Build a crappy hotel in the middle of South Carolina and direct your marketing to middle aged golf fanatics and you will become filthy rich! I just survived one of these "you have to experience" trips.

The hotel was in a pretty decent size town called Florence, SC but it wasn't even worthy of being called a no-tell motel. The decor was described by one of the guys on the trip as early American Salvation Army. The pool was nice if you wanted to swim with the leaches (no-extra charge). The experience was strangely familiar to dorm living. Grown men, strangers to each other, all hanging out in their rooms with the doors wide open drinking beers. Mornings were the best; you could see 50 and 60 year old men running around outside in their tightie-whities getting their first smoke of the day in (come on guys, put on some clothes already). The hotel's population consisted of about 90% golfers, 5-7% construction workers and 3-5% unknown. I think that I did actually see one woman that looked like she was staying in the hotel the entire week I had the pleasure of staying in this 5 star establishment. She either liked looking at middle aged men in their underwear or she was a hooker.

With our paid stay in the fine Thunderbird Motor Inn, we received a free southern style breakfast and dinner in their fine establishment. If anyone knows anyone that works for the South Carolina Health Department, tip them off to this place. I have never seen anything so nasty called a restaurant in my life. Both meals were buffet style and breakfast was what you would expect: scrabble eggs, bacon, three different types of sausage, biscuits and gravy, grits, pancakes, french toast, cottage cheese, fruits, cereal and fresh hot pork skin strips (they may call them pork rinds). The food at breakfast was semi-edible if the surroundings weren't so damn dirty. If you tried really hard and closed your eyes, the food was decent a breakfast. Dinner was served in the same manner. If you loved fried chicken, this was the place for you. The day we arrive, there was fried chicken, baked chicken, chicken wings in some gravy looking stuff and shredded chicken stuff. Also on the menu daily was beef stew meat tips in gravy with rice, either mashed potatoes or mac and cheese, sausages (hold overs from breakfast), collard greens, green beans, cold baked potatoes, salad bar, ice cream, pies, cakes, a daily mystery meat and you guessed it more of those hot pork skin things. By the third night, I had to try the pig skin things and I am here to tell you that they were absolutely the nasiest things I have ever tried. Needless to say, we skipped the free dinner the last three nights.

The funny part about this hotel is that anyone that you talked to complained about the rooms and the food but everyone seemed to be coming to the same hotel for several years. There was one group from the Cleveland area that had been making the annual trip for 12 years and another from Pittsburgh that had been making the trip for 15 years. No one had anything good to say about anything having to do with the hotel.

The one bright spot about the Thunderbird was that it had a bar/club/restaurant attached to it. When you stepped into the club, it was like you were stepping into a different world as far as the decor was concerned. The place was clean and the food was really good. The club did provide some much needed comic relief.

We arrived Saturday morning after driving 10 hours through the night, we arrived at a pretty decent golf course and played until dark (36 holes). We checked into the hotel, ate at the chicken buffet and then stopped for a drink at the club. The club was packed with a crowd that was a little older (average age was probably 45). There was a band that was getting prepared to start performing for the night and a karaoke machine was providing entertainment while the band got set up. Karaoke John entertained us with classic country love songs dedicated to his honey. Karaoke John was your typical I can't sing but I think I can. He belted out those country tunes with his best twang and his girl was so very proud of him. He must have sung 4 songs until someone finally kicked him off stage.

The night we ate at the club, there was a sports talk radio show being broadcast from the bar. A few of the local cheerleaders from the indoor football team were in attendance promoting the new team. Then walks in Karaoke John by himself with two sets of nunchucks for our comic entertainment. John then dazzled the cheerleaders with his martial arts skills in an attempt to pick one of them up. Needless to say, John provided a lot of entertainment for a lot of people last week.

There are a few interesting liquor laws in South Carolina (at least interesting to me). All liquor must be poured from those tiny bottles that I have seen only on airlines and in hotel mini bars (no mini bars on this stay). If you want a weaker drink or a drink that doesn't use a full mini bottle, they have to throw the remaining booze away. Also, there is absolutely no alcohol sold at all on Sunday unless you are on a golf course it seems. The best of all alcohol laws is that you can bring your own on to a golf course. In Ohio, you get kicked off a golf course if you get caught bringing your own. In South Carolina, they allow you to bring your own cooler filled with beer and don't say a word...saves tons of cash.

Needless to say, we golfed 238 holes and drank (4 guys) a collective 240 cans of beer in 6 days. I don't think we would have drank so much beer but it was the only way you could handle staying in that hotel.

Overall, the golf courses were in pretty good shape for this time of year and the weather was warm and dry as well. Some of the courses will be really nice when the grass in the rough actually turns green but for the most part I was very pleased with the golf. And the beer was outstanding!!!!

It was really nice sleeping in my own bed on Friday night..........

Tried to follow the directions on mounting my sirius radio in the car last night. Now that was the biggest pain in the rear know to man. The suggested antenna location for a SUV is in the back, 6 inches from the edge of the roof near the tailgate. I tried for about 2 hours running that damn wire trough the carpet, the plastic molding and the roof material to no avail. Eventually I mounted the antenna on the roof near the driver's side door and it works great. That's two hours that I'll never get back.

Not only did I totally waste 2 hours but I also destroyed my halogen light in the porcess. I finished my installation fiasco and backed the car out of the garage to put it back on the correct side of the garage and I hear a crunch followed by a bang. Instead of getting out to see what I hit, I decided to put it in forward and then reverse again. The second time over the light pretty much completly destroyed any hope that the light would still be in working condiditon. What a bonehead I am.

One bright note is that I purchased a used (new to me) Taylormade golf club. I have been looking for a new 3 wood for about a year now and have just put it off thinking that I would find one that I liked on sale. Finally I found one at a used sporting good's store in great condition that was about 50% less than new. The unfortunate part of the story is that the sporting goods store didn't have anywhere to try the club out before I bought it. I'm sure I will like it, it is the same brand as all the other clubs that I have. New toy for my upcoming trip!!

Simple life lesson for the day........

Never eat cold kelbasa for breakfast unless you have absolutly no one to talk to that morning! Wow!! Major gas...........

Here is a picture of one of the two speakers that were installed in our family room. The speakers in the Mater bedroom and bathroom are similar but round in shape and the speakers in the kitchen are actually stand alone units that just sit on top of the kitchen cabinets. I think the sound in the kitchen is much better than any other area of the house. The fact that we have standard height ceilings in the kitchen probably contributes to the better sound.

I went out and purchased the sirius satellite radio today and much to my suprise, the playboy station was included in my subscription. What the hell is playboy radio? Is it 24 hours of moaning and heavy breathing? I will have to check it out, it may be fun. I opted for a cheap receiver and the home kit so I could connect it to our audio system.


Getting ready to go on a golf vacation with my Dad and two of his friends to Florance SC. The weather had been pretty warm lately but looks like it is taking a dump lately. Looks like highs in the upper 60's are the norm for this time of year...I'll take it considering that we had a dusting of snow on the ground this morning. Should be more golf, beer and food than I really need but I am looking forward to it........I think!?! The one thing that I'm not looking forward to is the long drive with 4 guys. I rented a mini-van from Alamo/Priceline for $18 a day (my best priceline deal to date). That van is going to be ripe by the time I return it.

Shawn's third and final birthday party is tommorrow (yes he is spoiled). I don't think that I had three birthday parties my entire childhood.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Tip back a green beer or Irish whiskey and at least act like you are from the land of little drunk green men for the day.

Happy 5th Birthday Shawn!!!

Present of the night, the $8 plastic submarine. Wish it was that simple all the time. Those kids pizza joints have to be a parent's hell. So many kids, so noisy and expensive for what you get which is nothing more than a headache. Oh well, Shawn enjoyed it and is now in the bath with his very own $8 submarine.

The fun continues tommorrow. We are going to see Curious George the movie. Should be a blast!

Satellite radio........XM or Sirius? That is the question of the day. I want to connect a home kit to our new home audio system. I am leaning toward Sirius unless someone can do a sales job on me to change my mind.

Look at the monster.......what is he up to?

Guess what? This thing still is active. Nothing to report really, just hangin at work looking for something to do till it is time to go home. Lisa is at home puking her guts out, I am watching the clock.

We had a whole house audio system installed yesterday. We now have two speakers each in the family room, kitchen, master bedroom and one in the master bathroom. Pretty cool system, it is connected to a reciever/amplifier in the family room and has volume controls in each room. You can turn off rooms you aren't in and jam in the rooms that you are. We are also looking into adding a couple of speakers outside by the patio as well. The house was already wired for sound, so it was just a matter of cutting into the drywall to install the recessed speakers. Pretty cool stuff!!!

Shawn turns 5 tommorrow. Hopefully Lisa feels better so we can take Shawn out to his very favorate plaze, Major Magic (similar to Chuck E Cheese but a little more ghetto). We are going to take the day off on Friday to take Shawn in for his 5 year old doctor's appointment and then go see Curious George the movie. We have family coming on Saturday to celebrate with him too. Should be an exciting week for him but a tiring one for us.

I can't believe that this blogg is still active. Maybe I will try and update it more often.

Don't forget to order your Easter Hams!!!!!