Our RV Adventures

Amazon really came through on my missing Azio Lighted Keyboard. As a reminder, last Monday I got a text message saying my new keyboard had been delivered to the office.

I had ordered it the previous Friday to replace our 3 year old one that had gone wonky on us. But , although the tracking info said it had been delivered and “handed to a resident”, it wasn’t one of the three ‘residents’ who ‘reside’ at our office.

And in fact, after that initial disappearing act, it never reappeared. So, on Thursday, after our mailman told us it was lost and they had no idea where it was, I emailed Amazon, explaining the situation and 15 minutes later, they had credited my account the $29.99. Nice.

And this morning the replacement one that I ordered Thursday afternoon, showed up right on time.

Way to go, Amazon!

My phone’s ‘OK Google’ voice input works again. A couple of weeks ago I noticed saying ‘OK Google’ and then asking a question no longer worked. It worked if I typed something in the Google box, and it worked if I pressed the little mic button and ask my question.manually. So I knew it wasn’t a mic problem.

I had checked it on line a couple of times, and tried a couple of recommendations, all with no luck. But today it fixed itself.

While we were at lunch, I got a notice that there was a Security Update available for my Galaxy S8+. So I clicked OK, and a few minutes later my phone rebooted and it was done.

The RV Mobile Lube people called today and we’re now scheduled for this coming Friday afternoon around 3pm or so. Just one more thing out of the way before our trip.

I’m in the planning/ordering stages for my remote dump system. I think I’ll use the same box to hold the components that I used in my 50amp tester project, along with a blank wall plate. Then I’ll drill holes in the plate to install the two 1/4” phone jacks where I’ll plug in the two actuators. Since they both come with 1/4” phone plugs, it makes more sense to use that and not cut them off.

Inside the box I’ll mount these two remote controller units that I ordered today.

Then it should be just a matter of mounting the actuators  and connecting them to the dump valve handles. Easy Peezy, right?  Well, that’s the fun of a project like this. You never know what problems will pop up.

Not wanting to take any chances with our newly-arrived keyboard at my client’s office, Jan and I headed into the Clear Lake area to pick it up, and while there, eat lunch. And for the fourth time since Sunday, we ate again at the East Star Chinese Buffet. So that’s Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and today, Saturday.

The place is ready good, with everything fresh and hot, and done in small batches. Even  the pizza must be really good, since they seem to have trouble keeping it supplied. I think it really says something about a Chinese buffet when people like their pizza too.

Of course, eating at the same restaurant 4 days in one week is not a record for us. That honor belongs to the late-lamented Burrito King back in the early 80’s. In that case we ate there every night for a week.

Yes, seven days in a row. Because that’s where everyone wanted to go for dinner. Over the years we became friends with the owner’s, the Montoya family, who owned other BK’s out in California. At one time there were two her in Houston, and over 20 total in the chain.

But out Webster location sadly closed when the family members moved on to other careers. According to this article, Burrito King, over the years the chain has faded to just two remaining units in California. The piece is an interesting read, with the details matching up with what we knew at the time. And I think a lot of the same problems caused the downfall of the local Ninfa’s restaurant chain here in the Houston area.

A local institution for many years, it crashed and burned due to family infighting, over-expansion, bad decisions, and mismanagement. Another sad loss.

Thought for the Day: 

Sometimes when I think I’m losing my mind, I reassure myself  that as long as I don’t misplace the part that tells me I need to pee, I should be OK.

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Since Nat Geo Wild has been rerunning ‘My Life Is A Zoo’ and we visited there in 2011, AND we didn’t get home from our concert until midnight, I thought I’d rerun the blog of our visit, especially we have a lot of new readers who weren’t with us 7 years ago.

The DeYoung Family Zoo . . .

When I went to bed last night I still didn’t know if we were going to make the trip this morning up to Wallace, MI about 100 miles away, to visit the DeYoung Family Zoo.

The weather was showing a 60% chance of thunderstorms last night, but it was supposed to be clear on Monday. So we could wait til then if necessary.

But when I checked it about 5 am, it was down to 50% chance, and by 8 it was 40%. So we decided to give it go since it looked like things were improving. And it turned out to be a beautiful day, lucky for us.

We headed out a little after 9, stopping in Shawano for Egg Muffins and coffee, and then gas. We got to the park about 11:30, and it was all we hoped it would be.

The DeYoung Family Zoo is owned by Bud and Carrie DeYoung, and has been featured for several years on the Nat Geo Wild channel as “My Life is a Zoo”.

Since we love small zoos and animal parks, it has been on our bucket list for a couple of years.

Just this year along we’ve visited places like Bearizona in Williams, AZ, Out of Africa in Camp Verde, AZ, Cat Tales Zoological Park north of Spokane, WA, and the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch between Tucson and Phoenix, AZ.

One of the first things we encountered was the petting zoo area where Jan tried her hand at feeding the goats.

They had a real mix of animals in this area, including alpacas,

and a zhorse, or zorse, a zebra/horse cross.

First off, you have no idea how hard I resisted saying something about “Lions, and Tigers, and Bears.”

Oh, wait. I just did. Sorry.

They have a little bit of everything here. I’m really just hitting some of the highlights.

One thing we both liked at this zoo was the fact that it wasn’t just all sterile concrete and moats. The animal’s habitats were large and natural-looking, like this grizzly cage.

They have over 400 animals here, and most of them are rescues of one sort or another, including these two beautiful cats.

A little while after we got there it was feeding time for the meat eaters. Here’s Bud flinging a chunk of cow over the fence to the waiting White Tiger below.

Although I could never get a picture of it, when the meat is thrown over the fence, the tigers leap up about 10 feet and catch it in mid-air.

Carrie said they go through three cows a DAY to feed the animals.

They have a new baby hippo who’s in a temporary facility,

until her new pool is ready. Very nice.

Here’s Carrie in the cage and talking about the different breeds of wolves they have.

These are Dingos, the Australian wild dogs, of “The Dingo Ate My Baby” fame, although these are like pets, and kids were hand-feeding them dog biscuits from the box.

This mother hyena is taking her cub back to the den after it got too close to the fence and the crowd of people around.

Besides the baby hippo, there were a lot of other, smaller babies that we could pet, hold, or feed.

This is a baby Wallaby, a type of kangaroo.

And here’s a very young monkey being feed by a little girl.

And here’s a Stripped Hyena, one of Carrie’s favorites, who really likes to be held and cuddled.

Bud came out with these two somewhat older baby monkeys that really entertained the crowd with their antics.

The last area we visited was the reptile exhibit with this Monitor Lizard just hanging out.

Bud and Carrie have really put a lot of work into this place and it shows.

As I said, I just skimmed the surface of what there is to see here. Check it out if you’re in the area.

We left the park about 2:30 and headed home, stopping for dinner at the Cottage Diner in Cecil, WI, about 25 miles from the rig.

We got back about 5:45 and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we’ll head south about 200 miles to Janesville, WI for one night, then Normal, IL for one night, before ending up in Vandalia, IL at Jan’s sister’s house on Wednesday for our family reunion. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon will be in on Thursday.

We can’t wait.

Thought for the Day: 

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