FRIDAY
Chem final was at 08 and I finished that beeyoch by 1030 and headed home to do some work things until Teh German came home. After eating lunch and having to prod Teh German along, we finally got everything packed, the bikes were loaded up and the trailer attached, and we finally hit the road to NC.We decided we're going to have to leave earlier than 1:45 on a Friday for our next adventure to NC. We were in a traffic mess almost the entire way from Charleston to Columbia. Once we got through Columbia, I checked Waze, knowing that we were going to be near Charlotte during rush hour on a Friday with some rain.. and I just wasn't really feeling that. Waze routed us around Charlotte and we ended up on one of the shittiest SC roads I've ever endured. To the point that Teh German was ready to turn around and go back the way we came to find another route.. that's how bad the road was.. Then, there was a bridge and I was like, mayyybee after the bridge the road will be better? In fact, crossing the river meant crossing into NC which meant the road improved 1000%. Not an exaggeration there. I feel like SC takes pride in having such shitty roads, which makes my soul hurt.
We made it to Home, Home, and we met Teh Dad and Teh Stepmom for dinner at a Japanese place. I don't usually order hibachi at Japanese places here, so that was a nostalgic experience, since I used to eat hibachi all the time when I lived at Home, Home.
After dinner, we headed to Teh Dad's house, parked the trailer in the garage, unloaded the truck, then went inside to hang out. We met tiny-head dog and The TV was on, as always, and I snarked our way through Lone Survivor. I felt a little guilty about it.. but there's only so many cliff faces your shot up body can fall from and you live through it. Then again, adrenaline does crazy things to a body.. so maybe I'm wrong and that movie is 100% FACT. LOOOOOLLL.
Even with the snarking, I did tear up at the end when the photos of the entire team and those that died were shown. The entire time I snarked, I was also mentally saying thank you for having never deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq or a real combat zone. I did say it out loud a few times too. When the movie was over, it was bedtime.
SATURDAY
Saturday morning, I got up and had my hibachi leftovers for breakfast while chatting with Teh Dad and Teh Stepmom. Eventually, it was time for me to shower and head to Mooresville to hang out with Noel for the day.Noel had drawn the elbow piece the last time I was at the shop, so all he had to do was size the stencil and place it, then we got down to business.
Full of optimism and naivety about how it wouldn't hurt that bad. |
Taking a break. My back was pleased. It's not easy for a big titty babe to lay on her stomach for hours and hours and hours. |
Around 5:20, Teh German stopped by to say hi. Which was really all he said since he spent most of the time on his phone, I assume, looking for routes to take back to Home, Home. He had been riding in mountains, but got caught in the rain, when he decided to come down the mountain and make the trek to Mooresville. I told him it looked like he peed in his pants since the crotch of his pants was wet, but nothing else really since he'd air dried on the ride.
I had planned to leave the shop at 6, but it turned into 6:30. Oops. But Noel got through the elbow, the shading of the elbow (which almost made me vomit multiple times and I was made fun of for my pterodactyl screeches at one point because I wasn't mentally prepared), and he retouched the upper arm wavy mandala. I won't say the elbow was as bad as the foot, but Noel started at 1:40ish and we took a 15 minute break, and we went until 6:20ish. So 4.5ish hours. During the shading of the elbow, the shock symptoms started. My legs were quivering and that vomitous feeling was real. But, I did not die.
On the way to Mooresville, I had called Teh Granny and asked her to come to dinner, she agreed. I had to call her when I left the shop to tell her that I was running late and that I'd be home around 7:30. It ended up being more like 7:45, buttttt I couldn't go as fast down I-40 on the way home since no one else was going fast, RUDE.
It was good to hang out with Granny and Teh Dad grilled chicken and Teh Stepmom made pasta salad, which was delicious. After Granny left, Teh Dad made a bonfire and we sat outside until around 10:30, when it was finally sleep time.
When I went to the bathroom before going to bed, this attention-whore kitty-kitty entertained me. If you follow me on Snapchat, you saw the adventures. I don't like cats as a rule. I am allergic. But this cat.. IDK, I liked this cat. It was strange for me.
SUNDAY
Sunday was ride together day. The forecast showed no rain, which was awesome. And we had a reservation at 2 for zip lining. We had a small breakfast and got moving.Tiny head, big body dog. She was a sweetie, with a tail worse than a whip. |
We stopped at Bojangles for lunch before heading up the mountain so we didn't have to stop later. After Bojangles, we headed up Hwy 181, Teh German's favorite curvy road near Home, Home. We stopped at the Brown Mountain Overlook for Teh German to get in some drone time. Honestly, we could have stayed longer, but 1- the bugs were swarming me and I did not like it, 2- My elbow was wrapped in saran wrap and when the sun hit it, it felt like it was burning, 3- We had to be in Blowing Rock at 1:30, sooo we didn't have as much time as we wanted.
When we left the Overlook, we passed a motorcycle accident in the worse curve on 181. All I saw was 2 white blobs, which I assume was the gas tank and another bike piece. There was no bike with the blobs that I saw. A group of Harley riders had stopped and several cars, so we kept going, to not add to the confusion, knowing there was nothing we could do. It was sobering since we had definitely just waved at all the bikers that passed by while we were at the Overlook and we saw no less than 30 bikers while we were stopped for those few minutes. I didn't see the rider, but we did see an ambulance and fire truck headed toward the accident as we made our way up the mountain. Teh German hadn't realized it was an accident until I told him.
We went down the Blue Ridge Parkway to get to the zip line place, which was a poor decision. 1- We ended up hitting a dirt road, which is NOT ideal on the bikes, 2- There was gravel in MANY places on the Parkway. Why in the shit that gravel was not swept off the sides of the road with a street sweeper is beyond me, especially considering that it's summertime and there are SO MANY BIKES and cars, for that matter, on the Parkway. Teh German had said that he had hit gravel on the road during the rain on Saturday, but he said he was on Hwy 221. Turns out, he was actually on the Parkway and he'd been over the Viaduct without even realizing it.
We finally made it to the zip line place, where Teh Dad was waiting for us. We were in a group of 10 people, which I do not recommend. 10 people is too many, especially when one of those people is Karl. Karl was a teenager who was doing the course on his own, while his grandparents waited on him in the car. Karl was a douche who refused to wear his helmet properly, insisted on having his hair over his eyes, and generally didn't listen to any directions given. Karl quickly became a target of ridicule for the entire group. Also, Karl had a body odor that none of us found appealing. He pissed off one of the guides to the point that she told him, more than once, if he fell from a platform, she wouldn't help him get back up. Obviously, she would have had to, but he kept fucking around and she was pissed at him for not paying any attention to anything anyone told him.
With 10 people, it took too long, IMO. Yes, we were in the trees for almost 3 hours, buttttt most of that was spent waiting on other people to zip. A group of 3 passed us when we were close to the end, and they started 30ish mins or so after we did.
Since it was offered, I had purchased a zip and sip ticket for Teh German, which came with a "free" beer at Speckled Trout, a restaurant in downtown Blowing Rock and 1/2 off small plates. We weren't super hungry, so we split the fried chicken sandwich, fries, deviled eggs, and hoecakes (corn muffin/pancake combo).
The last hoecake with honey butter. Lawwwd it was delicious. |
Fried chicken sammich. |
The other purpose in sharing a meal was that left more room for Kilwins! #SorryNotSorry
Teh German opted for gummy bears over ice cream. I married a weirdo, but this means more ice cream for me.. sooo #TradeOffs |
When we left Blowing Rock, we were juuuuust getting to the turn that goes out of the downtown area and we hit rain. Teh German and I agreed to turn around and go a different way down the mountain. Originally, we had planned to take 321 down the mountain, then take 268 to Wilkesboro for some curves then back to Home, Home.. buttt the rain threw a wrench in that plan.
Instead, we took 221 away from Blowing Rock and took 181 back down the mountain. This actually worked out well enough. It meant that Teh German got one more session on 181, and we got to take 221, which is one of my favorite curvy roads. I think that Teh German had meant to take 221 on Saturday, but he didn't realize the difference between the Parkway and 221 and chose poorly. Now he knows the difference and will probably always pick 221 for the greater than 35mph speed limit.
Unfortunately, when we got on 181, we hit a band of rain. And Laaawwwddd it was a COLD, stabby rain. Not only was my neck getting stabbed by rain pellets, but every now and then a trickle of cold water would run down my warm places and I wanted to die a little. Thankfully, the rain only lasted about 5 minutes and other than being wet and slightly chilly, the ride down was uneventful.
Teh German agreed to just a few more curvy roads before we went back to Teh Dad's, so I took some short back roads, despite how sore my hips were, then we headed home.
Wet crotch... |
After greeting the critters, Teh Stepmom ended up coming home within 5 minutes of our arrival. I went downstairs and promptly showered to try and get warm. It mostly didn't work. After, I went back upstairs to socialize and Teh Dad came home. Teh German came upstairs and we hung out with Dad for a little while until it was finally time for bed.
MONDAY
We left Teh Dad's around 1030 on Monday morning. Teh German had gotten up around 0830 and loaded up the bikes while I slept in. I slept like shit for most of the nights we were there, so extra sleep didn't hurt my heart. I finally got up when Teh German came back inside and packed the suitcase and got ready to go. We had a light breakfast and then we headed out.A Carowinds recce challenge for Teh PT Kid was sent. |
The ride was uneventful, thankfully. We got home around 3ish. Teh German unloaded the bikes while I did some work things. After, Teh German went to the gym and I went to Walmart to pick up some things. I stopped by the car wash on my way home and finally opted to vacuum Willow and clean her windows/crevices. I guess I was doing such good work that my watch recognized it as a workout... soo uhh, there's that.
When I got home, I took the dogs on a quick stroll about the neighborhood before it started to storm. It was actually perfect timing since the breeze from the impending storm was delightful and it had cooled down outside by at least 10 degrees. After we returned home, I fed the dogs, showered, and then it was human dinner time. After dinner, we watched a few episodes of The Americans and then... our extended weekend was over. Sads.
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This week is my first week of work only and it's a short week since I took Monday off. I did do some work stuff, but that's fine. I really only wanted to take a half day Friday and a half day on Monday, butttt since I'd already scheduled 8 hours of PTO on Monday, it would have required a justification to change it, and rather than deal with that disaster, I just flexed the hours. Whatever. Nothing is outstanding, so it's fine.Originally, I was supposed to sit through an all-day long meeting every day this week, butttt there's no room in the conference room for me, so I am exempt. #SorryNotSorry for how happy I am about NOT being in that meeting all day.
This month was purposely planned to be a quiet month. The one goal I had, to get Teh German to the mountains for riding, has been accomplished, soooo that leaves the rest of the month for whatever shenanigans we find. I do have another tattoo appointment at the end of the month, so that's another opportunity for Teh German to ride, if he chooses.
Here's to lazy evenings, puzzles and audiobooks and socializing over the weekend, and maybe getting in some pool time between summer thunderstorms. YAY AUGUST!
-In high school I heard someone say that if kidnapped and blindfolded, you could still tell the exact moment you crossed between North & South Carolina based on road conditions :-p
ReplyDelete-Shading suuuuuucks.
-Karl sounds like the woooorrrrssssst.