Sometimes you just have to miss out on things. There are choices to be made….do A or do B. A variety of reasons help steer your choice; maybe cost, the amount of pleasure one will give over the other or simply time available.

The latter was the reason we missed out on visiting America’s Largest Pork Display. Several vast billboards taunt and tease as you drive along. Only 3 miles to go!!! Can we really miss this opportunity? Will we ever drive this road again? How BIG is this display? What exactly is on display? Are the staff dressed up in costume?

The reality is we just don’t know. And I like the shrouded mystery. It’s a delight that will have to wait for for another day. A special day trip like going to the Smithsonian or the Tower of London. I was going to write London Zoo but the sign does say Pork not Pig so comparing a live animal exhibit to large butcher’s shop is probably not appropriate.

The reason we passed ALPD was that we took a road trip to Cincinnati to visit family. Even with an 11 hour drive to get there and get back, we had a fabulously relaxing weekend away from boat chores. Included was a visit to a Bourbon Distillery, plenty of Premiership Football which made me happy, a Sunday morning walk in the woods, (too much) red wine one evening, a games afternoon and I spent two hours in the bath just because I could.

The games afternoon consisted of Dave beating me heavily at Pool. He plays with an ambidextrous flair, left handed or right handed. Doesn’t matter. On about game 7 of solid defeats, I cheered as I potted the black ball joyously only for the white ball to roll painfully slowly up the baize and drop into the corner pocket. Rats. Insert a stronger word here if you feel my pain.

On to table tennis. More my game. A moving ball. Thankfully I restored some pride and he walked away from the table with a big fat zero after a few games. I was immediately brought down to earth as I played cousin G who with his ‘chippy choppy spinny’ game took two games off me in quick succession. I did try to demolish the Tower of London Lego model which lives on a shelf at one end of the table with an over exuberant wind up to a forehand smash. You can see it in the picture behind Dave playing pool. Thankfully the damage looked to be easily repairable. Not an incarceration offence.

Boat news…blah blah, waiting for gel coat application but it needs to warm up a bit first, prop shaft back in, engine alignment tweaking, blah blah….