With our mom passing away a few months ago, my brother and I put her home up for sale. Part of this process included cleaning out her place, so last week, we went through her home for likely the last time. We donated some items to a breast cancer charity and others to family friends who will use it to support other organizations. We also threw away a lot of toiletries and other items. It's amazing how many pairs of reading glasses she owned. (These got donated.) We found some fun personal items and pictures and loaded them into her car and drove up north.
Before writing about the road trip, here are a few pictures we found from my younger days. (I'm on the left in both pictures.)
My mom also saved cards from the last 50 years or so. Many cards from my dad included the phrase, I love you more today than yesterday but not as much as tomorrow. Try getting this song out of your head now!
On to the drive.
There is an arms race in South Carolina on interstate 95. There are dozens of billboards advertising Buc-ee's in Florence and South of the Border in Dillon immediately south of the North Carolina-South Carolina border. And Buc-ee's is the clear winner.
I had my first experience at Buc-ee's this trip and was completely overwhelmed. There are dozens of gas pumps outside and thousands of square feet of retail space inside. If you've never been, it's a combination of the non-restaurant portion of Cracker Barrel (on steroids) along with maybe Costco. There are pre-made brisket sandwiches, hundreds of various Buc-ee's merchandise, an entire section for jerky, and every type of snack food you could imagine...while you're surrounded with about 1,000,000 of your closest friends. While I should have used the much discussed clean bathrooms, I just needed to get out. Maybe I'll try again when it's less crowded at 5:00AM on a Tuesday morning! Meanwhile, driving past South of the Border, the place looked like a ghost town. We didn't stop, but we also didn't see anyone on the grounds and only saw a handful of cars in the parking lot. Maybe the place gets more crowded at other times. Like on Tuesdays at 5:00AM instead of a Saturday afternoon.
We stopped at Zaxbys for lunch along the way. Although I did not order the Mr. Beast meal, I made sure to take this picture just to make my kids jealous. I mean, I didn't meet Mr. Beast. Just took a picture of a cardboard cutout! They were jealous.
I'd like to thank the Hampton Inn & Suites in Brunswick, Georgia for being there. Nice hotel, spacious rooms, breakfast included, and right off the highway. Good place to stop after 7 hours.
My brother and I decided to play the license plate game where we tracked the number of license plates by state. Driving from Florida to Virginia, we saw plates from 34 states, DC, and five Canadian provinces. My brother claimed to see two more states (Delaware and Vermont) after dropping me off. In case you are wondering, we did NOT see plates from Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Made it home after 27 hours and just over 1,000 miles. No one is walking 1,000 miles to fall down at your door or to just see you tonight!
Alexander Ovechkin is a very good hockey player. The 2004 #1 overall draft pick has over 500 goals and has led the league in goals scored the past 4 seasons. This season, Ovechkin's Washington Capitals had the league's best record and now lead the Philadelphia Flyers 3 games to 0 in the playoffs. Naturally, Ovechkin is popular in the DC area and really, really, really popular with this driver.
Please excuse the terrible picture. The license plate reads OV4PRZ with the Caps logo.
While the current slate of Presidential candidates may be underwhelming to many, I'm a little concerned about this driver supporting Ovechkin. First, Ovechkin was born on Sep 17, 1985 meaning that he's not 35 as required. In addition, Ovie was born in Moscow and is still a Russian citizen. While being born outside the US doesn't seem to be an issue for Ted Cruz, the fact that Ovie is not a US citizen may be problematic.
Despite these two minor Constitutional obstacles, I question Ovechkin's electability. Is his solution to improve the economy simply to buy lottery tickets? What kind of foreign policy experience does he have other than hanging out with Putin? (Actually, he has more international experience than many recent candidates. I recommend that he talks this up on the campaign trail.)
Assuming he runs as a Democrat, he will easily win the Washington DC vote. Even if he runs as a Republican, he could do the unthinkable and win DC. I think he'll also do well in Maryland and Virginia, but he faces major hurdles outside of the DC area. He's not going to do well in Pennsylvania though his candidacy could do something special. Ovie can bring Penguins and Flyers fans together in the common bond...of disliking him. Everyone together now!
After thinking about this even more, perhaps the driver isn't referring to Ovechkin moving into the White House. Maybe the driver really wanted Ovie and the Caps to win The Presidents' Trophy for the team with the most points during the NHL regular season. Mission accomplished!
Do you remember the 90s song Shy Guy by Diana King? The answer is probably no, and even though I consider myself an aficionado of 90s pop music, I still had to look up who sings this song.
Anyway, either Diana Guy lives in Northern Virginia or someone who REALLY, REALLY likes this song does and drives a Hyundai.
Now, I want to find the person who has a Fry Guy license plate!
Growing up, my family went to the Rax restaurant on Penn Avenue in Point Breeze/Wilkinsburg seemingly every week or two. While their signature item was Roast Beef sandwiches, the fast food chain also had a salad bar and a wide variety of other menu options. According to Wikipedia, Rax had over 500 locations in 38 states in the 80s, but is down to 14 as of March 2013 according to this Columbus Dispatch article.
However, according to this person's license plate, Rax is always in his/her heart:
Of course, maybe this plate belongs to a woman who loves Richard Adam Xavier.
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
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