"Get to the Choppa!"

Yesterday was Doug's and my first wedding anniversary. We have been stressed getting another condo ready for Airbnb, so we decided a weekend getaway would do us some good.  

Due to my diet, I need to stay where I have a kitchen for cooking. For fun, I searched under the "OMG" section on Airbnb and found a Chinook helicopter converted into a 2-bedroom, 1 bath "condo." "The Choppa" was 45 minutes away in a small town called Brooksville. We checked in on Friday evening. It was quirky, unusual, fun…and perfect for us in every way!

When Doug and I usually travel, we hit as many tourist attractions as possible. My parents taught me the art of vacationing differently; they would drive around in antique cars and visit all kinds of bizarro attractions, and I developed an affinity for offbeat attractions. You can find a listing of them in an app/website called Roadside America.  www.roadsideamerica.com.  

When I was a kid, my parents loved traveling and stopping to see everything they could. Unconsciously, I ended up doing the same thing as an adult. When I did comedy in a new location, I would hit 3-10 stops (depending on their proximity to each other) before a show.  

Since Doug and I have been stressed out, I asked him if we could just hit one or two Roadside America stops and relax the rest of the weekend. He was good with it!

I found Boyett's Citrus Grove in Brooksville, an iconic throwback to old Florida roadside attractions with a museum, mini golf, and a zoo on Saturday morning. I have no idea how I missed this little gem of a tourist trap in 18 years of comedy! It's quirky, unusual, and fun…perfect for us in every way. After walking around there all morning, I got tired, so we returned to "the Choppa." We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening building puzzles while binge-watching 4 movies.  

While watching the movies, I opened up one of the Christmas gifts I received from my friend Karen. She sent me a crochet care package called "The Woobles," Peanuts Characters. It included all the makings to crochet Snoopy, Woodstock, and some clothing for each. You open your baggie filled with yarn, a crochet hook, a tapestry needle, and a piece of paper that tells you to go to a website and type in a code. There, you will find step-by-step instructions on how to crochet your Wooble.

I found the present intriguing. I had not given yarn crafts a thought since the 1970s, when one of my grandmothers gave me a crocheted clown doll with a creepy face, with twisted multicolored arms and legs. My mother was an avid knitter and once tried to teach me to knit. I think I made it row 2 of a potholder before coming up with "knit one, purl two, fuck this" and never touched knitting needles again. Yarn went off my craft radar for 40 years.   

I looked at The Wobbles packages and realized Snoopy had enough pop culture appeal to help me get past my creepy clown crochet memory. I began watching the simple video instructions. I was surprised at how easy crocheting was. Each time I completed a section, I congratulated myself. I literally felt myself getting "hooked" on crocheting. I completed Snoopy last night and immediately began Woodstock.

This weekend was huge for me. Not only was it a quirky, unusual, and fun wedding anniversary…I learned how to crochet...and relax. I left "the Choppa" feeling like "Mission Accomplished!"

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