Our RV Adventures

I mentioned in the last blog that we heard there was another catered meal on the way, and it showed up. The very next day,

This one was a little different, but very, very good.

It was really a buffet, with fried shrimp, fried chicken nuggets, fried catfish, fried mushrooms, french fries, hushpuppies, baked beans, turnip greens, mac ‘n cheese, green beans, and homemade banana pudding for dessert.

A guy could really hurt himself. And I think I did.

And once again we hear there’s another meal in the pipeline. I hope my stomach can take it.

We’ve been back in the high temps the last week or so.  It was officially 106 degrees here yesterday (Friday), but our thermometer showed 113. Today it was 102 and 110.

A cool spell.

Now up in Celina OH where we’ll be in two weeks, it’s in the low 80’s in the daytime and the mid 50’s at night. A guy could get use to that.

Luckily our water misting system is still doing its job keeping us pretty comfortable. Sometimes I’ll turn it off for a few minutes to do some paperwork, or something I don’t want to get damp, and it’s amazing how fast it gets just downright HOT and sweaty.

Our daughter Brandi passed on the latest bit of Landon-lore, about Landon, Kitty, and The War of the Toys.

Kitty (I don’t know. Don’t ask.) is their 125# Black Lab who adores Landon and is very protective of him. When Landon was just a baby, Kitty wouldn’t let anyone near Landon that she didn’t know, until Brandi or Lowell told Kitty it was OK.

But like siblings, they sometimes fight, usually over toys.

Brandi said the other day she and Lowell heard Landon yelling “Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy”. Looking up they saw Landon and Kitty in a tug-of-war over a toy. Brandi said they told Landon he was going to have to take care of himself.

Looking around, Landon saw another toy that Kitty liked. Letting go of the contested toy, Landon picked up the other one, showed it to Kitty, and threw it across the room. Kitty dropped the toy in her mouth and took off after the new toy. Landon then scooped up his prize and headed off in the other direction. Mission accomplished.

Smart Kid!

My small computer fan that had been in orbit over Texas for the last several days (see the last blog post) finally came to earth.

 

Although it is really a computer fan, it’s for my Black & Decker Battery Charger. The fan died a while back, and because of that, while the charger works fine in 2 amp and 10 amp modes, it shuts down due to overheating running in 25 amp mode. The charger is still under warranty, but Black & Decker has sold off their battery charger line and others to a company called Baccus Global. And their ‘warranty’ support leaves a lot to be desired. With having to pay postage both ways, along with a $15 ‘evaluation fee’, I was fast approaching the cost of a new charger.

So I decided to take the charger apart and see what was what. Turns out that the fan itself has just died, so a quick check on eBay found a replacement. I’ll get it installed and checked out in the next couple of days.

Thought for the Day:

If more guns did cause more crime, no one would ever leave a gun show alive.

Finally, here’s what we were doing 3 years ago about this time.

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Climbing Mt. Washington and here a moose, there a moose…

Originally posted on August 18, 2009

We left Moose River Campground about 11 am and headed up US 2 toward Gorham, NH.

The road wasn’t too bad, a bit curvy, but OK, and we pulled into the Wal-Mart about 12:30 pm and set up house.

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Actually, when we Wally-dock, there’s nothing to setup. We don’t lower the jacks, or put out the slide. The only thing we do is just unhook the truck so we can drive around.

We decided to try a place called Crabby Jack’s Mexican Cafe for lunch, since we were hungry for Mexican.

Big Mistake! The service was bad and food wasn’t any better.

We now know why Jack was crabby.

After our so-called lunch, we headed down to Gorham’s Visitor’s Information booth to check out the sign that got Jan all giddy.

It said “Moose Tours”

After signing up for the 6:30 pm tour that evening, I noticed a brochure on Mt. Washington. I knew it was in New Hampshire, but I didn’t know it was close by.

Turns out that it’s right down the road. It’s about 8 miles to the base of the mountain, and then about 8 miles to the summit, all 6288 feet of it.

We decided we had plenty of time to do the mountain before our moose tour, so we headed out.

And it is a heck of a climb. During the 8 miles, you climb over 5000 ft. And it seems like it’s straight up at times.

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But, although it was a little hazy, the view was spectacular.

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The Mt. Washington Auto Road gave birth to the oldest man-made tourist attraction in the US. When it was built in the 1861 (Yes, 1861), it was called the Mt. Washington Carriage Road. And stagecoaches took visitors to the top.

It’s still the same road, and not much improved, it seems.

And then in 1869 they built the Cog Train. It runs on a train track with a cog track in the center that lets the train climb the steep grades like a roller coaster does…clack, clack, clack.

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That little yellow dot is the train coming up the mountain. It takes about an hour to come up and an hour to go back down.

It only takes about 20 min in your car.

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“I think I can, I think I can…”

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This gift shop building dates from 1878. Note that it is chained down!

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And here’s why!

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231 MPH !!!

I think they need more chains.

The new buildings are built to withstand 300 MPH winds.

And, of course, we got our official bumper sticker for our trip up.

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I’ve seen these on cars before, and now I know how they got them.

About 6:30 pm we boarded our tour bus for our “moose tour”.

And we actually saw moose, 4 of them, to be exact. 2 sets of cows and calves. No bulls, unfortunately.

These pictures were taken about 9:30 pm at night, lighted by spotlight.

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These moose were about 30 yards away at the time.

We also saw an osprey, 2 foxes, a deer, and 2 loons.

And some pretty scenery earlier in the evening.

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Tomorrow morning we head out to Bangor, ME for a few days before we trek further north to Canada.

More then…

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That’s not how many days we have left here, it’s how many flat tires I’ve had here since April.

Oh, and two new tires, because two of the flats couldn’t be repaired. And to make it worse, I had road hazard insurance on both tires, but with Discount Tires. And the nearest one is in San Antonio, 75 miles away. So no help there.

I think from now on, I’ll just start getting all my tires from Wal-Mart since they’re everywhere. I’ve used Discount Tires in Houston for years, but since we’re on the road all the time now, Wal-Mart might be a better choice.

Hopefully we’ll get through the next week and a half without another one.

Next up: A new Landon video, taking his 4 Wheeler for a spin in a nearby park.

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Under the heading of why the US Post Office is going broke, check out the tracking data from a small computer fan I ordered off of eBay. It was shipped First Class with Tracking, and apparently is somewhere in orbit over Texas.

Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-08, 00:07:00, SAN ANTONIO, TX 78284
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-07, 13:28:00, DALLAS, TX 75398
Depart USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-07, 00:00:00, DALLAS, TX 75398
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-06, 16:04:00, MCALLEN, TX 78501
Depart USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-06, 00:00:00, SAN ANTONIO, TX 78284
Depart USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-06, 00:00:00, MCALLEN, TX 78501
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-05, 21:58:00, SAN ANTONIO, TX 78284
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-04, 21:20:00, SAN BERNARDINO, CA 92403
Dispatched to Sort Facility
2012-08-04, 14:37:00, MURRIETA, CA 92563
Acceptance
2012-08-04, 13:39:00, MURRIETA, CA 92562

Note that it got from Murrieta, CA to San Antonio, TX in one day. Good so far.

Normally at this point I would have gotten it the next day.

But for some reason it next went to McAllen, TX, then back to San Antonio, then back to McAllen. After that it apparently went through Dallas twice before ending up back in San Antonio today.  I’m actually looking forward to seeing where it will end up next.

On the Food front, we’ve had two great meals in two days. Yesterday being Tuesday, of course it was Chile Rellenos from Galindo’s. Unfortunately next Tuesday will be our last meal from there before we hit the road. Bummer!

Then today it was a surprise catered Steak Dinner here,  And as usual, really, really good. The steak was tender and juicy, and the beans had big chunks of sausage in them.

And we hear there might be another meal coming in the next few days.  YAY!

I was reading an article the other day about how more and more people are not wearing watches anymore because they always have the correct time on their cell phones and it got me to thinking about my first digital watch in 1975.

It was a Sinclair Black Watch, and it was available as a kit.

Yes, a kit!

It looked like this when you got it.

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And if you put it together right, it looked like this.

According to the article a lot of people had trouble with them, but the only trouble I remember having was that the holes on the case where the wrist band attached kept wearing out and the band would come loose.

Of course it probably didn’t hurt that I had been building electronic kits since I was about 12, and when I was working as a DOD contractor in the early 70’s, they sent me to the NASA Certified Soldering  School in Cherry Point, NC.

I also built our first color television, a Heathkit 25” GR-2000 console.

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When i finished it looked something like this, although I built my own cabinet. But it was in the same Mediterranean style.

Hey, I’m a geek. What can I say.

Wrapping Up:

Finally!    Coming Soon to a Blog near you.

Daily Blogging again. Once we leave here on the 20th of August, I’ll be back to daily blogging.

Consider this your only warning.

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Thought for the Day:

I just received my tax return for 2011 back from the IRS and it puzzles me!!! They are questioning how many dependents I claimed. I guess it was because of my response to the question: “List all dependents?”

I replied: 12 million illegal immigrants; 3 million crack heads; 42 million unemployed people on food stamps, 2 million people in over 243 prisons; Half of Mexico; and 535 persons in the U.S. House and Senate.”

Evidently, this was NOT an acceptable answer.

I KEEP ASKING MYSELF, WHOM DID I MISS?

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