Daily Archives: August 1, 2014

A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations . . .

Some of you, or most of you, may have seen the gum commercial where the father uses the foil to make a little silver origami bird for his daughter. But a week or so ago I saw the longer, full version. But I’ve only seen it that one time. And I think it’s worth passing on.

After resting up from our busy day yesterday, Jan and I headed out about 2:30 for a couple of errands. Our first stop was the TireDiscounterz store in Wilmington to drop off my flat tire to be fixed. I came out one morning while we were at the Indian Lakes Thousand Trails in Batesville, OH and found I had a flat. But since we were almost ready to leave for Wilmington, I thought I’d just wait until then.

Leaving my tire, we headed down the road a bit to the Wal-Mart to stock up on some things. Then it was back to TireDiscounterz  to check on my tire. And there I got some bad news. The tire is not repairable, or at least not worth repairing.

They found the leak using the water trough, but they also found a bunch of other small leaks coming for the dry rot. Of course, my first question is how did I get dry rot on a truck tire. Since we bought the Dakota in 2007, we’ve over 110,000 miles on it while driving, and another 60,000 plus miles towing it, when the odometer doesn’t register. So I know this wasn’t an original tire.

Plus I bought new tire in Apache Junction in April of 2013, and another one before that in August of 2012 while we were gate guarding. And about 4 years ago I replaced two tires at the same time back in Houston. The only  think that makes sense is that this was the original spare that got swapped in when I had those 3 flats in one week while we were on our first gate in April 2012.  So it looks like there’s a new tire in my future and out of my wallet.

Getting back to the rig a little before 5pm, we picked up Nick and Terry, and headed back out to have dinner at Rod’s Capricorn Inn down in the Lake Cowan area. We had tried to eat here this past Monday, but they were closed. But the reviews were so good we had to give it a try before we all leave this coming Sunday.

This place is the poster child for the out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere dive burger joint.

Rod's Capricorn Inn

The photo above I got from Google Street View and must have been taken on a day they were closed, because I gather the parking lot is normally pretty full morning, noon, and night, as It was when we got there today.

Many of the reviews had talked about the Double Rod’s Burger, and I made the mistake of ordering it without reading the menu close enough. And this is what I got.

 Rod's Double Rod Burger

Yes, that’s a 1 pound fresh ground, hand-formed, Angus Beef patty, And about a quart of French Fries. Of course you can only eat it with a fork. But, boy was it good..

When I gave up after eating about half of it, Jan wanted to know if I was feeling bad, since I didn’t finish it. I said, “No”. I had just eaten the equivalent of two Whoppers, and that was about all I could do. But I have leftovers.

Jan and Terry  both had the Boneless Chicken Strip Dinner and said it was delicious, and of course, more leftovers.

Rod's Boneless Chicken Strip Dinner

Even better in all this, were the excellent prices. My 1 lb. burger and fries was $9.89, and the Boneless Chicken Dinners were $8.49. That’s for a pound of Angus Beef, and about 6 chicken breasts.

Coming home, we made a detour into Wilmington to the Lowe’s so I could get a few feet of wire to make a new cable for my Brake Buddy alert transmitter. Then it was home for the night.

Tomorrow will be our last full day here in Wilmington, and, more importantly, our last full day with Nick and Terry for this year. Sunday, we’ll start heading back to Texas by way of Alabama, and they’ll head east to Hershey, PA for a couple of weeks before moving on over to the coast.

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Though for the Day:

You may be a rooster today, but you’ll be a feather duster soon enough.

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