Our RV Adventures

Jan and I were out the door a little before 11, on our way to the Spring area to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at El Palenque, one of our local favorites, for another in our monthly get-togethers. We always have a great time with them, and today was no exception.

Jan got her usual Mazatlán dinner with Chicken, Shrimp, and More.

Her favorite, and always delicious.

I got something a little different this time, the Chicken Tortilla Soup, also with a little of everything.

We have so much fun talking that suddenly we looked up and 2-1/2 hours had passed.

A great time, and we’re already scheduled to do it again next month.

And even better, we were a little ahead of the traffic coming home, and were here by 4pm.

Just in time for a nap.

And here’s another retro post in the countdown to our first gate guarding job 10 years ago this month.

April 14, 2012

Another Day, Another . . .

I was up early this morning, just knowing that we would get a call any minute.

NOT!

So after a quiet morning we decide to have lunch at Pepe Boudreaux’s again. Jan had the Tuna Stuffed Avacado Salad, and I had the Chicken Fried Steak. Very good.

Getting back to the rig I took care of a few more maintenance chores before a nap attack struck home. But the nap only lasted for about 45 minutes, when suddenly, about 4:15, it got quiet, very, very quiet. The power had gone off.

Jan said other people were coming out of their rig, so I figured it was not a rig problem. We opened the windows and turned the fans on, and because it was pretty overcast, the heat didn’t get too bad.

But it was cooler outside, so about 5:30 we got our camp chairs out of the truck and set up along with returning gate guards, Jim and Marcie, and Sam and Carol, and also Bob and Nancy, who have just come off a gate and are getting ready to head home. As it turned out, the power came back on a little after 6pm, but we were having so much fun, we all stayed outside and talked.

With all this gate guard knowledge available, we were eager to pick their brains. We spent several enjoyable hours talking about gate guarding, and RV’ing in general, before it finally got dark, and the wind really picked up.

One of the things they all warned about was watching out for tarantulas, scorpions, and snakes. Just what Jan wanted to hear, especially after seeing this sign at a nearby rest area.

The way things are going, I figure we’ll get the phone call for a gate tomorrow when we’re supposed to have heavy rains and high winds. The perfect time to move and set up on a new site.

Thought For The Day:

Speaking my mind is easy… Speaking it tactfully is a whole ‘nother story.

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Spent most of the day at work writing a bunch of scripts in AutoIt to automate and speed up a bunch of tasks here at the office.

AutoIt is an easy to use, very powerful, FREE scripting language for Windows. Pretty much anything you can do manually on a Windows computer you can write a AutoIt script to do it for you, automatically.

In one case the script opens a program, waits a couple of seconds, then enters a user name and password. Then after a waiting another few seconds, it starts a sort of the customer database, backs it up, and then closes the program.

Tomorrow Jan and I are heading up to the Spring area to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at El Palenque for our monthly lunch once again. Really looking forward to it.

Ten years ago today we were on a countdown to our first Gate Guarding experience down in Whitsett, TX

April 13, 2012

Next in Line ?

Still no gate, but supposedly we’re next in line.

The couple next to us, who came off their gate due to a family death back in Tennessee, went back on a gate this afternoon. But before they left, they said they heard we were next in line.

Hope so.

About 2:30pm our Amazon order was delivered so I went over to the office to pick it up. One of the items I ordered was an additional 8GB of RAM to add to my Acer computer. It had 4GB, but I wanted to upgrade it to 12GB.

Adding RAM is usually the quickest, cheapest way to speed up a computer. And $45 for an additional 8GB is a good buy.

After removing the cover I could see the RAM sockets, but could tell I was going to have to remove the DVD/HD frame to get to the RAM.

Two screws took care of that and I was able to set aside the frame and expose the 4 sockets.

I removed the 2 – 2 GB sticks and replaced them with the 2 new 4 GB sticks. I then placed the 2 – 2 GB sticks in the 2 remaining sockets. You always want your larger RAM sticks first in line.

After checking that the RAM was firmly seated and locked into the sockets, I put everything back together, plugged it in and turned it on.

I didn’t bother to hook up the monitor or keyboard/mouse at this point. All I wanted to do was hear the beep that told me the computer had completed P.O.S.T. (Power On Self Test) and was ready to boot up. This told me the new RAM was good and ready to go.

Hooking everything back up, I found the computer booted up and ran noticeably faster, and programs started up faster too..

Success!

Leaving for dinner a little after 6pm we met our next door neighbors, Carol and Sam Davis. Like us, they’re waiting for their first gate. They had sent in their paperwork and tests back in February, hoping to get a leg up on getting started, but they said it didn’t seem to help much. They’re waiting just like we are.

Our dinner destination was Pepe Boudreaux’s, a TexMexCajun place right across the road from Choke Canyon Lake about 8 miles west of Three Rivers on Hwy 72. Several people had recommended it, and they were right.

Jan had the Fried Fish and Shrimp, saying it was the lightest, crispiest batter she’d ever had. I had the Blackened Pork Chop, stuffed with Boudin Sausage, and topped with Shrimp Étouffée. I also had a cup of Gumbo, very good, spicy with a lot of filé.

OMG, was this all good! My mouth was doing the happy dance. Hopefully we’ll be able to go back. This place is good!

Landon had a girlfriend!

Brandi sent over these pics of Landon and his main squeeze at his daycare.

Thought For The Day:

There are folks running the government who shouldn’t be allowed to play with matches – Will Rogers

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