Our RV Adventures

Jan and I spent the morning ‘running the numbers’ again, this time on whether or not it would be worthwhile to move down to the Clear Lake area for the rest of the year since it’s costing me about $280 a month in gas traveling down there 3 times a week.

It costs us $56/week here at Lake Conroe TT, so figuring TT and PA for a full months stay here, that’s $353.50. And when you add in the $280, it’s $635. And there are a number of parks down there in the $350 to $500/month plus electric. So it looks like it would be a good deal, BUT – are there any openings with FEMA, Insurance Adjusters, and Contractors down there too? So we’ll have to see.

One thing that makes it easy for us to “run the numbers” is that the Screen Mirroring function on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 is that it will talk directly to our 40” Samsung TV.

All I have to do is click the Screen Mirror button on the Tab and in a few seconds whatever is displayed on the Tab’s screen is duplicated on the TV.

Makes it really easy for both of us to watch a video, see a photo, or use a calculator.

About 2pm I went down to the Ranger Station to check out of the park under TT and then back in under PA. Considering how hard it had been to actually MAKE the PA reservation, I was expecting trouble, but that part went pretty smoothly.

It was when she went to print out our car passes that things fell apart. Just as soon as she clicked the PRINT button, the machine locked up . . .HARD. When nothing happened after 15 –20 seconds, she tried CTRL-ALT-DEL. At that point, after another short delay, she got this.

The dreaded BSOD. Otherwise known as the Blue Screen Of Death

At this point the only thing she could do was to power off and back on. Then it took about 5 minutes to get Windows back up and working, and then about 10 minutes to get fully back into the program.

Then she was able to print out our passes.

It’s really problematic that this works at all since Thousand Trail’s entire reservation system is so old, that it’s a DOS program that they’re running on Win7. And I can pretty much guarantee that it won’t run under Win10 at all. No wonder they have so many problems with it.

About 4pm Jan and I headed back down to China Delight to have dinner with friends, old and new.

The old ones are Debi and Ed Hurlburt on the left next to Jan, and Dick and Judy Mott on the right. And the new ones are Dave and Judy Evans in the back.

What’s funny with Dave and Judy is that we have so many mutual friends that it’s amazing we haven’t run into them before now. But in the RV world new friends quickly become old friends. That’s part of the fun

A great meal and a great time.

We need to replace the window awnings on our rig. One has a fist-sized hole in it, and they’ve all never really recovered from the drilling fluid drenching they got back in 2014 when a hose burst on the drill rig and soaked the area around it for about 50 yards, including us.

Now at the age of 18,  the rig’s gray-silver-light gray-cream paint scheme has faded a little, but still looks pretty good, so I wanted to brighten things up a little with these dark blue awnings instead of the original gray ones. This is not the exact color of blue that I’ve seen, but you’ll get the idea.

I tried a number of other colors, but I like the dark blue the best.

So let’s hear it from the peanut galley.

Yay or Nay?

The Word of the Day is: Moribund

Thought for the Day: 

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Jan and I headed out about 2:15, first down to the Sugarland area and Floyd’s Cajun Seafood where we took Nick and Terry Russell when they were here a couple of weeks ago, dropping off their RV at PPL.

I didn’t realize it until the next day, but I lost my checkbook there. Or at least I thought I did. And when I called a couple of days later, and talking to the manager, I found it had been turned in, and by another manager. I told them we were in Conroe and it might be a couple of weeks before we got down there.  They said no problem, and it would be in the safe. Then leaving Floyd’s we headed back up Hwy 6 and the Grand Parkway to Brandi’s in Katy.

We were all getting together at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro for dinner to give them a try. Yes, we’ve eaten there many times in the past, but things have changed since then.

The last time we ate at Little V’s was March 8 of this past year. the night before we left on our big 3 month out west travels. And since then, Tuen, the owner, had sold the place. And the reviews since then have been mixed, some good, some not-so-good.

So this afternoon we were going to give it a try.

We got to Brandi’s a little after 4pm and got a look at her new baby.

Brandi says her name is Helena, though I don’t know why. She’s a fully-loaded 2017 Ford Escape to replace her slightly long-in-the-tooth Lexus. Really nice, and red, Jan’s favorite color. A very nice ride.

As far as Little V’s goes, it was really delicious – if we hadn’t eaten at Little V’s pre-sale. But in comparison it just didn’t quite match up.

We started off with our usual Pork Spring Rolls.

The insides were good, but there was a more chewy wrapper with a different texture. Just not quite as good.

On the entrée front, Lowell said his Phở was good, but something was ‘missing’. As far as my Shaking Beef Vermicelli Bowl, it was the same theme.

The ingredients and the ‘taste’ was the same, but the beef, which was melt in your mouth tender and unlike any I had ever eaten, was cut differently and not near as tender, but more chewy.

Jan and Brandi always split an order of the Chicken Curry.

And Jan said the same thing. The Curry was good, but just didn’t have the intense favor of Tuen’s version.

Finishing up, the Crème Brûlée spoons were the only thing that lived up to the original.

Smooth pudding with a crunchy sugar crust. Just perfect.

Wrapping up, if we hadn’t eaten here under Tuen’s regime, it would be one of our new favorite places. And I guess it still is.

But it’s just not the same.

The Word of the Day is: Pestiferous

Thought for the Day:

  dfgsdfg