Our RV Adventures

Unfortunately, I was up at about 8 this morning to finish a few projects outside the rig to get us ready to hit the road tomorrow morning. Then about 9:30 Jan and I drove up to the IHOP in Webster to meet Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper for breakfast.

As is usual for an IHOP on the weekends, we had about a 30 minute wait for a table. I’m always amused by people who come in and, finding a 30 minute wait, leave and go elsewhere. Where are they going to go on a Saturday morning that doesn’t have a wait? Maybe a McDonald’s or something, but if they would settle for that, then they probably would have gone there first.

And by the time they leave IHOP, drive somewhere else and are again told a 30 minute, they’ve already wasted 30 minutes.

After a great breakfast, I had Chicken and Waffles, and Jan had an Omelet, Jan and Miss Piper headed out for their Mani-Pedi afternoon, though Jan just does the Pedi part.

For me, I was off to take care of some truck work. First up was to have my spare tire swapped out with the right front tire, while also swapping the wheels. Rather than go to a big tire place and wait around, Chris told me about a place called Big Boy’s Tires.

After I told the Hispanic lady owner what I wanted, she started yelling in Spanish, and it was like that scene in Back To The Future at the 1955 gas station when 4 or 5 guys come running out to put in the gas, check the oil, wash the windshield, and check the tire pressure.

One guy started loosening the lug nuts on the front tire, while another one was jacking up the truck with a floor jack. At the same time, another guy was cranking down the spare underneath the rear of the truck.

Then two guys broke down the tires on two separate machines, swapped tires with each other, and put them back together. After that, while one guy put the new spare back under the truck, the other guy had the new front tire on the balancer. And about 5 minutes the tire was balanced and reinstalled, and the wheels back on the ground.

It was like watching a NASCAR pit crew in action.

After all that excitement, I had a very sedate car wash and oil change. Being Saturday afternoon, I did have about a 30 minute wait on the oil change, but no problem.

By the time I got back to Chris’, Jan and Piper were done, so after saying our goodbyes until May in Illinois, Jan and I headed back toward the rig, with a stop at Rudy’s BBQ for takeout for meals on the road, and Wal-Mart for a few last minute things before we hit the road tomorrow to the Colorado River Thousand Trails, the first stop on our way to Tucson.

Back at the rig, I spent some time packing everything away outside. I went ahead and disconnected water and sewer, since it’s supposed to be raining tomorrow morning when we leave. So now all I’ll have to do then is bring in the Sat dish and disconnect shore power.

Wrapping up, Brandi, Lowell, and Landon left early this morning for their Colorado ski trip.

Brandi said Landon was really excited to get to fly. It looks like it.

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Thought for the Day:

Good intentions do not excuse poor results.

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When Jan and I were going through some old papers recently, we came across this photo showing four generations of our family.

On the bottom right, that’s Jan’s mother Trudy, then Jan to her left, top left is our daughter Brandi, and then our son Chris’ daughter Piper to her right.

Unfortunately this picture is not dated but it looks to be around 2003 or so, since Piper looks to be 8 or 9. Jan’s mother Trudy died in 2007 while visiting her daughter Bev down in Florida.

For those of you who tried the Outrigger’s link yesterday, there was a problem with it. Here’s one that works correctly. Outrigger’s

Even thought it never got much above 40 degrees today, I did manage to get some stuff done outside, including crawling under the rig and spraying levelers with silicone spray, and a few other things, before I started to lose the feeling in my fingertips. Coming back in, I rinsed out the foam filters for the ceiling AC intakes, first time since right before we started gate guarding this year.

Heading out about 4:30, we stopped by the park office to remind them we’ll be leaving Sunday morning so we can settle up on the electric usage. Wanted to check because in past years the office wasn’t open on Sunday, but now it is, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

After the office, we headed over to Monterey’s Little Mexico in Dickinson to meet our friends Bob and Maria for one last dinner together before we leave.

But finally we had to say our goodbyes and headed out. I needed a few things so our next stop was the Home Depot right up the road, and then the Fry’s Electronics a little further up the road.

Then heading home, we stopped at Kroger’s and HEB to stock up on some of their whole bean coffees before we leave here.

Tomorrow morning we’re meeting Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper for breakfast, after which Jan and Piper are going to do the Mani-Pedi thing. For my part, needing neither a mani, nor a pedi, I’ll be getting the truck washed and waxed, and a tire changed.

Jan got these shots of some of the birds she feeds out in front of the rig. If she doesn’t get out there early enough, they stand around and squawk and quack.

For her part, Jan is convinced they they’re all going to starve when we leave.

Thought for the Day:

If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil.

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