Monthly Archives: February 2021
Frozen –The Sequel
Jan and I headed down about 8:30am for our free breakfast here at the Texas City La Quinta. I told Jan as we were on the elevator I wouldn’t be surprised if it was already gone, since I don’t think they were planning on a full hotel out of the blue like this.
And I was right. All the little paper bags were gone. Of course according to another guest, all they contained was a protein bar and a bottle of water, so it wasn’t a big loss. But the coffee was good, at least.
But that was one reason we got muffins yesterday at Buc-ee’s so we were all set breakfast-wise.
When we got back to our room after ‘breakfast’ we found that the water was off. And with a little inquiring, we found out that it had been turned all up and down this side of the highway.
Rut Roh!
It’s actually easier to get by without electricity than water. You know, no toilets, etc.
Finally, about 1pm we headed over to the rig to pick up a few things ;and check things out. And as we were still finding the traffic lights off as we got closer to Santa Fe, we were pretty sure that the lights were still off at the rig, and we were right. Everything was frozen solid. It was 30 degrees in the water bay, and 32 degrees in the rig.
And 33.6 in the refrigerator. I had been worried about it, since it was so cold yesterday (16 degrees) before we left, that I was not able to get it to start up on propane. But it looks like mother nature took care of the problem.
In the past the rig’s plumbing has been pretty forgiving about being frozen, but we’ll see about this time when it thaws out and I turn the water back on.
Leaving the rig, we started looking around for a place to eat lunch, and finally found the Black Bear Diner open over around FM646 and I-45.
They were short-staffed and only had about half the tables open, and though they told us it would be a 45 minute wait, it only turned out to be about 15. Nice.
The service and the food were just as great as always, with Jan trying the Black Raspberry Stuffed French Toast with Bacon,
while I went with my Bacon Cheeseburger Salad and a side of Fruit.
In talking with the manager, he said they tried to open yesterday afternoon, but the door lock was so frozen up, they couldn’t get it open. He also said that they were closing at 5pm today so everyone could get home safely before it started freezing again. Nice guy!
Then it was on down the Interstate to the Buc-ee’s for more coffee, kolaches, and muffins for tomorrow’s ‘free’ breakfast.
Getting back to the hotel, we found some enterprising guy had set up a food truck in the parking lot. Maybe lunch tomorrow if he’s still here?
I also went by the front desk and got us a 3rd night here since I doubt things will be thawed out before Thursday.
Karma seems to have settled in to hotel life just fine after spending a couple of hours head-bumping her way around the room. And now that she seems to know the layout, she’s right at home.
And finally as far as getting power back goes, CenterPoint Energy seems to be falling further behind. Yesterday they showed 1.34 million customers without power in Houston and surrounding areas.
Then this morning they were showing 1.22 million, so they were making progress. But then this afternoon they were showing 1.44 million without power.
But as soon as they get the wind turbines defrosted, everything will be fine.
And on this note, our power here at the hotel went off at 7:33 pm and as of 9:15 was still not back on. But on the other side of the Interstate, it’s never gone off.
However at least we’re warmer than in the rig.
Blog Called on Account Of . . .
Rain, Sleet, Snow, Ice, and it’s cold as Hell!
The temperature went down to 21° last night, but we stayed warm and toasty.
Until the power went off at 2am. And stayed off.
And as of 10pm tonight, it’s still off.
But we held out as long as we could.
Finally about 1pm when it was 25 outside the rig, and 41 inside the rig, we gave it up.
We knew that they were going to be doing short (30-60 minutes) rolling blackouts, but we had been off almost 12 hours. And then our daughter Brandi called from up in Katy saying she had heard on TV that if you didn’t have power now, you probably wouldn’t get it back for a couple of days.
So I was on the phone to the La Quinta over on I-45 in Texas City, booked us a room, and we were on our way over there about 45 minutes.
We were so cold that turning the heater in the Jeep was almost painful. And even more painfully was the fact that that when we got to the hotel they couldn’t check us in since their power had just gone off and the computers were off.
And though a real comedy of errors, we didn’t finally get into our room until about 8:30pm.
But more about that tomorrow.
We’re warm and toasty again.
