Travels in the South

Hello friends.  I hope that you have been enjoying our Travels in the South edition.  Today, we continue our adventures with Fozziemom and Fozziedad who visited all the way from Australia. Today, I want to focus on a restaurant that everyone went to on their way back home from Tybee Island.  Also this is a restaurant that Jean and Bill visited while they were visiting as well.

It’s a place that my mom has been going to since she she was small child.  She actually introduced my dad to it and it’s a great feel at home kind of place.

This restaurant is called Buckner’s Family Restaurant and has wonderful vegetables (for our vegetarians) and the best fried chicken you will ever wrap your lips around – just sayin’ so says mom – snorts.  Which brings me to the chicken in the picture – his name is Elmer and he’s a pretty cool dude.  His tall – really tall and his sign says do not touch… Personally I think too many people in the past have wanted to get up close and personal to him to have their pictures taken if you know what I mean.

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Now you see the cool thing about this place is all of the tables are round.  Okay I can see you going okay and what’s a big deal about that.  Well you see in the middle of the round table, they have the biggest movable section – a giant lazy Susan if you will.  The workers will come to your table with all of these bowls containing wonderful delights – creamed corn, green beans, beats, cole slaw , lima beans, rolls, chicken, barbeque pork, peach cobbler – just to name a few.  And as you eat and things run out, you just ask for refills and the servers gladly fill everything back up.  So you have a buffet without having to get up and down all of the time.  You sit and the staff bring YOU the food.  Cool huh?

Now you have to remember that everyone stopped here on the way home from Tybee Island.  They were tired, exhausted if you will, and at the point of just being silly.  The moms didn’t even have make up on.  So, I’m tell you that in preparation for this final picture.  A picture to show you (A) how tired they looked and (B) how silly they were being trying to get a picture with Elmer.  So here you go my friends – the moms in their bare necessities.

 

Special Post About My Bestie!

Today is a very special posting for me. I want to introduce all of my friends to one of my besties. His name is Stevie Hamilton Sykes and he is also a miniature pot bellied pig – like me!

I met Stevie a while back and it was an instant friendship. We have similar likes, get in trouble in the same way, we both have great personalities, charisma and we look strikingly similar.

Daddy explained it to me perfectly. He said we were piggy brothers from a different piggy mother. I mean really we look that alike. To the right, this is a picture of me. Handsome huh?

I wanted to show you my picture so you can see the similarities between us two handsome pig studs.

I asked Stevie why his adopted momma pig adopted him. I was kind of curious because my mommy always wanted me and I wanted to see if it was similar. Stevie said the following:

“When momma pig was just a piglet aged girl herself she would volunteer at our local humane society in Pennsylvania. There was a giant pig named Elmer. Poor Elmer was soooo huge. He was the same size as his pen. He literally had no room to move. Momma fell in love with Elmer and all pigs at age 9. She would visit Elmer twice a week and give him attention. Eventually he got to go live on the farm. Ever since, Momma collected pig stuff. Up until Momma had her human piglets, she had a gigantic pig collection on display. For fear of the human piglets messing up her stuff, she had to box up most of it. Momma pig used to work a whole lot, up to 55-70 hours a week. But last year, she got to become a mostly stay at home momma and when she saw me available she jumped for the opportunity!”

Cool huh? Very similar to my mommy always wanting me and falling in love with pigs on her grandfather’s farm.

To the left, this is a picture of Stevie sleeping on the bed. This is a move that I also like to make with mommy. Just FYI between us, I’m a 75 on the Sleep Number bed 🙂

Notice Stevie’s little white pouch on his forehead and his handsome little snout. See what I mean about looking the same – who would have ever thought there would be two handsome pigs like us in the world.  I’ll tell you a little secret.  At night time when I see shooting stars in the sky outside of my window, I wish for me and Stevie to live closer.  That way maybe we could hang out together and fun. 🙂

Stevie is a little younger than me but he is a happening pig! One day, I want to be just like him when I get over my anti-nature anxieties.

His first family adopted him as a tiny little piglet. His human momma pig adopted him when he was 5 months old on December 27th. He just turned a year old not too long ago.

I asked Stevie about his living arrangements. You know, where he hangs out, sleeps and has fun. This is what Stevie said:

“Well, I feel like I own the first floor of our house. Poppa pig would differ with that statement. When I first moved in, I got to claim the living room. Momma and Poppa used baby gates to keep me there but when I outsmarted those they used couches to confine me. Then I learned to jump over the couches. They started locking and closing doors but it still gave me free roam of the hall, kitchen and living room areas.
When Poppa pig isn’t home and is working, I get to sleep with Momma pig. That is my preference but Poppa says no piglets in the parents bedrooms. Since I don’t like stairs much, I usually stay away from my sister and brother piglets rooms.”

Oh Stevie. I’m not sure if you know how much this little oinker laughed at that. Baby gates are really a joke. Do our parents really think they can keep us out of rooms by mere baby gates? We are such smart little piggies and will figure out a way. Am I right? My mom and dad went through a six month ordeal with me and baby gates. It was really hilarious. They did eventually win but getting there was some fun times with me! I would literally knock them down and then stomp on them as if to tell them, “I WON!”

And yeah, my daddy is the same about pigs in the bedroom. He doesn’t like me sleeping in bed with him and mom either. Not that I’m not cuddly or anything. He doesn’t like it because I *always* steal his blankies – snorts. Poor daddy. He gets cold.

See what I mean by happening pig – look at Stevie playing on a trampoline! He said that it felt very weird the first time and he wouldn’t budge at all until someone bounced him – snorts. Those little humans will do that every time!

Now, he doesn’t mind the trampoline whenever the others aren’t going jump crazy! But as he’s gotten heavier, he doesn’t like to be picked up as much. See, us pigs are like that. We like to have our hooves solid on the floor. That makes us comfortable. Being picked up can be scary and we are afraid of falling. Well actually, we’re not afraid of falling. We’re afraid of the impact – snorts.

But, if our hooves can rest on something, we are okay. And see, I told you that Stevie likes the great outdoors. Here he is in the picture swinging with his Momma Pig. Stevie – you are really inspiring me to get outside, overcome my fears and live at large.

My mommy says that if I do, she will get me my very own pool, a possible swing and maybe – maybe a pig trampoline. Sounds like an awful lot of blackmail persuasion, doesn’t it? I wonder how much more I can get out of her before I try to venture outside? The ideas are endless!

And look at these pictures – Stevie got to see and feel snow. I’m so pig jealous! I still have not seen this white stuff that mysteriously falls from the sky… or taste it for that matter. Stevie said his first time in the snow was this past January.

Remember what I said about picking pigs up and us not feeling safe that way?  Well, Stevie said he didn’t squeal at all during this picture where his Momma Pig was holding him. He said the big, wet, cold falling flakes caught him so off guard that he was silent.  That’s got to be some amazing snow if he didn’t make any sounds at all.  I gotta see this stuff in person!

 

Stevie said that he absolutely wanted nothing to do with standing on the snow at that time. But by the next time, he was happily enjoying an all you can eat buffet of snow. I gotta ask though Stevie. What did it taste like? Was it cold? Was it sweet?

Stevie and his Momma Pig even made a snow pig together. How cool is that?! I so wished that it snowed here in the south in Georgia. We just don’t get that much. Maybe the next time, can you bottle it and send me some? 🙂  I would be most appreciative because it doesn’t look like we are going to get any here in Georgia.

 

And Stevie has his very own Facebook account that he posts in about his adventures. I go on moms Facebook account all of the time and read his stories and look at his amazing pictures. Sometimes, I’ll even post comments under mom’s name.

If you get a chance and you have Facebook, it would be awesome if you befriended him. Tell him that Bacon sent you. I’m sure you will enjoy his stories and adventures as much as we do. I know you’ll have fun. Look at his profile – he’s a professional food taster and went to the Charlotte’s Web School in Lynchburg, Virginia. OMP! (Oh My Pig). That school sounds amazing. I wonder if they are accepting new students?

 

This is also another great picture of Stevie. Sitting right in front of his laptop doing what he does best – social networking! This is also how I do my blogging on my laptop. It just fits.

I asked Stevie about his typing skills. You know what he said? He said he was great typist but was easily distracted. He can usually type 10 words a minute along with 5 mouths full of food. He said that he needed plenty to eat when he was exercising his hooves so much! I totally agree. I myself get hungry working on my blog and typing.

 

This is also something that I have never done – play video games. But as you can see in this picture, Stevie is a pro! He said that he was playing Spiderman with his brother piglet here. PLOL (Pig Laughing Out Loud) You know his brother piglet got pouty because Stevie won – snorts.  You’re good Stevie – real good!

Stevie said that his mommy told him that it was a PS3 and doesn’t have any of the games from the “good ole days” like Tetris, Mario or Donkey Kong which are her favorites. But Stevie is a huge fan of Spiderman, Narnia and Sonic – with a little of Steeler’s Football! And if Stevie is like me, we come from a long history of liking and participating in football.  I think we could both look into our family trees and see that we have a lot of ancestors that got thrown around in a lot of the football games.  Amazing huh?

Some interesting tidbits I found out about my friend –

He had a major love for feet for several months. He absolutely LOVED daddy’s shoes more than any other shoes. He would steal his Reeboks and take them to bed with him! He loved his dads shoes what can I say? This is funny. I can just picture you doing this Stevie. I myself have been known to steal the different remotes from around the house, the purr things toys and moms high heels and hide them in my travel crate in my bedroom.  I learned real fast that mom’s high heels were also way off limits.  What is about a woman and her shoes?  I don’t get it.  Do you?

And I thought this was priceless. Stevie’s Granny pig thought it would be a great idea to give him a litter box when the rest of the family attended a funeral. When they came home, there was litter shavings all over the front room. What a great time he must have had redecorating the living room.  I’ve also been known to do this myself a time or three.

I thought I would end this post on how Stevie got his name. When I read this to my mom and dad, dad literally was rolling around laughing so hard. This is what Stevie said about how he got his name – Stevie.

“When I first came home, I was very timid. Poppa pig had to force me out of the cage. Poppa pig is a computer guy and has lots of spare P.C.’s around the house. Although timid, I liked to go up to the spare computers and try to snack on them. Momma took it that I wasn’t a P.C. fan. I must be more of an apple guy. So I was named Stevie, after Steve Jobs the apple computer guy.”

I really hoped that you enjoyed meeting my new friend. If you get a chance, please check him out on Facebook and tell him that Bacon sent you. If we’re lucky, I’m hoping that he will check this post out later today. Let’s show him lots of love my friends. Thanks for reading my blog!