Our RV Adventures

First off, Happy 49th Anniversary to my Sweetie. It’s hard to believe that 49 years ago I got you to say “I do”. And even then it seems like only yesterday when I first met you.

And it’s been a wild ride every since. And I love you more every day.

Jan and I really appreciate all the comments, both here on the blog and on Facebook also, about her kidney stone problem and our gate loss. We’re going to get back to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails tomorrow and rest up a few days before we seriously start looking for another gate.

In our first morning of freedom off the gate, I slept in until about 11:30, and I did need it. I was completely wiped after we got to Bryan around 7pm, too tired to even think about going out for dinner, or even eating anything at all. All I did was get a hot shower and went to bed and immediately fell asleep.

I did wait up at about 11pm which would have been the normal time I would have relieved Jan on the gate, but what I did was write and post the blog. Back to bed, I now had trouble sleeping, since this would have now been my awake time on the gate. Hopefully I’ll get back on a fairly standard sleep schedule soon. At least until we get another gate.

About 2pm I walked across the road to the park office to settle up for our 2nd day at Timber Ridge RV Park. This is a very nice park, and at $50 a night it should be. But it was the 4th park I called, and the only one that had a vacancy.

The first thing I noticed after we got parked and I hooked up electric and water. Here’s a photo of what I saw.

See what’s wrong. There are only two vehicles in sight in the entire park. Since Texas A&M is just up the road, Jan figured they might be rental units for people in town for the games. When I asked the guy in the office about it, it turns out that Jan was almost right.

They’re not rental units, but they are here for the A & M games. People bring their RV here and park them for the duration of the football season, so they have a place to stay and party. We drove around and saw everything from a small camper to an Airstream to a vintage American Tradition.

One thing nice about this part is the really large spaces, large enough to actually park two RV’s side by side, but the space is only for one RV

Really nice.

In addition they have an excellent free Wi-Fi system that covers the entire 90 space park. Speedtest.net shows a 26ms ping with 12Mbps down and 3 up. Not too shabby. And they also have a free DirecTV Cable TV hookup right at your pedestal with 32 channels. Also neat.

Tomorrow we’ll make the 70 mile trip over to Lake Conroe for a couple of weeks, or until we get another gate, whichever comes first.

Jan and I headed out about 2:30 with our first stop at Great Clips to get a haircut, my first in about 6 weeks, so well needed. I had called ahead to try and get an appointment for 3pm so we wouldn’t have to wait all afternoon to get taken care of.

But as it turns, they do not take appointments. You download their app and then you use it to ‘Check In’ at the location of your choice. Kind of like doing the Call Ahead Seating at many restaurants, you don’t have a specific time, but as soon as you get there, you’re the next in line.

And it worked just that way. In just a couple of minutes I was in the chair and the clippers were buzzing. Neat!

Next up was a quick stop at Sam’s Club for Joint Juice for Jan and Lipton’s Diet Green Tea for me. Then it was on down Hwy 6 to have our Anniversary Dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse, the same place we ate at when we first got here back in August. And it was just as good this time.

We started out with an Anniversary Amaretto Splash Sangria, which we shared. Needless to say, Jan and I aren’t big drinkers, maybe only once or twice a year.

We started out with salads, and I went for my usual Wedge Salad.

With a wedge of lettuce topped with homemade ranch & balsamic dressings with bacon, tomato & crumbled bleu cheese, it’s really good. And after Jan had a taste she said she’s getting one next time.

Jan got her usual 12oz Top Sirloin.

She likes it between Medium and Medium-Well, and always cuts it open to see if it’s right when they bring it to the table. Else she sends it back.

I repeated our previous visit with a Medium-Rare 16 oz Pat’s Ribeye along with really good Sweet Potato Fries.

They really know how I like my steak here. It’s Medium-Rare on the inside, with crispy charred edges on the outside. Just perfect.

And of course the big pat of garlic butter makes it even better.

And with these big steaks we had plenty to take home for tomorrow.

Our next, and last stop before heading home, was at the Kroger’s, for our favorite coffees, and also for Jan’s Anniversary Gift.

Now most people know that the 1st anniversary gift is Paper, and the 25th is Sliver. And while the 50th Anniversary is Gold, most people don’t know that the 49th Anniversary is Small Appliances, especially Electric Can Openers.

Hey, it’s what she really wanted, and I aim to please.

Coming home, she said she was giddy and couldn’t wait to try it out.

Personally I blame the morphine.

Thought for the Day:

“The lion shall lie down with the calf, but the calf won’t get much sleep.” —Woody Allen

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The Good News is that Jan and I will have off tomorrow (Wednesday) to spend time together on our 49th Wedding Anniversary. And we’re really looking forward to having dinner together.

The other Good News is that Jan has completely recovered from passing a kidney stone today during a 4 hour stint at the CHI St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bryan, TX.

She woke up about 5:30 this morning with a severe backache on her right side, up behind her ribs. She’s had backaches before, though not recently, so no biggie at the time.

But after she relieved me at 7am, the nausea and vomiting set in. Since she felt better after each time she threw up, we were then thinking food poisoning. But finally she came in about 9am, woke me up again and said she couldn’t take the pain anymore.

So after I quickly got dressed, I called Jamie, our GGS supervisor, and asked him to get started our way, telling him I had to take Jan to the ER in Bryan and we were leaving the gate. By then we were both thinking kidney stone, but Jan has never had a problem before, but both our kids have. And apparently in your 60’s is kind of late to have a first one.

Next I went down to the pad to tell Pete, the Company Man, what was going on, and then we were leaving the gate, but had a relief guard on the way. Pete was out on the rig, but when the guy in the office heard what was wrong, he said, “Go, go. I’ll tell Pete,”

On the way back I picked up the truck and then helped Jan in and we were on our way.. Her pain severity was cycling about every 20 minutes, peaking and then dropping off.

I ‘OK Googled’ the nearest hospital ER, using ‘hospital’ so we didn’t get sent to one of those Emergency Clinics, and she took us right to the ER entrance at the hospital. I got Jan inside in a wheelchair and checked in before I went and parked the truck a couple of blocks away. Walking back I called Jamie and let him know we were here, but didn’t know anything yet, except Jan was still in a lot of pain.

Getting back, they already had Jan in a room getting her vitals, and then wheeled her back into a room with me following. Very quickly a nurse came in, got her in the bed and started prepping her for an IV, while another nurse drew blood.

Wow! Not the usual ER service I’ve had in the past, where unless you actually DIE in the waiting room, you won’t see a doctor for hours.

A few minutes later, after asking Jan about any allergies, etc., they used the IV/catheter to give Jan something for the severe nausea she was having as well as a light dose of morphine for the pain.

Around 11 or so, Dr. Montross came in and checked Jan out, pushing on her abdomen, asking about any pain there. She had none, only in her back. Dr. Montross then scheduled her for a CT scan.

A few minutes later, about 11:30, another nurse came in and gave Jan a large foam cup of ‘contrast’ for the CT scan, and told her to have it finished by 1pm, and they would take her for her scan right next door.

Jan said the ‘contrast’ wasn’t too bad, unlike some of this stuff, and had no problem getting it down. At this point, about 11:30, I called Jamie again to bring him up to date.

Jan was still having a good bit of pain and nausea, so they give more nausea meds and another dose of morphine, which this time helped a lot. And at 1pm they wheeled Jan off to the CT scan, bringing her back in less than 10 minutes.

About 1:30 they were back with the results, and that Yes, she did have kidney stones, a large one still in the kidney probably not causing any problems, and the culprit, a much smaller one, on its way out.

In the meantime, after drinking all the contrast, I helped Jan across the hall to the bathroom so she could pee. And a few minutes after that, she said she suddenly felt fine, great even. When the doctor came back to release her a little before.2pm, they figured she had passed the stone without really realizing it that last time.

So we were on our way home a little after 2, stopping at Whataburger for a lunch to eat on the way, and calling Jamie to see if he wanted something. We were back at the gate by a few minutes after 3pm.

And now for the Bad News. When I called Jamie at 11:30, he said we had lost our gate and were being replaced by another couple.

WTH?

He said that Chelsie, the GGS sales rep, said that Company Man Pete had called her, mad as hell that we didn’t talk to him about what had happened to us, and where we had gone. and wanted us replaced immediately.

WTH? That didn’t sound like Pete.

If I’d had his number with me I would have called Pete, but it was written on the logs back at the gate. So I called Chelsie and ask her what happened, and told her I had left a message for Pete since I couldn’t go out to the rig and talk to him directly.

She said she didn’t know what had happened, and that it must have been a liability issue for the energy company leaving the gate unmanned for a while , but that as far as Gate Guard Services was concerned, we didn’t do anything wrong.

Well, that was helpful.

So getting back to the rig, we had to start tearing down to move since the new couple was already on their way.  Jamie was a big help in getting things packed up and stowed away, and I couldn’t have done it without him, because I was just completely worn out.

I had only gotten about an hours sleep that morning  after Jan had relieved me at 7pm, and only about 4 hours sleep the time before that, so by the very end, I was just barely moving.

I had told Jamie at 3 when we got back, that it would be about 6 before we were done, and I pulled out the site at 5:59 with Jan following in the truck. We stopped at the Exxon station about 8 miles down the road for diesel, and we’re presently parked at the Timber Ridge RV park here in Bryan for a couple of nights, before we move on to the Conroe Thousand Trails.on Thursday.

But for the Big Finish, here’s the kicker.

About 4:30 Pete, the Company Man, walked up to the gate and asked how Jan was. What was wrong? Was she going to be OK, etc.

Strange I thought from the man who had just had us fired. But I didn’t say anything, just told him what had happened, and that she had passed the stone and was OK now. He seemed relieved, and then noticed we were tearing down.

“Are ya’ll leaving?”

Awkward Silence.

“Ah . . . Chelsie said you were mad because we left the gate without talking to you, and you demanded we be replaced, so a new couple will be here soon to take over the gate.”

Pete looked puzzled and said, “I wasn’t mad, and I said nothing about you being replaced. I just called concerned, and wanted to see how your wife was, and was she going to be OK.”

WTH?

So you be the judge. Was this miscommunication, or was it direct sabotage?

Jan thinks sabotage, because she and Chelsie have a history.

Oh, one finally thing.

Jan says morphine is GOOOOODDDD!

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence. Three times is Enemy Action.

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