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Ourdee
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2017 - 11:39 am: | 
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Frog envy going on here. |
86129squids
| | Posted on Monday, February 20, 2017 - 12:10 pm: |
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What Vern said! The Three Rivers Rambler runs from downtown Knoxville's waterfront- looks to be a great time! A few years ago I took my sweetie and my sis out on a scenic train ride out of Etowah, TN- the rails ran alongside the Hiwassee River, super good time! Plus I spent the extra $$$ to get the glass roof coach tickets... highly recommended, especially in spring or fall! |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - 06:12 am: |
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I would have invited you to stop by here, but nearly everyone in the immediate area are suffering the flu. We like to share when we can, but this would not be fair. |
Tootal
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - 10:44 pm: |
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Like I needed another excuse not to drop by!
 |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - 09:57 pm: |
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I'm in defense mode here.....cough......cough! Stand clear potential vaporized lung butter in the air! finally standing upright for the first time in a week or so |
Froggy
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - 10:14 pm: |
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So, Monday afternoon we made it to the ranch, and I was cut off from civilization till some time late this morning. There was absolutely zilch for phone coverage from all 4 major phone carriers (I tried them all), and the ranch lacked Wi-Fi (or even computers?), which made my internet access limited to sending a pair of emails which just sat in my outbox for a few hours until the planets aligned long enough for them to send. Next time I’m gonna splurge and finally get a satellite modem, despite the rates being about as cost effective as driving a Hummer across Europe.
Monday was for the most part uneventful, we left the hotel, and made our way to Asheville NC, where we had lunch at Red Stag Grill as Pwnzor suggested in the past. We didn’t realize it, but it was right outside the Biltmore estate, so we decided to take detour to check it out. We made it as far as the ticket booth before making a U-turn, as we didn’t feel like spending money to drive on by. After that we headed to the ranch, enjoying more NC and finally some TN countryside.
We got to the ranch about 3:30PM, and they didn’t open until 4 so we ended up hanging out for a bit. Once they opened the gate and let us in, they gave us a tour of the place and we unpacked, we had a little time to kill before dinner, so I wandered and took photos (which I’ll post at a later time, way too many to resize). The place is beautiful, they have 49 horses, and it turned out that we were the only guests that day so we literally had the place to ourselves.
The food was fantastic, all of it. Southern cooking at its finest, I even for the first time had Fried Okra! The lady who was cooking, Z (not sure what it is short for), works miracles and made broccoli so good that even my vegetable hating self loved every bite of it. The sweet tea was absolutely perfect, I’ve never had any that was this good. I must have drank several gallons of it, I’m sure I have diabetes.
Since it was literally just us two, we had one on one instruction for the horses, which made things nice and pleasant. The weather turned out absolutely perfect on top of it, so we didn’t even end up layering up like we originally planned. We got two riding sessions on the horses, which took us up and into the mountains behind the ranch. Pwnzor would be proud, I had a GPS going to monitor the ride:
https://dashboard.microsofthealth.com/sharedevent/ Hike?eventId=kurl%3a%2f%2fprodphseus.dns-cargo.com %2fprod-pod-eus-0x0%2fdc9f969f-09fc-4a8d-a6c1-2e95 f28acd89%2fevent%2f2519145961090839999
After more grub and more hanging out the crew, we departed this morning and made our way to Gatlinburg TN. We didn’t stay long, it was raining, so we stopped at the Star Car Museum, then headed on to Nashville. We stopped at the Muscle Car museum in Pidgeon Forge on the way, then after that no meaningful stops until we got to Nashville.
Per recommendation of ChadHargis and Barker, we got some Hot Chicken from Prince’s, and boy they are not joking about the heat ratings. I got my chicken “hot”, which is probably the equivalent to nuclear where I’m from, and Prince’s still had two more heat ranks above that. So now I’m at the hotel, getting ready to hop in the shower, and ready for the impending doom when it ultimately comes out the other end.
Tomorrow afternoon we are doing a bus tour of various filming sites for the Nashville show, I’ve never seen it, but Danie loves it, and this trip is all about her anyway. |
Froggy
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - 10:43 pm: |
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I almost forgot to post this one:
I can't recall the last time I operated something without a serial bus |
Tootal
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - 11:10 pm: |
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So, Monday afternoon we made it to the ranch, and I was cut off from civilization till some time late this morning. There was absolutely zilch for phone coverage from all 4 major phone carriers (I tried them all), and the ranch lacked Wi-Fi (or even computers?), which made my internet access limited to sending a pair of emails which just sat in my outbox for a few hours until the planets aligned long enough for them to send. Next time I’m gonna splurge and finally get a satellite modem, despite the rates being about as cost effective as driving a Hummer across Europe.
I just had a vision of you slowly dying like the Binars on Star Trek! |
Court
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - 11:16 pm: |
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Frogster:
Do you have a photo of you in chaps?
Seriously .. . . . sounds like an awesome get-away!
Have fun ! |
Ourdee
| | Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2017 - 10:27 am: |
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Chaps.....=] |
Froggy
| | Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2017 - 10:52 am: |
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Sorry, no chaps, we rode in our regular clothes.
Yea that 36 hours without internet was rough, at least I had my Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita to get me by! |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2017 - 11:04 am: |
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No internet for a while! now that's funny right there!
When the panic feeling stopped, that is the feel of your brain as a stand alone entity. Great feeling eh? Good for ya once in a while!
As fate would have it I have been horse wrangling also. Bit of a different program though. Our horse got out a few times lately so we had a guy replace 1/8 mile of tired old fence Monday. The horse did not like the whole program so he found a weak spot in the un-replaced fence that was well hidden, and made his escape four more times!
Not a fun game when suffering the flu. If the wife had let me we would be eating horse steaks for the next two years. |
Froggy
| | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2017 - 08:51 am: |
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And the voyage home begins 
http://glympse.com/09J3-CA2R |
Crusty
| | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2017 - 05:58 pm: |
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You're just moving right along! |
Tootal
| | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2017 - 11:38 pm: |
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I'm pushing that arrow with my curser but it won't go any faster! WTF? |
Tootal
| | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2017 - 11:41 pm: |
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Welcome Home Froggy! |
Pwnzor
| | Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2017 - 07:42 am: |
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we had lunch at Red Stag Grill as Pwnzor suggested
What are your thoughts on the food there? Gretchen and I have made this a mandatory meal when we're in the area.
Pwnzor would be proud, I had a GPS going to monitor the ride:
Looks like you had a good ride. A horse once stepped on my foot and crushed it into a bloody paste... so I haven't ridden one since. I was 8.
Sounds like you had a great time, overall. Can't wait to see more pictures! |
Froggy
| | Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2017 - 09:55 am: |
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I'm pooped. I'll see what I can do with pictures tonight.
Pwnzor, I liked it, and I was pleasantly impressed with the pricing, given the atmosphere and the look of the building, I expected another zero on the end of the bill. I ended up with a burger, she got a BLT. I liked the food, but she is a lot harder to please and wasn't impressed. Not that it is a bad thing, she just has very high standards and a specific taste profile, she finds most cooking from restaurants to be bland or plain. She claims most places don't season or season enough or don't have any flavor.
Now I don't recall what exactly she said about Red Stag so I'll ask later but I lumped it in with many of the other places we tried on the trip where I liked it and would do again, and she wouldn't. |
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