Our RV Adventures

All afternoon.

I put in a call to Jamie, our GGS supervisor, this morning to update him on our supposed upcoming schedule here on the gate. I also ask him, that since we had been a 12 hour gate all this week, if it would be OK if Jan and I took a couple of hours off this evening to have dinner in town and do the weekly shopping together. I told him that we’d already cleared it with the landowner, and he had even recommended a place to eat.

Jamie said, “no problem”, so we were good to go, and as I said, Jan was giddy all afternoon. It’ll be her first time to leave the gate since we got here August 25th. She did say that this gate is so nice, so far, that she’s really not getting gate fever like at past locations.

With something to look forward to, the afternoon went pretty fast, and Jan came out about 5:30 to relieve me so I could come in and take a shower before we headed out. While I was inside, the last vehicle left. In fact they’d been the last vehicle since 2:30 when everyone else left.

I had been checking with everyone else as they left today, to find out if they were working this weekend. And although as I mentioned before, some are off until Tuesday, it looks like a few will be working this weekend. Bummer!

It does seem like most or all will be off on Monday, so we may try another night out then.

We did close the main gate as we left, and I set it so that I would know if anyone had opened it while we were gone.

We had planned to eat at KJ’s Whistle Stop Restaurant, the one recommended by our landowner, but we couldn’t find the place. It’s certainly not where Yelp, Google Maps, etc., says it is. They’re supposed to have a really good Friday Night Buffet, and fantastic pies for dessert. Jan later got directions from a lady at Wal-Mart, and I guess it’s moved, because it’s nowhere near where the Internet thinks it is.

So instead, we ended up at the Longhorn Country Restaurant right on the main drag. We’d been wanting steak, so this worked out fine.

We both started out with salads, and it was obvious that the dressings were homemade. Very good salad.

While Jan had a Sirloin, I had my usual Ribeye, which was really great.

What the photo doesn’t show is how thick this steak was, over an inch in places. The other thing that made this really delicious was how hot it was. I always get my steak medium rare, and most times it’s plenty warm, but not hot. But this one was still sizzling when they brought it out. I assume that they cooked it until it was rare, and then put it over the flames, because the outside edges were charred just like I like it.

Somebody here knows how to cook a steak.

For dessert, we splurged and didn’t split one. But in hindsight, we should have, as we were both too full afterwards. But it was a ‘good’ full.

Jan went with the Strawberry Cheesecake after she saw a waitress walk by with a piece.

Me, I can’t pass up Bread Pudding, so that’s what I got.

Jan loved her cheesecake, and after trying a bite, I could see why. But I was so-so on the Bread Pudding. It tasted delicious, but I was put off by the fact that it had peanuts in it.

Not crushed and sprinkled on top, which might have been good, but there were actually peanut halves cooked into the pudding, which gave them that slightly mushy texture, like boiled peanuts, which I do not like at all.

I think next time, and based on the steak, there will be a next time if possible, I will have the Cheesecake.

One thing I really also liked on the table was the buckets.

Every restaurant should have a bucket on the table. No, not the one with the peanuts in it, although that was good, but the empty one.

Since there are no ashtrays in restaurants anymore, you have no place to put your trash. You know, all the trash like empty sugar packets, empty cracker wrappers, used lemons, butter pat papers, jelly containers, even the little wrappers on your silverware. It all just piles up in your own personal trash heap.

More buckets, please.

After that great dinner, it was on to Wal-Mart for groceries. Like a lot of small towns, this Wal-Mart SuperCenter is a ‘mini’ SuperCenter, i.e. it has a full grocery department, but it only has one entrance, not two like the regular ones.

The other part of ‘mini’ is the selection of stuff. It seems to only be about 2/3 of normal. So you may not find a particular brand or size that you find at other ones.

We first encountered these ‘mini’ ones down in Kenedy, TX a couple of years ago. One guy shopping there said, “It’s like a real Wal-Mart, only smaller.” And he was certainly right.

Getting home we found the gate we left closed was undisturbed, so that was good. But getting back into the rig, we found a problem.

We have no12 volts in the bathroom so the overhead light and the shower light don’t work. We have it on one side in the kitchen and on the other side in the bedroom, but not in the bath.

The water pump and the water heater still work, but the bathroom vent fan doesn’t. And for that matter, neither does the vent fan in the kitchen. So I guess that’s a problem for tomorrow.

Probably a fuse, but who knows. Just part of the RV life.

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Thought for the Day:

In the future, imagine how many Go-Pros will be found on snowy mountains containing the last moments of people’s lives.

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We had a blistering 11 vehicles through the gate today, and three of them were repeats. And of those eight, one of them was the landowner. But we did have one driver show up with a load of pipe about 8pm. Said he was sorry he was running late, and he’d be back tomorrow with more.

I’m not sure how long we can keep up this torrid pace.

But we did pick up a lot of new info (rumors?).

Cudd Energy Services is the name of the company that will be moving over from Louisiana and doing our frack. Supposedly they will start moving in the frack equipment the middle of next week, and start fracking next Monday, the 14th.

The guys came in with the big hose reels today and ran hose from the frack pond down to the site. It’s amazing how far they will run these hoses to get water. I’ve seen them running for miles along the highway down in south Texas.

A number of our regulars are getting a four day weekend and won’t be back to work until Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. They’re working 40 hour weeks to hold down costs, so with 12 hour plus days, they’re done today for the week.

But it looks like we won’t be completely shutdown this weekend since a few have confirmed they will be working. Darn It!

I noticed my sewer connection into our trailer septic tank was leaking gray water while Jan was doing laundry. Turns out that one of the 3 lugs had broken off the elbow connector that normally goes into the park sewer.

The application of a little Gorilla Tape took temporary care of the problem. I’ll try to get a new one tomorrow at the Wal-Mart in Carthage. This is only the second one I’ve had in 8 years so they’re lasting pretty well.

I came across something today that almost makes me want to go back to Canada. It’s the CN Tower EdgeWalk in Toronto. For about $150 you can put on a harness and walk around the top of the restaurant on the CN Tower, 1168 feet above the ground.

You can literally ‘hangout’ while you’re up there.

You can also propose,

or even get marriage.

Even supermodel Kate Upton and her boyfriend did it.

You remember Kate Upton from those Game of War TV ads, don’t you.

At least I guess that’s what you should remember her for.

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Thought for the Day:

April Fools Day is the one day of the year that people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true.

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