Monthly Archives: June 2022
Jammed Up . . .
I spent most of today updating prices on the website and our paper catalog. In fact recently, it seems that every time we get something in from a supplier, our price has increased 15-20% from the last time we ordered.
Since it looks like we’ll be driving ‘Ole Smokey’, our 2004 Dodge Dakota for a while until we get our Jeep back, tomorrow morning I’m going outside to work on the driver’s side front window. It will only come up about halfway before it jams. It will go down, but only halfway up.
I’ve already got the side panel off so that will make it go faster. I actually replaced this same regulator back in 2009, when the truck was 5 years old, so the replacement lasted 13 years. Hopefully this next one will last at least as long.
Hopefully I can at least get it all the way up since for the first time in about a month, we’re looking about 4 days of rain starting Monday. Plus with the temps in the high 90’s the AC works a lot better with all the windows up.
Thought For The Day:
Remember, “the cloud” is just a fancy way of saying all your data is stored on “someone else’s hard drive.”
June 24, 2010
Last Day in Burnet…
Today was our last day with the family here in Burnet. Lowell, Brandi, Chris and Linda all head back to Houston this morning.
But first we all had lunch together at Brother’s Bakery in Marble Falls. Brother’s is the bakery that made Brandi and Lowell’s great wedding cake.
But today we wanted to have lunch at the café that’s part of the bakery. They have great soups, sandwiches, muffins, and breads.
Some of us had breakfast, others had soup and sandwiches, All good. Linda got a loaf of Multi-Grain bread to go, and Jan and I got a couple of muffins for breakfast tomorrow.
After lunch we all got in our last goodbye hugs, and we headed back to the rig, while everyone else started back to Houston.
After lazing around the rig in the afternoon, and even getting in a short nap, about 5pm we drove over to The Maxican restaurant where we all ate the other night. Jan and I both had the same thing, Marsha’s Plate, a Chili Relleno stuffed with shredded chicken and Monterey Jack cheese, with 3 Angels on Horseback. Angels are jumbo shrimp stuffed with jalapeno strips and Monterey Jack cheese, then wrapped in bacon and grilled.
Fantastic!
On our way to the restaurant we stopped by the park office to check some of our upcoming reservations.
Coming back to the rig we stopped by Walgreens to get some ant traps. Apparently the local Formicidae have found our rig attractive and some have moved in. Hopefully this will take care of them.
Back at the rig I started putting some things away, getting us ready for hitting the road tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning we leave here for Lake Pointe RV Park in Canyon Lake about 80 miles south of here near New Braunfels.
June 24, 2011
Lightships and Goat Cheese . . .
Jan woke up with a migraine this morning so we took things kind of easy with coffee for breakfast, and then about 11:30 she fixed us grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.
But by 2 pm she was feeling better so we headed over to the Columbia River Maritime Museum.
Located right along the Columbia River, the museum tells the history of the river starting from its official discovery in 1792 to the large container ships making passage today.
Astoria was once the home of over 30 canneries, and fishing has played an important part in its history. Built in 1945, this sturdy boat, or troller, was used for salmon fishing up until 1998, when it was donated to the museum.
Something I found really interesting was this photo of the USS Missouri firing its 16 inch guns during Desert Storm. At the far left in this shot you can see a black speck.
That is this 2700 pound shell leaving the gun barrel at Mach 2 and traveling over 20 miles before striking its target with deadly accuracy.
They also had many displays of sailing tools and equipment,
including this 1944 Diving Suit. Note the hand-pumped compressor in the box on the left. Better not make the guy running the pump mad at you when you’re on the bottom.
The museum even had a large display of tattoo art, but no pictures were allowed, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
We next went outside to tour the Lightship Columbia. A ‘lightship’ is a floating lighthouse, used where a land-based lighthouse can not be used.
There was a lightship on station at the mouth of the Columbia River since 1892, and the Columbia, last of its kind, was replaced in 1979 by the LNB (Lighted Navigation Buoy) shown in the forefront of this photo. At some point this buoy was replaced with something else, although I wasn’t able to find out what.
As we were leaving the museum, we saw the Old Riverfront Trolley trundle past. What was unusual was the little wagon it was towing behind. A closer look showed it was a diesel generator!
A little research gave me the answer. This trolley, the only one on the line here, was built in 1913 for the San Antonio Traction Company in San Antonio, TX. It ran there until 1933 when the trolleys were replaced by buses.
Since then it was passed around by several museums until it was obtained by the city of Astoria in 1998. Originally its electric traction motors were powered by pantographs that reached up to overhead wires.
However Astoria decided that rather than wire up the city with overhead electrical wires, they would just tow along a diesel generator behind the trolley to furnish the power. Kind of neat when you think about it.
Leaving the museum, we drove about 10 miles away to Warrenton, OR for some shopping.
Then coming home, we stopped off at Fultano’s Pizza for dinner. But the first thing we saw pulling into the parking lot was a goat.
I guess this means the goat cheese pizza will be really fresh.
And although the reviews were good, the food was so-so. The salad bar was really good, but it went downhill from there.
June 24, 2013
Wild Horses and Banana Cream Pie . . .
After an easy morning we pulled out of Yellowstone Valley Inn & RV Park about 9:30 heading for Billings Trailer Village RV Park in Billings, MT about 120 miles away. But our first stop was at the Wild Horse Café about 15 miles away on the western outskirts of Cody.
We were meeting our friends Al & Adrienne for one last get-together breakfast before we headed out. We decide to wait to hook up the toad until we left the restaurant so Jan followed me in the truck and we park the rig right down the street and across the road in the parking lot of a microbrewery that didn’t open until 5pm.
Wild Horse Café was a two’fer. Our breakfasts were delicious, especially the Huevos Rancheros. And for Jan, it even had a gift shop where she found a moose necklace that she just had to have.
By the time we finally said multiple good-byes, it was after noon before we got hitched up and back on the road. But it was worth it to spend some more time with them.
Back on the road we came to the town of Belfry about 10 miles inside Montana and ran into a problem, or at least a detour. The road ahead was blocked, and I could go right or left. But this was a detour without being told which way to go. And I went left, which turned out to be the wrong way, but turned out to be the right way.
We ended up heading west toward Bearcreek and Red Lodge with no way to turn around. on the two lane road. Coming into Bearcreek about 8 miles after our wrong turn, we saw signs for The World Famous Banana Cream Pie served at the Hungry Bear Café. So I stopped.
Turns out I’m wasn’t the first person to show up lost. The husband and wife owners said I would be able get turned around by taking one of the dirt roads around the block in town. But if I continue on to Red Lodge and then turned north on US212, it would only be about 2 miles farther to get to Billings then if we hadn’t had to detour at Belfry.
So I not only left the Hungry Bear Café in Bearcreek with good directions, but also with a couple of slices of their World Famous Banana Cream Pie. So it was all good.
We pulled into the Billings Trailer Village RV Park about 3pm and got set up. We’ve stayed here 5 or 6 times and this is the fullest we’ve ever seen it. Glad we had reservations.
We both ended up napping for awhile before heading out for dinner. Neither one of us really had any place in mind, but then we came across Café Rio and decided to give it a try.
It turns out that the place is kind of like a Chipotle Mexican Grill, where you chose what you want, I.e. taco, enchilada, burrito, salad, etc., then you chose what what meat, and what other fillings you want.
And it turned out to be very, very, good. They advertise that they make everything by hand, fresh every day, including their tortillas. We both agreed that we’d eat at one of these again.
On the way home we stopped off at a CVS Drugs and a NAPA Auto Parts before getting back to the rig for the night.
Tomorrow we’ll be having dinner with our friend Linda who lives here now. Jan and Linda used to work at the same hospital back in the Houston area before Linda moved up here to Billings.
June 24, 2014
Just in Time . . .
Well, we were up about 6:30 this morning, way too early. I mean, this, and I have to have a hole drilled in my head too?
Anyway, we headed out about 7:15 with a stop for breakfast at a nearby McDonald’s, before getting to Dr. Roger Moore’s office about 7:45.
I was taken back to the treatment room a few minutes before 8, and the doctor came in about 5 after. A very nice guy, he had me carved up in about 15 minutes, and then I went back out to the waiting room to wait for the results. It apparently takes about an hour to freeze the carcinoma, section it, and then look at it.
In my case, he didn’t quite get it all the first time. He needed to go a little deeper.
So it was back into the treatment room for another 10 minute session, and another hour wait. But when I got called back in the next time, the doctor said they got it all that time, and he was now ready to stitch me up. Which again took about 15 minutes.
I never felt the slightest bit of pain from the beginning to the end, even from the local anesthetic needle.at the start. All I could feel was a dull pressure.
They take digital photos along the way, and I got a look at how my head looked after the stitches and it’s really puckered where the skin was pulled together over the hole.
But right now it looks this this.
We were out of the office about 11:30, which meant the entire procedure took about 3 and a half hours, which is about what they said it would be. I will not have to go back since the stitches they put in are dissolvable.
So hopefully, this will be the end of it.
As far as the Just in Time part, we were really lucky that there was a cancellation so I could have the procedure done today. As we were walking into the office there was a sign on the door saying they would be closed all next week for the 4th of July Holiday, so we would have had to delay our leaving on July 7th as scheduled.
To reward myself for being such a good patient (after all, I didn’t get a lollipop or anything.), and since it was lunchtime, and we were hungry, we stopped for lunch at the Steak and Shake near the RV Park.
We both wanted to try their version of Cincinnati’s Chili 5 Ways, so we got one and split it.
Jan actually liked their version a little better than the Skyline version we buy.
Jan had the Garlic Double SteakBurger with a bun topped with, what else, garlic butter, and then toasted.
I had the Bacon Lover’s Double Steakburger.
It’s been a while since we’ve eaten at a Steak and Shake, just like Taco Bell the other day, and like Taco Bell, this was really good today. We’ll have to go back.
I do want to thank everyone for their good wishes and prayers this morning. It’s always nice to know you have friends who care.
June 24, 2016
Batteries Minus . . .
or the computer lied.
Since we had a two hour plus drive to Seabrook, we left the rig about 10:40 and headed for Outrigger’s Seafood Grill to meet our son Chris, daughter-in-law Linda, and granddaughter Piper for lunch.
We made a pit stop/fuel up at the Shell station at FM-1493 and then another pit stop at the Buc-ee’s on SR96. And we would have been on time for our 1pm get-together except for the bumper-to-bumper traffic going over the Kemah Bridge. But we did make it by about 1:15.
As with our other trips to Outrigger’s, the food was really good, as was the views.
It was great to see every one, especially Miss Piper, who’s usually working.
After hugs and goodbyes, we drove back into Webster to the Batteries Plus on Bay Area Blvd to get a new battery for my truck installed, but that didn’t happen.
The guy who was there yesterday, but not today, and told me they had one in stock, was wrong. Or at least, he believe the computer inventory which said they had one in stock. So the computer was wrong.
At least that seems to be the story they’re sticking with.
So after that disappointment, we headed out for a few more chores. Our first stop was at a Chase ATM to activate Jan’s new VISA Chip Card before I dropped her off at the SuperCuts in Friendswood to get her hair done. Then I was off to Lou’s Barbershop to get mine cut.
What I can’t figure is why Jan’s haircut costs $1 dollar less than mine. I mean, have you compared our respective heads of hair?
With that done, we headed over to our friend Connie’s so I could take a look at her entertainment system problems. She just got a new Yamaha Audio Amplifier/Receiver and was having trouble integrating it into her setup, including a DirecTV receiver, a DVD/CD/VHS player, and a Karaoke machine.
Whenever I’m faced with something like this, I’ve found the best way to handle it is to just unplug everything and start from scratch. And that’s what I did.
Then I started with the DirecTV Receiver, patching the video to the TV, and the audio to Line 1 on the Amp. Unfortunately this amp doesn’t also switch video like some do.
Then I went down the line, doing the DVD/CD/VHS player on Line 3, and TV Ch. 3. Last up was the Karaoke machine which went on Line 2, and video 2.
Doing it this way makes it a lot easier than trying to dive in the middle and figure out what was wrong to start with.
We next spent some time trying to program the DirecTV remote to operate the Audio Amp on one of the AV function keys. But although there were 13 codes available, none of them allowed us to control the Yamaha.
So unless Connie wants to buy one of those expensive Logitech Harmony remotes, she’s going to have to use more than one remote to control her system.
By this time it was after 7:30 so we headed off to Cheddar’s for dinner. Since Jan and I had a big lunch, we split a appetizer and still had some to bring home.
That’s Jan on the left, of course, then Connie, her mother Hazel, and our long-time friend Maria, of Bob and Maria fame. Unfortunately Bob was AWOL. We had a great time, and great food, but we finally had to get on the road, especially since it was 9:30 by the time we left the restaurant.
We made a pit stop at the Flying J in Brookshire and then hit one of those phantom slowdowns. Just 3 or 4 miles past Brookshire, as we made the big curve there, I could see police lights speeding out in front of the traffic.
Then after a couple of more miles everything came to a dead stop. After 5 minutes of no movement whatsoever, I checked Waze on my phone and 3 people said they thought it was a big accident up ahead.
Since it looked like we would be there for a while, I told Jan I was glad we’d just gone to the bathroom.
But then after about 10 minutes total, all of a sudden the traffic started moving, quickly reaching the 65mph speed limit. And there was never any sign of police, or an accident. Or anything.
POOF! It all just disappeared.
We finally got back to the rig about 11:45, and found a loud and complaining Miss Karma, upset that she didn’t get her dinner of canned food at her usual feeding time.
I sat her down and carefully explained that she always had Meow Mix on tap, so she shouldn’t be complaining if dinner was a little late. I also reminded her that just a few months ago she was living outside in the cold, wet weather and only eating what she could catch. And it probably didn’t taste as good as Meow Mix. And it could be that way again if she wasn’t nice.
Then I gave her a squirt of Whipped Cream and she was happy again.
June 24, 2017
Y’all Don’t Understand Me . . .
About !:30pm Jan and I headed up to Huntsville about 15 miles north of here. We were going to meet up with Tom and Lynn Conner, long-time friends since 1979 when we lived on the same street for a number of years and our daughter’s were best friends.
And later our son Chris worked for Tom in his motorcycle businesses.
Regular readers will remember months back that I asked readers for things they’d like to see in an RV Park, for a friend that was building one. And that was for Tom.
Well, the project is starting to come together up in Crabbs Prairie, a small community just north of Huntsville,
The first part, 25 RV-sized storage units is just about ready to go in the next week or so.
At the same time they’re starting the layout and grading for about 30 50amFHU sites, both pull-thrus and back-ins, many of them around the small lake.
The park is located just over a mile off I-45 on a good paved road with easy access, a really nice layout.
I’ll keep you updated as things progress.
I got a lot of emails and blog comments wondering why we’re traveling around in an RV that I’m constantly working on.
Y’all just don’t understand me.
First off, remember that I’m cheap. Our rig is 18 years old (old enough to vote) and our Dodge Dakota is 13. And both are paid for. And I know both of them from top to bottom, and side to side. And I can, and have fixed pretty much anything on the rig, or even the truck
So we can keep RV’ing and not spend half our time waiting for an RV repair place to fix our rig. And honestly, based on what I read on FB and other places, newer rigs spend a lot of time in the shop, waiting for parts, or waiting for the repair.
But here’s the part you probably really don’t understand.
I really enjoy fixing things, anything at all. Whether it’s computers, electronics, cars, RV’s,etc. It’s the challenge that interests me. It’s a puzzle that I want to solve.
So if I’m not working on our rig, I’m working on someone else’s.
What can I say? It’s just me.
Tomorrow we move over to the Colorado River Thousand Trails in Columbus for two weeks. ramping up to our big family reunion.
June 24, 2018
Catching Up . . . Kind of
As I said in last night’s abbreviated blog, we had a smooth trip up from Byram, MS yesterday, and stayed pretty comfortable.
We left Swinging Bridges RV Park about 8:15 to stay ahead of the heat, and it worked. Of course, as Jan said, it was kind of ‘overcasty’ which helped a lot.
Pulling into the Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, AR, we got settled and just enjoyed the view out our windshield, at least while it lasted. Those two open sites will fill up pretty soon. In fact I think the park stays pretty full all the time.
I know I made our reservations on May 3rd, so 7 weeks ago, and still could not get on the front row right on the water. So plan accordingly.
It’s a beautiful park, with friendly staff, free laundry, hiking/biking trails, and garbage pickup 3X a day right at your site. And did I mention it’s right on the Mississippi River, close enough that you can faintly hear the tugboats going by, pushing long strings of barges.
Of course when the Mississippi floods it’s a whole ‘nother story. Here’s where the water came to in 2011.
‘How long can you tread water?’
Later, about 3:30, we headed into downtown Memphis to have dinner at one of our all time favorites, Charlie Vergos Rendezvous. Located on an alley, it’s been a Memphis tradition since 1948.
They’re known for their ribs, and one taste will tell you why. These are not your slow-smoked over mesquite type. These are grilled over charcoal, not wood, and not slow smoked, or anything like that. They’re grilled 30 minutes on a side about 18 inches above a blazing charcoal fire.
This produces a delicious crust on the ribs that is then mopped with a mixture of vinegar, water, salt, and barbecue spices. Then before serving, the ribs are sprinkled with the secret Rendezvous seasoning.
Jan and I both got the same thing, the small order of ribs, with beans and slaw, and we split a side of their potato salad. Everything was delicious, and had a unique taste, unlike anything else.
For example the BBQ beans have a Smokey, slightly burnt caramel taste, probably the best beans I’ve every had.
The only strange thing is the tea. While I was parking the truck, Jan had already been seated, and she ordered our usual two unsweet ice teas. And was told that they only have sweet tea, not unsweet tea. So why?
I mean, don’t you have to start with unsweet tea before you can get to sweet tea?
I’ve got a lot more to tell you about the last couple of days. But I just realized that it’s almost 10pm, and we have to be up at 5:30 so we can hit the road by 6:15.
I want to get diesel at the Flying J here before we get on back on I-55, and we want to get an early start to beat the heat as much as possible on our 320 mile run up to Mulberry Grove, IL and the Timber Trails RV Park, where we’ll be for the next six days.
June 24, 2019
Road Trip!
And it’s going to be a Four’fer.
And in case you’re counting, that’s two, count’em, two, Two’fer’s.
First up, we’re driving up to Waco on Thursday morning to have lunch with our long-time friend’s, Bill and Carol Alverson.
Bill and I both worked for the Alabama Educational Television Network back in the early 70’s, as well as for a local radio station, as Broadcast Engineers. And we’ve kept in touch ever since, as well as visiting with them several times when we were back in Alabama.
That’s One.
After spending Thursday night there, on Friday it’s something on Jan’s Bucket List, and that is checking out the Silo’s and Magnolia Market area from Chip and Joanna Gaines of TV’s Fixer Upper fame. Hopefully we’ll be able to have breakfast at their Magnolia Table Brunch place, even if we have to wait in line.
That’s Two.
Then coming back toward home, we’ll take a detour over to the Marble Falls/Kingsland area to meet up with Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper for dinner, hopefully at the Kempner Brick Over, a great local German place.
That’s Three.
And after spending the night in Marble Falls, and having breakfast with the kids the next morning, we’ll head on down to Katy and meet up with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for a late lunch before finally heading home Saturday evening.
And that’s Four.
And it also completes Jan’s Big Three Trifecta, with Paula Deen’s place, Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Women’s place, and now, Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Market.
Since I haven’t had a chance to get the truck’s brakes and plugs working yet, we’re going to pick up a rental car from Enterprise Wednesday afternoon.
Hopefully an Impala, and not a Hyundai Tucson like last time.
Well, That Went Well . . .
NOT!
Jan and I left the rig about noon, on our way to our Alvin Opry group luncheon over at the Olive Garden in Pearland. But first I wanted to stop off in Webster and get a haircut. Since it had been over a month since my last one, before our Alabama trip actually, I was getting into what I call Summer Santa Claus mode, I.e. pretty bushy.
So Jan stayed out in the Jeep while I was inside getting sheared. But when I came out about 15 minutes later, she had turned the Jeep off and had the windows open.
Rut Ruh!
Jan said that the Jeep had been making a rattling sound, and then she heard a loud bang and a very loud whirring noise. So she turned it off.
And when I then cranked it up I immediately heard what she was talking about. But just to see, I put it in Reverse and tried to back out. And found myself stuck out in the street, because when I put it in Drive, it still made the noise, and it would only creep forward at about a crawling pace.
Luckily I made it over to a nearby parking space and put in a call to Snider Transmission. And they had us connected with a towing service in just a few minutes, and we were told they’d have flatbed tow truck there in an hour.
Thinking, ‘Yeah, Right!”, we adjourned to the nearby Time Out Bar & Grill right there in the strip center for lunch, since it didn’t appear that we were not going to make our Olive Garden get-together.
And for a spur of the moment place, it turned out to be pretty good.
Jan had a Grilled Chicken Salad,
while I had the Grilled Brat with Onions, Sauerkraut, and Waffle Fries.
Both very good.
And almost one hour to the minute, our tow truck showed up, and about 10 minutes later, we were on our way back down to Santa Fe.
And then we just Ubered back to the rig. And that was our day.
How was yours?
Luckily we’ve got our backup Dodge Dakota for now.
I mentioned the other day about Amazon seeming to overbuild local warehouses/distributions, specifically the new one over on SR96. It looks finished, but it’s never opened.
Amazon mothballs nearly complete $30 million building in League City
Amazon does say that they expect to open it eventually.
Thought for the Day:
“I’m not lying to you. I don’t tell lies anymore, I’ve given it up….The field is overrun with amateurs….” – Mark Twain
June 23, 2009
More Moose and Mountains…
Today was our last full day in Asheville and we had one more ‘touristy’ place we wanted to visit.
But before we headed down the road we stopped for lunch at our new favorite restaurant, the Moose Café.
There is kind of an interesting story about the large moose that greets you as you walk in the door.
Moose Café Moose
They don’t really know who gave it to them. One day a stranger just showed up and asked them if they wanted it. Of course, they said ‘Yes’!
When we first walked in the door and saw the giant moose, I just looked over at Jan and said “No, you can’t have it”! I’d probably have to cut it in half to get it in the coach, and Jan already has her large moose footstool.
And another great meal was had. Jan had the Chicken Pot Pie with green beans and baby carrots, and I had the Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and sliced cantaloupe.
After lunch we traveled about 75 miles northeast to Grandfather Mountain. This is another one of those high, scary places that Jan really doesn’t like, but I drag her to anyway, usually by telling her there’s a gift shop involved.
But the scenery on the way there was great too. There are a lot of Christmas tree farms in the this area. In fact, pretty much around every curve is another hillside covered with trees.
But before I could Jan to the top of the mountain, I had to deliver on the gift shop. And I did it one better by also delivering…wild animals.
It was a twofer!
Along with the nature museum/gift shop about half way up the mountain, they also have a small animal habitat area, with bears, bald eagles, otters, cougars, and deer.
The bears were neat because you could buy bear food (Purina makes Bear Chow?) and feed the bears in their enclosures. And they seem to love it.
If you look closely in this next shot, you can see he’s almost got the pellet in his mouth.
Feed Me!!!!!
Here are some other pics.
After dragging Jan away from the animals and the gift shop, we headed another 1000 feet up the mountain to the top.
Grandfather Mountain is 5282 feet high with the Mile High Swinging Bridge, a 228 foot long swinging bridge crossing an 80 foot chasm between the two peaks.
It looks like this.
This next picture shows the overall view of the bridge on the far left that leads to the peak toward the right.
This picture shows what it looks like back toward the bridge from the cliff edge.
There is not really a path from the bridge. You just walk/climb over the rocks.
And now for the amazing part.
I got Jan across the bridge!!
I was really proud of her. I didn’t expect her to go the edge, so what she did do was great.
That’s Jan in green just to the right of the left hand vertical support.
And here’s a closeup.
And here we both are, thanks to a kind passerby.
Before we headed back to Asheville we stopped at local produce stand and bought some fresh peaches and tomatoes. As we left the stand Jan said she wanted to buy some day lilies as a gift and wanted to stop at a place nearby that we’d seen a sign for.
It turned out to be a private home surrounded by day lily beds. They even had their own bee hives for pollination.
They had 40 – 50 different varieties, including some rare ones that went for $30 – $40 a plant. They had so many it was hard to pick.
And here are some pictures.
By the time we drove the 75 miles back to our coach, it was almost 6:30 pm. And since we had to drive right by the Moose Café, it wasn’t a hard decision to also have supper there.
So we did.
June 23, 2010
Last Days at the Lake…
Today was another take-it-easy day here in Burnet TX. It didn’t help that it was in the mid 90’s. We’ve got to start heading north soon before we melt.
We just hung around the rig all morning and then around 2pm we drove into Burnet to mail a package before heading out to the lake house.
After lazing around some more, Linda fixed a great meal of fajitas. Then about 7:30pm we took another pontoon boat ride around the lake.
Finally, around 9 we headed back to the rig for the night.
Tomorrow the last of the family heads back to Houston, everyone except us. We won’t leave until Friday, when we’ll head down to Canyon Lake for about 10 days.
Here’s some more wedding photos.
This is, left to right, Ken, Lowell, Brad, and Doug. Brad was Lowell’s best man, and they were all college roommates.
Here’s new family, old family, and a great friend. Left to right, it’s Sonja, Lowell’s mother, Chris and Linda, our son and daughter-in-law, my wife Jan, and Gina Ellis.
And here’s Piper, our beautiful granddaughter.
And this is what Piper gets for playing with my camera when she’s supposed to be just holding it.
And this lovely lady is Shawna Oakley, Brandi’s best friend, honorary sister, matron of honor, and wedding planner extraordinaire
More tomorrow…
June 23, 2011
Alligators and Kangaroos . . .
After coffee and bagels this morning today was pretty much a ‘touristy’ stuff day.
It started about noon with a walk down to the beach almost a half mile away thru the grass land.
It’s a long, flat beach leading down to the water’s edge
I saw this barnacle-encrusted rope laying on beach, then on looking closer I thought it was a power cable.
But when I picked it up, I discovered it’s a type of rope seaweed. The clump of green leaves is connected to that large knot. The rope floats vertically with the clump of leaves near the surface and the rest of the rope dangling below.
About 2 pm we all headed out to Jack’s Country Store about 10 miles north in Ocean Park.
This place is really something. It’s been in business since 1885, and is the oldest retail business in Washington. A combination of old-time hardware store and grocery store, they stock over 200,000 items, from kerosene lamps to I Love Lucy lunchboxes to Radio Flyer wagons to fresh seafood. It has been called the largest hardware store in the world.
This is a place you could spend days in, just walking the aisles, checking out all the neat stuff you haven’t seen for years.
I would like to go back just to see all the stuff I probably missed the first time.
Finally coming back to Long Beach, we next stopped in at Marsh’s Free Museum, a cross between a tacky seaside gift shop with shells, live hermit crabs, and saltwater taffy,
to a freak show with a two-headed calf,
and Jake, the Alligator Man,
to a museum with stuffed animals, and old coin-operated machines,
including this 1937 World Series Baseball machine that still works.
Oh, and they also sell funny hats.
By the time we left Marsh’s, everyone was hungry so we decided to check out The Lost Roo, as in kangaroo.
Though primarily a sports bar, their food is excellent, and the good online reviews were very accurate.
While Jan had Fish and Chips Tempura with lemon fennel slaw. I had the Roasted Prime Rib Dip sandwiches, both which were delicious. This is one place we agreed was worth a repeat visit.
June 23, 2013
Irma’s and Old Friends . . .
A little while after we got up this morning, Jan saw this guy in the next field over, where along with his friends, were leaping over the fences like they weren’t even there.
About 10:45 Jan and I headed into Cody to meet our friends Al and Adrienne at the Irma Hotel & Restaurant. Built in 1902 by Buffalo Bill Cody as a destination for tourists on their way to Yellowstone National Park.
And it still serves that same purpose today, although it’s grown a little bit over the years.
We were meeting Al & Adrienne there at 11:30 for what turned out to be a delicious Sunday lunch buffet. Grilled Chicken, Grilled Cod, BBQ Pork Ribs, and some really good Prime Rib. And for dessert, their famous Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce.
HMMM! GOOOD!
And of course we sat around for another hour and a half just catching up. Finally we followed them back to their rig so we could see Banjo, Cassie, and Abby. We’ve known Banjo the dog, and Cassie the cat, since we met Al & Adrienne in Fairbanks, AK in 2008
Leaving their rig we all drove about 15 miles out toward Powell, WY to visit the Heart Mountain Internment Camp. Built in the summer of 1942, the first internees arrived by train in August.
Heart Mountain was one of 10 camps built around the country in 1942, and at its peak held almost 11,000 people.
The Heart Mountain Center has a number of rooms filled with exhibits about the place and the people, many of them done by people who were in the camp.
All four of us were moved by our visit to the Heart Mountain Center, and it’s well recommended to our readers.
Coming home we passed the Wal-Mart and noticed it looked like an RV sales lot. It’s hard to tell by this photo, but there must have been 40-50 RV’s lined up all the way back and more were coming as we watched.
Either that or Wal-Mart’s started holding RV Rallies now.
As I was getting the truck packed up for tomorrow’s trip to Billings, I said ‘Hi’ to a couple walking by. Then the lady looked over at me and said “I know you. You’re Greg”. It turned out to be LeRoy and Anne Willis. They’re here in the Cody area until the middle of July. It was good to catch up again.
Tomorrow we’re meeting Al & Adrienne at the Wild Horse Café for breakfast on our way through Cody and up to Billings.
June 23, 2014
Everything Comes Together . . .
When I was blogging about the two movies we saw on Saturday, Maleficent and The Edge of Tomorrow, I spent some time Googling about the films.
The first thing I found out was that Tom Cruise’s part in Edge was originally written for Brad Pitt. But when he dropped out, it was rewritten for Cruise.
In fact, the entire script was written and rewritten several times, including even after filming had started. They didn’t even have a ending to the movie when they started.
As far as Maleficent, they really did a great job matching up the original Disney Sleeping Beauty Maleficent
with the Angelina Jolie version.
One thing I found funny was concerning a scene in the movie where Maleficent meets up with Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) as a young child.
They tried three different young girls to play the part, but even after Angelina got to know them and played with them ahead of time, they would run away screaming as soon as they saw her in costume.
Then someone noticed that in between takes, Angelina’s daughter would run over to her and ask to be picked up.
So someone got smart and suddenly Brad Pitt and Jolie’s daughter Vivienne was in the movie.
For the last couple of weeks we’ve been wondering how things were going to play out over the next couple of weeks. We’re scheduled to leave here July 7th, and head down to the Indian Lakes Thousand Trails Resort at Batesville, IN.
But we’ve had two things in the works that might have disrupted that schedule. The first is getting our cracked passenger-side windshield replaced before we leave the area,
We set everything in motion a few weeks ago, but then everything seemed to grind to a halt.
And also a couple of weeks ago, I went to a dermatologist because I thought a bump that suddenly appeared on my head might be skin cancer. So we’ve been waiting for the pathology report to come back.
But then today, everything fell into place.
I had called my National General Insurance agent, Chris Yust, of C and C RV Insurance this weekend to see what she could do. She and her husband, Charles, are RV’ing up in Alaska, so there’s a 4 hour time difference, and since it was the weekend there wasn’t a lot she could do until this morning, but boy, did she get things moving.
I got an email forwarded from NG by saying the claim had been approved and RV Glass had been notified. About 5 minutes later I got a phone call from RV Glass telling me the claim had approved and they had contacted the repair place. And about 30 minutes after that I got a call from Josh at the repair place giving me a tentative repair date of this Friday at 8am.
Then at about 2pm I got a call from the dermatologist’s office confirming their (and my) initial diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, and after finding out they had a cancellation for tomorrow morning, I’m scheduled to have MOHS surgery, starting at 8am and lasting from 2 to 4 hours. It will be done under a local anesthetic as an outpatient.
So by the time most of you read this, they’ll be carving a new hole in my head. And as hard-headed as I am, I figure it will take the entire 4 hours.
June 23, 2015
Cupcakes and Sweet Peas . . .
I’m not sure what’s happened, but our Internet access here at Verde Valley has gotten really sucky the last couple of days. And it’s across the board. My Verizon 3G air card, the 4G LTE hotspot on my Galaxy S5, and the Wi-Fi here at the park, it all sucks.
At least until sometime after 11pm, when it all starts working better. So I don’t know if everything is just overloaded here at the park, and most everyone goes to sleep by 11, or if Verizon is working on something during the day and not at night.
Whatever it is, I wish it would stop . . . or go . . . or whatever.
Jan and I headed out about 4pm to have dinner at Georgie’s, a highly rated local diner. But we discovered it closes at 3pm every day except Friday. But we did find Bing’s Burger Station.
We never found the place open when we were here a couple of months ago, But we enjoyed it when we were here a few years back. I really liked their Ribeye Steak Sandwich, but we’d been told they don’t have any longer, which turned out to be true.
So Jan and I went with burgers and accessories. She had the regular Cheeseburger and onion rings, while I had the Bacon Cheeseburger with Green Chilies, and their really good chili.
Then being so close, we had to stop off at the Wild Rose Tea Room for some cupcakes. Jan got a Chocolate Chip and a Blueberry Chocolate Chip, and I got Salted Caramel and a Key Lime. YUMM!
A few weeks ago I mentioned the Sweet Pea trigger mod available for the Ruger LCP .380. The only real problem with this pistol is the very long trigger pull, and Sweet Pea mod takes care of this. It allows you to adjust the trigger to exactly like you want it, You just dial in the feel you want.
They also have several other products for your LCP, including a new magazine spring that allows your magazine to hold one extra round, and several different types of holsters.
In addition they all carry modification products for a large number of other pistols. Check ‘em out.
June 23, 2016
Rebates and More Remotes . . .
Today turned out to be really nice, with a high of 90 and a lot of clouds cutting down on the sun,
Of course the two big oak shade trees overhead didn’t hurt either.
With the help of reader Art Raeck, I did figure out how to get the DirecTV remotes apart. What was confusing me was that I took one apart about ten years ago for this same problem, and although it looked the same on the outside, it came apart completely different from the way it does now.
But of course I’ve already got new ones coming tomorrow, so it’s all kind of moot now.
Don’t know about y’all, but a couple of days ago Amazon gave me money back. After a recent court settlement with Apple for anti-trust violations, involving them illegally jacking up the price of e-books, they had give money back to buyers. So I got $20.14 credited to my Amazon account.
I had assumed that the credit would just apply to more books, but it applies to anything you order.
Nice?
Of course lawyer’s who negotiated the settlement got $50 million.
I’ve looked a little more into the long-term annual/semi-annual lease situation here at Colorado River and found a couple of pluses and at least one minus.
The pluses are that we get a physical address, and can receive both US Mail and packages without the extra service charges. The minus is that we become responsible for the site upkeep, I.e., mowing, trimming, etc.
I don’t know if we can pay extra to have the park guy do it or not. We’ll see.
Tomorrow we’re heading down to the Clear Lake area to meet Chris, Linda, and Piper at Outrigger’s in Kemah for lunch. Outrigger’s, located under the Kemah Bridge, is one of our favorite local fresh seafood places, and we try to eat there whenever we can.
Next up, I going to get a new battery for the truck. This one seems to be on its last legs. The best deal I found on line was a Duracell from Batteries Plus. And there’s one down in Webster, so that works.
I actually didn’t know that the Batteries Plus places even sold car and truck batteries, but I guess they do. I did call them this afternoon to be sure they had one in stock.
Then after Jan and I get haircuts, we’re meeting up with a friend so I can get her new stereo/DVD/TV system wired up correctly. And finally it’s on to dinner with them, and then head toward home.
On the way, we’ll make a stop at Brandi’s to pick up our mail and packages.
June 23, 2017
One Upping Ree Drummond . . .
Our Huntsville trip got put off until tomorrow so it was another nice day around the rig for Jan and I.
So I decided to get out my Karcher Pressure Washer and clean the road grime off our Dodge Dakota truck. And of course I picked one of the hottest days of the year so far to do this.
But Awesome and the pressure washer make pretty quick work of the job. I then used wheel cleaner and tire black to finish it up.
Looks pretty good for a 13 year truck with almost 260,000 miles on it, plus another 80,000 miles chasing the rig around the country.
Looking back over our RV Park stays during the last 3+ months, I figured we saved over $1200 dollars by using our Passport America membership.
Not bad for $44 a year.
Jan and I have been talking about our next trip, probably in the next few weeks. We’ll probably travel over to Gulf Shores where we’ll stay for a couple of weeks this time, but not at the Gulf State Park again. They’ve gotten just too expensive.
Our favorite sites on the canal are $299 per week, or a standard site is $249. But buried in the fine print is the fact that in addition to the 11% lodging tax (why? I’m bringing my lodging with me.) there’s also a 15% resort fee. So that $299 a week becomes $376 a week, and even the $249 becomes $314 a week.
But we can stay at the Island Retreat RV Park right off the Gulf Shores Pkwy on the Fort Morgan Road for $211 per week, all taxes included. Or we can stay at the Luxury RV Resort just a quarter of a mile from beach for only $216 a week, also all taxes included. Decisions, decisions.
Then after Gulf Shores, we’ll head up to Athens to visit my relatives, probably with a stopover in Montgomery and Birmingham to visit old friends.
Based on Ree Drummond’s Seven Can Soup Recipe, Jan did her version today, but one upping Ree with another can of beans, and also adding some seashell pasta. And rather than use regular meat-only chili, Jan used a couple of the small cans of Skyline Chili, from our time in the Cincinnati area. And of course, Jan added a lot of heat to spice it up.
And as expected, it turned out to be delicious, with the distinctly different note of flavor from the Skyline Chili. Really good.
June 23, 2019
A Nice Stay-at-Home Day . . .
I just posted the next installment of our European Cruise, Scenic Cruising The Rhine, our All Castles, All The Time edition.
Check it out.
As I’d hoped, today was a nice stay-at-home day. The only excitement was when Jan was fixing dinner, using both the toaster oven and the microwave, and the 50 amp breaker on the pedestal blew.
We’ve done this plenty of times before with no problems, but I did notice that the breaker itself was very hot when I went to reset it.
We also had one die a couple of years ago, so I’ll keep a eye on this one, and maybe tell the park owner about it if it pops again.
I spent a good part of the day going over the new company website, making small changes here and there, fine tuning it, so to speak. I also went on Godaddy and set up and configured the Automatic Backups and purchased the Website Security package.
At the same time I’ve got data recovery software running on the old website Linux hard drive, trying to at least recover the database and the image files folder for the tattoo site. Otherwise I’ll have to re-enter it all from scratch.
Hope not.
Not sure yet about my schedule this week, since we may be traveling up to Waco on Thursday, but I would like to get the rear brakes done on the truck, and also change out the spark plugs.
But what ever happens, we’ll almost certainly rent a car for the trip.
I mentioned yesterday that my BPPV had returned, and as I thought, it’s gradually fading away just like last time. When I got up this morning, it was just like a really good carnival ride for a few seconds and then it was gone.
Well, it was fun while it lasted.
June 23, 2021
The Second Worse?
Catching up with our recent trip.
June 8, 2021
At the end of our first day, and after a great meal at the nearby Sonny’s BBQ, we checked into our La Quinta hotel just down the road. But things quickly went downhill.
Our first clue was that when I ask what time the free breakfast was, I was told that it was from 6am to 9am, but that it was just coffee. Nothing else.
Just coffee.
I don’t know what this is, but it’s not a luggage cart.
This is a luggage cart.
We finally ended up pretty much just carrying our luggage into the room since everything just kept falling off the ‘cart’.
And as we were doing that we encountered the First Floor Vending Area.
And the Second Floor Vending Area.
As well as the Second Floor Guest Laundry Area.
Now, in La Quinta’s defense, the room itself was very nice.
Well, mostly.
It was very cold. In fact, this cold.
So I went over to the thermostat on the wall to turn it up. But this is what I found.
Dead as a doornail.
So I decided to try to turn it up at the AC unit itself. But as soon as I touched the control panel, this happened.
The entire front panel just fell off.
Looked like someone had tried the same thing I had in mind. And the control panel on the AC was dead too. So I tried to just unplug it.
But that didn’t work either, since the power plug was buried in the wall behind the unit. So we just bundled up all night.
Yeah, I know we could have probably gotten a new room, but we were tired and just didn’t want to fool with it.
And to top things off, later in the evening Jan said the TV remote had stopped working. And this was why.
The tape holding the batteries in had come off.
It’s the little things, I guess.
Not what we’ve come to expect from La Quinta hotels. And though as I said, the room itself was nice, overall it would have to rate as the second worse hotel we’ve ever stayed in.
But I will have to say it’s a distant second, since the worse one, a Best Western in Pensacola, FL, had actual bullet holes in the wall, a pile of trash just swept into the corner, and the roll of toilet paper just sitting in the hole in the wall where the toilet paper roll holder should have been.
Good times!
The next morning, sans the ‘free hot breakfast’, we made a quick stop right across the street for Chicken Biscuits at Chick-fil-A before we got back on the Interstate heading for Vandalia, IL about 550 miles north.
We had planned our detour around Memphis to avoid the I-40 bridge closure and the resulting 3-5 hour backup across the I-55 bridge. But for a while it looked like even getting to Memphis, much less getting around it was kind of doubtful.
Though it was fairly sunny when we left Jackson, MS, about halfway to Memphis, the bottom dropped out. One of the those ‘the road just disappears’ bottom-droppers. So I did my usual, which was to find the brightest-lit semi trailer I could find and then keep them just in view, while hoping that they could see the road better than I could.
What really amazed me in all this was how many IDIOTS drive along in a rainstorm like this without any headlights. And with a light colored vehicle they just disappear in the storm. But after a harrowing hour or so we were finally in the clear. And though our planned detour route had a few more zigs and zags than we had figured, we arrived in Sikeston, MO for our lunch stop about 1:30.
We’ve eaten at the Lambert’s Throwed Rolls here a couple of times, so since we were passing through again, we couldn’t pass it up this time either. And it was just as delicious as always.
Jan got the Fried Chicken Dinner while I got a Veggie Plate. Then we divided it all up, and along with the pass-arounds, we were stuffed by the time we were back on the road. And with only a few more rain showers we got to Vandalia and Jan’s sister Debbie’s about 5:30pm.
Looking forward to the next days with all the family.
I mentioned that Jan brought home a new addition to her flamingo flamboyance that she got in Gulf Shores.
Good to see he’s among friends.
Thought for the Day:
I thought this photo was really interesting, showing a lightning bolt hitting the ocean.
Don’t know how he got that shot. Maybe just luck.
