Our RV Adventures

Well, we had gotten the idea that our gate would pretty much shut down after we left on Saturday and everyone would have to unlock and relock the gate behind them as they come and go.

But that calm came to a screeching halt this morning when we found out that starting today a new rig is coming in, but not a full drilling rig, but a work-over rig. It looks like they’re still working on problems at the frack site.

And our vehicle count jumped up from the 25-30 we had been having, to almost 75 today. Hope we can stand the pressure.

Question: What is 62 °?
Answer: That’s the temperature range we’ve had here in the last couple of days.

A few nights ago it got down to 35° here at the gate, and then yesterday it got up to 97°. Quite a spread, and keeps things interesting on how to dress.

Then last night it was so foggy and humid that water was dripping off the edge of the canopy like it was raining. But it did make for a real nice light with the flare going all night. It was just a large orange ball in the fog that lit up the whole area like a big light bulb.

Of course the flare been pretty active in the daytime too, with this going on a few days ago.

This one came with a big “WHOOMP”. It’s always nice to have sound effects with your light show, but I’m glad we’re not any closer.

Right now it looks like a 70% chance of thunderstorms on Friday, and since where the rig is parked gets really muddy, I don’t want to take any chances on not being able to pull out on Saturday morning. Jan would either be homicidal or suicidal, or a little of both. (Actually, probably a lot of both.) So Wednesday or Thursday I’m going to back up the rig about 10 feet which will put the rear wheels firmly on the gravel area where we park the toad

I had planned on cranking up the rig anyway on Friday just to be sure everything’s working, the levelers come up, etc. This way I’ll just do it a little early, won’t even unhook the power or bring the slide in. Easy Peezy.

After a long dry spell, we got another free meal today, this time from Choke Canyon BBQ right down road. We get BBQ there every other week or so, so we know it’s good. Really looking forward to having it for dinner tomorrow night.

Wrapping up, I came across a neat website today that solves a regular problem. Of course I may be the only one who didn’t know about it, but it’s called PrintFriendly.

Ever try to print a webpage and it comes out all scrunchy and unreadable? Well, PrintFriendly does a real good job of fixing that for you. You can even set it up as a PRINT button on your blog or website so visitors can easily print something. Neat!

Check it out.

Finally, I’m reposting some more of our Newfoundland trip, this time from Halifax, Nova Scotia on the way back. (Note that I’m complaining about how expensive diesel was in Canada at $3.60 a gallon.) 

Thought for the Day:

When you’re dead, you don’t know you’re dead.  It’s difficult only for others.

It’s the same when you’re stupid.

Titanic and Atlantic…

Originally posted on September 11, 2009

Today was our day to tour the Halifax,  Nova Scotia area.

We had planned to get an early start,  but then Jan woke up with a migraine.  So she took her Imitrex and went back to bed for a while

Later,  after the Imitrex had worked its magic,  we went to breakfast about 10:30 am at the Finer Diner and then drove to Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

One of the things we wanted to see was the Titanic exhibit that they have.  They also have an exhibit on S.S. Atlantic,  a ship that went down off Nova Scotia in 1873.  The 635 people who died when the Atlantic went down made it the largest loss of life until the Titanic in 1912.

They also had an interesting exhibit about the explosion of a ship in Halifax harbor that killed over 2000 people,  very reminiscent of the Texas City explosion in 1947.  In this case, it was a shipment of ammunition for use in WWI that blew up,  rather than fertilizer,  like in Texas City.

Finally leaving the museum about 2:30 pm,  we were attracted by the smells coming from the Dragon King Chinese Buffet restaurant across the street and decided to give it a try.

And it was really good.  Especially the Hot & Sour soup.

Leaving the restaurant,  we drove around downtown Halifax for a while before taking the scenic drive down toward Peggy’s Cove.  And it was certainly worth the trip.

On our way down the coast we passed St. Margaret’s Bay,  a very picturesque dock area.

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Arriving at Peggy’s Cove, we found a charming little village on the Atlantic Coast, filled with quaint little multi-colored houses.

The rocky coast is something we don’t see in Texas,  but it’s always a scenic view.

And of course, the obligatory lighthouse.

With the sun setting, we headed back to the coach, stopping off at a hardware store, and driving thru a nearby gas station, scouting it out to see if we can get in and out easily in the coach.

Because fuel is so expensive here (about $3.60 a gallon vs. $2.50 in the US), I was hoping to be able to get back to the US before filling up the coach with diesel, but it will be too close for comfort. So we will probably fuel up tomorrow on our way out of Halifax.

One thing we found interesting in the area was this McDonalds complete with lighthouse.

Arriving back at the coach, we sat outside for a while and let Mister roam around for a bit and then it was in for the night.

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or the inner workings of WordPress blogs either.

The other night I was working on the formatting of an Markarios RV Parts ad that will be going up on Nick Russell’s Gypsy Journal blog, and I was posting it as a private page so I could see how it would look online.

Then suddenly, after about 4 or 5 times, Live Writer and WordPress decided that I really wanted to post this to the whole world, or at least the 200 or so readers who get this blog by email. So that’s why some of you got a blog post entitled “Test-Page” with just an ad on it.

So, as Emily Litella says, “Never mind”.

The only real excitement today was getting hosed down, watered down, or maybe sprinkled on. Well, not sprinkled exactly. That implies a light shower.

This was more of a deluge. Maybe even of biblical proportions.

Semi-irregularly a water truck comes by to spray the road to help keep the dust down. The truck consists of a full size tanker with a big fan-shaped spray nozzle on the back that the driver can turn on and off from the cab.

I saw the truck turn off the highway and the water came on, spreading out around the rear of the truck. The first thing I noticed was how far out it was going, about 20 to 25 feet on either side, much wider than the 10 or so feet we usually see, so I began to get a little worried. But then as the driver in the cab came even with me, he gave me a thumbs up signal, which I took to mean he saw me sitting here and would turn off the spray right before it got to me and then turn it on again after he passed.

WRONG!

As it happened I was on the phone with Nick at that time, and so I was yelling at the driver, closing my laptop, and grabbing up the logbooks and any other non-able-to-swim items, like Jan’s Kindle Paperwhite. I think Nick thought I was being killed from the way I sounded on the phone.

It seems at the last second the driver realized what was happening and pulled to the left as far as he could. Now this spray is not like a garden hose. Think more like a fire hydrant, but it does have a very sharp cut-off to the spray pattern. Lucky for me.

Because the driver swerved at the last minute, I was only completely soaked from the knees down. And I mean soaked. It was like I had just waded into the ocean up to my knees. Nick of course thought this was hilarious and said it was Saturday after all, and I probably needed a bath anyway.

Chubby B*T*H!

One week from today (Saturday) we will be at the Gate Guard Services yard here in Whitsett getting ready for the 280 mile trip back to Houston on Sunday. Jan’s so excited she can’t sit still.

Finishing up, I’m reposting some more of our Newfoundland trip in 2009.

Ferry, Ferry Bad…

Originally posted on September 9, 2009

Today is our day to catch the ferry back to North Sydney,  NS,  and the 30 mile drive back to our coach & cats in Louisbourg.

And we had another great view out our hotel window.

We’re supposed to be at the ferry by 10 am for a 11:30 departure so we head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast about 8:30.  While we were eating we overheard someone saying the ferry was running late,  about 6 hours late.

It should have been here at 7:00 am to get unloaded and ready for us to start loading at 10 and sailing at 11:30.  But it wouldn’t be here until 1 pm with our departure scheduled for 3:30 pm.

We’ll see.

Since it was bright and sunny today,  we decided to kill time by taking the 30 mile drive out to Rose Blanche Lighthouse a ways down the coast.  We didn’t do it yesterday afternoon because it was so foggy.

The drive was really something.

After driving out to the lighthouse,  we didn’t actually SEE the lighthouse.  Jan didn’t want to make the long walk up the hill,  and I didn’t want to pay the $5 admission to make the long walk up the hill to SEE the lighthouse.

But the drive was worth the trip,  and it didn’t cost me $5.

We got back to the hotel and checked out about 11:30,  and after waiting about an hour we saw our ship,  the Atlantic Vision,  come steaming in.  She maneuvered into the harbor and then turn around and backed in, smooth as can be.   Bow thrusters are amazing.

So now our truck is parked in the boarding line and Jan and I are sitting in the terminal lounge waiting to board…and waiting and waiting…

That’s us, circled in red above.

FLASH… We just heard over the PA that boarding will now start at 3:30 pm and the ship will depart as soon as it’s loaded.  This will probably take at least an hour. It’s now 2:45 pm.  We’ll see.

Well,  they called us to our vehicles about 3:30 and we started actually boarding about 3:45 pm.  By 4:00 pm we were setting in the lounge aboard ship.  And about 4:20 we finally left the dock.  This ship is very nicely decorated,  almost like a cruise ship.  Which I guess it really is,  only for shorter cruises.

The Captain came on the PA and said we would be traveling at full speed (27 knots) to try and make up some of the lost time.  Yeah,  like the extra 5 knots is going to make up for the fact that we are running 5 hours behind schedule.

Well, Bummer!  I’ve just found out that I’m Internetless and CellPhoneless.

Although this ship is 15 years newer than the one we came over on,  and has electrical plugs everywhere,  it has no Internet access or cell phone service.  It has been down all summer since the satellite uplink/downlink is broken.

This trip just keeps getting better.  A little before 6:30 pm Jan and I went down to the restaurant to try out the great buffet we had heard about.  Where we discovered that they were closing because they had run out of food!

I guess it was really great…for some people.

So it’s off to the snack bar for cold sandwiches.  Oh boy!

It’s now about 7:15 pm.  The Captain just came on the PA and said we will be docking in about an hour.  Let’s hope so.

8:15 pm.  Well, we’re kind of here.  But it seems like they’re having trouble getting docked.  They keep starting and stopping and moving around.

9:00 pm.  They just called us to our vehicles so there’s a mad rush for the stairs and elevators.

And at 9:15 pm we finally moved off the ship.  At least the truck started this time!

Got home a little after 10 pm.  Cats were OK.  Everything is OK.

Tomorrow we have a long 300 mile trip to Halifax,  NS

D’oh for the Day:

Despite being made entirely out of ice, the world-renown Ice Hotel in northern Sweden must install a fire alarm system before it can open to its guests this season.

Sweden’s National Housing Board is requiring the installation, according to news agency TT. The hotel is rebuilt every year from massive blocks of ice from a nearby river and this year’s structure, still under construction, must install the alarms.

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