Mitre House Hotel, our accommodations in London

The front....

 

 

The kids room was the balcony in center of pic, nice view to the square...

Our view...

The "landscaping"

Parlor in lobby

 

Seating in bar

Lion in lobby

Our room, we took the twins gave the youngsters the double. Nothing fancy we weren't in the rooms much, but they were very clean.

 

Location, location...

 

Cycling in the Smokeys

Took some extra days off over Labor Day weekend to borrow a "family cabin" that belongs to some neighbors of ours in Franklin, NC.

 

We arrived early Saturday evening unloaded the bikes, suitcases and of course the man's CD player and collection. No internet, no cable or satellite, no cell phone reception a man has got to be prepared.

 

Found a pretty good Mexican restaurant for dinner and then headed to the BiLo for a few breakfast supplies.

Next day the fun begins.....

Keep in mind this is my first time riding anywhere but the flatlands of Florida.

Hopped on the motorcycles and off we went headed toward Maggie Valley. We stopped in a motorcycle shop and I picked up a pair of fingerless gloves and then we headed to the Wheels of Time museum. If you've ever seen the show " What's in the Barn" you know what this place is. Took a lot of photos...

We then headed toward Cherokee, somewhere we've been many times over the years.
We didn't stop there but headed on down to find a place to eat,
Granny's restaurant. $10.75 buffet of country cooking. 

The man's favorite kind of food.

Next we headed on through Bryson City where my mom had spent a week with friends this past June. Caught 28 which took us the nice curvy way to our place. Hubby said if he'd known how curvy that road was he wouldn't have said to go that way, however he was impressed with how well I did, so we took it more than once during the daily rides. I we covered about 140 miles.

Second day.....

Headed out of Franklin on 441 to Pigeon Forge to meet my dad and sister for lunch (Little Tokyo) to do a little catching up. On the way we stopped at Clingman's Dome. He went all the way up, my calves were burning so I waited. There was cloud cover, not that much to see anyway. Again used 28 to get back. 200 miles that day.

Nephew....

Arrived back at the cabin just before dark, had leftovers for dinner. Best leftovers ever.

Third day.....

Fontana Dam, left out on curvy 28 until we reached Fontana Dam, from there we went to Deal's Gap then back southerly to Robbinsville. We had lunch at the country bear, BBQ pork sandwich was very good, but the fresh sweet tea was even better.

Out of Bryson city we took "The Road to Nowhere".

 

Well time to leave arrived, loaded up the bikes and had to say goodbye to the wonderful curvy roads.

 

 

I'm ready to go back!

Today's Pharmacy Lesson

Tamsulosin is Flomax

Montelukast is Singulair

I hate drive - thru.

Little Miss

Someone is going to start VPK soon.

She has no clue what's to come.

She's so full of antics.

Grandpa gets to take her. 

I don't think of her as a morning person.

More a night owl.

This is going to be fun. 

V-Star Yah!

Hubby and I went on my first long ride on the V-Star, he on his Goldwing of course.

We headed out South on US 1, turned west on Baymeadows,
then south on Old Kings where I came to a sudden stop and
my back wheel, well kinda fishtailed.

I stayed upright.

Anyway we made our way to 13 and crossed the St. John's on Shands bridge.

After the bridge we took a little break.

We then headed south to Palatka, through Palatka then once again across the St. John's to 207,  then

we caught 13 again. We stopped at the Outback Crab Shack for lunch,

then back home again.

The ride took about four, five hours.

I did well, didn't need no "Anti-Monkey Butt"

The search, or most of it

Well we've discussed my need (want) of a new motorcycle and so the search began.

First the man had to sell a few projects, one Mazda, two scooters and the Yamaha motorcycle I tried out, but he didn't want to fiddle with, so with a little cash in his pockets the search began.

We visited a few dealers to see what they had used and whether I could touch the ground sitting on them. None really allowed me to be flat footed, just toes and ball of the foot reach. Started combing through craigslist, looking for various models, kept dreaming about what I saw at bike week.....

But, you know out of our price range and thought I was going to end up with this....

Which is a whole other story.

But after I test drove a beauty of a 2007 V-Star that was white and that I was totally flat footed on and really, really wanted but the man couldn't get the deal he wanted, and it seemed a little not sound of motor, so the search continued to the following weekend when

we found this purple beauty of a 2003 V-Star, 650......

 

 

Second Ditch Trip...

I'm blaming my husband for this one.

Headed down the road on a Sunday morning to church, my bike kept cutting off, so the man said let's take it back. (yes this is still the honda shadow)

Stupid thing once again would not go into neutral, not because I didn't roll it, it just wouldn't shift.

He reaches down and gets it to shift. Tells me to back into the driveway next to us to turn around, I look over my right shoulder, it's a little cracked but looks good, so I start backing up. He should have said stop don't go any further or informed me when he said to back up, we do have an intercom system. Well on the part of the driveway I couldn't see it had failed and sunk into the ditch and when my back tire rolled into it the bike tipped and off I went. When I first hit the ground I landed on some timbers buried into the side of the ditch and tried to hang on, I was thinking not this time and then I was thinking well you know what I was thinking and into the ditch I rolled.

He picked up the bike, I got out of the ditch backside entirely drenched, got back on shadow, managed to keep it from cutting off until our driveway and I coasted it into it's spot.

I think it was a good recovery, but he's not sure he wants me on a bike on my own now. Bummer.

It's so much fun, even with the ditches, it's not like I'm a hazard on the road, just in my own neighborhood wherever there's a ditch.

I'm pushing for at least a three wheeler or maybe a sidecar?

Throttle Stuck

My hubby finally got my 1994 Honda Shadow 600 going again and suggested I test drive it around the block Sunday morning before church. Well the throttle was sticking so I wanted him to see that it was doing that. I kept my hand off the throttle as I came close to our driveway so he could see, but then realized I was about to over shoot my turn and turned, one handed, and boom down I went. This is not a bike to do one handed turns on.  

Oh well. 

I thought I smelled gas on me, but my hubby said no it was him that he had stepped in it and it was on his shoe. Arrived at church and standing next to friends someone smelled gas. It was me. Went home changed shoes and jeans. 

Much better.

After church he had me test it out again to check the throttle . Throttle was fine but the darn thing wouldn't shift. I left it on the corner. He tried it out and it started smoking like crazy. Today he found a lot of gas in the oil. Changed the oil. Now he says it's running great. We'll see when I get my next chance. 

Oh well.

We've already decided to sell it. 

Anyone want to buy ?

Robots Are Coming

We are getting "robots" at work. At least they are called robots but they are self contained inside

a big box. They are suppose to label the vial, put the med in, and screw the lid on. 

Our military members have been putting in some very long hours keeping refills up to the minute in fear of losing them into the neverlands when the new system is brought online. That's what happened when we had a software update last year. Hundreds of refills were lost.

The way our pharmacy works is we have six windows where the pharmacy techs take care of 

patients individually. Every two windows has one Accumed cabinet and is set up with shelves that contain other "fast movers". The pharmacists have two stations with two seats/computers at each station.

Here are some before pictures.

  

These are some pictures of the "take down" in progress. They started with one Accumed cabinet at the beginning of last week, then took out half of the two center counters.

 

 

Time for the big "reveal".

Only our floors still need cleaning and

some organizing in the pods still

needs to be done, but that'll come later.

Today, Jan. 21st was our first experience using the

"Parata Max" and so far so good.

  

 Views inside the box.