Food

Salem

Cranberry FallsAsheville, NC to Salem, VA. We got up this morning and drove down the road a piece to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway is a little busy in the mornings. I think that is because Ashevllians use it to commute from the southwest side of town to the northeast, or vice versa, because there are no lights. So what if you can’t go 70 MPH like on I-240, there are no trucks or merging traffic every mile, just a tree lined, windy 45 MPH cruise.

We stopped at the Folk Life Center just outside of town to get a map of the Parkway, but we were way early because they didn’t open until 9:00AM. So we took a little stroll on a nature path. When that left us still 10 minutes until opening, we got in the car and left. Forty miles later we stopped at the Crabtree Meadows facility to get that map and a Coke. Turns out there is a trail right there for a short hike to the Crabtree Falls. It is a loop, with one segment to the falls listed at .9 miles and the other being 1.6 miles. What they don’t mention is that it is a half-mile to the beginning of the loop. We took the shorter path to the falls and boy was it interesting, steep, rocky, and full of roots and all downhill. The 70′ falls were definitely worth the walk though and seemed taller than yesterday’s 90′ Pearson’s Falls. We hiked back the long way and that is the way to do it, the trail was a whole lot less rocky and because it was longer, it was less steep.

When we got back to the car after our 3-1/2 mile hike, we looked at the clock, looked at the map and decided that our best option was to go get something to eat at the “Snack Bar” right there. The food wasn’t the greatest, but it was better than the other option, drive 20 miles further on the Parkway, get off and drive 20 miles to Morganton, VA. When we finally did get in the car to start moving again, Donna remarked that we had so far gone 40 miles in 4 hours. With still 200 to go to our destination, we had better get cracking.

The Blueridge Parkway is a beautiful drive and a national treasure, but you can’t be in a hurry. We drove another 65 miles before we couldn’t take the slow pace any more and exited at Deep Gap. Sixty miles of US and State highways lead us to I-81 for the last 70 miles to Salem, VA.

Salem was chosen, like Asheville last night, for the presence of a minor league baseball team and like last night, we didn’t attend the game. By the time we got to the hotel it was 6:00PM and with the game starting at 7 there was no way we could eat and make the start. Plus we were tuckered out from the long day in the car and the strenuous hike to the waterfall. Donna wanted seafood so we found a place not too far from the hotel called Awful Arthurs. It is a local 3-location chain and while the food was not actually awful it was certainly not worth the $40 it cost the two of us to eat there.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 233

R.I.P. Mrs. Feeney

A $1,000,000 We Didn't WinAfter a bad month and a half, that started innocently enough with a fall that a broke a vertebra, my mother passed away in the Hospital of Central Connecticut this morning. We knew her health was failing with the reports I was getting from my siblings, so even though we had visited a couple months ago in April, Donna and I put in for vacation for the week of the 4th of July for another visit. Turns out it was a little less than a week too late. Oh, well, Donna and I spent a few very nice days with her back in April, including a wonderful day trip to see covered bridges in western CT.

She was a great mom (even if she did saddle me with this very painful Red Sox Fan illness thing) and I’ll miss her. My mom and dad split up when I was around 11 years old, so not only did she have to be a mother, but she also had to be the father to me and my sister and brother. Sometimes for the heck of it I would call her and wish her a happy Father’s Day. That’s Mom 3rd from the left in the bottom row from about a dozen years ago when we went to Las Vegas for Donna’s Mom’s 65th birthday. We are still heading up north starting tomorrow, just now for a different reason.

Lunch at the Evergreen Buffet. Various Chinese foodstuffs consumed by each with water to wash it down with.

Meal Cost: $12.30
Tip: $2.00
Spent Today: $14.30
Year to Date: $1394.90
Meals out 79 of a possible 528.

 
I was planning on washing the car before our trip up north anyway, so when I got home I pulled the car under the awning instead of into the garage. Washed the inside of the windows and gave it a quick waxing as well.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 226

Olive Oils

Olive OilsWe went out with our usual group to our usual Aiken haunt tonight. Good times with good friends, but it was a bittersweet evening. I returned my Godson Gnorm to his parents. 🙂

Bruschetta for appetizer. I had the Sun dried Tomato & Prosciutto Personal Pizza. Donna had her usual Seafood Ravioli. We both had a glass of wine to drink.

Meal Cost: $42.80
Tip: $7.20
Spent Today: $50.00
Year to Date: $1219.61
Meals out 66 of a possible 474.

In Yesterday’s post I listed a couple of Spenser’s Crime Buster Rules. Later in the book he mentions “Spenser’s Rule.” Seeing as he is mainly involved in busting crimes is that to be understood here? I think in this case it must be, considering the rule in question is obviously related to that endeavor.

Spenser’s Crime Buster Rule #113: As a last disparate fall back position, you find someone to follow, and follow them.

If it was more along the lines of, “Always keep a cold six pack of Sam Adams on hand for guests.” I might have been labeled as just Spenser’s Rule…

Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 184

Sunday Stuff

98290 - Snohomish, WAWe were on vacation and did not seek out any Post Offices, but this happened by pure chance. We went into the food store in the same shopping ceter.

We expected a Sebring for our convertible rental in Seattle, but ended up in a PT Cruiser. Not a lot of trunk room in it, more than a Miata, but no where near as much space as in a Sebring. It was a smaller car than we normally get, so you would have thunk it would be easier to maneuver in tight spots, but you would be wrong. It had the turning radius of a bus, which I guess goes right along with the very high seating position. I’ve always kind of liked the looks of the PT Cruiser and the convertible has only 2-doors which I think looks even better than the standard 4-door version, but apparently it is not as distinctive as I thought. On one of our ferry rides we were stopped next to a car load of twenty-something females and the driver asked me what kind of car we were in. I replied, “PT Cruiser.” “Oh,” she says, “I thought it was a Beetle.”

Just over a week ago I was reading Ain’t Chicken where Carol was talking about her first spawn and I was sort of jealous. I’ve been blogging a year and a half longer than her and I’ve never inspired anyone to start blogging. Well, I’m jealous no more, CT started What Do You Drive? last Friday and credited me with “inspiring” him. I’ve of course linked it in the Miata Blogs sections in the sidebar.

A hazy long term memory made me think that I might have actually inspired another one, but my initial search didn’t turn up any evidence. Deeper probing resulted in a confirmation of my original thought, it happened way back in May of 2004 with Rick’s Obsession (that link to me in his post is dead by a couple generations though.)

I’ve also added another category of links for folks who blog that also live in South Carolina, appropriately titled, SC Blogs. So far there is only one link, Random Connections, an upstate blogger who stumbled onto me via my SC Post Office page on Flckr. I will probably go Googling for others in the near future.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 175

Bountiful Biscuit Breakfast

Breakfast for two at Hardee’s. Biscuit & Gravy for her, a Sausage & Egg Biscuit for me. Water to drink for her and an OJ for me. We split an order of Hash Rounds. I have a local middle school discount card that let’s me get 2 Sausage & Egg Biscuits for $1.89, so to save money and get some use out of the ten bucks we paid for the card, I’ve bought two the last two times. The first time I was going to take the second biscuit to work and give it away, but as we sat and read the paper the biscuit started calling our names, so Donna and I split it. It was too much food, so we vowed to not eat the second biscuit this time. HA! Couldn’t do it. Today the second biscuit was devoured before we left the place. Next time we will resist.

Meal Cost: $5.18
Tip: None
Spent Today: $5.18
Year to Date: $1,057.42
Meals out, 58 of a possible 408.

Big Toe Update: A doctor’s visit on Monday netted me a ten day prescription for an antibiotic and an admonition to soak my foot 3 times a day in hot ass water with some epson salts. So far so good, I’m about half fixed.

Duck Update: Its tame and follows Mark around. He and his son will be making a small pond out of a big ol’ old heating duct hood from our old die casting department this weekend.

As Seen On TV!
Clarks Hill Lake Sunset A local morning weather shows pictures sent in by viewers as long as they are remotely weather related. I sent in the image on Gnorm from Friday’s post. Figuring he probably wouldn’t show that, I also included this one. It made the cut and was shown yesterday morning at 5:15 & 6:15. I had about a half dozen folks at work tell me they saw the picture.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 162

Eating In

It started out as a suggestion from my wife, “Hey let’s keep track of how many times we eat out and how much we spend.” Ever the obedient husband I started posting what we ate when out and what we spent. It was fun in the beginning and then it became interesting. Now that our dining costs has topped the 4 digit mark, it not something we are real proud of. But why not?

Maybe we need a little perspective. We have eaten out a total of 57 times this year and have spent a grand total of $1,052.24. That works out to about $18.46 per meal or $9.23 per person per meal. Another way to look at it is that today is the 134th day of the year, multiply that by 3 squares a day and you get a total of 402 possible meals. That means we have eaten 57 meals out, but it also means we have eaten 345 meals “at home” or 86% of the time we Eat In. Not too bad. Wonder what the national average is?

One stat I found is from foodservice provider ARAMARK.

…2004… As a result, adults now consume on average more than 5.6 meals away from home each week, citing time, convenience and value as the top motivating factors.

If this is correct, 5.6 meals divided by 21 possible meals, is a little more than 27% meals eaten out compared to our 14%.

 

Another one is from the National Restaurant Association’s report Restaurant Spending — 2004.

Households consisting of only a husband and wife recorded the highest per-capita expenditures on food away from home in 2004 ($1,347)

Per-capita is a fancy way of saying per person, so take that $1,347 and multiply it by two, meaning that that husband and wife spent a total of $2,694 in 2004. At the current rate that Donna and I are spending, we will end up disbursing $2,866 on meals away from home in 2007. Factor in inflation and restaurant dining trends and it looks like we are about average.

So if we are near average in money spent, but eating out about half as many times as everyone else, we must be eating at pretty nice places or everyone else is just ordering off the dollar menus.

Still to make us feel better I will add another line to the “Eating Out” macro that will keep track of meals out in relation to possible meals.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 161

Fra Diavolo Friday

The BusSomethin’ always happens whenever we’re together…

We did ride the tandem to work today. It is always nice to take an early ride while its still cool and traffic is very light. The best thing about riding to work is when you get there, you are wide awake and raring to go while the rest of your co-workers are slug-like and trying to get their brains kick started with a cup of joe. It is almost as if they are moving in slo-mo.

Tonight we went out to dinner with two other couples. The company was great and the food was good, but we spent more than we wanted and it wasn’t just because we bought a round of lasagna sticks for a communal appetizer. It seemed like the value just wasn’t there compared to some of the other places we have eaten at. Caesar Salad, 1/2 rack of Ribs with broccoli & sweet potato fries, iced tea for him, while Donna had a Garden Salad, the Seafood Fra Diavolo (discovering that she really doesn’t like mussels) over linguine with water to drink.

Meal Cost: $43.68
Tip: $6.32
Spent Today: $50.00
Year to Date: $1,034.17

GnormAfter dinner, we jumped in our three Miatas and did a 60 mile loop drive around Clark’s Hill Lake. We ended up at the dam’s South Carolina side parking lot to catch the sunset. A big ol’ thunderhead off in the distance spoiled the “sun setting over the water” image we hoped to see, but did make for an interesting show anyway.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 156