• ‘Cause he’s an idiot!

    The other day Mom said to stop Smokey from licking up the soap “Cause he’s an idiot!”

    I acted like that was the funniest thing I’d heard in a while because it was. Smokey not only rides the short bus, he’s the driver and conductor.

    So tonight I found the litter box turned over and Smokey on the sink looking guilty. What obviously transpired is that he was sleeping on the sink and fell off into the litter box. Not the first time either.

    “Cause he’s an idiot!”

     

  • Mr. Z’s RV Park, Gilbert, SC

    We intentionally passed through Batesburg-Leesville on US-178 but quickly discovered that the choices of campgrounds was very slim. Southeast of town there’s a nudist park outside of Pelion which would be fine except that it’s too cold now in late March to run around nekkid and there’s no point to paying double the price if we couldn’t. Then there’s a church camp but us sinners probably wouldn’t be welcome and there’s a CG around a pond but when we rode by it looked like the Clampetts met the Duck Dunderheads.

    Mr.Z's

    Mr.Z’s

    Up way northeast of town there’s a place the purports to be a Barnyard in a flea market and way up northwest there’s lots of CGs around Lake Murray but that’s all way off track.

    So on a guess and a spy-eye from Google Earth we chose Mr. Z’s RV Park, which is about two-thirds of the way from Leesville to Lexington. The fact that it’s a PA park doens’t hurt.

    It turned out to be a good choice. The owners live in  a house out by the highway and their big back yard is a 12-site FHU CG. There’s plenty of room for big and wide rigs, enough pine trees to give some shade but not interfere too much with satellite TV, a nice little laundry and a pool. The free wifi actually works most of the time. No showerhouse, though, so you’ll have to be self-contained.

    Mr. Z’s RV Park
    3343 Augusta Hwy
    Gilbert, SC 29054
    kez48111@yahoo.com
    (803) 206-8928

    www.mrzsrv.com

  • Jackie Hite’s BBQ, Leesville, SC

    There’s something called 100-mile barbecue, as in “I’d drive a hundred miles to get some.”   Jackie Hite’s is right up there in the top of the pack.

    We tried to beat the after-church crowd on Sunday and just barely made it. Cars and pickups were already parked almost a block down the road alongside the tracks; the takeout door had a line out the door and the sit-down line was almost to the door. Fortunately it’s a buffet, so we got ourselves huge loads and sat down.

    Mac n Cheese, Greens, Pork, Fried Chicken, Fried Okra and bread!

    Mac n Cheese, Greens, Green Beans and Potatoes, Pork, Fried Chicken, Fried Okra and bread!

    We had two kinds of pork, regular pulled pork and mustard-sauced finely-chopped pork. The pulled pork was good but really isn’t Hite’s forte; the addition of some mustard sauce made it better. The chopped pork sauced with a somewhat different mustard sauce was absolutely wonderful and is what Midlands barbecue is known for.

    The fried chicken was great, moist, drippy and juicy but not greasy and far better than the Kentucky fried colonel. And this is at a barbecue restaurant. Mom even ate the skin.

    A Midlands specialty is BBQ hash. It’s sort of hard to describe other than to say it’s a thick soup/stew made up of all sorts of piggy parts with some mustard sauce and served over white rice. There are hash cookers who work for restaurants and there are others cooking in a shed out back; what they have in common is that hash is a BBQ art of it’s own.

    Part of the Buffet!

    Part of the Buffet!

    Jackie Hite’s has hash nailed, hitting all the right notes without going too far in any direction. Great!

    I reckon it’s time to mention sides. We both got the same things except Mom got some greens and mac’n’cheese that I didn’t have room on the plate for. The fried okra was amazingly crispy, the flat beans and taters were tasty and Mom said the greens and somewhat Velveeta-style mac’n’cheese were good.

    Then we hauled ourselves off to the dessert bar and zeroed in on one thing, Nanner Puddin. Light fluffy whipped cream, banana cream, lots of bananas and crispy ‘Nillas. That was amazing; crispy ‘Nillas means that it was made like right now or a little while earlier, not yesterday. Superb!

    All the while, at least an hour or more, the line for the buffet snaked around the room.

    Jackie Hite’s BBQ
    (803) 532-3354

    460 East Railroad Avenue
    Leesville, SC 29070