Our RV Adventures

Today was pretty straight forward, with not a lot really happening.

After doing some stuff around the rig, I headed out about 1pm up toward Clear Lake. My first stop was Fry’s Electronics where I was looking for some check printing software.

My client’s website takes checks online and uses the software to print out a check using the customer-supplied routing and account numbers. My client then deposits the check in his bank just like a regular check.

But since we upgraded his main machine to Win 7, the old DOS-based check printing program will no longer run, so I’m looking for a new program for him.

After finding something I hope will work, I drove over to my client’s for the afternoon.

But, by the time the afternoon was over, we had decided to replace the ornery computer with a new Win 7 model, thus taking care of all of our networking problems.

Works for me.

I headed home about 4:30, and then turned around and Jan and I headed up the road to La Brisa for a great dinner. Jan had the Chicken-Stuffed Avocado with Chicken Fajitas and a couple of Shrimp Brochettes, while I had a Trio Combo, with Beef Fajitas, Chicken Fajitas, and Ribs. As delicious as usual.

Since nothing much really happened today, I reposted some of our time in St. Augustine, FL in 2009.

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Tour Trains & Komodo Dragons…

Originally posted on June 8, 2009

Today Jan and I did ‘touristy’ stuff

We started off at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. This is probably the nicest small zoo we’ve been to. And believe me, we’ve been to a bunch of them.

They had some very unique displays including komodo dragons, the bird rookery, and the albino alligators.

Founded in 1893, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm is one of Florida’s oldest zoological attractions. In the early 1880s, two men began collecting alligators they found on Anastasia Island. These individuals, George Reddington and Felix Fire, were the founders of the St. Augustine Alligator Farm at South Beach.

In 1937, Reddington and Fire sold it to a pair of young business men in the community: W.I. Drysdale and F. Charles Usina. And the Drysdale family still owns the park today.

In 1989, The American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums extended accreditation to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, thereby elevating the institution to a select list of facilities throughout the nation recognized for the quality of their collections and the care afforded them.

The Alligator Farm is the only zoo to have all 23 species of the worlds’ crocodilians exhibited in individual habitats.

Here are some pics:

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These alligators are true albinos with pink eyes. They have no skin pigment.

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There are other white alligators, called leuistic alligators. Unlike albinos, leuistic alligators have pigment. It’s just a white pigment.

And they don’t have pink eyes. They have bright blues eyes. There are only about 12 known in the world, and they are all males.

Leuistic White Alligator

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We really enjoyed seeing the Komodo Dragon again. The last time we saw them was at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. in 1971.

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Reticulated Python

Northern Cassowary

This is ‘Gomek’. He was a 17 foot, 2000 pound Saltwater Crocodile who lived at the Alligator Farm. When he died, they had him stuffed and put back on display. He just doesn’t move around as much anymore.

Gomek – Tha Saltwater Crocodile

We really enjoyed The Rookery. This is a walk-thru area with nesting birds in some cases, just inches from the walkway.

Nesting Egrets

The Rookery

Wood Stork

Nesting Roseate Spoonbills

Stork Chicks

Nesting Tri-Colored Heron

Snowy Egret and Hungry Chicks

This is a fake dead zebra. It is used for the realistic feeding of the vultures and storks who regularly feed on carcasses.

"Dead" Zebra

Hooded Vultures

West African Crowned Crane

Black Swan

Blue and Gold Macaw

Indian Gharial Crocodile

The hand belongs to Christie. She goes into the pen to feed the alligators. And yes, that is a rat, a dead rat. Apparently, dead rats are alligator treats. The zoo buys them already dead. She said the rats are cheaper than chicken and the gators like them better.

Alligator Feeding Time

Feeding Skipper

He knows it’s here somewhere

Gulp!

All Gone!

Taste like Chicken!

Golden Lion Tamarin

After we left the Alligator Farm, we headed over to take the Old Town Trolley Tour. This is same tour company that we took in Key West. They also have tours in Savannah, Washington, D.C., Boston, and San Diego. We plan on taking this tour in all these cities as we visit them.

One of the places we passed thru on the tour was Magnolia Ave. Strangely enough, there are no magnolia trees on Magnolia Ave. Just some beautiful oaks trees in a canopy over the street.

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After our Trolley Tour, we drove down the road a ways to eat lunch again at the Oasis Restaurant. We ate here a couple of days ago and really enjoyed it. And it was close by.

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After lunch, we headed over to Walmart to pick up our prescriptions, and then it was on to Camping World to get some more parts for my new toad tail light setup.

After that, we stopped off for coffee before heading back to the coach.

All in all, an enjoyable day.

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Thought for the Day:

Whether you can hear it or not, The universe is laughing behind your back.

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When Jan was sitting outside the other day she got some great bird shots, including two we haven’t seen here before.

One was a White Ibis.

I think the last time we saw Ibis was at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL in 2009.

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The second one was a Snowy Egret

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And for the first time this year, we saw our resident Great Blue Heron.

Although we’d heard he was still here, we were beginning to get worried that something had happened to him.

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A little later, Jan filled her bird feeder and within a few minutes everyone showed up. We’ve got the Monk’s Parakeets, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Grackles, and a few little sparrows thrown in.

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And this is what happens when you say “BOO!”.

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As far as today goes, Jan and I left the rig about 1:30, heading for Brandi’s. Tonight is Bingo night and she was just going to hang out at Brandi’s while I took care of some errands and clients. That way I wouldn’t have to drive back down to pick her up.

Leaving Jan, my first stop was at EPO (Electronic Parts Outlet) for some new banana plugs and jacks to repair the extension cable for my Brake Buddy’s Alert Monitor. The Brake Buddy is what handles the braking in the truck when we’re towing it behind the rig.

Then after a quick stop at a client’s office, I drove up I-45 to the Dodge dealer. I wanted to order a new keylock switch for my truck’s door. The original one had broken internally, and wouldn’t turn off the alarm when I unlocked the door. I have to put the key in the ignition and turn it on before the alarm will shut up.

I’ve been waiting to get this fixed before I install my new power window unit. Hopefully it will be here by Friday.

My new stop was a clients in Pasadena to work on a problem for here. It took a little fiddling, but I finally got it fixed.

But the time I finished there, it was time to head back to Brandi’s to pick up Jan. But when I got there, I found we had plenty to time because Piper wasn’t going with us tonight, so we didn’t have to pick her up and we had some time to kill.

While we were still there, Lowell’s sister, Sherry, showed up and Jan invited her to go play bingo with her. We ended up having dinner at Dickinson Seafood in Dickinson (where else?) Boy, do they have good fried catfish.

Our friend Maria picked up Jan and Sherry at the restaurant, and I headed back up to Webster to my client’s office. I’m fighting the usual problems of trying to network Windows 7 machines and Windows XP machines together.

I’m sorry, but Win 7 does not work and play well with others!

I picked up Jan and Sherry about 10 pm, and after dropping Sherry off at Brandi’s, we finally got back home about 11pm after a really long day.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a little slower, but probably not.

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Thought for the Day:

Common sense isn’t very common anymore.

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