48 Hour Cleanse

Ok - my weight is OOC (out of control) and I just have to do SOMETHING to kick-start my system. I am really not into any kind of fad or extreme diets but the Doctor Oz 48 Hour Cleanse looked reasonable, wasn't any kind of starvation thing, and for 2 days I could do just about anything. I mentioned it to Mr. Bill and he was a go!

There is a shopping list and recipes on the website - the shopping list is extensive and most of the items I did not have in the house, sad to say, so it cost a pretty penny to get everything. I did spend a little bit of time looking at the recipes to make sure I needed all of the items and if I should double the ingredients for two people - luckily I did not do the latter because it seems we have just the right amount.I bought as many of the non-perishable items as I could while we were in Buffalo: A- because I had access to a health food store and B- because I had absolutely no idea when were going to attempt this

pic from the website below

When we left Buffalo we were going to the hash weekend, so no way were we going to do it there, then we decided to stay for the Sirius Rising Festival - again, a big NO...after that we were going to go to the Fleetwood Factory for service in Indiana and parking in their lot the weekend before with no access to a nice bathroom or a dump, if we needed it, AND we were going to meet a friend for drinks and pizza. OMG - just finding two days to do this was becoming stressful! We have one more day getting serviced and then we are going to leave on Wednesday to see my friend Lonna, who I met in Cedar Key, and then go further north to visit Bill's son, Will in Roscommon, MI. I went on Monday to Fort Wayne, IN to shop for the fresh produce so we now have it in the house and have to do this! No time like the present....we decided to start today while parked in a bay in the factory service center and do our 2nd day while on the road to Lonna's. I explained to Lonna that we wouldn't be able to eat or drink with her Wednesday but we were going to stay an extra day there and hopefully not be as crabby as I suspect we'll be by tomorrow afternoon! She was cool with it as she does cleanses all the time.

This morning the first thing Bill had to deal with was the "no coffee" factor. That is a huge part of his morning, but he took it in stride - even when he had to go sit in the Fleetwood office working on the warranty issues of our service and repairs, where the strong smell of coffee permeated the room. I am not really a coffee drinker so that wasn't a big deal for me. I made the quinoa and prunes dish which took a super long time to make. I doubled the recipe and ended up with quite a bit, but I found out that I can store it and reheat for tomorrow. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste, as was Bill. I have always wanted to try quinoa and know that it can be used in many different ways so already this cleanse was taking me in a positive direction. I can actually see me making this for breakfast in the future, well, maybe - it was a lot of work!

There is a juice blend that you make and a smoothie for lunch - they have both been delicious and for a snack I cut up cucumber, string beans and celery tossed in a olive oil, lemon, salt & pepper dressing. We can drink the juice blend and vegies all through the day.

Around 4:30 Bill was having a little meltdown and exclaimed "why are you starving me?!" He also commented that he was a bit lethargic - I am sure part of this was the no coffee thing. I made the cabbage soup which was ok, not as good as the Weight Watchers cabbage soup, but I could get it down. You were also supposed to eat some warmed up naturally fermented sauerkraut, and cut up apples - Bill ate that, I just had the warmed up apples. We went for a walk down to the local RedBox to get a movie and when we came back the house WREAKED of cabbage and sauerkraut - YUCH!  We watched the Sherlock Holmes movie which was a great idea to take our minds off of FOOD. Surprisingly I really wasn't too hungry until late that evening but by then it was time to go to sleep. Once we got to sleep we both had a good night, maybe even better than normal.

The next day was moving day - leaving the Fleetwood Factory Service Center and heading to Michigan. Wasn't famished when we woke up and we had the quinoa and prunes again for breakfast. Everything seemed normal with my digestive system. I was peeing a lot but not particularly hydrated so I need to concentrate on drinking more water today. I lost a little over a pound and Bill lost about 1/2 a pound.

I made the kale/cucumber/pineapple smoothie for a snack - way too thick but once we watered it down with  melted ice cubes it was drinkable. I waited too long to drink it and don't think I ate enough of the cereal this morning because I kind of bonked about 1:30 - splitting headache and hard to function. By this time we had been on the road a few hours and Bill was doing great. I pulled out the vegies for our snack and at 3pm he was still going strong and hadn't wanted to stop yet for our lunch smoothie.

Well we made it through the rest of the day and evening without a problem. I think the soup actually tasted better the second day, as most soups do. This morning we both had lost 2 lbs and I am feeling great and focused on eating better.

Click here for the link to the website that helps you save while shopping for this cleanse.

Eerie Hash

A beautiful, rolly, polly ride to Brushwood.

Our timing to leave Buffalo was perfect. After checking out of the campground, we started our journey to get the RV repaired and serviced in Decatur, Indiana, at the factory where they manufacture Fleetwoods. We were trying to figure out where to stay overnight on the way, since it was more than a day’s drive, and I saw that we would be passing through Erie, Pennsylvania. It just so happens that a friend of mine from the early 90’s, Dick Traci (hash name), when I was hashing in Waukesha, Wisconsin, founded a hash in Erie in ’93, so we checked the hash websites and found out they were having their 19^th anniversary hash weekend at a place called the Brushwood Folklore Center in the middle of Amish country in the southwest corner of New York. So Debby got in touch with Swings Both Ways, the Eerie GM, and we were on our way. 

Brushwood is an interesting place. The people that come here are very much into paganism, druids, and all sorts of spiritualistic things. It’s a tiny bit like going to a clothing-optional dungeons & dragons convention. The clothing optional part, along with showers and a hot tub, made this a perfect place for a hash weekend.

We arrived on Thursday, so we were a bit early for the hash, however there were several Eerie (their spelling) hashers here already and we hooked up with them right away. The hash was setting up in the RV camping area, which worked great for us. We paid a bit extra for electricity—only 15 amps so we couldn’t run the air conditioner—but it’s always nice to have power and not need to run the genny, and we were close to all the action. I kept the music going while everybody set up and by Thursday night we were ready for our first trail, set by the Toronto Women’s Alternative Thursdays Hash (you figure it out…and it’s not twath). It was a short, flip flop-friendly trail hared by our new friend "Cougar," followed by a rare short circle by Dick Traci.

Friday was setup day for the Eerie hashers. It was really nice to be a visitor and not have to work on preparations for the weekend. I think we’ve been through that enough times to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor. We had been invited to join the traditional Friday morning breakfast with the crew that was going to the market to do the shopping for the weekend’s meals. Little did we realize that we were going to be driving about 40 minutes into an “interesting” part of Erie for what turned out to be an absolutely average meal. But the company was good, we were made to feel welcome to the group (as was the case all weekend), and we got to do some shopping. Find of the day was a candle made in a coffee can decorated with an RV and lots of the things that are essential to RV living. 

Cool Candle

The weekend included trails every day, with the main trail being on Saturday. The Friday night trail was a wee bit longer than Thursday’s and included a trip through the labyrinth and into the Fairy Woods with a multitude of jello and pudding shots along the way - KILLER pudding shots. After the trail, Debby got her first taste of a Dick Traci circle, which lasted for hours and hours without getting boring.

Saturday’s trail was just about all shiggy through the woods around the park. There were a couple of turkey/eagle splits and somewhere in the neighborhood of five beer checks—fun time for all. The circle was classic Dick Traci style. About six ice blocks were placed in the circle and everyone that got a down down had to sit on the ice. Debby has an aversion to coldness so she wasn’t too keen on sitting on the ice and went home before she got called up. When they did call her, I told them she was in time out, which they considered an acceptable excuse. Dick has a way of dragging out the down downs to give the offenders a little extra time on the ice and I got to spend more than my share of time there. The best part of the day was the cook-your-own-steak dinner with potatoes and corn and was one of the best hash weekend meals yet.

Sunday morning brought rain, which threatened to wash out the Sunday morning mimosa hash. But hashers are creative, so the pack gathered under one of the shade structures lifted up the four corners and meandered the 1000 or so feet to the North Stage where mimosas were served under the stage cover. Once again, Dick Traci led another epic, endless circle with participants sitting on what was left of the ice from Saturday. That afternoon Brushwood loaded up the tractor/hay wagon and we all piled in for a tour of the grounds. A few brought their drums and we had a magical ride.

Hayride around Brushwood, complete with drummers!

Sunday night, after a day of drinking, those of us that were left, joined in a drinking game, Thumper, in which everyone picks a fun name that includes some body language. You start with someone calling out a name, with appropriate physical embellishment. The person whose name was called, repeats his name and calls out another, and on and it goes until someone messes up. Perhaps the best name was the late arrival who said “I’m not playing,” which immediately became his name and indeed he was playing.

On Monday, we watched as our new friends from the Eerie Hash packed up and went back to their boring lives in the city. About five hashers stayed behind for the Sirius Rising festival and Debby and I decided that we would do the same.

Buffalo, NY

Eddie Simpson, Eddie Simpson...I have heard soooo many stories about this guy and I was going to finally get to meet him! Found the Darien Lakes State Park which was about 30 miles from Buffalo and, we thought, sported a nice little beach at the lake - hahahaha - not so much!! Well, it was a nice little spot to stay in and we did have a 50amp hook-up which meant we could run both of our air conditioners! Sometimes things just get down to the basics - when it's 90 degrees outside this mama wants her A-C!!

Bill's cousin Katie lives in Buffalo and we had both just met her for the first time,2 years ago, at the Doane Family Reunion. We were excited to see her again and met her for sushi at Seabar (her favorite) and then she took us to the wonderful Chocolate Bar! I had a peanut-butter cup martini and Katie had an orange chocolate martini - Bill was a fuddy duddy and just had a plain 'ol gibson - he ended up being very jealous of our yummy drinks, and then Katie bought us a round of Bailey' shots in chocolate shot cups - YUMMY!

We spent the next day doing laundry and I got a pedicure, and then finally, Eddie was going to come over for a BBQ. It was so cute to see the boys together reminiscing about their high school antics and all the trouble they got in. He and Bill had done a cross country trip together the winter of 1973 and Ed loved telling "his side" of that story, which I think even surprised Bill as he must have blocked most of it out! The following day we found a good spot to sample the city's famous "beef on weck" & wings; then Bill went over to spend the evening with Eddie's family and I crashed early.

Before this trip the only place I had been in New York was New York City. But New York is such a large state and so very different from NYC - this time of year it is incredibly lush and green and with so much undeveloped land, it really surprised me.

FingerLakes, New York

Well, well, well...here we are two weeks AFTER we were at the Finger Lakes that I am now blogging about - guess I'm just not meant to be posting on a timely basis, sigh...

One of the questions we get asked and even ask ourselves is, how do we decide where to go next! Most of our travels this year revolve around visiting friends and family all over the country and of course all of our travel is weather driven. But that is not to say that we don't look at the map and say, oh I've always wanted to go HERE! And that's how we ended up in the Finger Lakes. Bill had gone to high school for a few years in Buffalo and had remembered hearing that the Finger Lakes was a cool spot to visit and it just happened to be on our way to Buffalo. I knew absolutely nothing about the Finger Lakes but did find us a nice campground at the Keuka Lake State Park - no hook ups but at least the spot was fairly level and without jacks that was what we needed!

While checking in I noticed an overabundance of brochures on wine and beer tasting and found out that there were over 100 wineries and over a dozen breweries in the area! How cool for us!! We got in early, packed a lunch and headed directly down to the beach. We both love to hang out at the beach and just veg and this was the place to do just that!

We spent the next day wine and beer tasting...nothing too spectacular in the way of either wine or beer, but being from California with Napa Valley moments away, we are a bit jaded...but it was a nice day driving around the lake and seeing the area.

The first winery we stopped at was Bully Hill. Now I had read a bunch of very mixed reviews on this winery and I was really going for lunch at the restaurant and should have just kept it at that! After a fairly decent lunch we headed over to do some wine tasting. They bring you in as a large group of 20+ people and you stand at this very large oval bar. They pick 5 wines for you to taste, as a group, and the facilitator has a mic and a shpiel....the wine was incredibly sweet and after a small sip of each I dumped every glass...you can pass on this one! Souvenir glasses, which were included in the price, were given away to some nearby campers - we did warn them that they shouldn't let people think they like this place!

Not wanting to travel too far we decided to drive to the local town of Penn Yang for the evening. I am really big into YELP! and use it often - it's such a great vehicle to navigate the best restaurants, bars, hair salons etc and Lloyd's got a decent review, so off we went. One of the comments about Lloyds was that it was a "local's" spot but they welcomed visitors and boy, they couldn't have been more dead on! This was a great little bar and the owner happened to be trying to pick up on the chica sitting next to me and it just went up from there!  He stocked some good bottled beer and was impressed with our choices, he bought us all tequila shots and gifted me a great little tee!

Back in Pittsfield, MA!

What can we say - we love Van and Peggy and they have an awesome large, level spot for us to park in! We left the Whites thinking we would drive over to Vermont and hit up the Ben & Jerry's for a tour and some tasting but we both were just ready to start heading towards the FingerLakes, our next stop, and then to Buffalo to see Bill's high school friend, Eddie Simpson and his cousin, Katie.

As I've mentioned before we have been trying to keep the driving hours short but Bill was on a roll and after looking at the map noticed that Pittsfield wasn't too much of a stretch for us and just a mite better than overnighting in a Walmart parking lot! We gave Van a call and they were just heading into a movie and it looked like we would arrive in time to meet them all for dinner afterwards.

Dinner al fresco with Van, Peggy and their son Elliott

Since we left the White Mountains our leveling system was constantly beeping at us with error messages so we knew we were going to have some issues once we stopped and that we did. We went to put down our jacks and the rear right jack just dropped - ok NOW we had a real problem! Bill was able to get some rope and tie it up but we really didn't want to drive too far like that. We had planned on leaving the next day to go for two nights to another nudist campground...but it was the 4th of July and we didn't want to get stuck anywhere, so we were happy to spend another night with good friends and deal with it all LATER!

We ended up at a local rv repair place the next morning and while they were removing the offending jack and trying to do some troubleshooting we went to see if we could find more of that yummy rye bread we purchased the last time we were in the area. The bread store is only open on Fridays and Saturdays but we drove by and saw that there were people working inside and made a phone call to see if we could pick up a few loaves - lucky for us we were able to get one big one and that'll just have to hold us awhile!

Our last loaf of corned rye bread for awhile :(

Eventually we were on our way - ending up at a Camping World to spend the night, half-way to Buffalo. Now that was a different experience! We have spent the night in Walmart, Cracker Barrel and a few other parking lots, but never in a Camping World and I must say we have been missing out on the party! I believe the majority of people who park there are waiting to be serviced, so unlike us, everyone we spoke to all had some gripe and were a bit frustrated about the wait time to get their rigs repaired.

Dining al fresco, curbside!

There were two gazillion dollar rigs there with BBQ's built into their slide-outs, towing beautiful matched trailers with 2 Porsches a piece! Overheard that they race them...two aging guys and one trophy wife, don't even aks! We became friendly with another couple who had been there a few days and gave us the low down, spent the evening sharing road stories and drinking wine - a fabulous way to boondock in a parking lot!

White Mountains of New Hampshire

We had an uneventful, but beautiful, drive to the White Mountains where we had gotten lucky and reserved a campsite at the Dolly Copp campground. This is the biggest campground in the national park and the campsites are pretty open - we got a huge, very unlevel spot and settled in. Within an hour of our arrival we received a text from Sini and Bob that they were on there way and would be there soon. We had no idea they were headed our way as they were going all the way to the most north-eastern point of Maine when they last left us - boy were they making tracks!!

check out just how level we are NOT!

They got a "walk-in" (no rezzie) site right across from us and we started setting up for a campfire. When we pulled up we found out the fireman camped next door to us with his wife and 2 young boys was at the ER after having a little accident chopping wood - OUCH!


We found out the mountain shadowing us had a nice trail straight up  and we planned it for the next day. Weather just wasn't cooperating for a big hike up Mt. Washington so we settled for Imp Mountain. We packed our lunches and off we went.

 A rugged trail that started with a teaser that made it look easy but the trail map told another story.  Before long we were climbing up boulders and then poof, when we got to the top we were standing on top of the Imp's head - the Imp is a cliff about 1500 ft straight down and we could see forever -a  great view of our campsite, Mt. Washington with all the other presidential mountains.

A perfect place to stop for lunch.
The hike down was supposed to be a "stroll" - but the trail was all boulders and we had to hop from rock to rock for 4 miles and then the last mile the skies opened up and dumped but luckily we were in a heavily wooded area and the trickle that came through actually felt great!

our campground

 

sweet lunch stop!

We've camped at quite a few parks lately where we were very unlevel and may have overextended our jacks. When we got ready to leave the campsite we had a bit of an issue pulling up our jacks and found out later we had a bigger issue!