The Adventures of Bushwhack Jack: July 2013

Monday, July 15, 2013

The Parker-Binns Vineyard

and a visit to the In-Laws

Polk County and Rutherford County, NC

Saturday, July 13th, 2013

This past Saturday Amy and I invited our friends Eric and Anita to Amy's parents place. We started out with lunch at "The Brick" in Columbus, NC which in my opinion has the best Pizza in the Carolinas!

After a delicious lunch, we continued on Hwy 108 towards Amy's parents place on the outskirts of Rutherfordton, NC. But first we made a stop at the Parker-Binns Vineyard which is right along the way.

In addition to sampling the local wine, the Vineyard also offers some nice opportunities for photography. Here are a few shots from the Parker-Binns Vineyard.

The Parker-Binns Vineyard

Hummingbird

Hummingbird Moth

Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly

There are also some Donkeys and Goats at the Vineyard

Anita and Amy

Before moving on to the next phase of our day, I want to state that Guns and Alcohol do not mix! Amy and I passed on the wine tasting since we had sampled them all a few weeks back. Eric and Anita just had a small sample of each of the (4) varieties of wine they had to offer which amounted to an equivalent of no more than one full glass. And that was after a rather heavy lunch! They were by no means anywhere close to being intoxicated!

One of the things Eric and Anita wanted to do was some target practice. This type of thing is frowned upon in our neighborhoods, but Amy's parent's place offers plenty of acreage to safely shoot some firearms.

Amy

Eric

Anita

After a few hours of target practice and several hundred rounds of ammunition we packed the guns away, poured a few cocktails, and started preparing supper. Grilled Corn on the Cob, Grill Squash, Zucchini, and Peppers, Sausages, Hot Dogs, and Burgers were all scattered across the grills!

Amy's Dad preparing the corn for the Grill

Grilling up some Squash and Peppers

Eric and Anita seemed to hit it off with my In-Laws as the after dinner conversations went on well past Amy's Dad's normal 8:00pm bedtime! It was a very enjoyable day!

The complete set of photos is posted here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8146392@N05/sets/72157634653395239/

Monday, July 1, 2013

2013 Thyen Family Vacation

2013 Thyen Family Vacation

Lake Anna

BumpAss, VA

June 2013

For about the past 20 years, my family has gotten together and rented a beach house for a week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

This year we decided to do something a little different. We still wanted to get together for a week, but also wanted to go with something a bit less expensive than a beach house on the Outer Banks.

My Sister owns a lake house on Lake Anna in BumpAss, VA (yes that is the real name of the town). While her lake house is not large enough to accommodate the whole gang, she has many friends who also have lake houses in the same development.

One of her friends offered up his house to our family for the week. He refused to accept any money from us except for a small amount for the cleaning service. We did end up giving him a gift card to an area restaurant, and left him several cases of Bud Light (his beverage of choice). We also insisted that he take a little something to cover the utilities for the week.

While we missed the beach, this turned out to be a nice change and it really wasn't a whole lot different than what we normally do at the beach. A lot of eating, drinking, family card games, reading, and relaxing. The only difference is that instead of the beach and pool, we had the lake.

Here are a few photos from our week at the lake: