Monthly Archives: June 2022
X-Rays And Trip Thoughts . . .
We were on our way about 12:15 this morning with our first stop at my neurosurgeon’s up in Webster to get new X-Rays.
Next Monday I’ve got the 6-month evaluation after my November 2021 Cervical Spine Fusion surgery. And while we’re there I also want to talk about a possible Lumbar Fusion as well. I’m still having some weakness in my legs and some pain in my lower back, especially when I sit up or move wrong.
The question is about the success of lumbar surgery. Jan knows from her medical record days that lumbar surgery is likely to have more problems than cervical surgeries. So I want more info before I proceed.
Afterward, since we were in that area, we had lunch at our old Pho Barr there in Webster. Just as tasty as always.
Then after a quick stop at Sam’s so Jan could get the nose piece on her glasses replaced, we were on our way home.
Getting back to our recent Alabama trip:
Along the way, the price for gas varied from $3.99 somewhere at a truck stop in Mississippi to $4.52 in Gulf Shores. Though there was that time when I paid $5.22 at a WalMart.
I had already run my card when I noticed that the pump was only for Premium Unleaded Ethanol-Free. Luckily I was only topping off, not filling up.
As far as our hotels, during our trip, we stayed at a La Quinta in Slidell, a Days Inn in Athens, a Hampton Inn in Birmingham, a Sleep Inn in Montgomery, and a Sleep Inn in Baton Rouge. And of course the condo in Gulf Shores/Fort Morgan.
All of the hotels except for the Sleep Inn in Baton Rouge we’d stayed at before. And the Sleep Inn in Baton Rouge was the only disappointment.
Since my recent unpleasantness, we’ve been booking handicapped rooms, mainly for the extra handles in the showers. So we were happy to see one like this at the La Quinta in Slidell.
And the Sleep Inn in BR had the same layout. But there was no holder for the shower nozzle, and the water pressure was pathetic. If you turned the nozzle pointing up, there was only enough pressure to spray the water up about 9”, so it just kind of drizzled on you when you were trying to actually use it. Hard to even rinse off the soap.
Since we figured that the shower at the condo wouldn’t have anything extra, we ordered these off Amazon.
They worked great, so much so that we also used them at the Athens Days Inn since we were there for 5 days. And we decided to add them to our shower in the rig when we got home.
Thought for the Day:
Recently there has been some talk from politicians about again trying to switch the US over to the metric system. When a reporter asked a college engineering professor what he thought of the idea, he said,” There are two kinds of countries in the world: Those that use the metric system, and those that have walked on the Moon.
Bleach And Drano Don’t Mix
June 14, 2009
Trolleys and Uncle Bubba…
Today we had lunch at Paula Deen’s brother’s place, Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House.
First off, we had a little problem finding the place, but apparently, it wasn’t just us.
Our GPS system took us to the left off US 80, which was very obviously a residential neighborhood. Finally, I decided to turn around and go back across the road. As we were going back we saw several cars full of people coming the way we had just come, all looking at the GPS on their dashboards.
We crossed back over US 80 and about 100 yards down the road there was a small sign on the left. I don’t know why they don’t have a sign out on US 80.
When I asked the hostess about it, she said they have contacted MapQuest, Garmin, Magellan, Google, etc. to try and get the problem corrected, with no luck.
We got there about 20 min before they opened at 11 am. While we were waiting, we heard the staff and some customers waiting with us, talking about what happened the night before at the restaurant.
Apparently, a maintenance person mixed bleach and Drano to do some cleaning. The resulting chlorine gas started spreading thru the restaurant, the Fire Department arrived, and the place was evacuated and closed for the night.
I guess we just missed all the excitement.
Anyway, the food was great. Jan had the Shrimp/Oyster combo platter, and I had the Low Country Boil, with boiled shrimp, grilled sausage, boiled potatoes, and corn on the cob.
For dessert, we shared a fantastic Strawberry Shortcake, made with pound cake.
While we could still walk, we headed back into Savannah to take the Old Town Trolley tour of the Savannah Historic District, from the same company we’ve taken tours with before in Key West and St. Augustine.
Savannah has the largest Historic District of any city in the country and the tour was a lot of fun, but hot. Savannah certainly has a lot of very old houses.
After the tour, it was a quick stop at a pet store, and then back to the coach.
Later in the afternoon, I checked out my toad taillight upgrade and Jan and I sat outside in the shade.
That’s A Roast, Not A Steak
June 14, 2010
Another cow bites the dust…
We left Valley View RV Park in Ft. Sumner, NM about 9:30 am after getting 107 gallons of diesel at a Valero. It was $3.09 a gallon, which is better than the $3.69 I paid in Washington State a few weeks ago, but not as good as $2.89 in Salt Lake City about a week ago. And of course it was $2.74 when we got into Texas today. Oh well.
About an hour later we passed thru Clovis, NM, our daughter-in-law Linda’s hometown, though we didn’t really get to see a lot of it just passing through.
Then, about 10 miles later we were back in Texas and the Central Time Zone, for the first time since late February.
It’s good to be home, and “back to civilization’” as Jan says. Of course, Jan defines “civilization” as any place that has a nearby WalMart. And today in Clovis was the first sign of a WalMart in 4 days.
Compared to the RV park from Hell in Magdalena the night before last, the park in Ft. Sumner was a Rivera resort. And they were both the same price, $20. Here’s a couple of photos of the Ft. Sumner park.
The kind of funny thing about here in Ft. Sumner is that, although I had no usable cell service, just a signal, but with no bars, I had good Internet on my Verizon AirCard, which is supposed to use the same signal band. If I tried to make a phone call, it would try to connect and then just drop out. Funny.
And, although it’s hard to tell from this photo, the Amarillo Ranch RV Park we’re now at here in Amarillo for the next two nights is even nicer, and only $16.50 with Passport America. Whoopee!
After arriving at Amarillo Ranch RV Park about 2 pm we got set up, and then a little while later headed out for some shopping. Our first stop was Sam’s Club, and after that we headed toward Kohl’s so Jan could find some sandals for Brandi’s wedding.
But we discovered that the Kohl’s was way west of town about 12 miles away, and we’d decided we wanted to eat at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, which was the other way, before it got too crowded. So we headed back toward the RV park, and the Big Texan, which is about a mile on the other side. We’ll do Kohl’s tomorrow.
Let me tell you, the Big Texan is big! It not only has the enormous two-story restaurant and gift shop, but a small casino with slot machines, and a motel next door.
Jan was apparently too hungry to get up close and personal with Big Tex here,
like she did with Babe the Blue Ox in Klamath, CA last month. Maybe next time.
The Big Texan claim to fame is their 72 oz. Steak Challenge.
Free Steak! I’m going to have to check this out.
The décor can be described as “Western Chic”, but who cares if the steaks are good.
And here’s where the action takes place. It’s up on a stage, complete with two live steaming Internet WebCams to record all the action.
And here’s the deal.
You have 1 hour to eat a 72 oz. Sirloin steak, shrimp cocktail, salad, baked potato, and a dinner roll.
If you do it, it’s all free.
If you don’t, it costs you $72.00.
I assume they get their money upfront.
Yikes! That’s not a steak, that’s a roast. That’s 4 and a half pounds of meat!
I don’t know if you have to eat the two raw jalapenos or not.
The oldest person to complete the challenge was a 69-year-old grandmother.
The youngest was an 11-year-old boy.
The record time is 8 minutes 52 seconds by Joey Chesnut, the World Champion Hot Dog Eating Contest Winner.
And a Bengal tiger once ate the 72 oz. steak in 90 seconds. Don’t know what he did with the baked potato and shrimp cocktail.
We found out later that they have this limo that will come over to the RV park and pick you up and return you.
This is probably a good idea if you plan on trying the Challenge, since you’ll probably be too stuffed to drive, win or lose.
For our part, Jan had the 9 oz. Filet, and I did the Quarter Challenge, with the 18 oz. Ribeye.
Unfortunately I was too hungry to take a picture first, but 18 oz. of steak is big!
And, although I finished the 18 oz. steak, salad, baked potato, and a roll, I don’t think I could handle 3 more steaks and a shrimp cocktail.
I told Jan that I’d be willing to starve myself for a couple of days and give it a try if someone else wanted to foot the bill.
We were certainly too full for dessert, but we’d heard they had really good carrot cake so we ask for a slice to go.
And this is what we got.
When they say Big, they mean it. It fills the whole container!
As we staggered out to the truck, almost too stuffed to walk, our daughter Brandi called to check up on things since we had had spotty cell service for the last couple of days
Then it was back to the rig, to just sit around and digest.
More tomorrow…
but we probably won’t eat again ‘til Thursday.
44 Feet A Year!
June 14, 2011
Crater Lake . . .
Jan having gotten up earlier as usual, this morning started at 8:30 for me, since we were leaving at 9 for our day trip down to Crater Lake National Park.
But our first stop was at the park entrance at Big Jim’s Coffee Wagon, a coffee and pastry kiosk that’s open every day from 6:30 to 10:30 am, and gets a lot of business from outside the RV park, as well as park residents. Jan had a Hazelnut Hot Chocolate and a breakfast sandwich, and I had a Snickerdoodle Latte and a bagel w/cream cheese. Both very, very good. We’ll go back.
Then we were on the road heading about 100 miles south to Lobert Junction where we would pick up SR 62.
Along the way, we saw Mt. Scott which is right next to Crater Lake, and blocks it from our view.
Right before we turned onto SR 62 we stopped for gas and a pitstop at the Crater Lake Junction Truck Stop, and then it was back on the road for the 35-mile trip up into the park.
We started out about 4000 feet, and by 4500 feet we were seeing snow.
And more snow at 5000 feet
And even more at 6000 feet.
Then we see this. Oh, Boy!
But finally at about 7200 feet we pulled into Rim Village, and seeing a lot of people on top of a hill taking pictures, we decided to join them.
And this is what we saw! Be sure and click on this panoramic photo to see it full size. Be sure and use the slider bar at the bottom to see it all.
If ever a view was breathtaking.
Crater Lake is 6 miles across and 1949 feet deep, and from where we were standing on the rim, it’s 900 feet to the water.
This ‘lump’ is Wizard Island, formed from lava eruptions after the volcano Mount Mazama exploded in 5700 B.C., and then collapsed into the crater we have today.
Here’s an Internet photo showing it from a better angle.
And this Internet aerial view gives a better perspective of the entire crater.
The water in the crater, formed from snow melt over thousands of years, is some of the purest in the world, and really acts like a mirror.
Since it still goes down into the low 20’s here at night, you can see a sheen of ice around the edges of the lake.
And here’s my Sweetie, showing up the view.
While we were at Rim Village we checked out the gift shop and café. The first thing we noticed were these ‘snow tunnel’ entrances leading out to the street.
And it’s really a long hallway leading into the building. It turns out that these are done this way so you can get into the building when there are 30 to 40 feet of snow covering up everything. Crater Lake gets an average of 44 feet (FEET!) of snow a year, and this way the snow plows can clear the entrance right along the edge of the road, so you can get inside the building.
Even the outside restrooms are done the same way.
A little after 1pm we drove about half a mile along the rim to the Crater Lake Lodge to have lunch.
Originally built somewhat shoddily in 1915, it had deteriorated to such an extent that in 1989 it was condemned, torn down, and rebuilt from scratch, with only the Great Hall being saved. And they did a beautiful job.
Jan and I had great Reuben Sandwiches in the dining room,
and then went outside to take in another great view of the lake from the lodge porch.
We even had a Steller’s Jay taking in the view with us.
All during the day, we kept bumping into this group of motorcyclists, who asked me to take their picture with their camera. So the last time I saw them I took a picture with mine.
If it had been a little later in the year, we could have taken the 31-mile loop drive around the crater. And we could have also come in the north entrance and saved ourselves about 100 miles. But the loop is still snowed in.
It takes 10 men working for 4 months starting in April to clear the loop. They can do about 1/4 mile a day to clear 30 feet of snow from a roadway 30 feet wide. That means they’re moving over 1 million cubic feet of snow a day. That’s over 25 million pounds. A DAY!
After getting our National Park Passport stamped, we headed back toward home, after having a great day. And then to top it off, after coming through the tiny town of Fort Klamath on SR62, we had probably our last view of Mt. Shasta, about 90 miles away. What a sight!
We got home about 6 pm, after a 9-hour trip of about 275 miles. A long, but really nice day.
Tomorrow, who knows?
But I know I’m sleeping later.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
June 14, 2013
A Hidden Gem . . .
By the time we waited in line to get diesel this morning, got the toad hooked up, and finally got on the road it was about 11 am, but since we only had about 170 miles to go today, that wasn’t a problem.
And we got free coffee. Since we bought about $350 of diesel, the manager didn’t charge me when I got Jan and I coffee/cappuccinos right before we left.
But once again we got hung up trying to get filled up. The station was very busy, but with 10 pumps (8 gas, 2 diesel), they only had one lady trying to get everyone taken care of. In addition, the placards on the pumps say it is against the law to leave the area of the pump while you’re filling up. But the lady would be 60-70 feet away at times taking care of someone at the other end of the station.
Finally getting on US97 N, we headed into Bend where we would pick up US20E. We did make a small detour through the weigh station along the way. I had noticed that pretty much every time we went past, it was closed. But like most of these, the digital scale was still operational, with a large outside display. In fact last week, I’d driven the truck through the scale to weigh it.
Finding it closed again, I drove the RV through and recorded the front and rear weights. Because of the way the station is laid out, there was no way to go around again so I could get the side-to-side weights, just the front and rear. But it showed that as usual, we’re running right at, or a hair over our gross weight.
But it’s always good to double-check.
After a couple of very nice rest area stops, we turned south at Burns, OR onto SR205 for the last 12 miles down to Princeton, OR, and The Narrows RV Park.
SR205 was a good road, except for the cows.
We saw several of the ‘livestock on road’ signs, and they really mean it. Later at dinner, our waitress mentioned that she ‘hit six cows last year’.
I then ask “You hit cows six times last year?” She said “No, I hit six cows all at once. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM . . . I was driving on a dark night, came over a hill, and there was a herd of black cows, so it was BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!”
Ouch!
We got into the park about 3pm, and after being led to our site, we got plugged in and set up. With Passport America it was $14.14 for 50 FHU, a great price for a really nice little park.
About 4:30 we walked over to the small restaurant located in the office to have dinner. We both got the Chicken Fried Steak and it was a great choice. We were both amazed at how good everything was. This is just a small place with 4 tables and 4 stools at the counter, but it was easy to see that the cook really knew her way around a kitchen.
While we were eating, she came out front to get a drink and we complimented her on the food. And by then we’d already decided to come back tomorrow morning for breakfast before we leave.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 200-mile trip to Nampa, ID, just south of Boise, and it looks like we’ve got a lot of curvy road between here and there.
Oh good. Cat barf.
Still Stuck In Prescott
June 14, 2015
Seven Weeks And Counting . . .
Well, here we sit starting seven weeks in Prescott, the longest we have been in one place since the winter of 2013. Talk about Hitch Itch.
And I’m not really sure we’ll get out of here this week like we had hoped. The glass guy is coming by tomorrow morning to ‘measure’ the opening, which tells me that the glass has not even been ordered yet. Which means probably 3 or 4 days before they’re actually ready to install the glass. So I’m thinking it will very possibly be some time next week before we get out of here.
If we’re lucky.
We’re booked into a hotel for two nights starting tomorrow, but I suspect I’ll have to extend that. Hopefully I’ll know more tomorrow.
About 2:30 Jan and I drove over to Texas Roadhouse to have linner. One thing we both like about this location is that they don’t have the loud music blaring like others. In fact, they had no music whatsoever. Very nice.
Jan had the 12oz Sirloin while I went with my usual 16oz Ribeye, and this was another great steak from them, just like last time.
Tender, with just the right amount of fat around the edges that crisps up, it was delicious. Hopefully we’ll get to go back before we leave the area.
One thing that Jan and I always laugh about when we’re at a Roadhouse is remembering the first time we went to one. This was about 15 years ago, back when they had the big barrel of peanuts in the waiting area, and the floor was covered in peanut shells.
Our granddaughter Piper was only about 6 at the time, and when she walked in, she looked around and said in a loud, little-girl voice, “This place is filthy. Don’t they ever sweep up in here?” And the place roared.
Maybe that’s why the floor is clean now and they don’t have the big barrel of peanuts anymore.
Zero-G
June 14, 2016
A New Hose and a Fixed Microwave . . .
About 3pm Jan and I headed down to the Katy area to have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, pick up our packages, and make a quick stop at the Camping World just past Brandi’s turn-off at FM-1463. Earlier in the afternoon I had called CW to double-check that they had the Zero-G RV Hoses in stock.
The Zero-G hose is a hybrid version of a regular RV water hose and one of those Pocket collapsible hoses.
I’d been waiting for someone to come out with drinking-water-safe version of a soft, non-kinking hose. And this appears to be it.
The hose is normally $35, but if you’re a Good Sam member, it’s $30. And even better, if you’re a member, it’s Buy One, Get One at Half Price. So I got two of the 25ft 5/8 inch hoses for $45. Nice!
I presently have a 35ft heavy-duty ‘non-kinking RV hose that has kinked and crimped in three places. And this is my 2nd one.
I bought the first one at an RV Rally 4 or 5 years ago, and within a year or so, I had several kinked/weakened spots on it that were starting to bulge out like a bad tire. So much so that it would no longer really coil up, but would just kink and fold over at the crimp spot. So when I encountered the vendor at another rally a year or so later, I showed it to her and she swapped it out with a new one.
And it started crimping within six months. So much for a ‘Lifetime Warranty.
We got to Brandi’s just as Lowell was leaving to pick up Landon, and when they got back, we waited until it was time to meet Brandi at La Finca Mexican Restaurant, our favorite Katy Mexican place. Yeah, that’s right. We had Mexican two nights in a row. And that’s not our record.
Back in the 80’s when the kids were young, we actually ate at the same Mexican restaurant (the late, lamented Burrito King in Webster) seven nights in a row.
If Mexican is good one night, it’s good two nights . . . or seven nights.
Landon just had chips and Queso, and pretty entertained himself.
But he kept cracking us all up with the faces he was making.
Finally, after a great meal and a great time, we headed back to Conroe about 6:30, taking the Grand Parkway once again to avoid the Houston going-home traffic.
As soon as we got home I went outside to install my new hose.
I was happy to see how heavy-duty it was,
with strong metal couplings and a thick nylon washer.
Unlike the Pocket hoses, this one does not expand or contract, but just firms up like a fire hose.
And when you turn the water off, it flattens down and can be smushed into a small ball. The canvas-feeling fabric seems to be durable and stretchy.
I’ll let you know how it holds up, but I like it so far.
Back in the rig, I thought I’d see how my replacement microwave door latch was going to work.
Here’s how I started the repair. Easier Than I Thought . . .
The new part, the black one at the bottom, is heavier, and the piece that broke off the old is now beefed up. So hopefully it will be good for more than the 17 years that the first one lasted.
It only took about 5 minutes to snap the new door opener in place, push down the locking tab, put the control panel back on, and plug the power in.
Pushing the button in, the door opened, and when I heated up a cup of water, it worked great. It’s nice to be able to make a $6.80 repair, rather than $400-$500 for a new microwave.
Now Jan will be able bake her Sopapilla Cheesecake that she’s had waiting in the fridge since the oven broke.
Not Ever
June 14, 2020
She Who Must Not Be Named . . .
A number of you left nice comments regarding yesterday’s blog, Racist, Bigoted, and … Small?, which recounted a comment someone left on Friday’s blog, WuFlu Fallout . . . and my answer to her.
As I always try to do, I both posted my answer to her back in the blog comments area, as well as answering her via email. And then used my answer in yesterday’s blog.
And then this morning I received a long email reply from her, further disagreeing with my analysis of the WuFlu situation, and also upset that I had used her comment as a blog post. So I pointed out that she posted in a public area that anyone could read, but that I would not share anything she emailed to me.
I then proceeded to reply to her in a long, detailed email answering each one of her points, and then inviting her to comment again.
This apparently put her into a complete snit, and she replied, telling me not to contact her again and not to use her name on my blog again.
So whatever you do, DO NOT go back to yesterday’s blog and read her name. She Who Must Not Be Named won’t like it.
You have been warned.
Thought for the Day:
My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me. — Benjamin Disraeli
…
Up Close And Furry . . .
Catching Up On Sunday, the 12th of June:
After an OK breakfast at our Sleep Inn Hotel in Baton Rouge, we were on our way back to Santa Fe at about 9am, with our first stop being the Pilot in Breaux Bridge about an hour away, for a bathroom stop, as well as topping off with gas. Though we filled up yesterday before we checked in at the hotel, the trip home is about 300 miles, and our Jeep Liberty will only go about 270 miles on a tank full.
Next up was our usual stop at the rest area at the LA/TX border. But even before we crossed the Sabine River, which is the border, the traffic had slowed down to a crawl. And it continued to crawl when we rejoined the traffic.
And about 45 minutes later, we found that the problem was that they had the Interstate closed about 2 miles ahead, with the traffic going down to one lane, and then crawling off onto the feeder for a few more miles before rejoining I-10.
Finishing up, our last stop was about 90 minutes later at the Baytown Buc-ee’s for a final bathroom stop. And while we were there, I had a rare sighting of the mythical Buc-ee himself.
So, of course, I had to get a photo. I mean it’s almost as rare as getting a shot of Nessie, right?
But after I ask for a photo, this lady photobombed my shot by running up and hugging him.
We finally got back to the rig a little after 3pm, but only stayed for a few minutes. I had left the AC set back to 82°, so we took in a couple of bags, while I turned the thermostats down to 75°. Then we headed back out to have dinner at Denny’s, and then pick up some stuff at HEB. And by the time we got back home, we had a nice cool coach.
Then this morning, I put a new Flamingo Door Mat that we found at a Gift Shop in Gulf Shores. It adds a nice touch.
Tomorrow it’s errands and X-Rays before my 6-month checkup next Monday, after my surgery back in November.
Thought for the Day:
Two roads diverged in the wood and I, I took the one less traveled by, and now . . . now I’m lost as hell.
Gate Guard Stuff
June 12, 2012
But it’s a Dry Heat . . .
or, It’s Summer in South Texas!
When someone talks about the summer temperature in Yuma or Tucson, they always end by saying “But it’s a dry heat”. At which time I always say “So’s the inside of an oven”.
But the humidity does make a difference, believe me.
This was the temp here yesterday (Sunday). I actually saw 105 degrees for a few minutes but it was gone before I could capture it.
But note the humidity is 24%, not the 95 to 100% you’d see in Houston. And because of this low humidity, our misting system works to really cool things down. If you tried to use a mister in Houston you’d just end up hot AND dripping wet.
Sometime in the next few days, I may try adding two more mister nozzles to my system for a total of four and see how that does. It did make a difference when I went from one to two nozzles.
And of course, no blog is really complete without a Landon pic.
Although we just saw him less than two weeks ago, we already really miss the little guy. It’s amazing how fast he’s growing up.
I’ve been trying to get more info on our next drill site location. I know the lease name, and supposedly those leases are back on the east side of I-37, somewhere between Karnes City, where we were last time, and the Gate Guard Services office at the Whitsett exit. Hopefully, this will mean we’ll have 3G cell service again.
Jan got in a baking mood yesterday and whipped up a big batch of her Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chip cookies. Hmmm, Hmmm, Good.
And then this morning when the Company Man, Juan, and the Company Safety Man, Ryan, made a run to Tita’s Taco Stand, they brought us back 4 of Tita’s delicious breakfast tacos.
Life is Good. Thanks again, guys.
That’s about it for now. Things have been kind of slow for the last few days. We only had about 30 vehicles a day through the gate for the last several days.
Good for reading and napping, especially for napping.
June 12, 2013
It’s Cinco de Mayo!
The Restaurant, not the Holiday. And boy, was it good.
First up, I thought I let you in on how I plan our trips, and since we leave here in Bend on Friday, I figured it was about time to figure out where we’re going. Actually, I know where we’re going, more like how we’re going to get there and where we’re going to stay along the way.
Between now and the 29th of June for the Escapade in Gillette, WY, we plan on staying 4 nights each in Jackson, WY, Cody, WY, and Billings, MT. And it will take 3 nights on the road to get to our first stop in Jackson, WY.
The trip to Jackson is only 720 miles, and normally we would do it in three days, two nights of travel. But when I started looking for parks every 240 miles or so, either there were none, or if there were some, the reviews were awful. But by keeping our day’s travels to 170 to 200 miles, we found 3 nice Passport America parks,
But the first park I looked for was the one for our 4-day stay in Jackson, WY. And at first it didn’t look too promising. They were all in the $60-$80 range and RVParkReviews didn’t have good things to say about any of them. But looking at the map, I saw another park nearby in Victor, ID, only 22 miles away. And even better, the park, Teton Valley Campground, had excellent reviews, And even more better?, it’s a Passport America park.
So instead of $250 – $350 for 4 nights in Jackson, I’ll be paying $49 for two nights at the PA price, and $89 for two nights at the Good Sam rate for a total of $138. A savings of $112 to $212.
Not bad for a $45 a year Passport America membership. For this reason I don’t understand why some RV’ers say that a membership will never pay for itself. We usually get our money back on our first couple of nights at an RV park.
Once that was done, I was now able to lay out our overnight stops along the way. So our first stop Friday night will be at The Narrows RV Park in Princeton, OR. Saturday night will be at Garrity RV Park in Nampa, ID, right outside Boise, with the next night at the Village of the Trees RV Park in Declo, ID. All of these are Passport America parks and have good reviews.
And we end up with 4 easy days of travel, with 168 miles, 196 miles, 179 miles, and 177 miles. Nice.
Now since these are parks we’ve never stayed at, I always like to double-check the park’s location and entrance using Google Maps and sometimes Google Street View.
I really hate driving down some country road looking for an RV park based on an address that maybe 1/2 mile off one way or the other, as country road addresses are wont to be. So I use Google Maps to find the park on the satellite view. Then I get the Latitude, and Longitude coordinates for the entrance and plug them into my Delorme Street Atlas GPS program, so it takes me right to the park entrance.
In some cases, the park entrance may be obscured by trees or other obstructions, so then I’ll use Google Street View to find the park entrance from street level.
Obviously this street view shot wasn’t taken at the same time as the satellite view.
Once we stay at a park, I enter the park name, address, and GPS coords into a master park file that I can display like this. These are all 284 parks we’ve stayed at for the last 5 and a half years since we started RV’ing.
When we’re back in an area we’ve been to before, it’s easy to see where we want to stay if we liked the park, or where to avoid if we didn’t.
I also have similar files, one that shows all the Thousand Trails parks we can stay at, and another where we store places that we want to visit as we travel around the country.
About 3:30 Jan and I headed about 12 miles south of here to the small town of La Pine to have dinner at Cinco de Mayo, a local Mexican restaurant that came highly recommended, by both Yelp and more importantly, our friend CoolJudy, who was visiting the area recently.
And once again, the reviews were right. (Thanks, Judy!) We knew it was going to be great when we first tasted the three different homemade salsas that came out with the chips. A mild sauce, a hot, spicy, chunky style sauce, and a hot green sauce, were all great. At least we figure the mild sauce was too, but we never tried it because the two hot ones were so delicious.
And it just got better when our food came. We both had the “Pick Your Own” Combo Platter, with Jan having the Chile Relleno, Ground Beef Enchilada, and a Ground Beef Taco, while I had the Chile Relleno, Ground Beef Enchilada, and Pork Carnitas Burrito.
We both agreed that this was some of the best Mexican food we’ve had since we left the Houston area in February. And we’re in Oregon!
The only unfortunate thing about this place is that we didn’t discover it earlier, since we’re leaving on Friday. But we’ll definitely be back the next time we’re in the area.
Our grandson Landon has been a little under the weather the last few days with his asthma, so we sent him this set of Jumbo Dinosaurs from Amazon to cheer him up.
And it looks like it worked.
Tomorrow we’ll start getting ready to travel on Friday with a visit to Wal-Mart and a final dinner at Baldy’s BBQ, and maybe the last try at driving to the top of Pilot Butte.
We’ll see how it goes.
Squamous Cell
June 12, 2014
And Now It’s My Turn . . .
As regular readers will remember, Jan had her brush with breast cancer a few months ago. And after some ups and downs, and an excisional biopsy/lumpectomy, everything turned out fine, with only more frequent mammograms needed in the future.
And now it’s my turn.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed a sore on my head that wasn’t going away, so about a week ago I took this head selfie.
Some internet research confirmed my suspicions that it was almost certainly skin cancer. and based on how it felt, I.e., a raised edge and a depression in the center, I was pretty sure it was a squamous cell carcinoma, one of the two skin cancers that are eminently curable. The other one is a basal cell carcinoma. Melanoma is the really bad one.
So this past Monday, I made an appointment with a local dermatologist for an appointment at 2pm today. We met with a Physician’s Assistant named Mariah who checked me over carefully, looking for any other lesions other than the ones on my head.
To Jan’s relief, she did confirm my squamous cell diagnosis (well, the internet’s diagnosis, anyway) as much as she could until a lab confirms it. And she also confirmed my thought that the white area in the lower left of the photo is a keratosis, an area that sometimes can evolve into skin cancer.
Then after checking me over, Mariah first used a freeze spray to burn off any slightly suspicious areas, including a couple on my nose. It stung a little, but wasn’t bad at all. She also took care of the keratosis at the same time.
Next, using a syringe with a very short needle, she deadened the area of the lesion, and using a scalpel, she removed a small section to send to the lab. Although I didn’t feel anything at the time, I did feel a burning sensation for a couple of hours after the anesthetic wore off.
Mariah said that in a week or so, after the lab confirmation, they will go in and do MOHS surgery on the lesion. MOHS is kind of a computerized freezing and sectioning of the carcinoma, looking at each sample until they no longer see any sign of cancer.
I then asked Mariah how deep they would go, and she said, “Until it’s all gone.”
Gulp.
The reason they didn’t do anything today is that Medicare will not pay for it until there is a lab diagnosis.
So here’s how I left the doctor’s office looking.
So now we just wait to hear from the doctor in the next week or so.
Coming home, Jan and I stopped at Martin’s for a few things before heading back to the rig.
Jan said after everything today, she needed an alcoholic beverage, so about 4:30, we headed over to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.
Jan got her a Long Island Ice Tea (really misnamed because there is not tea in it.) And I had a Hurricane Rita with an 1800 Tequila Shooter. Both very good.
And about halfway through my ‘Rita is when the burning on my head stopped.
Coincidence? I think not.
Tomorrow, were are going to do a walk-in at the combination FMCA GLAMARAMA/Fleetwood Rally down in Goshen to check out the vendors and check in with old friends.
Checking In At The Asylum
June 12, 2015
Road Trip to Jerome . . .
Today we decided to make a road trip over to Jerome. We’ve been there a couple of times, most recently when we were staying at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails a couple of months ago. But we’ve never done it from the Prescott side, and the trip is supposed to be much more spectacular.
But before we left about 10am, I checked in with the service manager here at Affinity RV to see if we were still on schedule for Monday, and I also had a list of things that still needed to be done on the rig.
Besides the obvious windshield and airbag installations, the wheel well trim strip, wheel well guard flap, and the grab bar wiring, as well as a few other things, still need to be finished up.
Stan said that the glass guy wouldn’t be here until about 10am, so we don’t have to be up too early. And as it stands right now, they probably won’t have to move the rig into a repair bay.
But we’ll still have to go to a hotel for a couple of days, since we won’t have a front windshield for a day or more, plus Mister always wants to supervise like he did when the windshield was replaced last year.
The approximately 30-mile trip to Jerome takes about an hour because of all the twists and turns. Lots and lots of turns,
but a lot of nice scenery along the way.
Our first stop was at the top of the hill to have lunch at The Asylum. A number of friends had recommended the place so we had to try it.
The Asylum, and the adjoining Grand Hotel, are located in what used to be the United Verde Hospital. In operation from 1927 to 1951, it was abandoned for 44 years before reopening as The Jerome Grand Hotel in 1996.
Though called The Asylum, the restaurant is not located in the asylum, or as they say now, the Psych Ward, but in what used to be the Nurse’s Quarters.
We both had sandwiches for lunch, with Jan ordering the Mesquite Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato, with Avocado, Garlic Mayo, on Marble Rye
while I had the Chipotle Turkey Sandwich.
Made with turkey, (of course) Chipotle Apricot Chutney, red onions, watercress, cream cheese, and lettuce on a toasted specialty bread, it’s maybe one of the best non-hamburger sandwiches I’ve ever had.
Both our sandwiches came with their hand-cut fries, perfectly cooked. All in all, a really good meal.
Walking around the grounds after our meal, we came across this 1928 Rolls-Royce Springfield Phantom I.
Strangely, it’s not done up as a show car, but looks like it’s driven every day
We had planned to check some of the many shops in downtown Jerome, but after driving around the loop a couple of times without finding a parking spot, we headed down the hill into Cottonwood. Our first stop here was at the Clemenceau Heritage Museum, a place we’d tried to visit before, but found it closed.
Built in 1923, and used as an elementary school until 1947, when it also became the Cottonwood High School. We spend a couple of hours checking out the many exhibits.
This diorama illustrates the typical kitchen of the early 1900’s.
And this is the height of a 1920’s home entertainment center.
Housing an AM + Shortwave Radio, plus record player and record storage. it was what families did before TV.
We both found this classroom interesting.
The same teacher taught 1st grade in this classroom from 1923 to 1961, 38 years! And she didn’t die until 1996 when she was 100 years old. Wow!
Even more interesting, one of the volunteers at the museum, who looked to be in his 80’s, had gone to 1st grade in that very classroom, under the same teacher.
One thing I was really interested in was the model railroad diorama. Set the early 1950’s it details the railroad lines crisscrossing the Verde Valley that served the many industries here at the time.
It’s even got RV’ers.
Nice Airstream.
It even details the city streets and businesses of that time period.
Very neat, and very well done.
Finally leaving the museum, our next stop was the Irish Rose Tea Room in Old Cottonwood.
But we weren’t here for the tea, but some of their delicious cupcakes. We’d discovered them when we were in Cottonwood a couple of months ago. We mentioned when we were up in Las Vegas last month, we checked out the famous cupcake place, Sprinkles, and found they were nowhere near as good as Irish Rose.
Our last stop was right down the road at Hog Wild BBQ, our favorite local BBQ place. But we weren’t here to eat, but to get some to take back with us to Prescott, since we haven’t found a good BBQ place here yet.
Finally heading back to Prescott, and taking the regular route, we finally got home about 3pm, just in time for a nice nap.
All in all, a perfect day.
Torchy’s
June 12, 2016
Love and Freindship . . .
And no, that’s not misspelled.
I had planned to work on rebuilding my rig armrests today, but got rained out.
I wanted to work outside at the picnic table since I needed to drill holes in each piece, and then use spray-on adhesive to hold the surrounding foam rubber in place as I install the leather cover. It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow, so maybe later in the week it will work out.
Around 4pm Jan and I headed down to The Woodlands for a movie and dinner. The movie we wanted to see was Love and Friendship, a Jane Austen story.
Well, kind of.
Jane Austen did write a story called Love and Freindship when she was 14. And yes, that’s the way she spelled it. But the story that Jane Austen wrote, was not the story that ended up in the movie called Love and Friendship.
That story, not published until 54 years after her death, was originally called Lady Susan. But I guess the movie people didn’t think Lady Susan screamed out Jane Austen period piece, so they borrowed the title from Love and Friendship, spelling it correctly, and echoing her other novels like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. And then there’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Lady Susan Vernon is a recent widow, almost destitute, and now dependent on her husband’s well-to-do relatives, moving from one to another as she wears out her welcome.
Lady Susan is scheming to find both herself and her teenage daughter, Frederica, a rich husband.. The story swirls around the rumors of Lady Susan’s scandalous private life as she uses her charms and wit to seduce and beguiled her way through the cream of English society.
It seems like Susan’s plots are being stymied at every turn with Susan breaking up with her younger suitor, Reginald, and her daughter Frederica spurning her older, somewhat daffy suitor, Sir James.
But with the end of the movie, it all wraps up nicely, when you realized that this is all part of Susan’s cunning plan, with a happy ending for everyone involved. Well, almost.
One lady starts out unhappy and stays that way throughout the movie.
Jan and I figured that the best way to describe the movie is that it has the manners and dresses of Downton Abbey and the backstabbing and morals of Desperate Housewives.
Check it out.
After the movie, we drove right down the road to Torchy’s Tacos for dinner. Since we had popcorn at the movie, we only ordered one taco each, but couldn’t pass up an order of their Chips and Green Chile Queso.
Jan had her usual Brushfire Jamaican Jerked Chicken Taco, and I had my Jalapeno Sausage Taco. All delicious, as usual.
Leaving Torchy’s, I wanted to get gas and then we were going to stop at the Kroger up in Conroe, but looking around we found both a Kroger and a Shell station right across the parking lot.
So that sped up our trip home, wrapping up a very nice day.
More Choo-Choo’s
June 12, 2017
Only One More To Go . . .
After sleeping late, we had our coffee, OJ, muffins and a quiet morning, talking about what we wanted to see while we were here, and also our schedule for the rest of this trip.
We did some shifting around, dropping a couple of stops, and adding to a couple of others. The main one we dropped is a stop in Waco for a couple of days so Jan could visit The Silos and Magnolia Market of Chip and Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s ‘Fixer Upper’. But we decided to do that as a day trip up from the Colorado River TT when we’re there.
I also got our reservations for the Riverside RV Resort in Bartlesville, OK so we can visit Ree Drummond’s Mercantile in nearby Pawhuska, OK.
About 1pm we headed out to visit the Golden Spike Tower and the Bailey Yard, something that I’ve wanted to do for a good while. And Jan was looking forward to it too.
But on our way, we first scouted out the station that I found on Google Maps Street View yesterday, and it looks like we’re good to go when we leave here on Wednesday.
It has separate diesel pumps on the right side and plenty of room to get in and out, as well as hitching up the toad. Even better, as I said, they also have the cheapest diesel around at $2.25 a gallon.
The 100ft, Golden Spike Tower is visible from a long distance on the flat countryside so it was easy to find.
There are two observation decks here, an open balcony on the 7th floor, at 83 feet, and on the 8th floor, an enclosed deck at 95 feet. Admission was only $6 each for us seniors, so a nice deal.
The stats for this place are amazing. With over 315 total miles of track, the Bailey Yard stretches over 8 miles from end to end and covers over 2,800 acres.
The yard handles about 155 trains a day, with over 70 of them coal trains, totaling over 10,000 railroad cars.
The Diesel Repair Shop handles over 750 locomotives a month, with each doorway leading to an area for a different type of repair.
And here are the finished locomotives lined up and waiting to be assigned to an outgoing train.
This is the Sand Tower, where sand is loaded into the locomotive’s hopper. The sand is sprayed on the rails right in front of the wheels in cases where, due to rain, ice, or snow, the rails might be slippery.
This is the fueling area, going through over 14 million gallons of diesel a month. Now I don’t feel so bad about my 150-gallon tank.
One of the most amazing things here are the two Hump Yards, one for east-bound trains and one for west-bound ones.
A string of cars are pushed to the top of the hump, a 34ft high hill.
Then one or two at a time, the cars are released at the top and start to roll downhill.
As the car(s) come down they are automatically routed through multiple switches and slowed down as necessary by ‘retarders’, I.e brakes along the rails.
At the bottom of the hump, one of over 3000 cars a day, they end up being routed into the correct train, ready to be assigned a locomotive.
And all that magic is done from this building, the Bailey Yard Control Center.
In this building, every one of the 985 switches in the yard can be controlled remotely. Even more amazing is that many of the locomotives moving cars around the yard are also under remote control.
When is why you see signs like these around the yard.
Leaving the Golden Spike Tower we drove around to the backside of the Bailey Yard to get a side shot of the East Hump and the cars rolling down the hill.
Later, after driving around town for a while, we stopped off at Fort Cody, a combination Buffalo Bill Cody Museum and Gift Shop.
After it was right up the road to have dinner at King Buffet, a Yelp 4 Star Chinese Buffet.
And the reviews were certainly accurate.
A good selection, with small portions, constantly changed out, so everything was fresh and hot. Our favorite Hot & Sour Soup was really good, as well as the iced tea.
Even better, with our 10% Senior discount, it was only $7.50 each, plus our drink. If we were going to be here longer, we’d certainly go back.
But tomorrow night’s Italian.
With our stay here in Nebraska, we can now mark that state off on our ‘RV’d In’ list, leaving only Kansas, which we’ll be able to mark off on Thursday.
Of course, that still leaves Hawaii, which we’ll do as soon as I can find a dry route.
Thought for the Day:
If you’re not part of the solution, there is good money in prolonging the problem.
….
