The Quest for Maine Lobster

Long way from home this time, in the great state of Maine, yep time for another Dinner, Drive-in and Dive.

Well what can I say; when in Maine you eat lobster and it just so happen that was our quest. My wife Signe

had her heart set on a great big Maine lobster, and was not taking NO for an answer. That how we ended up at The Porthole Restaurant located in Portland Harbor on the picturesque Casco Bay.



Extreme dive comes to mind but again in a good way, as you walk down alley/ road/ delivery entrance

to the front door that is on the side of the building.

Once in, things start to change as you are hit with unbelievable smells coming from the kitchen;

I was hungry already before I got to the table. Once at the table we were greeted by our waiter, super talkative young fellow, told us his whole life story while we were eating.


Inside is what you would imagine kind of a nautical theme with lots of old signs with prices from the long ago past,

I might mention. Ha-ha.

Anyway the tables were cool

and the service was great…TIME TO ORDER…Houston we have a problem!!! No lobster, well I should say no whole lobster, come to find out the Porthole does not sell a whole lobster, trust me you could get it a million other ways there but not a whole one. Guys I bet you know what that means if you have been married as long as I have and your wife wants a whole lobster…that's right you settle for an appetizer and move on to the next place.

We ended up getting some crab patties before moving on for our quest for lobster.

I got to admit most likely the best patties I have ever put in my mouth…my wife thought the same…but our quest for the whole lobster must go on and it did.


I would give the Porthole Restaurant a double thumbs up, great food, great atmosphere and fresh, fresh seafood. Wish I would have been in town another day to try some more things on the menu…maybe next time.

Biker friendly, I would say yes but maybe for a different reason than you might think…THE PARKING!!! To be honest parking anywhere at the harbor sucks, big time and it appears to me parking a bike near the door would save you a whole lot of walking.


Till next time


Big Al

Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine is here!

As Navin R. Johnson would say…

The new Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine is here! The new Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine is here! Page 19 - Big Al !

I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.

Click the link below, if you want to see me reaction when I got the  new magazine out of the mailbox yesterday...Steve Martin does it better. ha-ha

Steve Martin...In The Jerk
Three cheers for Mary Gang Baker (Pinky) for issue 2 of Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine, not sure how she did it but I think she outdid the first issue and that issue was great!!


Tech reviews…wow!


Ride reviews…great!!


Local reviews…outstanding!!!


Sunny daze on going story…marvelous!!!!

Restaurant Review… wonderful, amazing, stunning, spectacular, excellent, awe-inspiring, splendid, fabulous, cool, groovy, superb, breathtaking, fantastic, remarkable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It just so happen the food review was on one of my favorite places to eat
DARWELL'S CAFE
in Long beach, MS. Not to mention the review must have been written by a poet as the story flowed like a hot knife through butter…who was this great story teller anyway? IT WAS ME, THAT'S WHO!!! All the D’s I use to get in English class back in high school finely paid off. Ha-ha.

Ok all joking aside, my writing skill is more like a third grader on crack…all over the place. Ha-ha. Anyway it was an honor to have my story picked up by such a great magazine. Who knows maybe I’ll make issue 3…ok I know, now I’m just dreaming.

Time to do some surfing, on the web that is…you can pick up the latest copy of Pinky’s Passion Motorcycle Magazine at
PINKY'S MOTORCYCLE PASSION
 and don’t forget to tell her Big Al sent you.

One more thing, join Pinky at her magazine launch party, see below.

Camp Joy Marina, Saturday April 14th noon till close (new magazine launch)

Everyone get off you couch and get there, remember the date April 14th, sounds like a great time for all…I plan on bringing my crew (ok it's just going to be my wife Signe and me, but crew sounds more Bad Ass. Ha-ha.)

Till next time
Big Al

Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives…Oh MY!!! ... Hillbilly Hotdog

Saturday June 11, 2011

That’s right I said June, running a little late on my post. Ok I’ll get on with it; this is diner # 5 in my quest to visit all the diners from the TV show Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives. The location and the name you ask? West Virginia,

 Hillbilly Hot Dog. Now I know you’re asking yourself how in the world you ended up there since you live in Mississippi. Well I’m going to tell you, the wife and I had taken a road trip to Maine in June and driving about 150 miles out of the way to get to this dive just seemed like the thing to do. Ha-ha.

Well let me tell you my friends, the extra 150 miles proved to be worth every mile, it was to be one of the highlights of the trip. My first thought was it’s around 3:00pm in the afternoon; we were going to miss the lunch crowd, should have the place to ourselves.

WRONG!!!
Found the place with no problem, parking on the other hand…there is a slash gravel driveway, slash parking lot, slash picnic area that runs in front of the place,

after dodging a few parked cars we found a spot all the way at the end of the property. This sounds bad but its not, as you walk towards the place your eyes scan the property looking at all the stuff laid out everywhere…its almost like Hillbilly’s live there. As they say one man's junk is another man's treasure. I could have spent hours looking at the old stuff like….

Then comes your next challenge, trying to open their front door..

That’s all I’m going to say about that…but BEWARE!!!

Once inside the door of the what could only be called a shack, your eyes and mind go into overload mode…trying to take in all the stuff on the wall, ceiling, floors and anywhere else you could think of. Next you stand in line to give your order, and then you are greeted by the owner lady…great girl!

We placed our order…with a name like Hillbilly Hotdog…take a guess at what we ordered…yep a HOTDOG!!! But not just any hotdog…If you can think it, you can get it on a dog…

  I got a pizza hotdog

My wife got a dog with Cole slaw and onions…snore, snore

We split chilly cheese fries and onion rings.

The shack has attached school buses for extra seating…

We ended up at one of the school bus table

Only the finest of entertainment, check out the boom box, with duel cassette…now that’s class

What can I say about hillbilly’s hot dog? It one of those places that you become family with everyone in you bus real fast…ha-ha. The food, great for what it is…it’s a dressed up hotdog people but a good one. we loved the place and you will too, also a great place for bikers…bikers welcome and what a great ride to get to the place…can you say country.

 
Till next time

Big Al

New Motorcycle Magazine Review…

Pinky’s Motorcycle Passion Magazine…

got my copy of the premier issue a couple of days ago. Got to admit I was wondering what kind of magazine could what appears to be an average Joe (I guess in this case a Jolene. Ha-ha) publish?

I got to say, a damn fine one…nice job.

Ok let me back up a second…I met Pinky (Mary Baker) a few years ago online, she wrote for her blog pinkysmcpassion.blogspot.com
, I also have a blog with BlogSpot (your looking at it now), so we would give each other a thumbs up comment on different blog posts from time to time on each others blog. Then the years went by as they always do, Pinky moved on to her new web site…pinkysmotorcyclepassion.com

I was impressed with her new site; it started to inspire me to get my own .COM web site (and I did last night but that’s a whole other story…soon to come) then she announce she was starting her own magazine (a secret dream of mine for a long time now) I sent my five dollars by Pay Pal to get my copy of the premier issue and waited, checking my mail box daily. I got to admit I questioned it myself just what kind of mag would I be getting in the mail…

honestly I was expecting a few pieces of paper stuck together with a few staples. Man was I wrong.

I was amazed at the quality, tech reviews, local hangouts, where to eat, and color photos to boot.
BUT Big Al, it's called PINKY’S Motorcycle Passion, why would you, being a big burly GUY be reading a CHICK Magazine? Because I want to explore my feminine side?

No, NO!!! Nothing like that, this mag is for everyone who likes riding bikes and has a passion for them. I think Pinky did a real fine job on her first issue covering all the basis, a woman’s point of view as well as the men.

Ok in closing…what do I really think of the magazine?  Man does it have potential, this mag has Good written all over it. I can't say how much I enjoyed it and am looking forward to issue 2, 3, 4…. Will I buy another copy? HECK YEA!!! And you should to, you won’t be disappointed. Order your copy here BUY IT HERE!!!

Nice job Pinky, I can honestly say keep up the good work and some day you will be competing with the top dog (heavily sponsored, I might add) biker magazines for the top spot. As for now with an issue price of 5 dollars…your mag is a steal. GOOD JOB!!!

Till next time
Big Al

Long over due…

The hiking trip that almost wasn’t…let me start off by saying have you ever wondered what it would be like to go on vacation drive 250 miles only to find out that the place you were going is closed? Sounds like a great movie to me…maybe the video below will enlighten you on our story. Ha-ha.

Ok I kind of got off my story, a few weeks ago 5 buddies and myself decided to head out on a great hiking adventure at the Sipsey Trail in Alabama. About 10 miles before the trail head the roadway turns from asphalt, to gravel and then to dirt, giant leaves covering the road.

Once at the trail head, everyone unloaded their packs from the cars, then it was discovered we had a new king of the giant pack…yep my buddy Chad the old king,

brought his young son Hayden along on the hike…make way for the new king!!!

Hayden, quickly realizing what his father had done to him, started handing off stuff from his pack to the nearest SUCKER…Meet Matt “the sucker” Roland. Ha-ha.

Then we took our trail head photo from left to right. Tim, Chad, Matt, Donnie with Hayden up front.

Then we took a second photo to make sure we all got in. left to right, Tim, Big Al, Matt, and Donnie. I also posted this photo because if you look real close between the shoulder of Matt and Donnie (the two guys on the right) Well this small piece of paper flapping in the wind has great meaning, more on that later in the story.

Then we were off

Made it to the first creek crossing…Hmmm it was DRY.

Hmmm, first sign we might be in for a workout to get to the first camp site.

Hayden, found sucker number two…His dad Chad! Now carrying two packs…

After many, many trees across the trail, tree crossing we took our first break…my buddy Tim in the running for the giant pack.

Chad starts setting up camp while the two new guys Donnie and Tim fetch some water. (Sucks being the new guys. Ha-ha)

Then Matt calls out to Donnie????

Everyone had sweated down, so a short break was in order before we set up camp.

Hmmm, seems even little Hayden wondered why Matt and Donnie put their tents so near each other.

Then came the point in time were Tim realized…I got to get a bigger tent!!! (As his leg stick out of the tent)

Once camp was set up, the weenie cooking began…eighteen dogs and five and a half guys…only two dogs left after the feast.

Oh Hayden may have only half our size, but I sure he ate more than all of us put together.

Time for a FIRE!!!

LOOK CLOSE… (To the left of the fire) and you will see the starting of the glow stick dance by Hayden.

Ghost stories around the fire…You can’t get much better than that.

Morning can only mean one thing…Matt’s breakfast pancakes!!!!

My hammock

Chad and Hayden tent

Tim’s tent on the point

Then…Well, Matt’s and Donnie’s tents…Might as well just brought one, six inches apart…Really guys?

Well after breakfast, it was decided to call the trip a bust and hike back out due to all the trees down on the trail. Matt and the guys decided to leave their packs and do a quick hike to the water falls and the Big Tree. Me being the old man on the trip, started to make my way back to the car as I had seen both many times before.

Along the way I took a lot of photos along the trail to show everyone how bad the trees were across the trail, here are some…

It’s like a hiking nightmare, climbing over and under trees along the way. Look at the root ball behind me, remember I’m 6’5” and it towers over me.

Well I made it back to the trail head, and took the time to read the sign I was talking about at the begin of this story…Trail Closed!!! The funny part is we all would have bet that someone had just put the sign up that day…only once I looked at the photo; we knew the sign had been there the whole time.

I got to the car changed into some clean pants and shirt, snapped a few photos around the trail head and the headed back to the trail to wait for the others.

To my surprise the first to appear was Chad and his son Hayden

Soon followed by the rest of the guys…soaked to the bone with sweat, I might add.

Then a quick trip to the A & W for our victory meal.

Then the long ride home, laughing at Donnie as leg cramps set in, very funny stuff watching a 6’5” guy trying to straighten out his legs while in a car…I only laughed as I had them the night before in a hammock while hanging over a cliff.

All in all, as bad as the trail was, we all had a great time and better stories to tell…ha-ha.

Till next time
Big Al