Tales from Way out West.

@OnionSoup
So glad you found a Meijer. We have all three in MI but I’m loyal to Meijer. They have the best produce. I guess they grow their own lettuce and herbs in that state and then have contracts with local farmers for the rest. So if your buying in season produce at Meijer’s your getting it from your local area not shipped from Mexico or California. It’s a better way of doing things and they started this years and years ago, way before trump and his stupid tariffs. Target is defiantly the bougeest of the three.

@OnionSoup
Next time your in Wisconsin look for a Kringle. I get them from Trader Joe’s but they’re made in Wisconsin and you should be able to get way more flavor varieties.

@Star2236 I will be in Wisconsin again this weekend… so I’ll be on the lookout for one!

@kittykat9180 I buy it at Target in the mid-Atlantic.

@kittykat9180 South Carolina… But frequently in Georgia and North Carolina too

I looked it up- Squirt is owned by Dr Pepper and Dr. Pepper is weird they only sell certain drinks in certain states… I think it’s Vanilla float variety that only sells in Walmart’s in one state for example. For whatever reason they don’t chose to distribute all their drinks to all states…or even all stores within a state when they do.

@OnionSoup according to the Internet it’s currently in stock at the Target in Simpsonville, South Carolina.

@kittykat9180 interesting. Must confess I don’t do grocery shopping at target because of the prices. I’m usually at grocery stores like Publix or Food Lion

@OnionSoup I guess one could classify soda as groceries.

@kittykat9180 @OnionSoup I must be the lucky guy… Vanilla Float Dr. Pepper is pretty great.

What I can’t get that you can is Cheerwine. I last had it in the 90s when they seemingly went national, so I don’t even really remember if it’s any good.

@djslack @kittykat9180 yes, Cheerwine is in every grocery store in the Carolinas. It’s been a long time since I had it though. I don’t dislike I, but don’t typically drink it.

Blenheim Ginger Ale is the one soda that is pretty much just in the Carolina’s (not sure may be in a few stores outside our are)… So good. Made with real ginger and has that real ginger slight burn as you drink it.

For Cheerwine, Bojangles is a Carolina based chain that is more or less national now… Do Bojangles have it on their drink list outside the Carolina’s? Pretty sure I’ve seen it in Bojangles here before. Biscuitville is a smaller chain, less spread outside the Carolina’s, that definitely has it… They even make a sauce with it.

@kittykat9180 @OnionSoup
I’ve never had the vanilla float one, I had the cream soda one and didn’t care for it and I love cream soda. I just bought the blackberry one but haven’t tried it yet.

@kittykat9180 @Star2236 I don’t like most of the flavoured Dr Peppers except Cherry and Coconut. I got one limited release coconut last year expecting it to be terrible but became my all time favourite soda. Unfortunately only found it as the program was ending. I was so excited they were releasing it again this summer only to find it’s only released in the South West this time.

Still the fact they brought it back is hope that it will come back again next year.

@OnionSoup @Star2236
IBC cream soda is the only soda I will drink. Even then a four pack lasts me like six months because it’s so sweet.
I was drinking Zia for a while but then my local grocery store stopped carrying it.

https://www.ziabev.com/buyonline

@OnionSoup We used to have Bojangles many years ago. I just looked and there are some once you get about an hour away from here. Another NC chain that has Cheerwine is Cook Out, but I’ve only encountered those further east in Mississippi.

@Star2236 The blackberry one I find really sweet. My wife loves it though. I hope you like it too.

@kittykat9180 @OnionSoup @Star2236
I got all excited about the coconut one and kept checking the stores around here but we never got it either. SO DISAPPOINTED.

@kittykat9180 Did you ever have the prickly pear flavor of Zia?! I’d love to try that. I’ve never seen or heard of that soda before.

@kittykat9180 @OnionSoup
Ibc used to be the one I drink too then I discovered Dr browns cream soda and I like that one better. It has more of a caramel flavor and isn’t as sweet as ibc.

@Kyeh I have not. I’ve only had the sandia and piñón cola, which are both excellent. I need to find another store that sells it and try the prickly pear, I am a fan of things flavored with prickly pear.
Maybe I’ll message them to find another store that sells it locally.

@Star2236 I’ll have to look for that one.

@kittykat9180 For a while, Safeway had a prickly pear sorbet that was so good! But like most things I like, it got discontinued.

@kittykat9180 @Kyeh
That Zia prickly pear sounds good but unfortunately I don’t think we have that here in mi

@Kyeh @Star2236 it’s local to the southwest, produced by one of the Pueblos in NM.
Free shipping in the US if your order from their website.

@chienfou Madison is a great city… actually, I like most of the cities and small towns I’ve seen in Wisconsin so far… Feel like I’ve stopped off at all of them now on I94 corridor between Madison and Milwaukee.

Milwaukee has to rank as one of my favourite cities I’ve visited.

@OnionSoup
SWMBO & I lived in Stevens Point for a while in the early '80s. Fun college town. That area is very nice, especially if you like the outdoors.

@chienfou I haven’t made it that far yet…that might be a little far as I only get to check my daughter out of the facility between 8 and 8… Although she, like me, likes a road trip and exploring out of the way places.

@chienfou man! You could’ve come and toured the gardens and new less murdery shed!

@sillyheathen
That would have been awesome.
Original plan was for me to fly back from Frisco to do 10-12 days at the house catching up with the garden and so forth. My wife was going to continue from Frisco up to Portland down to Columbia River valley, cross Idaho,and across to Bozeman where I was supposed to meet her. That plan fell apart when the RV gave us problems so I limped it back home from Frisco to Central Alabama (in 80 hours). She used a rental RV to go from Frisco to Portland (which was on her sister’s bucket list) then had to return it at salt Lake City (today) because that was the next closest drop-off point for the rental.
If we’re ever up in the PNW I will definitely drop you a whisper and see if we can meet up. It would be nice to visit your spread and catch up with another garden fanatic.
I’ve been Uber busy trying to get mine recovered after being gone for over 3 weeks. Most of the veggie part got trashed due to weeds growing around them over it and the tomatoes getting super gangly then stopping to produce because the temps are too damn hot at night. Spent a half an hour trying to clear 3 4 ft rose of asparagus I planted this spring of morning glory and bramble vines. Was hard to get them off without pulling up the asparagus at the same time. Totally trashed the few strawberry plants I planted next to them but hey, those are cheap and I can pick up new ones next year.

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!

@Cerridwyn Me too

@Cerridwyn definitely said tongue in cheek… Although for me, it is quite a way west.

@Cerridwyn @OnionSoup
Yeah, that’s what I gathered, but at one time that WAS the wild west!

@chienfou @OnionSoup like Wyoming

@Cerridwyn @chienfou @OnionSoup
Update: Wyoming is still “ the Wild West”

Trivia: most towns along I-80 in Wyoming and also I-70 in Eastern Colorado are spaced approximately 100 miles apart. This is because the railroads (long before highways) needed maintenance stations for fuel, water, repairs and that was judged the longest a crew could reliably travel in a day. Inevitably towns developed around these sites with homes, churches, schools, stores, post offices. Then much later the highways linked those towns in the same way the railroads did.
That concludes today’s history lesson.

@fibrs86 your Home Depot has a hotdog stand?

@kittykat9180 Every Home Depot around Chicago does. I’m suddenly realizing that this might not be the norm.

@fibrs86 @kittykat9180 We have hot dog stands at some Home Depots here in Florida last I checked.

@fibrs86 I didn’t see that. I found squirt in every store I went in while out there. I only saw diet in 12 pack cans and didn’t see any flavour varieties in any format while there.

Since I’m only in Chicago/Wisconsin on the weekends pretty much was only looking for it in the single bottle areas of stores (no checked bags so can’t take liquid with me)

@fibrs86 I have only been to HD in 2 states and they don’t have hotdog stands.

@fibrs86 @kittykat9180 where I live, certainly most don’t have hotdog stands. Not something I’ve seen. So must be a regional thing where some regions have it and others don’t.

@fibrs86 @kittykat9180 @OnionSoup
I think here in MI it’s only on the weekends now. I could be wrong, I haven’t been to Home Depot in a while. I know after Covid a lot of that stuff didn’t open back up or took a long time too.
Ruby red squirt does NOT taste like cherry lol I hate cherry anything but love ruby red squirt.

@fibrs86 @kittykat9180 Hot dogs in the food court but no stands in Utah.

@blaineg

@blaineg not just west… It’s waaaaaaaaaay west. It’s even in some weird other timezone.