DISCLAIMER

"To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield"
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1833

"live deep and suck out all the marrow of life"
- Henry David Thoreau, 1845

"Some guys, they just give up living
And start dying little by little, piece by piece
Some guys come home from work and wash up,
And go racin' in the streets"
- Bruce Springsteen, 1977

"...to the heart, there's no time for you to waste.
You won't find your precious answers now
by staying in one place"
- Frank Turner, 2009

"The best things in life aren't things
They're living and breathing"
- Michael Franti , 2011

"Well, this world is ours while we are in it
Grab a hold of my hand
And we can take it
Together, our lives are just one passing minute
It could be gold, if we make it"
- Jay Buchanan, 2012

"We've got these times of our lives
Let's take this time to let it show
'cause these are ours.
These are ours!"
-Justin Furstenfeld, of Blue October 2013

"I owned every second that this world could give,
I saw so many places, the things that I did"
- Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, 2014

"No cash in the bank, no paid holidays
All we have, all we have is
Gas in the tank, maps for the getaway
All we have, all we have is time"
- Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, 2014



All written content and photos by Rob Fulfer unless otherwise indicated.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

201O|A|R - Happy New Year Road Trip

Dec. 30 - Philly, PA to Atlantic City, NJ
We met today at the Philadelphia airport (Ashlee driving, Rob flying). Ashlee had left a few days earlier to visit her childhood friend, Starling, in Washington, D.C. From there we headed to the sun-lit (but not sun-warmed!) beaches of Atlantic City (photo above) to begin our New Year's Eve long-weekend extravaganza. Tonight we had dinner and drinks with Ashlee's co-worker and our friend, Eileen, and her husband, Mike. We went to Dock's Oyster House which serves a heckuva lot more than just oysters. Great fresh seafood was had by all. Thanks to Mike for researching this excellent place. It would definitely be worth another visit. We did a bit of bar-hopping before and after dinner at the Caesar's Casino and at the Tropicana Casino (photo below - Ashlee and Eileen in the back of a cab with the glitter of Atlantic City flashing by). Not much gambling was done by this group other than a few slot pulls that were to no avail, but a great time was had nonetheless.
Dec. 31 - Atlantic City Eileen and Mike had to head back home to Philly this morning, but we weren't lonely too long because our friend and Ashlee's former co-worker, Amy, and her husband, Jeremy, were safely fighting their way through winter weather driving in from New Hampshire to meet us for New Year's Eve dinner and the OAR concert we all had tickets to. Dinner was at PF Chang's and was delicious and technically free since Rob chopped a small poker tournament earlier in the day (while Ashlee slept in and then went shopping) with three other players for a $300 profit that went to paying for dinner for everyone plus some drinks. The concert was at The House of Blues inside the very nice Showboat Casino. There was a big crowd and we met several OAR loyalists who had seen them several times. This made the second time for us this year and could have been the third time except for a scheduling conflict. The guys were spectacular live again as we expected. They only took a few moments to count down the New Year, let the balloons and confetti drop, and then were right back into the music. The venue was good and spacious which was a relief because we had a bit of bad HOB experience on New Year's Eve a few years back in Chicago. Thanks OAR and Atlantic City for showing us how a great New Year's Eve concert is supposed to go down. January 1 - Atlantic City to Charlottesville, VA We all slept in to start 2010 as late as the great little Chelsea Hotel (highly recommended if you are in A/C) would allow us, and then packed up for our respective trips north and south. But before totally departing ways, we had a delicious Italian lunch with a friend of Amy's who lives in the area. Luckily, it will be a short goodbye for us four as Amy and Jeremy are going on our upcoming Caribbean cruise in early February where we are all looking forward to more beach time of a much warmer nature. The rest of the day was taken up with a lot of driving with good views of the Philadelphia and Baltimore skylines, the Beltway of D.C. and the bitter cold and darkness of Northern Virginia. We had been extremely lucky in terms of weather with the timing of this trip as most of the Northeast had been hit hard a week earlier by a huge snowstorm. Charlottesville and the rest of northern and central Virginia were no exception and still had plenty of remnants remaining (photo below). The roads, however, were in great shape and we had no problems traveling. January 2 - Charlottesville, VA to Johnson City, TN We chose to stop in Charlottesville for three reasons: first, it was about half-way home, second, it had a Doubletree Hotel we could stay at to rack up more points for future travel, and third, it's the home of Starr Hill Brewing, one of Rob's favorite regional microbreweries. After another good sleep in, we ambled over to the small hamlet of Crozet, Virginia, about 10 minutes from Charlottesville to check out the brewery (photo below). We got to taste six of their varieties on tap plus an extra secret one since we had driven so far to visit (shhh! don't tell anyone...thanks, Dave!). See Rob's beer blog for more on the beer itself.

After our tasting we took a short 20-minute tour of the facility led by Shelley, a Starr Hill employee who obviously loves his job and his product! Starr Hill got its start in Charlottesville-proper as a brew-pub and then expanded operation in this converted chicken-processing plant in nearby Crozet. They currently distribute to six states with plans to branch out farther very soon. After a few purchases for us and for friends, it was time for some lunch. From literature we found at Starr Hill we decided to try what else - another microbrewery! After punching in the address in the handy Magellan, we traveled east to another small town called Afton just in time to join a big crowd already assembled at the small, but obviously popular, Blue Mountain Brewery and Restaurant.

All the tables were full for lunch but we were offered a sofa, an armchair and a coffee table if we wanted immediate seating. Yes, please! Blue Mountain like a lot of this region we noticed by way of town and road names has a heavy German influence. Their beer offerings were of the Bavarian nature as was their menu (and our selections from it). We started off sharing a big soft pretzel dipped in their own delicious home-made mustard, followed up a bigger-than-we-thought-it-would-be Brat Pizza...yep, pizza with brat slices..ingenious and oh so good. We also got a beer sampler (photo above) which was also very impressive. So much so that Rob had another pint and we bought a 750ml bottle to take with us (again, more info on the beer in Rob's beer blog). With daylight fading in the cold winter afternoon, we decided to check out one more spot that Rob had researched and was recommended by Bon Appetit magazine for their wine, The Kluge Estate & Winery. This beautiful place happens to be just a few miles from Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home and the area's most well-known attraction, but it seemed many miles away from any crowds. We were able to easily and quickly try a flyte of their wines (photo below where Ashlee might be enjoying the fire even more than the wine). The wines were superb as was the ambiance here and we would have loved to linger for a while more, but as the sun began to set in the Blue Ridge Mountains (photo above) we knew we had another long drive ahead of us into the darkness of southern Virginia to the state line and the city shared by two states, Bristol, TN-VA. Plus, we had one more thing to see before we crashed again at another Doubletree Hotel in nearby Johnson City, TN - the famous World's Fastest Half-Mile Bristol Motor Speedway decked out in Christmas lights and a chance to actually drive on the high-banked oval! The drive south did indeed turn out to be long (2oo+ miles), but we made it with just enough time to spare to drive through the impressive Speedway in Lights Christmas Display in and around the Bristol Motor Speedway Complex. This expansive display includes the grounds surrounding the football-stadium-shaped racetrack, the adjoining drag strip and then concluding inside and on the track itself with a carnival of food and rides available in the infield. Despite Christmas being over for a week, this experience was well worth it and highly recommended if you find yourself in the Bristol area around the holidays (or just want to make a fun holiday road trip). They have been putting on this show for several years now, and according to their advertising it only gets bigger every year. Plus, you get to drive on the steep-banked track! (photo above) Even at 5 MPH it's pretty exhilarating and addictive. It took everything we had not to get a speeding ticket on the way home the following day! January 3 - Johnson City to Home Four hours of squabbling over the radio and complaining about the car being a mess. Yep, it's a good thing this road trip is coming to an end! But in all seriousness, this turned out to be one of the best trips we've taken together(and we take a lot of trips!). We thoroughly enjoyed Atlantic City which has really cleaned up its act from the reputation it had gotten in the past of being dirty and crime-ridden. The Charlottesville area turned out to be a great surprise and a real hidden gem. Very undeveloped in terms of touristy crap and instead incredibly pristine in terms of the preservation of history and nature, while still having tons of things to see and do and interesting places to eat and perhaps have a drink or two. What a great way to usher in 2010! We got a feeling it's gonna be a wonderful year as well as a great new decade.!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Collages 11

It was another busy year for us and the collage for 2009 has come together nicely. Like the past two years, we had enough memorabilia to fill an entire frame in one year with tons of great concerts, amazing trips to the Caribbean and Ireland, plus Las Vegas. It went on the wall today along with our other ten framed collages and made another great addition to the den. 19 years and counting. We are already looking forward to 2010.

Friday, December 4, 2009

BIRM-traIN-GHAM

Friday, December 4, 2009 Even though we had just made a trip to Austin to see our favorite band, Train, perform live on their Save Me San Francisco Tour; when they added nearby Birmingham, Alabama, to the schedule and the tickets were only $15 each, we just couldn't resist. We headed out that afternoon for the 3-hour drive south because the tickets said the show started at 7 PM which seemed a little early. Sure enough after we checked in to our Doubletree hotel (more Hilton points to use later!) and walked a couple of blocks to the 5 Points Music Hall there was a line to get in the place just before 7 PM...but the show didn't start until 9 PM!!! Ugghh, looks like it was a misprint on the tickets that should have read "Doors Open at 7 PM." Because of the long line to get in we figured we wouldn't get as close to the stage as we did in Austin, but thanks to the grueling 2-hour wait, we actually were a few rows closer providing great views of Train and their sensational opening act, Serena Ryder (photo below). Her strong vocals and emotional delivery reminds one of an early Melissa Etheridge before she got famous and over-focused on her sexual preference instead of her music. The 5 Points Music Hall has had a strange little history we learned via Google on Ashlee's Blackberry while we killed time before the show. Evidently, the building was originally a Piggly Wiggly grocery store. It became a hot-bed of live music in Birmingham throughout the 90's and the early part of this century until a double-homicide in the parking lot by an underage patron shut it down for several years. It re-opened a couple of years ago and is building back up its reputation for great live music. We were impressed with the venue for the most part. Good acoustics and sight lines to the stage. A bit smaller than La Zona Rosa in Austin, but not too cramped. The place was packed and Train has a huge following in Birmingham it seems. Lead singer, Pat Monahan (photo above), even told a story of how Birmingham is near and dear to the band's heart because it was one of the first major cities whose prominent radio station featured the first songs from the band on their regular rotation which led to growing exposure and on to nationwide success. I guess that explains why Birmingham was added to the tour dates and not Nashville which we were hoping. This acoustic show put on by Train was not only different in sound, but also in song selection, from two weeks ago in Austin. This made it a wholly unique experience. After the amazing show, we stepped outside with the bustling crowd just in time to see huge snow flakes billowing down from the sky. Too bad our camera batteries were dead! But still a very memorable night deep in the heart of Alabama with our favorite band of all time as we chalked up an 8th time we have seen them live and they still never disappoint.