's clear and sunny. The sun glistened off the prison towers above us ;) I took a walk over to the restaurant to find that they open at 9 on Sundays. It was only 7, and I needed coffee.

Linda's iPhone located Mcdonnell's Restaurant in Carbondale, that was open. I plugged it into the Garmin and headed down the highway, right to the front door. I'm told this place has been open forever, and it showed: wooden tables and chairs, even had the old jukeboxes at the tables. Looking at the selections, I don't think they've worked since the 90's. The service was good, the food and coffee were great! We got in just in time, as church was letting out and the place filled up quickly.

We headed to St. Joseph's Church for Mass. When the Swegel-Tedesco clan is in town, the church fills up, and we saw many of our family there. They acknowledged the family, but the services were dedicated to those in service, not only the military but the police, firefighters, emt's and others that serve and protect us at home. They had a color guard that processed with the American flag, the flags of Slovenia and Italy, and several others. The hymns included God Bless America and others.

From there, we headed for the Browndale Sportsmen's Club for the main event. Coffee and doughnuts were already set up, with lunch to follow a bit later.

The more we attend these events, the more family we get to know that we don't usually get to meet. The Swegels, the Tedescos, the Vidella's, Glia's, Shivitz's and so many others that can trace their lineage to Frank Swegel and Mary Intihar. According to Josie's research for the family tree, there are over 950 of us out there.

Joe Pavlovich (the driving force behind the effort to  put this together) told me that we were down a bit in attendance this year to about 270. I'm sure that the economy had a lot to do with it.

The temperatures warmed up into the low 90's, and most stayed in the shade. The food was good, the beer was cold and the sense of family was wonderful!

One thing that I missed -- Since Mom and Dad didn't come up this year, and Aunt Polly has passed, we didn't get the traditional singing that they always provided in the past. It's something that has been a part of the family gatherings as long as I can remember.

I spoke with Ray Pavlovich (my Dad's cousin); he has some reel-to-reel tapes of previous gatherings that have them singing the old songs along with other memories. I urged him to send them to me, and I'll get them converted to digital, then send them out on CD's to any of the family that want them. I did the same with the tapes my Dad had of Uncle Jink and his accordian, and I think it's important that we capture these memories before the tapes become unusable.

An update on Aunt Josie (remember, she fell on Saturday). She showed up for a short while at the reunion. Her husband John came up and took her to the hospital (nobody else was able to get her to go). After three hours, they told her they would call someone in to read the xrays. She got fed up with the typical service you receive at the hospital, and left. The swelling at her eye (where the glasses hit her) was down some, and she had a hand and wrist strap on her left arm. Some bruising, and she said she was a bit sore, but fine. She's tough!

We helped clean up a bit and went back to Kent and Joanne's to say goodbye to the cousins. We allowed the Garmin to lead us back, and it picked the shorter route, which took us down a road that wound around the mountain and got smaller and smaller until it was only a single car's width, with no barriers and a deep drop-off. But it took us past the huge windmills on top of the mountain, probably within a half-mile of them. Wow, are they huge!

We did get a bit of the old music, as they harmonized on "Uncle Moon" and "Good Night Irene." It was good.

Back to the Gravity, and up at 6 to pack and head for the airport. We had a better trip home, as all of the flights were on time. Again, the US Airways people were great with the electric carts, and we were whisked through the airports from gate to gate. I'm going to send them a note of thanks for their friendly and courteous people -- not what I consider the norm in most airports.

It was a short trip, but we filled it with adventure, family, music and love -- the criteria that we believe is essential in our lives.

Swegel-Tedesco Reunion Day 1 (continued)

My last post was written early on Saturday morning, sitting in our room in the Clarion Hotel in Scranton. It had been a long day of travel, and Linda was still asleep. I was at least able to get a cup of lousy hotel room coffee.

When she finally woke, we headed to the breakfast room where we found artificial scrambled eggs, a few lone breakfast links, home fries and an empty bacon container. The whole experience can be summed up as "Mediocre hotel, mediocre breakfast."

We got on the road early, and set the Garmin for the Gravity Inn in Waymart, about thirty miles north of us. Garmin is an interesting navigation tool. Since I have it set to take the shortest route (not the fastest), we seem to have lots of adventures. We drove through some residential areas of Scranton, before coming across Highway 6. While it wanted us to continue on past (I think it was going to take us through all the small towns), we headed out on the highway to the delightful electronic voice saying "Recalculating . . ."

Beautiful scenery was plentiful as we "climbed up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania (thanks to Harry Chapin for the song stuck in my head)" and we made good time with little traffic. We followed the Garmin's directions as we turned off and headed into the country. We passed the Waymart Prison, a lovely 1930's looking place, and found the Gravity on the other side. In fact you can see the tops of the roofs of the Prison from the Gravity's parking lot.

The Gravity Inn is a small strip of rooms on a small side road. At the (locked) office, the sign suggested that "Check in is at two. Please go to the restaurant to check in." It was only about 10:30, so we decided to find my brother Chris and his wife MacKel. The were already over at Kent and Joannes, where the "Pre-reunion reunion" would commence at 4 that afternoon. Back to the car, and I tried to set the Garmin to take us there.

The navigator was locked so badly it wouldn't even turn off. It was purchased for the motorcycle, and it's shockproof, waterproof, even Daytona proof. Apparently it wasn't Waymart proof!

Chris gave me directions, and we were soon at Kent and Joannes' house. They have a good wifi signal, so we found out how to reset the Garmin. We hung out and had lunch, waiting for two when we could check in at the Gravity and clean up a bit.

Aunt Josie (Dad's sister) stopped by for a while and we caught up with her. When she was leaving her bifocals betrayed her and she missed a step in the garage. She banged her arm, cut her lip, and her glasses hit her face near her eye. She couldn't remember what happened, and we were concerned that she hit her head, so I drove her car back to her place, and MacKel followed. We tried to get her to go to the hospital to be checked, but she insisted she would be fine. Knowing that you can't get a Maleckar to do something they don't want, we made sure she was comforatable, and promised we check on her later.

The afternoon was as we hoped -- lot's of family, catching up on each other's lives, beer, music and singing until the wee hours of the morning. The temperature was in the low 90's (hot for the Yankees, pleasant for those of us from the Sourth).We went back to check on Josie. She was up, sitting on the porch reading. Her eyes was swollen, she was icing her arm, but she insisted she was fine, and that she'd come over later.

As it was getting dark, Kent lit the bonfire as the temperature began to drop, and the gang moved down to sit around and sing while we watched the fireworks around us. All in all, a great start to the reunion.

Swegel-Tedesco Reunion, Forest City PA July 4th, 2010

Every three years, my Dad's family gets together to celebrate our family. It has drawn over three hundred family members from both the Slovenien and the Italian sides, and it is an amazing thing to see this many people in one place, and realize that you're related to most of 'em!

Linda and I have attended many of these reunions, when they were held at the Browndale Fire Hall, and when we exceeded the capacity of the hall and it was moved to the Sportsmen's Club, a picnic area. Forest City is a small community about thirty minutes north of Scranton Pennsylvania where my Dad grew up. It used to be coal mining country, We used to visit when I was a kid, usually around Easter when the family would gather at my great-grandmother's home. The town is built on the side of a mountain, and I always thought it was a great place with a beautiful view. I never really paid much attention to the slag piles that were on the other side of the tracks. To me, it was an adventure of it's own.

We got reservations for this particular event months ago. Because of vacation scheduling, we couldn't spare an entire week to drive, so we elected to fly. Florence to Charlotte, then on to Philadelphia, and finally into Scranton around 10:45 PM. Rather than drive to Waymart (about 30 miles north) at that time of night, we decided on reservations at the Clarion in Scranton. We have reservations at The Gravity Inn, a small hotel/bed and breakfast, for Saturday and Sunday nights. Then we fly back to Florence on Monday.

With the arthritis in Linda's knees, I realized that the long walks through the airports would ruin this trip for her, so I arranged with US Airways to have an electric cart available at each stop to take us to the next gate. As it turned out, I was glad that I did.

We went through the usual strip-search at the Florence airport, and waited at the gate. The plane arrived with about 15 minutes to spare before it was supposed to take off again. Because we had the "special handling" form, we boarded second, right after the lady in the wheelchair. Amazingly, we pulled away from the terminal right on time.

28 minutes later, we touched down in Charlotte, at the far end of the E Concourse. As promised, one of those electric carts showed up and carried us up the long corridor to the escalator. At the top, another cart was waiting to whisk us to the far end of D Concourse. I'm pretty sure that, had we walked that long walk, Linda would have been limping at the end. I enjoyed the ride myself -- I'm gonna have to figure out how to take her on all my trips, so I can ride along!

We had about a two and a half hour layover, and we found the Carolina Beer Company spot at the end of D Concourse. They serve their own micro-brews and sandwiches. I really liked their Irish Red, and Linda enjoyed the Strawberry Ale. We shared a beef brisket sandwich that had to be the best thing I've ever tasted in an airport.

Back to the gate, where we were boarded on time. I used the form for the electric cart as a means to board early, giving Linda a little more time to navigate the aisles (and ensure that we had room in the overhead for our carry-ons). It was a full flight, but still we managed to take off on time, and arrived in Philiadelphia, on time. We were at the end of Terminal A, and our next flight left from Terminal F.

The electric cart was waiting, and we hopped on. The driver opined that the journey to our next gate was about a mile and a half, but we could feel the breeze as he sped through the concourse. He dropped us at the top of an escalator, where we caught a shuttle bus to Terminal F. Even with the advantage of a ride, we arrived at the terminal 10 minutes before scheduled boarding was to begin, and gratefully, another cart showed up to takes us to the far end of the terminal. This is where things slowed down.

Our 8:50 flight to Scranton had been delayed until 9:09 because the plane couldn't be located. Not too bad, until at 9 o'clock they announced that the plane was on its way and would arrive around ten. The departure time was pushed back to 10:40. I was beginning to wonder if we could transfer our car rental and drive to Scranton.

At the next gate, the passengers destined for Birmingham were in similar straits. They had a plane, but they were missing a flight attendant, and their departure time had been pushed back several hours. All in all, a large group of unhappy travelers. They were made even more unhappy when their gate was changed from F36 to F9, all the back up the hall!

When the clerk came over to the gate, I suggested that, since they now had a free plane, maybe they should use that one to get us to Scranton. Imagine my surprise when they posted the sign for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton! Only problem was that the flight number wasn't for our flight. Now we had two flights to the same airport, scheduled to depart 9 minutes apart.

We actually left around 10:45 with the second plane right behind us. We had to wait for two hours with a plane sitting there idle, and the second group of passengers got to leave on time (or close to it)! Many of the passengers on our flight actually applauded as we pulled away from the terminal, as if they had pulled off a miracle to be leaving at all!

The flight was only twenty minutes long. It seemed that we went up, then came right back down again. We gathered our bags, and headed for the rental desk. The car was waiting for us, and we finally arrived at our hotel at midnight. No restaraunt, no bar. We finally got to bed around twelve-thirty, and I'm posting this just before 7, waiting for Linda to wake up so I can get some breakfast before heading north to Waymart.

All adventures have (and will have) both good and bad experiences. Over all, this wasn't too bad. To paraphrase W.C. Fields, "Frankly, my dear, I'd rather NOT be in Philadelphia!"

Welcome!

Welcome to The Adventures of Bob and Linda! This blog will be a repository for pictures and descriptions of the trips and adventures that Linda and I experience, from vacation trips to motorcycle rides. I hope you enjoy

The adventures we have may not always be unique, but will be reported from my perspective. They are special in that Linda and I are experiencing them together. After 37 years of marriage, I think it's special that we can continue to enjoy our friendship and company. This blog will be updated whenever there's something "adventure-related" that I feel may be interesting. It could be hourly, or weekly.