Our RV Adventures

After coffee and our Buc-ee’s Cranberry Nut muffins from our Wednesday trip down here, we were out the door to the Karnes County National Bank to get our business checking account under our DBA name.

Our first stop was the branch (1 of 2) here in Kenedy, but we found that the one person who could open this type of account had left for an early lunch. So we were off to the remaining branch over in Karnes City.

With this lost time we were starting to worry about being done before we needed to be at the Marathon Orientation Class about 10 miles away. But when we finally finished up al the paperwork almost two hours later, we made it to the class with 15 minutes to spare.

This was good because they lock the doors right at 1pm and won’t let anyone end. Then we’d have to wait until next Friday.

The class last for about two hours, and was actually pretty entertaining due to the skill of the instructors. Todd had told us to text him when we were done, and when we did, he said to meet him at the same McDonald’s where we met yesterday. Lucky for us it was only about 5 minutes away.

Todd was already waiting for us, and we quickly got right down to business. We went over all our paperwork, double-checking everything we’d done so far, and listing what we still needed to do. And now we have two new events on our calendar

We’re supposed to meet Todd and his wife Tam at a gate Tam is working just north of Kenedy on the way to Karnes City. We’ll spend a couple of hours going over the operation of the gate, working with the iPad and logging in some vehicles.

We’ll also get to check out the guard shack and how it operates, which Jan is really looking forward to.

And even better, we have our first gate scheduled. It’s a new gate, and Jan and I will work the 6pm to 6am shift together, and then we’ll where we go from there.

Jan and I both think this is kind of a text gate by Todd to see how we’ll do, and if we’ll even show up. He’s been burned a lot of times, including today. For example he was supposed to have about 8 potential guards at the class today, but it was only us and one other lady. And she didn’t text after the class like she was supposed to do.

It’s easy to see that Todd doesn’t like people who can’t following directions.

Since this might be our last chance for a night out in San Antonio, Jan and I headed back to the rig so could feed Miss Karma, and then headed into town to have dinner at one of our favorites, La Fonda on Main

We’ve eaten here a number of times and it’s one of our ‘go to’ place here in San Antonio is La Fonda on Main. Opened by two sisters in 1930, it has grown (moved across the street in 1934) to one of the best Mexican restaurants in San Antonio.

Here’s what their website says about their history.

It is fascinating to hear how popular La Fonda has been as a dining spot of history’s most celebrated people. Every famous officer in World War II seems to have eaten here, including Generals Eisenhower, MacArthur and Hill. Even American presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson enjoyed La Fonda’s fare. Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Yul Brenner, Veronica Lake, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, along with many other stars, visited this historic restaurant.

Today to celebrate, we started out with a Margarita, or half a Margarita, anyway. We split a Sangria Swirl ‘Rita, and unlike the one we had recently at Saltgrass, this one actually had some alcohol in it. Very good.

Jan’s favorite dish here is their Chile Relleno platter.

The egg-battered poblano chile is stuffed with beef tenderloin, salsa and pecans, and an enchilada verde de queso.

I tried something completely different this time with their Filete Regio, which is an Allen Bros. Oak-grilled  choice beef tenderloin, papas rancheras, Oaxaca cheese, on a crisp chalupa, topped with ajillo Gulf shrimp, peppers, and avocado slices.

Very spicy and very good.

Both our portions were big enough that we were able to bring half of it home for later, and that also gave us enough room to split a piece of their delicious Tres Leches cake.

Really good.

Looks like it’s back to work in the next couple of days. We’re actually looking forward to it.

“The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly 
surprised.” — George Will

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After our coffee this morning, we met Todd at the nearby McDonald’s at 11am to go over the job and the requirements. It was also kind of a ‘get to know each together’ for all of us. After about 90 minutes, we parted ways, taking our employment packets with us.

Our first stop was a nearby carwash to try and get some of the mud off the truck. It was a so-so job and got about 90% of it off, but I’ll probably need to redo it with my pressure washer to finish up.

Todd had recommended RJ’s Burgers in downtown Kenedy. It’s often said that the best burgers are found in dumpy-looking places.

For example, here is Stomp’s down in Kemah, TX, with our favorite burgers in the Clear Lake area.

And then there’s Coyote Bluff in Amarillo, also at the top of our Best Burgers List.

And now there’s a new entry on our list – RJ’s Burgers in Kenedy, TX.

Here’s Jan’s Cheddar Mushroom Burger.

These are large burgers on 5” buns, with hand-formed 8 oz burgers and hand-cut fries. And  the scary part is that according to their menu, you can get this as a double, or even a TRIPLE!  That’s a pound and a half of burger meat. WOW!

You’re getting into Heart Attack Grill territory with that one.

I got the Grilled Ribeye Sandwich, with an 8 oz Ribeye, charred around the edges and medium-rare inside. And like the fries, their onion rings are hand-sliced and battered.

And for a small place, they’ve got a pretty extensive menu.

If there’s a down side to the place, it’s that they’re only open from 10am to 3pm, Monday through Friday. Bummer!

Finishing up we headed over to the Karnes County Courthouse in Karnes City to get our DBA from the County Clerk’s office. But as it turns out, the courthouse is shut down for a complete rebuilding / remodeling and the courthouse offices are scattered all over town. We had to make 4 stops to complete the paperwork.

Finally finishing up and heading toward home, we took a detour out on FM-2102 to check out the location of the Marathon Oil Company facility in this area.

We have to take their Orientation class tomorrow, or wait until next Friday when it’s given again. Everyone has to take the class now before you can work at a Marathon site, another thing that’s changes since we last worked for them in 2012.

Getting back to the rig, I spent the rest of the evening fighting my way through the online Security Guard license stuff. Looks like we won’t have to redo the fingerprints again, so that’s good.

Tomorrow we’ll try to wrap the bank account stuff before we do the Marathon class.

Then it’s just wait and see.

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have one idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. – George B. Shaw

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