Sumter National Enduro Race Footage and Interviews with 3 out of Top Ten

AMA National Enduro 2012 Opener, Sumter SC

I got several interviews with the guys at the AMA/Rekluse National Enduro season opener in Sumter on Saturday.   I haven't actually gotten the interviews in print or video yet, except for this one with Husaberg's Nick Fahringer.  He's a great guy and what d'ya know, we have something in common.  Check it out over at TheRaceShop.  Here's the full video from the race with footage and interviews at TheRaceShop.

Here's my shot of Steward Baylor who took first place:

Here's my shot of The Race Shop rider, Mike Grizzle, sporting him some Klim:

And here's my shot of Ashburn who was in the top 10.  He's a young gun that I caught up with while he was eating pork chops with his mom outside the bike trailer.  He's got a great smile and more than a little energy.

Catch the brief, fun video of the Night Before the race here.  We'll publish full interviews soon.

Save Money on Gas

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

I am really ticked at the upward trend in gasoline prices lately. Let's face it, I've been ticked at the price of gasoline for 3-4 years!

I would like to tell you I've found a way to buy gas for 99 cents a gallon.

But I haven't.

I do have one money saving tip, though:

NEVER PAY THE PUMP PRICE FOR GAS.

How? Look around for stations that offer discounts.

Kwikfill has had a 5 cent a gallon discount for years; you just use one of their cards—you do have to be willing to have all your purchases come in a whopping bill once a month. That's not for me.

We have a gas station a few miles down the road from us.....

First National Enduro 2012 Sumter

Marj and I had a great time last night at Sumter.

Breaking News: Kwik Karry Closes

This is huge.

This is big....

.... Real Big....

Kwik Karry Restaurant closed its doors today.

I've been getting "My Usual" there for 20 years.  

What the world?

Remember when we saw Santa there!?

Remember when the Cafe' came to town?  Even that didn't shut the Kwik Karry down, in fact, the Cafe' closed already.

Remember the back and forth smoking/no-smoking issues? And our side won?

Remember when I found the Kwik Karry of Louisiana?

Not familiar with the Kwik Karry?

What is your Kwik Karry experience?

The Swiss Chalet Music Box

This Swiss chalet music box sat on my grandmother's coffee table in the very center of her living room for my entire childhood and it was moved up higher on a shelf during my teenage years when we moved to NC.  It now resides on an upper shelf in my office as Nana has relocated once again, in Heaven, this time without me, leaving this Swis Alp cottage long behind.

When I was a child and this resided in Gram's living room, it elicited in me a desire to travel, to see where people might live in a house like this. What would those people look like?  How might they dress?

Many years later, I found one as I walked down a country lane in Freilassing, Germany.......

The Front Porch

She wondered who the architect was who had first understood that basic human need to have a place, a moment, to pause before entering, to shift from the person you were outside to the one you would become when you walked through the door.

~ From Joy for Beginners, by Erica Bauermeister

That's my daughter, Marjorie in the above picture taken while we were out west in the abandoned town of Bodie.  I've always loved that paragraph from Bauermeister's book and thought it went well with this photo of Marj.  I've had so many of those moments on my own front porch. Can you relate?

Liver Gallbladder Cleanse

Today's Tasty Tuesday recipe isn't so tasty.  In fact, it's quite un-tasty.
But your liver and gallbladder will love you for it and you'll feel much better all around.

Cleansing your liver of gallstones will dramatically improve your digestion.  Often when the gallbladder is scanned, nothing is seen, as was my case.  But the abdominal discomfort and pain remained.  Many gallstones are too little to be caught on x-ray or simply are not in the gallbladder and instead are hidden in the biliary tubing.

With gallstones, much less cholesterol leaves the body and much more bacteria and parasites stay in the body.

Since I found great relief by doing this cleanse, many of you have asked for the recipe......

Freedom is not Free

My friend's son said goodbye again today.

Keep our military and their families in your prayers.

Moses Cone Park, NC

Recently Connie and I were driving to the NC Mountains, going from the SC midlands up to Boone and back in one day.  That's 8 hours of driving, so we planned in some time to hike and stretch a little.  I chose to stop at the Moses Cone Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway, right there near Blowing Rock.

I've been to Moses Cone a few times, but have never taken the full hike up to the tower, so that was our goal for the day.   The above photo is the view Moses and Bertha Cone enjoyed off their front porch every morning from the mid-1890's through, for Bertha at least, 1946 or so.......

Dakar 2012 Final Post

I received two more pictures to share from Dakar 2012.

Here's James recouperating in the bivouac.
He looks pretty good here.


Below is Iain Stevenson's bike after Stage 5.  His bike caught fire most likely from some grass that got caught between the exhaust pipe and the baseplate.  Iain escaped unharmed and is more determined than ever to race again next year.

Long Live the Queen

I've been having a lot of strange health issues for a few months now and in December it got debilitating, forcing me to visit the doctors.  Each doctor was stumped, scratched his head and forwarded me to another specialist.  The main problem remains undiagnosed, but in the meantime we discovered another problem - that of high platelets and both red and white cell counts.  I had a bone marrow test and spent two weeks anxiously waiting for the results and considering, of course, that my life would soon be shortened. 

Going through something like that is sort of like a mental or spiritual cleanse.  As I reflected, I realized I could go either way -- live or die.  I have no regrets, have lived almost every minute to the fullest (as recorded here), didn't put anything off to do later, etc.  The only sorrow I had was leaving people I love and missing an upcoming trip to Europe with Marj.  I have a strong faith in God through Jesus Christ, I believe strongly in the spiritual realm and that God himself has a definite plan for my life.  I strive to live in His will and plan and I had confidence and peace that I was marching right along in line with His desire.  (Likewise, there have been times I knew I was living outside His plan and did not have peace.)

So yesterday when I went to get the bone marrow test results......

Disappointment at the Presidential Campaign Rally in Aiken SC

The Aiken County Republican Party and the Greater CSRA Conservative Coalition promised this:

and delivered this:

A Newt.

That's it.  Newt Gingrich.

I felt snookered.

The old bait and switch.....

James Embro Talks About Injury and Dakar 2012

I spent some time yesterday talking to James.  He sounded great, said he's just now starting to feel some pain.  His face has been numb since the accident on Stage 7 of the Dakar.

The full interview was on TheRaceShop which has recently closed down.  This is now a dead link.  James appreciates the customers he has had through the years and wishes you all well.

Browning Ground Beef Perfectly

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

I had this idea first.

Honest!

You believe me, don't ya? I was browning ground meat one day and, as usual, it was clumping together in spite of me hacking away at it with a wooden spoon. My eyes wandered around the room, and what did I see? Aha! The potato masher!

“Can't hurt,” I thought. So I smashed and mashed away at the clumps and, in no time, that meat was UNCLUMPED and beautiful. I've been using that technique for years.

So you can imagine my surprise when I watched Rachael Ray one day and SHE was browning meat and SHE grabbed a potato masher and SHE announced it was a great idea to use the masher to break up the clumps. And did she ever mention that she got the idea from me? No, not a word.

Truth be told, I don't know how she stole that idea. I've never had her here for dinner. I've never written to her. Never emailed, tweeted, texted or called.

Be that as it may, she glommed onto my idea and started promoting it. Did she ever give me any credit? Nope, not once, not ever.

In an effort to stay one step ahead of her, I'm going to share another of my bright ideas RIGHT NOW!!.

When you need to melt a bit of butter in the microwave, you can end up with a sputtery mess. Once again, I cast my eyes around the kitchen and they landed on this little mug. Guess what? The butter melts beautifully and evenly and the higher sides prevent sputter mess. How simple! Love that idea.

By the way, take the wrapper off the butter before you melt it!

I don't think Rachael has plagiarized this idea.......yet. But if you see it on her show, you let me know, OK?

I want royalties.

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...and one more thing......
uh, I'll get back to you when I remember it.
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The Cheap Senior Citizen is a Guest Writer who occasionally shares helpful hints she has learned through her experience.
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Sunday Afternoons . . .

 . . . were made for this:

Where does she get it from?

Happy Birthday, Ethel....errr.. Lucy...

Today's the big day.  The Big 5-0.  No, not me.  But almost me.  My other half.  No, not Tom.  He's my better half.  I'm talking about my other half, Ethel.  (I'm Lucy)  She will beg to differ.  She's Lucy and I'm Ethel.  It's an ongoing argument and as she turns 50, the argument turns about 19.

Happy Birthday, Connie, it's been quite a ride, sister.

Our friendship began over exercise if you can believe that.  We live in a small town with no gym and seemed to be the only two people interested in exercise so we met in our living rooms to exercise with a video in the VCR. Remember those?  VCRs.  They were hot.   We exercised so hard things on the mantle would shake.

Two Peas in a Pod

Over time, long talks on the patio would follow exercise and eventually the exercise was replaced by going out to eat or to a movie.  And now we kind of regret that and are trying to exercise again, but we can't get the stupid VCR to work, so we might as well sit on the patio.

Speaking of the VCR not working......  It was Connie I called in an emergency one day, "Aunt Mary's stuck in the VCR!" I screamed over the phone, "Come quick, I can't get her out."

See Connie and I have had a lot of those "come quick" calls.  When I needed neosporin on my butt, who do you think I called to apply it?  When Tom was out of town and I had a stalker, who do you think crawled in bed with me and my kids?  Yes, all of us in one room.  Quaking.  And it went both ways.  When baby Grayson was sick and cried all night long (literally), who do you think Connie called to come restrain her from a murderous act?

Oh, Aunt Mary.  I forgot about her, left you hanging.  Aunt Mary, my great aunt, went to Californey and ended up on the Bob Barker show and won, among other small things, a pick-up truck.  I recorded the show and would often watch it because Aunt Mary was pretty funny and she gave Bob Barker a run for his money.  One day, the tape of Aunt Mary got stuck in the VCR and I didn't want to ruin it, so I thought Ethel Lucy and I could extract it.  We couldn't.  We couldn't re-assemble the VCR either, so I lost both objects.

At some point in our friendship, Algore invented the internet.  We discovered email, how fun!  That shot our relationship up another level, then of course, many years later, text messages and facebook shot our relationship off the charts.

Even in the emails, we were there for each other.  Like Nov. 25, '96, 10:41 am I got an email with this subject line:  I NEED YOUR HELP!!   She wouldn't appreciate if I told you what THAT was all about.

Sure, we've had our ups and downs, like this email that began

I'm writing to beg forgiveness.  I didn't get around to feeding the cats.  Are they still alive??  And the goats, are they OK??  I had every intention to feed them.  Even had the boys remind me (although Will yelled out his reminder last night at bedtime!).

Of course I never asked her to feed our pets while we were out of town again.

And we have had sappy moments like this one

I just want you to know how much I enjoy receiving your e-mail messages.  I just read the one you sent (reading to Marj, waking up all crumpled, doing your laundry wrong) {editor's note:yeah, I wrote thrillers back then}.  The mood I'm in today, I almost started crying because it was like someone out there was saying "Hang in there, kid.  You've gotta friend."

Helpful, encouraging moments:

Have you ever burped up vitamins???  I took a handful on an empty stomach this AM before I left for work and thought I was going to barf before I got to the office.  I had to (HAD TO) stop and get a biscuit to calm things down.  Anyhow, I got your three messages and have decided that you stayed up so late just so you could feel like crap just like me.   You're such a friend!!!

What?!?!?!?!?  Your wick is stuck??  What were you doing?  Putting it in some undisclosed area??  Girl, we need a night out!

Help me! Help me! Help me!  I'm a big glob of fat growing globier and globier by the minute! I don't understand why. All I've had to eat today is three donuts and a trough full of Japanese food.

Weight and health was and still is a large part of our communication.

That's what you are!  A big 'ole dog head.  Do you honestly think that I care if you've lost three friggin' pounds??  I mean, just because I'm swelling up like a pus-filled sore, doesn't mean you should flaunt your diet successes in my face.  Just kidding. (Editor's note: that was before we knew you could say JK)  Of course I'm happy for you, but before you know it, you'll be in the hospital dying from anorexia and I'll be standing beside your bed (while eating a frosty from Wendy's) crying, saying something like, "If only I hadn't made her think she could actually lose that much weight...."

And I found the moment when Kwik Karry first entered our relationship.  Kwik Karry is the greasy spoon where we meet for breakfast as often as possible.  I've ordered the same thing for 20 years and now it's Val's Usual, except sometimes it comes out Val's Usually.  A little southern grammar issue.

After my first visit to Kwik Karry, Connie wrote: "So, now I can start a rumor about you and the preacher man and Casey.  A three-some.  Dining at the local greasy spoon.  How interesting!!  We can call this saga Breakfast at Hoyt's or As the Wagon Wheel Turns."

As will all great friendships, ours occasionally required some brutal, honest reprimands.

Notice how all your emails to me lately have been responses to my emails?  Get off the foggy headed wagon and put on that creative thinking hat and write me, girl.  I need gossip, lusty stories, made up rumors and the like!!!  My sanity at work depends on your messages.  You wouldn't want the guilt of me going off the deep-end because of your lack of creativity, would you?

So you see, it's all her fault I started this blog.

Happy Birthday, old friend.  You put the old in old friend.  (I'm such a young hottie)  Let me end this with a quote from you on April 1, 97.

Maybe I should try to get some work done, right??
OK, call or write later ifn' you get a chance.

More on the birthday girl:

In which she feeds the seagulls
In which she introduces me to Madea movies
In which she narrowly avoids the po-po
In which we take a three-hour tour
In which we take a cupcake tour of FL

Baked Chicken and Dressing

This week holds the 50th birthday of a very good friend of mine and so I'm going to share a recipe she gave me fifteen years ago.  It's a casserole - easy to make ahead in large batches, easy to freeze.  Very yummy, too, everyone loves it.

Baked Chicken and Dressing

1 fryer chicken
1 stick of butter
1 8oz pkg. of herb stuffing mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
2 c chicken broth

Cook chicken in unsalted water.  Cool and debone.
Melt butter and mix with stuffing.....

James Embro Explains Freak Accident from Dakar 2012

Dakar 2012: The Long Flight Home

James is on a flight as I write, having withdrawn from the Dakar 2012 during Stage 7 and I want to kick some booty.  As a truck passed him, a rock strategically flew up and hit him in the face.  He was taken to a local hospital where it was determined he would not require surgery.  However, the swelling around his eye socket prevented his helmet from fitting properly, so he withdrew from the rally.

I can't imagine how disappointed he must be....

Snowmobiling in NY

We are finally getting some cool weather in South Carolina.  This past summer was a doosie.  It has me wishing for snow.  My area of SC usually gets one snowfall a year, sometimes two.

I grew up in upstate New York and spent many months under several feet of snow.

My front yard:

My back yard:

Notice the field behind the pool house - this is where we would snowmobile in the winter and dirt bike in the summer....

Dear 2012, You're Not So Big

2012.  A New Year.

Under normal circumstances, I would have put an exclamation point at the end of that,  but not this year.  This year is intimidating.

This year has me spooked.

This year is a little threatening, a thug.

2012, bad attitude and scary facade, let me know quickly that it is not to be toyed with; it will not be ignored or taken lightly.  2012 circles me on its Harley, stopping and messing with me at its pleasure.  Approaching me, loudly kicking up gravel. Death, decay and ignorance trying to be "all that."  Drawing blood and bruises -- brute force with a foul odor.....

Chinese Pepper Steak

I've been cooking this quick and easy meal since my children were little.  20 years later, it remains one of their favorites.  I double the recipe for my hungry family of five or triple it if we want leftovers.

2 lb.round steak, cut into cubes
1/4 cup veg. oil
1 green pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
1/4 c soy sauce
1 8-oz. tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. sugar

Brown the meat in oil with pepper and onion.  In a bowl, combine soy and tomato sauces, stir in sugar.  Pour the sauce over the meat and simmer until done, maybe 15 minutes.  Serve over rice.

Dakar 2012

The Dakar Rally started once again on January 1.   So I'm a little busy over at The Race Shop trying to keep up with it all.  Between it and my health problems, this blog might get a little slow.

I apologize.... the following links are dead links because James has closed The Race Shop.  He appreciates all the customers he has had over the years.  I am in the process of retrieving all blog posts that were on the site, but I don't have them yet.

Race Shop owner James Embro has returned to the Dakar and left me here.  Read more on his adventure with these links:

Dakar 2012 James Embro Day One
Dakar 2012 James Embro Day Two
Great Video Review Dakar 2012 Day Two

James in Argentina, photo courtesy Leandro Garcia

Drive-Thru Convenience Store, Okeechobee, FL

My husband picked me up the other day all exuberant and flushed.  "I found something you're gonna love!"  He squealed as I jumped in the car.

Three blocks later we pulled up to this red shed.

A drive-through convenience store!

I had never heard of such a thing.  I remember as a kid the few times our family would pile in the car and dad would drive us to the city to go through the automated car wash.  That was a big treat, a real night on the town.  So was this.

We dawdled.  We oohed and ahhed over the racks of candy and shelves of chips.  We marveled that we could actually drive through a convenience store.  We asked the cashier what she recommended.   And look here:

She knew exactly what I would want most!

Delivered right to my car!

How perfect is that? 

Apparently, in our giddy excitement, we took too long.  There was a long line built up when we left.  Oops.

Happy New Year!

I spent New Years Eve getting poked and stabbed, through X-rays and CT scans and was almost wheeled into surgery.  After reviewing the CT scan, the doctor called off surgery, put me on antibiotics and told me to come see him again on New Years day.   Not sure where this is leading, but hope to have answers soon.

On the evening before New Years Eve, a good friend and I were coming down off the mountain at 8-10 mph with fog heavier than I have ever seen in my life.  I thought we were going to have to sleep in the car at the road's edge.

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year holiday.  It's been a fun year here on Planet Pookie and I'm looking forward to more in 2012.