Our RV Adventures

About noon Jan and I headed out for hot dogs and shopping. We’ve both been jonsing for a good hot dog, and that usually means Sonic. We both went with our usual, Jan’s Chili Cheese Coney, and my New York Dog, with mustard, sauerkraut, and onions. Along with their fresh-squeezed limeade, it’s a really tasty meal.

Then it was on down the road to the Best Buy, where I was looking for a new 3G aircard Wi-Fi router. My Cradlepoint CTR-500 that I’ve had for about 8 years has gotten very flakey, sometimes working, but mostly not.

I can of course plug my aircard directly into my computer and it works great. But then I not longer have any Wi-Fi in the coach to connect our Galaxy Tab and Kindle Paperwhites to the Internet. That means I then have to hotspot my Galaxy S5.

The first thing I did was to check with Cradlepoint to see what they had. But as it turns out, they’re out of the small, portable Wi-Fi router business, and only sell big routers for businesses.

So next I checked with the local Verizon store and also struck out. They no longer have anything for a 3G aircard. They would however sell me a 4G MiFi. Of course I would have to give up my 3G unlimited data aircard. Yeah, right!

Verizon referred me to Best Buy and said they would have one, but Best Buy didn’t have any idea what I was talking about. So now I’m back to square one. I found a couple on the Internet but the reviews weren’t very good, so we’ll have to see what else I can find.

Rudy Legett and his wife Carolyn showed up at the site right across from us around 4pm. After catching up for a while in their Foretravel, we all headed out for dinner at Calico County Restaurant.

With 4 stars on Yelp, and the promise of good country cooking, we thought we’d give it try. The place turned out to be Black-Eyed Pea doppelgänger, and very good in its own right.

Jan, Carolyn, and I all had the Catfish,

mine with the Baked Squash and Fried Corn on the Cob.

Rudy, of course, just had to be different, and went with the Smothered Steak.

Don’t know if this is a chain or not, it did have that look, but we’d certainly go back again if we come across one.

We had a great time getting to see Carolyn and Rudy again and hopefully we’ll be able to do it again soon.

Tomorrow we’ve got a 280 mile trip over to West Memphis, AR and the Tom Sawyer RV Park right on the Mississippi River. We’ll stay there for a couple of nights before moving on to the Cherokee Landing Thousand Trails for a couple of weeks.

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Thought for the Day:

Criminal: A person with predatory instincts who has not the sufficient capital to form a corporation.

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After a nice quiet morning enjoying life in the woods, Jan and I headed out about 2:30p for some food and fun. First up was a late lunch at Arby’s.

We’ve seen the commercials about their new Brown Sugar Bacon sandwiches and wanted to give them a try.  Hey, the more bacon, the better.

We both ordered the Brown Sugar Bacon BLT, which was really good.

In hindsight, from the photo, it looks like I also got some Black Pepper Bacon on my sandwich, which was fine with me. Hey, the more bacon, the better. Then to spice it up, I added their Horsey Horseradish Sauce and some of their Three Pepper Hot Sauce.

Something else that gives these sandwiches a really good taste is that the buns are King Hawaiian Bread. And the touch of sweetness really works.

Finishing up lunch we headed a little ways back down the road to the Movie Lounge, a nearby movie theater.

But right before we got to the theater, I got a call from Rudy Legett of AquaHot fame. He and his wife Carolyn are going to be in Fort Smith tomorrow, so we wanted to set up a get-together for dinner tomorrow night.

We’ve been putting off seeing Avengers: Age of Ultron, and now based on how many theaters it’s still in, i.e. almost none, it was now or never. In fact this is the only theater that’s still showing it here in Fort Smith, and it’s gone tomorrow, replaced by something newer. And according to Flixster, it’s not showing at all in Memphis where we’ll be on Saturday for a couple of days.

The Movie Lounge turned out to be a dinner theater, but not the kind that does plays. But one like the Star Cinema Grill in Webster, TX that we go to a lot when we’re in the area.

They have a full restaurant along the line of a Chili’s or Applebee’s, and serve your meal right at your seat. The Star Cinema Grill was originally a 6-screen theater that went under when two 16+ screen theaters moved into the area. So about 10 years, they revamped the building, taking out every other row of seats and replacing them with a row of small tables. And on each table is a call button. After you finish your meal, and later decide you want popcorn, just press the call button.

But Movie Lounge takes this to a whole new level. In fact I think it may have been designed from scratch. It has two screens for movies, a smaller screening room with regular tables and chairs, a lounge area with about twenty tables, and a stage with live bands and other entertainment.

The entire concept is much more high-class than the one in Webster. The seats themselves seem to be designed for meals, and are much more comfortable.

Even the bathroom reflects the upscale décor.

Very nice!

We both really enjoyed the movie, even at almost 2 1/2 hours. The action was pretty much nonstop with a good storyline. One thing I like is fact that all the movies are linked together in an overarching plotline. Every Marvel movie, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant Man, and even the upcoming ones, Black Panther, Captain Marvel,  and Dr. Strange, (and the TV show, Agents of SHIELD) all serve to advance a master story along the way. And, since Disney/Marvel now owns Spiderman, he’s in the mix too.

Of course if you’re not a comic book fan, ignore everything I just said.

Heading home, although we were full from lunch, and didn’t order anything at the movie, we were hungry enough to make a stop at Braum’s.

Braum’s, if you’re not familiar with it, is a chain of restaurants located in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. It’s kind of a cross between a Dairy Queen and a convenience store, in that they have ice cream and burgers and stuff like a DQ, but they also have an area with milk, bread, cold drinks, and other groceries. A little strange, but it works.

I was unsure what I wanted, but after I saw Jan’s Hot Fudge Sunday, I thought a Banana Split that size would be good. But I miscalculated.

I should have figured mine would be the length of a banana. I couldn’t even finish half of it. It’s the same old story. Eyes too big, stomach too small.

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Thought for the Day:

Talk is cheap, except when Congress does it. — Anonymous

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