Food, Trip Pictures, Garrett's Shop!

And what do all these have in common? They are all in the same blog post silly! Sheesh.

Firstly, let's head back to downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, North American Continent, Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy.

These are more pics from Panther Stadium. I was playing around with lighting and lens flare over the two nice panther sculptures out front. Which pic do you like better?

This one?



Or this one?

BTW, and I've mentioned this before, the trick to getting really good lens flare effects is not to clean the dust off your camera lens for a few days. Just saying mates.

Hey look! Homemade crackers by Yours Truly!


If you'd like to know how to make them (and how easy they are to make) hop (don't skip, HOP!) on over to this right-up write here. I added a few spices to the recipe for this batch. Ground coriander seed and ground sumac berries. No, not the poisonous kind of sumac --well at least I hope not! Oh, and half olive oil and half sesame oil. They WERE very tasty. Just remember to let them cool completely before you eat them, they taste so much more better when they are cool.

Remember when I told you that Wifey-Poo and I bought a van? A 2001 Mitsubishi Express short-wheel-base? Built at the old Mitsubishi plant right here in South Oz btw. Anyways, we shall be using it for camping. And we now have a tent. We have a big tent. No, scratch that. We have a HUGE tent!

When the front awning of the tent is lifted up and staked up the whole thing is 6 metres long. We set it up in the backyard the other day. Our backyard wasn't large enough to fully stake the tent down so it doesn't appear "tight" in this pic, but trust me on the fact  that it is GREAT! And I can stand up completely straight without hitting my head! Two separate rooms in the back, windows, 2 entrances.


We'll only be setting it up if we are staying more than one night in a place. Otherwise it'll be inflatable mattress in the van, no worries there mates. We've already got a folding picnic table, chairs, 2 cookers, LED lights, portable DVD player, sleeping bags (the kind that you can zip together *wink*). Just need to get a nice inflatable queen-sized mattress and a fold-up gazebo and we'll be set! And of course a portable loo with it's own pop-up ensuite. And of course a sun shower. Eventually we'll hopefully get solar panels on the roof.

Eventually we'll get a couple of 12V AGM batteries for powering heaters, a/c, fridge, laptops, and whatnot.

We won't exactly be roughing it, that is for sure mates :-}

I am quite sure that there are some of me mates up in Alaska (*cough cough* you know who you are) who wouldn't even regard this as camping, more like a luxury home-away-from-home type of thingy.

Getting back to my recent USofA trip. Specifically the day in Florida. Gramma had us take her to her favourite park by the river. Very nice place. Fountains, covered picnic areas, long jetty (remember the fish school pics a few posts back?) and a building that part of it housed a small nautical museum --you may remember seeing the 100 year old outboard Evinrude a few posts ago.


Yeah, now that's a powerboat!

Gramma couldn't understand why I was taking so many pictures of everything. "That's just a tree. Whaddya need a picture of that for?" was an example. She is also very deaf. And she talks very loud. Whenever you have a conversation with gramma everyone within 20 metres will hear every single word. More about that in another post.

There is a nice fountain out front for the local kids to play in. I finally got a pic with only one of the brats children in it.

More about the brats children and the fountain in a later post.

Meanwhile, back at the way-too-warm-than-they-are-supposed-to-be Luray Caverns, Yours Truly takes more pictures.


And this one too, also.



These next pictures are all going to be from the same place. Garrett's Antiques and Indian Shop to be precise. Everything in it is either antique from the area or authentic Native American craft. No made in China crap here! The guy who owns it is half Cherokee, I'm guessing mid-60's as he served in 'Nam. He travels around to the major tribes and reservations bulk-buying handicrafts from craftsmen and craftswomen.

He also has works from indigenous peoples throughout the world; I even saw an authentic Aussie boomerang in one corner!

It's in an old trading post, well over 100 years old that's for sure. He also has cords and cords of seasoned, split firewood around for sale too. There is a great peach tree around the back. He encouraged Anna and I to help ourselves to the peaches else they'll just go to the squirrels.

We chatted with him for almost half an hour before we even went inside. He knows so much about so many different tribes! Friendly, mellow, laid-back he is. Needless to say we got along great!

I'll shut up now and just let the pictures tell the tale of Garrett's Shop.





































I can always relax wherever and whenever I am. Born with that skill, I was.

If you are in the Charlotte area, be sure to check Garrett's place out, you won't be disappointed mates!