Monday, May 22, 2006

A request to Senator McCain

When Joanne and I found The Politician, I did not realize that he had already been to DC. I thought it would make for a fun roadtrip to get pictures of him with all of those cool monuments.

Upon logging TP and realizing that it was time for him to return home, I emailed his owner to confirm that this is indeed what I should do with him. The owner asked me to hold onto him while he is given a new quest. One possible idea was to follow the Senator's future campaign for president.

On a whim, I emailed Senator McCain's office, and asked if I could secure a picture of the senator with The Politician. Below is my letter:

____________________

I am an avid geocacher (www.geocaching.com for info) - it is a sport which involves hiding and finding caches using GPS coordinates. Geocaching often involves hiking and exploring the natural wonders of the US and the rest of the world. It's a great way to be active and enjoy our unspoiled natural areas in an environmentally responsible way.

During one find, I came across a "travel bug" which was started by a constituent of the Senator's in AZ. This travel bug (aka "The Politician" - see http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=fce56f57-0f7b-4cdb-9ca8-25c93df46161) was sent on a mission to go to DC, secure pork barrel spending for his friends, and make its way back to the Senator's home state of AZ. It's a rather tongue in cheek protest of our nation's irresponsible spending habits.

Senator McCain's position is well documented in these matters. He votes to protect our environment and also for fiscal responsibility. As such, I believe that the Senator's position is aligned with the meaning of this travel bug and the thoughts of his constituent from Arizona.

Would it be possible to secure a picture of Senator McCain with "The Politician?" The picture would be posted on the geocaching.com web site as a diary of its travels. This would be a purely non-commercial use. Many travel bugs have traveled tens of thousands of miles across oceans and continents, but I do not believe that one has actually met a senator.

I can arrange to personally transport this travel bug to the Senator's office in DC with a few days notice, or send him via parcel post to one of his offices in AZ. By possessing The Politician, I am obligated to help him get back to AZ - so if it is requested that I release control of him I ask that your office would help him return home to Arizona by placing him in a geocache.

Thank you very much for your consideration in this matter. I imagine that this is one of the silliest requests that you will ever receive.

Sincerely,

Travis Fisher
Salisbury, MD

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Very Very Sad

Cory Palmer is a hero who served our country in Iraq. Those God Hates Fags creeps are planning to disrespect his funeral and show themselves as the assholes they are today in Seaford DE.

Top Story Home

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Re: New comment on Dixie Bones "Road Show" Cooks
"Pork in the Park" in Salisbury, MD

Thanks Travis!
 
Scott
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 9:35 PM
Subject: Re: New comment on Dixie Bones "Road Show" Cooks<BR>"Pork in the Park" in Salisbury, MD

Hi guys.

Glad to see that you did so well in Richmond.  Per Sally's request, I added a link on my blog to the Dixie Bones blog and web site.  I also included your summary of the event, because I found it interesting.

Good luck in Chesapeake!

T.

On 5/17/06, robert cocherell <dkingofq@msn.com> wrote:
Sally,
 
Here is the Richmond Recap!!!
 
Looking to put Salisbury in the rear view mirror, we loaded up and went down to Richmond for the Virginia National Backyard BBQ Championships.  This event was an IBCA ( International Barbecue Cookers Association) sponsored event, with the representative being flown in from Texas to oversee the judging and organization of the event.   
 
We arrived at about 11AM Friday morning to begin setting up, Our team was the first one onsite and pretty much had choice of where we wanted to be.  It is always important to locate your power and water supply and try to set up close to it so hoses and extension cords don't have to be run so far.  We also wanted to be close to the stage, so all these factors worked in our favor.
 
In most cases so far myself and teammate Bill Brown usually go down early and set up our compound while the remainder of the team shows up later in the afternoon or early evening.  Once this is complete about 2 hours or so, we get our meat inspected by the female IBCA representative.  This is a requirement at every event, meat cold, not pre-seasoned in any way.  This being done all the prep work can begin.  On this trip we are cooking 3 pork butts, 2 briskets, 6 racks of ribs, and 6 chicken halves.  You always start with the large cuts of meat due to the long cooking time.  Butts and briskets are marinated, injected, seasoned, and wrapped for later.  The ribs and chicken will go later tonight.
 
You must always think about taking care of your team, so for the Friday night dinner I cooked my guys NY strip steaks, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, all smothered with a chipotle-lime butter.  We even invited the rep. to dine with us and answer some questions as this was a new event per say as for the rules and what was expected.  Everyone eaten, grill up to temperature, the briskets and butts are put on to smoke for the night.
 
The great thing about these contests is the folks you meet and hang out with, the team names, and the stories people tell.  The Texas Rib Rangers came all the way from Texas and invited a young man who is fighting cancer to join them for the weekend.  He got to be an honorary member of a legendary team, cooked, prepped, served, turned in their entries, and then walked to the stage and picked up their trophies.  Now the great part of this story is that the Rib Rangers have plenty of trophies and let this young man keep those trophies for himself to remember that he is and always will be a Rib Ranger.
 
We finished cooking on Saturday, sauced everything, prepped in the boxes, turned in and then began the agonizing wait to see how we did.  We had real high hopes and were not disappointed when we got our first call ever to the stage, 6th in chicken!!!!!  What a great feeling walking up to Mrs. Virginia and the Attorney General to receive our plaque and check.  Now that would have made us all happy Q'ers but low and behold we got another call for 10th in pork, walked up and received trophy and check again.  This helped us gain a 10th place overall finish in only our 3rd contest with escalating expectations for the next weekend in Chesapeake, VA.  See you on the road!!!!
 
Scott Cocherell
Dixie Bones BBQ Team
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 1:43 PM
Subject: RE: New comment on Dixie Bones "Road Show" Cooks<BR>"Pork in the Park" in Salisbury, MD

Hi Travis! I am the marketing director for Dixie Bones and I write the Barbeque Blog. Scott gives me the information and pictures to publish. I found your blog by using Technorati to find links to the Pork in the Park web site.

 

I will forward your message to Scott and post your comment. Thanks for reading the Barbeque Blog- it would be great it you could link back to us.

 

Take care,

Sally

 


From: Travis Fisher [mailto:fisher.travis@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 11:55 PM
To: Sally L. Albright
Subject: New comment on Dixie Bones "Road Show" Cooks<BR>"Pork in the Park" in Salisbury, MD

 

Travis Fisher has left a new comment on your post " Dixie Bones "Road Show" Cooks
"Pork in the Park" in Salisbury, MD
":

Hey Scott.

Thanks for coming out to compete. I tried really hard to get a team together from the Salisbury JayCees, but didn't have enough interest. They say that if you're going to do something in life, you should do it as best you can - as a group we like to poor beer.

Each year this event gets bigger and better. I hope that you'll come out again.

How did you do in Richmond?

Publish this comment.

Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by Travis Fisher to Barbeque Blog at 5/15/2006 11:55:23 PM




--
See what's going on by visiting my blog, The Life of Travis.  http://trza.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Dixie Bones Barbeque cooks in Richmond

The Dixie Bones team recently competed in Richmond after their appearance in Salisbury's Pork in the Park. Here's a great first hand account of what it's like being in a competition - I found it fascinating. They have a blog, too. Here's the link.

________________________
Here is the Richmond Recap!!!
Looking to put Salisbury in the rear view mirror, we loaded up and went down to Richmond for the Virginia National Backyard BBQ Championships. This event was an IBCA ( International Barbecue Cookers Association) sponsored event, with the representative being flown in from Texas to oversee the judging and organization of the event.
We arrived at about 11AM Friday morning to begin setting up, Our team was the first one onsite and pretty much had choice of where we wanted to be. It is always important to locate your power and water supply and try to set up close to it so hoses and extension cords don’t have to be run so far. We also wanted to be close to the stage, so all these factors worked in our favor.
In most cases so far myself and teammate Bill Brown usually go down early and set up our compound while the remainder of the team shows up later in the afternoon or early evening. Once this is complete about 2 hours or so, we get our meat inspected by the female IBCA representative. This is a requirement at every event, meat cold, not pre-seasoned in any way. This being done all the prep work can begin. On this trip we are cooking 3 pork butts, 2 briskets, 6 racks of ribs, and 6 chicken halves. You always start with the large cuts of meat due to the long cooking time. Butts and briskets are marinated, injected, seasoned, and wrapped for later. The ribs and chicken will go later tonight.
You must always think about taking care of your team, so for the Friday night dinner I cooked my guys NY strip steaks, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, all smothered with a chipotle-lime butter. We even invited the rep. to dine with us and answer some questions as this was a new event per say as for the rules and what was expected. Everyone eaten, grill up to temperature, the briskets and butts are put on to smoke for the night.
The great thing about these contests is the folks you meet and hang out with, the team names, and the stories people tell. The Texas Rib Rangers came all the way from Texas and invited a young man who is fighting cancer to join them for the weekend. He got to be an honorary member of a legendary team, cooked, prepped, served, turned in their entries, and then walked to the stage and picked up their trophies. Now the great part of this story is that the Rib Rangers have plenty of trophies and let this young man keep those trophies for himself to remember that he is and always will be a Rib Ranger.
We finished cooking on Saturday, sauced everything, prepped in the boxes, turned in and then began the agonizing wait to see how we did. We had real high hopes and were not disappointed when we got our first call ever to the stage, 6th in chicken!!!!! What a great feeling walking up to Mrs. Virginia and the Attorney General to receive our plaque and check. Now that would have made us all happy Q'ers but low and behold we got another call for 10th in pork, walked up and received trophy and check again. This helped us gain a 10th place overall finish in only our 3rd contest with escalating expectations for the next weekend in Chesapeake, VA. See you on the road!!!!
Scott Cocherell
Dixie Bones BBQ Team
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 1:43 PM
Subject: RE: New comment on Dixie Bones "Road Show" Cooks<BR>"Pork in the Park" in Salisbury, MD

Hi Travis! I am the marketing director for Dixie Bones and I write the Barbeque Blog. Scott gives me the information and pictures to publish. I found your blog by using Technorati to find links to the Pork in the Park web site.

I will forward your message to Scott and post your comment. Thanks for reading the Barbeque Blog- it would be great it you could link back to us.

Take care,

Sally


From: Travis Fisher [mailto:fisher.travis@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 11:55 PM
To: Sally L. Albright
Subject: New comment on Dixie Bones "Road Show" Cooks<BR>"Pork in the Park" in Salisbury, MD

Travis Fisher has left a new comment on your post "Dixie Bones "Road Show" Cooks
"Pork in the Park" in Salisbury, MD
":

Hey Scott.

Thanks for coming out to compete. I tried really hard to get a team together from the Salisbury JayCees, but didn't have enough interest. They say that if you're going to do something in life, you should do it as best you can - as a group we like to poor beer.

Each year this event gets bigger and better. I hope that you'll come out again.

How did you do in Richmond?

Publish this comment.

Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by Travis Fisher to Barbeque Blog at 5/15/2006 11:55:23 PM

Tags:

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Geocaching at Fairview Resource Management Area
















Today Joanne and I went geocaching at FRMA. This is a hugantic preservation area with many trails for people and horses. The area is located in NorthEastern Maryland, near the intersection of MD, DE, and PA. There are about a dozen caches in this area, making it a hot spot for geocachers.


We started the day hitting an easy cache - Francancone. In it we found The Politician, a Travel Bug on a missing, TP is trying to get to Washington DC to secure some pork barrel spending for his buddies. Here is Joanne with TP - he was very pleasant and amiable.

Our intent was to start our FRMA hunting with the FairField MultiCache, but I forgot to put the coordinates in our GPS. :-( Instead we went for the Ruined Chicken MultiCache, which is 6 caches hidden across FRMA.


Around the Fair Hill Multicache is a pond were many turtles live. According to a sign at the pond, this huge female turtle is over 30 years old. Happy mother's day, turtle!

Here I am with the first cache of Ruined Chicken.


Around the first cache was an abandoned house (there are many in this area). This is the pic of the chimney in the house - there were also some old appliances in there.

Joanne found the second cache.

A little further down the trail, we searched for the Ampitheater cache. Joanne found it in the roots of this tree, on the top of a very steep hill.

On our way to the third cache, we found this memorial just over a concrete bridge. To the left of the cross is a note left to the deceased.


And the third cache...

On our way to the fourth cache of six, we started hearing frequent thunder coming towards us. The decision was made to hike back to the car. We've got to go back another time to finish it up. Our overall hike was about 6 miles.


Thursday, May 11, 2006

The Da Vinci Code Quest is Over

Joanne and I did not get past the first round. I had a lunch meeting to go to, so Joanne completed the last puzzle. She had some Flash problems and was distracted by work.

By 1:30-ish PM, there were already over 10000 people chosen to be finalists.

It would have been fun to win all of the excellent prizes. Maybe next time.
Tags:

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The Daily Times - www.delmarvanow.com - Salisbury, Md.

In Monday's edition of the Daily Times, I received recognition for tying with the most BNI referrals for the month of March.

I got many "Seen ya's" for this one. Free press is always a good thing.

The Daily Times - www.delmarvanow.com - Salisbury, Md.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Bach to the Future

After our day of Geocaching, Joanne and I went to see some friends perform in St Michaels, MD. Sarah was singing soprano, and Kevin was the guest conductor.

Upon arrival in St Michaels, we ate at the Town Dock Restaurant. We had a great meal overlooking the Marina in the quaint, historic town. I had the New England Striped Bass - it had a sundried tomato crust and garlic mashed potatoes. Joanne at some tasty grouper dish topped with pesto and accompanied with baby artichokes.

Next, we drove a few blocks to Christ Church St Michaels. This is an extremly beautiful, historic church - very neat. They had a lot of artifacts inside, including a gift from Queen Elizabeth from the 1700's and stuff from many long forgotten churches of convenience. The stained glass was awesome.

Joanne and I sent an hour or so ushering, or handing out programs. I counted about 100 attendees. Then we got to enjoy the choir music. It was awesome - 17 amazing singers, who performed arrangements of poems and the like.

We finished our evening with a trip to Scossa's for desert. Many of the vocalists came to join us.

Geocaching at Tuckahoe State Park

Yesterday Joanne and I began our new hobby - geocaching. For those unfamiliar with the sport, it's a sort of modern day treasure hunting. There are caches placed all over earth, and you are given the coordinates of the goodies. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to use the information made available to you to find the cache. Inside the cache, which is usually tupperware or an ammo container, you'll find all sorts of trinkets and a log book. Trade a trinket, sign the log, and rehide the cache.

We went to Tuckahoe State Park in search of 4 caches that live there. Later in the day we were to help our friends Bach to the Future with their performance, so it was only expected that we might find two of them.

Our first hunt was for Tuckahoe Valley Trail Cache. We started at the beginning of the Tuckahoe Valley Trail near Cemetary Lane, and decided to take the Cliffside Trail to our destination. The hike started out with what I think was an Eastern Hog-nosed Snake, which scared Joanne. We went past some power lines and then along some very steep slopes that follow a creek.

We then arrived at an intersection of trails and began searching for the cache. Our hint told us to look for a large oak tree about 75 feet from the intersection. After about half an hour, I was able to find the cache. Inside were some trinkets (McDonald's Incredibles Toy, matchbox cars, etc) and a log book. I signed the book - we didn't take a trinket becase I left them in Joanne's car. I had to hide the cache quickly because there were some mountain bikers coming up to the area.

Next up was our search for Tour de Lamahoe, which was about 1/4 mile East on the Turkey Trail. We entered a floodplain and saw many trees that had been felled by beavers in an attempt to dam up the area. After searching for about an hour, we gave up on this one. While we were in the right area, we just couldn't find the stash.

Given the time constraints, we decided to make our way back to the car. Our return trip was via the Tuckahoe Valley Trail, which was an easy hike through the woods. We didn't try the other two geocaches, so there are still three in Tuckahoe that we need to find.

We had a great time experiencing the wilderness. Our overall hike for the day was about 3.5 miles. Next weekend we'll be in Salisbury, so we're going to search for Geocaches over there.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

TheHawaiiChannel - Family - 10 Traits That Make You A Great Girlfriend

I love Joanne so much - she's the bestest girlfriend ever. In case you were curios to know why, here's the scoop.

TheHawaiiChannel - Family - 10 Traits That Make You A Great Girlfriend

TheHawaiiChannel - KITV 4 News - Men Glued To Toilet Seats At Wal-Mart, Denny's

Salisbury has been making the national news lately. Seems that somebody has been putting super glue on public toilet seats. While it would be super embarassing to be a victim to such a prank, I still think that I'd laugh about it after the humiliation wore off.

This morning I saw a story on Fox News. Here's the story running on a TV station in Hawaii.

TheHawaiiChannel - KITV 4 News - Men Glued To Toilet Seats At Wal-Mart, Denny's