margaritaville

We finally went to a Jimmy Buffett concert. We've talked about it before, but never gone - I think maybe we usually are out and about that weekend each summer. I had no clue that it was a tailgating kind of event... I figured there would be drinking and stuff, but whoa - you would not believe some of the setups these folks had. And some of the interesting entertainment too! Terry and Lori joined us, which was great - I think this type of event kinda requires folks to go in groups, to egg each other on into trouble. hehe

which way to go?

spin the wheel

wow - check out those barbies (and parrot and fins)

Lori rubbed the genie's bottle to see if her wish would be granted

holy honkin' huge drink! where do you find a straw THAT long?!

huge fin at the flip flop repair shop

omg, G looks rather crazed, don't ya think?!

the prize at this limbo contest was a shot out of a super soaker!

this dude had toggle switches near the bottom of the hoses so folks could turn the bongs on/off at will - nice touch.

this guy was giving away ding dongs, but you had to go get 'em - we thought he'd enjoy a twofer.

new project

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked frantically on a present for Greg. And since he occasionally looks at my blog, I can't post a link until he receives his gift. I think he has an idea that I was doing "something" for him, but I don't think he has any idea as to what it really is.

The reason for the "frantic" speedy work - there was a quick turnaround deadline to get a significantly reduced price. In fact, I probably would never have done this project if it weren't for the discount.

I hope that the present is good quality and well received by Greg. And after he sees it, I'll either post the link here or perhaps even try to post pictures directly.

Hope you are all having a fantastic week!

oink oink

We had our pig roast this past weekend. NUM!! The roaster dudes showed up around 11am to start the piggy. And yep, the piggy looks a bit skinny, but we weren't expecting huge crowds - maybe around 75 folks.

The roaster dudes, Tim and Bud, are neighbors of G's folks - they don't do pig roasts for a living, it's just something they do on the side for friends, family, etc.

Mmmm... pig looks much better roasted, don't ya think?

Gotta take piggy off/out of the spit to cut him up.

These two have it down - Tim cut while Bud prepped the machinery to be hauled back home.

Hmm... not so appealing anymore. But oh, so tasty. We had lots of comments on how good the pork was. yay!

This first shot of the party was a little early yet. It was funny, even though there were tables with chairs, lots of lawn space... just about everyone stood/sat on the patio before din din. It's kinda like an inside party where everyone hangs around the kitchen. I guess I'm thinking that if we modify the patio for the pergola that Greg wants, perhaps we should enlarge the patio at the same time!

Oh, and you can see part of the bar area. We brought down most of our stuff, which was added to significantly by our guests. We had asked guests to bring either a dish to pass or a beverage to share, and folks were quite generous, gotta love that - THANKS EVERYONE! We also had borrowed three margarita blenders for the event, of which two were used consistently throughout the party - I'm really loving those things, I had mudslides and pina coladas, and the regular and strawberry 'ritas were also a hit.

Dinner time... besides the pig, we had lots of wonderful food items brought by guests.

Overall, a really fun day. I think, I hope, that our guests enjoyed themselves as well. I apologize to those whom I didn't get to talk to much; even with a "small" group of this size (I'm guessing we ended up with 65 guests throughout the day), it's still hard to get around to everyone, plus give house and RV tours, help people as needed, etc.

Special thanks to Tom and Donna, who were the 'rita makers extraordinaire, to Ginny, who made coffee numerous times and setup the food table, among other things, and to Dick, Bob and Diana, Bob and Ginny, Chuck, Brian and Sue, Dean and Karen, who provided tables, chairs, coolers, 'rita makers, etc. - vital things for a party!

scrappin' fun

This layout I started on our RV trip, but I didn't have the big photo with, so I finished it when we got back. Lovin' the look of the flourishes and the many brads of different sizes that match the look of the big photo on the right.
This is a 10 pg layout of our cruise from this year - there were 8 ports between the two weeks, so each port got one page, and the ship itself got two pages. It sure was hard picking out just a few photos of each wonderful island stop! This layout is super simple, not much for embellishments.





And this last layout is quite lovely, but the photo is pretty blurry. LOL Greg went to Colorado by himself in 2007 and went biking with his bro, Tim.

yep, we're home

We got home last Monday, August 10th. We've been rather busy; we've been unloading and unpacking and organizing our home; I had weekend guests; Greg's been working hard on the landscaping; we're getting ready for more guests for this upcoming weekend.

I thought I'd do a recap of the week in Sturgis. We didn't have internet access so I couldn't make my usual updates. Because this post covers a lot of territory (haha), it's a bit longer than usual!

Some of the scenery in the Sturgis area includes:

Crazy Horse Monument

antelope (?)

Custer State Park (Needles Highway)

and the Piggytail sections of the road

Mount Rushmore

the Badlands

Sturgis bike week scenery includes:

streets full of bikes,

a bike "show"

girlie action


At the campground, we enjoyed a "pitchfork fondue." Yep, these are steaks, on a pitchfork, that are lowered into boiling vats of oil. The buns are also thrown into the oil vats for heating, making them taste more like donuts. NUM

And more concerts at the campground, including Aerosmith - this is probably one of the last pictures of Steven Tyler before he fell off the stage.

And this is the lead singer of Buckcherry, one of my current faves. He was just getting over bronchitis, so he couldn't do a full concert either. {sigh}

One of the fun things about concerts at the Buffalo Chip campground - folks (if they want) bring their bikes right up to the amphitheater and use them for seating. Well, and they rev their engines to show approval or disapproval. What a roar!

Now the unexpected... there was a bit of a hail storm in the area. We were on the bike, and came upon the "remains" of the storm on our way back to the campground. Some of the hail chunks were easily as big as a racquetball, and I KNOW there were more that were bigger! So as we were driving back to the camp, all I could think was "please, not the campground."

{sigh} At least the hail was smaller, but still definitely golf ball size. Our rig was damaged, both awnings destroyed, our roof broken, roof vents and skylight broken, windshield cracked, etc., but it was mostly dry inside and Greg did wonders with a tablecloth, tents, gorilla tape and rope to keep the rain out during the rest of our stay.

But a lot of other vehicles were WAY worse off than ours, as this pic shows. And many/most tents had holes and belongings were soaked. A lot of people left that day, which was a day or two earlier than they had planned, and many left their belongings as non-salvageable. wow.

sturgis

Yep, as in Sturgis rally, bike week, whatever you wanna call it. It's basically a frat party on a huge scale. LOL

We're staying at the Buffalo Chip campground, which is THE place to be. There are concerts (big name) every night. We had heard there would be lots of skin showing (extraneous entertainment, if you will) but we haven't seen too much yet. But it is pretty wild and obnoxious. At the concerts, instead of clapping or stamping their feet, lots of the folks start up and rev their Harleys. Yep, they take them right to the amphitheater and use them for seats. But seeing all the drunk folks walking around - I sure wouldn't want OUR bike there!

CCR (Credence Clearwater Revival)

George Thorogood

Some of the side entertainment - this chick blew some vicious flame!

uh, oh, computer dying. More later!

devils tower

We visited Devils Tower again - we were here in 2005. We were not lucky enuf to see it this time at sunset, which makes the rock beautiful oranges and reds. But we did see some rock climbers this time. This first picture is us with our guests Jim and Deb. They're staying with us for a few nights here at Sturgis.


The rock climbers really give size perspective to the Tower. This gap that he's in looks like a little wrinkle in the above picture - these guys are near the right side bottom of the Tower.

Ain't these little prairie dogs just the cutest?!