Today Gary and D’Ann took us to a small lake house they have recently purchased near a body of water called Lake Secession. They now own a nice little structure on the lake shore and, to make things better, they also have a nice dock right in front of the house where their pontoon boat is parked. Fortunately for us western types that are unaccustomed to frying temperatures and almost aquatic humidity, the lake house has an ample air conditioning system, keeping us from shriveling up like a scab on a barbecue. It also has a great porch overlooking the lake. Tough life, this.
On the way back to Greer from the lake, we stopped in a town named Anderson where we dined in a place called J Peters which served up great food. I can attest to the fact they serve great shrimp and I didn’t hear any complaints from anybody else. After filling up, we headed back to Greer where we were introduced to a serial called Justified on the internet. It is about a Federal Marshal in Kentucky and the folks portrayed in the show remind us a lot of the folks in this part of America.
Some photos of the area can be seen by clicking here

Today was a travel day so we pulled up stakes and left Denver, N.C. Due to the unique nature of my scheduling prowess, we traveled in a generally southwest direction further south despite the vicious and torrid temperatures in North Carolina. Maybe it will be cooler further south, a concept that is counter-intuitive for all but the most idiotic of us.
The first half of the trip was on narrow rural roads but eventually we got to I-85 which was lined with K-rail and delineater cones for almost the entire distance across South Carolina. The installation of these traffic aids resulted in skinny, terrifying lanes that snaked through a lengthy passage lined with a complete lack of construction being carried out by nobody visible.
Eventually we got to Greer, S.C., pulling in at Gary’s and D’Ann’s house, home of the person with an abundance of apostrophes in the possessive and her husband. Gary and D’Ann are old friends we met more than 30 years ago when Peggy and D’Ann worked in the same office and Gary was a grunt in the Navy whose job was to vaporize incoming aircraft with a Phalanx system. They greeted us at the door and let us back the Barbarian Invader into the driveway for a few days. Not long after the greetings were completed, we started into some nice lounging and sampling from their good liquor supply.
Gary and D’Ann are currently adhering to something called the Paleo diet. I found out about my first foray into the Paleo world by eating some terrific beef stew that forced me to return to the trough for seconds. If all the food will be like this, maybe I’ll try out Paleo to reduce some of my considerable bulk.
There’s a couple pix you can see if you click here

Today was, unfortunately, our last full day in Denver, N.C. Our hostess, Ruth, has been terrific allowing us to use her house, cooking for us, taking us out many times on her boat on Lake Normal and providing excellent advice on shopping for our needed supplies and local stuff. She was also gracious enough to provide lodging for my sister, Julie, who flew in from CA to hang out for a few days. In addition, Ruth’s son, Cully, popped in from D.C. for a few days to be our designated driver allowing us to continue our unfettered drinking, edibles consumption and generation of smoke clouds that followed the boat around Lake Normal.
She joined us for a shopping expedition today around Lake Normal, directing us ignorant types on how to find the stores we wanted to visit locally before our departure tomorrow. I was foiled on getting new shoes but Ruth got us to a Bed, Bath and Beyond so Peggy could get sheets and also took us to Savory and Spice Shop in Huntersville which is the best spice store we have ever visited.
We completed our circle of the lake, took Ruth back to her great house along Lake Normal and returned early to our trailer so I could have big fun dumping the waste tanks and prepping for departure tomorrow. Other than weather us wimpy types would choose to avoid, our stay in the Denver area has been delightful. Maybe we should schedule our visits to this area in the spring or fall so we don’t shrivel up like spiders on a hot skillet.
There’s pictures. Click here

Today we had our last meal at the Blue Parrot and, again, we were fed top-notch food. Ruth, Cully and Julie arrived by boat and Peggy and I drove over because I was afflicted with geezer gut and was reluctant to be caught in the middle of Lake Normal without a growler.
We all got together again at Ruth’s after lunch but the party started to break up. Julie and Ruth headed for Charlotte airport so Julie could catch a flight back to California. Cully was packing up his stuff for the drive back to D.C. And we headed to the trailer for a nap. Tomorrow we will do some shopping and prep for departure. Due to our schedule, we are going further south where I imagine it will be even more humid and hotter than here. One of the drawbacks of living in this region has got to be the broiling temperatures and oppressive humidity. I have been a sweaty beast whenever outside for the last few days.

There was general loafing by all parties today. Fortunately, we were all gathered at Ruth’s gorgeous and, more importantly, well-air conditioned house. Ruth maintains a terrific larder and we have been eating like kings or queens in Peggy’s, Julie’s and Ruth’s cases.
The girls popped down to Lake Normal for some water noodling and I got to watch the NASCAR race, a rare luxury with our equipment in our trailer. Kyle Busch did not win which suits me fine, especially after I saw his house on the shore of Lake Normal. He has enough.

Yesterday we missed going on the lake for a day but today my favorite sister, Julie, arrived and the party could begin in earnest. To add interest to the situation, Ruth’s son, Cully, also arrived from the D.C. area where he had been malingering until his home hockey team won the Stanley Cup. Of course we all piled into Ruth’s pontoon boat for some more lake cruising on Lake Normal. The lake’s actual name is Norman but my keyboard seems to like Normal better. Cully was very nice and performed well as the designated boat captain ushering the tipsy ancients around beautiful Lake Normal.
We docked at a shoreline restaurant called The Landing and were again surprised at the great food we received. It isn’t as good as the Blue Parrot across the lake but that doesn’t mean the food was in any way crummy. I’m starting to like quite a bit about North Carolina except the weird barbecue they have some places here which has way too much vinegar for me. All the rest of the food we have had has been great and Ruth had quite a bit to do with that. She has been feeding us every night and my diet is in shambles.
We had to break the party up at about 11:30 PM because Julie got no sleep on the red-eye on the way here last night and we had consumed a bit of water but mostly Mimosas, beer, wine and Margaritas and if we kept on with it we may have become intoxicated.
There are some pictures. Click here

Today we were happy to accompany Ruth on Lake Norman for another leisurely cruise. This day we had an additional passenger, Jim, who lives in another very nice house down the street from Ruth’s palatial digs. Jim was a font of additional info about the privileged that live along the shores of this gorgeous lake. He also has a very sweet German Shepherd that I got to play with while the women were doing the real work getting the boat away from the dock.
We are not too imaginative so we went to the Blue Parrot again today. The first time we went here yesterday I got the shrimp plate with seasoned fries and it was fantastic costing about $15. However, Peggy got fish and chips and I noted there was a very generous portion of fish. Today I tried the fish and chips (although I substituted fried plantains for fries) and, again, the food was terrific. The fish and substituted chips were $13 and a great deal. My first venture into plantains turned out well, too, because they were scrumptious.
Jim had to disembark early so we stopped by his dock, dropping him off and heading back out for another journey of exploration. We went past something called Governor’s Island where the houses are even spiffier than the other 12,000 square foot shacks occupied by the slightly less affluent lake edge dwellers. We also felt obliged to stop at the dock of the Port City Club where we went in for some more drinks because lake cruising can make you thirsty. During the trip we also stopped by a place Jim referred to as Heron Island and, sure enough, there was an entire community of big blue herons perching in the trees instead of strolling around the shallows. They look kind of funny in trees with their long wading bird legs gripping bare branches 60 feet up in a tree. Regardless of where they stand, they are magnificent creatures and very handsome.
There are fireflies here. They are terrific to watch. They create little streaks of light in the air just above the ground just before dark. It is magical.
We got pix. To see them, click here

After our morning constitutional of coffee and Irish Cream, we piled into the truck and returned to Ruth’s for a ride on Lake Norman. It turns out that Ruth has a craft called a pontoon boat that seems to be an ideal platform for relaxing in the shade while watching the world go by. It is docked not far from her house so it was not long before we had boarded and were on our way. Ruth mostly cruises at very reasonable speeds but there is a big black but remarkably quiet Mercury outboard attached to the back end and once in a while she would demonstrate that the craft will actually zing along but mostly she stayed in relaxation mode.
There is a big canopy on the boat that shades the comfy, couch-like seats that line the periphery of the boat and it turns out that there are few more relaxing activities to engage in when it is hot than cruising around Lake Norman. The houses along the shoreline appear to be owned by corporate execs and race car drivers (remember- we are in the middle of NASCAR country) and they are stunning. It seems these folks need substantially more space to live than we do because the houses were almost universally enormous. Architects locally have done good work because all the houses don’t look similar or identical. The lots are big and there are very few fences, even around swimming pools.
Partway into our cruise, Ruth took us to a place called the Blue Parrot which offers excellent food at reasonable prices, a great drink selection, shady patio dining and the ability to drive a boat right up to their dock where their flunkies will fuel your craft while you dine and drink. It is a great place to eat while viewing the goings-on on the lake and one can depart with the tanks topped off.
Ruth was bad and fed us again after providing us with entertainment all day. We were forced to deal with barbecued chicken and cheese tortellini and we left quite full. We are still running our GPS to find our way home because this place looks different in the dark.
We got a few pix during our boating. Click here

Today was a travel day so we loaded the Barbarian Invader and happily slipped out of Forest Lake TT near Advance and Lexington, NC. We were able to stay on back roads, all the way to our next destination at Denver, NC, not far from Ruth N’s house which sits along the edge of Lake Norman. Ruth is part of the Gang of Many who all join us in Cabo San Lucas every winter so we take vacations from doing nothing. Lake Norman is a massive reservoir almost wholly owned by Duke Power that is located northwest of Charlotte. A good portion of the lake shore is dotted with really gorgeous houses owned by folks who make more money than we do.
It was hot and humid when we arrived but we did our due diligence and got the trailer set up pretty quickly although we were pretty damp at the end. Not long afterwards, we contacted Ruth and she invited us over to her beautiful house that has superb air conditioning and nice deck to sit on while gazing out over the lake. Ruth barbecued up flank steak for dinner alleging we must be tired so she was going to feed us. The steak was very tasty. We eventually left the confines of her cool house and headed the 10 miles or so back to our trailer with an arrangement to meet again tomorrow for a cruise out on Lake Norman.

The weather has been tough on the elderly and smart the last few days but today started sunny with almost reasonable temperatures and humidity below 50%. We took a drive into nearby Lexington to hit the post office so we could get our kids’ birthday presents to them only a few days late. We accessed the Gas Buddy app on our phone and found it was completely inaccurate about the price of diesel but we bought it at the wrong price anyway because it was too late to go on a town-wide accuracy check of a free app.
However, the best thing we did was give ourselves a reward by going to the Lexington Barbecue. It is a small but busy joint. It was here we found that North Carolina has two forms of barbecue and this place serves the wrong type. The meat was quite tender and the fries and hush puppies were very tasty but the barbecue type around here has BBQ sauce that is thin, runny stuff with lots of vinegar in it. We prefer the more robust, tomato-based sauces we so eagerly devoured as we crossed Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to the watery acetic acid stuff here. If you like the skinny stuff they serve around here, the prices were good and service was great. It was about $30 for two, including drinks.