Monthly Archives: August 2013
Our New Home?
A number of you have been doing your Amazon shopping through our blog, and your support is much appreciated.
——————————————————————————————————————–
After a quiet morning, probably one of our last for a while, I checked my Amazon shipping email and found that my new canopy had been delivered so I drove over to the office to pick it up, and also see if there was any update on our new gate.
I was really glad I drove over because I found that the canopy weighs about 50 pounds.
I also picked up our hats and vests, so I guess we’re semi-official now
Found out that there will be three new gate guards going into the new site, two on Monday, and one on Tuesday. Based on what Jamie said yesterday sounds like we may be the ones on Tuesday. But of course that could change. We’ll see.
Later, about 3:15, Jan and I headed into San Antonio for dinner, but we took a detour over through Whitsett and up US281A to see if I could find where our new gate might be located based on the rough details I had been given.
And about 3 miles up the road I think we found it. The sign says it’s an Aurora Oil Co. lease which supposedly ours is.
Doubt we’ll be going into this front gate. At least without some work. Our rig just wouldn’t fit there. Supposedly we’re going to be parked near a railroad track, and according to the map, there are some tracks about 1/2 mile off the road. But, again, we’ll see.
Our dinner destination in San Antonio was the Magic Time Machine. It’s one of our favorite places, and we’ve been eating here for about 30 years.
The unique thing about MTM is that waiters and waitresses are all dressed up as storybook, comic book, and movie characters.
In past visits, we’ve had Wonder Woman
and the Joker taking care of us.
Tonight our waiters were Pinocchio and the Lone Ranger. We also saw Batgirl, Supergirl, Jack Sparrow, Peter Pan, The Mad Hatteress, Pocahontas, Minnie Mouse, and a number of others.
One thing I really like that they do is that every table gets two waiters/waitresses, like Pinocchio and Lone Ranger above. This way you’re not waiting for an iced tea refill because your only waiter is tied up at another table. Someone’s always available to take care of you.
Another thing unique here is that the Salad Bar is actually a Salad Car. In this case, a 1952 MG TC. Neat!
Oh, and in addition to the entertainment, they cook a great steak too!
Heading home we stopped off at a Lowe’s to pick up an Enduracool Towel. These towels are a passive evaporative cooler that does a great job of keeping you cool on hot days. A perfect addition to help keep us cool on our gate. This Youtube Video will give you more info on the Enduracool Towel.
But it turned out that they were out, and the closest place that had them in stock was Kerrville. So it was off to Amazon.
And Amazon had for $10, $5 cheaper than Lowe’s. And free two day shipping with Amazon Prime.
Finishing up, several readers wanted to see Jan’s Oil Rig decal. So here it is It’s about 6 inches high and originally the ‘Oil Life” text was directly underneath the derrick, but I cut it off with scissors and moved it down so it would fit better.
Tomorrow, still waiting.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Thought for the Day:
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." — Karl Popper N.B.
sfgsfgsfdg
60,000 and Counting . . .
We had planned to leave out from here in Houston about 9am this morning, but I guess we were itching to get on the road because we found ourselves ready to go a little after 8. Pulling out of our site we stopped in the park office lot just long enough to hitch up the truck and we were on the way. Like our last several days of travel we had the generator running so we could run the coach AC’s, since it’s supposed to be in the mid 90’s all along our route.
A few minutes later we were heading west on the Beltway 8 Tollway, and then onto I-10W. Our first stop was about 150 miles later at the Buc-ee’s off the Luling exit. We pretty much always stop here going or coming. This morning we got coffee and a couple of kolaches for brunch since we didn’t’ have any thing before we left Houston. About 50 miles later we were turning off I-10 onto Loop 410 S in San Antonio, and then a few miles later we were on I-37S. And along in here we hit another milestone.
Since we picked up our RV at the dealers on January 6th, 2008, we’ve traveled 60,000 miles. In the last 6 years we’ve been from Key West, FL to Fairbanks, AK. And from San Diego to Newfoundland, and a lot of places in between. We been in every state, except for some reason, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. But we’ll get them some day.
About 20 miles later, we stopped at a new Pilot Travel Center that’s opened since we were here a year ago. And again, I’m really enjoying my Pilot / Flying J RV Plus Card. I get 6 cents a gallon off the Cash price, and no card dollar limits at the pump. Just fill and go. I even used it when I went inside to get a couple of gallons of diesel coolant to take with me.
The billing date, at least on my account, ends on the 15th of the month, and payment is due by the 30th. Since it doesn’t cost anything to get the card, it ought to be in every RV’ers wallet.
After topping off our diesel, and adding a bottle of Diesel Kleen to the tank, another 20 miles down the road, we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Pleasanton to top off the pantry with groceries
Finally we pulled into the Gate Guard Services lot off exit 83 about 3:45 and checked in at the office. They were expecting us and there was an open site in the RV parking area waiting for us. 50amp full hookups, and it’s free while we’re waiting for a gate, or coming off a gate, for that matter.
Getting us parked and connected to shore power, I tracked down Jamie, our supervisor, in the shop building and got the scoop on what should be our new gate. One oil company just bought some oil leases from another oil company, and we will be replacing some gate guards employed by another gate guard company. Luckily it’s only about 6 miles from here, so we won’t be out in the boonies and should have no problems with cell and data service. Yay!
About 5pm we headed down to the Three Rivers area to have dinner at Pepe Broudreaux’s, one of our favorite local places. Jan ordered the Shrimp Diablo, a spicy shrimp and pasta dish, and I had my usual Blackened Chicken Breast stuffed with crawfish, bacon, and cheese. Delicious as usual, and big enough portions so we had leftovers for later.
Coming home, and passing back through Three Rivers, we saw a trailer parked in a vacant lot selling stickers and decals for your windows. Jan had been wanting a oil well sticker so we stopped to see what he had. Turns out he had pretty much what ever you want. He has a laptop and a large format stencil cutting machine, and a catalog of thousands of images stored on the hard drive. He also has a digital camera and a scanner so he can make a stencil from your artwork too. Jan found the perfect picture and he cut it out to order. He has dozens of colors and backgrounds of stencil materials so you can get pretty much any color you want. Neat.
Jamie said our gate might start Monday, but probably Tuesday, so we’ve got a few days to prepare, and also play around in San Antonio a little.
—————————————————————————————————————-
Thought for the Day:
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” – Frederick Douglass
sdfgsdfg
