Buckets of rain, BB King and oh yeah, the meteor!

Leaving Durham with one tag along for the ride, we took to Interstate 40. This road will take us all the way to Arizona leaving us in Flagstaff, a mere 3 to 3.5 hours down to Phoenix. 40 took us through the Black Mountains of North Carolina, The Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.The best scenery of the trip so far and puts I 85 to shame. About 20  min. west of Knoxville the sky emptied out and it rained buckets for about 20 min, we were worried that a tornado would come and take us away, or grapefruit sized hail would wreck Izzy Isuzu, but we pressed on.   Today our destination was Nashville Tennessee and arrived by 3:30 PM thanks to a one hour time difference we picked up just west of Knoxville.  We checked into the Drury Hotel near the Airport. The Drury offers a free happy hour, drinks and food ----yep!! Also includes a hot free American breakfast. We did pay $50.00 more then last night but still a great deal.
 "The Meteor"!!!
Yesterday with our license plate debacle, we made mention of hoping to get thru our next leg without getting hit by a meteor. Well about 10 minutes outside Nashville a dump truck spit up a stone and that little meteor bastard hit us right in the windshield. Nice BB hole.( Sucks) We're hoping to finish the trip without a spider web growing to force immediate repair. Anyway for the second night in a row we were forced to put despair aside and make the best of it. Boy did we ever, Nashville is awesome, dozens of open air places playing live music, horse drawn carriages,and restaurants. We went to BB Kings and enjoyed the blues guitar or Stacy Brochette. Truly a great show. Get this, we caught the 7:00Pm show. It was Stacy's second show of the day

3000 Miles to Phoenix or My what fell off my who?

We started our major driving adventure to Phoenix. Starting on the oft traveled and familiar  I 95. This trip was amazing no construction in Delaware, no traffic in DC and a perfect day to travel. Our destination was Durham NC so about a half hour South of Richmond we shifted to I 85, starting off nice with a black pine lined 2 lane interstate winding through picturesque South Western Virginia and North Eastern North Carolina. Er for awhile, this two lane backwoods nightmare lasted 2 full hours, I never want to see a pine tree again. All in all  we were very happy with our progress on the day. Didn't stop but for the call of nature or coffee.Approaching Durham, an Indian gentleman driving a white van sped up along side, getting our attention he was trying to tell us something,  "Your incense well off" , Huh!!What?  He pointed to the back of our truck, 'Your wellness rate is won" Maybe we better open the window (Duh!) This poor guy stuck with it, God bless him. Once the window was down he tried it one more time. "You're license plate fell off !!! What ?? We pulled over and sure enough our rear plate had taken a powder. We called the local PD to see if they could help us out, to their credit, they gave it an effort and were very cooperative. The PD said  that we should rotate the front plate to the back of our vehicle, and to contact our local DMV about the lost plate. I hate I 85. Our night did end on a major upbeat, putting the license plate behind us we checked into Spring Hill Suites in Durham a really nice Hotel with an in ground pool, free parking and a full American breakfast all for $83.00.

We had dinner at Maggiano's, an outstanding upscale chain that sports the best chopped salad ever.The Rigatoni D was also serious good eating. Anyway tomorrow we head to Nashville lets hope we don't get hit by a meteor.

St.Paddy's Day March

Once again, the annual St.Paddy's Day pub crawl through Red Bank was a major good time. The likes of Ray McCardle, Timmy Murphy, Johnny "HUD" and Deb Hudzinski, Grew kids, Milnes Kids, Bartlett Kids, and many other Irish revelers made it a celebration that won't be soon forgotten.
Starting off at the Globe in Red Bank the crew loaded up on Pub Grub, including Chicken Parm Panini's, Ruebens, and veggie lovers Panini. A debate was started by our youngest, Kit Kat as to why her 19 year old self shouldn't be allowed to partake in the crawl. As you can see below she was intense about it and really wanted to tag along. LOL. Bye Kitty see you when we get home.After dispatching Kathryn we ambled over to Brannigans. A smallish venue just North of Front street. There we met HUD and the Kids. Well, these kids were unreal, the first thing they ordered was a round of Irish Car Bombs. Half, a shot of Jameson, half of Baileys all dropped into a pint of Guinness and chugged. Oh Boy!! We decided to give them some space, lots of space, and drifted over to the Dublin House. There we met up with the always entertaining McCardle and Murphy. We lucked out with a corner of the bar in a very crowded pub. A good hour passed and here came the junior varsity rabble from Brannigans. Allison Bartlett had taken to photographing people that were a little tipsy (pics below). Soon after we again retreated from the Irish Car Bombers and headed for The Walt Street Pub.Walt Street's distinction is New York Style straight bar.Don't see many straight bars in NJ. Mostly ovals. Anyway we topped the crawl off at Tommy's coal fired Pizza, had some roasted chicken wings and watched NCAA basketball.
Chicken Parm Panini AAA
Rueben Sandwich AA1/2
Veggie Panini AAA
Roasted Chicken Wings AAA

St. Paddy's Day Pub Crawl

This year marked the annual St.Paddy's Day Pub Crawl. This year the special guests included the likes of Johnny (Hud) Hudzinski, the always entertaining Ray McCardle and Timmy Murphy, and a bunch of Shrewsbury kids that sure reminded us olsters of our youth.  The Bartlett's started off with lunch at the Globe Bar and Grill. Located on Front Street this old time Red Bank Bar has surrendered to a mostly young college crowd, but we were there early enough to avoid those Irish Hooligans.
The Chicken Parm Panini while an odd choice on St.Pat's was top notch, as was the Reuben sandwiches and the ice cold beer. Our youngest Kitty was having a grand time with a silly straw while enjoying her club soda. Later she was intense in trying to make the case that her 19 year old butt should accompany the rest of us on the Crawl. LOL Kitty see you when we get home.
After dropping Kathryn home we returned to Brannigans Bar. Just South of Front St in Red Bank Brannigans is a smallish pub that enjoys a loyal and much older clientele the does the Globe. There we met Hud and encounted a variety of Shrewsbury 20 somethings. After happy greeting these kids ordered a round of Irish Car Bombs. Ah oh, Good Morning!! After a while we eased our way out of Brannigans and tried to put a little ground between us and these terrorist. We crawled to The Dublin House and met Timmy and Ray in the very crowded and lively pub. We settled in with a lucky score of a whole corner of the bar.    

My nose is Clean , How bout yours

Leaving the Cowboys of OK City behind, we started our long trek to Albuquerque NM. There was a threat of bad weather forecast and we were somewhat uneasy driving through Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. A long stretch of highway through no mans land. We came to the conclusion that America has loads of room to grow. Mile after mile of nothing but random black cows. No people, no towns, no nothing. We came upon a field of windmills and past out with excitement. Leaving Oklahoma and North West Texas with picked clean noses we entered New Mexico. The Enchantment State gave us hope but ended looking just like more Texas. It was two hours in before the scenery started looking great, but heavy dark clouds were looming ahead. Entering Albuquerque, we drove out of our way to the wrong Residence Inn. A quick recheck of our GPS put us right.Another 15 minutes went by and we pulled into a very nice Residence Inn at the foot of a mountain. Guess What! Wasn't our hotel, we were right the first time. Marthemayor put the schmooze into overdrive. Charming the Residence Inn management with her ballsy Staten Eyeland, she entertained this people so effectively that they changed our reservation

to their hotel and upgraded us to a two bedroom suite. Huh!! The weather had worsened and upset our plans to take a tram to a restaurant 10,000 ft up the mountain. The day ended with dinner at Landry's a Seafood chain associated with Chart House. As members of The Chart House we received an unexpected $25.00 discount. We just hope our waiter made it. He was wheezing through the specials and apologized because he had just had surgery. The high altitude was making it hard for him to breath. The mayor hoped he didn't drop before he served us our dinner. Oops!! Here comes that Staten Eyeland again.