It’s Landon Time . . .

Jan and I headed out for Katy about 9:30 this morning, looking forward to our day with our grandson Landon, and his other grandparents, Lendel and Sonja. They head back to Pauls Valley, OK on Wednesday so we wanted to get together before they left.

Getting there about 11am and loading everyone in the car, our first stop was down in Richmond for lunch at Sandy McGee’s, where Jan and I ate a few weeks ago. We had taken Sonja and Lendel here on a previous visit and they were happy to go back once again.

And Landon was happy because he got a Chocolate Milkshake and a big plate of fruit salad.

Landon at Sandy McGee's 1

While Lendel got the Southwest Chicken Salad, and Sonja got the Quiche, Jan and I stuck with our favorite Miller’s Choice,

Sandy McGee's Miller's Choice

1/2 a Turkey, Spinach, and Cheese Sandwich, a cup of their award-winning Broccoli Cheese Soup, and their cut-to-order fruit salad.

Jan and I have been eating at Sandy McGee’s since the 90’s and it’s never failed to please, so it’s always a favorite destination.

Leaving Richmond and Sandy McGee’s, we backtracked over to Katy Mills Mall for Landon’s playday. As usual his first stop was jumpstreet, an indoor trampoline park, with a little bit of everything. And one nice thing is that it has a number of different areas, separate by age group, so the smaller kids aren’t competing with the older ones. Landon was on the go for over an hour, until Jan and Sonja got tired just watching him.

And as before, it seems Landon had attracted his usual coterie of female admirers. Jan said that as he was leaving, one little girl looked over and said, “Byyee, Landon.”

Jan and I also laugh about what happened last year when we took him to school one morning while Lowell was at the office early, and Brandi was out of town on business. We walked Landon to his classroom, and just as we got in the door, three cute little girls came running over to him saying, “Hiiiiii Landon!”

Fathers, lock up your daughters!

Next up on Landon’s list was a ride on the electric animals, in the case, an electric cheetah.

Katy Mills Animals 1

Landon has always loved to ride these, but in the past they could only be ridden in a large, circular cordoned-off area. But now they can be ridden anywhere in the Mall, except into the stores.

Katy Mills Animals 2

I was really surprised at how fast these things are. Actually faster than you can comfortably walk. After a while, Landon grew frustrated that his cheetah wasn’t going as fast as it was a few minutes before. But then he turned around and saw that I was slowing it down by holding onto its tail.

Katy Mills Animals 3

“PaPa, let go!”

Katy Mills Animals 4

I’m also surprised that more people aren’t run down by these things at times. Landon did have one close call when he was zipping along, admiring his reflection in the window he was passing, and almost ran into a metal pillar.

Finally about 4pm, we were all pooped so we headed back to Landon’s house. Turns out that since we were going about 5 hours, both Lowell and Brandi called to see where we were, as we were on the way home. Then after getting our hugs from everyone, Jan and I headed back to Conroe about 4:30, but had a couple of stops in between.

First up was the Harbor Freight store right on the way. I wanted to pick up another of their Survival Knives while they’re still on sale.

Harbor Freight Survival Knife

I bought one the other day for the rig, and decided I wanted another one to keep it the truck. Besides having a compass, a fire starter, a sewing kit, and a fishing kit in the handle, it’s got that whole Crocodile Dundee, “That’s not a knife. This is a knife.” thing going on.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can check that scene out here:

Leaving Harbor Freight, we were commenting on how we were going be in peak Houston going-home traffic as we were . . . well, going home. So we decided to while away some time with a steak, in particular, a Longhorn Steakhouse Steak.

And, boy, was this a good idea. The steaks were really good, very tender and flavorful, and perfectly cooked. I don’t think we’ve ever have a bad steak at Longhorn.

I had the Wedge Salad, with bacon, tomatoes, onions, and bleu cheese dressing.

Longhorn Salad 4

Funny, but I’ve never been a big fan of bleu cheese dressing. I’m more of a Thousand Island guy. But for some reason I really like it on a wedge salad.

Not only was my steak delicious, but even the broccoli was cooked perfectly. Not overdone and mushy, but crisp and buttery, with lemon juice squirted on it

Longhorn Steak 3

Most places don’t seem to take the time getting the sides right, but Longhorn sure did tonight.

Tomorrow we’ll try to walk if it’s not too cold and windy, but otherwise we’ll just hunker down here in the rig and enjoy. 


Thought for the Day:

“It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with the experiment, it’s wrong.” — Richard P. Feynman.

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