It Was Bound To Happen...

Remember all those posts where Chris and I are out driving around and pull into some random restaurant and have a great meal at an interesting place?

Well, our luck ran out a few days ago. Going out for breakfast is one of our favorite treats so we headed out looking for a local place. We turned off the state highway and headed off into the hinterlands without GPS or any idea where we were going.

After a while, we would have stopped just about anywhere. When we saw a place that said "Bakery and Restaurant" we thought we'd hit the jackpot.

Wrong...

It started out promising. The menus were in Spanish and I think it was a Colombian restaurant. The waitress was nice and spoke English. She brought us a couple little delicacies that were nice and I had high hopes for a good meal.

They didn't have breakfast on their menu but we were told they could make eggs, so I ordered some sort of breaded pork with rice and beans and an egg on top. Chris ordered flank steak with onions and rice and beans. We also got fried sweet plantains and they were good.

The pork thing I ordered was gross. I'm not even sure there was any meat in there. Chris's flank steak had not been tenderized in any way. We left rather displeased and wishing we had Tums.

But, we've still had more good experiences than bad, so we'll keep exploring.

Staying Cool While Waiting for the A/C To Be Repaired

Hopefully, by the time this posts, the a/c will be fixed.

This is how I cooled off today.

Yes, those are my feet in a small tub of cold water. 

If this continues, I may need a baby pool. 

Trauma At the Camgpround---Broken Air Conditioner Forces Me to Go Outside

I held out as long as I could, but when the inside temp reached the high 80s, I had to go outside. And sit in a lawn chair. Under a shade tree.

Horrors.

Then I had to interact with my neighbors.

One guy came over and introduced himself. What's wrong with these people?

Another guy (former neighbor before we moved to our new spot) stopped by and actually sat down so we could catch up.

And, there was a nice breeze.

What fresh hell is this?

What if I have to sit outside again and talk to more people?

Make it stop!

Saved By Hormones

In the wee hours of Monday I woke up and could smell something like plastic burning or hot plastic.

Now...fire in an RV is a pretty scary prospect, particularly after we watched a large fifth wheel be destroyed in about 5 minutes.

I looked around for a hot cord or something like that, but couldn't find anything. I woke Chris up and he figured out it was the air conditioner, so we turned it off.

First thing Monday morning, Chris called a repairman who arrived Monday afternoon. The air conditioner is located beneath our bed and when the repairman got in and looked at it, there actually had been a small fire and if we had not turned it off when we did...it could have been bad. Very bad.

The part has been ordered and hopefully we will be back to our usual cool selves in a day or two.

Admittedly, an unexpected repair is a big annoyance and expense, but today I am trying to count my blessings instead.

And how did hormones play a part? Well, when I thought back on the night I realized that the reason I woke up was due to a hot flash.

Or maybe it was the fire burning under the bed.

In either case, we are grateful.

Taste of the Carolinas

The Taste of the Carolinas is an event happening at Carowinds on Saturdays and Sundays. It ends this coming weekend, so you need to hurry on down. More info here.

I had been to Taste of Columbus where you buy tickets and different restaurants have booths set up. I assumed this would be the same, but it wasn't. It appears that the Carowinds Chef (also a workamper, though I haven't met him) designed the menus and the food was prepared on site and served by Carowinds food and beverage employees.

There were kiosks from about a dozen areas of the Carolinas with different foods from each region. The kiosks were in two different areas of the park, so that was a bit of a challenge, particularly since we were both tired and hungry by the time we got there.

I had studied the menu options and the one thing I wanted to try was Vanilla Coke Boiled Peanuts over Ice Cream. Why? It sounded like nothing I'd ever tried before and it involved ice cream. So, first stop was the Calabash kiosk.

Did I mention that the people serving the food were Carowinds food and beverage employees? Well, the two knuckleheads working at the Calabash stand were not the stars of the employee pool. Our conversation went something like this.

Me: Hi, I'd like the Vanilla Coke Boiled Peanuts over Ice Cream
Knucklehead number one: Uhhhh.
Turns to stare at K2. "Do we have any more ice cream?"
K2: Uhhh. (pauses to wipe drool off side of mouth). No.
Me: Well, all-righty then.

Fortunately things were better at our next stop...

Asheville/Mountain region
We got the cheese plate. Nice, but probably not the most interesting choice. There were different wines and beers at each location too, though we didn't have any. That would have made the cheese more interesting.

We also got the Smoked Trout Rillette Flatbread and that was very tasty.

Then we meandered over to Charleston region for Shrimp and Grits. Yum.

Finally we stopped at the Low Country Region where we had Frogmore Stew (which did NOT include frogs). It had sausage and shrimp and rice. Sort of like Jambalaya but not as spicy. I liked it the best of the dishes we tried.

At this same spot, we also got a Sweet Potato Dumpling, which was very good too.

If you'd like to make your own Sweet Potato Dumplings, here's the recipe. 

All in all, I'm glad we went. It was a cool night and even though we'd both worked and ended up walking about two miles by the time all was said and done, it was fun and I got some material for a blog post. A win-win for everyone.

The Big Move

Imagine that everyone in your neighborhood had to pick up and move to a new neighborhood, but you didn't have to stay in the same housing arrangement. That's basically what's happening here.

The section of the campground where we parked originally is going to be paved, so everyone has been moved to a new section (which was just re-vamped). In the month that we've been here, we've gotten a pretty good idea of who we'd like to live near...and who we wouldn't.

We picked our new site based on the fact that it gets shade most of the afternoon and it's close to the wifi tower (if it ever becomes activated).

People have been moving over the last few days and it's been fun to watch. It sort of reminds me of college. Freshman year, everyone moves in alone. Sophomore year, you pull up with your car (or pick up truck!) full of stuff and your friends pile out of the dorm to help. It's been like that here. We didn't really need help because we haven't accumulated too much stuff. But, others have been here for a year or two or longer so you tend to get some sprawl. We've had bets on who would or wouldn't be able to get the motor homes started after months of idleness. Not everyone has a truck to move their RV because they parked it with plans to stay long term. One kind man moved about four different families one afternoon.

So far, so good. We do have the option of moving back to our other site once the paving is done in about three weeks.

Will all the workers enjoy living in close quarters, or will familiarity breed contempt? Stay tuned.

The Slingshot

Saturday afternoon I had some time to kill and the weather was nice, so I decided to actually visit Carowinds since I had not been inside the park since orientation. I didn't ride any rides, though I was tempted, but I did watch folks try out The Slingshot. This is one of those rides that costs extra, but even if it was included, I don't think I'd do it. But, I had a lot of fun watching.

I found this video that seems to capture the whole experience.

So...how about you? Would you ride the slingshot?