Good Friends & A Mystery . . .
Jan and I were on our way up to Spring by about 10:45 this morning, to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at the Olive Garden there.
We had been worried about rain along the trip, but it never materialized, so we had a nice smooth trip. And no overheating either.
We got there a few minutes before Noon and found Ed and Debi already there. Turns out that Janice and Dave Evans had new furniture being delivered so they bowed out this time.
While Ed got the Lasagna and Debi got an appetizer plate, Jan got the Chicken Alfredo, but with Broccoli instead of Pasta.
She kind of got a headstart on it before I got a photo.
As for me, I just got the Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks.
Olive Garden Breadsticks! YUM!
And Pasta Fagioli Soup. YUM YUM!
We had our usual great time with Debi and Ed,
and also as usual, we already have next month’s get-together booked for the Outback Steakhouse up this way.
Already looking forward to it.
The mystery is a phantom text from Jan’s cell to my cell. But Jan didn’t send it. Or so she says.
Though I didn’t see it until later, yesterday at 1:07 pm while I was at work, I got a text from Jan saying, “I’m at the movie theater.” It was definitely from Jan, and had her photo and photo number associated with it.
And when I checked her phone last night, it showed that her phone had sent the text.
WTH!
I could see it happening accidently if it was garbage text, or an emoji. But a grammatically correct sentence?
So, like I said, A Mystery.
Thought For The Day:
These are Rock Hyraxes. About the size of a rabbit, they’re native to Africa and Asia.
But their big claim to fame is that their closest living relative is, believe it or not, an elephant.
August 25, 2009
My Brother’s Place…
Today was another travel day.
We left Pumpkin Patch RV Park a little before 11 am and headed northeast on I-95 to Houlton, ME, located right on the Canadian border.
But before we got on the Interstate, we stopped off at a truck stop to top off our propane tank.
The last time we filled up with propane was in Whitehorse, BC, last October on our way back from Alaska. In warm weather the only thing we normally use propane for is to power the frig while we’re on the road, and for hot water when we boondock.
But since we just dropped below 1/2 tank last week, I wanted to be sure we had plenty of propane before heading into Canada and colder weather, since we do use it for the two gas heaters in our coach. And it’s supposed to get colder very soon.
Tomorrow night it’s supposed to 46, and the night after, 40 degrees. We have two electric floor heaters, but sometimes we still need the coach heaters.
We pulled into My Brother’s Place RV Park about 1:45 pm, and got set up. An hour or so later we headed out to drive around the area and grab a late lunch.
After dropping off some mail at the Post Office, we stopped off at a couple of parts places to pick up a spare fuel filter and engine belt before we cross the border. It can sometimes be hard to get parts over there.
Before heading back to the coach we stopped for dinner at the local truck stop, since we were looking for a place that served breakfast all day. Jan had some great blueberry pancakes, and I had a MeatLover’s omelet. All really good.
The park here is pretty nice, with big pull-thru sites and plenty of space between each coach.
Tomorrow I’m going to fix some stuff around the coach and kind of take it easy. Jan’s just gonna take it easy.
August 25, 2011
64.8 pounds . . .
or 2 pounds and 2 inches. Take your pick.
The first one is how many pounds of stuff Jan has proudly thrown away in the last week, mostly old magazines and brochures.
The second one is how many pounds and inches Landon has grown since his 9 month checkup.
Brandi called this afternoon and said Landon had his 1 year checkup today, He’s doing great and growing like crazy. He’s grown so tall he’s been wearing 18 month sizes for a good while now.
NBA here we come.
After early morning coffee, we headed out about noon to drive about 15 miles away to Paris, IL. I wanted some more ‘F’ connecters for my satellite system upgrade, and Jan wanted to hit the Wal-Mart again.
But our first stop was at Los Tres Caminos, a local Mexican restaurant that was listed in the top ten restaurants in Paris. Of course there may be only ten restaurants in Paris, since number 10 on the top ten list was Wendy’s.
But in this case. the listing was right. This place was GOOD.
Jan had a combo plate that included a Chile Relleno. She said it was almost as good as Esther’s Taco House. Almost, but not quite. (Our long-time friend Gina will know how good this means it was.)
After lunch we drove right down the street to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter. Although we were just at Wal-Mart this past Monday and spent about $140, somehow Jan found she needed another $144 worth of stuff today. I think she’s trying to fill up that 65 pound hole she made this week.
Coming back into the downtown, and after dropping off three bags of clothes at the local Goodwill, I stopped to take some photos of the beautiful Edgar County Courthouse. Built in 1891, it looks as good now as it did when it did then.
Here’s another shot from the Internet.
We noticed a number of other buildings, like churches and schools, built in the same style and probably, time period. A very nice little town of about 10,000 people.
And on a trivial note, besides their beautiful courthouse, Paris’ other claim to fame is that Carl Switzer, who played ‘Alfalfa’ in the ‘Our Gang’ comedies, was from here.
Our last stop before heading home was the local True Value Hardware for some other things I needed.
Getting home, I started back in on my chore list.
Later Jan fixed a great dinner of Potato Skins and Jalapeno Poppers, with some more of her Cherry Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert.
August 25, 2012
Family . . .
We pulled out of Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO about 9:30 this morning making a quick detour to get diesel before heading out for the 185 mile run to Vandalia, IL where we’ll spend the night at Timber Trails Campground, a very nice Passport America Park. We always stay here when we visit Jan’s sister and her family.
It was really nice to have the generator working again so we could run the AC’s on the trip. Replacing the fuel filter seems to have done the trick. Made it all worthwhile crawling around under the rig. In hindsight, next time I’ll take the access door off its hinges to make it much easier to get to the filter.
We got into the RV park a little after 1:30, and after getting set up, headed over to Jan’s sister Debbie and her family.
Her kids, Tana, Christina, and Jason, were there, as well as Jason’s wife Laura and their two kids, Avery and Ella Jane. Tana’s daughter Gwen had already left with her father so we’ll see her in November when we come back thru here.
As is turns out Laura has the exact same coughing crud that I do. Apparently it’s not contagious because no one else in the family has it. It was nice to have someone to commiserate with about how bad we feel. And Laura’s pregnant with their 3rd child so I can imagine how much worse it makes her feel.
And as far as feeling bad, I’m going to wrap this up since we have to be up early tomorrow. We’re meeting Debbie and her family at the Denny’s on the way out of town as we head to Celina. We got a 322 mile trip so we want to get an early start. But at least we’ll be cool.
August 25, 2013
Gate Guarding and More . . .
I’ve had some more inquiries about gate guarding and how to get started, so here’s a repost of the info.
When we started last year, we just showed up at the Gate Guard Services yard in Whitsett, TX and told them we wanted to gate guard. We did not call ahead.
We had heard to do it that way because they get so many calls and requests for info that they really don’t pay any attention until you get there in person.
We got there on Thursday, April 5th about 5:30, but every one had already gone home at the office. But the guy working the shop showed us where to park. They have 5 FHU sites and a number of places with power and water. There is no charge for parking there while you’re waiting for a gate or coming off a gate.
The next morning. I went to the office and got our info packets and fingerprint cards. We then drove over to Floresville about 20 miles away and got our fingerprints done at the Sheriff’s Office.
Then we had to drive down to Corpus Christi on Tuesday, April 10th to process our applications and take our security guard tests. We had to wait until Tuesday because they only process apps on Tuesday and Thursday.
Five days later, on Sunday, April 15th, we were on our first gate.
Doing it this way will work in the Spring and Summer, but probably not as well in the Fall and Winter when the all the snowbirds are down in south Texas wanting to gate guard for the winter.
Gate Guarding pays $125 a day or more depending on how busy your gate is. And just to be clear, the $125 is per couple, not per person. The company furnishes you a 11KW diesel generator, diesel to run it, a 500 gallon water tank that they keep filled, and a portable septic system. So even though you are usually out in the middle of nowhere, you have full hookups.
The one real downside to gate guarding is that most gates are 24/7. So one of you has to be on the gate at all times. Some couples do 12 hour shifts, but Jan and I prefer to split it up. She works the gate from 7am to 2pm, I work from 2pm to 6pm, she works from 6pm to 11pm, and then I work from 11pm to 7am. This seems to work for us. Your mileage may differ.
But one thing to keep in mind is that although you’re working 12 hour shifts, you don’t actually WORK that much. Last year we averaged about 80 vehicles a day, and never had more than 130. Based on about 30 seconds per vehicle, you only actually work about 30-45 minutes a day. The rest of the time you’re sitting in the shade reading or playing on the computer. Jan read 84 books in 4 months last year.
For more information you can go back on our blog starting April 5th, 2012 and read about our gate guarding adventures last year. Or just leave me a comment.
Later in the afternoon it was time for another maintenance chore. Although I clean and wash the AC foam filters every month, it’s been awhile since I cleaned the coils.
Despite the filter, some dust and dirt always gets through and lodges on the fins of the evaporator coil and blocks the air flow, thus reducing the cooling. And with another month of 95+ temps on the gate, we need all the cooling we can get.
Removing the plastic grille shows the air intake over the coil. The screen wire is my addition. I found that because of the wide-open holes, the filter material would get sucked into the holes and deform, letting air leak by. So a couple of years ago I got some coarse screen wire and just taped it over the vent holes to provide some support for the foam filter.
Pulling the screen off, I used the brush adapter for the vacuum to clean all the dirt off the coil.
Then it was just a matter of putting it all back together and then doing the second one.
Still no new news on our gate. Tentatively we’re supposed to move tomorrow about 2pm, but we’ll see.
August 25, 2014
Counting Down to the Gate . . .
After we had our coffee this morning, I got on the phone to Jamie of Gate Guard Services to see if he had any gates available now, or maybe in the next few days. But he said he didn’t have anything on the horizon right now, but that of course things could change every day. I told Jamie that I was going to check with Diane down at the Whitsett office and that I would call him one last time before we did anything.
When I checked with Diane, she said that they had sites coming up pretty much every day, and to come on down. So as it stands right now, we’ll leave here Thursday morning, going either east or west.
I’ll call Jamie Thursday morning to see if anything’s come available. If so, we’ll head east and north to Buffalo, TX, about 200 miles away where Jamie’s yard is. If Jamie still doesn’t have anything coming up, we’ll head west and south to Whitsett about 175 miles away.
Since we now have a leave date, this Thursday, about 12:30 I went down to the park office to re-up for 3 more days. We were originally going to be here until the 30th of August, but I cut it back when we got here. But just in case I have two weeks booked at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails starting the 30th, to be sure we had somewhere to be for the Labor Day weekend, in case the gate guard thing got delayed.
Lowell send over some photos that Landon’s grandmother Sonja had taken of Landon at Katy Mills Mall yesterday.
This is another favorite of his, the Inflatable Bouncy Crocodile Slide.
Although that Croc looks pretty realistic to be inflatable.
A few months ago Brandi and Lowell moved Landon to a new school. The Goddard School is highly rated, and talking to Landon it’s easy to see why.
While we were at Rainforest Café yesterday afternoon, Landon started talking about the large animated butterflies (about 3ft across) in the trees around our table.
He told us that butterflies are insects, and how insects, like a lot of other animals, use their colors to ‘camouflage’ themselves from things that want to eat them.
So here’s a 4 year old that knows all about butterflies, insects, and camouflage. A 4 year old (just barely) that knows the word ‘camouflage’ and knows what it means.
That’s just scary.
Tomorrow I’ve got some stuff I want to do around the rig before we head out on Thursday. Luckily, most of it is inside, out of the heat.
August 25, 2015
Carthage Gate . . .
Jan and I were up early this morning, 6:15 early. We wanted to be on the road by 7:15, leaving Henderson for our gate location about 20 miles away. We were supposed to meet Jamie, our Gate Guard Services supervisor, there at 8am.
Our new gate turns out to be about 1.5 miles off the highway, and close enough to Carthage, TX to have good cell service and good Internet. We normally name our gates by the nearest town, so this is now officially the Carthage Gate.
Jamie had already logged a couple of trucks in before we got there, so as is our usual method, Jan took over the clipboard and started logging while I got us parked and set up. Actually I got us parked twice, because after I had parked, leveled and put the slide out, the Company Man came by and asked us to move forward about 15 feet so we weren’t under the high-tension power lines overhead. Jamie and I looked, and we weren’t really under them, but we moved anyway.
The forecast was for thunderstorms this morning and they showed up with a vengeance about 9am, with lightning strikes all around and very heavy rain. One strike was so close the hair on my arm stood up. Jan worked out of the truck during all this so she stayed pretty dry. By about 10:30 the storm had passed and the sun was out, making things nice, but humid.
We’re actually in the middle of a cattle ranch, but we haven’t seen any yet, just little reminder piles of their presence. But all in all, it’s a nice site.
We don’t have a prepared pad this time, so we’re just parked on the grass. Since we’re on kind of a rise, it should stay pretty dry.
We hope.
August 25, 2016
Maybe Tomorrow ?
Well, we’re still on vacation as it were, with no definite startup time. Which is fine with us.
They had the derrick in place early this morning but nothing much else seemed to be happening for most of the day, except for a lot of guys mostly standing around in hard hats.
This morning Jan cooked up 5# of ground chuck and 3# of chicken breasts, then later in the afternoon we packed and vacuum-sealed the the hamburger in 1# bags and the chicken in 4 bags. So it will be quick and easy for Jan to fix meals for us on the gate.
I spent the late morning and early afternoon getting our canopy frame up and tied down in place before getting the covering on top.
Next I laid down a couple of pallets over the rocks leading out to the roadside. Jamie brought them with him when we delivered our sewer trailer,
After I saw the large rocks that they used on the roadway, I knew we’d need something to cover them, since walking on them without twisting your ankle is not easy.
And I’m going to have to get some plywood to cover up the gaps where the mats are bolted together.
Another ankle twisting possibility.
Around 4pm I went onto the pad to drop off our phone numbers with the Company Man. When I got back, Jan wanted to know if I asked him when he wanted us to start logging vehicles in.
I said No, I didn’t want to give him any ideas. When he wants us to start, he knows where to find us.
Finally, about 30 minutes later, they started raising the derrick.
And about 90 minutes later they were done.
So I guess sometime tomorrow we’ll finally get to work.
August 25, 2017
Hurricane Fever . . .
Based on the fact that the weather down in the Clear Lake area was forecasted for Severe Thunderstorms and High Winds about the time I would be heading home this afternoon, I decided I didn’t really need to be down there this morning, So I again used TeamViewer to take care of a few things.
About 12:30 Jan went into Hurricane mode and decided we didn’t have enough food in-house, even though we were just at Wal-Mart yesterday, so we headed out for some more shopping.
As we were leaving the park, it was obvious that a lot of people had left.
We’ve never seen the park this empty
Originally we were going back down the Interstate to the Wal-Mart, but the traffic lady on the radio was talking about the heavy traffic on I-45 north all the way up to Willis, so we quickly turned around and headed over to Willis and the Kroger’s there, so we would not have to get on I-45.
And of course, being at the Kroger’s meant a Whataburger was right next door, so we ended up there for lunch. As we got parked we noticed a guy in a pickup truck all ready for the storm, with a new generator and a portable AC in the back. Nothing like preparation.
We did notice that despite what the radio had said, the traffic on I-45 north was moving right along at normal speeds. So much for traffic reporting.
Getting into Kroger’s a little bit later, it was really no busier than a holiday shopping period, except for the empty bread shelves and the almost empty bottled water aisle, probably because they had a guy by the water, restricting how much you could buy.
Jan wanted to know if we should buy some, but I reminded her that we had a 100 gallon tank in the rig, almost full.
“Oh, yeah”
But once again people seemed to have their priorities out of whack. The bread and water aisles were empty, but who wants to live on bread and water?
But what’s with the full wine and beer area?
When I was checking out, the lady in front of me was unloading about 10 boxes of breakfast cereal. When I mentioned that she must be expecting to have her kids home for a while, she rolled her eyes and said she was going to have her sister’s kids too.
Then when I asked where the wine for her was, she grimaced and said that unfortunately she didn’t drink. She has my sympathies.
Coming out to the truck we had our first rain sprinkles, but it died out pretty quickly.
Coming back in to the park, I stopped at the Ranger Station to pick up our updated pass, showing us leaving on the 30th rather than the 27th.
While we were there I asked if the paving was all done, since they had just basically done the entrance and the road past the Activity Center, but not any of the roads among the sites. She said they would be paved eventually, but it was part of a 5 year plan.
When I ask what year they were in, she smiled and said, “Year Zero.”
So I guess it’s going to be a while.
August 25, 2018
Pool Parties and Staterooms . . .
Brandi, Lowell, and Landon closed on their new house yesterday morning and then the movers showed up on schedule in the afternoon.
Jan called this afternoon to see if we needed to come up tomorrow to help unpack, but apparently they’re taking the weekend off and just hanging out around the pool with friends.
And that’s a pool you want to hang out around.
We’ve got our stateroom assigned for the ‘Skirnir’, the Viking Longship for our upcoming cruise. And it’s the cheapest room available. And that’s not because I’m cheap.
Well, not ‘;just’ because I’m cheap.
When we did our Alaskan cruise in 1998, we decided that on our next cruise we would get the cheapest room available since we found we were only in it to shower and sleep. On an ocean cruise that would be an inside room with no window, but on a Viking River Cruise it’s apparently a room down in the bilge of the ship.
Well, maybe not quite that low, but it is on the bottom of the 4 decks, which for some reason is called the ‘main’ deck.
Our room is listed as a ‘Standard’ room and is 150 sf. It looks like this.
What I still haven’t figured out is how the rooms are priced vs. where they’re located. There are two different levels of each of 3 of the 4 room types. The rooms themselves are identical, just the location is different. In our case, our room, #110, is right next to the more expensive version. More expensive by $150.
I emailed a Viking representative to ask the reason for the $150 difference when the rooms are pretty much side-by-side, and wondered if the cheap ones were over the engines, or something. But he just said that the more expensive ones were ‘better’. Well that was helpful.
What even stranger is the next room up in price. It’s called a ‘French Balcony’’. But apparently the French don’t really have balconies, because neither does this room.
All it has is a sliding glass door that you can open, but there is no balcony. Just an opening that’s blocked off. And it’s $1050 more than our room. And it’s only 135 sf., 15 sf. smaller than ours.
If you want to have an actual balcony, you have to get a Veranda stateroom like this.
It’s $1850 more, and is a little bigger at 205 sf.
Now if you won the lottery and want to celebrate with a river cruise, you can book one of the two Explorer suites on the ship.
At 445 sf. it’s almost 3 times the size of our room, and it costs a whopping $13,000!
Yikes!
Today was another one of those errand days, interrupted by a nice lunch. After dropping some stuff off at both storage rooms, our next stop was at a Chase Bank to deposit the $100 American Express Traveler’s Cheque that Jan found in an old purse into our account.
The teller had never seen one and didn’t really know what to do with it. And neither did the other teller, so they called the manager over. She said she hadn’t seen one in years, and didn’t think they even sold them anymore. At least they didn’t have any at that bank.
Next up was lunch/breakfast at The Egg and I up in Webster. Love their food, especially their Hazelnut coffee. While I got my usual Two eggs over medium, bacon, fruit, and an English Muffin, Jan tried their Build Your Own Omelet, with Greens, and an English Muffin.
She said the Lemon Vinaigrette on the Greens was really good. And it was neat how they put a little of the ingredients, tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms on the omelet as a topping.
Finally after a quick WalMart stop, it was back to the rig a little before 4pm.
A nice easy fun day.
August 25, 2019
Putting On The Brakes . . .
Catching up, this is Saturday’s blog. If you missed Friday’s that I posted earlier this evening, just scroll on down.
Finally this morning, the stars aligned, the sheep entrails were favorable, and the weather cooperated, mostly, so about 10am I was outside and ready to tackle changing out the rear brakes on our truck
After getting all my stuff out and getting the truck jacked up, I had the tire off, and the caliper off. Then after I pulled the old pads, I removed the brake line from the old one,
and connected it to the new caliper.
At this point I got one of the new rotors out and sprayed it down on both sides with brake cleaner to get the shipping oil off and then let it dry for a few minutes.
Then after sliding the rotor on the studs,
I installed the new pads in the caliper and installed on the mounts,
and I was done.
It was just a matter of mounting the wheel,
and tightening it down with my shiny new lug nuts
At this point it was about 11:45 so I went inside for some hydration and a snack. But before I could go back out and finish the passenger side, it started pouring down rain.
When it finally stopped raining, and the weather radar looked clear, I was back outside about 1:30 to finish up the other side. And as with most jobs like this, the second one went much faster than the first one. So I was finished up, packed up, and back inside by about 2:30.
Before that though, I did a quick test drive around the park to check things out and found the braking much better, but of course spongy since I hadn’t bled the air out yet.
Jan and I will probably do that on Tuesday morning. I need her to pump the brake pedal until we get all the air out of the lines.
And after a job well done, I decided to reward myself, and Jan of course, with dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse, our local favorite.
Very good as usual.
August 25, 2020
Battening Down The Hatches . . .
Although it’s still possible that we might evacuate up to Brandi’s if Laura makes an unexpected move to the west, more than likely we’ll just ride it out here.
When Harvey made a much more direct hit here in 2017, the park here had no flooding or real damage to the facilities or rigs. So that looks good too.
I did go outside this evening and store away all of our yard chairs and other stuff in our storage shed. Anticipating this possibility I used screw-in anchors and straps to fasten the shed’s plywood base to the ground, and then lag-bolted the shed base to the plywood using steel straps. So we’ll see how it works.
I will also let in the awnings tomorrow as the winds pick up, and then wait and see about the slide.
And if this wasn’t enough, in the middle of all this I had to replace the battery in the truck this afternoon. I had to use my battery charger to jump it off this afternoon when we left the rig, thinking I just left something on. But then I had to get another jump when we were out and about later. So I picked a new one up at O’Reilly’s on the way home and swapped it out this evening.
Looking back in the blog, it was about 4 years ago that I installed the last one, which is pretty good in the Texas heat.
Watching the 10pm weather tonight it’s looking more and more like Laura is going in around the TX-LA border, but we’ll know more tomorrow morning when I decide if I’m going into work or not.
August 25, 2021
Still Hot . . .
Everyone should now be getting the blog by email again. So I hope the problem’s fixed.
I finished up the last two pieces of my Super Hot Cookshack chicken tenders for dinner this evening, and though they were still very hot, they were not as hot as they were originally.
And sometime soon we’ll go back to The Cookshack so I can try the AMF version two levels hotter than what I had the other day. So we’ll see how that goes.
I mentioned the problem that I was having with our USPS Click N Ship program. I finally got an email from PO Tech Support giving me a list of ‘useless’ things to try, all of them supposing that the problem was on my end, not theirs.
Sorry, but when their system won’t accept the reset password they send me, giving me a weird Error Message that the Tech Support lady didn’t recognize or find in her system.
Yeah, right. It’s my problem.
So before I did anything else, I once again tried to log in using the last temporary password they sent me yesterday. And what’da you know, it now worked perfectly.
Yeah, right. It was my problem.
Looks like the Wings Over Houston airshow is back on for this year. And I’m lucky because Jan being a Air Force brat, she loves the airshows as much as I do.
Set for October 9 and 10th, it’s going to have the USAF Thunderbirds, the Canadian Snowbirds, and a lot more.
Up until we started RV’ing in 2008 we used to go pretty much every year, but since we normally didn’t get home until around Thanksgiving every year, we missed a lot of them.
So we’re really looking forward to this one.
