Monthly Archives: February 2012
Thanks again, Nick! . . .
OK, how many readers think that the fact that Nick Russell left Texas for New Mexico yesterday, and that today we had the first nice day here in Houston in about two weeks, are connected?
Let’s see a show of hands.
“One, Two, Three, Fou . . . OK. Everyone thinks so.
Thanks Nick!
Today was another day of trying to wrap things up before we leave here in about 10 days.
Leaving the rig about 11:30, my first stop was at our doctor’s office to pick up the printouts of our lab results that were supposed to be ready.
But they weren’t. Or, at least, all of them weren’t. Only some.
My next stop was our optometrist to make appointments for Jan and I. I was able to get mine for 3:00 pm this afternoon, and Jan’s is set for 10:15 am Thursday morning.
Since I had a couple of hours to kill I decided to work on some things at a nearby client’s, before I ended up back at the doctor’s.
Thirty minutes later I at the Optical Department at a nearby Sam’s Club ordering my new glasses. Talk about a price difference! The exact same frames that are $94 at Wal-Mart are only $47 at Sam’s.
After stops at Home Depot and Lowe’s for some parts for a project I’m working on, and then dropping off our winter comforter at the cleaner’s, I finally headed home.
We have two comforters, a winter one and a summer one. The winter one is heavier, and we use it while we’re back in Texas. Then we have it cleaned and sealed in plastic, and then right before we leave, we drop it off at our storeroom and pick up our summer one that we had cleaned and stored right after we got here. It’s a vicious circle.
Getting back to the rig, we decided to have dinner at TopWater Grill located at April Fool Point on Galveston Bay. We drove down here a couple of weeks ago with Nick and Terry, but didn’t get to eat here.
We’ve been eating since it opened about 12 years ago, and have watched it grow from a small shack with about 5 tables and a bar, to a large, beautiful restaurant on the bay.
Unfortunately the place was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008 and it was a while before they rebuilt it. In fact this is is the first time we’ve been back since then.
But at least the scenic views haven’t changed.
fdg
And neither has the delicious food. These are Torpedoes, large breaded jalapenos stuffed with crabmeat and cheese. Really, really good.
So good that we ate two of them before I remembered to take a picture.
fdg
And this is my Fried Seafood Platter, with scallops, fish filets, fried shrimp, crabmeat-stuffed shrimp, and a stuffed crab, along with shrimp coleslaw and jalapeno hushpuppies.
fdg
And did I mentioned the great views?
fdg
And of course, a really beautiful sunset when we got back to the park.
Thanks again, Nick.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Thought for the Day:
“Take the high ground boy, or they’ll kick hell out of you in the valleys.”
gfsfgsfd
Barcenas and La Posta . . .
Jan and I decided to have the Sunday morning breakfast buffet at La Brisa this morning, and as we were leaving the coach, she was wondering if she should feed the birds before we left, or wait until we came back.
Well the birds decided for her. As soon as she stepped out of the coach, flocks of birds headed toward us, squawking all the way, and settled in the palm trees surrounding our site, just waiting for the birdseed lady (Jan) to get to work.
We also had our Great Blue Heron friend right off shore keeping an eye on things.
After our usual great La Brisa breakfast, I brought Jan home and then turned around and headed up to Webster to spend the afternoon working at a client’s office, setting up some things that’s hard to do when everyone is there working.
Finally about 4:30 I headed back down to the rig to pick up Jan so we could head right back up to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at the Barcenas Mexican Restaurant right near their house.
Brandi had gotten back from Denver earlier in the afternoon, glad to be out of the snow and ice and 8 degree temps, and back to just rainy Houston.
Landon was his usual energetic self, keeping us all highly entertained.
Jan started out feeding him the chips and queso, but apparently Landon thought she was spending too much time talking and not enough time feeding him,
so he just started feeding himself.
fsgsdfg
Then after we finished eating, Jan and Landon had a rousing game of “Where’s Landon?”
After a fun get-together, and a quick stop at CVS, Jan and I headed home. On the way we got a call from our friend’s Nick and Terry Russell, saying they’d made the 470 mile trip from Del Rio to Las Cruces, and were now on their way to have dinner at the legendary La Posta de Mesilla in the Old Mesilla area of Las Cruces.
On the National Register of Historic Buildings, the La Posta Compound dates back to the 1840’s when it was a freight station. Then after the Civil War it was an important stop on the Butterfield Stagecoach Line. And later, it was the home of the Corn Exchange Hotel, one of the finest in the Southwest. The La Posta de Mesilla Restaurant opened in 1939 and the same family has been serving delicious food there ever since.
Jan and I are really looking forward to eating there ourselves when we’re through there in a couple of weeks or so.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Thought for the Day:
Camping…nature’s way to feed the mosquitoes.
fgsdfg
