Our RV Adventures

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow looks to be a repeat of this past Tuesday, with lunch at Stella’s Fresh Brunch, and then HEB.

Thought For The Day:

Too many people underestimate the power of being underestimated.

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2010 – Baptisms and BBQ

2016 – Bazinga !

2018 – Commando Cody – Sky Marshall Of The Universe

2019 – OH HELL, NO!

2022 – A Picture In The Attic?

2024 – One Month From Today

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

November 7, 2009

Wonderful Weather…

Jan woke up a little under the weather this morning, so we decided not to do the St. Louis / Gateway Arch thing. Instead, around noon, we drove up the road a piece looking for a Tractor Supply, a Walmart, and a place to eat.

We ended up at a Colton’s Steakhouse and Grill, a small restaurant chain with stores in MO, AK, KY, TN, and MS.

It was right across the street from a Walmart, so it was certainly convenient,

And it was good too! Kind of like a Texas Road House, or Logan’s Road House, complete with roasted peanuts in a bucket on the table.

After lunch, we hit the aisles in Walmart for more ‘stuff’, and then stopped at a nearby Tractor Supply Store to try and find some more neat LED flashlights that I found at a Tractor Supply Store in Decatur, IN.

The weather for our drive was great today! Mid 70’s and sunny, going down to the 50’s at night. Couldn’t get much better.

We also spent a few minutes talking to the folks in the RV next to us while we were letting Mister roam around. They’re from Wisconsin, and although they’ve owned their coach for 7 years, this is the first time they’ve taken a trip longer than just a few days. They’re heading toward Tucson for a while, then maybe on to California for a while. Hope they have a good trip.

Tomorrow we’ll probably head into St. Louis to check out the Arch.

November 7, 2010

Baptisms and BBQ . . .

Today was our grandson Landon’s baptism, so about 9:30 we headed up to Katy, TX, on I-10 west of Houston to Crosspoint Lutheran Church, where Brandi and Lowell attend.

Sonja and Lendell, Lowell’s parents, came down from Oklahoma on Saturday, so they were here too.

Here’s the proud Grandmas with Landon.

And here’s our granddaughter Piper holding her cousin.

The baptism was held outside in a heated pool, luckily for them, since it’s been going down into the low 40’s here at night, and I imagine it would be pretty frosty in there otherwise.

Brandi, Lowell, Piper, and Brandi’s BFF Shawna were all involved in the ceremony.

There was one other baby baptized at the same time, and then afterward, we all went inside the sanctuary to attend the church service.

This church, like many others, is very high-tech, with multiple large video screens and a great sound system. Before she got pregnant, Brandi used to run the sound system at many of the services.

And that sound system is needed because instead of just a plain organ, they have an 8-piece band. The words of the hymns are projected on the screens, along with the words of Scripture used during the service.

After the service was over, we all headed down the block to a nearby Spring Creek BBQ, where we had a great lunch.

Jan asked Shawna if, after holding Landon, it made her want to have another child. Shawna, who already has two, laughed and said No, she just likes to hold the babies and then hand them back.

We had a great time, and it was good to see Shawna and her family again.

Tomorrow we’re having breakfast at Jimmy’s Egg with Brandi, Sonja, and Lendell.

November 7, 2011

Wally Docking and a Short Post Today . . .

This is going to be a really short post tonight since we’re Wally-Docking in Vandalia, IL, while visiting Jan’s sister and her family.

We had a great get-together and a great time.

Tomorrow we’ve got a long day, about 375 miles back east (didn’t we just come from there?) and then south to Renfro Valley, KY, for a couple of nights before heading further south to Athens, AL, to visit my relatives.

November 7, 2012

On The Beach . . .

Well, when I turned the key this morning about 8:15, the rig started right up. Whewww!

Of course, since it was about 35 degrees outside, it did help that I left the block heater plugged in all night.

We pulled out of Northgate RV Travel Park for the second time in three days, got on I-65 about a quarter of a mile later, and then headed south for the next seven hours. And except for some rough road through Birmingham, and a couple of rest stops along the way, it was a smooth, easy trip.

We pulled into the Gulf State Park here in Gulf Shores about 3:30 and were parked by 3:45. While Jan ran out the slide and unpacked inside, I got the toad unhitched and everything else hooked up.

Then it was time to check in with our friends Eldy and Jeannie. While we were still up in Athens, we got an email from them letting us know they were down here for the month of November. Since it was dinner time, we decided to meet up at the Canal at Lulu’s at Homeport

Lulu happens to be Jimmy Buffett’s sister and has had a restaurant here on the Intercoastal Canal since 2004, and it’s one of the most popular places at the beach.

After a great meal and about two hours of conversation catching up on our respective lives since we last saw each other, we finally called it a night.

On our way back to the park, we stopped by the local Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription that we had called in from Athens yesterday.

Tomorrow will be a rest-up, do-nothing day, something we’re really looking forward to.

November 7, 2014

FedEx vs. UPS . . .

Today turned out to be really nice, with a high in the high 60’s and a lot of sun. And tomorrow’s in the low 70’s. But pretty soon after that, the temps take a nosedive, with highs in the 50’s next week as that Arctic cold front moves across the country, and a low forecast next Thursday of 32 degrees. Even now we’re having night temps in the 40’s, but one thing that’s helped is that Jan remembered our Alaskan coats

When we were in Alaska in 2008, we made several trips from Fairbanks down to the Denali area, and on one of those trips, we found a great sale on coats at one of the gift shops. They were $35 a piece for a waterproof, fleece-lined, insulated, hooded jacket.

And you can tell they’re made for cold weather. The cuffs cinch up and have an extra fluffy lining inside to keep out the cold. The waistband also cinches up, as well as the hood and the neck.

They’re not real thick, but they are very, very warm. Much warmer than the hooded sweatshirts and jackets I’d been wearing out here. The other nice thing is how waterproof they are. We actually started wearing them as raincoats during the last few days of heavy rains, and they were great. Never leaked.

With all the rain, I’ve been having a problem with our driveway bell system. Although the road has started to dry out, in some places the water is still draining onto the roadway from the surrounding land, leaving a soupy surface that’s like walking around in cake batter. This lets the hoses sink down in the muck so that only the heavy trucks will set them off. So 2 or 3 times a day I walk down to both ends and pull the hoses back to the surface. Hopefully, things will dry out soon.

In the never-ending speed bump saga, they brought a road grader in today to change them again. This time, they took out the four steep humps and replaced them with two wider-spaced humps that aren’t as high. They also lowered the height of the two single ones further down. Now, at least cars can get over it without scraping the bottom or getting hung up. Of course, they may come up with something else tomorrow.

In the battle between FedEx and UPS, FedEx is still the winner by far. A couple of weeks ago, while we were at the GGS yard in Buffalo, I ordered something from Amazon that came by FedEx. They delivered it to an address that was essentially a fence gate with a 3′ x 3′ sign on it, out in the country with nothing around it.

Then last week, FedEx delivered a package here at the gate with just my name, the road name, Gate Guard Services Gate, and North Zulch, TX. No problems.

But UPS? Problems.

I ordered something from Amazon last Sunday. With Two-Day Prime shipping, it should have been here Tuesday. Then on Tuesday morning, I ordered something with Next Day shipping. It should have been here Wednesday.

According to the tracking, they both went to Bryan and just sat there. Finally, on Thursday morning, they called and said they couldn’t find the address. I said to just Google the road and North Zulch, TX, and it will bring you right here. But just in case, I gave him exact directions with turns, road names, and distances. He said, OK, we’ll get it out to you this afternoon (Thursday).

This afternoon, NADA.

Finally, this morning, one package shows up, but it’s the second one I ordered, the Next Day one. The other one is still MIA. So it’s back on the phone tomorrow.

I guess they work Saturdays. Who knows?

November 7, 2015

I Made My Own . . .

We probably had more rain last night and early this morning than we’ve had in total since we’ve been here. And none of this drizzle stuff. It was heavy and just kept coming.

In fact, it was the first time I’ve seen the small ditch between our canopy and the road start to fill up. We have a couple of pallets laid across just for this possibility, so it wasn’t a problem. Luckily, we didn’t have any traffic because, with all the lightning around, I think the flowback shut down for a couple of hours or more.

The one other thing the storm did was apparently put a real crimp in the first day of deer hunting season. In fact, I didn’t hear a single shot all day.

Happy Deer!

After my recounting of my ongoing problem with boot laces, and my finding ones made from paracord on Amazon, a blog reader, Lloyd Jackson, suggested I could just get some paracord and make my own.

Doh!

And thinking back, I remembered that last year I ordered 50 ft. of paracord from Amazon just to have some on hand. After rooting through a couple of bins, I found it. It’s black and my boots are brown, but I’m not trying to make a fashion statement here.

So I cut off a couple of 50″ lengths to give it a try. I did 50″ pieces rather than the standard 54″ lengths because the 54″ always seem a little long. I then used a candle to melt the ends to keep the cord from unraveling. But this caused another problem. The ends tended to melt into a big knot that wouldn’t go through the boot eyelets.

I also found that the nylon outer braided covering and the seven inner nylon strands didn’t like to melt together, but wanted to stay separate. But by melting the ends again and using a pair of pliers to squeeze them into a smaller shape, I was able to make it all work.

For my next pair (50″ is a little too short, so I’ll try 52″ this time), I’ll try Lloyd’s other suggestion and use a piece of heat shrink tubing to seal the ends. I guess I could make a fashion statement after all by using red or green heat shrink.

That would be snazzy.

I spent a while yesterday afternoon working on getting a warranty replacement for my Progressive Dynamics 50 Amp Automatic Transfer Switch that I purchased last December. It’s getting close to the end of the 1-year warranty, so I wanted to get a start on taking care of the problem.

It worked great up until we hit the road again after the 2-month blowout repair hiatus that we spent in Prescott, AZ, in May and June of this year. It was pretty cool the morning we left Affinity RV and drove over to Prescott Valley to have my new tires put on. But by the time we were finally ready to head on over to the Verde Valley TT park in Cottonwood, AZ, it had warmed up considerably. So once we were out on the main road, I fired up the generator and . . . nothing. It was running, but no voltage was getting to the coach.

It was really too warm to continue without it, so I found a place to pull over so I could take a look. I figured the best place to start was the transfer switch under the bed. So, getting to the switch, I pulled the cover off and checked the voltage on the contacts coming from the generator.

And they looked fine: 116 V on both legs. Next, I checked the output contacts going to the coach.

Nothing.

So the contactor wasn’t pulling in for some reason. Getting a large screwdriver, I pushed down on the top of the relay, and with a loud snap, it locked in, and we had power to the coach.

So we were good to go. And everything worked fine all the way to Verde Valley. Then, a few days before we were ready to leave there, I fired up the generator again, and the transfer switch transferred just as it should. So why didn’t it work before?

I thought about this overnight, and realized I hadn’t really recreated the conditions when the problem occurred. So I disconnected shore power to the rig and tried the generator again.

Nothing. No power to the rig.

Put shore power back to the coach, cranked up the generator, and it worked.

Again, no shore power, no generator power.

Thinking about it, this didn’t make sense. The transfer switch gets its power from the generator when it’s running; otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to pull in the contactor. So why does it suddenly need shore power to pull in?

And when I talked with the company tech, he said the same thing. It shouldn’t be able to do that. Lucky me. In fact, he really wants it returned so he can see what’s going on with it.

Looks like we’re going to have sunny, but cooler weather for the next three or four days, before the possibility of more rain on Wednesday. Not looking forward to that.

November 7, 2016

Bazinga !

It was really nice to be able to sleep in this morning. No getting up at 5:30 am.

After a quiet morning with our coffee and catching up on conversation, we headed out about 12:30 for lunch and shopping.

On our way, we stopped off at Lone Star Real Estate to pick up an Amazon package. It was actually delivered by the PO on Saturday, but the office was closed. So it got delivered this morning.

What it contained was two new watches for Jan and me. And this time we both went old school . . . Analog.

http://amzn.to/2fwXh0O

Probably the first analog watch I’ve bought in 40 years.

My first digital watch, the Sinclair Black Watch, was a kit I built myself around 1975.

And I’ve had digital watches ever since.

But digital watches aren’t much good at night when you’re trying to log in trucks, and you need to press the little button so your watch lights up so you can read the time.

But this one has glow-in-the-dark numbers and hands, so that problem is taken care of. And it was only $16.

Jan went with pretty much the same thing, for pretty much the same reason, again with a big, easy-to-read face. And hers was only $10.

http://amzn.to/2fwZcmb

Our lunch destination was once again Barth’s Restaurant, where we’ve been working our way through their daily buffet menu over the last couple of weeks.

This is number 5, with only two more days to go after today. And today was really, really good.

Chicken Fried Steak, Chicken Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, Cheese Soup, and the Salad Bar. And all for a senior citizen-discounted $6.50.

Delicious and Cheap, a real two’fer. And only two more days to go . . . Wednesday and Thursday.

Next stop was Wal-Mart for a few things and a big laugh.

After we’d finished with the grocery shopping, I waited down front on the main aisle in front of the registers while she shopped for some clothes.

You may have noticed that there will often be an associate standing along that aisle offering to help people find things. In fact, she even has her own place to stand.

When we walked in, there was a young lady standing there dressed up in Christmas garb. As we passed her, I commented that it was just too early for the Christmas stuff. She smiled and agreed, saying she didn’t really have a choice but to wear it.

So, waiting for Jan, I was trying to stay out of the way and ended up standing there. A few minutes later, the young lady walked back over, and seeing where I was standing, she hesitated, I think, trying to figure out what to do.

At this point, I looked up and said, “I’m in your spot.” After a couple of seconds, you could see something click, and she started to smile.

Then I said, “Bazinga!”, and she pretty much lost it, and walked off, still giggling.

Finally, our last stop was for a few last things at HEB that Wal-Mart didn’t have, and then it was home. Just in time for it to start pouring down rain.

I’m hoping that we get our bank cards in the next couple of days. SiteWatch is putting money in there, and I can’t get it out. At least not without actually driving to the bank.

And who does that anymore?

November 7, 2017

That’s What I Get . . .

for ‘Dream-Solving’ a problem. At least without double-checking it.

I’ve mentioned before that when I’ve got a problem to solve, quite often I’ll ‘sleep on it.’ Whether it’s something I’m trying to fix or build, or a computer or software problem, it’s surprising how often it works.

Usually.

I ended up napping during Wheel of Fortune last night, and when I woke up, I thought I’d come up with a solution to why our new Instant Pot fails as a slow cooker. At least in comparison to our old Hamilton-Beach slow cooker.

When I’m working on the blog during the day, I’ll jot down themes or ideas, fleshing them out then or maybe later. And in this case, I wrote down my idea immediately and then set it aside.

But something kept nagging me the rest of the evening. However, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

But then, as soon as I posted the blog and sat back to read some on my Kindle, it suddenly dawned on me. And by the time I checked my email and comments, “Nooo, don’t do it” were pouring in. So next time I’ll reread everything before I post.

I called in some prescriptions for Jan this afternoon, two transferred down from the Wal-Mart in Conroe, and two from the Sam’s Club. And about 30 minutes later, I got a text from Sam’s saying the two prescriptions were ready, and the cost was $133.92.

WTH!

When I called in the prescription, I told them to be sure to price them under my Sam’s Plus card and even gave them the card number. So I called them back, and guess what? They hadn’t priced it against my card.

And when they did, the cost dropped to $24. Much better.

I guess they still like me. At least I got an email today from the Escapees wanting to know if Jan and I want to do our Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit seminar at the upcoming 58th Escapade being held in Sedalia, MO, May 27th to June 1, 2018.

Guess we’ll have to think about it, since we haven’t really talked about attending. We had planned to do FL and some of the East Coast next year, so we’ll have to see.

We’ve got until January 15th to get our application in, so we’ve got time to decide.

It looks like winter is trying to creep back in. For the last couple of weeks, it’s been days in the 80’s and nights in the low 70’s. But it’s going down to 60° tonight and 53° tomorrow night. And even better, days in the 60’s and low 70’s. Sure hope it holds.

November 7, 2018

Commando Cody – Sky Marshall Of The Universe . . .

Not to be confused with Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow.

I really enjoyed a blog a couple of days ago entitled Sky King’s Final Landing. His mention of Sky King, The Lone Ranger, and other Saturday morning stalwarts led me to recall my Saturday favorite.

Commando Cody – Sky Marshall Of The Universe

I mean, he had a rocket on his back!

One of my favorite things was the control panel on the front of his suit.

Originally conceived as a syndicated television series, it was first released as a movie theater serial in 1953 before finally being syndicated on NBC in 1955. It also appeared in several previous incarnations as Radar Men from the Moon and Zombies of the Stratosphere in 1952.

But what’s really neat is that all 30+ episodes are available on YouTube. Perfect for my late-night viewing.

I did get my Shipping Program running today at my client’s. You enter the Shipping Wt. and the Zip Code, and you get this.

The Package Weight is 15 pounds.

The Package Zip Code is 12345
The Package Zone is 7

Flat Rate Envelopes $ 6.35
Legal Flat Rate Envelope $ 6.65
Padded Flat Rate Envelope $ 6.90

Small Flat Rate Box $ 6.85
Medium Flat Rate Box $12.45
Large Flat Rate Box $17.10

Regional Rate Box A $10.29
Regional Rate Box B $18.47

Cubic Box 0.1 $ 7.28
Cubic Box 0.2 $ 8.22
Cubic Box 0.3 $10.26
Cubic Box 0.4 $12.48
Cubic Box 0.5 $15.39

Priority Mail By Package Weight

Shipping Cost is $39.76

As you can see, there is a large variation in shipping cost depending on how the package is shipped.

Next up is to add in the First Class rates and then pretty it up.

Yesterday, I was changing some configuration settings on our 40″ Samsung TV and remembered that it can be connected to the Internet for streaming from Amazon Prime, HULU, Netflix, etc., using the Smart Hub function.

I had never set this up before due to the fact that, with our Verizon MiFi hotspot and its restricted data limits. But since we’ve got an excellent high-speed WiFi here, I thought I’d give it a try.

It only took about 5 minutes to connect it to the Internet and set on Amazon Prime. And about 5 minutes later, Jan had found Versailles Season 2 and was ready to stream the 4 episodes that she had missed.

Tomorrow Jan and I are meeting Brandi in downtown Houston at the Nutcracker Market. And on the way, we’ll be stopping off for our favorite meal, breakfast, at one of our favorite places, The Egg and I, for the second time this week.

Looking forward to it.

November 7, 2019

OH HELL, NO!

Back in 2009, our 2nd year on the road, we left Houston about the 1st of March and headed east. Our first extended stop was Gulf Shores, AL, my old stomping grounds, where we spent the entire month of March.

Then it was on east, following US98 along the Gulf Coast through Panama City, Apalachicola, and Carrabelle, before getting off 98 in Homosassa and cutting across the state to Bushnell.

All along our Florida travels, we had been trying to book a stay at the Fort Wilderness RV Park at Disney World, without any luck. But everyone said to just keep trying every day in case something opened up.

In any case, we figured we had two shots at it, one as we came south and then another as we came back up the east coast. But while we were at Bushnell, all of a sudden, they had a bunch of sites open, and we had our pick. Turns out that they had taken a bunch of sites offline while they were refurbishing them. And we just happened to check again the day they went back online. So we quickly booked a two-week stay.

We had already read that it was much cheaper to buy our tickets from one of the independent ticket brokers outside the park. And that was definitely true.

We were able to purchase 10-day All Park passes for only about $25 more than what a 2-day All Park pass would have cost us in-park. We were kind of looking forward to this visit since it was the first time we had been to an amusement park by ourselves since November 1967, when Jan and I visited Six Flags Over Georgia in Atlanta when Jan was pregnant with our son Chris.

And we did have a great time, but we also discovered that no matter what Walt said, DisneyWorld/Land is NOT THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH. I have never heard more whining, crying, sobbing, whimpering, yelling, and screaming.

And that was just the parents!

The kids were much, much worse. And it seems like you were never out of earshot of someone ‘whining, crying, sobbing, whimpering, yelling, and screaming’.

But all this leads us back around to today’s blog title.

One of Jan’s favorite shows is ‘OutDaughtered’, one of those shows about a family with a bunch of kids, in this case, six girls, five quints, and an older daughter. And one of the real attractions for Jan is that the family lives right in our area, in League City, right down the road. So it’s interesting to watch them visit places we know and have visited ourselves.

So recently, the entire horde- parents, six kids, other family members, and of course, the camera crew- all flew down to Florida to take a Disney cruise. So, since Jan and I have been talking about (and booking) cruises lately, I asked her if she would be interested in taking a Disney cruise. And her answer to me –

OH HELL, NO!

I guess it would be just like Disney World, except we would be trapped on the ship with all of them and nowhere to run.

Yikes!

Today was pretty much called on account of rain. We had a number of errands planned, but as usual, lunch came first, about 1 pm. And while we were in Los Ramirez, the bottom dropped out, and the wind picked up.

And by ‘bottom dropped out’, I mean you couldn’t see more than about a couple of car lengths in front of you. And with the wind whipping back and forth, it was a real mess. So after lunch we just came back home.

So everything gets pushed back to Saturday now.

November 7, 2020

It’s Really A Hobby . . .

Well, I did plan on working on the rig today, I really did. But life intervened.

Somehow, I had forgotten that Jan already had stuff planned for this afternoon. But at least the ‘stuff’ started out with Baby Back Ribs at Spring Creek BBQ, right over in nearby Victory Lakes.

Delicious as always.

So, since today was given over to other ‘stuff’, tomorrow I’ll try once again to take a shot at the leak problem.

But as a long-time blog reader, Rob commented, it’s no longer a repair job. It’s now a Hobby. Unfortunately, I think he’s right.

November 7, 2022

A Picture In The Attic?

Our son Chris is always building, or rebuilding, something.

He took a rotting hulk of a boat abandoned in a field, with a tree growing out of it, and turned it into this.

And that includes rebuilding the inboard/outboard motor.

Then he took this,

and a lot of parts from other Jeeps, and turned it into this.

He calls it his FrankenJeep.

Then he built a series of Wind Chimes like these.

These are for his own backyard.

Then these for his sister Brandi’s yard.

Note that the ‘Sail’ (that’s what it’s called) of Brandi’s is a wine glass.

And this set for us.

And now he’s into Fire Pits.

He recently replaced the fire pit in his backyard with this one.

He cut out the silhouettes with a hand-held plasma torch, using only scrap metal. The only thing he had to buy was the fire-resistant paint.

Last month, I posted this photo of my Sweetie taken on her ‘mumble-mumble’ birthday.

Then I recently came across this photo of her in 1966, about a year before we met. I assume it was her Senior photo.

So this evening I spent some time colorizing it.

I swear that she’s got a picture hidden away in an attic somewhere.

She just doesn’t age.

November 7, 2023

When One Day Just Isn’t Enough. . .

Amazon’s Black Friday runs for 11 days this year, running from November 17, passing through Black Friday, and ending up on Cyber Monday, November 27th.

So get those credit cards warmed up.

Pretty much everything in the rig is now controllable by Alexa using smart plugs and smart switches. Fans, lights, the dryer, and even our Fire TV Stick. So why not our rig’s water heater?

We had been using one of these spring-loaded mechanical timers for a year or so now.

But they seemed to have a propensity to become intermittent after a while, when they turn on, but then don’t wind down.

So I got one of these, which, ironically, was cheaper than the mechanical one.

WiFi-Enabled Wall Switch

So now we can control our water heater from our phone from anywhere, or by Alexa here in the rig.

Neat!

Neither Jan nor I have an X account, so we don’t really have a dog in this fight. But how much longer are we going to keep seeing in the news, “as posted on X (formerly known as Twitter)”?

At what point does it finally just become X?

Or is it going to always be like “ formerly known as Prince” and just go on forever?

(BTW, this was all caused by a contract dispute he was having with Warner Brothers over how they were releasing his music.)

The Smell of the Day: Marshmallow

November 7, 2024

One Month From Today . . .

So glad the election is over so that my phone will stop blowing up with calls/texts touting one side or the other, and/or asking for money.

* * * * * * *

I didn’t go into work this past Wednesday since we had a get-together set up for that day, so I had planned to go in today. But didn’t feel like it.

So maybe tomorrow.

* * * * * * *

About this time, one month from today, we’ll be somewhere out in the Gulf of America on the first day of our 9-Day Western Caribbean Cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Jewel Of The Seas.

Two days later, we’ll make our first port at Progreso in the Yucatan, followed by Cozumel, Roatan, Honduras, Belize City, Belize, and Puerto Costa Maya over the next 5 days. Then it’s two days at sea until we get back to Galveston on December 16th.

This means we’ll be able to add 3 new countries to the Where We’ve Been Since 2008 area on our blog

Following up on this, I locked in our Excursions/Internet Plan, so we’re pretty much ready to go until we get a little closer to our sailing date.

Apple Pie Flavored . . .

Thought For The Day:

Well, That’s One Way.

And It Looks Like He Got the Kid AND the dog.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

November 6, 2009

Skeletons and Dragons and Owls…Oh My!

Well, we’re presently about 40 miles southeast of St. Louis, MO. We’ll be here for a couple of days to check out the Gateway Arch and other sites in the area. We’re this far away from St. Louis because I had trouble finding an RV park that was still open. Most of them closed November 1st.

Sunday or Monday, we’ll head about 190 miles further southwest to Branson, MO, for several days to take in some of the shows and attractions.

We spent the last 5 days visiting my sister-in-law Debbie and her husband Jim in Vandalia, IL. Just like last year, we were able to leave the coach parked at Burl and Shirley’s farm, right next to the barn.

We had a great time catching up with our nieces, Tana and Christina, our nephew Jason, his wife Laura, and our grand-nieces, Gwen, Avery Jane, and the newest addition, Ella.

Here’s Gwen and Avery Jane helping Aunt Debbie water the garden.

And check out these Halloween costumes. Aunt Debbie made Gwen a great-looking owl costume.

And here’s Miss Avery Jane and Ella as a scary Dragon and a skeleton.

Vandalia is a very neat little town with some strange features. I mean, how many towns do you know that have their own dragon?

And it breathes fire…if you put in a quarter.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any quarters.

And here’s Jan and her sister Debbie having one last hug before we head out.

We finally headed out about 11:30 am and made the 140-mile trip to the Stanton, MO KOA in about 3 hours. It was an easy trip because it was pretty much Interstate all the way.

November 6, 2011

Last Day in Indiana . . .

Well, except for the small decorative moose clock in the bathroom, all the clocks in the rig now automagically set themselves to the atomic clock in Colorado, so last night’s change from Daylight Saving Time went very smoothly. Besides the moose clock, all that was left was the clock in the toad.

Of course, it’s really all for naught since tomorrow we move back into the Central Time Zone, and except for our cell phones, I haven’t found any house clocks with GPS so they know when they’ve moved into a new time zone.

I hope someone’s working on that.

I spent some time today getting us ready to travel tomorrow. Since we’ll be boondocking at least one night, I added some water to the fresh water tank and topped off the air in my driver’s inside rear dual. It has a slight leak, and after a couple of weeks, it always needs some air.

It’s been about a month since I last checked the batteries, so I topped them off and then stored some things in the bays.

Tomorrow morning, all I should have to do is bring in the satellite dish and unhook the utilities, and we’re good to go.

A little before 4 pm, Jan and I headed into the Cincinnati area to have dinner again at Logan’s Roadhouse, the closest decent steak place. Texas Roadhouse is better, but the nearest one here is a lot further away.

We got back to the park a little before 6, and I parked behind the rig this time and went ahead and hooked up the toad and brake system so we’ll be ready to go tomorrow morning.

We’ve really enjoyed our stay here at Indian Lakes, and hopefully we’ll get to come back next year. It’s a really nice park.

November 6, 2012

On to Gulf Shores . . .

Well, if the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll be on our way again down to Gulf Shores.

When we left Northgate RV Travel Park about 8:30 Monday morning, we were first headed about a mile and a half down the road to fill up with diesel at a Texaco station. Unfortunately, we only made it about a mile before our coach’s diesel just up and quit. Just like I’d turned the key off.

Luckily, I was able to pull off the road and into a long turn lane leading into an apartment complex.

Even though my Silverleaf said I still had about 40 gallons left, due to my problems a couple of months ago with a clogged fuel tank vent tube and the resulting vacuum crushing in part of my fuel tank, I thought I might actually be out of diesel.

So, using my 5-gallon can, I put in 15 gallons of diesel (the amount Cummins says to use if you run out) and ran the priming sequence that Cummins recommends.

With no luck.

So after talking with Spartan, I checked the 4 fuses for the Engine ECU and the Fuel Pump.

Again, with no luck.

So finally it was time to call Coach-Net Emergency Road Service to get us towed into a service center. It took almost two hours for them to locate a wrecker heavy enough to tow us, and then almost an hour to get us ready to tow.

But finally, we were on the road following the tow truck in our toad, heading over to Bankston Motorhomes in Huntsville. We finally got parked and checked in there about 2:30, but it was about 3 pm before a tech started looking at our rig.

But since the shop closed at 4:30, he only had time to run through some basic checks and tests before time ran out. But after trying to prime and crank several times, we still had no luck, and that was it for the day.

We had planned to stay in the rig since we had power available from the shop, but around 9:30, our power suddenly went off. So after thinking it over, we headed over to a nearby Holiday Inn Express. We had been invited to stay with my Aunt and Uncle in Athens, if we needed, but as late as it was, and since we wanted to be back at the shop before 8:30 am, we decided to stay local.

However, it was about 9:30 before the tech got back on the job. The delay was caused by the fact that he wanted to use the computerized scanner, and it was in use on another coach.

And when he finally got to use it, it didn’t really help. There were no codes, and everything seemed to be working fine.

It still just seemed like fuel wasn’t getting to the engine. So the tech decided to try to just “brute-force” it.

Fill both filters with diesel and just crank it until it starts. Of course, you can only crank it for about a minute at a time to keep the starter from overheating. And since we had been cranking off and on for a good while, our batteries, even using the AUX START switch, were getting too weak to do much more cranking.

So the tech went and got the Start Cart, a heavy-duty wagon with 8 12-volt batteries in it. The tech was also going to use a little ether. This is normally not a good idea because the intake air pre-heater can ignite the ether and cause things to go BOOM! But we pulled the fuse for the pre-heater to eliminate that problem.

The first time we tried this, the engine cranked for about 15 seconds and then caught. But it only ran for about 5 seconds and then died. So after letting it cool off for about 30 seconds, we tried it again.

This time it ran for about a minute and then died. And the third time was the charm. The engine caught the first time and just ran. And ran. And ran.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I immediately ran to the office to pay so we could get on the road. But it still took about 20 minutes before we were pulling out.

Since it was really too late to head toward Gulf Shores, we just headed back to the RV park in Athens. On the way, we stopped off at Kroger’s and took on about 90 gallons of diesel at $3.75 a gallon.

The rig ran fine all the way back to Athens and restarted with no problems after fueling up.

Tomorrow we’ll try again for Gulf Shores.

November 6, 2014

Drying Out . . .

I headed over to Bryan/College Station about 9:30 this morning for our weekly grocery/supply run. Since it’s almost a 90-minute round-trip, this gives me time to get everything done and still get back before it’s time for me to relieve Jan on the gate at 1 pm, and also time to eat the lunch I bring back.

My first stop was the AutoZone to pick up the flasher control module for our 2004 Dodge Dakota. At least I hope that this $70 module is the reason my turn signals and emergency flashers are completely dead. I’m getting tired of waving my arms out the window. Now all I have to do is check my Haynes repair manual and figure out where to stick it.

Finishing up my Wal-Mart duties, but before leaving the store, I stopped in at their McDonald’s for Iced Caramel Mochas and 2 apple and 2 sweet potato pies. Since we’re having lunch for our big meal, we’ll have a couple of pies for dinner tonight, and then the others for breakfast tomorrow.

Then it was across the parking to the Sonic to get Jan’s Chili-Cheese Coney (light onions) and my Corn Dogs, and an order of Ched’R Peppers for our lunch. Unfortunately, when I got back to the gate, we found that Jan’s Chili-Cheese Coney (light onions) was a bun, a coney, and light onions. And ONLY that.

No chili, no cheese, and no mustard. But she said the Ched’R Peppers were good!

Our frack finally got restarted this morning, so the sand trucks are pouring back in again. We did 227 vehicles through the gate for the day, down a good bit since they weren’t fracking during the night, so no sand trucks during that time.

Coming back to the gate, I once again saw that big orange ball of fusing hydrogen gas up in the sky, for the first time in days, it seems like. Although it’s drying out, our road is still awash due to the runoff from the surrounding land, so it’s going to take a few days of dry weather before everything’s back to normal.

Or at least as normal as it gets around here.

Since we’re looking at nighttime temps in the 30’s for the next ten days or so, I picked up a box of these HotHands Hand Warmers at Wal-Mart today to give them a try.

You just open the package to expose them to the air, squeeze them a bit, and they heat up and stay hot for about 10 hours. They’re pretty ingenious in that they only contain iron powder, salt water, charcoal, and kitty litter.

And they get hot by rusting. But they rust really, really fast, which gives off heat. Pretty neat, and no dangerous chemicals.

November 6, 2015

Either She’s Better Trained Now . . .

Or I am.

Probably a little of both

Starting tomorrow morning, we’ll be keeping our heads down here on the gate.

It’s the first day of deer hunting season in this area.

And there will be deer hunters here. The landowner has deer stands and blinds set up all over, as well as a lot of game cameras, and he charges people to hunt on his land here.

They’re not supposed to shoot in our direction, and we are wearing orange safety vests, but a few of these idiots manage to shoot each other every year, and they’re wearing orange safety vests, too.

About 11 am, I headed into Carthage for my weekly Wal-Mart shopping. Oh, and Whataburger too.

The first thing I noticed there was that gas was $1.91 at the station there. When I here this past Tuesday, I filled up for $1.83, a big jump for three days. But I guess it bodes well for the oil industry.

One thing I picked up at Wal-Mart was a bottle of Diesel Kleen. I try to dump in a bottle every 3rd or 4th tank of diesel

Here’s what I had to say about it when we were gate guarding in July 2012.

* * * * * * *

A few days ago, I was talking with one of the drivers for Macro Trucking, one of the big haulers in this area for the rigs. They have over 600 semi’s, and we get 3 or 4 a day in here.

The driver told me about Power Service Diesel Kleen with Cetane Boost.

He said the company had started using it in all their trucks about 9 months ago, after doing a six-month trial run on about 50 of them. He said they were getting a solid 5-6% increase in mileage, along with cleaner injectors.

So I’ve used it every 3rd fill-up or so ever since. Can I tell you that my mileage has increased, or my injectors are cleaner?

No, it’s pretty much impossible to really see an MPG change with the varied routes and conditions we drive under. And I haven’t had my injectors looked at since I started using Diesel Kleen, or before, for that matter.

But we just recently hit 135,000 miles on our coach, about 70,000 miles of it from our travels, and except for a bad fuel line sensor a couple of years ago, we’ve had no engine problems in our 8 years of travel.

One reader asked if Diesel Kleen was approved by Cummins Diesel. I don’t know, but I kind of doubt it. The manufacturers can’t test every additive and every combination of additives that you might use. But I’m pretty sure all these trucking companies wouldn’t be using Diesel Kleen if they didn’t think it worked, or that it would harm their engines.

When I put the Diesel Kleen in, I’ll also put in a slug of Biocide like this.

When the weather gets cold and rainy, moisture will start to condense in your diesel tank. And the moisture feeds algae, which start to grow in the fuel. And when you start the engine, the algae clogs the fuel filter, and your engine stops.

Been there. Done that.

But a capful of Biocide will take care of the problem.

* * * * * * *

Was it always just this simple?

Recently, I’ve mentioned (complained?, ranted?) about getting my order right at Whataburger. I would tell her that I wanted a #6 with cheese, and only these extras, which in Jan’s case, are ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, grilled onions, and nothing else.

Then she would ask, “Do you want pickles?”, and we’d go around again.

And today it was the same girl, but I tried a different tack. I said, “I want a #6 with cheese, plain. Then I want the following: ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, and grilled onions. After each item, I waited for her to hit the key on the register.

The first time, we just stared at each other for a few seconds until I said “ketchup” again and nodded at the register. And she hit the ketchup key, and it came up on the little screen in front of me.

Eureka!

Then it was item, key, item, key, item, key, and we were done.

Then my burger went just as smoothly. So this time it took about 30 seconds total, instead of the usual 2 or 3 minutes of back and forth.

Of course, with my luck, there’ll be a new girl next time, and we’ll start this all over.

* * * * * * *

Who are you going to believe, me or the lying website

Seeing as how the equine carcass was still twitching a little, I decided to take another swing or two at it.

A couple of days ago, I related how I had tried to buy a Thousand Trails Camping Pass to augment our park selection during our trip up to Vermont for the 56th Escapade next July. This was after trying to buy a Ready, Camp, Go card, or a Zone Pass for the same reason. And this was based on this page of the website.

I was told that it did not mean what I thought it meant, and that I could not add a Camping Pass to my membership. Then yesterday I was back on the TT website, and when I went to the My Membership page, I saw this.

Note the “Want to add more campgrounds to your membership?” part.

Why yes, thank you. I do.

So I “Clicked Here”, and guess where it took me.

No, go ahead, guess. I’ll wait.

Right the first time. And the second, and the third.

It took me right back here.

Ok, surely I had them dead to rights this time.

Well . . . NO.

This time, I called Corporate Member Services instead of the phone number on the page. Surely they could straighten this out.

Well . . . NO

First off, the lady denied that the website said that. And after we went round and round about it, I gave her my password so she could log in as me. She was still insisting that I was wrong until she got to my My Membership page. Then she got quiet.

After about 30 seconds of silence, she said, “That’s not what it means.”

Me: “Well then, what does it mean?”

More silence.

Finally, “It means you can upgrade to an Elite Membership.”

Me: “Then what’s the Camping Pass part for?”

More silence.

Finally, “It’s to show you how much better an Elite Membership is than a Camping Pass.”

Me: “But I don’t have a Camping Pass, so why should I care? Since it’s on my My Membership page, why doesn’t it show my Alliance membership and compare it with how much better an Elite Membership is?”

More silence.

This is getting to be fun.

It’s lonely on the gate, and I needed some entertainment.

Then she put me on hold and went away for about 5 minutes. When she came back, she said, “We have no control over what’s on the website.”

Me: “Well, didn’t someone from Corporate have to tell someone at the website to put that up there.

Again, “We have no control over what’s on the website.”

Me: “Well, could I talk to someone who does have control over what’s on the website?”

Again, “We have no control over what’s on the website.”

Seeing as how we were circling back around for a fourth go at this, I thanked her for her time and told her to have a nice day.

But the part of all this that really ticked me off was something she told me early on when I mentioned no longer being able to buy a Ready, Camp, Go card like I originally wanted.

I called in on October 4th to purchase the RCG card, and that’s when I found out they were no longer available.

They stopped being available on October 1st.

I have no words.

Well, yes, I do. But you probably don’t want to hear them.

November 6, 2016

Living in Six Shooter Junction . . .

Well, I’m finished up at this gate and off for a couple of days. Todd says I’ll probably be back on another gate by Wednesday.

Actually, it’s going to be nice to be off for a few days, especially since I’ve been on Day shift. Besides having to get up at 5:30 AM, there’s no real time to do any shopping. By the time I get home, it’s almost 7 pm, and by the time we eat supper and I do the blog, it’s pretty much time for bed.

And it would be even worse if I was on a 5 am to 5 pm shift, which means I would have to be up at 4 am. NNNOOOOOOO!

Last week, when I dropped off our absentee ballots at the Kenedy PO, I was amazed when I walked in. It was like walking back into the Post Offices of my childhood.

Turns out there’s a reason for this feeling. This Post Office is almost 80 years old. Built in 1937 as a WPA project during the Depression, it’s amazing how good a shape it’s still in.

There’s another building in downtown that has a 1912 date on the lintel, and then there’s this old-time service station, too.

Not bad for a town that in the early 1900’s was nicknamed “Six-Shooter Junction” because of all the gunfighter shootouts that happened in the area.

Tomorrow we’ve got an Amazon package coming, and then the lunch buffet at Barth’s. Monday is Chicken Fried Steak and Chicken Fried Chicken Day, crossing off another day of the week.

November 6, 2018

Don’t You Dare!

We had our ophthalmologist appointments at 2:15, so we decided to go in a little early and have breakfast at The Egg and I once again. Jan’s new favorite is their Avocado Toast with Scrambled Eggs and Salad Greens

We had hoped to try out Snooze- An AM Eatery, a new breakfast place, right down the street from the Egg, but it doesn’t open until the 14th. We’re looking forward to checking it out.

As far as the ophthalmologist results, Jan’s finally going to get her cataracts removed, starting with the left one on Dec. 6th. Otherwise, everything else looks OK, with no signs of macular degeneration or retinal neuropathy.

My diagnosed cataract pretty much isn’t. After checking out my eyes, particularly the left one, he said all I really have is a slight thickening or yellowing of the cornea, and not a cataract. He set me up with an appointment with the practice’s cornea guy to double-check for any problems.

He also scoffed when I mentioned that my optometrist said that I couldn’t drive at night, and then he had no problem filling out a new SD Vision Statement to get that restriction off my license.

* * * * * * *

This afternoon, it suddenly dawned on me that the speedometer of our rental Malibu goes all the way up to 160 mph.

When I mentioned it to Jan, she immediately said, “Don’t You Dare!”.

She knows me so well.

When we were first dating in 1967, I had a souped-up red 1965 Triumph Spitfire like this.

Except that mine had a full roll-bar and a white racing stripe.

The original Spitfire had a 1,147 cc OHV inline 4 with about 67hp, good for about 95mph. Downhill, maybe, with a good tailwind.

But mine, purchased from the brother of an ex-girlfriend, had a fully race-prepared engine, putting out 89hp at 6000 rpm on the dyno.

But not to let well enough alone, I shoehorned a Triumph GT6 6-cylinder engine in, also race-prepped, this one to about 170hp. This on a 1500-pound car.

Which is why, when Jan and I were coming home from Orlando one night on a nice straight, deserted road, she asked how fast we were going, and I told her.

135 mph!

Her eyes got really big, and she ‘eek’d’ a little, but that was it. I think that’s when I really knew I was going to marry this girl.

She later said she thought the telephone poles were going past a little faster than normal.

Previously, I had had it up to a little over 140, but the front end would get a little ‘bouncy’.

FWIW, I had taken both the Basic and Advanced Racing Courses at the Bob Bondurant Racing School in Atlanta, and had previously raced in SCCA F, G, and Unlimited classes. So it wasn’t like I hadn’t done this before.

So Jan had good reason to suspect that I might want to find out whether or not the Malibu was worthy of this speedometer.

November 6, 2019

You Go, Girl!

I mentioned yesterday that I had taken our ASUS laptop with us on our errands so I could be sure my Delorme GPS module was still working.

I use the module along with the Delorme Street Atlas 2015 program to guide us on our RV trips, and have since 2007. The database has every RV park we’ve ever stayed at, all 339 of them, as well as many sites and attractions along the way. It also has every route we’ve ever taken.

When we’re traveling in the RV, the laptop sits on a tray next to my driver’s seat and displays not only the GPS directions at the bottom of the screen, but also my Silverleaf Digital Dashboard display.

But note above that I’m still using the 2015 version of the Street Atlas program. That’s because that was the last version that Delorme came out with. And that was because Garmin bought out Delorme, mainly for their Iridium Sat Phone technology. But they apparently didn’t want to continue with the Street Atlas program, so the 2016 version never appeared.

And that also means that there have been no map updates either. Bummer!

So occasionally we find ourselves driving ‘off-road, at least according to the map display. But it still gets us there.

But it’s hard to hate Garmin for this, because I like their GPS units so much. We’ve had this Garmin Nuvi 1490 LMT since December 2011, and it’s still going strong.

Well, with a little help, anyway. Over the last 8 years, I’ve had to replace the power cord and the internal battery, but otherwise no problems.

I guess it’s a Love/Hate Relationship.

Recently, I told you about the leggings that Jan bought, but up until yesterday, she had only worn them in the rig because she thought only young girls wore them out.

But after I pointed out several women her age also wearing them, yesterday she wore them out on our errands. And after I was finished checking out at the Wal-Mart while she waited out by the restrooms, and I caught up with her, she had a big smile on her face.

She said that while she was waiting for me, a young black girl came by and told her that she was ‘rocking those leggings’, and then said, “You Go, Girl!”.

Probably won’t be the last time she wears her leggings out in public now.

November 6, 2020

Once More Into The Breech . . .

Tomorrow (and maybe Sunday) I’m making one last attempt to fix our rig’s oil leak.

Or at least to fix it myself.

I’m going to pull the oil filter once again, remove the 4 bolts from the adapter head, and then try to remove the head itself. I’m not sure how easy this is going to be since I used the Permatex Ultra Black sealer to put it all together.

But once I get it off, and I will, I’m going to remove the one flakey Heli-Coil, replace it with a new one, and then put it all back together, this time with two gaskets and no sealer. And then we’ll see.

If it makes it through the high-idle test, then we’ll schedule a test drive. Otherwise, I’ll be making an appointment at the repair place up in Channelview.

So will my truck smell like pie?

Well, it might.

Years ago, I was following a pickup along a country road, and I kept smelling French fries, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. I mean, this was farmland.

But then I noticed that the closer I got to the truck in front of me, the stronger the smell got. (And the hungrier I got, too)

And then it dawned on me that the truck was a diesel and was running on bio-diesel made from used French fry oil. And I’ve noticed a couple of more times over the years.

So maybe pumpkin pie exhaust is not so far-fetched.

November 6, 2021

An Old Favorite . . .

For lunch today, we were back at an old favorite, King Food. And by ‘old’ I mean 40+ years we’ve been eating here. We’re now on our 4th owner. And it’s still delicious.

We both got our usual Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce with Jalapenos,

Then it was by the office to pick up an order that had just come in. And after a stop at Kroger’s for a couple of prescriptions, we picked up a repaired jacket at Lily’s Alterations near our old house in Heritage Park.

After a Costco gas stop (at $2.79, up 15 cents per gallon since last week), we were on our way home with a stop at Cowboy Coffee for Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate.

We’ve been having good luck getting our Amazon orders delivered here at the rig. In some cases, I’ve ordered something at 9 pm, and it was delivered at about 7:30 the next morning. And when I ordered something a little after 11 pm, it showed up around 10 am.

And sometimes we get extra stuff. Other people’s stuff. This past Wednesday, Amazon delivered a package for me here at the rig while I was at work, and of course, I got a photo of it sitting on our patio.

But when I got home a couple of hours later, there were 4 more packages sitting on top of mine, 3 of them from Wal-Mart and one from a diesel parts place.

And none of them were mine. The diesel stuff was for the guy right next to us in site #8, while the 3 WM boxes were for the lady down in space #1.

Jan said she saw the Prime van come by, followed a few hours later by a white van. But she didn’t realize it had stopped in front of our rig.

So the guy drove right past site #1, the first site coming into the park, then drove past us at #7, and #8 right next door, looped back around at the bottom of the park, and then came back by #8 again. Then after dumping everything in our yard, he left the park, driving right by #1 . . . again.

And he probably thinks he’s not being paid enough.

So after the guy next door came over and got his box, we piled the WM stuff in the Jeep and took it down to the lady in #1.

Our good deed for the day.

November 6, 2022

2 Billion?

Well, Jim ‘Mattress Mack’ McIngvale is probably the happiest (and luckiest) person that the Astros won the World Series last night.

After betting $10 million across several sportsbooks earlier in the season, he won $75 million for their win.

According to Caesars Sportsbook, Mack is now the winner of the largest payout on a single sports bet in legalized sports wagering history after winning $30 million on a $3 million bet he made with them back in May.

Of course, it doesn’t always work. He lost nearly $10 million on the Super Bowl, backing the Cincinnati Bengals over the eventual champion Los Angeles Rams.

Mack, the owner of the Gallery Furniture chain, is well known in the Houston area for his charity works in the area, giving out furniture, mattresses, and even housing people who’ve lost their homes during storms

And speaking about a lot of money, the PowerBall Lottery is up to 1.9 Billion for tomorrow night’s drawing, and they’re saying that due to the accelerated ticket sales, it’s possible that it might hit 2 Billion before the drawing.

Maybe Mack needs to buy some PowerBall tickets while his luck is running hot.

We’re going to the Alvin Opry this Friday night, and since I’ve wanted to video-record some of the performers, I got a wireless mic to hopefully improve the audio.

Wireless Mic for Android Phones

When I’ve tried to record before, the audio sounds like it’s at the bottom of a barrel, so hopefully placing the mic up on the edge of the stage will help out.

We’ll see.

Got some more info from Miss Piper about her Master’s Degree pursuit. She expects it to take about 2 years to get her MS, and then another 3,000 hours of supervised post-degree clinical experience before she can be licensed to practice. But that will be a paid internship.

Sounds like she’s got it all planned out.

Jan and I are so proud of her.

November 6, 2023

Does This Smell Bad To You?

After being towed down to Galveston in September 2022 for a complete restoration, the Battleship Texas has been looking for a new home. All that was known to start with was that it was not going back to its previous berth up in San Jacinto.

After a number of new locations, like Baytown and Beaumont, were considered, it looks like it will be towed from its drydock at the Port of Galveston all the way . . .

to the Port of Galveston. Just another Pier location.

And here’s what it’s supposed to look like.

I mentioned the other day about Golden Corral branching out with two new restaurant concepts. Which made me wonder about their closest competitor, Ryan’s.

Turns out that Ryan’s is dead and gone, not surviving the pandemic. But I guess it wasn’t unexpected since they’d already been in bankruptcy twice in the last 20 years or so.

It seems there are a few independent locations hanging on, but they’re just using the name.

And along with Ryan’s, all their other restaurants closed down as well. Hometown Buffett, Old Country Buffet, Tahoe Joe’s, and Curry House.

Curry House?

And Now, News You Can Use!

Does This Smell Bad To You?

November 6, 2024

No More Class A’s?

Lunch today was at a new place for us, Vida Mariscos. And it’s pretty much new to everyone since it just opened last week.

And it’s a really nice place.

But one of the main reasons we were here is because long-time server friend Juana was working today. So we had a good time catching up since it has been a month or more since we’ve seen her.

Jan got the Seafood al Pastor, basically Steamed Fish, which comes out wrapped in foil that they cut open at your table. The dish consists of an 8-oz Fish Filet, 3 Jumbo Shrimp, with tomatoes, peppers, carrots, cilantro, and spices in a Butter-Lemon Sauce.

Jan said it was delicious!

I got the Carne Margarita.

Buried under all the shrimp is an 8-oz Fajita Steak, stuffed with Monterey Jack cheese, mushrooms, and more shrimp, and nestled on a bed of rice, as well as a small bowl of their Seafood Soup and Jicama Slaw.

Also really, really good.

One funny thing did happen, though, when we told Juana that Val said Hi. Val was our server at Texas Huddle last week, and knew Juana. But when I told Juana, she said she’s right over there.

And there she was, manning (womanning?) the Fresh-Made Guacamole cart. Then, about that time she came over to say Hi and talk for a bit. Apparently, Juana lured her away from Texas Huddle, too.

Delicious! We’ll definitely go back.

* * * * * * *

Yesterday I called Action Limo to set up our drop-off/pickup at the Galveston Cruise Terminal next month. They’re the same company we used back in 2019 for both our European trip and our Christmas in NYC trips.

Our daughter Brandi, who uses them regularly, said they had gone up a good bit on their rates, and they have. But listening to all the online horror stories about parking down in the Cruise Line area, it will be worth the lack of hassle.

And this call was another example of synchronicity in our life.

On yesterday’s date, back in 2019, I called Action to set up our drop-off/pick-up at Hobby International for our NYC Christmas trip

And in another example,

The Brother laser printer that we use in the Shipping area died, and I suggested that we replace it with the same Canon D570 laser printer that we use in the Point of Sale area. We’ve had it for a number of years without any problems, so I thought another one would be a good idea.

I knew that we had bought the first one from Amazon and found we had purchased it on June 18, 2019, so it had been going for 5 years. And what was the date that I was ordering another one?

Why, June 18, 2024, of course.

Cue the Twilight Zone theme.

* * * * * * *

And In Other News

No More New Class A’s!

Big motorhome sales banned in California and five other states, effective Jan 1, 2025!

The RV Industry is reeling this week as California and five other clean air states are about to ban the sale of motorhomes with a gross vehicle weight (GVWR) of over 8,500 pounds.

This includes most motorhomes.

• The average weight range for a Class C RV is 10,000 – 12,000 lbs.
• The range for a Super C Motorhome is 19,500 lbs and up
• The average GVWR of a Class A motorhome typically ranges from 13,000 to 30,000 lbs

And this is because of –

The Advanced Clean Truck Regulation

California and the five other states that have signed on to the same clean air regulations haven’t made a secret of this at all. The Advanced Clean Truck Regulation has been out there for over a year now. The other states that have adopted it are Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey.

This ban affecting the larger motorhomes will be effective Jan 1, 2025, and it’s a story that has caught everyone by surprise. It came to widespread attention just a few days ago when a letter sent by Newmar RV to its dealers in the affected states came to light, telling them of the coming sales ban.

Now, the reason this has shocked the industry is because, frankly, the industry really expected an exemption from a program that seems aimed at big diesel trucks that are driven around the clock, not low-mileage recreation vehicles that typically drive 3,000-5,000 miles a year.

But, But, We thought we were exempted!

But no one in the industry really thought RVs would be affected by the Advanced Clean Truck Regulation. They thought RVs would be treated differently from big commercial trucks once regulators understood the problem of making big motorhomes all-EV.

But that understanding didn’t happen, and as of right now, California and the five other states following that ACT regulation have not exempted RVs and, in fact, will halt the sales of most motorhomes manufactured after January 1, 2025.

Why? Because of clean air regulations, internal combustion vehicle manufacturers are required to have a certain percentage of EVs – 11% in 2025. The bigger the percentage, the more “credits” the regulation gives them to allow sales.

Winnebago, Thor, and others have tinkered around with EV Class B campervans, but none are near ready for the marketplace.

The technology for bigger Class As and Super Cs just isn’t anywhere near ready for that to happen because the weight of the batteries required to power a big motorhome would make them so heavy they could barely move, and the frames, tires, and components currently available just could not handle it.

And it seems that more states are considering the same rules.

So stay tuned. Or buy that new RV now.

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SpaceX has announced that the next flight of the Starship, #6 this time, could happen as early as November 18th. The plan is to once again try to catch the returning Super Heavy booster as it returns to the launch site.

Supposedly, they’re also going to try to catch the Starship itself at some point, but not this time. But when it does come down in the Indian Ocean, it will be during the daytime and not at night like the last flight.

Watch The Skies!

We Call Her Alice Now . . .