The Princess Cheers (not food related, unless you count SC seafood)
Yes, I adore my grandchildren. So much that I rode for two days in the front of a semi-truck pulling a 38 foot camper, so I could watch the Princess compete in the National Cheerleading/Dance competitions.
Three adults, two kids and a Golden Retriever packed up and left town. We drove through the mountains, had a flat tire on the camper in North Carolina, another in South Carolina and one in Kentucky coming back. We lost the windshield wiper motor in the middle of a rainstorm in West Virginia. We finally limped into Myrtle Beach, rented a black and chrome Challenger (yeah, I know, but I couldn't help myself, LOL) and collapsed. The Princess and her Dad took a helicopter ride, Amanda and Bud rode in a Nascar pace car, we tooled up and down the beach in a golf cart, which is allowed on all streets there which have no more than two lanes. We ate seafood at an all you can eat seafood buffet, although it really wasn't much better than we get here, I'm assuming it's all "institutional food". I did get one amazing flounder sandwich at the small cafe at the KOA campground and Bud touched a shark at the Aquarium. Amanda and the Princess both got stung by jellyfish while swimming. I've never had a positive contact with the ocean, nor has Amanda. Something in there always wants to sting me, bite me or eat me. (sigh) From sharks to stingrays to jellyfish to eels, there's always something.
The flounder was worth it all, though. Bud wanted fried dill pickles so I got that on the side and he ate those with his hot dog. Yeah, we're right at the ocean and he eats a hot dog. (sigh) I threw the bun out and ate the fish, it was SOOOO good. See, now it's food related.....
So, the competition. The girls were ready, they weren't even nervous, although their coach was. Although teams from our town have previously qualified for the Nationals, none have ever placed. 122 teams were in the bracket with the Princess. That is her in the front row, with her hands on her knees.
They cheered, they danced. They did back walkovers and splits and front flips and baskets and scorpions and a bunch of other things I don't know what they were called. They got a "Club Zero" award for having no deductions for faults, but teams have done that before and not placed. So, was it good enough? They have five chances out of 122, and The Princess was relaxed, confident.
So, counting down, in 5th place, from Michigan.......Big Rapids! Her coach cried, the Moms cried, even Bud cheered for his sister.
They got medals and pins, pats on the back, see ya next year in Las Vegas. The next morning we returned the Challenger and left town. The only thing we have left is a picture of the Princess in front of it. Well, that and the memory of the security guard coming into the laundry room at the KOA and asking who was driving the "hot rod". I promptly said "it's mine". About three people cracked up and made remarks about the "hot rod" belonging to Grandma. (grin)
We had a flat tire before we left South Carolina, and that third one in Kentucky. We missed the water park we had booked a campsite at so the kids could play, because of the flat tire. 11 hours on the road the next day and we were home.
I promptly hit the garden and started a batch of sweet pickles and canned 20 quarts of green beans, the garden waits for no one!
I told The Princess that if she went to Vegas next year, she needed to take the "other" Grandma, there's not a single chance I'm ever going to Vegas again, no matter how much I love her.
Annie
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10 years ago- 10 years ago
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Comments (65)I live in North Carolina - in a place that I call Rocky Somewhere because there is certainly no Mount hereabouts. I was born in Kentucky and lived most of my young adulthood in Nashville, and later in Franklin just outside of Nashville, Tennessee I came here in April of 1999, just in time for Floyd and my old lady foursquare house is the only one that we looked at that did not flood - except for the basement which did fill with water right up to the landing of the stairs - but not a drop in the house. We just finished painting her this year and for her age - built ca.1905 - she is looking pretty spiffy. That was an interesting year with lots of tropical storms and a couple of small hurricanes that only blew and blew culminating with Floyd who gave us 22 inches of rain on top of the 18 or so we had from the two weeks previous. All this was preceded by a drought during the spring and early summer and punishing heat from early May on that kept me from seeing some of the glories that are part of my bounty here - so my introduction to the garden that was already started here was not idyllic. For some years I cared for what another had planted and not always as well as I might have as I was homesick for my hill, but then as time and my sometimes less than optimal care took their toll I began to add more touches of my own many of which were not successful as I am a zone too far south for some of my old friends - but the old roses which I have always loved but never had much space to grow when living on the back side of a hill in Tennessee do manage to grow and in some years even do very well. This year it was dry for weeks and then the rains came and came and since this is black spot territory even in the best of times I have had a lot of that. I also had mildew which I had never seen here before but this was on a couple of younger plants so I am hoping they will outgrow the tendency. Still most of my roses managed to put on an adequate show. I miss my hill and my family back in Tennessee and will never get used to the noise associated with living right on the edge of downtown, but I have come to feel at home here. Home is where you put down your roots and the Tulip Poplar who stowed away in a pot from Tennessee is now a tall tree providing more unneeded shade in my too shady back yard - but he is a part of the hill that lives here with me and will have a home until a high wind takes him out. I am a relatively old lady although I don't like thinking about that, but feel that I am still a very young gardener and luckily I have a young husband who labors long and hard to enable my somewhat inchoate dreams. As I get older it seems that the garden is the only place where nothing hurts and so I spend more and more time there - when the weather permits. After June it is usually too hot here most days to do much except provide water for droopy heads, but from September until the end of June there are many fine days for working - or just pottering about feeling as though one is being useful even if one is not....See MoreWhat did you buy online
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LindaC, I was right smack in the middle of Myrtle Beach. The children they have employed as lifeguards ride up and down the beach on 4 wheelers. When the person next to us asked about the jellyfish, having been stung also, he got a shoulder shrug and the remark "you'll get used to it". He was then directed to Walgreens for Jellyfish Sting Relief, which does not work, incidentally.
On South Padre Island it was the 26 species of sharks in the super-salinated bay. In California it was stingrays. Amanda was chased from the water by an eel in Hawaii. Ashley had her own jellyfish incident in Costa Rica. In Florida we were warned not to swim because of the algae. (sigh) I like Lake Michigan, I'm at the top of the food chain and if the weather is right, the waves are big enough to surf. A bit cold, though, LOL.
Jasdip, that Challenger was worth every penny, it was as much fun as the vacation was! I think the seafood was just mediocre because it was a big restaurant and I'm thinking they just get their products from the same big companies as every other restaurant. I'm betting most of it wasn't even local, but the scallops were good and the plain boiled shrimp was too. I got my money's worth from those things, that's certain.
Colleen, I agree, we are twins, it must be. The ocean hates me. The feeling is mutual. Elery used to vacation at Surf City in North Carolina every summer and never had a problem, go figure. And why in the world do they have these competitions in July at some place that's hot? You'd think they'd go to Seattle or something.....
party-music, she sure looks different "made up". (sigh) Too grown up for me....
Rusty, we'll remember this and laugh, it would make a great movie, LOL.
LindaC, here's the beach from where we were:
Annie
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