Annual Sappiness

December 31st always signals a time of reflection about what is important and the joy and sadness of the past year. I take great pleasure in remembering all the laughter that was shared with family and friends in 2010.

This year, I was fortunate enough to see several childhood friends that brought tears to my eyes from laughing so hard. Visits with friends from far away places reassured me that we share a great bond that never seems to fade away. Those that live closest to me remain as some of the most supportive people in my life and oddly, some of the hardest to make time to see. This is something that needs to be remedied in the year to come. My budding relationships with those in the community at the library, book club and knitting group are ones that I look forward to developing in the year to come. All of these friendships mean the world to me and I realize how lucky I am to have them.

Tonight, we will make a toast in honor of our friend Dennis that we lost this summer. You are missed.

Happy New Year! May 2011 bring you and your loved ones lots of laughter and good health.

Ski Partner Pets

Just yesterday, Drew and I were talking about training our cat to hang out in a pack basket during Nordic ski adventures. Yes, I am well aware of the "crazy cat lady" label that would come with that.

Today, I forgot about the whole cat on my back thing when I became slightly jealous of Jen's speed down the hills with her dog assisting. You see, that's Jen way in front with Hadley and my slow body being left way in the back. Each and every hill.

Our 9 pound cat might give me a little extra weight to go a tad faster, but I don't think it would equal the speed of a husky racing and pulling me down the descents.

Honestly, I don't know if I could handle an added obstacle to my downhill skiing. I have a hard enough time as it is staying upright over hidden rocks and roots, with or without a dog or cat. I should add that Drew and Mike didn't have an animal pulling them along and somehow they also managed to beat me to Marcy Dam. No worries, I was smiling the whole way.

Happy first day of Winter from a lady, crazy even without a cat on her back!

Covered Bridge Mystery

I notice things that most people never see and I guess I ponder things that others would never waste their time thinking about.

Like today for instance, I took great pleasure in being the first one to cross the Covered Bridge. When my footprints sank into last night's snowfall at the bridge's entrance, I wondered how long it had been since someone else had walked across it. Then, just a few strides in, I noticed something so peculiar. There on the ground of the Covered Bridge was a small pile of pencil shavings resting atop fresh snowflakes.

Weird, huh? I glanced around looking for other clues to provide me with some background information on the remains of this No. 2 pencil. There was nothing other than an old cigarette butt further down.

I don't know why, but I've always thought that at some point in my life I might be needed in a crime scene investigation and the FBI might ask me everything I know and can remember. I am observant and think that I'd make a good lady detective.

Not that I would ever, ever want this to happen, but if some child was abducted and they found her backpack with a pencil sharpener inside and evidence that it had been used just hours ago, my observations would be useful.

I'm just saying, sometimes it's good to question things.

Upper Jay Pegasus

I know it is the season to watch out for Santa's flying reindeer, but apparently you also need to be on the look out for the pegasus of Upper Jay!

Christmas Tree Mission 2010

After last year's $7 bargain tree, we refused to pay the going rate of $25 - 50 and decided we'd take a walk in the woods with a saw in hand. Don't worry, we had permission at a secret location in Keene.

We contemplated cutting down a conjoined twin tree, but their trunks were connected at the very bottom and it would have made the tree stand's job difficult.

The forest was scattered with tons of scraggly looking trees that we considered, but we kept on hiking in search of the "perfect" tree. We also kept thinking the tops of the trees looked the best, so that is exactly what we did.

We found a medium sized tree that had dead branches on the bottom and a decent sized top. Drew sawed the tree down and then proceeded to cut it in half. The top half fell on my head, but I don't think it caused any damage. Here's the trimmed up tree being held by its proud owner.

We thought we had done a pretty good job until our 6 year old friend came over and said, "Where are you supposed to put the ornaments? There aren't any branches."

After decorating it, I think we proved her wrong. For a free tree, it looks pretty dang good.

Missing Phone Booth Adventure

I received an email this morning, "Where is the Jay phone booth? Gone!"

I thought for sure this was some kind of practical joke since I was just preaching about my love of the phone booth the night before. I immediately hopped in my car with my pajamas still on and drove to find the truth.

It was true. The phone booth was missing.

I drove home immediately, gobbled up some peanut butter toast as fast as I could because I feared if I didn't find out the phone booth's fate, it would be too late. I was worried it would end up crushed at some scrap metal factory.

The Town of Jay informed me that it was the property of Frontier and they were the ones that removed it. Next, I knocked on the work building's door for Frontier in Ausable Forks and a nice employee told me his coworker took it home with him. He was reluctant to give out his information to a crazy woman demanding to know where the phone booth went, probably because he thought I might consider stealing it. I gave him my contact information and went along my way in hopes of some day being able to say good bye to the charming structure and take a picture of it at its new home.

This is a bittersweet ending to my morning's missing phone booth adventure. I am sad that this historical artifact is now missing for the public to see at our Village Green, but am happy that it is still intact and will be taken care of by a fellow phone booth fan.

Little Supermarket Pizza Tasting

The display of ready-to-go pizza slices at the Little Supermarket taunted me recently whispering, "Take me home, I dare you."

I have always been a skeptic about Convenience Store pizza. It rarely looks appetizing sitting next to the corn dogs and chicken wings that have been baking in the faux warmer all day long. We all know The Little Supermarket ranks way above the category of gross Convenience Store food and makes awesome made-to-order deli sandwiches, but what about their pizza?

Last Friday, we had plans to go to our friend's house for pizza and a movie. I suggested we phone in an order with the Little Supermarket and give it a try since they make pizza on Fridays and Saturdays from 3:30 - 7:00 pm. The phone order and pick up transaction went smoothly, but we were all anxious to know how the pizza was going to taste. We took a peek at it even before we left the store and all thought it looked good.

The six year old in the group was the first to dig in and even before we had tried a bite, she was half way through her first slice and said, "I think the cheese is the best part."

We were all very surprised at how good the pizza tasted. There were no issues with the sauce and agreed that what makes the pizza is the flavor of the crust. The 5th grader that took part in our Little Supermarket pizza tasting thought, "The cheese and crust mix well together. This pizza is my 2nd top favorite pizza place in Essex County." He also noted, "The crust is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside." His mother remarked that she couldn't believe that his sister "ate her crust because she doesn't always do that and the fact that she went through almost two pieces is really good."

Unfortunately, we all liked the pizza so much that there weren't any leftovers for their Dad when he got home late that night from a business trip. Looks like we'll just have to try it again, but next time we will have to order two.

Rosa Gets a Little Help From Ward Lumber

Something magical happened today. Rosa drove into the garage for the first time! However, she struggled moving over the cement entrance because of its unevenness. Luckily, we live just down the road from Ward Lumber and thought if we could buy some gravel and spread it over the dips it would be a smooth ride in and out for her.

Since most people aren't doing the landscaping thing at this time of year, the only option was a bag of white marble gravel. After purchasing a 50 pound bag, they called on the radio for someone to meet us with a forklift at Building Two because it had been put "up in the air" for the winter.

While waiting, Drew spotted what we needed and maneuvered the bag down himself.

Just as he was bringing the marble down, the forklift showed up. The worker just shook his head and said the same thing we were thinking, "All this for just a bag of marble. A bit overkill, huh?"

Ward Lumber always provides the best service and continues to go above and beyond. They continue to impress me, even if it is just a $4 bag of marble to help Rosa.

A Letter to My Beloved Car Rosa

Dear Rosa,

Congratulations on hitting the 110,000 mileage mark today. I'm guessing that after driving that far and closing in on 14 years old, you wanted to take a little break for yourself when deciding not to put the driver side window back up after using the ATM drive-thru.

I need to apologize for having my doubts about you and accidentally calling you a "Piece of S..." to my parents on the phone. I hope you can understand my level of frustration because it was cold and rainy out. Rather than having an all out fight with you, I removed myself from the situation and got a few groceries.

I took a deep breath before seeing you and it helped. I turned on your heat and pointed it toward the window. Slowly you poked your window head back up and with my assistance, I brought you to the top again.

I know you've felt sick plenty of other times before and I've helped you get over those illnesses. Christmas night 2008 was not one of the best when you decided to let the brakes go in Santa Clara and made Drew drive home 45 miles brakeless through the Adirondacks in the dark. The mechanic doctor helped you the very next day. You have proven to me that you're exhausted with the several complete exhaust systems I've bought for you. That summer that you had a leak in the gas tank, your fumes actually made me sick, but I still didn't give up on you.

What I'm trying to say little Rosa, is that I love you even after 14 years. I'll keep loving you and giving you the benefit of the doubt, but I need you to keep loving me too. I know that you look at that two door garage every night wishing that some day you'll make it inside. Believe me I want to be able to give that to you before the day comes when you no longer have that as an option. Maybe tomorrow morning when you see Drew, you could give him a little wink of the headlight and win him over so he'll clear out one side of the garage for your red hot body this winter.

Love always,

Your faithful driver

Visitors and a Cascading Waterfall

I like having guests visit me along the Ausable because it generally means good food and lots of laughs are on the way. If we know visitors are coming to stay at our house, it means we'll be eating a higher quality dinner thoughtfully prepared rather than our usual last minute frozen pizza option. If they're staying elsewhere, I try to figure out a place they would really enjoy eating at together. Good food and drinks always wins me over whether I'm a guest or a hostess.

As for activities, I like to plan out some fun things to do as well.

When I heard that L and P were going to be staying in Lake Placid and wanted to get together over the weekend, I immediately wanted to know where they were staying. Why? Well, I hoped their lodging accommodations would have a pool and I could build it into the evening's itinerary.

L informed me that they would be staying at the Courtyard Marriott. I wrote back right away telling her to pack their bathing suits. Now, I know writing this to someone you haven't seen in roughly 12 years and having gotten reacquainted through one another's blogs might seem strange, but L quickly wrote back, "I hear the pool has its own 'cascading waterfall' (as opposed to one that does not cascade)."

Before we checked out the cascading waterfall at the pool, we toured two dining establishments for drinks and food and then sprinkled in a little Adirondack ambience. The tour de Lake Placid seemed to exhaust everyone, but we rallied and put on our suits since we did at one point call the hotel to confirm that the pool wasn't closing until 11:00 pm.

There wasn't just one cascading waterfall, there were two! One each for L and P to relax under.

If L&P would like to return, I'll show them a real waterfall next time, one that cascades more than two feet.

Carbo Loading at the Village Bakery

With my next marathon less than two weeks away, it's time to start thinking about carbo loading to avoid bonking and the Village Bakery in Lake Placid has plenty of carbohydrates to choose from.

The Village Bakery bakes fresh Italian loaves, French baguettes, boules and petit pans daily.

There is a weekly bread schedule with specialty loaves on certain days. My favorite day would be Saturday because of the tasty focaccia and olive bread that comes out of the oven.

♥ Olive You! ♥

It's not just bread, there is an assortment of muffins, turnovers, and chocolate croissants available too. I cannot tell a lie, even if I wasn't about to run 26.2 miles, I'd still find myself at the bottom of Mill Hill at the Village Bakery. Who can resist fresh baked goods?

Eek! The First Sound of Winter

The seasons have changed.

I'm not talking about seeing the first snowfall accumulation on Friday and hearing my husband rustle around in his ski pants at 5:00 am the next morning to ski up the Toll Road before work. The sound of winter is a noise that wakes me from a sound sleep at 3:30 am and makes me lose sleep. The noise of mice scurrying in our bedroom ceiling. It happened. Last night.

In bed I feared the worst and could not fall back asleep. Thoughts ran through my head. Could this little animal gnaw through the ceiling and fall on me while I sleep? I haven't seen any droppings and the fun size Snickers haven't been touched, maybe I'm just hearing things.

Just when I convinced myself that it must have been the wind against the window, I heard some more scurrying. I let out an Eek! and quickly covered my head with the covers and nudged my husband who simply rolled over and said, "There's nothing I can do right now." Geez, thanks for comforting me. At least I had the cat on the other side to protect me.

There you have it folks, the first sound of Winter. Tonight after work I will buy some peppermint oil and cotton balls and madly place them around the house because apparently mice hate the smell. I will also start researching how to shoot mice with a gun that I don't yet own. As for Drew, you better believe he'll be setting the traps with peanut butter.

Equine Center aka Bomb Shelter

When I first moved to the area almost a decade ago, I had this sweet deal through work and paid only $100 a month to live in this little apartment on the old Lake Placid Club property.

When I wasn't surrounded by snow drifts in the winter, you could see that I lived in the middle of a parking area for the tennis courts. During the day, when I was actually inside (rare), the door would get knocked on asking if I was the Tennis Pro. At night, I would wake up to the sound of cars slowly driving in and parking. I started to recognize the cars that were either doing drug deals or parking to make out. My cinder block apartment never really felt like home and my friends referred to it as the "Bomb Shelter."

Turns out the "Bomb Shelter" is now surrounded by horses.

The Equine Center now has a location here and they offer horseback riding, carriage and sleigh rides. As my dedicated readers know, I have a problem with motion sickness so I will not provide you with a review of the horseback riding. I shall leave that to someone else.

No offense horsies, but I sure am glad I don't live in the "Bomb Shelter" anymore. I hope you enjoy the teenage face suckers more than I did.

Help Stop Hunger?

How can I "Help Stop Hunger" when there isn't any candy for me to buy to end my own personal hunger?

Friday's Flight of Stairs

This post is another little glimpse into our home renovation progress for friends and family that won't be visiting our stairwell along the Ausable anytime soon. Oh, and I can't forget the maniacs out there like me that spend hours looking these silly things up on the internet. I thought I'd share with you our latest house project, painted and stenciled stairs.

Years ago, even before moving, I had ripped out a page from Country Home Magazine and kept it in a folder. Turns out, my sister tore out the same picture for me. I never knew if we'd have stairs some day, let alone ones we could paint as beautiful as these stairs I drooled over in a magazine.

Turns out we ended up with a narrow painted grey stairwell that was sandwiched in by lovely wood panelling. We ripped down the faux wood (correction, Drew ripped it down), and went to work on new walls. It's been a long process, but I was patient waiting to get up close and personal with the stairs.

Before

AND

After

So, there you have it, our flight of stairs painted in green with a stencil on the risers. Does this mean I can finally recycle that magazine picture?

We have one more day of driving the cats insane by locking them up and sealing the stairs with a polyurethane. Yeah, that's fun. Um, not. Oh well, Happy Friday!

p.s. If anyone out there would like our extra gallon of Louisville Mint Julep floor paint, let me know!

It's Nana Time!

Over the years, I have picked up the nickname, Nana. Yes, as in the old lady Grandma kind of way. As the seasons change and darkness creeps in on us, the Nana in me is more noticeable. I like to go to bed early, before all my television shows even start.

Just now, I ignored my phone ringing downstairs because it was 9:00 pm. Most friends and family know I'm pretty much not available to talk at that hour. However, I listened to my voice mail and it went something like this: "Hi Nana. It's 8:59 and I thought I'd be safe calling you before nine, but I guess not. I'll just have to catch up with you tomorrow to coordinate our run together."

This made me laugh because she is a new friend and has caught on rather quickly to my habits. Her five year old daughter lasts longer than me at parties. Do you think I can use the last month of marathon training as an excuse because I need to rest my muscles and sleep should be a priority?

When Drew asked why I was laughing at my message, I filled him in and he proceeded to laugh along. I decided to come clean about what caught my eye on the bulletin board at the bank this afternoon. There was a flyer that said: "Do you like to eat? Do you like to play bingo?" YES, YES, I DO!!! Before copying the information down, I noticed the fine print welcoming me to a night of socializing at the senior citizen home.

Yup, that's me, Nana along the Ausable. Good Night!

Which Way for Wood?

Let's pretend that you are a tourist in Wilmington staying at one of the campgrounds and you want to build your family a fire and cook up some s'mores. You head into the center of town and at the four corners you are faced with making the difficult decision of turning left or right for camp wood.

I'm guessing you choose right because it takes less effort to make a right hand turn than a left hand turn because it doesn't involve crossing the yellow line. Right? Right.

Wrong! You are a failure. You reach the matching camp wood sign .5 miles later and see that there is no wood.

You make a gesture with your arms questioning the sign to the man driving out of his driveway and he shakes his head, NO.

You drive back to the four corners and head only .2 of a mile up the hill and see an amazing display of Camp Wood. Score! Here they have nice cubbies of about 20 pieces of camp wood for $5 and also starter wood to get you going for $2.

They even demonstrate on site how wood burns and creates smoke. The sign also reminds you that fire can be "Danger Hot" and you feel like this camp wood seller cares about their customer's fire safety.

Before picking out the camp wood that you were trying to buy you check out the rustic chainsaw carvings. Out of the corner of your eye you see a sign, "Take Your Picture with Dad Wilminon NY" Yup, right there in "Wilminon" you start acting like a true tourist and get camera happy.

Big Al with "DAD"

Drew, aka Fred Flintstone

After all the fun, you get back into your real car and head back to camp and discover you never even bought any Camp Wood.

20 Main, We're not Scared!

The night started with a simple plan to go to Ladies Night at the Hollywood Theatre in Ausable Forks, but since Lori's coworker dared us to go into 20 Main, the night didn't just end with Eat, Pray, Love. 20 Main has over the years gotten a bad reputation. Some natives have told me they wouldn't dare step into the bar.

I'm not really sure why or how 20 Main got their reputation, perhaps it had something to do with this sign.

Needless to say, I'm a curious person and the ladies didn't put up a fight about checking it out. No "dive bar" was going to scare us. We are a tough group of ladies that are not to be messed with. Look how unapproachable we are.

Here's your proof Chuck!

Honestly, I'm a bit sad that I hadn't been into 20 Main sooner. Hello? Why did no one tell me they had table shuffleboard? I love shuffleboard and hadn't played it in years.

As a kid, my parents would take my sister and I to the Chase Mills Inn in the middle of nowhere St. Lawrence County for dinner. While waiting, I'd annoy my big sis by sprinkling sand all over the place and knock her discs off while she tried to play a "serious" game of shuffleboard.

So, the discovery of the shuffleboard's existence at 20 Main thrilled me and we started a serious game of our own!

Oh, dirty sand and germ ridden shuffleboard discs

how I've missed you!

The ladies divided themselves into two teams - red vs. blue or A&E vs. J&L. The game was tied up until the last match when I placed a red disc onto the 3 and no one came close to knocking it off. Emilie and I won 10 to 6!

Now that we know the music didn't stop when we walked in and didn't get our teeth knocked out, we'll be back to perfect our game of shuffleboard at 20 Main!

Largest Beer Selection?

Wilmington's North Pole Camping Resort has a new sign out front announcing that they have the "Largest Selection of Micros & Craft Beers In Town!"

Knowing that they have two major competitors in town, the gas station and the Little Supermarket, we were curious to see their beer selection.

The five shelves probably shouldn't be described as large, but then again, I guess it's all relative, especially in Wilmington. We were happy to see that they did carry a few hard to find varieties of beer. They let you mix and match and put together your own six pack which is always fun.

Drew ended up with a six pack of Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Otter Creek Copper Ale, Negra Modelo, Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, Smithwick's Irish Ale, and a Hoegaarden White Ale. He quickly cooled them off after the car ride home in his "dorm room fridge" in the garage.

We also walked away with a bottle of Samuel Smith India Ale. Sammy Smith beers are my favorite and being able to buy them in Wilmington makes my life even better. Now, I think I'll go find myself a cold beer...

Musty Smell Solution for Furniture

I used to spray myself with Gingerale Perfume until my sister started accusing me of smelling like an old dirty basement. Yup, my family tells it like it is. Straight up honesty, like soda bubbles up your nose.

As much as I loved the scent, I certainly didn't want to smell musty. That goes for my husband too. We recently acquired an old dresser for him, but my nose immediately detected the scent of that Gingerale Perfume and so I went to work researching how to spare his clothing from smelling musty.

I realize that this is probably far too much background information and this really has nothing to do with being along the Ausable, but in case anyone else out there has searched high and low for answers on how to eliminate musty smells from antique furniture, I now present you with a solution.

1. Put furniture outside on a hot, sunny day to let it breathe.

2. Clean out all the dirt with a rag and vacuum out any remaining debris.

3. Using a diluted water and Murphy Oil Soap solution, wipe down the entire dresser and let air dry in the sun.

4. Put trays of baking soda in the drawers for 24 hours.

5. Dump out the baking soda and then put Activated Charcoal on baking trays inside the drawers and dresser for at least a week.

Activated Charcoal can be purchased at any Pet Store. We found it in the Fish section. I guess it makes aquarium water crystal clear and removes organic waste, colors and odor. Drew read somewhere that one gram of charcoal is equivalent to the surface area of 1/10 the size of a football field!

6. Remove charcoal trays and give the furniture another wipe down and it should be ready to store clothing!

So far, it seems to have worked. Cross your fingers for us that we have found the solution and if your nose tells you we haven't, please be honest and tell my husband he smells like an old, dirty basement as my sister once told me.

Detective Case #1: Gnome Lights

Recently I've been reading the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and have been obsessed with thinking I too could be a really good female detective. Last week I had to get a new cell phone and decided on a black phone because it would be inconspicuous, just like a private eye would have and I even chose the Inspector Gadget theme song as my ring tone. No joke.

Tonight, I have my first case to solve. I wandered outside to call in the cat and as I turned the corner shaking his food bowl, there glowing in our cedar tree were some gnome lights!

I knocked on our living room window to show Drew my excitement and he acted surprised. I thought for sure when he was outside trying to get the cat in and I talked to my friend Lori inside behind the curtains that he was busy stringing lights. He claims it wasn't him.

Lori had already left when I discovered all this and I immediately called her cell phone. The connection wasn't the clearest and I thought for sure she said, "Gnome it wasn't me, I don't gnome what you're talking about." I asked her if she was saying NO or GNOME, it wasn't clear. I hadn't seen her in awhile and she did just kind of show up at my house acting a little strange, but that's not that unusual. No offense Lori. Really? Were you really "just in the neighborhood?"

Why isn't anyone owning up to gifting me with these fabulous gnomes?

The first person I would suspect just flew across the country to go rock climbing, so it's not her. The second suspect lives in Finland, and I don't think she'd fly all the way here to string up some lights without saying hello.

What would Mma Ramotswe of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency from Botswana do? I looked for other clues. I noticed the empty box in the garage and there were no hints to where it was purchased. However, the person did place it on the table near our Recyclables, so it makes me think it is someone that is organized. I started calling other suspects and no one is fessing up.

It troubles me that friends and family members that have been accused of trespassing and stringing gnomes on our property tonight have laughed at my inability to solve my first detective case. I don't have the equipment to do finger printing, but I do know enough that I am 100% sure that this person contains the "awesome" gene.

This case is not closed. If you have any information or possible leads, please contact me.

Gargoyle Yard Sale

The Gargoyles had a Garage and Yard Sale this weekend.

I stopped by to see just how much two Gargoyles could accumulate. I was surprised to see that when I'm not spying on the Gargoyles and taking their photograph, they have been busy playing the guitar, using a George Foreman Grill and Tubing.

Their Yard Sale also gave me some insight into other hobbies of theirs, such as reading and fashion. They must have outgrown a lot of clothes and I also suspect that they became tired of playing with dinosaur toys.

The Gargoyles were trying to purge many items from their lives this weekend, but they accepted some Easter Rabbit Eggs that I found at a Yard Sale before visiting them.

I thought they'd be a perfect addition for an Easter Gargoyle Party. Stay tuned...

Mulvey's Adirondack Farm Market

I love summer. I love farmstands. I love vegetables on the side of road. I love not having to go to the grocery store for just one ingredient. Sometimes I just need lettuce, other times it's onions, today it was the tomato.

I knew I could rely on Mulvey's Adirondack Farm Market after work today to grab that one tomato. Mulvey's is so convenient, it's on the way home and all I have to do is pull over, I don't even need a quarter for a cart or fight for a basket.

Right away, I found the tomato I wanted, but then I grabbed two ears of corn. I love corn. Favorite summer food ever! It didn't stop at just the tomato and corn.

All of a sudden, I needed creamed honey. Oh, and then I was talked into a purple tomato because it was ready to use tonight in my zucchini pie. I didn't think I was stopping by for a purple tomato. A purple tomato, huh? I guess it's just a fancy heirloom tomato that Jessica said, "looks like an ugly tomato, but it's purple." Another shopper, Cal, told me it probably tasted old since it was an heirloom. "Silent Cal" is just so funny.

So, remember how I thought I was going in for just one tomato? I ended up with with two tomatoes, two ears of corn, a jar of creamed honey and a finger trap.

Yes, I said finger trap. Otherwise known as "Chinese finger cuffs". Mulvey's has more than just fresh veggies and berries. They sell locally made jewelry and other Adirondack crafts.

Mulvey's is open Thursday - Sunday from 10 - 5 pm. It is definitely worth the stop between Wilmington and Jay, but be prepared that just like in big grocery stores, you might not walk out with just one tomato.