Our RV Adventures

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Finally Done . . .

Chris Lay and his helper showed up at 11 am this morning to install our two new RV Roof Vents.

And they were finished and packing up 90 minutes later, giving us this.

It works great, but only from the local controls on the fan. So far I’ve haven’t been able to get it to work with the remote.

There’s a procedure to sync the unit and the remote together, but I haven’t tried that yet.

That’s for Tuesday.

* * * * * * *

About 1 pm, we headed out for lunch at Denny’s once again,

and then it was right next door to Wal-Mart for our weekly ‘stuff’, getting home around 3 pm.

* * * * * * *

This morning, after monitoring it for the last few weeks, I finally switched our TV FireStick over to our new Starlink WiFi system.

So far, so good.

Thought for the Day:

All I’m saying is that at any point during that ride through the desert, he could have given the horse a name.

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2010 – Hummingbirds vs Ceiling Fans

2013 – The 2013 Escapade

2015 – Sedona and The Wyoming Division

2017 – Family Photos

2019 – Texas Chainsaw Massacre

2022 – Immersed And Impressed

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

June 30, 2009

An Official Goof Off Day…

We decided to make today an official Goof-Off day.

We went out for breakfast about 9:30 am at the Astronomical Pancake & Waffle House. And when they say ‘Astronomical’ they mean it.

Jan got an order of pancakes that consisted of two pancakes more than a foot in diameter, with blueberries the size of small marbles. They hung way over the side of the plate.

On the way back to the coach, we stopped and got gas. And that was it for the day.

The rest of the time, we worked on stuff around here. Jan hemmed some new pants for me and then did some other sewing chores. I worked on several small things around the coach that needed fixing.

For supper, we heated up the El Pollo Loco takeout we bought home with us while we were in Virginia Beach. Delicious as always!

June 30, 2010

Hummingbirds vs Ceiling Fans…

No, not what you’re thinking, not yet, anyway.

Anyway, we headed out about noon for Gina’s. As we were leaving our rig, Jan took this photo of one of the two fawns that are hanging around nearby.

On our way, we stopped off at the park office to find out what time we had to check in tomorrow to see if we could keep staying here. Hopefully, with all the rain and bad weather in the next week or so, it won’t be a problem. We’ll see.

After we picked up Gina, we drove over to Sattler to have lunch at Granny D’s and then stopped off at the Post Office to mail some packages.

Then it was back to work at Gina’s.

There’s a hummingbird feeder on the porch where I’m installing the ceiling fan. There are six of them in the area, but one of them is a bully and keeps trying to run off the others. In fact, he spends more time chasing them off than he does actually feeding.

But every once in a while, some of them settle down and leave each other alone.

I finally got the ceiling fan mounted and hooked up temporarily. I wanted to test it first before I finished it up, since I installed one a while back, which was completely dead when I first turned it on. But this one worked fine, and came out perfectly balanced, too, with no wobble.

Gina decided she would move the feeder further away from the fan, since she didn’t want it turning into a hummingbird Cuisinart.

We headed home about 5:30 pm. I let Mister out for a while, and while I was watching him, two deer showed up. They didn’t seem too worried about Mister, they just wanted corn. So I was feeding the deer from my hand and from the bowl while Mister was only about 10 feet away.

June 30, 2011

Last Day in Long Beach . . .

We started this morning with coffee at 10:30, lunch at 11:30, and then at 12:30, I went down to the office to pick up my package.

About 1:30, I went outside to do some stuff around the rig to get ready to travel tomorrow. First, I put some air in my slightly leaky tire, then I cleaned up around the rig, and also cleaned all the bugs off the front cap that had accumulated on the way up from Bend. It was all nice and shiny when we left, but we hit a lot of big juicy ones on the way up here, but a little Awesome took care of them quick.

About 4:30, we headed out to meet Bill Joyce and Diane Melde for dinner, with a few stops on the way.

First at the PO to mail some stuff, then on to 42nd St Cafe, where we ate a few days ago. Jan wanted to buy a couple of jars of their homemade jam that we sampled then.

Our next stop was the Coffee Roaster so we could check out their whole bean coffees, but Jan decided that she didn’t like what they had in stock, so it was on to El Compadre, the really good Mexican place we had eaten at twice before.

Coming home, we made our usual stop for a cappuccino before getting home a little before 7.

We’ve got an early start scheduled tomorrow because, although it’s only about 150 miles to Bremerton, there are a lot of curves and hills, and I also wanted to get diesel before we leave. So we’ll head about 8:15 to fuel up and then about 9 to hit the road.

More tomorrow from Bremerton.

June 30, 2013

How to Turn $25 into $225, just like Magic . . .

Jan and I were up this morning about 7:30 to have time for coffee before we headed over to the Cam-Plex for the opening of the Vendor area. Jan wanted to sign up for some of the limited-size craft classes before they filled up, and I wanted to be at the Blue Ox booth when they opened so I could sign up to have my Aventa LX tow bar serviced. The tow bar is what connects the RV to the Dodge Dakota truck we tow behind us. We bought our Aventa at the beginning of 2008, and we’ve put over 56,000 miles on it since then. So it was about time to have it serviced.

I had tried at a couple of other rallies where the Blue Ox guys were present, but I always got to the booth too late. But today I was the first person to sign up.

The charge for the service was only $25, but a phone call about 10:15 magically jumped that up to $225. Brian, the service guy, was already at the rig and was calling to tell me that my hitch connector, the now-shiny part that you see below, needed to be completely replaced. I had already noticed a lot of ‘loosey-goosey’ movement in the ball joint that had slowly appeared over the years, but it had always worked with no problems. But if the ball joint came apart, the safety cables would be the only thing still connecting the truck to the rig. Not a good thing.

I was happy to find out that the new ball joint connector will not wear out nearly as quickly as this one did, and since this one lasted over 5 years, hopefully, we won’t have to do this again.

For lunch, Jan heated up her leftover pizza from Old Chicago last night, and I had the last of my BBQ from Big Hole BBQ last week in Victor, ID. Both are still very good.

A little before 3 pm, Jan and I drove back over to the Cam-Plex for the opening ceremonies for the Escapade. But I think the real reason to be there was the fact that they were having a drawing to give away two $500 gift cards. Neither of which we won, unfortunately.

By the time everything was over, it was getting to be time to go eat. So about 5 pm, we headed out to have dinner. After finding our first choice Chinese restaurant closed on Sunday, we headed over to Humphrey’s, a place we had eaten at when we were here 3 years ago. Our meal was good, but when Jan ordered her burger well-done, we both got ours well-done, whether we wanted it that way or not.

I’m more of a medium / medium-rare kind of guy myself. But we had a good time, anyway.

Getting back to the rigs, we again sat outside for an hour or so until the sun went down and it started to cool off quickly. Then it was in for the night.

June 30, 2014

Finally . . . Maybe

Well, I was at the repair place at 8 am this morning.

And then things went downhill from there.

When the guy from RV Glass, who was supposed to know all about installing this type of gasket on an American Eagle, didn’t show up, Josh from Coach Supply gave him a call.

And it turns out that the guy knew nothing about coming to help install my gasket. Nobody had said anything to him about it.

And in fact, he was already booked solid for the rest of the week, anyway. And on top of that, he had never installed this gasket on any American Coach whatsoever.

At this point, I threw a major snit fit (note the ‘n’).

I first called American Coach Parts down in Decatur, IN, to confirm, yes, they did have the gasket in stock, and it was $266.69.

Then I got on the phone with RV Glass out in CA and jumped all over them, but politely.

The local RV Glass guy here in Elkhart had admitted on Friday afternoon that they were trying to use a cheaper, generic gasket instead of getting the real one from American. This, coupled with the phantom, know-it-all, no-show repair guy, was the last straw.

When I related all this to RV Glass HQ, that seemed to get the ball rolling. It took a little while, but I later got a call back saying the gasket was waiting down in Decatur.

I had already mentioned that I was willing to go down and pick it up, so about 1:30 Jan and I hit the road for the two-hour drive down there.

When we got there, the gasket was waiting as promised, and already paid for. I had told Josh not to worry about trying to install everything tonight, since we were already on the hook for tonight’s motel room, but that we would get an early start tomorrow morning.

We got back to Elkhart about 5:30, just in time to have dinner at El Maguey, probably our last time this year.

So hopefully, this time tomorrow we’ll be back in our rig.

We hope.

June 30, 2015

Sedona and Wyoming . . .

About 1:30, Jan and I headed for a train day in Cornville, AZ. We were going to visit the Wyoming Division Historical Society HO Model Railroad in the small town of Cornville.

Located in a fairly nondescript warehouse-type building, there’s no sign of what’s inside.

The only giveaway is the mailbox.

Located in a 50′ x 75′ building built just for this purpose, it is geothermal-heated and cooled via ten 180′ deep wells under the building. Right next door is a 30′ x 36′ shop where all the woodworking and metalworking is done, keeping all the dust and fumes away from the trains.

We were warmly greeted by Verryl Fosnight, the owner and head engineer of the Wyoming Division Railroad, who spent over an hour showing us around and explaining the layout.

The layout depicts the 485-mile Union Pacific route between Cheyenne, WY, and Ogden, UT in the year 1957, and is built on 3 different levels, with the top two levels for operating and the bottom hidden level for staging the trains and simulating other destinations, like Chicago, California, and Oregon. Using 1957 as the year of operation allows them to authentically run both steam and diesel locomotives on the railroad.

As you can see from the above diagram, the layout folds back and forth on itself several times, allowing the depiction of the many towns and industries along the route. It also isolates the operators from each other’s view, allowing for more prototypical operation.

An overhead catwalk lets you look down on the layout, giving a better view of the overall operation.

This is one of two helices on the layout. A helix is basically a spiral staircase for trains, enabling them to move up or down between the 3 levels.

And this is one of 3 turntables used to move engines into the roundhouse for either maintenance or storage. In addition, it can also be used to turn an engine completely around.

These control boards allow the operators to remotely control the many switches in the train yard.

The towns and industries on the layout mirror the actual ones found along the real route.

As of 4/15, the benchwork, track, and the DCC control system are all up and working, and they have regular operating sessions once a month. About 1/2 of the buildings are done, and then the actual scenery comes next.

Verryl just recently got his website up, and much more info can be found here:

Wyoming Division Historical Society HO Model Railroad

Sheldon would be so jealous.

Finally leaving the Wyoming Division, we drove toward Sedona on AZ179, a route we’d never taken before, and in our opinion, much more scenic than the usual route coming in from Cottonwood on 89A.

Our main reason for going to Sedona was to have dinner at the Szechuan Restaurant. We had been jonsing for Chinese since we left Prescott and our favorite Beijing Garden, so we thought we’d give this place a try.

The Yelp review gave this place only 3 1/2 stars, but looking at the reviews, it showed a lot of 4 and 5-star reviews, and some 1 and 2-star reviews, complaining about how they thought the martinis were too expensive, or they didn’t like the sushi.

Our review would give it 5 stars. Everything was delicious.

We both got the Dinner Special, which gave us Hot and Sour Soup as well as an appetizer plate.

Jan got the Sesame Chicken, with white rice,

and I got the Orange Sauce Chicken with fried rice.

Note all the peppers on mine. I finally found a place that doesn’t wimp out when I tell them I want it extra, extra, extra, extra spicy. Mine also had pieces of grilled orange peel in it. Probably the best Orange Chicken I’ve ever had.

And because we had soup and appetizers, and the entree portion was so large, we both had plenty to take home.

It would be nice to go back, but I don’t know if we’ll have time before we leave here next Monday.

June 30, 2016

What Might Have Been . . .

Jan’s been a little under the weather for the last couple of days. The night before last, she woke up about 1 am with a migraine coming, which I think is a first for one starting in the middle of the night.

She was OK yesterday, but then woke up this morning feeling bad again. So bad she didn’t even want coffee this morning, but she did have some cheese toast later in the day.

Hopefully, she’ll be back to normal tomorrow.

As Sheldon says, “Everything’s better with Bluetooth.”

And apparently that includes the First Response Pregnancy Pro pregnancy test

Now with Bluetooth!

So now, after you pee on the stick or dip it in the cup, you can wander off and wait for the stick to contact the downloaded app on your phone with the results, via Bluetooth.

And even better, the app has Wait Time Support, where the app provides distractions to help reduce stress while waiting. I mean, are we talking Solitaire, or a short story to read, or what?

And while we’re on the subject, did you know that there was an unaired pilot for The Big Bang Theory done in 2006, before the series we know and love debuted in 2007?

The first pilot of what will become “The Big Bang Theory”. Leonard and Sheldon are two awkward scientists who share an apartment. They meet a drunk girl called Katie and invite her to stay at their place, because she has nowhere to stay. The two guys have a female friend, also a scientist, called Gilda.

The unaired pilot was available at one time on a Big Bang Theory Bonus DVD, but it is currently not available.

But you can watch a couple of video clips from that pilot here.

Unaired Big Bang Pilot

Seeing what might have been, I’m really glad they didn’t go with the first idea.

And as it turns out, a lot of well-known TV shows had unaired pilots, including The Munsters, All in the Family, and Gilligan’s Island. You can read more here.

Unaired Pilots

June 30, 2017

A Day Off . . .

Jan and I had the day off today while the rest of the horde went sightseeing in San Antonio.

So I spent the morning working on a new client’s website, trying to get all the photos cleaned up and sized correctly. The company sells custom-made knives, 14 different hand-forged blades with your choice of over 30 different handle and bolster materials, both natural and man-made. Here’s a sample.

This is a Short Sword with a Mountain Maple bolster and an Ocean Fleurinite handle. It runs around $400, depending on bolster and handle materials. Just beautiful workmanship.

Long-time friend and blog reader Tricia took me to task this morning for not using a timer on the camera, so Jim and I could have been in the group photo, also.

I said, “Just give me another day or so, and both Jim and I will both be in the photo.”

And actually, everyone wasn’t in the original photo either. Here’s the actual original one.

Note that Annisten, the little girl in pink sitting on the right sofa armrest, wasn’t there. She was taking a nap.

So after she got up, I took this photo of her, by herself. sitting in the same position with the same lightning.

Then, with the magic of Paint Shop Pro (my Photoshop clone) I got this, the one you saw.

So after getting photos of Jim and me behind the sofa, I added both of us.

About 4 pm, Jan and I went into Columbus to have dinner at Los Cabos once again. She’s been fighting back problems the last couple of days, but she was feeling a little better this afternoon, so we made a last-minute trip to eat.

Jan had the Combo Fajitas,

while I had the Plato Loco,

with a Soft Beef Taco, a Beef Tamale, a Cheese Enchilada, and a Beef Enchilada. All really good.

Then, coming home, I made a quick stop for a few things from Brookshire Bros.

Coming back to the rig, I dug out our Weber grill so we can use it for our cookout tomorrow. It’s been a while since we’ve used it, so I hope the propane bottles haven’t leaked down. We’ll see.

Tomorrow, Jan and I are going to be on babysitting duty, watching all the kids while Brandi and Lowell take all the adults sightseeing. So we’ll be getting an early start, so we can be at Brandi’s by 10 am. Yikes.

June 30, 2019

Little Boy Blue . . .

Wrapping Up Our Waco Weekend.

Our stay at the Marble Falls Motel 6 was OK, I guess, except for the broken WiFi. And flakey cell signal, so I couldn’t hotspot my phone either. Bummer.

Saturday morning, with Linda working, we met Chris and Piper for breakfast about 9 am over at the Grand Central Cafe in Kingsland.

If this place looks kind of familiar, like you might have seen it in a movie or something, you’d be right. It was the setting for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, shot in 1974. The house, but not the location.

When it was a movie set, it was located over near Round Top, Texas, but was disassembled and moved to Kingsland in the late 1990’s, where it’s now part of the Antlers Inn, a turn-of-the-century railroad resort that sits on Lake LBJ.

And the breakfast was just as good as the history behind the place.

Jan and I both got the Two-Egg Breakfast, with Jan getting the Home Fries and Fruit,

while I got the same thing, but with grits and bacon.

Really good, especially the bacon.

Finally, getting in our goodbye hugs, we were on our way for the 3-1/2 hour trip down to Katy to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon. We were going to eat at a new place they’d heard a lot about, Astor Farm To Grill.

It’s kind of an eclectic, fusion type of place, with a combination of South African, Venezuelan, and Argentinean food. Not sure how they came up with that menu, but it is good. Very good.

Jan had the Lemongrass Grilled Chicken Breast with a salad,

while I got the gluten-free 8oz Angus Burger with Sweet Potato Fries.

It’s gluten-free because the bun is actually made from Fried Plantains. Other than that, it was a normal, delicious burger. I got it for the plantains, not the GF aspect.

Everyone really enjoyed what they had, and we’ll certainly go back.

We got home about 4:30, got everything out of the car, and then Jan followed me over to the Enterprise office to drop it off.

Then this morning, while Jan was unpacking the suitcases, apparently Karma decided that the next time we leave to go somewhere, she’s going with us. Even if she has to camp out in Jan’s suitcase, so she won’t be left behind.

Wrapping up, Landon decided he wanted to do something different with his hair this summer, so he went with BLUE.

Well, that’s certainly different, I guess. It’s temporary and will wash right out if he wants to try something different.

Like GREEN!

We had a great time the last few days, getting to catch up with old friends, meet a new one, and also see both of our kids, et. all.

Really fun.

June 30, 2020

Riding The Rails . . .

I was on the phone awhile this morning, first with the Moen faucet people to order a new 1222 cartridge. Our Moen single-handle shower faucet has started leaking, i.e., it doesn’t turn completely off. This is the 2nd time I’ve had to replace the cartridge to fix this problem. Luckily, we have an on-off switch on the shower head, so we can still turn it off there.

Then I put in a call to Fleetwood-American Coach to get copies of the electrical schematics for the dashboard area. Our taillights and turn signals don’t work, and with both not working, it’s almost certainly something with the main power feed to the systems. I need to get this fixed before I put the rig in the shop for the oil leak.

Later, after a nice morning, Jan and I headed out about 1 pm, and on the way to drop off some trash at the dumpster, we found we had a visitor to our site.

Our first stop was the Snooze up in Webster for breakfast, with each of us getting our usual, Jan’s Bravocado Toast,

and my 3 Egg Classic.

Our favorite meal is breakfast, and we have it a lot when we’re eating. In fact, we also had breakfast a couple of days ago at our local Denny’s, with Jan getting a Mushroom Omelet with a side of Avocado,

while I got the All-American Slam with Fruit.

Then it was on to Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and the Post Office before finally getting home about 3:30 pm

Nice day.

June 30, 2021

I Guess They Ran Out . . .

I’ve been looking over sous vide recipes for doing our ribs this weekend, and it’s all over the map.

165° for 12 hours, 150° for 24 hours, or 145° for 36 hours. Rub or no rub. Salt or no salt. Marinate in vacuum bags overnight or not. Sauce or no sauce.

Or the ultimate blasphemy of them all, Liquid Smoke or not.

I think I’ve decided on how I’m going to do them, hoping that they come out looking like this example from the recipe I’m using.

I’m not going to detail the procedure yet because I’m sure that someone (everyone?) will be quick to tell me how I’m doing it wrong.

Now, chili. Beans or no beans?

I mentioned on Monday that I had ordered a new HP printer for work, not because of a printer problem, but because the scanner had cratered. And I probably scan more documents every day than I print.

And when I ordered it, it said it was available for Next Day Delivery. Great! But a little later, when I looked at my Amazon orders, it now said that delivery would be between July 12 and 27th.

I guess they suddenly ran out of printers. So I quickly canceled the order and started looking again. But quickly found nothing available on Amazon.

So, ranging further afield, I found I could order it from Wal-Mart, but it wouldn’t be delivered until July 7th. And there wasn’t one available for in-store pickup anywhere in Houston.

But then I found it at Staples. Same $120, Free Delivery, and it would be here this Friday. So I put my order in. Then today my tracking info said it would be delivered by FedEx tomorrow, Thursday.

Go Staples.

Things are looking up.

According to this article, Elon Musk has said that his Starlink service will be available ‘globally’ in August. Sure hope that ‘globally’ includes a little south of Houston, TX.

June 30, 2022

Immersed And Impressed . . .

Jan and I were on our way into Houston for our Monet exhibit by around 10:30, but our first stop was at the Cleburne Cafeteria on Bissonnet for lunch. Cleburne’s, along with Katz’s Deli, is one of our go-to places to eat whenever we’re in this area.

Cleburne’s has been around since 1941, and has been owned by the Mickelis family since 1952, and it’s still a Houston standard.

Everything is fresh and homemade, even their mayonnaise.

And it’s all delicious.

Jan got a fish dish that I didn’t get a shot of,

while I got Bratwurst and Kraut, with White Beans, Steamed Kale, Fruit, and a Blueberry dessert.

And we both had leftovers to take home for tomorrow night.

Delicious.

Since we still had time before the Monet exhibit, Jan wanted to stop off at a nearby Whole Foods for a few things.

Then it was on over to our Immersive Monet & The Impressionists, being shown at the same location where we saw Immersive Van Gogh last October.

And it’s also where the Immersive King Tut will be shown this Fall.

I’ll just leave you with some photos tonight. I did a number of videos, but I want to clean them up a little before I post them tomorrow night.

Here’s a wide view of the theater.

One thing you can’t see in these still shots is that the scenes are constantly in motion, morphing from one painting to another, and all synchronized to the music. Everything from Bolero to the Rite of Spring, and many others.

And of course, Water Lilies.

More tomorrow.

June 30, 2023

Pickleball Is Dangerous?

According to CNN, Pickleball is not only America’s fastest-growing sport, but it’s also one of the most dangerous, especially for seniors.

Pickleball injuries may cost Americans $377 million in health care costs this year, accounting for 5% to 10% of total unexpected medical costs, UBS analysts estimated in a report Monday.

“While we generally think of exercise as positively impacting health outcomes, the ‘can-do’ attitude of today’s seniors can pose a greater risk in other areas such as sports injuries, leading to a greater number of orthopedic procedures,” the analysts said.

Pickleball-related injuries occur most frequently in older people, according to a 2021 medical study. From 2010-2019, 86% of emergency department visits due to pickleball injuries occurred in people over 60 years old, according to the medical study. Around 60% of pickleball injuries are sprains, strains, and fractures. Twenty percent are contusions, abrasions, or internal injuries, and fewer than 10% are lacerations or dislocations.

I knew there was a reason I didn’t like it.

Not sure what we’re doing in the next few days. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon are heading up to Oklahoma to visit Lowell’s parents for the 4th of July.

Jan’s pretty much back to normal after her recent stomach problems, so we’ll have to see as far as we’re concerned. But there are a number of projects I want to get done around the rig before I go back to work on Wednesday.

So we’ll see, I guess.

June 30, 2024

The Triple B . . .

Linner today was up in Webster at BoomerJack’s, a little after 5 pm, so we could catch up with Juana, one of our long-time favorite servers.

After both of us started with Side Salads,

Jan moved on to the Blackened Catfish with Steamed Veggies.

I decided to splurge with the Triple B Burger, complete with Beef, Bacon, and Brisket, topped with American cheese, chipotle mayo, tomato, lettuce, red onion, pickles, and hand-battered onion strings on a pretzel bun.

Delicious, but almost too much to eat. If I ever get it again, I won’t get the Side Salad.

June 29, 2025

A New Duck . . .

Lunch today was at Denny’s once again, with me getting my usual Ultimate Omelet,

Jan went completely off the reservation, with the Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad.

She said it was really good, or as she said, “Have again good.”

And even better, our check came with a duck for our Jeep.

Our server, Angie, recently bought a Jeep, and we gave her some starter ducks for it from our collection. So today she gave us a new one for our collection.

Nice!

* * * * * * *

I did get a new toy the other day, a pen-sized voltmeter.

Pen Type Digital Voltmeter

Sometimes it’s hard to hold the two leads, and voltmeter, and measure a voltage, so this will make it a lot easier.

* * * * * * *

A couple of weeks ago, we brought one of our ladders over from the storeroom, one like this.

And after using it to hang the side window solar screens, I decided to keep it around rather than taking it back. But we had nowhere to store it out of the weather. Though the ladder itself is aluminum, the locking joints are steel, and would rust.

So I bought this ladder cover to keep it dry.

Ladder Cover

It comes in several different sizes to fit most any size ladder.

* * * * * * *

Except for Friday being the 4th of July, next week looks to be pretty quiet. If the weather holds, we’ll try to install the Reflectix under the front solar screens.

Other than that, who knows?

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Launch Dominance . . .

On our way out to HEB this morning, we made a detour over to the QT for gas and found it had dropped another 10 cents since Thursday, now going for $2.99. So $2.74 with my 25-cent QTPay discount.

Then it was on over to the HEB for our weekly stuff.

Getting home about 12:30, we headed back out at 1:30 on our way over to Alvin for shopping and lunch.

The shopping was at the Beall’s Department Store, where Jan was looking for some earrings she saw online, but she didn’t find them in stock. But she did find several other things she wanted, so it all worked out.

Then, around 2:30, we drove on over to Kelley’s County Cookin’ for lunch. We had waited this late because that’s when our long-time friend Staci came on duty.

Jan got her Fiesta Chicken,

while I got something I haven’t had for a while, the Chili And Eggs, with Grits.

Really, really good, especially with their house-made Chili.

Then it was home for the night.

* * * * * * *

Still haven’t heard from Chris Lay, but hopefully tomorrow.

* * * * * * *

SpaceX just notched a remarkable launch-dominance milestone.

Elon Musk’s company has now lofted more spacecraft than the rest of humanity combined — and its lead is likely to grow over the coming months and years.

Investor and former space-industry executive Christian Keil highlighted the achievement in a June 12 X post, which noted that SpaceX had launched 15,262 satellites as of that date. The combined total for all other companies and organizations since the dawn of the space age in 1957 was 15,138, according to Keil.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow we’re back on our Denny’s/Wal-Mart schedule. We recently swapped our Wal-Mart/HEB shopping days because it works better with the crowds.

Thought For The Day:

And Then There’s That Whole Raiders Of The Lost Ark thing!

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2009 – Mustangs and Tomahawks

2012 – A Scorpion in My Pants

2016 – More Rig Repairs

2017 – Giant Jenga

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

June 28, 2009

Mustangs and Tomahawks…

Today, we drove back over to Virginia Beach to visit the Military Aviation Museum that we had scouted out yesterday.

I was surprised to find out the Museum is privately owned by Gerald Yeagan, who also owns a company called The Fighter Factory that specializes in restoring and maintaining old military planes. He owns over 20 restored military planes, with a number of others under restoration.

The complex consists of a museum area flanked by large hangars on each side, with an operating airfield out front.

Military Aviation Museum

Even the red checkered water tower is of WWII vintage.

The Museum had several interesting displays. Two planes caught my eye.

A replica 1911 Wright Flyer and a 1918 Sopwith Pup fighter were on display. These were remarkable due to the fact that we had just visited the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kill Devil Hill and had seen the 1903 Flyer.

The amazing thing was the quick progression of the planes.

The 1903 Flyer was very primitive, with the pilot lying prone on the wing next to the engine, steering by swinging his hips back and forth. The elevator is in the front of the plane, and the engine is almost toy-like.

1903 Wright Flyer from the right rear

The 1911 Flyer was a big jump. The pilot sat in a chair, steered the plane with a control stick, and the elevator was in the rear, all just like today’s planes.

1911 Wright Flyer

Note that the 1911 Flyer has a much bigger engine and also landed on wheels, rather than skids like the 1903 version.

This 1911 Flyer was also used to make an intercontinental flight from New York to California to win a $50,000 prize put up by William Randolph Hearst. This means that only 8 years after the first flight, man is now flying from one side of the country to the other.

But the real jump is this next plane, the 1918 Sopwith Pup.

1918 Sopwith Pup

In just 7 more years, we now have a plane with a fully enclosed cockpit, engine, and fuselage, and, of course, machine guns, that can fly hundreds of miles in one flight.

And all this only 15 years after the first flight of 120 feet.

Quite a jump, indeed!

They sure have a lot of great planes here, and what’s really amazing is that they’re all in flyable condition, or being restored to flyable condition.

Here are some of the best.

P-40 Tomahawk

P-51 Mustang

Supermarine Spitfire

Hawker Hurricane

F4U Corsair of “Bah, Bah, Black Sheep” fame

PBY Catalina Flying Boat

TBM Avenger Bomber – George H. W. Bush flew one like this.

T-35 Mentor trainer – I had some flight training in one of these.

But the real treat was getting to see the P-40 Tomahawk fly! These big engines make a roar that is unmistakable.

Taxiing Out

Taxiing Out

Take Off

Downwind Turn

Approach

Roll Out

Finally, I’ve shown you pictures of area mascot animals, like pelicans in Seabrook, TX, moose in Coeur d’Alene, ID, and mermaids in Beaufort, SC.

Here in Virginia Beach, they have a porpoise mascot, and the Museum did theirs up in a plane motif.

We had a great time at the Museum. And I’m really lucky to have married an Air Force brat who likes old planes and airshows.

After leaving the Museum, we stopped off at Supercuts to get our hair cut and then ate a late lunch at El Pollo Loco before heading home.

Later in the evening, after it had cooled off, we sat out in the shade of the coach, looking out over the lake, drinking Sangria, and watching Mister do his “Catch and Release” program with the many blue dragonflies.

Or rather, it was ‘Catch, and then I yell at him until he reluctantly raises his paw and lets the dragonfly go – Release program. He never seemed to hurt them, but just held them down for a while.

What was really amazing is how fast a 22-pound cat can move.

Today is our last day here in NC. Tomorrow we move north to Williamsburg, VA.

June 28, 2010

A nice, quiet day…

Today started out as another nice, quiet day. And pretty much stayed that way.

Jan’s still trying to get the hang of Facebook, posting stuff, and confirming new friends.

We left the coach about 2 pm, heading first into New Braunfels to stop by a Chase bank and then on to Lowe’s for some more project supplies.

Near Gina’s turn-off, we encountered a large flock of wild turkeys, at least two dozen, including a bunch of babies.

By the time we got back to Gina’s, it was time to go to dinner. Leaving the ranch, Jan put some corn at the side of the road for the turkeys. We’ll check on the way home to see if they’ve eaten it.

Tonight we decided to try Lucky’s Kitchen and Cocktails, a seafood place in Canyon Lake near the RV park. Jan and Gina had seafood Po’Boys, and I had a Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwich with bacon, tomatoes, onions, Monterey Jack cheese, and jalapenos. Great!

Getting back to Gina’s, I spent some time working on the new ceiling fan I’m installing on the porch, and then trying to fix a problem on Gina’s computer.

Oh, it didn’t look like the turkeys had found the corn yet. We’ll check again tomorrow.

Then, about 7:30 pm, when we were ready to leave, it started pouring down rain. We hung around hoping it would slack off. Finally, we decided to give it a try. And we lucked out. By the time we got out to the main highway, the rain had pretty much stopped.

Lucky for us, too, because there’s some low spots on the ranch road that can flood several feet deep.

Back at the rig, there were some deer still milling around, but with it raining on and off, we decided they were on their own.

June 28, 2011

Beautiful Flowers and Good Mexican . . .

After our 12-hour day yesterday, it was nice to sleep in and just take it easy this morning. I got up about 10:30 and fixed us coffee, and then about 11:30, Jan heated up the pizza from Fultano’s Pizza a couple of days ago.

Like most things Italian, it got better with age, and it was differently better than the other night. Of course, Jan always spices it up to make it better anyway.

Jan’s really been enjoying the flowers she got the other day at the Farmer’s Market in Astoria. They seem to be holding up well.

While Jan spent the afternoon reading and catnapping, I went whole-hog and just took a full-on nap. Then, about 4:45, Jan and I headed out for dinner once again at Los Compadres, a local Mexican restaurant we ate at last Wednesday. This is probably the best Mexican we’ve had since we left Vegas. Strangely enough, the further north we get, the harder it is to get good Mexican.

Who knew?

Coming home, we stopped off at the Shell station right down the street from the RV park, to get a cappuccino and also to confirm that I wouldn’t have a problem fueling up with diesel on our way to Bremerton on Friday. Sometimes stations in small towns have a problem when you come in and want to get $500 – $600 of diesel. But they said, “No problem.” So it looks like we’ll be good to go on Friday. And even better, diesel has dropped 12 cents a gallon in the last two days. Hopefully, it will drop even more by Friday.

On another note, at the Evergreen Aviation Museum yesterday, they had an upstairs exhibit of rifles and handguns, along with hunting dioramas and a 12-year-old boy’s room in 1956, complete with half a dozen firearms.

When I was 12, I probably had a dozen or so rifles, shotguns, BB guns, and pellet guns in my room. I also remember in High School in north Alabama, going to school with a shotgun or rifle on the rack in the back window of the truck because we were going hunting after school. Nowadays, kids get suspended just for drawing a picture of a gun in school, or even biting a Pop-Tart in the shape of a gun, much less bringing one to school.

Tomorrow we’re going down to Lewis and Clark National Park to check it out.

June 28, 2012

A Scorpion in My Pants . . .

Verizon is apparently messing with things again. My phone says I have 1x, and not 3G. But even the 1x doesn’t work right now. Hopefully, it will be up and running when it’s time to post this blog.

As far as the scorpion goes, I thought so, anyhow. Yesterday (Tuesday), I was just sitting here minding my own business (not that there’s anyone else’s to mind around here), and all of a sudden something bit me or stung me on my left calf.

YOW!

And my first thought WAS that a scorpion had gotten into my pants. So I was dancing around, swatting at my leg, and yelling. But all this seemed to accomplish was to make whatever it was climb higher. Whoops! Not exactly what I had in mind.

But, as I was frantically trying to drop trow, hop on one foot, yell, and slap at my leg, I realized that I was being stung by a lot of things, not just one stinger. So that meant it had to be . . .

A NEST OF SCORPIONS !!

By this time, I had my pants down around my ankles, jumping up and down, slapping at my pants, just knowing that at any minute a truck full of cute young salesgirls was going to drive up. But at least my luck held as far as this went.

Then suddenly I get bitten again, this time on the back of my bare leg, just above the knee. It felt like I was on the wrong side of a pincushion. Reaching around my leg and grabbing at whatever it was (not the smartest thing, I know), I came up with a handful of large brown grasshopper/locust/katydid whateveryoucallit.

And then he bit me again. Son of a . . . !

But now I could see he wasn’t biting me or stinging me at all. His feet apparently had very sharp little grippers on them, and so the more I danced around, the tighter he held on for dear life.

Deciding it was time for the two of us to part company, I flung him as hard as I could. He, of course, just dug in his gripper thingies a little deeper and held on tight.

Realizing this wasn’t going to work, I grabbed a nearby water spray bottle and gave him a good squirt. At first, he seemed to like it, but after three or four more, he got the message and leaped away.

Well, at least I have another topic for my upcoming “Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit” seminar at the next Rally,

In the meantime, Jan had her own excitement Tuesday evening when a sudden windstorm blew through our area, apparently spawned by all the thunderstorms roaming around. Although it never rained here, the wind came out of nowhere, turning over the fan, loosening some of the canopy guy ropes, and generally wreaking havoc on our gate site. Finally, she went inside and rode it out there.

Nothing was really damaged, but it did take me a while to get everything set back up and stowed away when I came on at 11 pm. I thought my new windshield solar screen had been blown away at first, but all that happened was that it got flipped back up and onto the roof.

Several people had asked for a photo of my outside solar screen setup, so here it is.

Nothing fancy. Just a cord strung between the awning brackets on each side, and then the solar screen material is hung from the cord like clothes on a clothesline (remember those?) and fastened with binder clips.

It works great, and it was cheap. My kind of project.

Tuesday was also Chile Rellenos day at Galindo’s again, so I picked up lunch for us on my way home from Pleasanton. Just as delicious as last time, and they have great chips and salsa, too. Especially the salsa. They sell it by the jar, and I may get some next time.

The reason I was in Pleasanton was to get my oil changed at Wal-Mart. I just had it done in January before we left the Houston area, but it was time again. It’s amazing how many miles we put on our truck just driving around.

We bought it in late 2007, just before we got our American Eagle coach, and in that time, we’ve put about 50,000 miles on the coach, and about 75,000 miles on the truck. And that 75,000 doesn’t include the 50,000. It’s in addition, since the truck odometer doesn’t register when it’s in tow mode. So that means we’ve driven about 125,000 miles in the last 5 years. Hard to imagine.

But along with my oil change, Wal-Mart also gave me 3 flat tires. Well, one flat and two almost flat. What happened was that as part of their oil change service, they check your tire pressures. And whoever did it, didn’t tighten my Tire Traker tire pressure sensors back on the valve stems, letting them slowly leak down.

So late Tuesday afternoon, a passing truck driver told me I had a flat.

BUMMER! Not realizing at the time what the problem was, I decided to wait until I came back on duty at 11 pm to change it when it would be cooler. Well, a little cooler, anyway.

Getting the spare put on and flat tire up in the truck, I stuck my head in the cab to get something and heard my tire pressure monitor going off. Checking it, I found it showing I had two more almost flat tires, both under 20 pounds.

What the . . .

Three flats? Getting my tire gauge out to confirm the pressure, I found the tire pressure sensor very loose on the valve stem. Suddenly remembering how loose the one was on the flat tire when I took it off to move it to the spare, I checked the second almost flat tire and found it also very loose. And the sensor on the last remaining good tire was tight.

Sensing a pattern here, (hey, I didn’t fall off the turnip truck LAST night!) I got out my air compressor and aired up all three tires, and tightened down the sensors when I was done. Two hours later, all three tires were still fine.

I had just changed a tire for nothing. Darn you, Wal-Mart!

So, tomorrow (Thursday) I’m going back to the Wal-Mart and let them take my spare off and put my other tire back on. Let them fix it.

And this is the reason I wanted to wait till after midnight to change the tire. And it was still 89 degrees then.

This is the official temperature. Our thermometer here at the rig said 116 degrees, but I think it’s picking up a lot of heat off the side of the rig, and through the white translucent canopy. But our water misting system really keeps us comfortable.

It’s only when we have to walk out in the sun and actually do work, that it gets hot.

Jan had a Girl’s Day Out this afternoon (Wednesday), going into Pleasanton, getting her hair done, doing some shopping, etc. Then, on her way home, she picked up Sonic Chili Dogs for supper. Hmm, hmm, good.

As it stands now, it looks like we’ll be moving to a new site in the next 7 to 10 days. I’ve got the location, and tomorrow (Thursday) I’m going to drive over and check it out. It’s back on the east side of I-37, about 20 miles from where our last site was, and only about 5 miles from the Gate Guard Services offices near Whitsett. So less travel to pick up our paychecks.

Lastly, Jan wanted me to pass on a cleaning tip. We have a problem with the mist from the cooling mister combining with the ever-present caliche dust, and puts a film on our glasses that makes it hard to see, and very hard to get off. We’d tried a number of cleaners, and nothing worked very well.

But a tip from a passing-through truck driver did the trick.

Dawn dish soap. Leave your glasses soaking overnight in a bowl of Dawn and water, and the next morning, they’re spotless.

Neat!

June 28, 2013

On to Gillette . . .

After a quiet last morning here in Billings, Jan and I headed out about 12:30 for some more errands.

Our first stop was at a nearby locksmith to have some keys made. While we were in Victor, ID, I lost one of my rig key rings. I called back several times to see if anyone had found them, but no luck. So, since I only had one copy of several of these keys, I decided to have a completely new set made. They said they’d be ready in a couple of hours.

Then it was off to Ulta for Jan to pick up some things and Wal-Mart to pick up some more things. You would think that someday we’ll have enough things, but it’s not looking that way so far.

Then, after a quick stop at PetSmart for a new kitty litter scoop and the locksmith’s for my new keys, we got home about 3 pm. Then I spent a couple of hours rewiring my taillights to work without the taillight converter. This should keep it working until I build a new unit.

A little before 6 pm, Jan and I headed over to the HuHot Mongolian Grill to meet our friend Linda for dinner. HuHot is one of those places where they give you a bowl, and you go down a line and load it with meats, vegetables, and sauces, and then they throw it on a big grill and cook it up for you. We’ve eaten here every visit since 2008 and have always enjoyed it.

Finishing up dinner, we headed over to Linda’s to meet her new cats before heading home for the night.

We’re going to head out early tomorrow morning, about 8 am, because we’re going to top off our diesel tank before heading to Gillette, WY, for the upcoming Escapade. They stop parking arrivals at 2 pm, so we want to get there in plenty of time.

June 28, 2014

I Miss My RV . . .

That’s what Jan said this evening, watching TV in the motel room. And I agree.

Yesterday, we had a number of comments wondering what Mister was doing during the whole windshield thing. And the answer is, as usual, he was trying to get right in the middle of it.

At times, he would even hang out the opening, watching the guys work. Finally, I put him on his leash and tied him off to a scaffold by the rig, and he just lay there and watched.

Jan and I both got up early this morning (well, 8 am early, early for me) so we could check out the free (that always gets my attention) continental breakfast here at the motel. And it wasn’t bad at all.

They had muffins, English muffins, toast, and Belgian waffles, as well as cereal, milk, coffee, and OJ.

About 9:30, Jan and I drove over to our coach to pick up some more things for our extended motel stay. While we were waiting for Josh to open the shop, we met Jerry and Tish Unterkoefler, who showed up in their Monaco Diplomat. They wanted to talk to Josh about getting some new Captain’s Chairs for their rig. Said they were next heading down to Decatur, IN, to have Monaco replace the seals on their slide.

Started to ask them if they could pick up the correct windshield gasket from American Coach.

Leaving Coach Supply, we headed over to Wal-Mart for some cat food and chips, and then on the way back to the motel, we stopped off at Steak and Shake for lunch.

This time I had the Jalapeno Crunch Steakburger.

And Jan had the Chili 5 Ways.

Both were very good, just like our last visit.

Although we don’t usually eat two meals out a day, we made an exception and met friends at the Wings Etc. over by the Wal-Mart. And by the time we left, we both hurt.

But, as Jan said. it was a ‘good hurt’.

June 28, 2015

Ready, Camp, Go . . .

Today was kind of strange weather-wise. It ramped up to its usual 105 degrees around 3 pm, but by 5, a heavy cloud cover rolled in, and the temp dropped to 85 degrees. Very nice.

According to the Rainy Days app, there was rain all around us, but nothing came our way. Hope it holds out for tomorrow.

I mentioned the other day that I had looked into the Elite upgrade to our TT membership. We were mainly looking at getting more parks, especially in the northeast, where we plan to travel next year. And according to the salesperson here at the park, it would add 23 parks to our 63, for a total of 86.

In addition, we would also get three weeks in park instead of the two we have now. And that’s about it for us. No additional free days, or anything like that. Just three weeks and 23 more parks.

Yeah, you get membership cards to give away, and discounts on cabins and stuff, but nothing that would really mean anything to us.

The only time we might have appreciated the three weeks is when we were orbiting back and forth between Lake Conroe and Colorado River this past winter. Normally, two weeks is about all we want to spend in one spot before we move on.

But then today I came across the Ready Camp Go card. I had heard of it before, but for some reason, I thought it had something to do with the TT Zone Pass. Turns out it’s completely separate.

Anybody can purchase an RCG card. You don’t have to be a member of any other club to get one. And it’s certainly a heck of a lot cheaper than an Elite upgrade.

The RCG card comes in 4 levels –

1. Platinum – Gives you 90 days of camping at $20/night with 90-day advance reservations, and costs $299 per year. You have 14 days in park and 7 out.

2. Gold – Gives you 60 days of camping at $20/night with 60-day advance reservations, and costs $199 per year. You have 14 days in park and 7 out.

3. Silver – Gives you 30 days of camping at $20/night with 30-day advance reservations, and costs $99 per year. You have 7 days in park and 7 out.

4. Plus – Gives you 15 days of camping at $25/night with 30-day advance reservations, and costs $49 per year.

The only two levels I would be interested in would be the Platinum or Gold. Dividing the card price by the number of nights gives you a $3.33 per night prorated cost. Coupled with the $20 per night park charge, and the usual resort fees, you’re looking at around $27 per night.

When we did the East Coast all the way out to Newfoundland in 2009, we paid much more than that, in many cases, more than double that.

But the big plus with the RCG card is that it gives us access to over 100 additional RV parks, over the 63 TT parks we already have, no matter what level we get.

I have been told that since we’re already TT members, we cannot use it at TT parks. But that’s fine since I have the TT membership already.

But whatever I do, either of these levels sounds much better than paying $4645 for an Elite upgrade. In fact, for that amount, we could buy 15 years’ worth of Platinum memberships. Or 5 years and a lot of nights of camping at $27 a night.

If you have any experience with the RCG card, let me know.

June 28, 2016

More Rig Repairs . . .

One thing really nice about this site is that, unlike our two previous sites in the ‘A’ circle, we’ve had absolutely no problems with low voltage here. In fact, it rarely goes under 120 volts even in the heat of the day with both A/C’s running.

If you remember from when we were here before, we were seeing voltages as low as 105 volts, with momentarily drops below 103, which would kick out our Progressive EMS (Electrical Management System). They’ve definitely got a problem in that area.

Today, I thought I’d go back over some more of my repairs.

While we were gate guarding last fall, the flush pedal on our Sealand toilet broke. At first, I thought it was the Spring Cartridge, but it turned out to be the pedal shaft.

The edges of the plastic square shaft (the black one above) had rounded off over the last 5 years, so when you stepped on the flush pedal, it just rotated inside the spring cartridge without opening the ball.

So here’s how I took the toilet apart and put it back together.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/12/almost-finished/

As part of these same plumbing repairs, I also replaced the bathroom faucet that had a broken handle. But like many of these projects, this one didn’t go quite as planned and took two days. The first day is at the bottom of the toilet repair post, so you can start there again.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/12/almost-finished/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/12/like-butter/

Another repair while we were gate guarding last year was when the electric side of our Attwood water heater died. The propane part still worked, just not the electric. Since we were busy on the gate, we just used the propane side until I finally found the time to take a look at the problem. Here’s that story.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/09/fixed/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/09/brrrrr/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/09/summers-last-gasp-3/

Probably my biggest repair last year was when I replaced our 16-year-old Coleman Mach V with a new Coleman Mach 15. The front unit was still cooling OK, but not as good as it should have been.

I could have gotten a couple of saddle taps and added some Freon, but I also wanted to increase the BTU output, going from 13,500 up to 15,000, along with a much stronger fan.

Another repair spread out over 3 days. You can check it out here.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/08/a-good-excuse/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/08/two-minutes/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/08/cold-air/

To paraphrase Emily Latella, “With an RV, it’s always something.”

June 28, 2017

Giant Jenga . . .

With a full day on tap, Jan and I left the rig about 11:30, heading for our daughter’s home in the Katy area.

But we had a number of stops beforehand, with the first one being the Jack in the Box in Columbus for a quick breakfast, Jan getting a Supreme Breakfast Croissant, while I got a large Iced Caramel Latte. Very good.

Finally getting into Katy, we dropped off a prescription for Jan at the Sam’s Club, and then it was on to the Kroger near Brandi’s for some last-minute supplies. That done, I dropped Jan off at the nearby POSH Nails to get her toesies done while I took the groceries on to Brandi’s.

About the time that Jan’s sister Debbie and her family showed up, Lowell showed up with our dinner, a Rudy’s Picnic Box.

And it comes with pretty much everything you need: two big trays of every kind of meat, boiled potatoes, potato salad, creamed corn, beans, bread, two gallons of drinks, plates, cutlery, and even a red checkered tablecloth.

It’s amazing how quiet it gets when everyone is eating.

After dinner, our son Chris brought in his surprise for Landon and his cousins.

A Giant Jenga game that he made.

It’s obvious that Chris put a lot of time into this, including also making the stand underneath that holds all the blocks for storage and transport.

It was fun enough that it kept the kids involved for a good while, though the sound that the Jenga tower made as it came down rattled the house.

Later, Avery Jane, Ella, and Landon spent some time with coloring books and some other art projects.

Today’s group totaled 17, with 3 more showing up tomorrow.

And adding to the fun, tomorrow is Gumbo Day, with Chris whipping up a big batch of his famous Seafood Gumbo. Everyone’s looking forward to it.

Everyone started to head out about 8:30, with Jan and me making another stop at Kroger’s on the way, this time for gas, at $1.84/gallon, finally getting home about 9:45 after a really fun day.

And then tomorrow we do it all over again.

Well, no one seems to know what the mysterious red buttons in my engine compartment are, but the consensus seems to be that I should press the buttons to see what happens, Jan should be taping from a safe distance, and I should wait to do it on the 4th of July for the best effect in case things go terribly wrong.

Thanks a lot, guys.

June 28, 2018

Not the Fuel Pump . . .

Or the Filter. So . . .

Anyone want to buy an Onan Fuel Pump or Fuel Filter? Never Used.

I’ll let’em go cheap.

As usual, we were back at Denny’s this morning, but a little earlier, 8:30, and with more people, 12 to be exact. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon were there, as well as Christina, another of Jan’s sisters, Debbie’s daughters, and Christina’s boyfriend and his two daughters. The Wild Bunch.

After breakfast, everyone except me, headed over to the City Museum in St. Louis to spend the day. 10 stories tall, it’s a former shoe factory that’s been transformed into a kid-friendly place with an enormous treehouse, a giant Slinky you can crawl through, and a 10-story spiral slide that takes you from the top floor all the way to the 1st floor.

Jan said the kids had a blast, and so did she. But she didn’t do the 10-story slide. Chicken!

Back on the home front, I got to work on the generator. I ran it out on its electric/hydraulic slide and took a look. Removing the cover panel gave me access to the filter, and sight of the pump.

I removed the two bolts on the bottom of the generator that seemed to hold the pump bracket down, but it wouldn’t budge. I figured that the fuel lines were probably holding it in place, but I wanted to be sure, so I put in a call to Onan Tech Support.

After I told him what my problem was, and my solution of replacing the filter and/or the pump. He asked me if the pump was clicking when I tried to start the genset. When I said yes, he said it was possible for the pump to click and still be bad, but that I should check it out to be sure first.

He told me to disconnect the fuel return line, run it into a bucket, and run the pump for 1 minute.

Then measure the output. If I got a little less than a cup, the fuel system is OK.

And that’s what I got. So it’s something other than fuel. But by this time, the Onan tech guy was gone for the day, so I’ll have to get back with him tomorrow to see what other ideas he has for me.

The real problem is that we’re running out of time here, with only two more days before we leave for Alabama on Sunday. And these two days are chock-full of family stuff, so not a lot of free time. But we will have six days in Alabama, so maybe then, if I don’t find something simple and quick before we leave here.

Anyone want to buy an Onan Fuel Pump or Fuel Filter?

June 28, 2020

Long-Ago Friends . . .

Yesterday, I was finally able to track down a long-ago childhood friend from when we both lived in the Gulf Shores, AL area. And by ‘long-ago’, that’s me on the left and my friend David Duddy on the right, with some of our motel’s cottages in the background.

The last time I spent any time with David was in 1962, before we moved to South America. I did see him for a few minutes in 1967 when I passed through Gulf Shores on my way down to Florida for the summer. But he was sick with the flu or something, so I just stopped over for a few minutes to say Hi.

We spent a good while on the phone catching up and made plans to get together when we’re in the area this fall.

June 28, 2021

How About You?

After looking at the Rainy Days weather radar app, Jan and I were able to spend about 30 minutes with our coffee out on the patio between rain showers. Being very overcast and cooler than normal, it was really nice.

I had to order a new printer for today, and this is the one I chose.

HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 All-in-One Wireless Printer

It was only $119, and even better, it uses three different separate color cartridges, magenta, cyan, and yellow, not just one color cartridge with all three colors in it. This means that if you print with a lot of red, you don’t have to replace the entire color cartridge, just that one color.

But the reason I had to get a new printer is not that it wasn’t printing, but that it wasn’t scanning right. No matter whether I used the flatbed or the document feeder, it cut off the top and left side of the scan.

Yeah, I might have been able to tear into it and figure out what was wrong, but it was 3-1/2 years old, and the cartridges were getting scarce and more expensive.

So I ordered it on Amazon today, and it will be here tomorrow. Neat!

I mentioned the other day that Microsoft is releasing Windows 11 sometime in the fall. Well, the word now is October. And it will be a free update.

But the next question is, will your PC be capable of running Win11?

Well, to check if your PC can run Windows 11, download the “PC Health Check” app and then install it. Then, when you run it, just click on the blue ‘Check Now,’ and in a few seconds, you know.

In my case, it looks like I’m good to go.

How about you?

June 28, 2022

You Think They’d Learn . . .

Jan and I were out the door a little before 1 pm for lunch/errands. Or rather, errand/lunch/errands.

Our first stop was O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for a bottle of Stabil Gas Treatment. Since I filled up the Dakota with gas this week while the Jeep was being repaired, I wanted to treat the gas since it might be several more months until we drive it again.

Then it was on down FM517 to have lunch at Gator’s. Jan had seen their ad on Facebook for their new Keto Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy Birria Pizza.

And Jan says it’s now her new all-time favorite dish.

The ‘Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy’ part is the fact that the crust is actually made from nice and crispy melted cheese. Then it’s covered in shredded beef and Birria sauce

Birria sauce is Chile-based and typically consists of guajillo peppers. Guajillo peppers are dried mirasol chiles. These chiles are rich in Chile flavor, slightly fruity, and make for a well-rounded, full-bodied sauce that is low on heat and big on flavor.

I stayed with an old favorite of mine, their Loaded Baked Potato Soup.

And of course, we had to finish up by splitting one of their delicious Keto Blueberry Muffins.

Then it was on up the feeder to the UPS Store/HEB Store. While I dropped off an Amazon return, Jan picked up a few things next door. Then it was home for the night.

Didn’t get a call about our Jeep being fixed yet, so hopefully tomorrow.

Our promised heavy rains didn’t really appear last night, giving us only 0.19″, so pretty much just wetting our whistle. But supposedly, we got more coming later this week.

It seems that this past weekend, a Norwegian Cruise Lines cruise ship, the Norwegian Sun, was transiting the Hubbard Glacier area when it encountered dense fog and struck an iceberg, a teeny tiny one.

Don’t they ever learn?

And at least that’s NCL’s story, and so far they’re sticking with it.

But passengers on board say that’s not what happened.

Grom Griff wrote on YouTube, “I am on the ship. We were on the front deck at the time. There was no fog; it was a clear, sunny, beautiful day.”

Jerry Pearce made similar remarks on YouTube: “My wife and I are on the ship now. Contrary to what Norwegian is saying, there was no fog in the bay when it happened. We were standing on the front deck and could see ourselves approaching and hitting the iceberg.”

Video allegedly shot by a passenger on board shows the cruise ship hitting a large piece of ice greater than the size of a school bus,

So not foggy, and not so teeny tiny, then.

In fact,

Passengers said they felt the impact, which was followed by a “severe” judder or shudder. Some also said the ship listed slightly after impact.

And apparently, the ‘teeny tiny’ iceberg caused enough damage that the ship skipped its next port of call at Skagway and struggled on to Juneau, where the rest of the cruise was canceled.

Passengers got a 100% refund, plus a free future cruise valued at the same amount

I’m still not impressed.

While Jan was in HEB this afternoon, I noticed that Verizon 5G was now active in the area, so I decided to run Speedtest.net on it. And here’s what I got.

Then, using Samsung’s Band Selector App, I turned off 5G on my Galaxy S21 Ultra and ran it again under 4G.

And this is what I got.

So 5G is half the speed of 4G.

Once again, I’m not impressed with 5G so far.

June 28, 2023

Flowers And Sunflowers . . .

Amazon delivered my roll of Reflectix foil this afternoon, so I’ll try to get it installed on the windshield tomorrow morning before it gets too hot.

I’m also in the process of replacing our rig door’s outside grab bar with something more sturdy and weatherproof. But I need some more parts that I’ll try to pick up tomorrow when we’re out and about.

Brandi, et al. are going up to Oklahoma to visit Lowell’s parents over the 4th of July holiday, so we’ll wait and get together with them the weekend after next.

Jan wanted to show off her plants, so here it is. Complete with a Flamingo, of course.

Jan’s been under the weather for the last couple of days, but if she’s feeling better, we’re going to take a drive down to Galveston to have lunch at Sunflower Cafe once again, and then drive around the island for a while.

Or not.

June 28, 2024

Lost Again . . .

For the second time in recent months, I have an Amazon package orbiting around the Houston area. Sent out via USPS, it was supposed to be here this past Monday, but it’s been moving from PO to PO. So who knows when it will finally show up?

Tired of scrubbing your BBQ grill? Want a Roomba to clean it for you?

Well, now there’s GrillBot.

Check it out here.

And then there’s Pillbot for your insides.

This pill was then remotely controlled – with a PlayStation 5 controller, no less – by Mayo Clinic professor of medicine and Pillbot co-founder Vivek Kumbhari, giving audiences a fascinating live feed of the inside of Luebke’s esophagus and stomach.

In a brief demo, before Luebke swallowed the pill, Kumbhari showed off the tiny device’s ability to swim around in a small tank of water thanks to three pump jet thrusters that can squirt water in six different directions.

Sounds like it might be able to eliminate that whole colonoscopy thing.

I told you so.

I’ve warned you about Temu before, and now they’re being sued for stealing your data.

Check it out.

Temu–the Chinese shopping app that has rapidly grown so popular in the US that even Amazon is reportedly trying to copy it–is “dangerous malware” that’s secretly monetizing a broad swath of unauthorized user data, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Griffin cited research and media reports exposing Temu’s allegedly nefarious design, which “purposely” allows Temu to “gain unrestricted access to a user’s phone operating system, including, but not limited to, a user’s camera, specific location, contacts, text messages, documents, and other applications.”

“Temu is designed to make this expansive access undetected, even by sophisticated users,” Griffin’s complaint said. “Once installed, Temu can recompile itself and change properties, including overriding the data privacy settings users believe they have in place.”

Griffin fears that Temu is capable of accessing virtually all data on a person’s phone, exposing both users and non-users to extreme privacy and security risks. It appears that anyone texting or emailing someone with the shopping app installed risks Temu accessing private data, Griffin’s suit claimed, which Temu then allegedly monetizes by selling it to third parties, “profiting at the direct expense” of users’ privacy rights.

And even if you delete it, you might not actually be able to get rid of it.

June 28, 2025

And Now We Wait . . .

In my forever war against our local hornet population, a couple of days ago, I put out one of these nests. Our daughter Brandi tried them and said they seem to work for her.

They’re about a foot tall and seem to be made from paper.

The idea is that, finding a ‘rival’ nest in their area, they’ll pack up and leave.

Well, they don’t work for me.

In fact, I think it just makes them mad.

This morning, finishing up my outside stuff, I walked across the patio toward the back of the rig to check on the house batteries.

And ZAP!

and then zap!

I was stung twice, both times on my ankles, first on the right one, and a couple of seconds later, on the left one. Both of them through my socks.

OUCH!

Don’t know why, but the sting on my left ankle was noticeably less painful than the right one.

Then, finishing with the batteries, I was coming back to come inside the rig and got stung again. Again, on the right ankle.

OUCH! OUCH!

Don’t know why they concentrated on my socks, but I’ve heard that wasps/hornets/bees were attracted to lighter colors, and my shirt/shorts were dark while my socks were a light gray.

Once more into the trenches!

* * * * * * *

But before the hornet excitement, I was able to get Jan’s pelican sprayed with the Rust-Oleum Clear Enamel Spray. It’s hard to tell, but it’s hanging by a string, so I could spin it around as I sprayed it.

Now we wait to see how it handles the weather and the rusting problem.

* * * * * * *

Later, around 3:30, Jan and I headed up to Webster to eat at BoomerJack’s with Juana. But our meal was Juana-free.

Jan got the Blackened Catfish with Grilled Veggies,

while, after a Side Salad, I got the 10 Wings with Mango Habanero, along with their really good Chipotle Ranch dressing.

Five to eat, and five to take home.

Later, when I texted Juana, she said she had stepped on a piece of glass while walking on the beach down in Galveston yesterday, and badly cut her foot.

Poor thing!

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow we’ll be back on our Denny’s/HEB schedule once again.