Road trips with the wife flat my boat. We love to go touring without a major plan or schedule. Wandering around the country trying to avoid as much of the freeways as possible while seeing as much scenery as we can is the trade-off and the struggle.

And yes, it must be done with a proper SUV.

Best way to travel, Gary, absolutely. We've even managed to do it with kids in tow. We know we have to get from, say, Mt. Shasta back to Seattle in five days, but exactly how we do it unfolds along the way.

Cashiers who rub their noses before and during ringing up sale. And then blithely act as if they hadn't just done that, at all. (Got some TWEEZERS for me to take the change with?).

Compared to the ones I've dealt with, that sounds like a much grosser grocer!

While you're in Corpus Christi, be sure to get a batch of fresh crawfish for a boil later in the evening. Cold beer, crawfish, etoufee = LIVIN' LARGE.

Sounds mighty good, DPK. We were on North Padre, right near Port Aransas, within strikin' distance of Corpus (in fact, that's where we bought our groceries, except for fresh fish and seafood) back in Dec. 94. And while we didn't abscond w/ some crawfish to our rental place (we shoulda), we did cook up a whole buncha yummy ish and shrimp - AND we got on in to some Corpus Christi neighborhoods where the Coctels De Camarones were mighty fresh n' sweet, and the ranchero music was pumpin'. Very best part of trip: Port Aransasas Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, and the trumpeter swans. Plus a 'lil ol' artsy town not far from Port Aransas and Corpus, called Rockport. Ah, the Texas Gulf Coast: Never mind Galveston. Keep goin'! South, that is.

Speaking of cashiers, what I really hate is when they ask, "Did you want ... blah blah ..." Has anyone else noted this epidemic of bad use of tenses among people in retail stores?

I always respond with either:

"I DID want, and I still DO want...."

or

"I DID want that, but now I DO not ..."

Iguana, or howsabout just, "Yes, I want......" vs. "Did you Want...."

MY big beef with cashier verbage (mentioned in my first "What Bugs Me" post) is when they say something to the effect of, "Is there anything else we can help you find?" This, when you're already being rung up, and there are three more harried shoppers in line behind you......

I know, I know, take me away to the padded cell.......we're just s'posed to smile and be oblivious to the heinous impracticality of it all...But really, I'll get the dried cranberries I just forgot, NEXT time......s'okay!

What bugs me as far as "verbiage" goes:

The apparently widespread confusion between "doing well" and "doing good."

Did you want to do good, guns and butter?

Matt, I see you mentioned the Blue Ridge Parkway in things you like. I don't know if you know it or not, but when you were here to visit last December, you were a mere twenty miles from it. I know time was short, and other things you wanted to see...

Winter isn't the very tip-top best time to see it anyway. The primo season is early fall, when the leaves on the trees are just starting to change. People come from all over the world to see that. Traffic is bumper-to-bumper and crawling along at five miles per hour, but that's cool with everybody because they're so busy "ooohing" and "ahhhing".

Yeah, I knew it was nearby Jeff, but I agree, fall would be best. I've been on it in spring, in the Western NC stretch.

Iguana:

I wish to do good AND do well. But my idea of doing good probably differs from that held by others.

James