Our RV Adventures

I came home a little early this afternoon so I could pick up Jan and then we headed over to the Enterprise Car Rental place in Dickinson to pick up our Ford Fusion. Then we came back over to Santa Fe to drop off our truck at Mike’s Auto Repair so he can find and fix our A/C’s Freon leak.

I had allowed some extra time to pick up our car since it always seems to take a long time to actually be on my way. But it turns out that the WuFlu really speeds things up.

There’s a sign blocking the entrance saying to Wait Outside For Assistance. And after about 30 seconds a young lady came out with a computer tablet, asked my name, had me initial in four places, sign in one place, walked me around the car which she had already started, handed me the computer key, and I was pulling out. All in less than 5 minutes.

It turns out that apparently the Enterprise staff doesn’t like to be outside in the 97° temps any longer than they have to.

Then after dropping the truck off at Mike’s we headed on up to Alvin to have dinner at Monterey’s Mexican Restaurant, one of our long-time favorites. Just as delicious as always.

While Jan and I were at WalMart yesterday, we did our part for the Goya ‘Buycott’, though it was not easy because the shelves were pretty bare. But we got some Black Beans, some Red Kidney Beans, some Chipotle Chilies, and a couple of other things.

One guy in Virginia set up a GoFundMe account with a goal of $10,000 to buy Goya products to donate to food banks and pantries. He raised $190,000 in just a couple of days.

You may or may not have heard about Comet NEOWISE which is now visible is the northern hemisphere skies. The closest approach is supposed to be next week on July 22nd. But here’s a couple of photos of the comet, both in locations we’ve been to, both really spectacular.

This first one is pretty obvious.

However you may not recognize this one, but it’s taken over the Rim Rocks above Billings, Montana.

Hopefully Jan and I will be able to see it here in the Houston area before it leaves the area. But if we miss it this time, it’ll be back around in another 6,800 years.

Watch for it.

 

Another Three’fer Blog Post from 2010, 2011, and 2012

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July 15, 2010

Old Homes and Old Haunts…

We headed out about 10:30 am over toward Mountain Brook and Irondale. Mountain Brook because my mother used to live there, and Irondale, because as I told our friend Bill Alverson last night, “You can’t have too much Alabama BBQ”. So we wanted to eat lunch at Golden Rule BBQ there in Irondale.

I’ve eaten at Golden Rule for about as long as I can remember. I drove up to Birmingham every month from 1992 to 2004 to visit my mother, and I used to eat here every month.

After a great lunch of jumbo pork sandwiches, fries, and lemon icebox pie for dessert, we drove over to Mountain Brook to check out my mother’s old house.

My parents bought this house in 1972 and my sister sold it while my mother was in the hospital in 2004. It really doesn’t look that big, but it was almost 4000 sq.ft. with a basement that was the same size.

My father’s ashes were scattered in the rose garden that used to be in front of the house.

I’m not sure why the new owners removed all the shrubs and landscaping. When my mother lived here there were shrubs lining both sides of the driveway going down the hill. There was also large plants along the front of the house, and a large rose garden out among the trees in the front. They also cut down a number of the tall pine trees.

The place really looks pretty bleak, and not near as good as when my mother lived there.

Next we drove thru Mountain Brook Village and English Village, up over the mountain and then down into downtown Birmingham. Taking a right on 1st Ave. N., we headed out toward Center Point where we lived and went to college in the early 70’s.

We actually lived in Center Point twice. The first time from Sept 1970 to Apr 1971. We lived in the Colonial Manor Apartments and I was an electronics/video tech at Signal Engineering & Sales.

Here’s a photo of the the apartments. What’s interesting is there used to be another row of apartments right on the other side of the fence in the foreground. Now there’s just a big hole in the ground where the fountain used to be. Don’t know for certain, but I suspect it burned down, and they just tore it down rather than rebuilt it.

Colonial Manor Apartments

Our apartment was the one on the top left.

In Sept 1973 we were back in Birmingham and living in the Valley Brook Apartments in Center Point and attending Jefferson State Junior College. I was working as a Broadcast/Video Engineer for the Alabama Educational Television Network.

We lived in the unit to the rear in this picture.

We drove over to Jeff State and found it hard to recognize the campus. The biggest reason was all the trees. The area, as to be expected, is much more heavily forested than 40 odd years ago.

Leaving Jeff State, we headed back to the rig down in Helena. We got back about 3 pm and decided it was a good time for nap.

About 5 pm we headed off to Alabaster, AL to the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant there. We started to encounter rain as we left the rig, but it slack off as we got to Alabaster.

We did find this sign on the way. Guess they want to be sure where the truck route is.

Coming home about 7 pm, the bottom really dropped out on the rain. It was pouring down by the time we got home.

Tomorrow we’ll head north to Athens, AL for a few days to visit my family there, before heading up to Louisville and The Rally.

More tomorrow…

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Quote of the day:

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. – H. L. Mencken

July 15, 2011

Black Angus and Jagz . . .

This morning started VERY early, 6 am early, as it were. But we wanted to stop and get diesel on the way out of town, and we were going to lose an hour moving into Mountain Daylight time, so we wanted to try and leave by 8.

In yesterday’s blog I mentioned that when we got home last night our water was off. Thinking that this was connected to the water problem day before yesterday when a water main broke in the park, I didn’t think anything about it, and we just used the pump and our internal fresh water tank.

But when I went outside this morning to disconnect the hoses and start putting things away, I found our water faucet had been turned off.

Thinking it was a prank by kids or something, I turned it back on . . . and immediately got soaked from the knees down. Apparently what happened is that our water filter ruptured sometime yesterday and started spraying water everywhere. And I guess someone came along, saw it, and turned it off.

The filter seems to have ruptured right at the bottom of the cylinder.

After getting everything packed up, I pulled out of the park a few minutes before 8 am with Jan following me in the toad.

10 miles later we stopped at an Exxon station on the way into Newport to top off our diesel tank. I put in a little over 75 gallons at $3.99 a gallon. Last time I filled up in Long Beach, WA, it was $4.29, so I thought this was a good deal.

Little did I know.

While we were fueling up, Jan watched the pump while I hitched the toad to the back of the rig, and about 8:40 we were back on the road, a few minutes later crossing the Pend Oreille River into Idaho.

90 miles later, we crossed into Montana, and suddenly it was 11:30 instead of 10:30, as we entered the Mountain Time Zone.

And now in Montana, my great buy on diesel came back to haunt me. We passed several stations showing $3.69, and even one at $3.66 a gallon. Bummer!

And if I’d known, I had plenty of diesel to make it that far. Oh, well. It’s only money. (sob!)

We did have some great scenery here along US-2. Much of the time we had rivers or lakes beside the highway, and a lot of mountains in the distance.

The road was good, with no real climbs or descents to worry about, and not a lot of curves either. Although mostly two lane, the road surface was smooth, with plenty of places to pull over for breaks.

All in all, a nice trip and a nice day of driving.

After passing through Kalispell, we pulled into the Columbia Falls RV Park about 2:30, and were quickly led to our site. This is a beautiful park, with full 50 amp hookups, WiFi, and a great 60 channel cable TV system. And of course, the great view too.

And my new satellite antenna worked great, getting a signal in less than 5 minutes. As well, I have 5 bars of 3G on my phone, too.

After relaxing for a while, we headed out about 4 to check out the area and have dinner.

We were both in the mood for a good steak, and ended up at Jagz, a really nice restaurant we passed coming in between Kalispell and Columbia Falls.

After a really, really good meal, with Jan having a 12 oz. Strip, and I had a 20 oz. Ribeye, both Black Angus Beef, we got back to the rig about 6:30, stopping off at the office to buy a new water filter.

A little after 8 pm, our friends Al and Adrienne Cox called to talk over our visit with them in Cody, WY next week. We haven’t seen them since this past March in Tucson so it will be good to catch up.

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Thought for the Day:

“Do something you like. Forget about the pay, for Christ’s sakes. Regulate your style of living to fit your income. Just have fun in your job, that’s the main thing.” ~ General Chuck Yeager

July 15, 2012

Or Maybe Not . . .

Well, now we’re confused. Of course it wouldn’t be the first time.

When we started up at this gate about a week ago, we were told it would run 7 – 8 weeks, which was perfect for us since it meant we wouldn’t have to move again before we planned on leaving Texas for parts north around the 20th of August.

But then late last week we heard the rig would here only 30 days. Bummer! That would mean we would have to move again before we planned to leave, or else knock off early and lose a couple of thousand dollars in gate guard pay.

OUCH!  You know how much that would hurt me.

But then a couple of days later we heard it was going to be a 40 day drill. Well, that wouldn’t be too bad. We could probably make that work.

So now we don’t know what to figure on. I guess we’ll know more as time goes on.

One thing different on this site is how close the crew trailer is to us. At our last site it was about 75 yards away.

 

But at this site they’re snuggled right up close and personal next to us.

The only real problem is parking for everyone. The last few guys in have to park on the grass, and a couple got stuck during the rains last week. Other than that, no problems, no loud parties, since having any alcohol on site is a termination offense.

This morning we were running low on bottled water so about 11:30am I made a run to the Exxon station on I-37 about 5 miles away. And while I was there I picked up some fried chicken and baked potato wedges. We’ve gotten their chicken several times before and it’s always been delicious, and this time was no exception. Very good.

Then later this afternoon while outside on the gate, I started getting the distinct odor of sewage. Since I had dumped our tanks this morning, I was afraid there was something wrong with our system, but after walking around back, I discovered it was pouring out of one of the crew trailer’s two systems and filling up a nearby ditch.

YUCK!

I immediately called the Company Safety Man to let him know about the problem.

The sewage from the trailer first goes into the small green container (called “the honeypot”). There a macerator pump pushes the sewage up into the big green tank.

The sewage was pouring from the honeypot so I figure either the pump failed or the float valve that controls the pump got stuck.

Either way, some guys from Stellar (the company that supplies the trailer and supports it) showed up with a new honeypot and took care of the problem. All that remains now is to get one of the vacuum truck guys to suck up what’s left in the ditch when they come by tomorrow.

The drill rig up the hill from us started pulling out yesterday.

Gary and Susan, the gate guards for that rig, left the day before for their well-deserved time off before the rig catches up with them. It’s strange to look over that way and just see darkness after being brightly lit for so long.

One thing kind of different with this rig location is how busier we are here than the previous site, about 4 – 5 pages a day rather than the 2 – 3 pages before. This means we’re logging in 60 – 80 vehicles a day rather than the 30 – 40 a day before. Still not a lot of work.

I ask one of the guys coming through the gate about it and he laughed and said it was because we were so close to civilization now. Before, we were 20 miles out in the boonies, but now we’re just 5 miles off the Interstate. Reps and support guys can cruise through the site, check on their workers, and be back on the road.  Then they can write it up in their daily logs how busy they were.. And it’s even better for them with two rigs here. So now we know.

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Thought for the Day:

So how do a fool and his money get together in the first place?

This morning I called Mike’s Auto Repair in Santa Fe to make an appointment to drop off the truck tomorrow after work to get my A/C fixed, and also an oil/filter change while it’s there.

Then I went online to the Enterprise Rental website to reserve a car to that we will pick up tomorrow afternoon on our way to drop off the truck.

Then about 1pm Jan and I headed out, first for lunch and then for some grocery shopping. And since we enjoyed Salata so much this past Saturday, we decided try it again. And it was just as good as the last time.

I added some more fruit, some more veggies, and dropped the Chipotle Chicken and it was delicious. And the Chipotle White Bean was as good as last time, also. Then it was off, first to WalMart and then HEB.

I noticed that about half the shoppers in the store had their masks pulled down enough to expose their nose so they could breathe. And while I was waiting for Jan while she was looking for something, I checked a mask kiosk to see what they had.

One thing I was curious about was the masks that seem to have some sort of valve on the front. I figured that maybe it had some sort of flap to let air in, but none back out. So at least you would be able to pull in fresh air.

But the half dozen different ones I looked at. ranging in price from $5.99 to $14.99, did not have any sort of valve at all. The valve part on the outside was really just a cover for the hole in the masks. So air could freely pass in and out, as well as the virus it would seem. So why not just punch a couple of holes in the mask you already have.

Or maybe it’s just to hide the fact that your mask is not really doing anything at all, but keeps people from yelling at you.

But whatever works, I guess.

CDC figures show that 2019-2020 Seasonal Flu has killed 166 children under the age of 15. But the WuFlu has only killed 30 children in the same timeframe.

So what’s the problem with reopening the schools this fall?

  

We had several things going on on this date in past years, so today you get 3 blogs, not just 1.

Another in our Where We Were 11 Years Ago Today series.

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July 14, 2009

Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and more trains…

Continued from yesterday…

The indoor part of the Railroad Museum resembles a large railroad station, with multiple tracks full of trains.

This is the John Bull.  It’s a replica of the first locomotive to run on a railroad in America.

In 1831 the first railroad was built between Philadelphia and New York and the John Bull was the engine.  It’s hard to think now of how this revolutionized travel in the US.

It cut the travel time from Philadelphia to New York from 2 days by coach to 5 HOURS!.  It’s hard to do that by car now.

I saw this same locomotive last week in the Smithsonian, but wasn’t able to get close enough to read the display due to the crowds.  I was surprised to learn here that the one I had seen in the Smithsonian was the REAL John Bull, from 1831.

It ran a regular route until 1866, then traveled around the US on exhibitions until it was donated to the Smithsonian in 1884.

This beautiful example of a 2-6-0 Mogul locomotive carried silver ore on the Virginian & Truckee railroad in Nevada from 1875 to 1944.

The ‘2-6-0’  type of nomenclature describes the layout of a locomotive’s wheels, and only applies to steam type locomotives.

The Mogul above has 2 small wheels up front,  6 drive wheels in the middle, and no small wheels in the rear.  Thus, it is a 2-6-0.

This locomotive #7002, dates from 1902 and was the first one in regular service to exceed 100 mph.

Note that this one is a 4-4-2, although you can just barely see the 2 wheels under the tender at the far right of the photo.

Arguably the largest locomotive ever built was the ‘Big Boy’ built for the Union Pacific to pull large coal trains up and down the Rockies out West.

Note that this one is a 4-8-8-4.  That’s a lot of wheels.

Below is a type of locomotive I’d never heard of.

This one is unusual in that it doesn’t have a boiler or generate its own steam.  It’s basically just a big thermos bottle.  It’s filled up with live steam from a stationary boiler and then operated, usually in the rail yard, until it needed to be refilled.

Outside was even better.

It was a rail yard full of more trains.  And it has a real operating roundtable, used to move locomotives in and out of the yard.

Even more locomotives…

And a rail crane used to lift derailed engines and cars back on the track.

I’ve always been fascinated by the big steam engines and this was a great chance to see them up close.

Today was our last full day in Pennsylvania so we headed into Philadelphia to see some sights.

We started off with another duck tour with Ride The Ducks.  Here we are hitting the Delaware River on our trip.

We saw Betsy Ross’ house, the site where William Penn first landed in Pennsylvania, and more.

After our tour, we had a Philly Cheesesteak from a street vendor before visiting Independence Hall,

And the Liberty Bell.

Finally, we headed home, stopping by Wal-mart on the way.

For dinner we did the smorgasbord at Miller’s again.

And then home to get ready to leave for NY tomorrow.

   

Another in our Where We Were 9 Years Ago Today series.

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July 14, 2011

Cat Tails and Good Pizza . . .

After coffee this morning, I got back to work finishing up my transfer switch bypass. Last night after I got the new receptacles, I made up this harness so I’d be ready to go today.

After going outside and disconnecting shore power just to be safe, all I had to do was connect the splices to the loose ends of the generator output wires and then tape them up. And for once things went smoothly and I was done in about 15 minutes.

Finishing up, Jan and I left about 12:15 to head into Spokane for the rest of the day.

Our first stop was Shakey’s Pizza for their lunch buffet. We really like their food and always stop by when there’s one in the area. The last time we ate at one was in Lancaster, CA last year.

And there’s another reason we really like them. Jan and I went there on our first date in Orlando, FL in July of 1967, about 43 years ago. So a lot of good things come from Shakey’s.

Shakey’s has a great buffet, consisting of pizza, spaghetti, fried chicken, battered, fried potato slices, salad bar, and dessert pizza. Really, really good.

Leaving Shakey’s we drove up the road about 5 miles to the Cat Tails Zoological Park. We had noticed the place when we came through town this past Monday and wanted to check it out.

Turns out that Cat Tails is Big Cat rescue zoo that began in 1991, starting with 4 cats, and has been growing ever since.

They have a number of beautiful Royal White Bengal Tigers.

They also have number of these signs around. So we have a choice: Run and LOOK like food, or stand still and BE food.

Not much of a choice, if you ask me.

This is a mountain lion, a puma, panther, catamount, or a cougar. Take your pick.

These are Serval cats. A little bigger than a domestic house cat, they can run 45 mph and jump 12 feet in the air and catch birds in mid-air.

I never knew that leopards had green eyes. The info sign says a leopard can jump 20 feet straight up and 35 feet straight out from a sitting position.  WOW!

They have a number of both male and female lions, but I could only get a good photo of this female.

They also have two tigers and a lioness that have been raised together since they were cubs, and all three are in the same cage.

And of course, a lot of tigers.

This is 14 month old Amura, being taken for a walk and moved to a new cage.

Still a youngster who likes to play with her ball, she also likes to splash in her pond,

and even take a bath.

Being raised as a single cub, the zoo decided Amura needs a companion. So they got Sage, 4 month old Great Pyrenees, from the local Humane Society.

They were kept together for almost a year until Amura got too big, and the zoo was worried that Amura might not know her own strength.

But they regularly put them together in adjacent cages so they can play. It was easy to see how excited they got when they saw each other.

We really enjoyed Cat Tails and thought it was a great bargain. At only $8.00 it’s much cheaper than some other similar attractions, and we really had a great time.

Well recommended if you’re in the area.

Leaving the zoo we headed into downtown Spokane as Jan wanted to drive through the South Hill District and check out some of the old homes in the area.

After that we headed back north for a for a few stops before heading home. First up was a Bed, Bath & Beyond for Jan to get some soaps.

Next was Lowe’s to take back the wrong receptacles from my switch bypass project, and also buy some heavier cutters. I had trouble cutting the #8 gauge wire from

Then it was back to Wal-Mart for more ‘stuff’. Apparently we left some ‘stuff’ there the other day, so Jan wanted to go back and get it all.

We got back home about 6:30, to find that unlike last night, when we got back to find a note on our RV saying the park water would be off until this morning, but found it was working fine, tonight we got back to find no note, but the water was off anyway.

No problem as we have plenty in our tank.

We’ll leave here tomorrow about 8 am, heading for Columbia Falls, MT and Glacier National Park. It’ll be about 225 miles and since we’ll also lose an hour moving into Mountain Daylight Time, we want to get an early start.

We also want to top off our diesel before we leave Newport, and that also takes a while.

  

Another in our Where We Were 5 Years Ago Today series.

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July 14, 2015

One More Thing . . .

Today was a partial goof-off day for us, at least up until we headed out about 2pm. Sonja had to work today, so we weren’t meeting up until 4pm for dinner.

Our first stop was a place in downtown Pauls Valley that we’ve passed a number of times and were curious about, The Toy & Action Figure Museum. Located in a fairly plain storefront, I’m not sure what we were expecting to find inside, but it certainly wasn’t what we found.

Entering the lobby was a pleasant surprise, bright and cheerful, with a nice layout of souvenirs for sale.

But after paying our $8 (for both of us) admission, we walked through the arch and it became one of those OMG moments

It was almost more than we could take in. Everywhere you look there was toys and more toys, lining the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and standing against the walls.

The first diorama details an imaginary adult toy collector’s bedroom.

According to the description, he must live with his parents to be able to afford all this.

Kevin Stark, the museum’s owner says that they tear down this exhibit once a year, rearranging things as they add new items and remove others. It takes about a week.

Two more neat displays detail all the DC and Marvel characters ever published. It’s hard to believe there are so many.

Another neat display is this one of superhero underwear.

My first thought was that Sheldon would be really jealous, but then I figured he probably already has the entire set. They used to be sold at Target, but now they’re collector’s items and worth some money. Don’t know if that’s for used or new ones.

They have displays of pretty much every genre doll and action figure around, even the Simpson’s

And of course where would you find the Batman display, but in the BatCave. The displays are arranged in a timeline starting with the Adam West TV version and progressing through the several movie incarnations.

They also have a number of large dioramas with the action figure’s action figure, G.I. Joe.

But one of the kid’s favorite areas is this playroom with plenty of toys, and even better, superhero costumes of all sizes that they can dress up in and have their picture taken.

Really neat.

We ended up spending more than an hour here, making the circuit through the place three times, and each time I saw stuff I hadn’t seen before. And for everything I’ve shown here, there’s probably 10 times more to see.

But finally tearing myself away, our next stop was the AT&SF (Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe depot, and old 1951.

Built in 1907 by Baldwin, this 2-8-0 locomotive made its first run on the Santa Fe less than one month after Oklahoma became a state, traveling over 1.2 million miles, finally being retired in 1954 after 47 years in service, losing out to old age and diesels.

The AT&SF depot, the 2nd one in town, was built in 1905 after the 1st one was outgrown.

It was refurbished in the 1990’s and now houses a museum full of both train and Pauls Valley memorabilia.

The lady that showed me around the depot said she’d had two buses of young kids this morning and it showed. I think she was just looking for some adult conversation, because when I mentioned that I had left Jan in the truck and needed to go, she kept showing me more stuff, always preceding it with “Just one more thing.”

But I finally got away in time for us to meet Sonja and Lendel at Punkin’s BBQ and Catfish, another local favorite.

While Jan ordered the Catfish,

I figured with a place called Punkin’s BBQ AND Catfish, I had to try some of both, and they had just the Combo for it.

But I didn’t quite expect it to be this extensive. It all really delicious, and big enough so I had plenty to take home. Both really good.

Tomorrow we leave here and move about 250 miles to the Springhill COE park south of Fort Smith, AR where we’ll stay for several days.

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Thought for the Day:

A journey of a thousand miles usually begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.