Ribs on the Ridge and Another Big Decision

We competed this past weekend in the "Ribs on the Ridge" barbecue competition in Haines City. We had so much fun seeing many of our old friends that compete who we haven't seen in awhile and and also making some new ones. It is such an awesome experience and you meet the nicest people. Ellen's sister Harold, her husband John, and niece Luccy surprised us with a visit Friday afternoon. They live in Oldsmar which is about a two hour drive. We visited for an hour or so and when they left they said they would be back on Saturday. They stayed at a nearby motel and came back out about 11:30 Saturday morning and stayed for the awards which started at 5:30. We had a great visit. Ellen doesn't see her sister very often and it certainly made her day to spend some quality time with them all. Here is a picture of Harold, Luccy, and Ellen.

This was our cook setup.


We had a great time but you know what they say, "All Good Things Must Come to an End" and our competition BBQ is no exception. This was the last time Ellen and I will be competing. We have discussed it at length and with what we're trying to accomplish we are not going to be able to continue. We will be putting the house up for sale soon and will be moving into an RV park until I retire. There will be no place to store our trailer at the RV park and we would have to rent some place to keep it. It just wouldn't be worth it to us. We also have two cats and we stay in the motorhome when we compete so it would be like moving your entire house, pets and all for a weekend cook.
We've had a great time and a lot of fun over the last couple of years doing this. We thought we had good BBQ before we started and a lot of our friends thought so too. Many of them encouraged us to start competing because they thought it was that good. But I must say we have learned a great deal more about cooking good BBQ because of these competitions and the many great BBQ cooks that we've had the pleasure of getting to know. Many of them have shared their little "secrets"  with us that have helped us improve what we were doing. We've met so many wonderful people and made some great friends along the way. We will certainly miss it.
Until next time...

Bahama Breeze and Friends

 

We love motorcycles and we haven't been riding in quite awhile, so last weekend we decided to go for a bike ride instead of working. I heard of a restaurant chain a couple of different times on one of the blogs I read and I've been wanting to check it out. It's called Bahama Breeze and I found out there was one in Kissimmee, which is only about an hour from us going a backroads scenic route so we decided to check it out. We called Steve and Sasha, friends of ours we haven't seen in awhile and we decided to meet for lunch and a couple of drinks. Bahama Breeze has an island-inspired menu as well as a casual, tropical atmosphere. The food was good and we had a great time visiting with our friends. They have so much on the menu we wanted to try but we never got past the appetizers. We'll definitely have to go back again soon. Here's a photo Ellen took of Steve and Sasha when we were at Bahama Breeze. Aren't they an adorable couple?

Our friends, Jay and Kelly sold their house a couple of years ago and moved into their fifth wheel full-time at Tropical Palms RV Resort in Kissimmee. Since we were only a few miles from there we decided to ride by and visit with them for a little while. Kelly told us a few weeks ago they were having a Jimmy Buffett weekend out by the pool on Saturday so we thought that might be cool.
When we arrived they were already out by the pool and you could hear the band playing from the front entrance where we stopped to call them. This is the first time we've been here since they moved and we didn't know what lot they were staying in. We rode over to the pool area and Kelly met us outside. They had a great table by the pool near the band. Actually they were sitting at the bands table. There were only two members in the band so I guess technically they were a duo or a duet. How many members does it take to make a band anyway? They were good and we really enjoyed it. They have a poolside cafe that serves food and draft beer. A pitcher of beer by the pool and Jimmy Buffett? What more could you ask for on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Below are a couple of photos we took out by the pool.


After the pool party was over we rode down to Jay and Kelly's site with them on the golf cart. We grabbed a beer at their place and rode around the park on the golf cart checking it out. Tropical Palm is in a busy area of Kissimmee behind Old Town although you would never know it once you're in the park. Old Town is a theme park with food shopping, and carnival rides. Every Saturday night they have the most well know classic car cruise in the world. A classic rock n' roll band starts on the main stage at 7:00 PM (weather permitting) and the classic car cruise through Old Town begins at 8:30 PM.
While we were riding through the park on the golf cart these deer came out of the woods as we were driving by. We stopped and watched them for a while. Jay and Kelly said they come out just about every afternoon. What a treat that was.

It was beginning to get a little late so we rode back over to Jay and Kelly's fifth wheel and had the grand tour before leaving for home. They have a very nice fifth wheel. They enjoy this lifestyle so much they told us they didn't plan on buying another bricks and sticks house. We had such a wonderful time visiting with them. Thanks again Jay and Kelly for being such wonderful host.
We've got to get back to work. Until next time….

 

Downsizing is Hard Work

Downsizing is hard work and a great deal of it is mental! We don't have a lot of time to work on it during the week, so most of what we're able to do is on the weekend. For the last couple of weekends we've been cleaning out closets, drawers, and desks throwing away things we wouldn't be taking with us and didn't think would sell in a yard sale. We were also putting things together that we felt would sell and setting them aside. We were also taking photos of larger items that need to be posted on Craigslist and once we get 5 or 6 items ready I post the ads. It's really time consuming, but I think things sell better with photos. People like to see exactly what things look like before contacting you. At least that's the way I am. I want to see what kind of shape it's in and if there is no picture I won't even consider making contact.

The hard part is really understanding just how much "stuff" you have to get rid of and breaking the perception in our minds that "more is better".  We're preparing to move from a 1450 sq. ft. space into a 320 sq. ft space. A little more than that when the slides are extended. I'll admit I'm struggling with it but it's getting easier. It's unbelievable how much "stuff" you can accumulate over the years. We have lived in our current home 15 years and you acquire things that somehow end up just sitting on a shelf or in a closet that you never use or enjoy. Sometime you even find things you forgot you had. That doesn't make it any easier to get rid of, but we're working on it and we're making progress.

Testing MarsEdit

I've been playing around with MarsEdit the last week or so to see if I want to purchase it once the 30 day free trial is over. I like being able to work on a post offline and save it as a draft. You can edit the draft and save it until you're ready to post. Then with 1 click in MarsEdit and it's posted to your site. I'm going to test inserting photos into the post now.
Last year we competed in the "Ribs on the Ridge" BBQ contest in Haines City and we're registered to compete again in this years competition. Here's a couple of photos of our setup last year.


I hope this works. This year's contest will be February 24th and 25th at Lake Eva Park in Haines City. We're looking forward to it. We haven't competed in a contest since May of last year in Venice. I hope we remember how to do it and haven't lost anything in our timing. You turn in your first entry, which is chicken at 11:00 AM. You can turn in from 5 minutes before until 5 minutes after the hour and it is timed to the second. You then turn in one entry every hour for all four categories (chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket) with the last entry at 2:00 PM. It's a lot of work, but we have fun doing it.

Here's a picture of one of our turn in boxes. This is beef brisket with some candied burnt ends on the sides.
I inserted this picture aligned to the left to see what it would look like once it was posted.

I think it's going to work the way I thought it would. I'll keep my fingers crossed. This next picture is a picture of Ellen and I after the last turn in. After the last turn in it was time to celebrate.
Well, I guess it's time to see how this turns out once it's posted.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it seems like it's a little tricky making your text look the way you want around the photos that you insert with the blog. Oh well, more playing around is probably going to be required.

Desktop Blog Editing Software

I was reading one of the blogs I follow the other day and the writer mentioned using "Microsoft Live Writer" for editing and posting to his blog. Being very new to blogging it peaked my interest and I decided to "Google" Live Writer to see what it was all about. It turns out it's free desktop blog editing software from Microsoft for PC's. I made the switch from PC to Mac about a year ago so Windows Live Writer is not going to work for me. I haven't been blogging very long but I've already had a few issues with posting using the standard web interface with my browser. I've already lost my blog post once by inadvertently closing the browser in the middle of what I was doing. It also seems awkward and slow using the web interface.

I decided to do a little research on the internet to see what blogging software is available for a Mac. From my research the three most popular programs seem to be Blogo, Ecto, and MarsEdit. After comparing many of the reviews for these programs, it appears that MarsEdit is probably the most used. None of these are free programs like Windows Live Writer and MarsEdit at $39.95 isn't cheap, but between the three programs, I think MarsEdit has the most features and it seems like it will be a user friendly program. You can download it for a 30 day free trial here. I downloaded it and have been playing around with it for a couple of days now. I don't know how it compares to Live Writer since I never used it but it seems like it might be a pretty good alternative for Mac users. I wrote and posted today's blog using it and so far I like it. We'll see how it performs for the next 30 days before I decide whether to purchase.

Not much else has been happening this week. "Smoke on the Water" starts today, so we'll probably check out our buds and the band tonight. We will be judging the competition tomorrow. Maybe we can get some things together Sunday for the upcoming yard sale. We need to keep at it as much as possible if we're listing the house this month, but it's been nice to take a little break. I'll be glad when we get the house sold and move into the motorhome full time. It will be such a relief.