Our RV Adventures

A week or so ago I mentioned that during our break we had visited the Buc-ee’s in New Braunfels, TX, the largest convenience store in the world. At 68,000 square feet, with 83 toilets and 60 gas pumps, it’s certainly Texas-sized.

Well, this afternoon our daughter-in-law Linda sent us a link to a story about the new biggest Buc-ee’s in the world, and it’s going to be right down the road from the RV park we stay at when we’re in the Houston area. Unfortunately it won’t open until Memorial Day 2013, so we won’t get to visit it until the following Thanksgiving when we’ll be back in the area. Can’t wait.

This past Tuesday morning something unusual happened here at our rig site. It got very quiet and very dark. The rig normally looks like this at night.

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However, about 4:45am it looked like this.

You know how that silence can be deafening? Well, that really held true here. Even the dark was deafening. The only thing lighting up the area was a couple of those portable light towers that have their own generators.

The big diesel generator (and by ‘big’ I mean the size of a semi trailer) that powers everything here at the site just up and quit. Just a big “WHUMP! and it was gone.

People came running out of buildings like ants at a picnic. For some reason there was also a lot of yelling and cussing going on. Over the next 20 minutes they’d tried to restart it a number of times with no luck. Finally someone found that a circuit breaker had popped on the power running the pump that feeds the engine from the big fuel tank. That’s the big blue tank just to the left of center in the above photo.

Resetting the breaker fixed the problem and a few minutes later they were back up and running. Well it was nice while it lasted.

On a somewhat related note I mentioned in an earlier blog that they would be drilling two separate holes here,

about 25 feet apart so they can do directional drilling in opposite directions. The amazing thing about this is that they actually drag the entire multi-hundred ton rig to the new hole on greased skid plates.

So this evening I ask the Company Man how long it would take. He said that from the time they shut down at the first hole and are back up and ready to drill at the second location is normally about 12-15 hours. That’s just amazing.

I’ve mentioned before that we normally have our big meal of the day in the evening, and just have a snack for lunch. One of the few exceptions to this is Tuesdays, which it’s Chile Rellenos day at Galindo’s in Charlotte.

At our old site, Galindo’s was only about 8 miles away, perfect for a quick lunch. But now from our new location, they’re about 40 miles away. Even for Chile Rellenos, a 80 mile round trip was a little much. But I decided to go ahead and get groceries in Pleasanton then instead of waiting until Friday, making it only an additional 15 miles. Very doable,

The meat-filled Chile Rellenos was as delicious as usual, and as often happens, dinner showed up too. I’ve mentioned before that it seems like every time we have a big lunch, a catering truck shows up with a big dinner.

And about 4:15 one showed up. And a few minutes later the smell of steaks on a grill wafted across the site. And by 5:30 we were chowing down on a delicious meal of steak, seasoned mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and a root beer float for dessert.

The salad is actually on the steak. It covered the entire area. And as usual, it was really good. And we were really full. But it was worth it.

Wrapping up, I thought I’d tell you about a neat Android app I found recently. Called CamScanner, it turns your phone into a scanner. Just take a photo using the program and it turns it into a PDF document. It will even do it with photos already on your phone. Pretty neat.

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Thought for the Day:

“The first rule to intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts”. – Paul R. Ehrlich.

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Well, now we’re confused. Of course it wouldn’t be the first time.

When we started up at this gate about a week ago, we were told it would run 7 – 8 weeks, which was perfect for us since it meant we wouldn’t have to move again before we planned on leaving Texas for parts north around the 20th of August.

But then late last week we heard the rig would here only 30 days. Bummer! That would mean we would have to move again before we planned to leave, or else knock off early and lose a couple of thousand dollars in gate guard pay.

OUCH!  You know how much that would hurt me.

But then a couple of days later we heard it was going to be a 40 day drill. Well, that wouldn’t be too bad. We could probably make that work.

So now we don’t know what to figure on. I guess we’ll know more as time goes on.

One thing different on this site is how close the crew trailer is to us. At our last site it was about 75 yards away.

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But at this site they’re snuggled right up close and personal next to us.

The only real problem is parking for everyone. The last few guys in have to park on the grass, and a couple got stuck during the rains last week. Other than that, no problems, no loud parties, since having any alcohol on site is a termination offense.

This morning we were running low on bottled water so about 11:30am I made a run to the Exxon station on I-37 about 5 miles away. And while I was there I picked up some fried chicken and baked potato wedges. We’ve gotten their chicken several times before and it’s always been delicious, and this time was no exception. Very good.

Then later this afternoon while outside on the gate, I started getting the distinct odor of sewage. Since I had dumped our tanks this morning, i was afraid there was something wrong with our system, but after walking around back, I discovered it was pouring out of one of the crew trailer’s two systems and filling up a nearby ditch.

YUCK!

I immediately called the Company Safety Man to let him know about the problem.

The sewage from the trailer first goes into the small green container (called “the honeypot”). There a macerator pump pushes the sewage up into the big green tank.

The sewage was pouring from the honeypot so I figure either the pump failed or the float valve that controls the pump got stuck.

Either way, some guys from Stellar (the company that supplies the trailer and supports it) showed up with a new honeypot and took care of the problem. All that remains now is to get one of the vacuum truck guys to suck up what’s left in the ditch when they come by tomorrow.

The drill rig up the hill from us started pulling out yesterday.

Gary and Susan, the gate guards for that rig, left the day before for their well-deserved time off before the rig catches up with them. It’s strange to look over that way and just see darkness after being brightly lit for so long.

One thing kind of different with this rig location is how busier we are here than the previous site, about 4 – 5 pages a day rather than the 2 – 3 pages before. This means we’re logging in 60 – 80 vehicles a day rather than the 30 – 40 a day before. Still not a lot of work.

I ask one of the guys coming through the gate about it and he laughed and said it was because we were so close to civilization now. Before, we were 20 miles out in the boonies, but now we’re just 5 miles off the Interstate. Reps and support guys can cruise through the site, check on their workers, and be back on the road.  Then they can write it up in their daily logs how busy they were.. And it’s even better for them with two rigs here. So now we know

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Thought for the Day:

So how do a fool and his money get together in the first place?

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