So the other day Blue and the folks went somewhere for a little while and came back smelling of a strange place. Today Bentley and I suspect we were taken to the same locale.
The day got off to a wonderful start - Mom made homemade blueberry buttermilk pancakes and we each got a spud-sized portion with Maine maple syrup. Then, it started to get ugly.
First, Dad starts cleaning all our drool and hair off the cabinets with some lemon-smelling spray. Then he breaks out these stinky, flowery smelling cloths and rubs us down, taking away all our hard work building up our special "essence", then to really add insult to injury he CLEANS OUR EARS!
Can you imagine???
We were all excited to get in the car, even though we didn't smell right, because we thought we might be going someplace fun. Well, we ended up at this place where first they weighed us (don't they know you shouldn't ask a lady her age or weight?), then this guy who looked like chef Hubert Keller and Mom and Dad called "doctor" stuck each of us with needles. Bentley went first and squeaked like a puppy. Blue pretended not to react to his, but I know better. Then the evil man snuck up on me while I was reading the most interesting P-mail on the floor. He surprised me so bad I tinkled myself.
That is no way to treat a princess!
When we got home, Mom gave us each what she called a "dental chew", but it sure tasted like fresh Caribou to me. I had just gotten it all squishy and perfect and then this hand came into my field of view and tried to take the tasty Caribou haunch away. Well, as any good huntress would do I took Dad downtown to Ree Ree town for daring to approach my kill. I also swallowed the chew, I mean haunch, whole.
Then the folks went and played golf for hours, leaving us with no way to open the cabinet where the rest of the Caribou was stashed.
Much later, after we all retired for the evening, I, Empress Ree, extracted my revenge and tried to vaporize the peasants with my atomic cabbage gas while they slept.
Her esteemed highness,
The Empress Ree
Today more shoes came back with the folks, this time it was yet another pair of sneakers for Mom. They look the same to me as all the other sneakers. The only difference we can determine is that they smell like leather and not corn chips. They actually went to a shoe factory here in Maine called "New Balance".Looking around we are surrounded by shoes, we think the coach is actually a large shoe box, we are the spuds who live in a shoe! There are all sorts of shoes, dress shoes of various colors, casual shoes of yet more colors. Then there are shoes that are everyday shoes, too casual for casual and too numerous to keep track of. There are sneakers for running, walking, training and even shopping. There are sandals for walking, hiking and gardening. There are shoes made of rubber and shoes with cleats. There are waterproof shoes, water resistant shoes and shoes for cold weather. Shoes for hot weather, shoes for the yard, shoes for driving and shoes for dining.
And then there's us, barefoot, naked and living in a shoe box.
The weekend has arrived and we got to see a few new campers pull in. One set we'll call "Citiots", a term we learned from Uncle John. They're the clueless, slobby weekend warriors of camping. After taking probably an hour to set up their rig, they let their dogs run around loose and do their "business" without caring where they pooped and not picking it up. Both are grave violations of considerate camping AND the campground rules. Ugh!
The others seem to be Maine's version of rednecks. They have mighty fine farmers' tans when their shirts are removed (which a few really should think twice about doing). They came in with one of those toy-hauler trailers, 4 pickup trucks and a whole mess of 20-somethings and their ATVs. Oh, and about 3 cords of firewood. That's quite the bonfire they have burning in their fire ring! We haven't heard Kum-by-ya being sung yet, but I smelled Smores last night so they can't be all that bad. They were gone ATV-ing for almost 10 hours and a couple were moving kind of slow when they got back. Some of them, but not all, went up to the bathhouse when they returned, others remained eau naturale, which ought to be mighty "aromatic" there in the toy-hauler bunkhouse that they're all sleeping in. Anyway, I'll bet some are missing their mojo today (and it will catch up with them when they're ancient like Mom and Dad.)
We were glad they couldn't smell the Scrapple we had for breakfast - we only get it a couple of times a year so we don't like to share. If you don't know, Scrapple is a brick of something that resembles a cross between breakfast sausage (some say it's everything but the oink) and corn pudding. You slice it and pan fry it and then have it with a little maple syrup. For you Texan bloggeratzi, you can buy it in the frozen section at Central Market.
Speaking of yummy things, it rained all day on Thursday and Mom was suffering terrible cabin fever so she finally made me something with BLUEberries. It's the Barefoot Contessa's BLUEberry crumb cake and it's really tasty. Kind of like a Drake's coffee cake meets a BLUEberry muffin:
Blueberry Crumb Cake ... 2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home, All Rights Reserved
For the streusel:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
For the cake:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (3/4 stick)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup fresh blueberries
Confectioners' sugar for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-inch round baking pan.
For the streusel:
Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter and then the flour. Mix well and set aside.
For the cake:
Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, lemon zest, and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Fold in the blueberries and stir with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out with a knife. With your fingers, crumble the topping evenly over the batter. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely and serve sprinkled with confectioners' sugar.
Have you seen my mojo?
The other day when the folks were out playing golf I bounced wrong and got an owie. I could not jump and bounce from couch to chair to dinette back to couch with a half gainer dashboard landing 'cause it hurt and made me squeek like a puppy.
Did I get ANY sympathy from the rest of the posse? Nope! They just made fun of me and said I lost my mojo.
The folks decided that since all I was doing was whimpering we would go visit the local vet. He was very nice and decided I just had a pinched nerve or something in my back. He gave me some pills to help. Its now been a few days and I'm feeling better, most of my bounce is back and a good part of my mojo. Soon I will by attempting my booty shaking triple lindy bounce move so all can see my mojo.
Oh and because the rest of the posse made fun of me, I reminded the vet that they needed their booster Lyme shots, so they get go meet him and his vaccination needle on Wednesday. Hope they have their mojo with them!
...falls steady on the lane. Or the cart path.
We have been in Palmyra, Maine since lunchtime Sunday and it has rained a little (or a lot) every day, mostly in the AM with the PM being fairly dry and sunny. We're staying at the Palmyra Golf and RV Resort since it gives us a good campground to base the coach in for visiting Grandma in Rangeley in a couple of weeks AND it is part of an 18 hole golf course complex.
We didn't know what to expect, but it's a very quiet campground in a small town. There are only a couple of other campers here, Dad thinks it's just early in the season. It's great for us since the shades in the coach stay up all the time and we can easily see out all the windows, which is very nice. The folks say the course is like having your own private golf club to play at, you rarely see other golfers during your round. It's very affordable and as campers they get a discount, only $13 for 9 and $21 for 18 holes when they walk with the push carts they bought in Virginia.
I have learned a couple of things about the folks this week:
They're crazy, well actually I knew that already but this is just further confirmation. They played 9 holes of golf in the light rain on Monday. I don't even like getting my feet wet let alone going out in the rain to do my hurry up. They came back smelling like wet human so I put Febreeze on the grocery list for them. Looking at the windows I think I should have also put down Windex, looks like some nose may have gotten on them.
Dad is a total shoe ho'. This time he bought himself a pair of waterproof golf shoes, as the ones he played with in the rain are still wet. Maybe that's why he played in the rain - it gave him an excuse to buy more shoes. Since I don't like wet feet I understand, but he is still a shoe ho'.
The folks are directionally challenged. I knew Dad was, however apparently Mom has issues as well. The second time they played the exact same 9 holes, they walked to the wrong tee box and played #6, totally skipping #4 and #5. They had to hike all the way back to the beginning, play the ones they missed, then replay #6 (both getting worse scores the second time around). They said it was cost-effective, playing 10 and walking 11 holes' worth but I think they just need to learn how to read a map or perhaps just look at the big fancy placards that are at the start of each hole. They also has some minor issues finding their golf balls on some of the fairways, there are mushrooms that grow that look suspiciously like a golf balls, yes that's one of the 'shrooms in the picture.
On another note they don't like to share their seafood. Once again they bought hot, steamed lobsters at the grocery store and ate them in front of us without offering so much as a lick of the butter dish. I'm glad we don't have these cheap lobster cooking stores back home or we'd never get a handout. I can't tell you the last time I tasted pizza crust.
I did see some buttermilk go into the fridge and there's a jug of Maine maple syrup on the counter now, so cross your paws that there are pancakes in our future, hopefully with BLUEberries....
Blue
The last few days we have been visiting Freeport, Maine, home of LL Bean. The weather has been fantastic, days in the mid 70's, nights in the 50's. What we really like is that the sun rises just before 5am, and as the sun rises so must the Spuds!. The folks seem to be somewhat unsure of this early rising but that's just tough!
The campground is getting a 12 paws up, that's 4 up from each of us. It's the Freeport-Durham KOA and it has lots of wide open spaces for us to run and explore plus it has big grass fields and nice gravel pads, those help keep our paws clean. The sites alternate direction so coaches share utility sides and patio sides, this way the patios don't face the utilities, very nice, plus the space between sites is huge, you could easy put in another coach, nice and wide! We all like that it's still early in the season, so the noisy children are all still in school and the tourist buses haven't swarmed into town so it's very pleasant to shop.
Plus since the campground isn't busy, we can catch a few zzz's during the day while the folks are out, so we're more relaxed, better rested, and ready to go again at 5 AM!
The folks have been on a seafood binge, seafood newburg, clam chowder (that's chowdah), scallops, steamers and whole lobsters. They said something about enjoying having good seafood mongers to go to. They also learned the hard way that the largest pot in the coach doesn't quite hold 4 pounds of steamers. The local grocery store will actually cook your lobsters for you while you wait and they don't charge extra. That means the folks can enjoy our company while they eat their lobsters (and Blue can sneak a taste from the ramekin of melted butter when they aren't looking). Then we all have wild Maine blueberry ice cream for dessert.
In addition to the seafood there has been quite a bit of shopping, we can smell some new toys in the cabinet and they smell good. Dad came back with several pairs of new Clarks sandals, he is quite the shoe ho'. They also went to LL Bean's bike and boating store yesterday and bought me a bright red PFD. That stands for "Puppy Flotation Device". On the summer trip last year I discovered my inner Mark Spitz here in Maine, and when I'm in the water I get so excited I just swim wherever and don't want to come back in. Then I get all tired out and it's hard to swim back. My big paws are excellent paddles but they are really heavy when they're wet.
The folks have also been fitting in a little golf at the local "country club". $10 to walk 9 holes each lets them afford all the shopping and seafood and still get some exercise.
We can't wait to come back to this campground next year and hopefully stay longer.
Bentley
For the past few days we've been in the Hudson Valley Region of New York. Mom and Dad used to live in the area and there's family here. There are a lot of trees and quaint towns that the folks say have gotten a bit more touristy in the past 15 years.
We've learned that whenever a road rounds a bend of more than a certain degree, Jill, our GPS, thinks it's a new road. So every time we went from the campground to Uncle John and Aunt Sue's (home of Greco-Golden Wrestling), Jill kept telling us we had to "turn right on Bangal-Amenia Road" 6 or 7 times even though we were already on it. And on the way back, we had to "turn left on Bangal-Amenia Road" repeatedly.
Bangal-Amenia Road
Follow follow follow follow
Just like all the others on this trip, this is the folks' first time at this campground, called Interlake Farm and RV Sales in Rhinebeck. It was the closest to Mom's brother's house. There weren't many reviews on-line but the website said they were "Big Rig Friendly". Dad says maybe the camp hosts are, but the campground really isn't. He took some photos to show what he meant by that. One photo shows how unlevel and short the site was, the second shows how far we had to back up to get the front of the coach off the road.Anyway, we had a fun but exhausting time at our cousins. They are 2 Golden Retrievers and HUGE plus their big Texas hair made them look even BIGGER. We liked their lake-sized water bowl that we could float our ears in. Lacey and Cooper also live with several cats and Blue had a blast chasing one of them all over the house, he must have thought it was a squirrel. The boys also explored something called a "basement". I'm not sure what it is but it's down some stairs and into the dark underground and I kept hearing strange thunder from down under. I stayed upstairs where the chocolate mousse cake and authentic rye bread was (but officially I didn't get any).
Ree
Today the folks went to tour the Air and Space Museum. Since they had both been to the original one located on the Main Mall with all the other Smithsonian museums, they decided to explore the newer Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center a little further away, especially since it contains the space shuttle Enterprise.
Apparently, they were very pleased with their choice, since they were gone all day. Not only did they get to see the shuttle, they said there were airplanes everywhere. They were on the floor, on risers, and hanging from the rafters of "America's Hangar". There were airplane and helicopter engines of all kinds as well, and quite the nostalgic display of the computers that, until as recent as 1996, were controlling satellites and various space experiments. One had all of 128k of memory.
The center was huge and will be getting larger in a few years when they add on the restoration wing, where you will be able to watch the detailed restoration of airplanes and other future exhibits. The Udvar-Hazy Center houses 80% of the National Air and Space collection and Dad took photos of almost everything. A lot of the planes are one of a kind, the only one remaining that's known to exist and all were restored to nearly-new condition.
Today the folks went to George Washington’s home in
The folks came back with lots of information, like contrary to popular belief George Washington did not have wooden teeth but a combination of animal and human teeth embedded in to a lead base that were affixed to his gums. Apparently they are on prominent display, in a special 360 degree viewing case, at the museum at his
There is a new education center and museum at Mount Vernon that houses the life-sized representations of Washington throughout his life which were detailed in a program we all watched on the History Channel. Unfortunately they forgot to create a representation of the most important member of the family, the family dog Vulcan who procured an entire Virginia ham off the counter one night. Live long, and prosper, Vulcan!
They said the tour was generally good but the house tour was a bit to short and restrictive, you could only look into the rooms from the hallways and there were so many things they wanted to see more of. 
The house is a farmhouse style but the exterior sheathing is unique in that its wooden siding is beveled and covered with a mixture of paint and sand to give the appearance of stone, very unique. The house is set up on a point overlooking the
They said the museum did not provide enough insight into the man, his struggles, beliefs, personal disappointments and triumphs. They said the Jefferson tour in
Were there squirrels there?
The folks went to play golf today at Willow Springs, we stayed back at the RV. Blue and Bentley watched out the windows for squirrels and barked at each one they saw, there was a lot of barking! I kicked back and got as much beauty sleep as I could, after all I'm a princess.
When the folks came back from golf they described the course as a very nice low par course, which they said means lots of par 3 holes. They also said the greens and fairways were well protected with native clump grass which was very thick and tall, this was advertised as special Love Grass. If a ball was hit just a few inches into this stuff if was near impossible to find. Depending on how deep into the grass a shot was hit it was referred to as some love, a whole lot of love, or too much love. They said that you could go into the grass and usually find a ball, just that it was rarely the one you hit in. Sometimes you found yourself playing with other people's balls, or special love. I'm not sure I understand this but Dad thought it was funny. This is a picture of the love grass, can you see the ball at the edge?Ree
Today we were treated to the scent of a tasty lunch, after the fact on Mom and Dad's breath... After a 19 year gap, they returned to Bertha's in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore and had a couple of tasty bowls of steamed mussels with different sauces. Dad had spinach, tarragon, and garlic butter, Mom had anchovy, tomato, and garlic butter. We hear they ate all the mussels, then used bread to finish all the sauce. We can't believe they didn't bring us back a white box with leftovers!
We are currently in Woodbine, MD at Ramblin' Pines Campground. It's a nice place with a HUGE fenced in "paw walk" where we can run off leash and do our "bidness". We got here on Friday, as did all the weekenders. The park was teeming with kids, bikes, dogs, etc. The campground has a lot of neat features for these folks - activities, Sunday breakfast, a full-service weekend snack bar/grill, mini golf, etc.
We had bad weather on Saturday, so the Baltimore visit was delayed a day. We all sat around, watched TV, did laundry, and made cookies. Dad discovered some Kroger oatmeal, cranberry, walnut ones that you could "break and bake" just a couple of cookies at a time but we finished those back in Virginia. Mom decided it would be more "retirement budget friendly" to make a batch of cookie dough and portion it out and freeze, so we now have 7 packages of oatmeal, blueberry, walnut cookies in the freezer (we baked and ate one portion already).
They also saw some weird flying fox things hanging upside down in the Australian exhibit. This is my interpretation of what they looked like, pretty cool huh?Blue