Our RV Adventures

Tornados, Rain, and Wind.

Well, our 10am departure for Galveston this morning was cancelled due to all the bad weather running around the area. But since our friend Linda is leaving Galveston tomorrow morning, driving to Dallas, we decided that we would meet in Conroe for lunch tomorrow instead. And that works for us since it’s about 20 miles closer for us on the round trip than Galveston.

But since I was already up about 9am, Jan took the opportunity to lure me out with the idea of breakfast at Schobel’s Restaurant over in Columbus, so we headed out about 9:30. With all the rain we had last night and early this morning, I was interested to see what the river crossing coming into the park would look like.

In fact, early this morning, a little after 5am, I listened to some of the loudest rain hitting the rig that I’ve ever heard. It seemed to be lashing the coach in sheets, over and over. But what was very unusual is that there was no horizontal wind rocking the coach like you would expect with this blowing rain, so it must have been coming down vertically.

And when we got to the bridge it was easy to see that all the rain had had an effect on the water level

Even though it was several inches deep over the bridge, our Dodge Dakota with its high clearance, made it across with no problems. But the way the river crossing looked here reminded Jan and I of the Little Blanco River crossing near the home of our late friend Gina’s house near Wimberley, TX.

Like a lot of these crossings in this area, the water is flowing over the bridge most of the year, but usually not deep enough to be a problem.

But if you are careless enough to gun your SUV as you’re heading up the hill, you might find yourself suddenly sliding sideways off the road and into the creek due to the slick concrete. So, don’t do that.

Coming out after our really good breakfast at Schobel’s, I saw this very nice trike out in the parking lot.  Nice looking V-8 engine.

It’s hard to see clearly, but it seats3, with the driver sitting in the middle steering using regular bike handle bars, while the gear shift appears to be a standard auto stick shift. The two passengers sit on either side of the driver.

I think a setup like this makes more sense than the Polaris Slingshot reverse trike we saw at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails a couple of weeks ago.

While I guess the Slingshot is a little flashier, it’s certainly not very practical for inclement weather.

Our next stops were the Wal-Mart and HEB right across the street for a few things. With the cold, rainy weather I decided to whip up a batch of my famous (well, Jan really likes it.) Chicken Tortilla Soup so we picked up what we needed that we didn’t already have at home.

Back at the rig, I got out the slow cooker and got to work. First up was to slice and then poach the chicken breasts in chicken broth. Adding salt and pepper, I let it go for a couple of hours, until the meat was done and tender enough to be pulled apart with a fork.

Then I sliced up the jalapeno and Serrano peppers and dumped them in the cooker,

along with a can of Rotel Habanero tomatoes, a can of Hunt’s diced tomatoes, a can of black beans, a package of frozen kernel corn, and half a package of frozen chopped onions.

Next I added some coarsely chopped cilantro,

some cumin, and few other seasonings. Then, after a taste test, and Jan’s approval, I put the lid on and let it go for a couple of hours.

At this point, I took a very nice nap, and when I got up, the smell of the soup permeated the coach. Very nice to wake up to.

Checking the cooker, I saw it was looking good, and just about ready.

I started dishing it out into bowls,

and then garnished it with shredded Monterey Jack and Queso Fresco cheeses.

Mmm! Mmm! Good!

Finishing up, our son-in-law Lowell sent over these photos of Landon’s Santa visit for this year.

Looks like he’s trying to convince Santa he really was a good boy this year.

______________________________________________

Thought for the Day:

Walk in fear of no man
No matter what his size
When in trouble call on me
And I will equalize

Samuel Colt

sfgsfdgf

Since I didn’t get to bed until almost 4am this morning, due to not getting home until after midnight and then having to do the blog, I really slept in, not getting up until about 11:30.

But when I finally did get up and got the coffee going, Jan and I sat outside for a while, drinking our coffee and eating some really good Blueberry Scones Jan found in the Kroger bakery department. Our next door neighbor, Bonnie, came by for a while so we could get acquainted. They’ve been full-timing for 15 years, and have run into our friend’s Nick and Terry Russell a few times on the road.

But our visit was cut short by a rain squall moving in, with it raining on and off the rest of the afternoon and evening. But as we ran for our respective rigs, we said we’d get together soon for dinner.

The rest of the afternoon was interspersed with light and heavy rains, which made it really nice to just hunker down in the rig, with our time divided between reading, computing, and TV’ing.

Really nice on a dreary December afternoon.

I forgot to mention that Wednesday, while I was working on the toilet, our friend Randy came by to say “Hi”. He had just pulled into the park a couple of hours earlier and noticed our coach parked across the circle from him.

Readers of our blog just about a year ago may remember my adventures with Randy’s new-to-him Monaco Diplomat. He had bought it from PPL here in Houston a few days earlier, and ended up parked right next to us here at the Colorado River Thousand Trails. He saw me outside working on my rig, and asked for some help with his rig’s electrical system.

After he’d been parked here several days,  both his coach and engine batteries had run down. You can follow the story of what I found wrong with his coach, and how I fixed it. How it ever got off the dealer lot that way is a mystery.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/charge-2/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/batteries-and-balls/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/wiring-and-re-wiring/

Tomorrow morning we’re heading out to Galveston, about two hours away to have lunch with an old friend and ex-coworker of Jan’s. A while before we started RV’ing, Linda got bored with the Houston/Galveston area and up and moved to Billings, MT. Quite a change from Houston.

We’ve visited her there first in 2008 on our way to Alaska, and later on our way coming back. On the way up, at the end of March, it looked like this,

and coming back in the middle of October, it looked like this.

Like I said, quite a change from Houston.

Finally, congratulations are in order to our good friend Nick Russell. If you go to Amazon and search for ‘most popular books of 2015’, and then count down 12 books, you will find “Big Lake Burning”, one of his Big Lake series books.

Way To Go, Nick!

______________________________________________

Thought for the Day:

“The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra

asdfasdfa