Our RV Adventures

For our first full day of freedom (temporary, we hope) we headed over to Bryan/College Station for the day. Our first stop was the IHOP on Hwy 6 for breakfast. Along with the obligatory coffee, Jan had Blueberry Pancakes, with Eggs and Bacon, while I went with the Bananas and Cream Waffle, and of course, bacon too.

It was really nice to just sit and talk, and enjoy a leisurely meal without jumping up at the sound of a bell to check a vehicle in or out. In fact we probably stayed longer than usual just because we enjoyed it so much.

Next up was a haircut for me and a trim for Jan at the Great Clips right down the street. And since they offered the service I went ahead and had her trim my beard, saving me from having to do it.

Then it was off to Wal-Mart for some shopping. And because it was so convenient, we dropped the truck off at the Tire and Auto area to get a new tire for the truck, something I’d been delaying doing so I wouldn’t have to leave Jan alone on the gate for too long. But today seemed the perfect time to take care of it while we were shopping.

Besides the usual stuff, Jan and I needed some new shoes. I wanted a new pair of black boots because my old pair of Red Wings finally started coming apart after about 5 years. You just can’t get good quality anymore. NOT!

One of the reasons I’ve usually bought my boots at Red Wing and paid a high price, $200+, is that they carry the larger widths. In my case I wear a 9 EEEE. In other words, I have snowshoes for feet. And it’s my father’s fault, as he had the same ones. In fact he said that he never had a pair of shoes that fit until he joined the Navy during WWII, as they had all the bigger widths.

But I recently noticed that Wal-Mart has also started carrying wider widths so I thought I’d give them a try. I found a nice pair of Brahma’s, Wal-Mart’s house brand that fit me great. They have a Goodyear sole, leather uppers, AND they’re Steel-Toed. All for only $35. If they only last a couple of years, I’m still way ahead.

For her part, Jan picked out a new pair of Dr. Scholl’s sneakers to replace the pair that started coming apart last week while working the gate. So we both left happy and re-soled.

When we got finished with our shopping, we headed back to the Tire area to find our truck all ready to go. Very convenient.

I mentioned a week or so ago that one afternoon while Jan was working the gate, the drill rig blew a seal and showered her and our rig with a mist of drilling mud. Luckily she was partly shielded by our canopy, but I didn’t find out how bad the front of the rig got hit until I pulled back the windshield curtains as we got ready to leave the gate yesterday. The windshield was almost entirely opaque with the mud spray. And the wipers and washer fluid wouldn’t touch it. Finally I ran the washers long enough to thoroughly wet the glass and then sprayed Awesome on it and let it set for about 10 minutes. Then the wipers gave me this.

Good enough to go. Luckily we had already planned to stop off at a Blue Beacon truck wash on the way back to Houston.

And the truck had similar problems, but not as bad since it was parked facing away from the rig. So we wanted to get it washed while we could. I finally located a carwash that uses brushes instead of just water pressure because I’ve found they do a much better job on a dirty, grimy vehicle. And that was really confirmed today.

Turns out this carwash had the side brushes, but not the big horizontal brush that comes down and does the roof and the hood. Instead it has the squiggly octopus arms of fabric that come down and gently caress the truck, rather than actually cleaning it.

So while the front, sides and rear of our toad are spic and spanned and shiny, the hood and I assume the roof, still has a very visible film of drilling mud on it. So now, break out the Awesome again.

After stopping off at Sam’s Club for a prescription, and their gas station for gas ($2.79), we started back toward Buffalo.

Coming in, we’d been talking about where we wanted to eat dinner tonight. Going through Madisonville, we saw a sign for Legend’s Steakhouse on the Courthouse Square. Steak sounded good, so while we were at IHOP, I checked Yelp and found 4-1/2 stars, so we thought we’d give it a try on the way home. And are we glad we did.

Everything was delicious, starting with the fresh, hot rolls, and large salads with their homemade dressings.

Jan then had a 10oz. sirloin with baked potato, while I went with the 14oz Ribeye with onions and mushrooms, and a baked sweet potato. Really great!

The portions were huge, and neither of us could, or really wanted, to finished our steaks, because we’d seen on the menu that they had bread pudding with Jack Daniels sauce as one of their desserts. So we couldn’t pass this up.

We also couldn’t eat it all either, even as delicious as it was too. So a 3rd takeout container was in order. We both agreed that this is probably the best bread pudding we’ve ever had. Better than the Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce at the Pont Breaux  (nee Mulate’s) in Breaux Bridge, LA, and even better than the Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding at Lulu’s (Jimmy Buffet’s sister’s place) in Gulf Shores, AL. It was that GOOD!

And now it looks like we’ll be able to repeat the entire meal again tomorrow night. YUMM!

I always enjoy reading some of the negative reviews people write on Yelp. In the case of Legends, someone ‘complained’ that the food was great, the prices were great, but since they’d showed up without reservations on a busy night with a party of 12, and still got a private dining room, they thought it took them too long to get their food, She seemed kind of incensed that she had to ask for some crackers for her son while they waited.

So for great food, and great prices, she gave Legends 3 stars. Which is probably what kept them from getting a full 5 stars overall. Some people!

Leaving Legends, but before getting back on I-45, we had to stop in at the Madisonville Buc-ee’s to check it out. At one time, it was the largest one in the chain, but has now been outclassed by the ones in New Braunfels and La Marque. We normally would have gotten some of their great Cranberry Nut muffins, but what they had left looked like they had been baked earlier in the day and been sitting too long.

Maybe next time.

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Thought for the Day:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

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