Monthly Archives: July 2020
Past Lives . . .
With not much else going on, you get a Three’fer Blog repost tonight. On this date in 2011 we were visiting our friends Al and Adrienne in Cody, WY.
July 29, 2011
Hair Cuts and Bear Spray . . .
After coffee about 9:30 and a lunch of leftover BBQ and Nachos around 12, we goofed off until about 2 pm when we headed out for the afternoon.
Our first stop was the Cody Mural, a panoramic painting covering a dome 18 feet high and 36 feet in diameter. The mural depicts the Mormon pioneers settling the West, and especially the Big Horn Basin here in Wyoming.
It was interesting to discover that states and territories encouraged Mormon settlers to come to their areas because they were hard-working and industrious. Buffalo Bill even tried to get them to come to Cody, but they ultimately ended up further to the northeast in the Lovell, WY area.
Leaving the Mural, we drove by the local Walgreen’s and I got this shot of their sign.
If Walgreen’s is selling Bear Spray, maybe bears are a bigger problem then I thought.
Right down the street we came across this very unusual RV parked in a liquor store parking lot.
I might have to be drunk to drive this too. Note the chimney for a wood stove.
I like the AC unit right above the steer horns.
And the back porch is a nice touch, too.
I’d been thinking about getting my hair cut (no snide remarks, please) and saw the Cowboy Cuts Barber Shop and decided to give it a try.
The owner/barber, Coral, was really good, but she was not too complementary of my old haircut. The first thing she said was, “Where’d you get this cut, Wal-Mart”? I had to sheepishly say “Yes, a while back in Las Vegas”
She said, “Well, I hope you did better at the slots than you did with this haircut.” Ouch!
She then proceeded to give me a layered cut, and also trimmed my beard. When she finished and I ask, “How much?” She said, “Eight dollars” “Why so cheap”, I ask. She just smiled and said, “You didn’t give me a lot to do.”
Ouch, again. But I did give her a $5 tip.
Our next stop was Wal-Mart for a few things before we met our friends Al and Adrienne at Bubba’s BBQ. And if you’re counting, that does make it 6 meals in a row at a Bubba’s.
After another great meal of BBQ, Al and Adrienne headed home, while Jan drove down the road a ways to Tecumseh’s Trading Post to check out their 7000 square foot Western diorama.
Highly detailed it shows many scenes from the settling of the West, Custer’s Last Stand, the coming of the railroads, and more, along with voice narration.
Really nice, very well done, and even better, it was free.
Tomorrow, at the suggestion of several of our blog readers, including our friend, Dave Cross, we’re going to drive the Beartooth Highway up north from here. It’s a loop of about 180 miles and is supposed to be really spectacular.
Thought for the Day:
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
And in 2012 we coming up on the end of our first period of gate guarding, four months this time.
July 29, 2012
Counting Down the Days . . .
Tomorrow (Monday) we’ll be starting our final 3 weeks of gate guarding, and Jan’s counting down the days.
Me, I’m counting down the fact we’ve only got 3 more paychecks. Bummer!
First off, to get the important stuff out of the way. Here’s Landon and Daddy,
It’s been a pretty slow week so far, but things are picking up.
We’ve heard that they will be sliding the drill rig over to the new hole sometime later this week. We’ve also heard that it will take several days, rather than the 12 – 15 hours I was told originally. That makes more sense to me, since it’s not just a matter of moving the derrick, but all the surrounding stuff has to be moved out of the way first and then hooked back up.
On Wednesday we had another catered meal, this time from Stellar, the company that furnishes and support all the office and residence trailers on site. Nothing fancy, but a delicious pork loin cutlet, with green beans, cheesy baked potatoes, and fruit salad for dessert. The really great thing about all these catered meals is how well they’re seasoned. Just perfect.
And they’re free.
OK, the really great thing about these meals is that they’re free, and perfectly seasoned. I’ve got my priorities after all.
On Tuesday of course, it was Galindo’s Chile Rellenos Day.
Another great meal from a little hole-in-the-wall place
Once again, not real fancy-looking, but really delicious!
For several weeks our temps here pretty much stayed in the low 90’s, but this past week it’s been back in the high 90’s every day, and looks to stay that way for the next several weeks.
Oh well, it’s summer in south Texas after all.
A few days ago I was talking with one of the drivers for Macro Trucking, one of the big haulers in this area for the rigs. They have over 600 semi’s, and we get 3 or 4 a day in here.
The driver told me about Power Service Diesel Kleen with Cetane Boost.
He said the company had started using it in all their trucks about 9 months ago, after doing a six month trial run on about 50 of them. He said they were getting a solid 5-6% increase in mileage, along with cleaner injectors.
I had actually heard of this awhile back on RV.net so I decided to give a try. Amazon carries it at the link above for about $14 for a 32oz bottle. I’ll let you know how it does once we get back on the road.
Wrapping up, Joseph, one of the Gate Guard Services’ techs came out today to top us off with water and diesel, and change the oil in our generator. This guy can do an oil and filter change in 8 minutes! Great when you don’t want to be without your rig AC for very long.
Finally, I want to highly recommend two Kindle books, both 99 cents, and well worth the money and more.
The first one is Mars the Avenger, a murder mystery set in ancient Rome, about 135 A.D. Besides the interesting mystery, the details of Rome life in that period make it even a better read. Check it out.
The second one is Methuselah’s Daughter, about a 3500 year old woman. The story starts in the present (2004, actually) and jumps between 1100 B.C. (when she’s already 400 years old) and around 135 B.C. in the Roman Republic.
Effectively immortal, (she grows back an arm and a leg after a bad traffic accident) the story really centers on how she views the rest of mankind and what she has to go through to hide her condition, a growing problem in today’s computerized society.
Don’t take this as a science fiction or fantasy book. It’s really not. It’s the story of a woman who has lived 50 lifetimes, coping with the loneliness, and watching anyone she becomes close to, grow old and die, while she stays young. At one point, she pretty much has no human contact for almost 400 years! because of this.
And just like Mars the Avenger, the details of the societies she lives in make the book even more interesting.
Both well recommend. You won’t be disappointed.
Thought for the Day:
Nothing quiets a room like a 12ga. chambering a shell.
And in 2017 we were visiting friends in Montgomery, AL where we lived from 1974 until the end of 1978 when we moved out to Texas.
July 29, 2017
Somewhat The Worse For Wear . . .
After coffee and some of the delicious pound cake that our friend Susan Springall sent us home with last night, we headed out about 1:30 for some errands.
Jan’s been wanting to get her hair cut, so using the Supercut’s phone app, we found the closest one and booked her in there. So instead of the 20 minute wait she would have had when she got there, she got taken right in. Kind of like the Call-Ahead Seating at Texas Roadhouse. Great Clips has a similar app, but there are no Great Clips in the Montgomery area.
While Jan was getting clipped, I got gas, and a car wash to get the hydraulic fluid off the truck.
Afterwards, we drove around for a while, checking out places where we lived while we were here from January 1974 until December 1978.
For the first year, we lived at Eastdale Apartments, then we moved into this small house south of town.
Still looks pretty good. We lived here for about a year until we bought this one, the very first home that we owned.
On the other hand, this one looks somewhat the worse for wear. Kind of sad because it was a very nice house in the day.
By now it was time to head north on I-65 up to Prattville to meet long-time friends Kathy and Whalen Wilkes at the Longhorn Steakhouse there.
Jan worked with Kathy when they both were at Jackson Hospital so they spent a lot of time talking over old times and people. One thing both sad AND funny, was that as they were naming off people they knew and worked with, it was So N So, Dead, So N Do, Dead, So N So, Dead. And on and on.
For dinner we had the usual delicious steaks we’ve come to expect from Longhorn.
Jan got the New York Strip, her favorite steak, along with a Baked Potato.
I got the 18oz. Outlaw Ribeye, with upgraded Black Peppercorn encrusting, as well as the Fire-Grilled Mexican Corn. And the Corn was really, really good.
All really great, and mine was so big I had half to take home.
We really had a good time catching up with Kathy and Whalen, and we’ll try not to wait so long next time.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 190 mile day up to Athens, AL for 5 days to visit with relatives and friends. Looking forward to it.
Thought for the Day:
“I am not entirely on anyone’s side, because no one is entirely on mine.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
Cutting The Cord, Almost . . .
Probably in the next couple of days, after Jan gets home from Brandi’s, we’re going to shut down, or at least, suspend our DirecTV account. It will be the first time since sometime in 1997 that we won’t be using DirecTV’s service.
But DTV keeps raising their cost, now up to a little over $190 a month. And we don’t have any premium movie or sports channels.
But we’ve found that YouTubeTV is a very suitable replacement, at $65, it’s 1/3 the price. We have added about $25 of other services, like CuriousityStream, CBSAllAccess, and Acorn to round out our menu.
Even better, we’re getting everything in HD, which we didn’t on DTV since our Winegard Dome wouldn’t support it.
Today I went to pull up something from our Saved area in Facebook, but couldn’t find it. There was no listing for Saved under the menu area. So I did a little Googling and nothing directly related popped up, but I did find that your Facebook Saved area is located at Facebook.com/Saved so I typed that in and WAHLA, all our Saved stuff came up. And when I then went back to the menu area, Saved was once again in the list.
I mentioned the other day that since California had gone to their all masks/all the time condition, that KungFlu cases had really jumped the next 45 days, well outside of any possible incubation period linkage.
Well, here’s a chart from Los Angeles County where they mandated masks back around the middle of May.
I don’t know about you, but it sure doesn’t look like masks have even slightly slowed down the rise in cases.
This time last year we were not on the road, but parked here in Santa Fe, Texas
July 28, 2019
It’s Drying Time Again . . .
After I got coffeenated this morning, I pulled the washer back out and popped the top lid. I had figured it would be quick and easy replacement/fix to install the new dryer fan motor, but it turned out to be a little more involved. Much like most repairs.
I inserted the motor/squirrel cage fan assembly down into the housing and tightened it down using the 3 screws. Then turning on the power, I started the dryer.
And nothing.
Well, the drum started turning, but the fan motor didn’t. And when I tried to turn it by hand it wouldn’t budge.
Well, it was working when I installed it.
So I loosen the mounting screws and tried it again. And it would now turn, but it was scraping inside. A couple of more turns and it was spinning free.
So I removed the assembly and compared it with the old one. And despite having the same part #, the new one was slightly deeper than the old one, so the fan was rubbing against the inside of the housing.
But a couple of shim washers took care that problem.
Cranking it up again and letting it marinated for a few minutes, I felt the washer door and it was hot. But before I buttoned it up, I went ahead and replaced the Thermal Overheat Fuse since they usually only last a couple of years.
Ten minutes later it was all back together, back in the cabinet, and doing a load.]
It’s Drying Time Again.
Jan will be happy.
Lowell has been sending over some photos of the great time they’re having down in Costa Rica.
Looks like Landon has the right idea.
Thought for the Day:
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