Our RV Adventures

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Ah, the mischievousness of Texas winter weather.

Yesterday it was 82° with a low last night of 65. Today was a high of 64° with a low forecast for tonight of 46.

It is nice to have winter back, though.

Thought first I’d finish up yesterday’s hit or miss dinner plans in San Antonio. Since we ate at Magic Time Machine last time we were there, the obvious choice was our other favorite, La Fonda on Main. But we had said we would get together there with our friend’s Jim and Peri Dean next time. Turns out they wouldn’t have been able to get together with us where ever we went because they were at an RV rally over in Sealy.

We both decided steak sounded good, but none, neither Saltgrass, Outback, nor Texas Roadhouse, were close enough to be attractive. Finally I said, “Magic Time Machine” and got a resounding, “YES” from Jan. And then a “How far is it?”

“5 minutes!”

And off we went.

Checking in at the desk, we ask if Lady GaGa was working and said we wanted her. Even though it was 8:30 and they supposedly closed at 9, we still had to wait 15 minutes to get seated, along with a number of other groups.

Lady GaGa remembered us which was nice since it had been almost a month since we were there before.

Lady was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed watching her perform for the kids at the other tables.

And the food was as delicious as always.

My Ribeye was cooked perfectly, Medium-Rare, with char around the edges.

Along with the soup and salad from the ‘Salad Car,

a 1952 MG TD Roadster, and of course, the hot fresh bread, it’s a $25 meal that’s hard to match. And since there’s enough food to eat half and take half home, it’s actually a $12 meal. Neat!

One thing that’s always impressed me about MTM is the fact that it DOES have such good food. The reason I say this is that MTM is essentially an entertainment venue, especially for the kids, not just a restaurant. And those kind of places don’t have a reputation for good food. Think Chuck E. Cheese.

The only exceptions I can really think of are Tilman Fertitta’s Rainforest Café and Aquarium restaurants. But he insists on top quality in all his locations, and is known for showing up unannounced at locations all over the country to check things out.

I mentioned in last night’s blog that I had finally gotten a chance to check out Sam’s Club’s new Scan & Go app. First up you link your Sam’s Club card number and the credit card(s) you want to use. You can link more than one credit card.

In my case it already knew my Sam’s Club card number from my email address

Then as you shop the store, you use the app to scan the bar code of each item. The app identifies the item and the price, and puts it in your app shopping cart, giving you a running total as it goes.

When you’re done shopping, you just hit the Check Out button. The app gives you the Total with tax, and then you hit the Pay Now button. If you have more than one credit card on the account, it asks which one you want to use. Then a bar code shows up on your phone.

As you’re going out the door, you show your phone to the checkout person there. She scans your bar code and then a receipt shows up on your phone. All fine and dandy.

Except . . . there’s always an Except.

Except the bar code scanner function doesn’t work with this app on my phone. The square box that shows your phone’s camera view that you center on the bar code just stays black. So every item that I buy I have to manually type in the bar code. But even with this, it’s still better than standing in line, taking every thing out of your basket, and then putting it all back in again.

Now my camera works fine by itself, and on other apps like the QR Code Reader. But strangely enough, the one other app it doesn’t work on, at least now, is the scanner on the Wal-Mart app that you use to scan your receipts for the Savings Catcher Rebate Program.

The Wal-Mart app used to work, and then it quit for awhile, and then it came back. And then it died, never to return. I always thought maybe that this was due to getting a new WM app update. But with Sam’s app doing the same thing, I’m rethinking that.

Googling the problem shows I’m not alone on this. But I’ve got some ideas and I’ll get back to you on it.

The Good is that gas prices are up and things seem to be booming in the Oil ‘Bidness’. The Bad is that gas prices are up and it hurts more to fill the tank in the truck.

Yesterday morning coming home from the gate at 5 am, the gas price at Wal-Mart was $1.99. Then when we stopped to fill up there on our way to San Antonio about 1:30 pm, the price was $2.05. Then this afternoon it had jumped to $2.09. Ouch.

And back in November it got down as low as $1.74. That’s 35 cents a gallon in just a couple of months. Ouch, again.

Finishing up, one thing I forgot to mention yesterday, was that as we were coming out of the Rogue One movie last night, Jan called our son Chris to tell him how much we had enjoyed it.

And in one of those strange coincidences that’s when he told us that Debbie Reynolds had died.

hhhhhhhh