Our RV Adventures

First off, another Happy Birthday to my Sweetie Jan. She said to thank everyone for all the kind greetings and wishes. She really appreciates it.

On our way to and from the gate every day we pass a large Valero/Stripes convenience store / truck stop / gas station. In fact it’s the one that we stopped at to top off the diesel in the rig on our way into town last Wednesday.

So Jan thought we might stop off on our way home this morning and pick up a couple of tacos for breakfast and lunch today. But getting there was a problem. In fact, getting anywhere was a problem this morning.

You’ve heard of Pea Soup fog? Well this was more like Mashed Potatoes fog, and it was hard to see more than about 20 feet in front of you. I had a lot of trouble just finding the turn-ins to the place.

But getting inside we were amazed at how busy the place was, with a 24 hour taco bar called Laredo Taco Company. They have 12 different Breakfast Tacos, and about 30 different lunch selections, including tacos, burritos, and plates.

Every thing is made fresh every day, and your tacos, etc,, are made to order. This 5 to 6am timeframe is when all the oil workers are either going to work, or getting off from work. And apparently they all stop here.

We each got a breakfast taco to eat there, and then a Beef Fajita Taco for lunch later this afternoon. Both were really good, and we’ll go back for sure.

After creeping through the fog, we were back at the rig a little after 7, and in bed a few minutes after that.

Later in the afternoon I talked with Nancy, the lady that owns the RV Park to double-check her business address. She had said we could have packages and mail sent there with no problem, and we can either pick it up there or she will bring it with her when she comes by. Very nice of her.

I mentioned last night that I had been watching old TV shows on MeTV and Cozi TV, both over the air channels in this area. And one specific show was a Perry Mason from 1959.

In B&W, the episode, “The Case of the Bartered Bikini”, concerned the fashion industry and problems with competitors stealing designs, specifically, swim suit designs.

And of course this necessitated several scenes with models walking around showing off the suits. And one thing quickly became very obvious.

Based on today’s standards, these fashion models were fat, overweight, chunky, or extra fluffy, as Jan and I like to say. They would probably be laughed off the catwalk today. And this wasn’t just bad casting.

Terry Huntington, the falsely accused model/heroine of the story, was Miss California USA 1959 before going on to win Miss USA 1959 the same year as the show. So she was probably everyone’s vision of beauty at the time.

And I noticed this same thing a few years ago when I ran across a showing of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello’s 1963 ‘Beach Party’ movie on satellite. The first of seven films, it was filled with hot surfer chicks parading around in skimpy (for the time) bathing suits.

And once again, they were all . . . fluffy. Let’s go with fluffy.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But apparently the beholder’s standards can change.

Finishing up, I don’t know what it is about gate guarding and sunsets, but we’ve seen some really spectacular ones over the years. And this evening was no exception.

Jan called to alert me to this one since the way my shack is positioned I can’t normally see it.

I told her I had ordered it special to cap off her birthday.

I don’t think she bought it.

Thought for the Day:

“Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them.” –  P. J. O’Rourke

ggfdg

Jan’s definitely not a night person, so she was worried about staying awake all night last night, but she did fine

Of course I helped out by calling her about every hour, just to be sure.

It wasn’t a very busy night, with most of the traffic after midnight. And even with that, the iPad locked up on me. Well, not as much locked up, as locked me out.

I last used it around 6:30, and then no one came or left until after midnight. But when I went to log someone in, I found the program had dumped me out and was now asking for a username and password. Which was nowhere to be found. So it was back to paper logs. Not a problem for me. I later found out there was supposed to be a sticker on the back, but nothing was there. I looked.

I think I mentioned that we have TV in the shacks. Nominally I think it’s so we can monitor the six cameras around our site, but it is set up for over the air TV. And I was very surprised how many stations we get. Probably about 30.

But probably the most entertaining ones are MeTV and Cozi TV, both of which show oldies. As in VERY oldies, like Car 54, Where Are You?, Sgt. Bilko, Maverick, Love Boat, Kojak, Our Miss Brooks, Donna Reed, Hogan’s Heroes, Perry Mason, etc.

So yes, VERY OLDIES.

After our shift was over, we got back to the rig about 6:30am. Jan went right to bed, and was already asleep when I came in about 10 minutes later. I had to email our invoices in to the office. Yesterday was the last day of the two week pay period, and the invoices had to be in by 9am this morning. Of course we only had one day on this one, but hey, money is money.

Jan actually got up about 10:30, grabbed a bite to eat, and then went back to sleep on the sofa, while I didn’t get up until about noon. I made coffee, fixed us some muffins, and got a load of laundry going. Later, we heated up our leftover La Fonda from last Friday. Still good.

Then it was another nap until about 4:30 when we started getting ready, and were out the door a little before 5pm. It’s only about a 15 minute drive so we were there in plenty of time.

Since I’m normally a night owl anyway, I’m not having a lot of trouble adjusting to the long nights, but it’s a little more difficult for Jan. But a couple of more days of this shift should help.

Of course that presupposes we’ll stay on this night shift. You never can tell.

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.

adfadf