Our RV Adventures

Our morning started out way too early this morning, since we have a 290 mile trip today, instead of our usual 120.

But we couldn’t start our trip without our usual Cracker Barrel breakfast. We just had to get there earlier. We both got our usual, mine being the Sunrise Sampler, with two eggs, a sampling of bacon, patty sausage, and ham, grits, fried apples, and hash browns.

And this leads to my question of the day.

What happened to hash browns, and when did they change?

When I was growing up in Alabama in the 50’s and 60’s, we would often stop at a Toddle House when we traveled. If you’ve seen a Waffle House, you know what a Toddle House looked like. In fact Waffle House was indirectly spun off Toddle House, when a TH regional manager left to start his own chain of restaurants.

And like Waffle House today, you could watch the cook prepare your food behind the counter. And they made Hash Browns by squirting a little oil in a hot skittet, dumping in a serving of diced potatoes and frying them up. The cook would sprinkle a little paparika on them, and as they cooked on one side, he would flip the whole loose mass up in the air, catching them back in the pan just as it ended up back on the stove burner. And although the cook never seem to lose any potatoes, some of the oil would splash out into the burner flame and flare up with a big sizzle.

By ‘diced’ potatoes, I mean potatoes cut up into roughly 1/2” cubes, and not the shredded ‘riced’ potatoes we get now. In fact if you Google ‘Riced potato hash browns’, they will show you recipes for making the hash browns you get at most restaurants today.

And just to clarify, I’m also not taking about Cottage Fries. Those are usually much larger, and not really cubes, but have rounded edges.

But this is what the hash browns of my youth looked like.

Maybe it’s a regional thing. Nick’s Miss Terry said that to her, hash browns have always been the shredded ones.

So, you out in the audience, what’s your kind of hash browns?

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Since I got on a hash brown rant and it’s late and I’m tired, I’ll flesh out the rest of today’s journey in tomorrow’s blog and skip right to the good stuff.

As in a really, really good spaghetti dinner, serviced up by long-time friend’s Lynn and Dave Cross. They’re parked two spaces over from us, and Lynn told us a couple of days ago she’d have dinner ready for us when we got here.

And boy, did she. Lynn really knows her way around a spaghetti recipe.

Thanks, Lynn and Dave for the great welcome.

1. It was started in the early 30’s by James Smith, father of Fred Smith. Fred went on to start his own company in 1971. It’s called FedEx.
2. During the segegation era, the comany had a parallel chain for African-Americans called Harlem House.

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Today was more of the same, downloading software, getting it activated, and also tracking down the software I have on DVD’s.The only one I haven’t found yet is my Delorme Street Atlas 2015. I haven’t seen it since I  installed the 2015 version last February.

On a side note, I’m kind of worried about Delorme and their Street Atlas program. I’ve used that programsince the early 2000’s and every year, the new version is announced in the Jan-Feb timeframe.

But this year, not a word. And if yuu go to their website, they still show the 2015 version.

I suspect the reason is that early this year, the GPS maker, Garmin, bought Delorme, and I hope this doesn’t spell doom for Street Atlas.

They have also drastically cut back their support forums to almost nothing. And the one topic about the 2016 version is a real bummer. Apparently they do not plan a 2016 version, and said they will ‘think’ about doing future versions.

And since Microsoft discontinued Streets and Trips a couple of years ago, that leaves nothing to replace them that doesn’t require Internet access on the road.

Just BUMMER!

On a better note, going through my bins I did find my 3rd GPS module. Karma chewed up the USB connector on my first one, I gave my 2nd one to my son Chris, so now finding my 3rd one, I won’t have to try to repair the 1st one right now.

But I’ll keep it just in case.

later in the afternoon, I made a quick run over to the Krogers in Willis to pick up a few things we forgot last night. And I was surprised to see this in the frozen foods section. Although we have bought cans of the chili, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it in frozen foods.

We’ll have to try it sometime.

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Getting home, I did my outside chores, disconnecting sewer and water hoses, speeding up leaving tomorrow morning. Next I checked the rig’s tire pressures and found that no air was needed.

I’ve been very impressed with these Hercules Ironman tires we put on after our blowout last May. The only time I’ve had to put air in is to adjust for winter and summer temps. Really nice.

For dinner tonight, Jan fixed BCT sandwiches, that’s Bacon, Cheese, and Tomato. And rather than frying up bacon and smelling up the rig, or using the microwave stuff that comes out limp and soggy, we came across this brand a few weeks ago, and it’s really good.

It’s is microwaved, but every four slices are in a sealed pouch, and are cooked that way. This makes it come out crispy and crunchy, and really good. Try it.

Tomorrow we’ll have our usual Cracker Barrel breakfast before we make the 290 mile journey over to the Medina Lake Thousand Trails for a couple of weeks.

Jan’s really looking forward to feeding the deer again.

Thought for the Day:

Sarcasm: Just One Of The Many Services I Offer.

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