Road Trips, Oddities, and Odd Happenings

We made a couple of detours the last two weekends on our way home from the condo.  Both of the places that we visited were not far off the path and they both were worth it in my book.  

The first (two weeks ago) was the Flying Pig Tavern and Tap in Bordentown.  We've been traveling to Delaware via Rt. 295 South for many years  and it was only recently that I noticed the sign for the Flying Pig Tavern and Tap on one of those "what you can find at the next exit" signs.  I'm not sure how long it was there, and honestly, most times that we pass that sign on 295 I am already dozing while HWNSNBP drives.  But I looked it up on the internet and saw that it wasn't too far off that road.  When were were planning on leaving two Saturdays ago from the condo I looked up the directions from there and found that we only had to continue on past a turn-off that we take for a bit before it was right there.  So we planned to have lunch there.

This was painted on the side of the building.

This is out in front of their outdoor dining area. 

On the hostess counter and full of little plastic piggies.

On the wall in the entry.

Those little plastic piggies (sans wings) were given to us after HWNSNBP told the waitress all about my "obsession" with flying pigs.  She brought the owner over towards the end of our lunch and we shared stories about how the restaurant came about and how I celebrated March 1st as Flying Pig Day.  HWNSNBP enjoyed telling them that I wanted to come back on 3/1 and get my picture taken with the pig out front....... a little bit of spontaneous over-sharing on his part.  We do plan on visiting again though.  They told me that at Christmas their tree is full of flying pig ornaments and you know I have to see that.

The glasses had their logo on it and HWNSNBP asked if we could purchase one...which we did.

This is his "Pig Burger", one of the house specialties with the pig snout branded on top.  The food was good and it wasn't crowded at lunch time and like I said, we'll definitely be going back.

The day before, we had made a trip down to Cape May and I saw these characters in the West End Antique Mall.  They have a mixture of old and new stuff there.  I thought these were interesting but didn't buy anything that day.  We had made our visit to the little stores that we like in that area and I picked up a couple of little whatnots which I don't currently have pictures of.  

We ate lunch as we usually do, at the Lobster Dock and had a run-in with a thieving seagull who attacked my lunch from behind, stealing my french fries and knocking my ice tea all over me.  We know to be careful of the birds there, but this one really snuck up on us.

Then, last week, when I was weeding I was attacked by a large bumble bee who chased me right into the house.  I'm a little concerned now after I read yesterday that bees can remember faces and features.  I wear a large green floppy hat when I weed and you know that I was waving that around as I was being chased because I am very much not fleet of foot.  I may have to get another hat to weed in the future.

Another oddity of the week happened when I was getting my haircut.  Several months ago I was in the chair getting my hair cut when my hairdresser's next customer arrived early and went to sit down in the chair next to me and tripped and fell backwards and hit her head on the floor.  She's in her 90's and a tiny little thing that had been telling me about how she had had polio as a child and how she dealt with that.  She didn't get knocked out, but we heard her head hit the floor and they called her family who came to get her to get checked out at the hospital.  She didn't want to call 911.  She didn't want to call her family either because she said that they've been trying to take some of her freedoms away as she's gotten older and she was afraid that they would say she couldn't go out by herself anymore.  Turned out that she was okay and my hairdresser says that she is still allowed to take some solo trips.... but not of the on the floor kind.  So, yes, I said that happened several months ago, but this week, when I was sitting in the chair, another customer who was getting a pedicure passed out while she was being worked on and there was a hubbub of commmotion as they called 911 and her husband and tried to revive her.  My hairdresser remembered that I had been there for that last emergeny which was a little freaky.

What was not freaky in that sense, but freaking awesome was getting to see this giant troll on the way home this weekend.  I had seen an article about it earlier this summer and made a note to find out how far off our trail it would be in case we wanted to take the grandson's there.  What I came to find out is that the dirt road that we had to go down to get to it was adjacent to the law office of our nextdoor neighbor at the condo.  I knew that their (father and daughter) office was in Hainesport and when the article mentioned turning at the law office I looked up the address and sure enough, that was it.  We had been past there several years ago so I knew that it wasn't going to be that far, but we were able to touch base with the girl next door to find out more.  One article said that you had to walk through the woods to get there, but she assured us that you could drive right up to it and we did.  The area is not very picturesque as it's an abandoned pottery factory, and there is a lot of graffitti there, but I thought the troll herself was awesome.  

Her name is Big Rusty and she is the first of a series of 10 in the US by Danish artist Thomas Dambo who has created, along with his team and volunteers, over 100 troll sculptures around the world.  Here is the link to an article about the series called Way of the Bird King spanning the US from NJ to Washington state.  You can find Thomas Dambo on IG and follow along with his progress.

HWNSNBP lost his phone yesterday..................in the house.  It was quite an unnerving Sunday evening trying to find it..............which we did not until we searched further this morning.  Of course, he had it on silent and did not have the flasher on either so we was dependent upon hearing it vibrate wherever it was.  He kept calling it from the house phone and kept yelling at the phone when he got no response and finally gave up and went to bed.  It was found in the cellar on the bottom shelf of a cart full of paint and he had no idea how it got there.  He had been in the cellar but not doing anything with paint so we're assuming he went to put it in his pocket and missed. This isn't the first time he's misplaced it, but it's the longest it's been unfound.  I did purchase those tracking tiles that you can use to find it, but he didn't want to use it.  I think after last night's debacle that he'll be reconsidering it.  

Well, that was pretty long-winded for a Monday and it's nice enough for me to start earlier in the day on some weeding that has been neglected.  I just have to find another hat!