Flags, Falls and Inflatable Frankenstein

Hey Peoples, It's been a little bit since my last post so here is the skinny on the latest haps. First let me jump back in time a little to when we were in Memphis. I neglected to mention before about the healing field we came across. We stayed in an RV park one night and next to it was a huge field which was filled with American flags. Naturally I was curious about this little setup so I wandered over to see what was going on. It was a project called the healing field which had about 3000 some odd flags to represent each of the 911 victims and then also 2000 some odd more flags each with a yellow ribbon with the name of a serviceperson who has died in the Iraq conflict. It was a pretty impressive sight to see. I took a lot of pictures of it and this one here is one of my favs. Ok now skip back ahead to the not quite present. We spent the last week in Knoxville and stayed in the Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge area a few of the nights we were there. We went to Gatlinburg one day which is the "Gateway to the Smoky Mountaing" super touristy and commercialized. We did have a good time though and rode a ski lift type contraption to the top of a mountain which looked like this: We also went to the Ripley's (as in believe it or not) Aquarium. It was a pretty nice one and had a cool underground section where you could walk around underneath the tanks full of sharks and other creatures. They also had some smaller tanks of various fish that you could climb under and and stick your head up inside of including this tank of puffer fish. We also had a few days off at the beginning of the week so we drove over to Cashiers where my Dad and Debbie and Bro Justin and Sis Carolyn reside. We had a pretty nice time there visiting with family and going to see waterfalls. This one is called Bridal Falls and you used to be able to drive under it until a big rock fell down and closed the way. Here I am demonstrating how big the rock is and displaying my super-human strength. It was also my Carolyn's 15th birthday so we had a nice family dinner and finished off with ice cream birthday cake. She did a good job of blowing out the candles. She also proceed to do a fine job of mutilating the cake into an artistic interpretation of a waterfall. You may make donations to the artist and the remaining cake crumbs will be auctioned off on ebay unless the dogs eat them first. We are currently sitting in a coffee shop in Athens, TN and we will be here tomorrow as well. Then we are off to Hixon and Chattanooga, where we will be for about a week before heading off to Atlanta. As usual here is a silly picture to end off with. It is now Halloween season which means fun picture time with wacky inflatables!

Traveling Update

So we have traveled many miles and done much since my last posting. We have traveled through north west Arkansas including Walmart head quarters. While we were in AR we worked with a rep named Nancy who also had a schipperke and let us come over her house to play with it. It is amazing how much alike he was in temperament and behavior to ZO. We made a stop on our day off at Hot Springs. We had made reservations at a bath house to get scrubbed and rubbed. It was pretty nice if not a little awkward having some big DUDE give you a bath and then some old guy rub you down. Sorry no pics of that you little rascals. But here is a picture of the bath house we went to. We also made some new friends during our stay at Young's RV Park. James and Kimberly who were from Memphis which was where we were heading next. They had two little dogs with them so Anilia immediately ran up to them and petted their doggies and made friends. They were a young couple like ourselves who had also been married in Vegas. They invited us over to hang out that evening and we ended up hanging out with them and their neighbors who lived in their RV and pulled around a trailer to carry their Harleys and were also federal agents who had worked on the Oklahoma City bombing. After Hot Springs we went to Pine Bluff, AR which was a pretty poor town. We had planned on just staying in the Walmart parking lot that night but it looked like a pretty rough and tumble lot so we opted for a hotel instead. We worked there for a day and then headed off to Memphis. We drove into Graceland and stayed in the Graceland RV park which was right across the street from Graceland and directly behind the Heartbreak Hotel. We called up our new friends James and Kim and they took us under their wing during our stay in Memphis and took us out one night for really good Tai food and drinks and pool down in the midtown area. Oh and Anilia did the ROBOT! While we were in Memphis we also had some time to do as some touristy things so we went to SUN STUDIOS which is the birthplace of Rock-n-roll. Where Elvis, Johnny Cash and many others got their start. So that was pretty neat to take the tour and see the recording studio where so many great records were made. Anilia also got the RV stuck in the middle of the street as the hitch got caught on the parking lot which was exciting. We were supposed to be in Memphis 7 days or so, but then we got re-routed to Clarksville to work at the Riverfest. This worked out well for us as my cousin Lucy and her husband Greg live in Clarksville, my cousin Ben lives in Nashville and my Aunt Ronella lives in Murfreesboro along with my grandmother Momma Jo. My other cousin Carolyn was in town with her two children Jeremy and Josie. So we were all able to meet up together and went to see a performance of MY FAIR LADY which cousin Ben was in, playing the role of the love smitten Freddy. Here he is with Josie. We had a couple more days back in Memphis and one of the Reps we worked with David, invited us over to his house for a boat ride out on the lake. By the time we got there though it was getting dark so we just hung out on his porch with him and his fiancee and had a good ol' time. After we finished up in Memphis we headed across the state of Tennessee to Rodgersville, which is where I am sitting currently. Anilia's folks drove down to meet us at the RV park we are staying at and brought the doggies with them so we have been able to spend some time with all of them which is so nice. So that brings us up to now. We are just relaxing and doing laundry and I will take the RV to give it a bath in a little while. The it is back to work tomorrow here for a couple days then on to Knoxville and Chatanooga!

This Old RV

Some people have been asking about the inside of the RV, so here is a quick tour of our current home on wheels. First we have the cockpit where we sit while we are driving. It has a TV which we don't watch while we are driving. We do listen to our ipod and to Rich who lives inside our GPS system and tells us when to turn right. Also you can take a nap on the dashboard, see. Behind the cockpit is the kitchen area. We have a stove, oven and microwave, the usual kitchen bits. Here are two pictures because I am HUNGRY. Also we have a tiny refrigerator luckily we have tiny mouths so our food fits in there nice and snug. It is not very cold though so we pretty much have to drink milk the same day or it gets CHUNKY. Across from the kitchen is the kitchen table which we usually utilize as the office. Here we are multi-tasking like busy little beavers. Actually we are just playing a high-tec version of battleship. YOU SUNK MY EMAIL! And here it is from another angle without our bodies clogging up the shot. Back a little further is the HEAD. You can guess what we do in there, OOPS I forgot to take my PANTS off, How embarrassing! Here we demonstrate why you should make sure to put on the emergency brake before getting in the shower. WHOA NELIE! I don't have a good pictue of the bedroom, but imagine a bed in a room a couple inches bigger than the bed. Now stand up on the bed... BUMPH, OW. Oh, watch your head. Also we had a pet daddy long legs for a few days but tragically, he drowned in the sink so now we are all alone again how sad :(

Old Time Music

Currently we are in Atlanta and will be for a couple weeks. Luckily for us Anilia's got fam here so we've been hanging with Joel and Lisa on and off. Our first night here with them was Joel's birthday. Joel is an accomplished percussionist/drummer and is now officially old. SO to celebrate this momentous occasion we put together and old time music kit for him. First we purchases the necessary ingredients from WALMART, of which there were two: 1) Geriatric toilet support system 2) Little kids percussion kit with flame paint job drum, maracas, mini tambourine and itty bitty drum stick bit Toss in a pinch of cable ties to hold it all together and we have an instant birthday present. Here it is fully assembled and in place. Anilia takes it for a test drive to make sure all parts are in order.
So once we have it in place we just have to wait for Joel to get home and go to the bathroom. He does come home after some time but apparently does not have to answer the call of nature and is much more interested in preparing his crab leg dinner. In getting together the necessary elements for dinner he realizes that we need the all important beer ingredient. So Joel and I hop in the car and head to the liquor store to pick up some brewskies. We get back and at this point Lisa is losing patience waiting for Joel to go to the bathroom. So she asks him if he can go retrieve from soap for Anilia, who is you know... dirty. Joel and his bladder of steel tell Lisa where she can find the soap, much to her chagrin. After some persistence on her part she finally nudges Joel into the bathroom where he discovers his new throne adornment. Being the good sport he is, he poses for a picture for us, showing off his enormous black thumbs.. Afterwards we have the birthday crab legs and finish off with a variety of scrumptious desert items and cognac. Here I am displaying my exquisite taste.

Fantastic Springfield

Friday was a day of much traveling. We stayed in a KOA RV Park on Thursday night and were neighbors with Paris and Delwin who are on one of the other teams that we became buddy buddy with. We had a nice cookout and the Wilthrap brothers (another tour team) came by as well. Friday morning we all had breakfast together along with the Wilthraps' parentals who also are a tour team. We had a great time and lots of laughs. Our waitress Jo was yuking it up right along with us. Anilia and I then proceeded to drive about 10 hours from Clarksville, IN past St Louis where we had started and on to Springfield, MO. Checked in around midnight and went straight to bed thoroughly exhausted. Saturday we had the day off so we went to go check out Battlefield Mall where we will be working Mon-Wed. However we got distracted by the signs for Fantastic Caverns which has a Jeep tour that drives you through the caverns. So we ended up going there instead. Our tour guide talked like an auctioneer super fast and was prettty funny too. Afterwards we picked up some supplies at Lowes and Walmart, the later of which we have spent more time and money in over the past few days than I think I HAVE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. And we haven't even started the promotions at the WALMARTS yet. But the KOA we are at here in Springfield has these cool cow sculptures out front, see. Mmmmmooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Training and Raining

I haven't had much of a chance to blog until now as we have had a pretty intensive schedule since we arrived in St. Louis for training. So here is the rundown of events of the past few days. We arrived in St. Louis with a multitude of suitcases and checked into our hotel. The first two days of training were classroom style. We went over reporting, basic dos and don'ts and got as lesson on the ins and outs of Medicare and Medicaid and learned the value of the phrase "I Don't Know". We also got to meet the other teams and spent a lot of time bonding over the next few days. Each day was about 14 hours of training with about 4-5 hours of sleep in between so it was quite the workout. Oh, and the second day a low grade tornado came through and wiped out the power to the hotel. So we got to spend the night like in the olden days with candles meandering through the darkness. After the storm we went out for a drive and saw the damage it had left in its wake. Apparently it rained so much that Noah's Ark had actually set up shop near by. That night we all went to Dave and Busters for some food and fun. I ran the pool table for a while until I impaled myself on the cue stick. The power was still out when we got back to the hotel and remained out for the next couple days! We did switch to another hotel the next night which did have power though our floor was wet and soppy. The next two days we spent outside receiving all of our gear, loading the trailers and practicing driving the RV. It rained pretty much non stop the second day so that the setting and striking of the tent was more like a synchronized swimming event. Eventually the rain did subside and we were able to dry out our gear as we were chosen to set up our tent for a photo shoot. I didn't get a picture of the tent yet but I did get a shot of some of the fleet. Having completed our training 8 of the RV teams hit the road to Louisville, KY for a big PR event. We went to Humana headquarters and had a big ribbon cutting ceremony with lots of people and media. You may see our picture in the paper because we are important and almost famous like. We parked all the RVs around a park there and let Humana people come inside and check them out. Here I am sporting my "Let's Talk" pose. I know, I know, too sexy. I have to go shower and get ready to hit the road, so that's all for now. Over and out!

St. Louis The Adventure Begins

So we got up in the wee hours this morning to catch our 5:30 am flight out to St Louis. We spent the night over at Dickfer's house since he lives basically on the tarmac. We arived safe and sound at 9 am this morning and checked into the Holiday Inn Riverport. Luckily they had a room available for us that early, so we had some time to kill before our initial meeting tonight. So we splished and splashed in the pool a while amidst bird feathers and leaf debris. We got the call from our boss around two that they needed some hands to go mount some D-rings inside the trailers that are being towed behind the RVs. So we got to get a good look at the Rvs up close and personal and they are pretty swank. Here is what one looks like without the graphics. Soon I'll have pics of ours with the graphics and the trailer. But for now you can click on this one to see their website and some interior pics. (Imagine a photo of an RV here instead of a dad link to a picture that is no longer on the internets) Well I've been up since 4 am so I am going to try and get some rest for a big day of training tomorrow.