Video is the new and fun addition to our Roaming Gallivants blog! We hope you enjoy it.
We start with a story about our local area. We begin with marking roads for a local charity bicycle ride, The Wheels of Hope, and end at a barbeque joint on the Greenbrier River. We hope that it is as much fun for you to follow our blog posts as it is for us to produce them!
We have been learning about the video equipment and practicing. So in the future, we expect to keep you more entertained with a mixture of writing and videos. Bear with us while we hone our skills and please send us your comments!
So here goes!
Fun video, eh? Zachary and I had fun making it. I must say, Zachary did all the post production work. His grasp of the technology is wonderful. And the sound track is a product of my son Orion who wrote the song and my other son Alexander who played the song with Orion. Catch their website here.
As a member of our bike club and being on the Wheels of Hope committee, I took on the responsibility of marking 60 miles of the 112 mile route. My assigned helper bailed out. Luckily, I enlisted the help of Zachary! He pitched in and was fun to boot! We decided to make the day a Roaming Gallivants odyssey and now you are enjoying the fruits of our labor.
Of course, first things first. We painted the back roads of West Virginia from Fort Springs through Union to Alderson. It’s not a bad job except for the smell of the paint fumes which burn the nostrils and make you feel like the paint is drying on your nose hairs! Minor discomfort compared to the benefits.
Wheels of Hope is a charity bicycle ride that supports local cancer survivors and our local Hospice. We’ve given out over $70,000 from our events!
Today we were painting direction markings on the road for the bicyclists to follow on their trek around the route. It consisted of marking turns as well as confidence markers (so the riders don’t think that they are lost) and neon orange caution and road defect warnings. It was in and out of the car all day with paint cans and stencils. Luckily we had a beautiful day.
Finishing in Alderson, the route home took us right by Stuart’s Barbeque with the gigantic hot dog made out of a canoe and plastic culvert! There is no doubt about it, but this is a local joint that reflects its’ owner’s taste for making money and having fun at the same time. The Tiki bar and deck with bamboo wall décor set up above the beautiful Greenbrier River is an interesting juxtaposition that somehow works on the bright summer evening when we were in attendance.
Stuart is the quintessential vacation area bar owner, full of confidence and ready to tell us his story. Not a shy fellow and not shy about sharing with us his barbeque secrets (ONLY Kingsford charcoal briquettes) (a special commercial barbeque sauce) (and the number of hours of smoking) (types of wood). As they were secrets, I won’t repeat them here for fear of offending our loquacious host.
I ordered the barbeque sampler appetizer which had enough food on it to sink a battleship. It was all good, the ribs getting the high marks. In fact, I took home a full rack of ribs for dinner.
Stuart’s cole slaw has a home-made dressing, and the Negra Modelo beer went very well with everything.
Going back later to catch some footage of the smoker being fed and fueled we got to see just how the system works. And I can say from experience that it looks like a typical smoker set up that works just fine! The results are a product of the pitmaster!
So there you go!
