Monthly Archives: June 2022
A Really Topper. . .
Not much going on at work today. Fixed a couple of machines to be shipped out, and update some prices.
For years Jan has enjoyed her pillow, one that she bought from a vendor at an RV rally years ago. But she was surprised a while back to discover it was actually a MyPillow pillow. So for a while now, she’s been trying to talk me into getting a new MyPillow to replace my old, slightly dilapidated one.
So about a month ago I ordered one from MyPillow for myself. And I should have listened to her before now. (She says that applies to a lot of things).
It’s a really great pillow.
So when I was looking for a new Mattress Topper for our Queen size bed, I decided to check out the MyPillow 3” version. And I liked what I read.
And the part that I liked most was that the top layer of the 3 layer topper was made from a phase change material that keeps the mattress cooler under your body. So that, and the fact that the topper was 1/2 price right now, AND came with a free set of sheets,
sold the deal. And now we’ve been sleeping on it since last Saturday, and it lives up to its billing.
It’s both firmer and cooler than our old one.
Much Recommended.
Tomorrow we’ve got our monthly visit with our Alvin Opry group, including, hopefully, Gene and Sue Hofford, the owners of the original Alvin Opry.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen them, so we’re looking forward to seeing them again.
Thought for the Day:
Shouldn’t ‘Phonetically’ actually be spelled with an ‘F’. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Astoria, OR
June 22, 2011
Goonies and Eagles . . .
After the usual coffee and toasted bagels at 10, Jan heated up the last of Baldy’s BBQ about noon, and once again we enjoyed some great BBQ. Too bad that’s the last of it.
About 2 pm we headed out to do some sightseeing in the area. We first drove north up through Long Beach for a while and then turned around and headed back south across the big bridge to Astoria.
After driving around for a while, we ended upon a hill overlooking the city that held the Astoria Column.
Built in 1924 by The Great Northern Railway and Vincent Astor, great grandson of John Jacob Astor, who founded Astoria. (Astor, Astoria, get it?). Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest settlement west of the Rockies, and, although John Jacob Astor is said to have founded the city, another source says he never visited here. Jan and I figured he had ‘people’ to found things for him.
The murals wrapped around the column depict 14 significant events in the settlement of Oregon, including Lewis and Clark, and the settling of Astoria.
The Astoria Column is 125 feet high, and it’s 164 steps to the top. I know every one of those steps, because I climbed it, while Jan stayed on the ground.
But the climb was worth it just for the views.
Coming back down the hill we drove up and down some of the residential streets checking out the many neat houses.
Last year we saw a lot of these ‘painted ladies’ in San Francisco, too.
While not a ‘painted lady’ as such, this house is famous because it was used in the 1985 movie, “The Goonies’, which was filmed. Other movies filmed in the area were ‘Overboard’, ‘Short Circuit’, ‘Kindergarten Cop’, and a number of others.
Now this place might have been used to film ‘The Addams Family’. I certainly wouldn’t want to live next door to it.
Leaving Astoria proper, we drove east on US-101 looking for the Twilight Eagle Habitat. Following the signs we ended up at this overlook on the Columbia River delta area. Eagles or no eagles, the view was great.
We did see one bird high overhead, but too far away to identify by eye.
But I took a photo anyway. And, as it turns out, it was a Bald Eagle, as you can tell from the enlargement below.
Finally we headed back to Long Beach and on up the highway to Los Compadres, a well-recommended Mexican restaurant. A great meal.
On A Gate Near Charlotte, TX
June 22, 2012
If It’s Tuesday, It Must Chile Rellenos . . .
We now have a new place to eat every Tuesday.
Why, you might ask?
Because Tuesday is Chile Relleno day at Galindo’s in Charlotte.
Galindo’s is a nondescript (rundown, even) little place that I pass every time I go into Pleasanton for supplies. It’s actually the closest restaurant to our gate site.
But one thing I’ve noticed is that there are always cars in front, and at lunch time it’s hard to even drive past the place. They don’t really have any parking to speak of, so customers just park along both sides of the street.
And today, in the window, was a sign that said “Chile Relleno”. As it turns out, Tuesday is Chile Relleno day at Galindo’s. And Jan says, boy do they make good ones.
I got her the Chile Relleno dinner with rice and beans, and I got a couple of Chorizo and Egg breakfast tacos for me. I really like the fact that they serve the breakfast stuff all day.
Jan said it was the best Chile Relleno she’s had in a long time. Filled with ground beef and cheese, and covered in a crispy coating, she said it was delicious. And she really liked the rice and beans, too. Very tasty.
Even the chips and salsa were great. Really hot salsa.
So we now know where we’ll be eating from every Tuesday.
Things sure pop up quickly around here. One day it’s an empty pad with just a BOP(Blow Out Preventer) standing in the middle of it. That’s the insect-looking thing sticking up in the center of the photo below.
Then, two days later it looks like this after the fracking crew moves in.
It’s really amazing how fast they can build up and tear down these small cites, almost overnight.
And apparently they are really hurting for oilfield workers down here. I was reading another website about all the job fairs the companies are holding. A truck driver with a CDL and six months experience starts at $29.50/hr. And this is local, home every night work.
Certified Rig Workers make between 100K and 200K a year. And a ‘year’ consists of six months for them, since they work 7 twelve hour days and are then off for 7 days. That explains why we have new guys show up working on the crew, riding with someone else, or driving a beat-up clunker, and then a month later (two work shifts) they show in a new $40 – $50,000 truck.
It seems like a lot of people don’t want to work this hard, but the companies say one of the biggest problems is finding people who can pass the drug tests. You’d think they could at least knock off the weed for the 30 days before the test.
And as far as the ‘Certified Rig Worker’ goes, those are mostly safety and EPA certifications that the oil company puts you through after you are hired.
When we were in San Antonio last Sunday, I stopped in at Home Depot and picked up another couple of rolls of solar screen. Although I have screens on the inside of the windshield, they don’t really fit flush to the glass, letting more heat in. So I’m going to hang solar screen on the outside also, to help cut down the heat load on the AC’s.
As it stands right now, the AC’s run constantly from around 11am to about 7pm without let up. Glad we don’t have to pay for the diesel to run the generator for that.
Jan had another Tarantula sighting the other day. But this one was closer to home. Much closer!
She looked down and there was one sitting about a foot from her foot. She said she tried to scream but nothing would come out. Despite being scared to death she didn’t want to kill it if she didn’t have to, so she picked up a small spade laying nearby and banged it on the table leg.
The first time nothing happened. The second time the spider started coming toward here. Whoops! But the third time she banged harder and the tarantula scurried away.
She now has a large mirror propped up on the ground so she can see behind her in case another one tries to sneak up on her.
I gave her a water spray bottle and told her to just squirt it a few times and that should run it off. Of course it might just make it mad.
But we won’t tell her that.
June 22, 2013
Yellowstone & Supermoon, Almost . . .
We left the rig at Yellowstone Valley Inn & RV Park about 9am, heading for the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park, but this time I got to sightsee a little more since I wasn’t driving the rig this time.
And it was a lot of really spectacular views.
Our road paralleled the Shoshone River for a good while, with a lot of whitewater and kayakers enjoying the water.
And as we got closer to the park, we started our climb up the highest point on our trip, Sylvan Pass at 8530 feet.
We were surprised to see how much snow was still around up there.
We knew we were getting close when we took the curve and looked out on Yellowstone Lake. When we left the rig it was bright and sunny, but as we got deeper into the park the overcast rolled in and stay with us most of the rest of the day.
A few miles before the Fishing Bridge we had our first animal sighting, this female elk out in a field. There was a small herd of more off in the trees.
Getting to the Old Faithful area about 11:30, we got parked and headed over to the Old Faithful Inn for lunch. I remember eating here with my family in 1964 when we did a two month trip out west.
We both had the lunch buffet with such items as Sautéed Trout, Wild Rice, Chipotle BBQ Chicken, and our favorite, the Bison Chili.
BTW When did buffalo become bison. We don’t sing “where the bison roam”. We don’t read about “Bison Bill Cody, and we don’t sing “Bison gals won’t you come out tonight”
So who decided we needed a new name for buffalo, and why wasn’t I consulted?
Finishing up lunch, we walked over to the Old Faithful Geyser to wait for the next eruption.
Luckily for us we only had to wait about 20 minutes, since the sun had disappeared in the clouds and the wind had picked, making it pretty chilly.
After watching the Big Blow, we made the obligatory visits to a couple of gift shops before getting back on the road and heading north on the Grand Loop Road.
Passing Madison Junction, the west entrance to the park, we headed over to Norris, and then Canyon Junction. Along the way, we came across this gray wolf running across the field.
And this pair of swans.
Next was this group of adult buffalos and a couple of calves.
And a little later, this big guy was just glaring at the traffic going by.
Coming on around the Grand Loop we came back to our turn at the Fishing Bridge, and after making a pit stop at the General Store there, we headed home.
Just as we were leaving the Yellowstone Lake area, we once again came across this one-lane stoplight system.
It’s there because of this washed-out section of roadway. The only problem is that this same section was washed out two years ago, and protected by the same automated stoplight system.
So either this section of pavement washes out regularly, or they just haven’t gotten around to fixing it yet.
Personally I think it’s the second reason.
We finally got back to the rig about 5:45pm and settled in. Since we had a big lunch, I made coffee and then we popped some Orville Redenbacher’s Kettle Corn.
All in all, a very nice day.
I thought tomorrow night was supposed to be the SuperMoon, but this one will do in a pinch.
Still In Elkhart, IN
June 22, 2014
Gotta Love that Global Warming . . .
This time 3 years ago we were spending a week at Glacier National Park in northern Montana.
At that time, it pretty much looked like this.
And this.
But, after more than 15” of snow the other day, the above scene looks like this.
Yes, the waterfall is frozen. Really glad we aren’t there this year.
Later in the afternoon, I went outside to change out one of my headlight bulbs on the truck. I remember the good old days when you could just pull the bulb socket out of the back of housing, plug in the new bulb, put the socket back in, and you were good to go.
However, changing this one out now requires a #10 Torx driver and a 10mm socket and a ratchet with a long extension with 4 bolts and screws.
After finally finishing up the headlight repair, I checked the engine oil and transmission oil, on kind of a ‘while I was in there’ basis.
Around 3pm we headed back over to Mishawaka for a couple of reasons. The first was, Jan already had a Wal-Mart / Sam’s list, and we were just there Friday.
The other reason was that when we ate at Outback Steakhouse that night, I left my little bottle of ground Ghost Pepper/Trinidad Scorpion powder, and I was hoping they still had it.
So our first stop was at Outback, and they did still have my bottle in their Lost & Found box. Yea!
And our next stop was, believe it or not, Taco Bell. Jan and I had been seeing the ads for their new ‘Quesarito’. It’s a burrito wrapped up inside a cheesy quesadilla.
It looked really good, and tasted even better. Jan got hers with the ground beef, and I got the grilled steak. And they also have shredded chicken. We both got the Quesarito Box, which comes with a Quesarito, a Crunchy ground beef taco, a Doritos Nacho Cheese Crunchy Taco, and a drink.
The Doritos Nacho Cheese Crunchy Taco has a taco shell made in, what else, Doritos Nacho Cheese flavor. And again, it’s really good. If I’d known how good, I would have paid the little bit extra to get both tacos that way.
And even better was the price. Our total bill was $12.38.
We used to eat at Taco Bell a lot when our kids were little, but kind of got out of the habit. Maybe we need to rethink that.
Our next stop was Sam’s Club. We wanted to get another box of the fresh cherries that we got on Friday. They were really good, and we wanted more. And then after our Wal-Mart stop, we headed home.
Coming back to Elkhart, I stopped off at Menard’s to get some hardware for my latest project.
I needed to take down my AC grills so I could clean the filters, but that involves digging out a screwdriver, and it’s a pain in the rear trying hold the grill up with one hand and get the screws out with the other.
Plus the fact that continuously putting the screws back in the same holes is making them looser.
So I decided to install hanger bolts in the screw holes and use wing nuts to hold up the grill.
Hanger bolts look like this. It’s wood screw on one end and a machine bolt on the other.
But the first problem you have with these is – how do you screw them in. Well, they make a special driver that looks like this. But it costs more money (about $8) than I spent on the rest of the project (8 hanger bolts and 8 wing nuts – about $6).
So here’s my cheap version. It’s just two nuts with a lock washer in between, and then tightened down snug.
Then my ratchet will screw them in just fine. And cheaper too.
So when I got finished, and after cleaning the foam filter, it looked like this.
Much easier to take down and reinstall.
Verde Valley Thousand Trails
June 22, 2015
A World of Difference . . .
Well, the Reflectix foil sheets made a lot of difference on the windshield today. It went up to 106 degrees, but it never got over 79 in the coach. Still very comfortable.
I spent a good bit of time over the weekend reading the two different manuals I have on my Cummins Onan 7500 Quiet Diesel Generator, trying to get a handle on my recent problem. This was about all I could do over the weekend until I could make some phone calls today. But I woke up about 4:30am this morning with an epiphany, and it didn’t hurt as much as you might think. Something had been nagging me, but it took a while to register.
Somewhere during the last 8 years, I had gotten the idea that my genset had a separate 12v DC circuit that would charge the rig’s battery sets. But a footnote that came back to me made me rethink the whole problem.
My generator only has 120VAC output. Any battery charging comes from the generator AC powering the power converter just like it does on shore power. So now my focus was back on the transfer switch.
As I said the other day, the genset/transfer switch et. all. was working at the time of the blowout. In fact the only reason I turned it off was that I discovered diesel running out on the ground from the torn off filler pipe. So I was looking for something relating to the blowout to be causing the problem.
I called American Coach about noon and was told that there was nothing in the shredded wheel well wire harness concerning the genset, so that was off the table for now.
I now decided that around 5pm, when things were cooler, I would shut off shore power, crank up the genset, and then do some more checks. To prepare ahead of time I removed the AC connection access cover on the genset to let me check the voltage output right at the unit. Next I lifted up the bed, removed the cover on the transfer switch, and carefully checked all the wiring.
At 5pm I shut everything down in the coach, i.e. AC’s, TV, DirecTV receiver, computer, etc. and shut off the shore power at the breaker. Coming back inside I used a screwdriver to cycle the two big contactors in the transfer switch. Neither one seemed to be stuck or have a problem in any way.
So then it was back outside to crank up the genset. When it was running smoothly, I used my voltmeter to check the voltage output.
And I had 120 VAC.
And coming into the coach, I now had 120 VAC inside too.
Checking out the transfer switch, I now also had the Green LED that says the transfer switch is in Generator mode, just as it should.
With no AC’s running it was starting to heat up inside the rig, so I shut everything down and put us back on shore power.
And the transfer switch worked just fine.
So why did it work now, but not the 6 or 7 times I tried it last Friday, both at the tire shop and on the way here? The only thing I really did was to toggle the two contactors in the transfer switch. Neither one acted like they were stuck or hung up in any way.
I’ll wait a couple of days and try it again, just by shutting off shore power and cranking up the genset, and see what happens.
I hate it when a problem like this fixes itself without me understanding the cause.
A problem that can fix itself, can also unfix itself, usually at the most inconvenient time.
Words to live by.
Colorado River Thousand Trails, Columbus, TX
June 22, 2016
Putting Down Roots . . .
For A Month, anyway.
A little after 2pm, I went back down to the park office to set up our month-long stay here in July. Once I got that set up I cancelled our two two week stay’s at Conroe and Colorado River for that time period.
One thing I want to check into further is about longer duration stays. At first I thought we could only do an annual lease, but it seems we can also do shorter periods of time.
As I said before, we’re not settling down, but the 3 or 4 months we normally spend in Houston area would be nicer if we didn’t have to keep moving every couple of weeks. I’ll find out more when I go down to pay for our month stay next weekend.
You may or may not have heard of Fiverr. It’s a website where you can hire people to do stuff for you, usually pretty cheaply.
Draw a carton, design a logo, write your resume, put your lyrics to music and sing it for you, write you a business plan for a load, or even do some programming for you . . . or me, as the case may be.
I’ve got some simple but time-consuming programming that I need done. But I’ve also got a lot of website stuff to take care of, So I decided to give Fiverr a try for this. Now Fiverr is called that, because many things are priced at $5. But actually it’s a haggling type of thing.
After signing up, I posted what I wanted done in some detail, and then waited for the offers to roll in. You get them 6 at a time, and as you eliminate ones you don’t like, another one takes its place. Then when you pick one, the bargaining starts. The points of contention are price, # of revisions, and how long to delivery.
My guy started off the negotiations by asking me what the budget was for this project,
Wrong!
I countered by asking how much he would charge for the job, telling him to keep in mind that if it was too expensive, then it would pay to just do it myself.
He came back with $70, but said he would drop it to $60 since this was my first buy on Fiverr. The $70 would cover 3 revisions and 1 Day Delivery. By the time we got finished, we were at $25 for 1 revision and 3 Day Delivery.
Works for me.
Later in the afternoon, I went through a couple of outside bins and finally found my old Winegard Carryout satellite dish power cable. I thought I had saved the old one. This will give me a cable to go with the Carryout Dish I found by a dumpster at Lake Conroe. So now I’ve got a complete set.
In fact I’ve been using the found one ever since, and I can’t be absolutely sure, but it does seem to find the DirecTV satellite at 101.1 degrees faster than my old one.
I mentioned a while back about problems with our DirecTV remotes. All three have developed flakey keys and I was hoping that Strike-Hold would fix the problem. But apparently even a miracle liquid like Strike-Hold couldn’t fix these keys.
When that didn’t help I tried to take one apart, but the cases are firmly glued together, so no luck with that. But I did have luck with Amazon.
I found that I could buy two DirecTV Remotes for $8, with Prime 2 Day Shipping.
A great deal,
So good in fact, that I ordered two sets to have spares.
Lake Conroe Thousand Trails
June 22, 2017
Alexa and Dot . . .
Another day of doing nothing was really, really nice. At least up here, TS Cindy was pretty much a fizzle.
But it did leave us with a mid-80’s overcast day, cool and comfortable.
Yesterday I tried to make some more Thousand Trails reservations and ran into a strange problem. I normally book us back and forth between Lake Conroe and Colorado River every two weeks this time of the year, and then drop the ones we don’t need as we travel later in the year. But this way we’ve always got a place to stay no matter what.
I had us booked from now through 9/3/2017, so I went to extend us to the end of September. But when I tried to book us from 9/3 to 9/17, the system told me I couldn’t do this because I couldn’t have bookings over more than two major holidays, and I already had two.
But the only major holiday I could see coming up was the 4th of July, And the next one, 9/4, Labor Day, was the time period I was trying to book. So I got on the phone to TT Reservations to find out what the problem was.
Turns out that though the Error Message I was trying to book over two holidays, they actually meant two holiday PERIODS. And a holiday period is the week before the actual holiday and the week after.
So, since I was already booked for August 20th to September 3rd, i.e the holiday period, it would not let me book for the week after the holiday.
But the lady did say I should be able to book this after this Sunday, the 25th, after we move over to Colorado River. We’ll see.
As we’ve been traveling the last few month we’ve really enjoyed using our Amazon Alexa Dot.
A scaled-down version of the full-sized Amazon Echo, Dot functions exactly the same, only with smaller speakers and less volume. In addition it is also USB powered, unlike Alexa which has to be plugged into an AC outlet. And at $50 (and I’ve seen for $40 recently), vs the $180 for the full-size Echo, it’s a great bargain.
So what this all means is that it’s perfect for use riding on the dashboard while we travel. We can listened to music, talk radio, etc. without worrying about getting out of range of a radio station.
And to make it even easier, we use our portable charger/power supply to power the Dot.
Since this makes it a portable unit, I use it outside when I’m working on something. Works great.
Tomorrow, if the weather holds, we’re going to drive up to the Huntsville area to check out our friend’s in-progress RV Park and Storage Facility. Looking forward to it.
On Our Way To Illinois
June 22, 2018
Today: Not As Good As Yesterday . . .
As we had planned we pulled out of our site a little before 11am, heading for Byram, MS, just south of Jackson, and about 215 miles away.
Everything was going just peachy, until about 5 minutes before we were going to get back on I-10, the generator died, and of course taking the AC’s with it.
Now this happens occasionally, and in the past, after I waited a minute or so, it would restart and run just fine. But not today. Today sometimes it would just crank over with nothing happening. Then I’d wait 10-15 seconds, and this time it would almost catch, but not quite.
Actually it was acting like it had run out of fuel when the tank level got too low, but since we had 110 gallons in a 150 gallon tank, I don’t think it’s the problem. The generator fuel filter was just replaced a couple of months ago, and of course it ran perfectly all day yesterday. So since there wasn’t much I could do about it on the side of the road, we soldiered on, hot and sticky, but undaunted.
I continued to try it every now and then along the way, but just had a repeat of the above.
The only real slowdown along the way was the 45 minutes it took to get through Baton Rouge, starting a couple of miles before the bridge over the Mississippi. Both lanes grind to a halt and then we all creep along at about 1 mph, up and over the bridge, down the other side, and then up the hill to the right.
And it’s creep, creep, creep, all the way. And the reason for all this is perfectly obvious. It’s also perfectly obvious that some road design engineer needs to be b****-slapped. The entire slowdown, backing up and over the bridge is caused by the fact that they have two lanes going up the hill to the right. BUT, just as soon as you get to the top, the right lane becomes an immediate Exit Only off the Interstate. And the vast majority don’t want to exit there.
So they’re all fighting to get into the left lane, cutting off, and cutting in front of the left lane vehicles. And it doesn’t help that pretty much every other vehicle is an 18 wheeler.
They need to just get rid of that Exit Only lane and have one lane going up the hill and merging into the traffic from I-110/I-10. Yes, there would be twice as much traffic in the single lane, but I’d be willing to bet that it would move a lot faster without all the ‘cutting in’. But they didn’t ask me.
But they should. About a lot of things.
We pulled into the Swinging Bridge RV in Byram right at 4pm, got directed to our long pull-thru, and got set up. As we did last night, we only hooked up power and water. We will hook up the sewer line tomorrow when we’re at the Tom Sawyer RV Park for two days so Jan can do laundry. And as last night we didn’t set up the sat dish or TV either. But we will tomorrow night.
As soon as we were plugged in and the AC’s on, we jumped in the truck (with cold AC) and headed up I-55 and east onto I-20 and over to Brandon, MS, and the Sonny’s BBQ there.
We first ate at this one two years ago when we came back from Alabama this way, due to all the flooding along I-10 in Louisiana and Texas. There used to be another Sonny’s here a few years ago, but it closed, probably due to how the neighborhood had deteriorated.
Like most of our favorite places, Jan and I both have our favorite meals that we get time after time.
With Jan it’s a Pulled Pork Sandwich on Garlic Toast with BBQ Beans and French Fries.
And as for me, I always get the Pork 3 Ways Platter, with Sliced Pork, Pulled Pork, and Ribs, with BBQ, their really delicious Coleslaw, and Garlic Toast..
Really great, and I had more than half left over to bring home.
One thing did puzzle us at Sonny’s though. They’re celebrating their 50th anniversary, from 1968 to 2018, but we both remember eating at Sonny’s when we were dating in the summer of 1967 in Titusville, FL. Sonny’s and Fat Boy’s were our two favorite BBQ places.
So is 1968 when the chain started, with just one location before that or what? I should have ask the waitress, but forgot.
I had planned to run the generator out and see if showed any error codes, but as we were coming home it started raining, then pouring down. So now our plan is just to leave early tomorrow, probably around 7am, to beat the heat, and then hopefully I’ll be able to check it out tomorrow or Sunday while we’re at the Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, AR.
Two Days, Two more BBQ places!
My BPPV
June 22, 2019
It’s Back . . .
But not as bad.
Yesterday morning my BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo) returned for the first time since Christmas 2017, though not quite as bad. And also like last time, it was less intense today than yesterday, so it should go away in a few days.
I hope.
About 1pm Jan and I headed out for lunch, once again at our new local favorite, Boudin Barn.
We were back today, in particular, because their weekend special, a Bacon-Wrapped Boudin-Stuffed Chicken Breast lying on a bed of loose Boudin and covered in a Shrimp and Crawfish Cream Sauce.
This is maybe the best thing we’ve ever eaten, It’s that good.
Jan and I split the order, as well as Jan getting a order of their Boudin Stuffed Mushrooms,
while I got an order of their Boudin Balls and A Boudin Link. With this we also split the fries.
As well as this Chicken Breast version, on other weekends they have a Pork Tenderloin version, and one done with a piece of Ribeye on alternating weekends.
We had a chance to spend some time talking Chris, the owner, about the food. He said everything, except for the fries, is prepared in-house. And in fact, he supplies Boudin Balls and Boudin Links to many other restaurants in the area.
And even the fries are customized with their own seasoning blend. Also really good.
And as before, the servings were big enough that we had some to take home.
Then it was on down to the Texas City WalMart. And although we didn’t need any this time, I noticed that their gas price had dropped to $1.94. Nice.
Then we made a stop at our storage room to drop off a few things from our trip, and also to pick up our furniture dolly to use to lift the tires back in place when I do the rear brakes on the truck.
I also stopped off at the local O’Reilly’s to pick up the rear brake pads I had ordered, only to find that they had been sent back because I hadn’t picked them up after 3 days. Who knew!
So I reordered them, and also picked up 7 more spark plugs to change out the rest of them on the truck. Then I’ll see about ordered more ignition coils.
Tomorrow looks to be a nice stay-at-home day. I hope.
Home in Santa Fe, TX
June 22, 2021
The New King . . .
Today, our first free day back home, was a time for catching up on a number of errands.
First up was picking up a couple of prescriptions, one at WalMart, and one at Sam’s Club. The one at WalMart was the last one on that prescription, and because of that, I hadn’t bothered to transfer it to Kroger since there was only a couple of dollars difference.
And the one at Sam’s was the same. But in this case I also renewed my membership, but at the Basic level for $45 rather than the Plus level at $100.
The only reason I had the Plus membership to start with was because of the drug discounts that came with it. But since I’ve moved everything to Kroger, the $55 I saved by downgrading pays a large part of the $72/year that the Kroger’s plan costs. And the $17 left over was saved in the first month’s prescriptions. And a lot more, besides.
So now all our prescriptions are with Kroger, saving us about $300 a years.
Next up was lunch at Twin Peaks once again.
I know, it’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Especially since Jan asked to have lunch there.
Jan and I got our usual favorites, Jan’s Spicy Chipotle Chicken,
And yes, there is a large chicken breast buried under there.
For me, I got the Billionaire’s Burger.
Both delicious. And of course, there’s the scenery. After all, their motto is “Good Eats and Scenic Views.”
Then, after an HEB stop, we were on our way home.
But while we were at HEB I did notice these in the snack aisle and thought they sounded pretty good.
I mean, chicken and sweet potatoes, I like both.
But then I read the label a little more closely. So why was it in the people snack section?
I assuming that someone at the store also wasn’t reading the label too closely either. It would be kind of interesting to know how many people also bought them (and maybe ate some) without reading the label closely.
I’ve been posting 5G speeds from the cities we’ve been in recently, but as I mentioned before, I’m really disappointed in the 5G speeds here in the Clear Lake area.
Here is the original 4G speed here in Clear Lake.
But here’s the 5G speed.
So what’s wrong with this picture?
I have heard something about that Verizon is ‘running 5G on top of 4G’ in some areas, but it wasn’t clear what this meant. So maybe that’s what this is.
But it is a disappointment.
We visited 3 Buc-ee’s 4 times on our recent trip, the brand-new one in Leeds, AL just south of Birmingham, and the kind of new one in Robertsdale, AL about 25 miles north of Gulf Shores. And we also stopped at the one out in Baytown, TX just east of Houston twice, going and coming. One of our favorite stops
At the present the largest Buc-ee’s, at a little over 66,000 sq.ft., is over in New Braunfels, TX. But that’s about to change. A new one has just broken ground in Sevierville, TN, and at 74,000 sq.ft. it’s going to be the new king.
It’s located on I-40 just east of Knoxville, TN, and smack dab in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area of the Smoky Mountains. Should be a big hit.
It’s Fixed?
First off, Jan and I want to wish our beautiful daughter Brandi and our handsome son-in-law Lowell a happy 12th Anniversary!
You can read more about the wedding down in today’s repost area.
Today was another one of our typical lunch/errand/shopping days, starting out with Los Ramirez Mexican once again. Always delicious.
Then it was on up the feeder for some new container plants for the patio. Luckily they had what Jan wanted so we didn’t have to check out the HEB out on SR96. A detour saved.
Next up was a stop at Marina’s Bakery out on FM518 so Jan could check out some of their Keto products. And in fact, Marina’s is where Gator’s Bar & Grill gets those fantastic Keto Blueberry Muffins we like so much. But they were pretty much out of everything and won’t be restocked until Thursday.
So another visit on Thursday is in order.
Our new tabletop ice maker is still working great. Every couple of days we just dump 3 .5L bottles of water in the reservoir and turn it on. And in a short while we have a big Ziploc bag of ice in the freezer. A great product.
I think that all the blog’s recent problems are fixed now. Comments are working again, as is my remote posting ability.
But if you’re still having problems, let me know.
Thought For The Day:
I’m always on my best behavior. It just so happens that often my best behavior is not very good.
June 21, 2009
Moose and Squirrel… (What, there’s no squirrel?)
Today was our first full day in Asheville, or actually Fletcher, NC, where our RV park is.
It’s really a great park, on a small lake with a lot of shade trees, but not too many to shut down our Direct TV satellite.
Rutledge Lake RV
And the weather is great. We have gotten some rain, but they need it around here.
Plus the temperature last night was 64 degrees, and the high today was only 85. This is a nice change from the high 90’s that we’ve been encountering.
Being over 2000 ft. up in the mountains has many advantages, besides the beautiful scenery.
We first headed out about 11:30 am looking for a place to have lunch. A guy in the site next to us recommended a place to us, but we were never able to find it from his directions. And although our GPS listed it, when we got there we found no restaurant, either.
So we drove in the opposite direction and stumbled across a little piece of heaven for Jan.
If you know Jan, you know anything ‘MOOSE’ is a must.
And the Moose Café was a great find. And they had a moose gift shop too.
The food was good old country cookin’, with all the favorites, fried chicken, meatloaf, chicken & dumplins, Virginia baked ham, and more.
Jan had the one of the specials, the Turkey & Dressing, with mashed potatoes, and green beans, and I had the other special, the Roast Pork Loin & Dressing, with mashed potatoes and collard greens. We also got an extra order of macaroni & cheese to split between us.
They also serve ‘Cathead’ biscuits. They’re called that because they are the size of a cat’s head, and they come with homemade apple butter and molasses.
Then for dessert we split a Blackberry Cobbler with Ice Cream.
After an expensive trip thru the Moose Café Gift Shop, we drove around Asheville looking at the homes and the landscaping. One thing we noticed is that there are day lilies everywhere. So many that we wondered if the day lily was the North Carolina state flower. (It’s not, the North Carolina state flower is the Dogwood).
Jan said she had never seen ‘red’ day lilies before.
Later we stopped at a Starbuck’s for a caffeine infusion and some directions to areas with a lot of old homes.
We were told about the Monford area and headed that way. After a few miles we came upon the Asheville Visitor’s Center and stopped off to pick up more brochures and ideas for things to see.
We also found that Gray Line was running a 1.5 hour Trolley Tour, and that we were there just in time for the last trip at 3:30 pm.
So off we went.
One of the places we saw was this unusual church, especially unusual for a Baptist Church. This is the First Baptist Church of Asheville.
The design was based on a Catholic church in Italy. Certainly different.
While we were at the Visitor’s Center, we purchased discounted tickets to the Biltmore Estate that we’re going to visit tomorrow, and also got information on Chimney Rock Park and Grandfather Mountain, two other places we’re interesting in visiting.
After the tour was over, we headed back to our coach and sat outside for a while with the Mister and Emma, our cats.
We keep Emma on a leash because she’s easily spooked and might run off. Mister, on the other hand, knows who feeds him and never wanders off.
June 21, 2010
Here comes the Bride…
Well, today was the big day!
Our daughter Brandi Leigh White has officially become Brandi White Morrison.
Except for running about 15 minutes late, everything came off perfectly.
The wedding took place in the Chapel Dulcinea, overlooking the Texas Hill County near Austin.
And the view was spectacular.
There were over 40 family and friends in attendance, including a lot of Lowell’s family who came in from Oklahoma, where he’s from.
And here’s the happy couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lowell Morrison.
As soon as the wedding was over, everyone headed down the road about 5 miles to The Salt Lick BBQ Restaurant for a great meal of Brisket, Ribs, Sausage, and Chicken, complete with all the trimmin’s
And of course, a beautiful wedding cake, too.
Everyone had a great time getting to know all the new family members.
Here our granddaughter Piper (in the middle) has a toast with her new cousins, Sabey and Grace.
Finally, about 9:30 pm, everyone said their goodbyes and started home.
I’ll post more pics and info in the next few days.
On Our Way To Long Beach, WA
June 21, 2011
Big Mountains and Big Bridges . . .
This morning started way, way too early at 6:30 am. I was up at this ungodly hour so we could get an early start for our 290 mile trip up to Long Beach, WA.
We pulled out of our site about 8:30 and headed out . . . for Big Jim’s Coffee Wagon at the front of the park. Since this was going to be a 6-7 hour trip, we wanted to have some breakfast first.
And as before, our coffee and breakfast sandwiches were really good, and we were hitched up and on the road by about 9:15.
We took US-97 north for about 65 miles to Madras, OR where we got on US-26. A few miles out of Madras, the scenery really changed as we started to descend into the Deschutes River Canyon and entered the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.
The Deschutes River Canyon was a real surprise. The scenery looked liked something from the Southwest.
But when we got to the bottom of the canyon, we found the lush vegetation along the Deschutes River.
After following the river for a few miles we crossed over and started our climb back up to the top.
Getting to the top we had our first good view of Mt Hood.
Then about 2/3 of the way through the reservation, we saw a sign informing us we were crossing the 45th Parallel, thus we were half way between the North Pole and Equator.
Neat!
Mt. Hood became even more impressive the closer we got. At over 11,200 feet, it’s the tallest point in Oregon, and is considered Oregon’s most likely to erupt volcano.
We stopped at a rest area at the base of the mountain, but ironically, because of the trees, we didn’t have as good view as further out.
But since this was a ski lift area, I did see this snow-making machine sitting there, waiting for this fall. Always wondered what they looked like.
In Portland, we got on I-5N and headed up to Longview, where we crossed the Columbia River on the Lewis and Clark Bridge, and started the long climb on US-30 heading toward Astoria, OR.
Astoria is a picturesque little town, perched on the hills overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River.
Crossing this bridge put us in Washington, and only about 15 miles from our Thousand Trails park in Long Beach/Ilwaco, WA.
We pulled in about 4:30 and got parked and set up with no problems.
Someone suggested Dooger’s Seafood up the road in Long Beach for supper, so off Jan and I went.
Good Food.
On To Cody, WY
June 21, 2013
No Moose . . .
We left Teton Valley Campground about 9:15 and headed up and over the mountain at Teton Pass and then down into Jackson, WY on our way to Cody, WY via the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.
Jan was worried about taking the rig up and down those 10% grades, but we really didn’t have any problems. Most of the time going up, I stayed at about 40 mph, except when someone pulled out in front of me from a turnout and I had to slow down and got behind the power curve. That dropped me down to about 30 for a short while until I caught back up. Coming down on the other side, I just downshifted into 3rd and put the PacBrake on, though in one really steep part, I dropped down into 2nd for a while. But finally, much to Jan’s relief, about 45 minutes later we were driving through Jackson and out the other side, heading toward Yellowstone.
The trip through the National Park went very smoothly with a moderate amount of traffic. The road is two lane all the way with no passing lanes, but a lot of pull-outs, both as scenic viewpoints, picnic areas, or just plain parking areas.
And, unlike our previous Yellowstone trips, where we’ve seen moose, elk, buffalo, grizzlies, and wolves, this trip only yielded three buffalo, with two about a hundred yards off the road. But the third was kind of neat. There was a very large buffalo just walking down the narrow shoulder of the highway, on the opposite side coming toward us. He didn’t seem to be at all bothered by the cars and RV’s whizzing right by him.
About 2:30 we pulled into the Yellowstone Valley Inn & RV Park in Wapiti, WY, about 20 miles west of Cody.
While I was registering, I inquired about staying a 4th day as we had originally wanted, but was told that they were pretty much completely booked through July 4th. So as soon as we got parked and set up, I called the RV park in Billings and said we’ll be coming in on Monday instead of Tuesday. So it’s all good.
This park had some great views out the windshield, and in every direction, actually.
Tomorrow we’re going to drive back down to Yellowstone for the day and revisit some of our favorite spots. Then on Sunday we’ll get together with our friend’s Al & Adrienne who are workcamping here in Cody.
Still In Elkhart, IN
June 21, 2014
A Movie Two’fer . . .
Normally, when we’re not having muffin muffins with our coffee in the morning, we have English muffins, buttered and then toasted with cinnamon and sugar. Well, when we were at Wal-Mart yesterday getting groceries, we came across a new product.
It’s a Cinnamon Vanilla English Muffin from the Thomas English muffin people, and it’s really good, especially when you add butter, more cinnamon, and sugar.
Unfortunately, according to the package, it’s a Limited Edition, so stock up now.
Later, about 1pm, Jan and I headed down to the local theater for our movie two’fer afternoon. We do this a lot, because it’s just more convenient.
Our first show was The Edge of Tomorrow, the new Tom Cruise science fiction movie. I haven’t been a big fan of Tom Cruise since he screwed up the Mission Impossible franchise, but the concept of this movie, and previews on TV, were intriguing enough to make me want to give it a try.
As far as the concept goes, think Groundhog Day with a alien invasion. Cruise, killed in the first day of a D-Day style invasion to retake continental Europe from the aliens, wakes up the day before the battle, and does this over and over every time he’s killed, each time getting a little closer to the solution of defeating the alien invasion.The movie is very well done, and we both liked it. Worth Seeing.
Our second move was Maleficent, a retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty fairytale, but this time from the viewpoint of the Evil Queen, Maleficent. And through the storyline, you find out who she is, why she’s ‘evil’, and what made her that way.
Like my feelings about Tom Cruise, Jan is not a big fan of Angelina Jolie, but she liked this movie, and she liked Jolie in it. And so did I. Nobody but Angelina Jolie could have played this part.
The effects are great, and the story ends with a twist from the original version.
Well Recommended.
By the time we got out from the movie, it was about 6pm, and after talking it over we decided to have dinner at Das Dutchman Essenhaus over in Middlebury.
We always try to eat here at least once when we’re in the area. And it’s always good.
When we eat here we normally order from the menu, and don’t do the buffet. And we always get the ‘broasted’ chicken.
If you’ve ever wondered what ‘broasted’ chicken is, it’s basically Kentucky Fried Chicken. It’s cooked in a pressure cooker fryer, just like KFC is. It’s just not KFC, but a competitor. And without all those pesky franchise fees and royalty payments.
We always get the 4 piece plate which gives us chicken to bring home. I got the ‘Broasted’ Potato Wedges, and the fresh green beans. And Jan got the same thing, except she got Mashed Potatoes with Gravy instead of the wedges.
You can’t eat here without having one of their homemade pies for dessert. Tonight Jan had her favorite Chocolate Cream Pie, and I had a really delicious slice of Praline Pecan Cream. Really, really good.
We finally got home a little before 8pm, just in time to miss the heavy downpour that came through.
Lucky us.
Hot In Verde Valley
June 21, 2015
A Confession . . .
Catching up with Saturday, the 20th.
We knew it was going to be about 10 degrees hotter here in Camp Verde/Cottonwood area, but it was still a shock. The temps here are running in the low to mid 100’s and it’s hard for the rig AC’s to keep up.
After hunkering down and trying to stay cool all day, we headed out about 4:00 for dinner at La Fonda, our favorite local Mexican place. Although it was Saturday, we were surprised at how busy they were at this time of the afternoon. Obviously a lot of other people know good food when they find it. Or maybe it was just cool inside.
Coming back to the rig, I decided to take another look at the genset problem. I ran it back out and pressed the STOP button. This gave me a 3 flash error code. But since it was getting dark I didn’t go any further
Except for not being very front to back level, we’ve got a really nice site here at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails. We’re in site 149 in section 8, which they call a Premium 50 amp site, I.e. $5 a day extra.
But at least we’re not jammed right up against our neighbors like we were last time.
Catching up with today, Sunday the 21st.
And now for my confession.
This is my 2nd Father’s Day this year. Actually it’s my 2nd Father’s Day in the last two weeks. We all know how easy it is for RV’ers to lose track of what day it is. That’s why we have clocks like this.
And although it helps for days of the week, it doesn’t help keeping track of holidays, especially 2nd tier ones like Father’s Day, which I think ranks right up there with Flag Day, or Arbor Day.
So when I got up last Sunday, I found a Father’s Day card from my beautiful bride waiting for me. And even better, I got a big kiss.
And as I mentioned in last Sunday’s blog, about 2:30 we drove over to the Texas Roadhouse to have ‘linner’. We figured that by getting there in the middle of the afternoon we would be in between the heavy Father’s Day lunch and dinner crowds.
And as we pulled into the parking lot, we were happy to find the parking lot half empty. Thinking we’d picked the perfect time and avoided the large Father’s Day’s crowds, we should have notice the hostess’ confusion. As the young lady was seating us, she ask, “Are you celebrating anything special today?” So Jan said, “Well, Father’s Day.”
We should have paid more attention to the strange look she gave us, but she didn’t say anything. Probably just wanted to get away from these crazy, confused people as quickly as possible.
Getting back home after our really good steaks, without saying anything to each other, we both began to wonder why I hadn’t got Happy Father’s Day calls from the kids.
It was only later in the afternoon when Jan was entering the day’s events into her calendar, that she noticed that NEXT Sunday was Father’s Day.
Oops!
Well, that explains the funny look the hostess gave us.
So today we get to do it all over again.
And this time I got calls from both Chris and Brandi wishing me a Happy Father’s Day. so I’m pretty sure I’ve got the day right this time.
About 3:30 Jan and I headed in to Old Town Cottonwood to have dinner at The Tavern Grille. Not only was it highly recommended on Yelp, it was also open. In fact it seemed like most of the non-chain restaurants aren’t open on Sundays here in Cottonwood.
The Tavern Grill has a storied history in Cottonwood. It opened in 1923 as the Rialto Theater and reigned as the longest operating single screen theater in the U.S. until it burned in 1998. Reopening as the The Tavern Grille in 2005, it’s been going strong ever since. And their food certainly shows why.
We started out with salads. Jan’s was the House Salad with their homemade Dill Ranch dressing,
while I had the Bleu Cheese Wedge.
Like Jan’s, this Bleu Cheese was also home-made and really good.
For our entrees, we both went with steak. It was Father’s Day, after all . . . again.
Jan had the 8oz Sirloin with a mushroom demi-glaze, veggies, and cheddar redskin mashed potatoes,
while I splurged and had the Cajun Prime Rib and Shrimp, along with veggies, and the cheddar redskin mashed potatoes.
It’s been a while since I’ve had prime rib, but if they’re all as good as this one, I may have to rethink my ‘all ribeye, all the time’ motto.
Coming home, we made a quick Wal-Mart stop for a few things before getting back to the rig about 6pm. The first thing I did was to put up the Reflectix foil screens on the front windshield to help keep out the heat. With temps of 107 degrees tomorrow and the rest of the week, I decide that my magnetic screens weren’t going to cut it.
After I finished with that. I ran the genset back out to further check the error codes. After I got the 3 flash code yesterday, I checked the Onan manual and found that code indicates a further code is available.
So I pressed the STOP button which gave me the 3 flashes. Then I pressed the STOP button again and got a two digit code. In this case, 3 flashes and 6 flashes, or a 36 error code.
But checking the manual again didn’t tell me much. An error 36 code corresponds to an Engine Stopped Fault, I.e. the engine stopped for some reason without begin told to. Since my genset runs just fine, it doesn’t seem like it applies to my situation.
So I’ll be making calls to American Coach and Cummins Onan tomorrow to see if I can get a handle on this.
Stay Tuned.
June 21, 2016
Booked!
I spend some time this morning finishing up booking our trip to Alabama the end of next month.
So here’s what I’ve got:
Sun – Jul 31 – Poche’s
Mon – Aug 1 – Hollywood Casino
Tue – Aug 2 – Gulf State Park
|
Mon – Aug 8 – Gulf State Park
Tue – Aug 9 – Athens
|
Sat – Aug 13 – Athens
Sun – Aug 14 – Benchmark Meridian
Mon – Aug 15 – Poche’s
Tue – Aug 16 – Back at Lake Conroe
So I’ve now got all our reservations booked. The Poche’s and Benchmark stays are both Passport America parks, so I’m saving $20 for each Poche’s stay, and $15 for the Benchmark one.
So in only three nights, saving a total of $55, that more than covers the $44 a year that a PPA membership costs. We’ve had a PPA membership since we first rented a Cruise America Class C to check out RV’ing in 2007, and it’s never taken more than a week or so of traveling to pay for our membership.
Around 1pm I went down to the office to see if we could stay over here a couple of extra days so we wouldn’t have to go back to Lake Conroe on July 3rd, in the middle of the 4th of July weekend. Not something I was looking forward to.
So, the answer to the question of whether or not they will let us stay here a couple of extra days was . . . NO!
Our Alliance membership doesn’t give us the option of two $29 week stays like some do. But I was hoping they could at least cut us some slack, but apparently not. But I did learn something that will help out even more.
I knew that we could rent a site here on an annual lease, but what I didn’t realize is that we could rent a site on a monthly basis, outside of our Thousand Trails membership. And it’s a really good deal, at least for us
We can get a 50amp site for $375 a month plus electric @ $012.5 per KW. Right now, because we’ve used up our 50 free days, and are paying the extra $3 per day for 50amp, a month stay, (two weeks at a time) costs us $240. And when you figure in 35 or so gallons of diesel going back and forth, we’re looking at about $335 a month, and we still have to move every two weeks.
And, as Jan says, “ . . . . the wear and tear on the rig, and us.”
So as it stands now, tomorrow I’ll book us a month here starting July 3rd, which means we’ll stay here until July 31st when we’ll leave for Alabama.
Hopefully it will all work out, and we’ll be here for six weeks straight.
June 21, 2017
Recapping 2017. . .
I thought I’d take this blog to recap our recent 3+ month trip circling the Southwest, Northwest, the Badlands, and the Plains.
We left the Colorado River Thousand Trails Friday March 10th with our first overnight stop in Junction, TX.
Although we made a number of overnights alone the way, our primary stops were:
Los Cruces, NM – 2 nights
Benson, AZ – 4 nights
Tucson, AZ – 7 nights
Apache Junction, AZ – 14 nights
Las Vegas, NV – 14 nights
Los Angeles, CA – 7 nights
Weed, CA – 3 nights
Bend, OR – 14 nights
Coeur D’Alene, ID – 2 nights
Billings, MT – 2 nights
Rapid City, SD – 17 nights
North Platte, NE – 3 nights
Bartlesville, OK – 3 nights
Pauls Valley, OK – 2 nights
We did have several milestones along the way.
We covered 5,315.6 miles during our 14+ weeks of travel and passed through 14 states, and stayed at least one night in 12 of them.
Texas
New Mexico
Arizona
Nevada
California
Oregon
Washington
Idaho
Montana
Wyoming
South Dakota
Nebraska
Kansas
Oklahoma
Along the way we hit 80,000 miles that we’ve put on the coach since we picked it up from the dealer January 6, 2008, and we rang up 145,000 total miles since our coach left the factory in March 1999.
We added the last two missing states, Nebraska and Kansas, to our list, leaving only Hawaii. And as soon as I find the much-fabled land route leading there, we’ll be on our way.
As far as highlights, of course for Jan, it was visiting The Pioneer Women, Ree Drummond’s Mercantile in Pawhuska, OK, visiting the family lodge on the Drummond Ranch where the show is filmed, and then topping it all off, meeting and talking to Ree and Ladd at the Mercantile.
It’s going to be hard for her to ever top that. She’s still giddy.
For me it had to be the Golden Spike Tower and the Bailey Train Yard in North Platte, NE.
I’ve always had a thing for trains, both models and real, and we’ve done a lot of ‘trainy’ things as we’ve traveled around the country.
The other highlights, or maybe ‘lowlights’ were the significant repairs I did as we traveled around the country.
First up, just a couple of days on the road, was when the control rod that directs air into the rear airbags came loose, leaving them completely deflated, and the rig pretty much undrivable.
We stayed at the Cochise Terrance RV Park in Benson, AZ for a few days before the Tucson Escapade, and when we went leave, the slide wouldn’t come in. Turned out to be a broken bolt.
Then while we were in Las Vegas, I replaced my transfer switch which had died recently. I had to jam popsicles sticks into the contactor to keep it pulled in on shore power.
I also replaced the bent, crimped exhaust pipe on our generator while we were in Vegas..
Generator Exhaust Pipe Replacement
Probably my biggest repair was diagnosing and replacing the Allison transmission output speed sensor while we were in Weed, CA.
Transmission Output Sensor Replacement – Part 1
Transmission Output Sensor Replacement – Part 2
And of course my generator starter repair while we were in Rapid City, SD that let us travel back to Houston staying comfortable in 90 degree weather.
Generator Starter Repair – Part 1
Generator Starter Repair – Part 2
Generator Starter Repair – Part 3
Generator Starter Repair – Part 4
And finishing up just a couple of days ago in Pauls Valley, OK, tightening down the rig’s hydraulically-powered cooling fan motor mounting which was banging around while the engine was running.
We just stayed home and rested up today, but tomorrow we’ll do some shopping and maybe Whataburger.
Back On The Road To Illinois
June 21, 2018
It Just Feels Right . . .
The day got off to a rocky start when about 5am a thunderboomer let loose, sounding like it was right on the roof of the rig and waking us both up.
Then the power went off, but only for about 5 minutes so it wasn’t too bad. However the fact that it poured buckets for the next two hours made me really look forward to going outside to disconnect and stow everything away, and driving too, of course. But by 7:15 when I finally did go outside, it had pretty much cleared up.
Right on schedule I pulled out of the Petticoat Junction RV park, with Jan following in the truck, heading for HOPS Propane about 3 miles up Hwy 6. They opened at 9am, and I pulled into the lot at 9:03. There was a guy standing out in front of the office and he waved me over to the fill station by the tanks.
After getting 33 gallons, I was paid up and out the door by 9:15. Things were looking up, and we were actually ahead of schedule, as I had figured at least 30 minutes there. But my joyfulness quickly faded.
I pulled the rig over to the side of the lot so we could hook up the toad and get on the road. But then I could not release the lock on one of my tow bar pins. The key just would not turn. I tried graphite in the lock and then Strike Hold. All with no luck
I even tapped it (whacked it, really) with a mallet. Nothing. It was like it was the wrong key. Finally I got my ‘Persuader’ (an 18” piece of 1-1/4 galvanized pipe) out of the truck and started wailing away at it. And although it loosened up, it didn’t let go.
So I got more forceful with it, getting my drill and some titanium bits and started drilling out the cylinder, ending up with this.
I drilled all the way through it, coming out the bottom. It came out the side because it was deflected by the tip of the hardened steel pin. The hardened steel pin is why I didn’t even try to saw it off. Master makes some tough locks, believe me.
I had been at this for about 30 minutes when the guy who filled my propane came out and saw what my problem was. And he said, “Just a minute. Let me get my torch.”
Expecting him to wheel over a big set of tanks on a dolly, I was surprised when he showed up with a case about the size of a large toaster oven. Opening it up I could see two smallish tanks of the oxy and acetylene, a tiny regulator, and a torch handle.
Lighting it off, he adjusted the handle until he had a small blue-white flame, and sliced through the 1/2” hardened steel pin like it was butter.
WOW!
I want one of those.
Unfortunately in my astonishment I forgot to ask him where he got it. I’ll call and ask him when we get back.
By the time I got hooked up, we were about 45 minutes behind schedule rather than 15 minutes ahead. But for us it was no problem since our schedules are pretty much illusionary anyway.
I had another plain pin with no locking mechanism so I used it by tywrapping it all together with some big 3/8” tywraps I had and it worked fine. I checked it a couple of times along the trip and it never budged.
We stopped at the Buc-ee’s on I-10 in Baytown for diesel and coffee. I wanted to top off the tank for the trip, and 25 gallons did it.
The trip to Breaux Bridge was smooth with very little rain. Both the engine and the generator ran fine (Jan said they purred) and we had no problems or close calls.
A while after we were out on I-10, Jan asked me how it felt to be back on the road after so many months. I said,”It just feels right”, and we both agreed we had missed traveling these past 10 months or so.
We pulled into Poche’s Fish-N-Camp in Breaux Bridge about 3:15 and got set up. We decided not to even put out the sat dish or put up the TV, and just have peace and quiet.
Then about 4:30 we headed into Breaux Bridge to have dinner at our favorite place here, Pont Breaux. We started eating here in the early 80’s as we traveled through here. Originally it was called Mulate’s, but it sold a few years back, and the food is just as good as always.
Jan tried something different this time, the Grilled Catfish with Shrimp Étouffée, and Sautéed Veggies.
She said it was great.
I got my usual bowl of Seafood Gumbo with Shrimp and Crabmeat.
The small dish at the bottom right is potato salad, which I always thought was a strange side for gumbo, but it was good so I ate it. Years later I found out that it was a regional thing to dump the lump of potato salad in your gumbo.
Who knew?
I still eat mine separately anyway.
Coming home I stopped off at an AutoZone and bought two new tow bar pins, one to use and one as a spare. Of course I bought another Master Lock, since I now know how tough they are.
Tomorrow we’ve got about 215 miles to travel up to Byram, MS, just south of Jackson. And the day will end with another great meal from one of our favorites, Sonny’s BBQ.
Really looking forward to that.
June 21, 2019
Some Thoughts On Our Recent European Vacation . . .
In many ways, especially culturally, Europe seems 10-15 years behind the US. Not saying that’s a bad thing, but it just is.
Smoking is still very popular, with a lot of people smoking on the streets and in the shops. And just about every restaurant, bar, and pub has a cigarette machine prominently displayed.
This one even has an app that lets you select and pay for your favorite brand online.
And you can even find them located outside along the sidewalks.
The other noticeable thing is that pretty much every female, young and older, wear leggings. Women in business suites wear them with skirts, perhaps shorter than they might without leggings. College girls may wear them with shorts, or many times just the leggings.
The other throwback is the young girl’s jean’s, and leggings, too, all have those horizontal slits cut into them up and down the thighs, with sometimes more leg showing than actual legging or jeans.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Again something else I don’t see much here in the States any more.
One thing they seemed to be a little ahead of us is in public co-ed bathrooms, even at the major airports and train stations. The stalls are all side by side with both men and women using them, with the urinals around the corner in a separate alcove.
Takes a little getting use to, but then you don’t think about it any more.
Another is that, especially in Amsterdam and Paris, it seems like everyone is pulling around one of those small carry-on sized wheeled suitcases, even behind their bikes. I guess that’s the replacement for briefcases and large purses.
Finishing up, one thing that was really surprising to me was that I never had any problem with my credit/debit cards. Of course I had called them ahead of time to let them know that if they had a charge in Houston one day, and a charge in Budapest the next, it was probably OK.
The only slight glitch was that my PayPal MasterCard would not work at ATM’s to get cash, but worked just find for credit or debit card purchases.
One other thing is that in every restaurant or pub we visited, the waiter never takes your card off somewhere in back to run it. Every place had one of those little hand-held devices that would run your card, let you sign it or use your PIN, and then print your receipt, all right at your table.
I’ll have some more thoughts in another blog.
Our Fathers
June 21, 2020
A Big Day . . .
First off, Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there.
My father had several different careers during his life, starting as 22+ year Police Detective, 4 times decorated for Valor, twice under fire. He was also the state’s police pistol champion for 5 years in a row, until he was asked to stop competing to give someone else a chance.
During WWII he was in the Navy Shore Patrol. Though he tried repeatedly to get a shipboard assignment, he spent the war guarding the Navy Pier in Chicago. He always said that he figured he did his part since ‘No Japs (is that racist now?) ever got past Chicago.”
He was a private pilot, a large motel owner, owned a fleet of shrimp boats in Alabama and South America, and worked for Boeing in Huntsville doing computer support on the Apollo Project.
And yes, that’s me in the winter of 1950 after we had moved down to Gulf Shores, AL.
Jan’s father was in the Army during WWII and landed at Normandy on D-Day, though Jan and her mother didn’t find out about this until he died in 1993. He told everyone he spent the war working in a hanger.
After the war, he went back to college to get a teaching degree, and then reenlisted, this time in the Air Force where he retired as a Senior Master Sergeant in 1967.
As far as our weekend up in Katy at our daughter Brandi’s, we spent most of Saturday in the pool, only interrupted by a passing thunderstorm.
You can see the storm coming in below.
So everyone gathered under the pavilion to wait it out, assisted by various alcoholic beverages.
Even Jack the dog joins in. In fact Jack loves swimming so much he will often jump in the pool for a couple of laps when he’s in the backyard by himself.
Hope everyone had as great a weekend as we did.
June 21, 2021
Well, I am NOW!
Jan and I both agreed that we slept better last night than any night in the last two weeks. There’s just something about your own bed. In our case I think a lot of the difference is from our 4” Memory Foam Mattress Pad.
I sometimes think that Alexa’s programmers just like messing with us. When we’re traveling long distances we have an Alexa Echo Dot on the dashboard hotspotted to my phone. That way we can listen to music, ask her questions, etc.
But sometimes when I get out of the Jeep with the phone in my pocket, Alexa doesn’t always reconnect to the hotspot when I get back in the Jeep. So I usually just ask her, “Alexa, are you awake?” And normally she answers, “Yes, I’m here.”
But one time last week, when I ask her that question, she replied in a somewhat snotty tone, “Well, I am NOW!”
When we were in St. Louis week before last, I told you about the 5G speeds I was getting while we were there.
151 Mbps!
But then last week I checked in Montgomery, AL and got this.
Really great speeds, but it all pales in comparison to the Starlink speeds people are getting in Europe.
649 Mbps!
And Elon Musk says they’ll hit 1 Gbps eventually.
Just wish we’d get our Starlink dish pretty soon.
This evening we picked up Miss Karma from our cat-sitter, who also happens to be the office manager where I do the IT consulting. Although Karma complained bitterly about being stuffed back into her travel bag, she did seem to be happy to get back home.
Thought for the Day:
I always hate it when liar’s pants don’t actually catch on fire. Hopefully someday.
