Comments by Mary Gallagher
Dear Friends:
Sometimes I shake my head about a gazillion times in one day and say "Wow can it get worse? Can anymore go wrong?" Then I realize I still have all my fingers, most of my toes and a few replacement parts and I'm in stupendous health! So who cares about lost fortunes and stupid decisions or that X#*?@? jerk that hit my new car in our parking lot and didn't leave a note?
Have you tried to deal with that insane monopoly lately AKA Comcast/Xfinity? Will went to their office and they couldn't even pull up their own website or programs to help customers. Their internet didn't work! 4,000 people standing in line and two girls to wait on them while the "manager" didn't have a computer and wasn't sure where or who he was! They tripled the cost of my internet and now to get a lower price (not much lower) I have to subscribe to cable television that we don't even want. This saga is not over. But always keep in mind the most expensive home ever sold on Kiawah Island went to an executive at Comcast and then he bought the house next door. That's right folks Kiawah where Joe Biden goes to visit friends. Not for Pikers and you and I are gouged to make it all possible.
Hotels have interesting, always changing rules. Over 20 years I've left a few items behind like my favorite trick, swimsuits on the balcony. I recently left a hat at a hotel. No problem right? Either throw it away or I'll give you a credit card number and you can mail it to me. Worked for years but now one must send a postage paid box or envelope to the hotel and they will package it up and mail it back. So I took another hat and an envelope to the post office so they could weigh it, we put the appropriate postage on the envelope and now I'll send the padded envelope inside another envelope to the hotel 3 hours away so they can mail back my not so valuable but cherished hat ( I bought it in Spain years ago). Lesson: really try not to forget anything.
How many things do you buy at the grocery store and throw away because it's garbage or spoiled or, like avocados for instance, shipped when hard, bounced to death and then ripen with bad spots, and the famous "whose fantasy was this recipe?" I love Trader Joes but then this is Aldi's brother, part of a very large German company.
The first thing to remember when shopping at Trader Joe's is to check the expiration date, lots of old stuff slips by stockers. Also, favorites come and go so if you like it buy a few extra as it may not be there next time. I will say they are good about returns and tomorrow the most disgusting salsa I've ever tasted, Trader Joe's Homestyle Salsa Especial is going back. Truly spaghetti sauce with something dead in it!
Last week in Columbia, SC, in spite of freezing rain, we and other hardy souls ventured to another spectacular exhibit "Cut! Costume and the Cinema" at the Columbia Museum of Art. If you live in South Carolina you know Columbia is the place for a lot of blockbuster events and exhibits (and affordable). In spite of the weather, the 25 or so people on the docent-led tour were all, with the exception of one couple, from Charleston.
We live within a few hundred feet of the largest seller of PBR in the world! Pretty impressive right? I'm a big "specialized" craft beer drinker and have yet to make it the famous Recovery Room on King Street in Charleston. I must tell you about some new favorite beers we recently discovered.
I'm not big on drinking out because it's sooo expensive but ferreting out independent retail stores with big choices in every city we visit is a favorite activity.
After our exhibit tour, we shot over to Craft and Draft on funky Devine Street to check out their selection of craft beers. Grumpy Old Men in Blue Ridge, Georgia is a very popular but basic open garage/warehouse building while Craft and Draft is a bit more refined, an enclosed building, with a decor of shelves upon shelves of some unique and common beers. They have a little bar with a ton of draught beers (always changing) on tap. The crowd was younger, while some had their babies and kids with and others kept their dogs close. We met one couple from another part of the state loading up as their town had nothing like this selection.
I like heavy dark Belgium style beer with an alcohol content ranging from 9-12%. My theory is if I'm going to allow myself the calories of a beer why waste it on what my dad called" piss water"!
We came away with New Holland Brewings Pilgrims Dole (12 %ABV) Holland, MI, Thomas Creek Up the Creek (12.5 %) Greenville SC, and Weyerbacher Quad (11.8 % )Easton, PA.
If you like dark smooth beer, as in a really good wine, that is better at room temperature (like real beer drinkers!) these are a few for you to try! I'm a big fan of Three Philosophers from Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, NY at slightly over 9 % but we already had that at home. Our first try was served in a brandy glass - very fitting.
Buy one bottle any of these four to see if they fit your style and taste. Remember..... drinking these beers ice cold kills the smoothness and flavor!
Happy Trails,
Mary Gallagher
mary@gallagherstravels.com
