Monthly Archives: August 2022
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.
It Was A Twofer . . .
As we were coming home yesterday the Jeep started overheating, just as it did about a week ago.
Back then I noticed it running hot, and when we got home I let it cool down and checked the antifreeze level. And found the reservoir almost empty. So I looked for the radiator cap, and didn’t find it.
Turns out that our Jeep doesn’t have one. At least on the radiator.
And unlike every other vehicle I’m familiar with, the coolant tank in our Jeep is actually pressurized and part of the cooling system, and not just an overflow tank. In comparison, our 2004 Dodge Dakota, which has the same engine as the 2003 Jeep, a V-8 instead of the Jeep’s V-6, has a conventional overflow tank.
So I refilled the coolant tank with antifreeze, and then started the engine, adding more coolant as the level dropped in the tank. When the engine was up to standard operating temperature, I put the cap back on and let it idle with the AC on for about an hour with no problems.
So I figured that the problem was just the the coolant level had gotten too low, since it had been a good while since I had checked it.
That was last week, and the Jeep ran fine for the next week, including our trip up to Katy and back for Landon’s birthday.
Until yesterday. Then the problem reoccurred.
So this morning I refilled the coolant tank, and with Jan following me in the Dakota, I took the Jeep down to Joe at Hwy 6 Automotive, my go-to guy for car repairs. Dropping it off a little before 10, I took Jan back to the rig and then heading into work in the Dakota.
It’s always nice to have Ole Faithful to fall back on.
Then at 1:02pm Joe called with the news. The aforementioned coolant tank had a crack in it along the bottom where it couldn’t be easily seen and would need to be replaced. Plus he also said that the water pump bearing was weeping around the seal. He said it would probably last another six months or so if I wanted to wait.
Asked how much to do both and he said $395 so I told him to go for it. He said it would be ready this afternoon.
I thought that was pretty quick, but hey! I just didn’t realized how quick it would be.
Megan, Joe’s receptionist, called me back at 2:07pm, an hour and 5 minutes later, and said it was ready.
WOW!
I gave her my CC info and told her we’d pick it up later this afternoon, probably after they closed at 4pm.
Thinking about it, I figured he had the tank out to find the leak, and probably the new one had already been delivered as well as the water pump.
And the water pump is pretty easy to get out and back in in this model.
So now I have a nice new coolant tank,
Looks like he also replaced the hoses too.
And here’s my shiny new water pump.
A twofer.
Great Job, Joe!
Tomorrow we’re heading up to the Spring area to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt, and maybe Janice and Dave Evans, at the Olive Garden for our monthly get-together. And we get to do it in the Jeep, and not the Dakota.
Yay!
Thought for the Day:
Sometimes after you fix the problem, you have to fix the solution.
August 24, 2009
Bar Harbor and Bubbles…
Today we made the 50 mile trip down to the Bar Harbor area to see some of Maine’s Atlantic coast. The drive was pretty uneventful, except for a 25 minute wait right outside of Ellsworth for road work. Luckily, by the time we came home they were finished for the day.
Right after we got into the Bar Harbor area, we stopped for lunch at a small seafood place called Gateway Diner and had lobster rolls and sweet potato fries, and then split a pumpkin crumb pie with ice cream. Great food, but unfortunately for me, the place also had a gift shop with a lot of moose stuff.
Mucho $$$$ later, we stopped at the Bar Harbor Visitor’s Center right down the street to check out a tip that the lady at the diner mentioned about a loop road through Acadia National Park.
Getting directions, we headed out around the loop.
The first place we stopped was a scenic viewpoint overlooking Frenchman Bay, and this was just the start of a lot of beautiful scenery.
The dock area on the right side of the picture is Bar Harbor.
The next stop was Sand Beach.
Although the beach was closed today, apparently people really swim her, even though the water temp usually doesn’t get much out of the 50’s.
And some of the other views in the area are amazing.
Leaving the Sand Beach area, we drove down to a spot that unfortunately has been in the news lately.
The area is called Thunder Hole because of the noise of the waves when the right conditions makes the sounds reverberate and sound like thunder.
The area is also popular because you can go out on a rock that juts out into the Atlantic ocean and stand where the waves come in over your feet when the tide is right.
This point is where about 20 people were smashed by a 25 foot wave caused by a combination of high tide and Hurricane Bill. 11 people were hospitalized with broken bones, and 3 people, a 7 year old girl, her father, and an unrelated 12 year old girl, were swept out to sea in the 55 degree water.
The 12 year old girl and the father were pulled from the water by the Coast Guard, but his 7 year old daughter was later found dead.
When we were there, the area was still closed off, but a ranger said the waves have to get over the top of the handrail before it’s closed off.
Leaving the area, we drove further around the loop to more fantastic scenery.
Toward the end of the 27 miles we passed the Jordan Pond Inn, a restaurant we had been told about and thought we would later have dinner there.
Leaving the loop, we headed over to Bar Harbor to look around. The first thing Jan found, wouldn’t you know it, was a couple of moose stuff gift shops.
She really wanted this one, but we couldn’t figure out how to get it in the rig.
So she settled for trying on the latest in moose wear.
Walking down the hill we were able to look out over Bar Harbor itself.
And of course the many flower beds everywhere.
One of the ships I noticed in the harbor was a beautiful 4 masted schooner called the “Margaret Todd”.
And rather than being an old ship, she’s only about 10 years old. She was launched in 1998 and built to give Windjammer cruises to the tourists.
Here’s what she looks like under full sail.
Before heading back over to Jordan Pond Inn for dinner, we drove down to the end of Bridge St. to take a look.
When it’s low tide, a sandbar is revealed that extends over to Bar Island in the distance, allowing people to walk over to the island. Unfortunately, at high tide it just looks like a boat launch ramp. Timing is everything!
Our dinner at Jordan Pond Inn was fantastic and we had a great meal. The restaurant was really something,
and the scenery was something else.
The view from the outside dining are is of an island called “The Bubbles”
Of course, the locals call it by another ‘B’ word, but I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out what the word is.
After a really great day, we finally headed home about 7 pm. Luckily, the morning’s road work was over, so we were home in about an hour.
Today is our last day here in Bangor. Tomorrow we head about 130 miles northeast to Houlton, ME, which is about 2 miles from the Canadian border.
We’ll stay there for three or four days, cleaning up some loose ends before we head over the border.
I’m In Elkhart. Jan’s in Houston
August 24, 2010
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work I go…
First off, here’s the latest photo of Landon in his light vest hanging on to his bottle for dear life. He’s wearing the light vest to correct a high bilirubin count. He’ll probably have to wear it for another couple of days.
A little before 5, Michele Henry of Phoenix Commercial Paint called and wanted to come by and bring one of the repainted doors to see how the colors match. And she did a beautiful job. It looked great.
Now for the other 6 doors.
About 6 pm I drove over to Culver’s, a restaurant chain found mostly here in the Mid West, that has great burgers, fried chicken, and ice cream too.
On a final note, the weather has been really great the last few days, and tomorrow the high is supposed to be 77, with a low of 54. Nice !!
Horseshoe Lakes Thousand Lakes
August 24, 2011
Bad Weather and Good Cookies . . .
Well, the 95 degree temps showed up today, but not the predicted thunderstorms that might have cooled things off. Apparently the front that brought the thunderstorms yesterday was a warm (hot) front and jumped the temperature from 83 yesterday to 95 today.
But it looks like there’s a cold front right behind it, since it’s 84 tomorrow and a very nice 51 degrees tomorrow night.
This morning I got back on the computer desk. I finally had to drill some new pilot holes for the 3” lag bolts that fastened it to the floor. But It’s firmly mounted now.
Now on to more stuff.
For dinner Jan whipped up a big batch of her fantastic King Ranch Chicken. I was very happy about the ‘big’ part ‘cause I had 3 servings.
And even better, we’ve still got enough for another meal. YUM!
For dessert, Jan had baked up a batch of cherry pecan chocolate chip cookies. HMMM! GOOD!
Well, here it is 11 pm, and the missing thunderstorms finally showed up. It’s coming down pretty hard, but only glitching the satellite a little bit.
Looking at the radar, the satellite may not last too long. It’s gonna be a bumpy night.
August 24, 2012
Eureka!
We pulled out of Tom Sawyer RV Park a little after 9am this morning for a short 134 mile trip north on I-55 to Sikeston, MO.
And once again we had a repeat performance of the hard-starting and stalling that has occurred the previous two mornings. And once again, when we got moving we had no more problems.
And after a smooth, uneventful trip, we pulled into the Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO about noon. Normally we would have stayed at the Passport America park up the road, but the reviews in RV Park Reviews said Hinton RV Park was really good, and the Passport America park was really, really bad. So here we are.
One thing I noticed coming into Sikeston was. being at the conjunction of two Interstates, (I-55 and I-57) there were a lot of truck dealerships in town, so once we got parked, I made some phone calls and found there was a local Cummins dealer and they had a generator fuel filter in stock.
So as soon as we got settled in, I headed down the road to the Cummins dealer to pick up the filter, and while I was there I also got a new engine fuel filter as well.
Getting back to the rig we decided to eat before I tackled the generator fuel filter changeout. And of course, where else to eat in Sikeston, MO, but Lambert’s Throwed Rolls.
After having our usual great meal of Fried Chicken, veggies, hot ‘throwed rolls’, and of course, the great ‘pass-arounds’, we came back to the rig. I then decided to take a nap and let the temps cool off before I tackled the generator.
Finally, about 6pm I headed outside to crawl under the rig and have at it. And as usual in these things, it took longer to get to the filter than it did to actually change it out. To make matters worse, you can’t get to the filter access door with the generator extended, but when you have the generator retracted, it’s hard to get under the rig to get the filter out.
And to make things worse, the filter is not a standard spin-on type, but a rectangular metal box with flare fittings making the fuel connections.
And of course, they couldn’t allow enough slack to make it easier to disconnect the lines.
But finally, after about an hour, I had the filter installed and everything buttoned back up. Now for the ‘smoke test’.
Well, actually, I hope it doesn’t smoke. First I primed the generator for about a minute, per the manual, and then hit the start button. After cranking it over twice for about 5 seconds, the third time was the charm, and the generator fired up and ran smoothly. I let it run for about 20 minutes, and had no problems.
At this point I shut it down and considered it a job well done. And we’ll have AC on the road tomorrow. Jan says “YEA!”
I still think this problem, and my engine problem was caused by the Diesel Kleen cleaning out the build-up in my fuel lines. Although it could have possibly been a tank of bad fuel that we took on in Whitsett when I also added the Diesel Kleen, it seems to me that if it were bad diesel it would have continue to clog the engine filter until the rig engine no longer ran either.
So now I’ll change out the engine filter while we’re at Celina, and for a while I’ll use less Diesel Kleen when I fill up.
Tomorrow we’ll travel about 185 miles to Vernon, IL to visit Jan’s sister and her family before heading on to Celina to meet up with Nick and Terry on Sunday.
Almost Gate Guarding
August 24, 2013
We’d hoped they would get better . . .
I spent some time this morning tracking down some more of the items we’ll need for the gate, then about noon I saw Jamie’s truck over at the garage so I walked over to see if he had any more info on our gate, and also to tell him what we had seen yesterday.
Turns out there had been a number of changes back and forth. Originally we were told that two gates would open Monday, and one gate, probably us, would start up on Tuesday. Then it went to all of us on Tuesday. But now it’s all of us at 2pm Monday afternoon.
That will probably change again, but we’ll be ready to move Monday afternoon anyway.
About 3:30 Jan and I drove over to Pleasanton for dinner and some last minute pre-gate shopping. On the way we checked our 2nd possible gate guard site location and found it more to our liking. At least it looks like our rig would fit along with our canopy. And the shade trees are nice too.
Getting into Pleasanton our first stop was the local Chili’s. We ate here several times last year and were always amazed at how long it takes to get your food, even when they’re not that busy. We found out later that it’s almost a joke around town, but they’re the only national casual dining place in town, so they stay busy.
We had hoped that they had improved since last year, but it was a forlorn hope, It took us about 30 minutes to get our meal, and they weren’t even half full. Oh well.
After dinner we stopped off at Wal-Mart to pick up some prescriptions. Then it was on to Tractor Supply Store to get another misting kit.
The one we had last year was kind of worn out and leaking a little, so for $25 I thought I’d just get a new one. It really makes a difference on those 100 degree days on the gate.
Our last stop before heading home was the local HEB looking for a few things that the local Wal-Mart doesn’t carry.
Who knows what the gate story will be tomorrow?
August 24, 2014
A Playdate . . .
On today’s schedule was a playdate with Lowell’s parents, Sonja and Lendel, and our mutual grandson, Landon.
But before we left for Katy and our get-together, we got a call from our friends, Al and Adrienne. Right now they’re in Alamogordo, NM, getting a problem with their Allison transmission checked out. Hopefully it won’t be something serious.
We first met them when we spent 5 months in Fairbanks, AK during the summer of 2008. We were workkamping at Chena Marina RV Park, and Al and Adrienne were working for Holland America cruise lines, and staying at Chena Marina. We struck up a friendship that’s lasted ever since. When they’re not on the road, they live in Tucson and we always get together when we’re in the area. We’ve also visited them in Cody, WY, and Westport, WA, both places they were workkamping at the time.
We told them we plan to be in Tucson next March for the Escapade, so hopefully we’ll be able to meet up then.
We got to Brandi’s about 1:45 and found that Landon had just woke up from his nap. And he wasn’t happy. Brandi and Lowell had gone to Costco so they weren’t home, so Landon was upset. But he calmed down in a few minutes and we all headed out to Katy Mills Mall, right down the road.
This mall is huge, and has a little bit of everything, especially play areas for the kids. One of the biggest ones is called TILT.
But Landon’s favorite here is bowling. And he’s pretty good at it.
For dinner we walked around the mall to the Rainforest Café, one of Landon’s favorite places. In fact, Landon was just here with his parents for his birthday dinner this past Wednesday.
We’ve eaten at a Rainforest Café several times, but it’s been a good while. The last time was probably 10-15 years ago when we took our granddaughter Piper to the one in Galveston. When she was growing up it was one of her favorite places too. I guess it runs in the family.
Jan and I decided to just have a couple of appetizers, the Lava Nachos,
and the Chicken Fingers, both very good.
After dinner, Landon had one last ride. These are electric and steer like a motorcycle, and are one of Landon’s favorite.
Getting back to Brandi and Lowell’s, we rested up for a while, before heading back to the rig a little after 7.
Tomorrow I’ll get back in touch with Jamie at Gate Guard Services to see about getting a gate with him. Otherwise we’ll talk to the office down in Whitsett to see what they have.
August 24, 2015
Gateward Bound . . .
We left the Colorado River Thousand Trails about 9:15, heading for Henderson, TX about 260 miles away. Tomorrow morning we’ll be on our first gate for this year. Of course it could be our only gate, or just the first of several.
Our first year of gate guarding (2012) we were on four gates in four months. In 2013 we were on one gate for the entire three months, while last year we were on two gates in three months. So we never know how it’s going to turn out.
All we really know at this point is that it’s a frack gate, and it’s about 8 miles west of Carthage, TX. Beyond that, every gate is an adventure.
Our trip was pretty uneventful, except for an extra long stop at the Pilot in New Caney, TX. I have never seen pumps this slow, especially diesel pumps. Filling up in the RV lanes, I was getting 3 gallons a minute. Which means it took me almost 30 minutes to take on 80 gallons.
When I went inside to get Jan and I a couple of iced coffees, I complained to the cashier who said they’d had a couple of other complaints, and they’d called someone to look at it.
We got into Henderson about 3pm and found our way to The RV Park of Henderson where we got a 50 amp FHU site for $12.50 on Passport America. A great deal for a really nice park.
After we got set up, we checked out places to eat here on Yelp. We were both kind of in a steak mood, but hard to believe, that in a Texas town there’s not a steak place. So we ended up going to the Smokehouse, which turned out to be a real good country cooking place.
Wrapping up, today was Landon’s first day of Kindergarten and he looks like he’s made himself right at home.
He’s been really excited about starting ‘real school’ as he calls it.
Almost Gate Guarding Again
August 24, 2016
Last Date . . .
Looks like that after we get settled in, I going to have to set up my Wilson Cell Phone Booster.
When we were parked down on the pad, we had one bar of 4G, that cycled back and forth through 1X and 3G as well. But I was hoping that when we moved up to the top of the hill things would improve.
And they did. I now had 3 bars of solid 4G. But unfortunately my internet performance didn’t improve.
I haven’t had to use my booster for several years since we’ve usually been in an area with a good signal. But it looks like it’s time to pull it back out of storage.
Our Hawkwood Company Man came by this morning, a little before I got up, so Jan got to talk to him, and got a lot of good information
But first off, he wanted us to move our truck onto the pad. We had parked on the grass right across the road from us, but he said that was really on the landowner’s side, so he made a spot for us at the end of one of the trailers right inside the gate.
He also said they hoped to spud in on Friday, so we’ll start logging then I guess. And even better, he had no problem with us taking off today to head over to Bryan/College Station this afternoon.
So we headed out about 1pm, having to thread our way out between the incoming big trucks. Our first stop was about a 1/4 mile down the road at the combination convenience store/Blue Moon BBQ, our gate’s namesake.
We wanted to get gas for the truck, and also a menu from Blue Moon. The menu part went fine, but the gas part didn’t. The pumps, such as they were, were the old type with the analog rotating dials. And they obviously didn’t work.
So we headed on toward B/CS stopping at the Exxon station about 8 miles for our gas and also another menu, this time as a photo.
We’ll probably try them out soon.
Our first stop in B/CS was the Saltgrass Steakhouse for what may be our last meal out for 3 months or so. And it was its usual really good.
Jan got their regular salad, while I went with my favorite, their Wedge Salad.
Jan got her favorite Sirloin Strip, while I got my usual Ribeye with Steak Fries.
We had a nice leisurely lunch, really enjoying our temporary freedom.
Our next stop was a carwash to get the dirt and grime off, at least for a while, and then it was on to Wal-Mart to stock up for the week or so, before I have to make the trip back over here.
We got back to the rig about 5:30, and while we were unloading, the landowner, Tony, came by in his ATV. He and his daughter Addison were going to feed their horses and stopped by to say Hi and introduce himself. Seems like a real nice guy.
They still haven’t gotten the derrick up yet but they’re getting close. In fact they were still working at about 8pm tonight.
Tomorrow I’m going to try to finish getting our canopy up and get us ready to go on Friday.
Lake Conroe Thousand Trails
August 24, 2017
If It’s Thursday, It Must Be Turkey . . .
And Dressing!
About 3pm Jan and I headed out for an early dinner, and since it was Thursday, Cracker Barrel’s Turkey and Dressing was on the menu. For Jan, anyway.
I had planned to have the Beef Pot Roast Campfire Meal again,
but it’s come and gone, so I went with the new Fried Chicken Eggs Benedict dinner.
With Fried Chicken pieces, fried eggs, and topped with a Pimento Cheese Hollandaise sauce, along with a side of red skin potatoes and red peppers casserole, it was really good. Of course we’ve never had anything bad at CB.
Moving on, our next stop was the nearby Sam’s Club for a prescription and a couple of other things. We split our prescriptions between Wal-Mart and Sam’s due to different prices. The prescription we got at Sam’s for $10 with my Business membership card would be $78.42 at the Wal-Mart right next door.
Our next stop was Sam’s gas pumps to fill up our truck. The place was pretty busy, I guess, due to the incoming storm, but we only had to wait for one car to finish up in front of us.
Next up was the next door Wal-Mart for another prescription and some more stuff. Like the Sam’s, the bottled water shelves were stripped, but at the Wal-Mart they emptied the bread shelves too.
What ‘s kind of strange is that the booze shelves were still fully stocked.
Where are these people’s priorities?
Don’t they know a storm’s coming?
I want to thank the number of people who have emailed us, concerned that a hurricane is coming our way.
First off, we’re not really worried since we’re 90 miles from the Gulf Coast, and about 250 miles from where Harvey is supposed to come ashore. Now, are we going to get wind and rain? Almost certainly, due to the fact that we will be on the dirty (wet) side of the storm.
But we’re parked in one of the highest points in the park, so I’m not worried about flooding. Although some of the lower areas here may have problems, depending on the amount of rain we actually do get here.
I did however change our upcoming travel schedule. Originally we were supposed to leave here Sunday, in the middle of the high winds and rain, and move over to Colorado River, but I’ve extended our stay here until Wednesday when things should have quieted down.
August 24, 2018
A Nice Surprise . . .
Today started out on an up note when Jan was going through some of her old purses and found a nice surprise.
It was a $100 American Express Traveler’s Cheque.
Before we started RV’ing, I bought a couple of thousand in AMEX Traveler’s Cheques to tuck away for emergencies. I thought I had cashed all of them in over the last 11 years, mostly after I discovered that they weren’t all that accepted any more.
Apparently there’s been so many forgeries and counterfeits that everyone is leery of them, even banks. And even the bank chain (Chase) that issued them to me.
I guess that I gave Jan one to hide away and it just was forgotten.
Hopefully Chase will cash this one. We’ll see tomorrow.
August 24, 2019
Never Give Up. Never Surrender . . .
Jan and I spent most of the late morning/early afternoon streaming the last two Season 1 episodes of CBS’ Instinct. Somehow our DVR did not record those two episodes. That may have happened due to a conflict with other shows higher in the queue.
Later this weekend we’ll start watching the first episode of Season 2 from our DVR. Though it does seem kind of useless since it’s already been announced that it’s been canceled.
Seems that happens with a lot of shows we like.
One thing was strange was that Prime was not sending any audio to our soundbar, but when I switched back to the TV speakers the audio was fine. And the soundbar worked fine on the DVR channels.
Just something else to work on.
I ordered a new battery for our MiFi yesterday that should be here on Monday. The original one has lasted since we got it in April 2017. But recently it’s not holding much of a charge, or really not any, I don’t think. If the power goes off, the MiFi shuts off and won’t reboot when the power comes back on.
Of course the reason for this is that I leave it plugged in all the time. According to Verizon you’re supposed to let it charge up and then unplug it. And then try to remember to plug it back 24 hours later when the battery has run down. Of course you don’t remember and can’t communicate with any other your devices at home.
I don’t know why they can design these things better so that they cycle the charging on and off. It’s not that hard. But they didn’t ask me.
But since they didn’t ask me about it, I’m going to put the MiFi charger on one of my WiFi Smart Plugs,
which will let an Alexa timer turn it off for about 20 hours a day, and then back on for 4 hours. We’ll see how that works.
Never Give Up, Never Surrender.
Like the crew of the NTE-3120, NSEA-Protector, I take this to heart. Especially in my projects. Like my recent attempt to hook my new Mr. Coffee to the Internet.
Earlier this year I had tried to use a Smart Push Button like this
to control my coffee pot. But I couldn’t make it work, because there was not enough room to mount the switch over the On/Off button. So I put it aside.
Bur remembering this attempt, I dug it out and gave it a try.
Peeling the cover off the included double-stick tape, I stuck it over the switch and gave it a try.
And it worked.
After all my other tries, this one took me about 30 seconds. Then I set the timer to start it up every Mon, Wed, & Fri at 7:40am, and I was done.
I’ll again try to do my rear brakes tomorrow if the weather holds. But I’m not holding my breath.
August 24, 2021
A Neon Addition . . .
A number of our readers have noticed that they’re not receiving the blog via email. The problem is with the Jetpack WordPress Plug-in. I think I got a bad update download, so I’ve been trying to get a new copy installed and set up. The only problem is that I can’t tell if the email problem is actually fixed until I post a blog. Which is once a day, so it’s kind of hard to test it out. But hopefully it’s working now.
Well I had hoped I was done with the Post Office until tomorrow, but I got a call from work today with another Post Office crisis. So Jan and I headed into Webster about 12:30 to try and sort things out before we had lunch.
I put in another call to the P.O. Tech Support, but went round and round until I finally asked to be bumped up to the next level of Tech Support, so I was given a Service Request# and told to wait for them to contact me.
I’m still waiting.
So while we were waiting, we had lunch at Twin Peaks once again. And once again, Jan got her Spicy Chipotle Chicken and a cup of Tomato Basil Soup.
And since they recently discontinued my fav Venison Chili and Half Wedge Salad, I once again got the Soup and Half-Sandwich Lunch Special, with a bowl of the Green Chili Chicken Soup and a half BLT sandwich.
Then it was back over to work to see if the PO had any new ideas, but no luck. So I did try a couple of things myself, also with no luck.
Back at it tomorrow, I guess.
A recent University of Michigan study of over 5800 foods rates them according to how much time they add or substract from your life expectancy.
For example, the study says that eating 1 hot dog takes 35 minutes off life, but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were associated with an increase of 33 minutes. And a serving of nuts adds about 20 minutes.
So I could have a hot dog and 2 servings of nuts, and come out 5 minutes ahead. Or maybe just two PB&J’s and come out even better.
A new addition to the Flamingo Flamboyance.
