Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[HBE4]

10 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Tornado warning now.I have never been this scared due to weather.

 

I've never experienced a tornado but from what I understand,  it sounds like a freight train barreling towards you. Having grown up near very active railroad tracks, I know exactly what a freight train sounds like.

 

Last night, with the heavy rain, winds and slow,  rolling thunderstorms, I thought I heard freight trains a dozen times even though I'm 1/2 hour away from the nearest railroad. The severe weather alerts going off on my phone were not helping either. 

 

[Sea Dog]

31 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

and an entrance sign that I liked

Love that sign!

[Sunshine3601]

10 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Tornado warning now.I have never been this scared due to weather.

Lenny,  how are you this morning? 

Was a very scary night with non stop alerts for tornadoes and flooding.  I hope you and your family are well and safe!

I saw news with NYC flooding.  It's a mess everywhere in my area of PA.

Just spoke with my tenant at shore house and all good there.  Doesnt sound like the jersey got anywhere near what we had.  Kinda ironic since it was from a hurricane.

[bobmacliberty]

Day 2 of golf was at the Payne's Valley course...the star of the show.  There is still a lot of construction happening in the area, both around the course and with what looks like both cottages for rent (stay and play) and houses to live in.  Even so, it's a pretty special experience.

 

 

The thing that gets a lot of attention, and rightly so, is the 19th hole.  For those not familiar with golf, a course usually has 18 holes.  Sometimes, there will be an extra 19th hole, which is usually a short par 3 hole.  It's fun for breaking ties and some last minute "closest to the pin" bets.  In fact, the matched played on TV last year ended in a tie after 18 and the Woods/Thomas team won when Justin Thomas hit his shot on 19 closer than the others.

 

Short video on the creation of the hole:

https://www.pgatour.com/video/2020/09/29/creation-of-the-19th-hole-at-payne-s-valley.html

 

 

 

What I didn't expect was the 10 minute golf cart ride back to the clubhouse that was almost like a Disney ride through rocks, streams, bridges, waterfalls, and caves.  You could see how they were creating more areas for waterfalls with man made rocks to control water flow and edges for new waterfalls.  When fully complete, this will be truly spectacular.

 

 

 

Here's a YouTube video that someone else captured of the whole drive to the clubhouse.  If you don't want to watch the whole thing, fast forward to about the 3:45 mark to see when the path goes through a cave with waterfalls.  That's the point where I thought...Disney.

 

 

[island lady]

11 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Wow!  Quite a mess in my county and surrounding counties.  Flooding issues just about everywhere this morning.  Have had local news on all morning watching various rescues with people stuck on 2nd floors of their home, some people stuck on roofs for over 5 hrs.   Lots of flooded cars then add onto that several towns with tornado damage.  Rivers/creeks still rising.  Horrible!  

Looking now on news at all the flooding from river in Philadelphia.  Saw major flooding in NYC too.  

All good at our house and on my street.  Couple of puddles in basement but not in finished area.  Wet basement system and new sump pump did their job.

 

Happy to hear you are "mostly" dry and more importantly...safe!  🙂 

[Ozark_Kid]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

Wow...ouch!  Sorry you have had so many of them.  Have never had one (just knocked on the wooden desk here 😮 )....but had no idea you could get them from black tea.  Yikes...I have a cup every morning.  I thought they were from too many foods with calcium in them.  Little did I know.  

Most people I know has a family history of stoners.  I had never heard of kidney stones before my first one 35 years ago.  If you haven’t had problems with them yet, I wouldn’t be concerned.  Years ago many believed one needed to really cut back on calcium to avoid stones.  But calcium is a critical need for the body for things like bone health etc.  Calcium also lowers the amount of oxalate absorbed into the bloodstream.

‘The best way to avoid stones is to drink plenty of water and other fluids throughout the day.  Keep enjoying the tea.

[mets07]

My husband has been shop-vacuuming water out of our basement for the last 3 hours. This is in Northern New Jersey. The ground is very saturated so it is difficult to make progress.  It is in both unfinished and finished areas of the basement but not completely across the floor. Whether the carpeting in the finished areas will be worth keeping is an unknown at this point. 

 

In any case, considering that at least 14 people have died in New York and New Jersey due to this weather incident, this is nothing. 

 

[island lady]

2 minutes ago, Ozark_Kid said:

Most people I know has a family history of stoners.  I had never heard of kidney stones before my first one 35 years ago.  If you haven’t had problems with them yet, I wouldn’t be concerned.  Years ago many believed one needed to really cut back on calcium to avoid stones.  But calcium is a critical need for the body for things like bone health etc.  Calcium also lowers the amount of oxalate absorbed into the bloodstream.

‘The best way to avoid stones is to drink plenty of water and other fluids throughout the day.  Keep enjoying the tea.

 

Indeed.  Being a lady of "older status"...I have to take Calcium supplements.  Two pills each morning with that tea and juice.  😉  

 

Have had a broken back, broke both feet, and hope not to continue on this trend. Ughh...was screened and tested as having Osteopenia....but full fledged Osteoporosis...yet.  And I eat a lot

of plain Greek Yogurt as well.  

[h20skibum]

TSOTD

 

because that is where I wish I was. 

 

[George C]

Just now, h20skibum said:

TSOTD

 

because that is where I wish I was. 

 

Not sure about that , there is a new hurricane headed that way .

[bobmacliberty]

Day 3 was at Ozarks National course.  It sits the highest up of the 3 course and has the best views.  It has several "blind shots" where you can't see where you will land (not ideal when playing it for the first time) and some very deep bunkers. I had to blast out of a bunker to clear a 10+ foot wall several times.  Just as we finished, the rain starting coming in.  You could see it coming for miles away.  The had an outdoor covered bar area where we watched the rain while enjoying an adult beverage.  Here's a short video of the area with the rain starting.

 

 

And then a look at the same practice green and hole in the background as the rain got worse, followed by the same view about 10 minutes after the rain stopped.  Amazing how hard and fast the rain came down, and how quickly the standing water disappeared into the mountain.

 

 

 

After playing Ozarks in the morning, we went to a place called Top of the Rock for some lunch, and then played the Jack Nicklaus designed 9 hole par 3 course there.  Like everything else Johnny Morris/Big Cedar related, they want it to be the best par 3 course in the world.

 

 

We hung around Top of the Rock after playing for a drink and their sunset ceremony.  The ceremony is a guy playing bagpipes followed by a cannon being fired. It started to get very crowded, we were pretty tired, and the ceremony didn't seem like it would be too exciting, so we beat the crowd and drove back to our hotel for a shower and dinner.  You can watch the sunset ceremony here if interested.  Beautiful views of Table Rock Lake from Top of the Rock.

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by bobmacliberty

[BonTexasNY]

My daughter and SIL in NJ were greatly impacted by Ida.  Basement is flooded, and my SIL's business parking lot and part of his bldg. is underwater.  He had to park elsewhere and  was taken to his bldg. by boat. My daughter works approx. 35 minutes away and roads were flooded so she stayed home.  The picture is the flooding and boats at my SIL's work.  The red blob is me having fun with the edit feature removing the name of the building.

 

Looks like a lovely lake doesn't it?  This was dry land before Ida hit.

 

Hope all are safe and were not impacted greatly.

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by BonTexasNY

[jagsfan]

16 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Beautiful children.    I thought the middle photo was an Ad - he looks like he is modeling his "cool" wardrobe.     

Both boys seem to be natural models. We’ve noticed it in a lot of their pictures. 
And their mom takes a lot of them!

[Ozark_Kid]

@bobmacliberty  Nice pics. That area is beautiful. When occasionally visit Silver Dollar City near Branson.  Love the mountains.  Thanks for posting.

[Sea Dog]

22 minutes ago, mets07 said:

My husband has been shop-vacuuming water out of our basement for the last 3 hours.

I'm so sorry. I have been there it's no fun. Stay safe.

[bobmacliberty]

One interesting thing to note is that a large sinkhole appeared in the Top of the Rock golf practice area about 6 years ago.  In typical Johnny Morris fashion, he decided to dig out around the sinkhole, thinking that it connects to a cave that he found on the property several years ago.  Rather than thinking about how this sinkhole destroyed part of his golf course, he's thinking about how to turn it into a future attraction to make more money.  Here's how it looked in 2016, and how it looks today.

 

 

[jagsfan]

15 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Dinner tonight at what is becoming our favorite local pizza place…V Pizza. Micheline had the Signature Margherita with a glass of Chianti and I had the weekly special Buffalo Chicken pizza with a local IPA.  Both pies were excellent and will make for good leftover lunch tomorrow (sorry OB). 

 

I wondered how hot the Buffalo Chicken would be. I’ve been too busy to hit V’s, but the time is coming 

[DaniDanielle]

Basement flooded, first time in years.  Pump going but we need a bigger one.  Can’t complain others have it worse.

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

Yeah...same here.  Bucky tends to hold this one in his head...should help you replace the Love Boat.  😄 

 

 

 

Now your talking. 

[Ozark_Kid]

Daughter and SIL made it to the park.  Maybe this will loosen up the stone.

 

[bobmacliberty]

Day 4 of golf was not part of the Big Cedar Lodge golf package.  We played at another local course called Branson Hills.  It was hot (again), the course was hard, and we had played a lot of golf the previous 3 days, so we didn't play that well.  One thing that I really appreciated about the Big Cedar courses was that they loaded up a golf cart cooler with cold bottled water, and had large coolers on the course to continually replenish your bottled water (for free).  It really helped having cold water available everywhere.  They also had rangers on the course with coolers containing towels in ice water.  Wrap one of those ice cold things around your neck and it cools you down very quickly.  Not so at Branson Hills.  No water on the course and a beverage cart that we only saw a few times, so we suffered a bit from the heat.

 

For those interested, we stayed at the Angler's Lodge in Hollister, MO.  It's part of Big Cedar Lodge resort but is off property.  It's really well designed for golf packages because it's closer to the courses and they built a new sports bar called Tall Tales in the parking lot (where we ate/drank every night).  The property used to be a La Quinta hotel and I was expecting that they may have put on a new coat of paint and added some rustic woodwork.  I was impressed though with Angler's Lodge.  It was well done.  I would NOT stay there though if I was not golfing.  They originally told us that there is no shuttle to the main lodge area and people staying there do not have access to any of the main lodge amenities.  I think there now is a shuttle, but you either have to pay for amenity access, or may still have no access at all.  I didn't confirm since we just played golf.

 

I would definitely go back to Big Cedar for golf again, but would probably not go there otherwise.  It's a fantastic place and I can see how many people would really enjoy it.  It must be a huge help to the Southwest Missouri economy.  Micheline and I aren't the fishing/hunting/outdoor type and aren't really interested in what Branson offers, so it just wouldn't be our thing.

[Ozark_Kid]

The kids are learning new games this week. Kenzie’s (the driver) dad flew in yesterday. Ollie is flying in today.  The party keeps growing!

 

[bobmacliberty]

16 minutes ago, jagsfan said:

I wondered how hot the Buffalo Chicken would be. I’ve been too busy to hit V’s, but the time is coming 

 

I'd call it medium.  You could definitely taste some heat, but it wasn't too bad.  Just how I like it.  I can't handle hot like I could when growing up in Buffalo.

[island lady]

Hey look...I found the can opener in this rental home!!  😄  

 

Making big pot of chili, with fresh Ground beef, my homemade beans, and two cans of their food buddies to cheat.  😉  Good day for it...temps staying in the lower 60s, with rain and wind howling out there right now...but still not dangerous, no flooding at the house here (so far) and still have electric power...lucky!

 

 

[jagsfan]

15 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Henry was there when we visited.  He talked to us in the main courtyard. 😁

I saw him playing tennis on his indoor court.