Our RV Adventures

First off, I mentioned a while back that we were planning a trip to up to Alaska later this year. In most cases we’re going to be revisiting old haunts from our cruise in 1998 and our workcamping there for 5 months in 2008, but we also want to visit Soldotna and Homer, where we’ve never been.

So I thought I’d throw this out to our many readers.

What things do you recommend that we see/do in that area?

And nothing to do with fishing, please.

I said in yesterday’s blog that we were going to eat at Pho Barr today, one way or the other. In other words, we were going to eat at the new one if it was open, or go on up to Webster to eat at the old one.

And the ‘old one’ it was.

When we got to the new one, we found this notice on the door.

And according to Theresa, the owner of Cowboy Coffee, that’s a regular problem in this area. She spent weeks waiting for the inspectors to come by after she called them. Then they would finally show up, look at something for a minute or so, scribble their name,  and then leave.

Then it was on to wait on the next guy.

So now we’ll be checking every day next week.

When we got to the Webster location,  Daniel, our usual waiter, said he was worried that we might be upset that he had ‘misled’ us. We laughed and reassured him that we weren’t mad.

And of course the food was just as delicious as always. Just hope it’s closer to home soon.

Finishing up for the day, it was on to our local WalMart for our weekly stuff and then home.

This is Pink Floyd, the African flamingo.

Also known as No. 492 due to the number on the leg band, the flamingo, and another one, No. 347, escaped from a Kansas zoo in 2005 after the zoo forgot to clip their wings that year. And though No. 347 disappeared soon after, No. 492 has been on the lam ever since.

And, identified by the leg band, the flamingo has been seen as far north as Wisconsin, but has apparently wintered-over in south Texas for the last few years.

A really beautiful bird.

I spent some time this evening upgrading one of the hard drives in my Dell computer here at home. The C drive is a 500GB SSD (Solid State Drive) with contains the Windows operating system, and my D drive or Data drive was a 1TB regular hard drive, that contains all my other libraries and files, like the Documents, Pictures, and other standard folders. But it was starting to get full.

So I got a new 4TB HDD, hooked it up externally, copied the entire old drive over to it, and then swapped them out. Only took about 30 minutes.

So now I have plenty of space.

Until I fill this one up, I guess.

Thought For The Day:

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra

   .

Catching up on a few things –

I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s blog that we were going to attend the Alvin Opry tonight.

I was wrong. Somehow I lost a week. The Opry is next Friday, not tonight.

When I was trying to install my new water tank fill valve the other day, I found that with the shorter ball valve, the water line wouldn’t quite reach, so I got these two adapters that I’ll use to make up the difference in length. 

Should work.

Another thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that while we were at Twin Peaks yesterday, our server, Sylvia, told Jan that her favorite Tomato Basil Soup is going away. Really upsetting for Jan.

And for both of us, it’s just another in a long line of our favorites that Twin Peaks has discontinued over the years.

Average Joes – A 3 Mini Hot Dog Platter
Pork Sliders – A 3 Mini Pork Slider Platter
Greek Salad

and more recently –
Venison Chili
Half Wedge Salad

and now –
Tomato Basil Soup

I guess we can hope that they’ll introduce something new that’s better.

I told Jan tomorrow we’re eating at Pho Barr one way or the other.

By that I mean we’re going to try the new one near us to see if it’s now open as promised. But if it’s not, then we’ll head up to the one in Webster instead.

When I drove by there this morning on my way to work, I did notice that they had taken down the white film covering all the front windows, hopefully a good sign.

But we’ll see.

Another repost from our last year on the road.

June 6, 2017
Dead Man’s Hand . . .

After yesterday’s 91°, today’s 75 and partly cloudy was a nice relief, especially since we didn’t get the also-promised rain showers this morning.

Today we thought we drive up north to Deadwood, so after a quiet morning we left the rig about 1pm. Getting into Deadwood about  30 minutes later,our first stop was the Visitor’s Center to pick up some brochures and make a restroom stop.

Then it was on to a recommended place for lunch, Harry’s Spaghetti Western Restaurant

We each got one of their dinners, starting with a salad.

After that, Jan got the Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken, while I got the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Meatballs.

For dessert I had  the Spumoni Ice Cream that came with the meal,

while Jan upgraded to the Tiramisu Cake.

And after a very good meal, we drove up the hill to the Mt. Moriah Cemetery, where both Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried . . . as well as over 3,600 other unlucky people. The place is enormous

We would have walked around a bit, but as you can tell it’s pretty steep and hilly, and since my knee has been acting up, we took a pass.

Coming back down the hill, we drove down Deadwood’s Historic Main Street.

Hence the sign ‘Historic Main Street’.

Leave it to me to sniff out a model train layout, and there was one right on Deadwood’s Historic Main Street.

The layout of the Northern Hills Railway Society is in the basement of a gift shop, and admission is free, though it costs $1 to run the trains for 10 minutes.

The layout is 80 feet by 16 feet with over 1200 feet of track, 54  engines and 400 cars.

One thing I liked is all the small details and dioramas.

Note the yellow biplane flying under the bridge below.

Coming back up to street level we were just in time for one of the scheduled gunfights.

When I saw the poker table set up I thought that they were reenacting the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok, but it was some other famous gunfight.

As it was the whole thing took place right in front of the saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was shot August 2, 1876.

Playing Five Card Draw, the hand Hickok was holding consisted of black aces and black eights, now known as a “Dead Man’s Hand”. He had discarded the fifth card, and supposedly the replacement had not been dealt. At least that’s the way the story goes.

Heading home about 4:30 we drove on into RC for a quick stop at the Harbor Freight for a couple of things. Then it was back to the rig with a stop at the office to re-up until Saturday.