Travels in the South

Welcome back friends to another edition of Travels in the South.  We have been talking about our visit with our great friends Bill and Jean from Canadian Cats.  If you have missed the previous editions, please check them out here:  Red Lobster; Fogo de Chao; Stately Oaks; Spa Day. World of Coca-Cola Part I, World of Coca-Cola Part II. World of Coca-Cola Part III

After all of that touring of the World of Coca-Cola, the humans all got hungry and needed a sit down break of nourishment.  They decided to go to a local restaurant that is very popular here in the south.  Mom plugged in the destination in her GPS and they started off down the street.  That’s when something funny happened.  They passed the same church like three times.  Finally Jean and Bill were like, “Have we been here before?”  Of course everyone started laughing when the GPS would go “recalculating”.  That’s my mom – always making her own destination.

After a while and with letting the GPS tell mommy where to go and mommy listening, they finally made it to their destination for lunch – The Varsity.  You are immediately greeted with so many people and the “What’ll You Have? What’ll You Have?” from the cashiers taking orders.

The Varsity has been running for over 88 years and is a local landmark here in the South.  On this day, there was nothing major going on in town.  Days that there are football or basketball games or school functions, imagine this picture three or four times as busy.  Not only can you go in to dine but The Varsity downtown also has the world’s largest drive in with car hops.  What a blast from the past huh?

The Varsity offers a variety of different food – from hot dogs to hamburgers to grilled pimento cheese sandwiches to awesome onion rings to french fries.  In fact, it is a published fact on their website that they go through two miles of hot dogs, a ton of onions, 2500 pounds of potatoes, 5000 fried pies and 300 gallons of chili that are made from scratch daily.

For more information on the Varsity – see here.  I know all of the humans had a blast at the restaurant this date eating to their hearts delight.  And of course every meal is finished with dessert, right?  Everyone had hot peach fried pies topped with turtle ice cream.  I’m licking my lips just thinking about it.  So I gotta end this posting today with “What’ll You Have?  What’ll You Have?”

 

Bashful Came Home From France!

For those that don’t know about Bashful my pet rock – he is a traveling stone always out for adventure. When Bashful is at home, he goes on field trips with mom/dad all over town taking pictures and videos. He then posts them on my page under “On the Road with Bashful – Field Trip”. He begged and begged me to let him go and visit one of my friends. I had mom make a few contacts and the next thing I knew, he was traveling over 4,000 miles to visit Easy in France. You can read about his adventures at http://easyweimaraner.wordpress.com/. And if you haven’t met Easy yet, you should. He is the bestest pal a pig could ever have. I mean that from the deepest parts of my pot belly.

Bashful came back with the cutest French accent. He has been talking non-stop since he got home a couple of days ago. It’s taking me this long to listen to all of his stories and for him to get over his jet lag from the long airplane ride… and might I add he went first class. Only the best for my little rock 🙂

While he was gone, he got into all kinds of antics with Easy. Personally, I think this is my favorite picture of his trip and he has a lot of explaining to do. That’s right, he smoked the tomato plant in a homemade bong. Tsk-Tsk you are in trouble little guy. You know where mommy works! This picture has circulated around at her worky place and you were almost put on a WANTED bulletin – PLOL (pig laughing out loud). They said they could forgive you though since you were wearing that adorable hat.

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Bashful had a wonderful trip with Easy. They watched a parade together. They ate delicious meals together. They rode in the Elephant Skate together and went on a scavenger hunt for a Geocache. Bashful even got to be the Rock Scout (GPS). They communed in nature, wrote poetry and helped put together Easy’s new bed. He has done things that I’ve always wanted to do and perhaps one day will. I can’t thank you enough Easy and Staff for taking him like your own, giving him an awesome time and showing him all of your wonderful sights. He has been talking non-stop about his adventures. In fact, he’s been talking so much that he hasn’t even met Princess Coralena yet – that’s how excited he has been. That post of them two meeting will be another day. Thank you my friends from the bottom of my piggy heart.

AND, thank you for all of your gifts. You so didn’t have to! You know when your box got delivered to the Hotel Thompson, daddy made me wait until mommy got home to open up. I could hear Bashful and someone else talking and they were having a ball, laughing up the storm.

Mommy finally got home and opened the box. WOWSER! I was so piggy excited that my tail wouldn’t quit shaking back and forth. Easy and Staff sent me the softest blankie I have ever put my pot belly on – you can see it in the picture. It’s the burgundy blankie everything is sitting on. Can you believe after this picture was taken, I grabbed it and took off with it down the hall. I *knew* it was mine so I put in my bedroom. That makes sense, right? PLOL (pig laughing out loud) Mommy read a letter that Easy and Staff sent. I loved it! I told mommy that I want to put it in Bashful’s Book of Adventures that we are keeping here at the Hotel Thompson. That way, we can go back and read and see pictures from everywhere. I loved it!

Oh, and that cute lizard/froggy thing. It’s mine. I claimed it. It’s squishy. I like to throw it up in the air and play with it. Mommy is going to have to take a video of it. Easy and Staff even remembered the purr things here. They sent them some treats and everything was in French. I was awesome listening to mommy read French with a southern slang – snorts.

And there was a ball cap that had France written on the back of it. I tried to get it but I think daddy is going to wear it. He loves ball caps!

Some of the items in the box mommy wouldn’t let me see. I’m not sure why. She said something about me having to wait which is so unfair because you know us piggies don’t do very well waiting. And to make it even worse, she gave those items to the purr things to handle. What is up with that?! I knew those purr things were up to no good. This just goes out to prove that they are up to something. I need to know so if any of ya’ll know, send me an email or let me know please. Kthanxbai – you can help a little pot bellied pig out, can’t you?

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And, remember I told you that I heard Bashful in the box talking to someone? He was! He has a friend that came home with him with a green card. We are going through the system now to see if he can stay here with Bashful at the Hotel Thompson. This is so cool! It’s really good that Bashful has friends that he can relate to in person, you know. This gives him people that he can talk to, listen to and go to when he has rocky problems in his life.

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Without anymore delay, let me introduce you to Manny. This picture was taken with him on my new soft blankie. His coloring is remarkable – and look at that mustache! He is so full of knowledge. He reminds me so much of Mr. Belvedere. Do you remember that show that used to be on television? Snorts. We love him so much here.

He has told us many stories about his time in France, his rock climbing days and even the time when he was in a rock band when he was younger. He is so full of stories that keep us entertained for hours. In fact, he often tells Bashful a story when they go to bed at night. It’s a blast!

And no, he hasn’t met Princess Coralena yet either. Hopefully, they both can this weekend!