BBQ and the Space Shuttle. . .

October 21, 2010 Uncategorized

BBQ and the Space Shuttle. . .

We left the rig about 9:30 this morning heading up to Brandi’s so Jan could go with her downtown for Landon’s two month checkup.

While they were gone, I hit the bank, Starbucks, the storage rooms, several clients, and then ended up at Home Depot.

I’m trying to repair the knob on our shower. It broke while we were in Elkhart a couple of months ago. It’s a Moen faucet and I figured I wouldn’t have any problems finding a replacement. I checked with Home Depot and Lowe’s, but they didn’t have one that would fit. Finally a guy working there, who used to work for one of the RV manufacturers there in Elkhart told me that for some reason the RV faucets were not the same size as the home models.

I figured that with all the RV surplus places in the Elkhart area I wouldn’t have any problem finding one. But I bombed out there too.

I then called American Coach, who referred me to Moen. Moen told me they don’t have any parts left for that model.

So I figured we might be stuck with the small pair of Vice-Grips that are presently performing the knob replacement function.

But when I was looking at the zip lock bag of parts last night, I suddenly got an idea on how to possibly repair the broken one, hence my trip to Home Depot to find a small piece of brass pipe to act as a reinforcement sleeve for the knob. I found something that I think will work. I’ll try it out this weekend and see.

About 5:30 I met Jan, Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Chris at the new Spring Creek BBQ on I-45 in the League City / Victory Oaks area. This one just opened this past Monday, so it was our first time here, but we’ve eaten at the one in Pearland several times last year. And as before, it was great. The ribs were really meaty, and the sides, Jan and I had the green beans and the pinto beans, were all great too. Brandi really likes the Mac N Cheese. We finally headed home about 6:45 pm. We missed having Linda and Piper there with us, but unfortunately they both had to work. Hopefully we’ll get together with them next time.

Since this is another short post, I thought I repost our trip to a Space Shuttle launch last year.

Now I’ve got the Complete Set…

Posted on May 11, 2009

Well, it’s official.

I now have the complete set.

I got my first one on March 30, 1982 and it took me over 27 years to get the second one. But I finally did it.

I now have been at both a Space Shuttle launch and a Space Shuttle landing.

I worked on the Shuttle program at Johnson Space Center for ten years from 1978 thru 1987, but never was actually at a launch at the Cape.

In March 1982 I was part of the landing crew at the backup landing site, Northrop Strip, White Sands, New Mexico when the 3rd Shuttle mission, STS-3 landed there, the only time a Shuttle has landed somewhere other than Florida or California.

The Shuttle landed at White Sands because the landing strip at Edwards Air Force Base in California was covered with water due to recent heavy rains, and the landing strip at Cape Kennedy in Florida was not yet operational.

Coincidentally, before the landing, a movie called “Wrong is Right” was being filmed at White Sands. The White Sands area was standing in for sands of Saudi Arabia. And the movie crew was staying at the same Holiday Inn in Alamogordo, NM that we were.

It was a real kick to go down to the hotel bar every night after work and sit around drinking with Sean Connery, Katherine Ross, Robert Conrad, John Saxon, and Leslie Nielsen. And later I got to fix Katherine Ross’ hair dryer since she was staying in the hotel room next to mine.

And now I have a Shuttle launch under my belt.

We’re presently parked in Homestead, FL, about 30 miles south of Miami. Friday we’ll be heading down for a few days in the Florida Keys. So we were glad that we were still close enough to try and see a launch.

We left our park in Homestead a little after 6am this morning and got to Titusville about 11:30am, a trip of about 250 miles. We also took some extra clothes with us in case the launch was delayed over the 3 day launch window and we had to stay at a motel. But we lucked out.

The launch went off as scheduled at 2:01:56pm and we had a great spot to view it from. And one that had a lot memories for Jan and I.

Jan and met in Titusville almost 42 years where she lived, and I was working for the summer. We would go out to this fishing pier outside downtown Titusville and make out. We spent a lot of time there making out.