Our RV Adventures

We did walk this morning but not the full loop. Jan was not feeling quite up to snuff, but wanted to try anyway. But when she started to feel more crappy, we turned back.

But as it happened, we were already over halfway, so we ended up up walking 1.11 miles, more than our usual 1.01. And I don’t know if Jan was just in a hurry to get back to the rig, but we dropped our time from 25::21 to 24:51.

After resting up for a couple of hours, Jan was feeling better in time for us to head out for our lunch get-together at El Bosque. We were meeting up with with Janice and Dave Evans, Debi and Ed Hurlburt, and another RV’ing couple to be named later.

We made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription before meeting everyone at the restaurant at 2pm. And as it turns out we have something in common with Bob and Denise Filiau, the couple named later.

They’re parked right around the corner from us, and also own an American Coach, in their case, a Tradition. So that’s makes at least 4 American Coaches in the park right now. Our Eagle, Bob and Denise’s Tradition, and another Tradition and an Eagle on the other side of the park. Almost like a rally.

In fact when I saw their Tradition this afternoon as we left the park for lunch, I thought maybe they had moved over from the other side, since it’s unusual to have two Traditions in the park, much less two that look a lot alike.

From left to right, that’s my Jan, Dave’s Jan, Bob Filiau, Dave Evans, Ed Hurlburt, and Denise Filiau playing shy behind Debi Hurlburt.

As usual at El Bosque, the food was delicious, and even better, the company was great. We always enjoy getting together with the Evans’ and the Hurlburt’s, and with Bob and Denise there, we all had someone new to regale with all our stories.

And as far as the food goes, I tried something a little different this time, the Fajitas Poblanas.

With a mix of beef, chicken, and bacon, along with poblano strips, mushrooms and onions, it made a really great meal. And so much of it I took half home for later. BTW the empty spot on the side plate was where my guac once resided. Since I don’t like it, it always goes to Jan.

We spent a couple of hours talking about our travels, where we’ve been, and where we’re going next. Bob and Denise just came from the Medina Lake Thousand Trails, and Debi and Ed are leaving for there in the next day or so.

When we were there in 2013, the lake was completely dry, with people driving and camping on it. But now as I showed the other day, it seems pretty full.

Finally saying our goodbyes and see-you-soon’s, Jan and I headed back toward the park, but with a quick stopover at Kroger’s on the way.

We had planned to meet everyone at the Activity Center for some games at 5, but once Jan got back on the sofa, she didn’t feel like leaving it. Hopefully she’ll feel better tomorrow.

My son Chris is always working on something, or building something (wonder where he gets that from?), and he showed me his latest project when we were down there this past Saturday.

He’s building his own metal-working lathe. Pretty much from scratch.

All of the parts in blue he molded and cast himself.

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This drive section he put together from parts and scrap pieces. Note the multiple pulleys for speed changes.

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And the drive motor was repurposed from an old air conditioning vacuum pump of mine.

Next up, now that the lathe is this far along, he’s going to cast and machine his own pulleys for the feedstock drive.

Talk about pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.

Nothing much on tomorrow’s agenda. Since it supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow morning, walking may be off the table too, even if Jan does feel like it. We’ll see.

Thought for the Day:

It’s called Karma and it’s pronounced Ha! Ha! Ha!

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Today was a perfect day for a walk with 60 degrees and sun. Our first loop was 1.07 miles, a little further than our normal 1.01, but  I think that’s because I doubled back a couple of times to check out other sites where we might like to park sometime.

While we were walking the first loop, we passed a lady walking the other way and said hi. Then she stopped off while we were having our coffee and bread. Dorothy Weaver and her husband live in a BigHorn 5th wheel right across the street from us. They’re from Houston, and have traveled a lot in the past, but don’t travel as much as they used to. We did have a good time comparing the different places we’d been, though. Before she left, I gave her a couple of Gypsy Journal newspapers.

Before we walked our 2nd leg, Jan started a big batch of chili in the slow cooker for tonight’s dinner. Really smells good in the coach.

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that I had finally been able to repair my son Chris’ Galaxy S5 phone.

The problem started with a dropped phone and a cracked glass screen.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/01/but-the-patient-died/

As I detailed above, I first tried to carefully remove the cracked glass from the digitizer underneath. A replacement glass is only about $10 so if I could just get if off without damaging the LCD/Digitizer screen underneath, I could save a lot of money.

But after repeatedly reheating the glass and carefully prying it off using playing cards as shims, and about two hours work, I finally was able to separate the glass from the screen underneath.

But that’s when I discovered that LCD/Digitizer screen was already cracked along a crack in the g;ass. and only the glued-on glass was holding it all together. So now the fix was going to be a good bit more expensive than $10.

More like $150.

After finally receiving the new glass-screen combo, I started carefully prying off the busted screen, trying to keep it in one piece so I don’t get little shards of glass all in the phone. But after several hours work spread over a couple of days, I got it off pretty much in one piece.

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But the further problem I found was getting the broken glass from around the HOME button without damaging it or ripping it apart.

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But another hour or so of carefully picking the glass off and then removing the glue residue took care of that problem.

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Once that was done, it was a pretty quick job to remove the film covering the glue strips on the new screen, connect up the electrical cables, and then press it into place.

And a few minutes later, it was Power On.

It’s Alive, again.

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When we were down in the Clear Lake area on Saturday, I saw a station selling Unleaded for $1.39⁹ , 10 cents a gallon less than the cheapest station in the area.

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A second look was even more surprising. It was a Pemex station, Pemex being the national oil company of the country of Mexico.

It’s certainly the first time I’ve heard of them opening stations in the US. I guess when you’re a country, it’s easy to underprice your competition.

Speaking of competition, why is is that you find two gas stations, half a block apart, both nice, big and  brightly lit , where one, a Valero, is selling Unleaded for 1.49⁹, and the other, an Exxon station, has Unleaded for $1.79⁹ ?

With a 30 cents a gallon difference, why does the Exxon have any business?

For dinner tonight we had a big bowl of the Chili that slow-cooked all afternoon.

Jan tears up pieces of corn tortillas into the Chili, and then we have other tortillas with it. It’s good every time, and this was no different. YUM !

Tomorrow we’re meeting Janice and Dave Evans, and Debi and Ed Hurlburt for lunch at El Bosque, our favorite local Mexican place. Really looking forward to it.

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