Memory Lane

The trip back to Tuscaloosa had a special high point: a side trip to the highest elevation in Florida (345 ft above sea level), a stop that's been on S's bucket list for years. It might be the only thing on her bucket list, come to think of it. The road to Lakewood Park was as interesting as the site itself, an asphalted dog track winding through pasture land. Another bit of drama on the drive was missing the turn up 219, which fact we didn't notice (bc we were gabbing) until we were at least 30 minutes out of our way. Hooray for the GPS receiver: we jacked that puppy into the power supply and, without backtracking (and in just as good of time as if we'd never gone wrong), wended our way toward Toosa. Drove through an old enclave, Heiberger, Alabama, striking for the German embellishments on many of its buildings. Turns out, it's also the birthplace of Coretta Scott King and the site of her marriage to MLK.


It was a gorgeous weekend in the Deep South, clear, warm, and mostly sunny. Friday night we ate dinner and played MahJongg with Salli and Kathryn at K's house. Saturday morning, after breakfast at the IHOP (where we ran into Emma Ramey, also visiting Toosa for the weekend--weird!), we did regular old Saturday morning jobs (car wash, oil change, trip to Target) and snagged a Taco Casa taco each (oh how we miss TC!), and met up with the poker crowd at Wendy & Joel's. Highlight there? The ceremonial passing of the sanitizing potion from dealer to dealer in an effort (successful as far as we know) to keep from getting Anne's wretched cold/pinkeye combo. We ate dinner at the new Greek joint (DON'T do again) and watched MILK, rapt, on the Hilton Garden Inn's pay-per view.


Sunday opened with donuts and Rummy-O! and SET with Wendy & Joel, was followed by a sweet brunch at Harold's w/Petra and Joe and Cornelius, and rounded off with a sentimental return to GreeneTrack to play high-stakes bingo as we were wont to do every Sunday when we were Alabamians--and we won BIG. Monday we hooked up with Vonceil for lunch at Lek's House of Thailand in Montgomery (quite yummy) and followed the GPS home from there, on roads we've not heretofore traveled, passing through Coffee County at about the same time some poor local guy was on his last rampage with a shotgun.

Home (Beach-A-Rama!) again to a happy cat and a nice chicken salad that Carol left for us--yummy. And lettuce and radishes going great guns! In fact, we ate a little salad of our own greens this week, and drove up to Cottons in Freeport to get more of the beautiful onions we'd snagged on the drive back from Toosa. S can't get enough of these sweeties, and has, for the first time in her life, sterilized jars and put up pickled veg. Can botulism be far behind?

In the TAH-DAH department: on Saturday, eight months after the remodeling project began, the defective fan in the master bedroom was finally replaced and the job is DONE.