Monthly Archives: August 2022
Nutcracker Yes, Renaissance No
In a last-minute substitution, today’s lunch at Texas Huddle was replaced by lunch at Snooze. And later, Costco went by the wayside, due to not being needed. Between WalMart and Sam’s Club, we got what we wanted there.
Snooze was as good as usual, and we got a chance to talk a bit with Holly, our long-time friend there. She’s been promoted to the New Store Opening team. Snooze is opening 12 new locations this year, including several up in the Dallas area where Holly is being sent.
Our meals, our usuals, were as good as always, with Jan’s Bravacado Toast,
and my Shrimp and Grits.
And we split an order of their Maple Glazed Black Pepper Bacon.
Then it was on to Lowe’s for some 6-40 screws that they didn’t have.
After that it was WalMart and Sam’s Club, and then home.
We’ve been looking at our upcoming Fall event schedule for the rest of the year. And besides our October San Antonio get-together, we’ve got the Texas Renaissance Festival that runs from October 8th through Thanksgiving, and the Nutcracker Market that runs from November 10th to the 13th.
We first started going to the Renaissance Festival back in the early 80’s, and we’ve seen a lot of changes over the years. And you never know who you’ll see there.
We last visited in September 2018, and that’s probably going to be our last time. There’s an awful lot of walking involved, and even 4 years ago, we had to take a rickshaw back to the front gate when we were done. So that’s it for the Renfest for us.
But we do want to do the Nutcracker Market this year. We last did it in 2019, and it wasn’t held in 2020. We did plan on going last year, and had tickets. But it turned out to the be the day before my Cervical Fusion surgery, and I thought it would be OK, but Jan and Brandi said, “NO”!
But it’s on for this year. Already looking forward to it.
Thought For The Day:
I know from personal experience that a mad hornet is much faster than an old Ford tractor.
Bangor, ME
August 23, 2009
Harry & Miguel…
Today was Moving Day.
But first I got to talk to the two American Eagle Owners parked next to us. Both of theirs are 2001 models and then there is another one in the park that is a 2007.
It’s very unusual to see another Eagle in a park with us, much less three in the same park, and two right next door.
Turns out that they are part of the American Coach Association, a group for American Coach owners, and are traveling together after attending an American Coach rally in Decatur, IL Hopefully we’ll get to talk some more before we leave on Tuesday.
As I said, today was Moving Day. The park finally had a vacant site with a sewer connection, so we moved over this morning about 11:30 am. If we don’t have a sewer connection, we can’t use the washer.
So as soon as we got moved and set up, Jan got the laundry started.
About 1:30 pm we headed over to Orono, ME, about 15 miles north of Bangor, to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Margarita’s, before we caught the 4:10 Harry Potter movie.
Unfortunately, no one told us that the restaurant didn’t open until 4 pm. So we headed back over to Bangor to eat at Oriental Jade, the Chinese restaurant we ate at a couple of days ago. And as luck would have it, it’s right next door to the movie.
After lunch, we still had some time so we went to Hannaford’s, a grocery store right next door, to pick up some things.
And then it was off to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
After the movie, we still wanted our Mexican fix so while heading back to Margarita’s, we came across Miguel’s Mexican Café right down the street from the movie.
The food was good, but it’s the same at every Mexican restaurant we find up here. No one uses jalapenos in any thing. Even the Pico de Gallo is jalapenoless.
So the food is pretty bland compared to what we’re used to in Texas.
After supper we headed back to the coach for more laundry.
Tomorrow we plan to drive south down to Bar Harbor about 50 miles away to see some of the Maine coast line.
We’ll see how it goes since it’s raining right now and is supposed to still be raining tomorrow too.
Elkhart, IN
August 23, 2010
Monday Morning Coming Down…
Today was spent in a lot of small chores around the rig, and a number of phone calls with clients, suppliers, and American Coach.
I also did two loads of laundry, and ran CLR thru our Mr. Coffee to clean out the gunk. The water here in Elkhart is really hard, and even with using an external water filter, it still clogs up shower heads, faucets, and, of course, coffee pots. So while I was running CLR thru the coffee pot, I also soaked the shower head and the sink nozzle. Now everything is running fine.
A little later, Orv Hazelton dropped by and wanted me to come help him with something. Turns out he was trying to set up a Cradlepoint WiFi Router so he won’t need to two Sprint AirCard Accounts for his two different laptops. Unfortunately he probably won’t be able to use the router he already has because it uses a discontinued aircard slot, so he’s going to have to purchase a newer one before he can proceed.
About 2 pm I headed out to solicit more gift certificates for the rally with pretty good results this time. While I was out and about Michele Henry from Phoenix Commercial Paint called to ask a question about the which doors go where on the coach. Got back home about 4:30 and fed the cats and cleaned the litter box. OH Fun!
A little before 5, with Jan still down in Houston, I drove over to the nearby Texas Roadhouse for a great steak.
I got back about 6:30pm, and then about 6:45 two guys (sorry, I didn’t get their names) showed up to admire my classy camouflage for Beauty’s missing cargo bay doors. One of the guys also wanted to know where Phoenix Commercial Paint is located.
Here’s my ‘classy camouflage’.
Jan called me about 5 minutes later to catch me up on all the doings in Houston with Landon.
He had his first pediatrician visit this afternoon and everything checked out fine. So that’s great.
Near Terre Haute, IN
August 23, 2011
Thunderstorms and Campgrounds . . .
Got up this morning, starting with coffee that segued into a long afternoon of bad weather, thunderstorms, and no satellite reception.
But before it all hit, I drove over to the Post Office in Blanford to pick up my General Delivery mail, and then stopped back by the park office to get the new gate code.
Getting back to the rig, I got back on getting my computer desk unbolted from the floor so I can get the old carpet out from underneath it.
It actually took a couple of hours to get it completely loose and pulled to the side. I couldn’t pull it all the way from the wall because it has power cables coming into it from the floor and from the wall, but I did get all the carpet and pad out of the way.
Since it’s now setting a little lower without the carpet, I’ll have to shim it a bit so that all the screw holes line up when I fasten it back down.
But that’s for tomorrow.
On another note, I did come across this website at USCampgrounds.info. It lists over 10,000 public campgrounds in all 50 states plus the Canadian Provinces.
Here’s the description from the site.
This site provides what we believe to be the most complete and geographically accurate US & Canada public campground locator in existence. Includes all National Park, National Forest, State Park and Provincial campgrounds, all BLM, TVA and Army engineers campgrounds, all regional, county, city and utility-owned campgrounds. We include only public car-camping campgrounds with 5 or more campsites and tables and toilets (not backpack-in, boat-in, horse camps, dispersed or group camps). We do not include privately owned campgrounds.
Sounds like another great resource.
After dinner, Jan and I watch some more stuff from the DVR, catching up on some shows we’d missed.
All in all, another very nice day.
West Memphis, AR
August 23, 2012
Rollin’ on the River . . .
We pulled out of the Ramblin’ Fever RV Park a little after 8am this morning, after having the same problem starting the rig that we had yesterday.
Once again the engine took longer to start up than normal, and then died a couple of minutes later. And like yesterday, it started back up and ran fine the rest of the day. When it does quit I get no warning lights or check engine lights.
At this point I’m beginning to think that the culprit might be the Diesel Kleen that I added to the tank when I filled up last Monday. It’s supposed to clean out your fuel system, and my thought right now is that it has dumped some loosened-up junk in my fuel filters.
I’ll try to confirm this by replacing the generator fuel filter after we get to Celina. If that fixes the generator problem, then I’ll change out the filter on the rig. Otherwise, it’s back to square one.
We got into the Tom Sawyer RV Park on the Mississippi River in West Memphis, AR, just across the river from Memphis, TN. We’ve stayed here twice before, and always enjoy parking right on the Mississippi River.
There’s a constant stream of barges and ships coming by morning, noon, and night.
I’d heard on the news recently about how parts of the Mississippi were shut down to commercial traffic due to low water levels, and our view here certainly shows it. We’ve never been able to see that part of the river bottom on the far bank before.
After settling in, we headed out about 4:30 to have dinner at the one BBQ place everyone we talked to named as the best place in Memphis – Charles Vergos’ Rendezvous.
Located in an alley, yes, an alley, in downtown Memphis, it’s been there since 1948, and turns out what Jan and I both agree are the best ribs we’ve ever eaten.
I’m not normally a fan of the dry rub ribs. They always seem too dry to me, but these were fantastic! They apparently put the ribs under the broiler before they serve them so there is a crispy crust on them that makes them crunchy and delicious.
They’re almost good enough to stay over another day to eat there again. But probably not.
Starting A Pipeline Gate
August 23, 2013
Our New Home?
After a quiet morning, probably one of our last for a while, I checked my Amazon shipping email and found that my new canopy had been delivered so I drove over to the office to pick it up, and also see if there was any update on our new gate.
I was really glad I drove over because I found that the canopy weighs about 50 pounds.
I also picked up our hats and vests, so I guess we’re semi-official now
Found out that there will be three new gate guards going into the new site, two on Monday, and one on Tuesday. Based on what Jamie said yesterday sounds like we may be the ones on Tuesday. But of course that could change. We’ll see.
Later, about 3:15, Jan and I headed into San Antonio for dinner, but we took a detour over through Whitsett and up US281A to see if I could find where our new gate might be located based on the rough details I had been given.
And about 3 miles up the road I think we found it. The sign says it’s an Aurora Oil Co. lease which supposedly ours is.
Doubt we’ll be going into this front gate. At least without some work. Our rig just wouldn’t fit there. Supposedly we’re going to be parked near a railroad track, and according to the map, there are some tracks about 1/2 mile off the road. But, again, we’ll see.
Our dinner destination in San Antonio was the Magic Time Machine. It’s one of our favorite places, and we’ve been eating here for about 30 years.
The unique thing about MTM is that waiters and waitresses are all dressed up as storybook, comic book, and movie characters.
In past visits, we’ve had Wonder Woman
and the Joker taking care of us.
Tonight our waiters were Pinocchio and the Lone Ranger. We also saw Batgirl, Supergirl, Jack Sparrow, Peter Pan, The Mad Hatteress, Pocahontas, Minnie Mouse, and a number of others.
One thing I really like that they do is that every table gets two waiters/waitresses, like Pinocchio and Lone Ranger above. This way you’re not waiting for an iced tea refill because your only waiter is tied up at another table. Someone’s always available to take care of you.
Another thing unique here is that the Salad Bar is actually a Salad Car. In this case, a 1952 MG TC. Neat!
Oh, and in addition to the entertainment, they cook a great steak too!
Heading home we stopped off at a Lowe’s to pick up an Enduracool Towel. These towels are a passive evaporative cooler that does a great job of keeping you cool on hot days. A perfect addition to help keep us cool on our gate. This YouTube Video will give you more info on the Enduracool Towel.
But it turned out that they were out, and the closest place that had them in stock was Kerrville. So it was off to Amazon.
And Amazon had for $10, $5 cheaper than Lowe’s. And free two day shipping with Amazon Prime.
Finishing up, several readers wanted to see Jan’s Oil Rig decal. So here it is It’s about 6 inches high and originally the ‘Oil Life” text was directly underneath the derrick, but I cut it off with scissors and moved it down so it would fit better.
Tomorrow, still waiting.
August 23, 2014
Birthday Boy . . .
Jan and I left the rig about 1pm to meet Brandi, Lowell, Landon, Sonja, and Lendel (Lowell’s parents) and Sherry (Lowell’s sister) at Brandi’s before we all headed over to Smith Ranch – Katy where Landon’s 4th birthday party is being held.
As the kids showed up, the first thing that caught everyone’s eye was the enormous inflatable waterslide.
For some of the smaller kids, like Landon, it was a tough climb. But that didn’t seem to slow anyone down.
Almost there.
Finally!
Now let’s do it again.
This little girl in yellow was the star of the show. She was fearless.
She would claw her way to the top of the slide, stand at the edge, leap into the air, bounce on her bottom, and fly halfway down the slide before she hit the ramp. Then she’d do it again.
The party itself was held under a nice pavilion with ceiling fans to help keep things cool. Kind of.
It was 100 degrees today.
Here’s Landon with Brandi’s BFF, Shawna.
And here he is showing off his Power Ranger’s Cupcake Cake.
Then it was time for the presents.
Everyone had a great time, and the Smith Ranch young ladies took very good care of us. This is an excellent place to have a party.
And, as I said yesterday, when it’s over, you just get in your car and go home. No cleanup.
About 5:30 we all (minus Sherry who headed home earlier) met up at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro to introduce Sonja and Lendel to the great food there, and now they love the place as much as we do. And we got to eat there twice this week.
After we’d been there for a while, I looked up to see a cute blonde waitress behind the counter. She was wearing a white blouse, black slacks, and had her hair in a ponytail. When I looked up a couple of minutes later, she was now wearing black rim glasses.
But when she brought our pork spring rolls to our table, she wasn’t wearing them. OK, maybe they’re reading glasses. Right after that, I watched her walk back into the kitchen. Then I looked up and she was standing there asking if I wanted a refill on my iced tea. And she was wearing the glasses again. Huh?
Then her identical twin sister came back out of the kitchen, sans glasses.
Now it made sense.
When we got ready to head back to the rig, Brandi insisted we take her Lexus, so we had a nice, cool trip home. Thanks, Brandi.
Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be going back to Brandi’s to spend the afternoon with Landon, and his other grandparent’s, Sonja and Lendel.
We’re really looking forward to it.
Columbus, TX
August 23, 2015
Cold Air . . .
I was up about 10am this morning to prep things before getting up on the rig roof and swapping out the old and new Air Conditioners.
My first task was to remove the 4 bolts from the inside flange and pull it all out. The outside unit was now free.
Then it was up on the roof to actually swap out the AC units. I don’t really trust the 16 year old ladder on the back of our rig so I always back it up with my own.
This is the old unit before I unbolted the cover.
Once the cover was off, I turned the unit on its side to remove the wires for power, and the thermostat.
Once the wiring was removed, I slid the old unit off to the side on a piece of cardboard. This left just the opening in the roof ready to place the new unit in its place.
I then slid the new unit over the hole and lined it up.
That finishes up my work on the roof. Now it’s all inside the rig.
Being the impatient sort that I am, after I fastened the unit down with the new flange and four bolts, I temporarily hooked up the control box, turned the breaker back on, and turned the AC on.
And had nice cold air. So I know it works.
And after a little bit more work, this was the finished project.
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
A little before 4pm Jan and I headed for La Grange and the Wal-Mart to stock up on gate guard supplies. But our first stop was Peter’s BBQ in Ellinger for dinner one last time. Good BBQ.
Tomorrow we’ll head out about 9am for a 260 mile run up to Henderson, TX. We’ll spend the night there, and then head out to our new gate about 18 miles away.
August 23, 2016
Blue Moon Gate . . .
We give all our gates a name, and since we’re right down the road from the Blue Moon BBQ, we’re now officially at the Blue Moon Gate.
Jan and I were up at 6:30 this morning, to get be ready when Jamie got here with our sewer trailer.
Of course Jamie didn’t get here until about 8, but that gave us time for coffee and breakfast bread, so it all worked out. Jamie parked the trailer at the end of the pad, actually off the end, to allow more room to park the generator trailer behind it.
Getting a closer look at the mat shows why it can support semi trucks.
Speaking of trucks, they started rolling in early, enough so that our big pad got a lot more crowded.
As the day progressed they made a lot of progress laying down the metal plates that they build the rig on.
Then when the time comes, they oil them up and use two big cranes to drag the entire derrick over to the next hole.
And since they’re doing three holes here, we get to see them do it twice. And maybe even better, when they did this on a Marathon/H&P rig we were following in 2012, we got a couple of days off. So we hope that holds true here too.
Before Jamie left this morning, and before heading over to see Dick and Judy Mott, we decided that he would come back early (6:30 am early) tomorrow morning to move our generator trailer into place, and then we would follow with the coach. By doing it this early we were hoping to avoid blocking the trucks coming in and going out.
But about 2pm, there was a knock at the door and they wanted us to move now. When I said we normally don’t log trucks in and out during rigging up and rigging down, and that we planned to move tomorrow morning, the guy laughed and said he didn’t care about logging. He just wanted us out of his yard because he needed to stack stuff where our rig was parked. Maybe they’re running out of room because they’re already stocking up on drill pipe, and they don’t even have the rig up yet.
So I got on the phone to Jamie to see if he could come back over this afternoon to get us moved. Luckily he wasn’t too far away, and said he’d be here in about an hour.
While he hooked up to our generator trailer, I started our onboard generator to keep the AC’s going while we got moved over to the pad.
It took a little jockeying, but we finally got on the pad and parked. We parked as close as we could to the trailers, allowing just enough room to open the slide. This gave us the maximum amount of space on the mat to set up on.
Right now it looks like they may be ready for us to start logging sometime Thursday, maybe. If so, we plan on going into Bryan/College Station for dinner and some supplies from Wal-Mart.
Hopefully it will work out.
August 23, 2017
Chicken Fingers and Powerballs . . .
Today was another travel day, with Jan and I heading down to the Clear Lake area for a client visit for me, a Chris and Linda visit for Jan, and a King Food lunch for all of us.
So we were out the door by 9:45 and heading through downtown Houston a little bit later. We were mostly past the rush hour traffic, and luckily encountered no accidents, so we pulled into the King Food parking lot right at 11am and found Chris and Linda, our son and daughter-in-law waiting for us.
And after our usual delicious lunch, Jan headed home to spend the afternoon at Chris’, while I drove over to my client’s to spend the afternoon there.
I’ve spent the last few days telecommuting in to the office computers using TeamViewer, but there are some things better/easier done in person. I’m still trying to unravel some of this installation, which is really squirrelly in many places.
In fact one of the things I’m trying to straighten out is the mail program, aptly named SquirrelMail. And so it goes.
I picked up Jan about 3:45 and headed back up to Conroe. All things considered, the traffic wasn’t too bad, even getting through downtown Houston. Then coming out the north side of town, we took the 610 loop east for a couple of miles until we got on the Hardy Toll Road. Then it was 70 mph all the way up before it dumps back on I-45, passed the heaviest going-home traffic, and about 20 miles from the park.
Along the way we had decided to stop and have dinner at the Cane’s Chicken Fingers in Conroe before heading back to the rig.
Cane’s has become pretty much our favorite chicken place since we first tried them in 2014 when we were on a gate near Bryan/College Station. Always really good.
Coming home we made a stop at a nearby O’Reilly’s for some hookup wire and then a convenience store for some $700+ Million Powerball Tickets.
They’re really made a lot of progress on the park paving, with all of the entrance way done,
and down pass the Activity Center and the new large parking area.
What I haven’t seen yet is any paving on the actual site roads, which is where it’s really needed in places. Hopefully they’re not stopping with just prettying up the entrance.
And even the new sites are progressing fairly well.
Though I don’t think they’ll be ‘done by August’ as was initially said.
Brandi originally had Landon’s birthday party scheduled for this Saturday at an outdoor entertainment center, but cancelled it due to the possible oncoming bad weather. But since the main attraction is a big waterslide, the kids probably wouldn’t mind.
August 23, 2018
Snapped . . .
As I figured, we ended up with a lot of errands on our plate, but luckily intermixed with lunch at East Star Chinese Buffet.
However our first stop was at a Postal Annex in Clear Lake to have our passport photos made. Originally I had planned to do them myself and just print them out. But after reading the ‘very’ detailed instructions about the type of paper, the framing, the background, etc., I decided to let a professional do it. And a few minutes, and $21.56 later we were on our way.
Our next stop was East Star for lunch, as delicious as usual. One thing that really makes a difference is that they don’t put a lot of food in each pan, so it’s being constantly replaced with fresh, hot stuff. Even to the point of replacing the serving spoons each time as well.
Then it was on over to the Staples for some pen refills and a new 3-part binder for Jan. Then it was on down to Lowe’s to make a return on some leftover parts from my recent dryer vent repair. I bought two different connectors, sure that one of them would fit, and then returned the unused one.
Right next door we made a WalMart stop for a few things, that as usual turned out to be more than a few things. Then it was home by about 5:30.
We made the down payment for our cruise yesterday, with the final payment due September 30th. And if we wanted the cruise trip insurance we also had to prepay it at the same time.
Several readers had wondered what we gave Landon for his birthday. Since he like to build things with Legos using the Technic motor and gear kits, we decided to see if he’d like doing the same thing with electronics using one of these Snap Circuits PRO 500 kits.
It has 500 different projects that can be snapped together. Projects like a digital voice recorder, AM radio, digitally tuned FM radio, AC generator, screaming fan, whistle switch and more.
He seemed to be excited when he opened it and said it he’d seen these, so hopefully he’ll enjoy it. Though I don’t know how much time he’s had to play with it, since Brandi et. al. are getting ready to move into their new house.
In fact they close on it tomorrow morning and the movers are coming tomorrow afternoon. A busy time.
August 23, 2019
On To The Next Project . . .
Well, I’ve pretty much given up on my Mr. Coffee upgrade/mod. As I mentioned I found the new one much easier to take apart and get into. In fact I was able to unplug the ribbon cable and remove the circuit board completely.
And that’s when I discovered the problem. Unlike the previous board, which uses simple on/off button switches, the switches on the new board are actually interfaced directly to the IC chip and buffered for the input.
Which means that I can’t just parallel a relay across the contacts and have it work.
Bummer!
I ran into this same problem several years ago when I tried to remote control the power windows in our truck. The up/down buttons are on the internal computer bus and can’t paralleled with other switches or relays.
Bummer!
As usual, everyone waited until the last minute to decide that they want to have a September Sale, and this includes the company whose products are going on sale. So now I’m rushing to get an Ad Card produced, and also cleaning up the mailing list for these particular products. Hopefully I’ll get it in the mail before the middle of September.
I’m still hoping to do my rear brakes, maybe on Sunday. But the rain chances are at 60-80% for both days, so it’ll be hit or miss it looks like.
And of course this pushes back the timing for changing out the oil filter gasket on the rig. But we’ll see how it goes with Mother Nature. If this keeps up, a lot of stuff is going to get pushed back into next year.
Next up on my plate at work is to come up with a color scheme/design for these machines.
We’re having them customized to our specs from the manufacturer in Poland, and that includes the colors and our own logo. So now I’m trying to come with something that looks good and won’t cost us too much extra.
As Jan says, it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. But I tell her to just be satisfied with one out of two.
August 23, 2020
Maybe The Seagulls Know Something . . .
We’ve got two tropical storms/hurricanes roaming around in the Gulf, but only one, Marco, looks to have some possible effect on us. Of course that depends on whose tracking you want to believe.
But whatever, it looks like it won’t become our problem until sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday night, with winds between 30 and 40 mph. So I doubt we’ll do anything special except maybe let the awnings in. And even that might change.
Jan and I headed out about 1pm, first for lunch at our nearby Spring Creek BBQ. And as usual Jan had the Baby Back Ribs, with Beans and Beans, and we shared a basket of their Fried Okra.
while I had my usual Baby Back Ribs and Cracked Black Pepper Sausage, also with Beans and Beans.
Then it was on to the WalMart right next door. And with the hurricane(s) coming in, I was surprised that there didn’t seem to be a lot of panicked buying. They didn’t seem to really be out of anything, I.e. plenty of bread, milk, meat . . . and beer.
Actually the beer usually goes first. You don’t want to go through a hurricane completely sober.
The only thing out of the ordinary at WalMart were the birds. Now normally there are a lot of grackles and blackbirds hanging around, hiding under cars to get out of the sun, and fighting over scraps of food. But today was different.
The parking lot was swarming with seagulls. I mean it looked like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. They were everywhere, squawking and diving in a large flock.
My first thought is that the gulls know something is happening out in the Gulf and they decided to come inland for a while. So maybe I need I might need to rethink my preparations, or lack thereof.
August 23, 2021
It’s A Mechazilla Monday . . .
Jan and I sat outside with our coffee again this morning, really enjoying the cool weather we’ve had this summer. In fact it was only 75° when we went out.
I know that places further out west are having heat problems, but our summer here has been much cooler than usual. And actually we haven’t had a 100° day so far this summer.
Unlike our first summer here in 1979 where we had 13 straight days of 100+° temps, and a lot other 100’s scattered through the summer, here we are 3/4 of the way through August, and our predicted high temps for the next 6 days are 93, 93, 90, 88, 90, and 88.
Not your usual late August temps here in south Texas, believe me.
I spent most of today at work going round and round with the U.S. Post Office trying to convince them that we are who we say we are.
I mentioned recently that I was setting up a new computer for our shipping department. Besides the usual stuff, the two main programs we use for shipping out packages are UPS Worldship and USPS Click N Ship Business Pro.
Now UPS Worldship is very simple to move over. Just go to their website, give them our UPS number, and download a new copy of Worldship, Then I just export the UPS data on the old computer, import it into the new computer. And I’m done.
But Click N Ship was another story. To download a new copy of the program, I needed to log into our US Post Office account, but I couldn’t because I didn’t know the password.
And I don’t know the password because the account was set up by my late predecessor and it wasn’t on any of the several lists I had. And when I tried to do a password reset, I also didn’t know what his pet was named, or what his favorite holiday was.
Now the website said that if I couldn’t log in or do a reset, I was supposed to just create a new account. But if I did this I was afraid it would erase all our data.
So I was on the phone for a while trying to convince them that we were really who we said, and finally, after she quizzed me about our account info, she sent me a temporary password to reset the account. And she said I was right about not creating a new account under the same name as our old one, and that it would have overwritten all our addresses and other data.
Wrapping up, Elon Musk and SpaceX just keep coming up with wild, outlandish ideas that are laughed at . . . until they work.
His latest idea, to reduce the weight of his Super Heavy Boosters by eliminating landing legs, and speed up the turn-around time to to relaunch, is to catch the booster in mid-air from the tower and then stack a new Starship on top of it.
Doing this, he hopes to have a ONE HOUR turn-around to relaunch the booster with a new loaded and ready to go Starship on top.
And Mechazilla as it’s called, is already under construction down in Boca Chica, TX.
And even more outlandish, Musk hopes to use Mechazilla and this one hour turn-around to offer point-to-point passenger service between major cities around the world.
Knowing Musk, don’t bet against him.
Doing Stupid Things . . .
I spent most of today at work watching YouTube videos. But not the fun ones, like cats or kids doing stupid things.
Turns out that the company in Poland likes my faceplate design,
but they want it done as an Adobe Illustrator vector graphic .ai file
Which basically means that the graphic can be resized larger or smaller with no loss of resolution, unlike what happens when you do it with a .jpg file.
The problem is that I haven’t worked with Illustrator since I left the University Of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) at the end of 2007 before we started RV’ing. And according to Adobe I’m only 32 revisions/upgrade behind.
So I started looking at YouTube tutorials on the 2022 version of Illustrator. And found I was really lost.
The control interface looks absolutely nothing like it did in CS3, the last version I worked with.
I mean it has the same functions, but they’re in completely new places on the menu, and in some cases they’re called completely different names.
But actually my design is pretty simple, so it shouldn’t take long for me to come up to speed.
I did find this 3+ hour video tutorial that seems to cover things very well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib8UBwu3yGA&ab_channel=EnvatoTuts%2B
Jan and I have our Snake Farm/San Antonio hotel reservations make for our upcoming October weekend. Chris and Linda, and Piper and Derek are staying at one hotel, and Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, and Jan and I are staying at another, both along the Riverwalk.
Really looking forward to having us all back together again.
Jan and I finally got around to mounting our new wind spinner yesterday evening, and it really looks good.
Check it out.
I’m really impressed on how little wind it takes to get it spinning. Because of the way the two sets of blades are set, the two wheels turn in opposite directions.
Really nice.
Of course we’ve had this one up for a while.
Also nice.
Tomorrow it’s Texas Huddle, Home Depot, WalMart, and probably Costco.
We’ll see.
Thought for the Day:
When I first went to work at age 13 my tax return consisted of a single IBM data card with the instructions on one side and a few lines to fill out on the other side. Each year since then Congress has simplified it into 35,000 pages.
Still In Bangor, ME
August 22, 2009
Bean Hole Beans…
Today was pretty much another do-nothing day.
I did take time to replace the windshield wipers on the coach with cheaper ones. The reason for this was that the expensive ones I put on back in February before we left Houston, really weren’t doing a very good job. This was because they had such a curve in them they wouldn’t stay pressed against the windshield very well.
The new ones from Sam’s work great.
This evening we attended a Maine Bean Hole Bean Dinner here at the RV park. It was basically grilled hot dogs, baked beans, Cole slaw, and bread. The term ‘bean hole beans’ comes from a New England tradition where the beans were cooked in a large cast iron pot in the ground.
The beans they use up here are a little different than what we’re used to. They’re called yellow-eye beans. They’re related to kidney beans, but ivory colored with a mustard-colored eye, kind of like a black-eye pea, but larger.
We had a good time talking with the other RV’ers, especially a group that had recently been to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland on an RV caravan.
An RV caravan is a group of travelers traveling together from one destination to the next. These tours can be professionally organized by a caravanning company, or informal – a small or large group of friends traveling together from place to place.
We’re going to try to pick the Wagonmaster’s (think Wagon Train) brain a little bit for the best places to stay and see.
Tomorrow we’re going to move to another site for a couple of days. The site we’re at doesn’t have sewer so we can’t do laundry, so we’re moving over there for a couple of days before we leave for Houlton, the last town in Maine before we enter Canada.
We’re kind of waiting to see what Hurricane Bill is going to do since it’s supposedly heading for Nova Scotia/Newfoundland.
Tomorrow, while we’re moving to our new site, I plan on topping off our propane tank. The last time we filled it up was in Whitehorse, BC in Canada last year on our way back from Alaska..
In the summer time, the only thing we used propane for is for the refrigerator when we’re traveling, and for hot water when we’re boondocking. When we’re plugged in to shore power, we use the electric water heater. So the 40 gallons can last a long time.
However, we should start running into colder weather soon and we do use the propane for our two coach heaters. We also have two small electric heaters that we use until it gets really cold.
Last year on our way to Alaska, the coldest temp we ran into was 6 degrees in Garrison, MT, and the heaters had to run almost constantly.
So we’ll top off now before we get into Canada.
And after we move tomorrow, we’re planning on going to see the Harry Potter movie.
After that, we’ll see…
Still In Elkhart, IN
August 22, 2010
Work, Work, Work
Today was mostly a work around the rig day.
There’s always a lot of little things that need to done around here. So I added antifreeze to both the truck and the rig, added oil to the rig engine, topped off the coach batteries, and several other things.
I had planned to add some Freon to the dash A/C, but after some confusion about the the connectors, I decided to wait until tomorrow when I could check with American Coach.
I’ll try again tomorrow.
I thought this was interesting. I took this photo yesterday down in Goshen out in front of Menard’s. Note the handy garbage can and shovel on the far right.
We decided to try a new Mexican restaurant, but it wasn’t quite as good as our favorite El Maguey, but it was good. And it does have the advantage of being closer.
Horseshoe Lakes Thousand Trails Near Terre Haute, IN
August 22, 2011
Jan Says She’s Giddy . . .
Today will be the first time we’ve left the park since we got here last Wednesday.
Jan says she’s giddy.
But we both agreed we’ve really enjoyed the peace and quiet here.
After getting up and having coffee about 8:30, we headed out about 10. Our first stop was the Blanford Post Office to check on my mail, but none has shown up yet. I’ll check back tomorrow.
Then we headed south about 20 miles to Terre Haute and Fantastic Sam’s so Jan could get her hair done. But, as it turned out, even thought it was listed on the Fantastic Sam’s website, the place was out of business. So we decided to just head on down further south to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter and get her hair done there.
And while she was there, I stopped off at a nearby Lowe’s and Tractor Supply Store for some parts.
Finishing her haircut, and since this Wal-Mart didn’t have a nail salon, we drove up the road a piece to a Le Nails that we’d passed on the way in. I spent the time across the street at a Starbuck’s nursing a Cinnamon Dolce Latte and reading my Kindle.
As soon as she was finished at the nail place, we had just enough time to get to a nearby movie theater to see “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”. We both really enjoyed this wrap-up of the whole Harry Potter series. Almost made us want to start back over watching from the first movie again.
Getting out of the movie a little after 4 pm, we decided to check out a nearby Beef O’Brady’s for dinner. Several people have said they liked the chain, but compared to a similar restaurant that we like, Red Robin, Beef’s came up short. It wasn’t bad, but nowhere near as good as Red Robin. Maybe it was just this location so we may give another location another chance at another time.
Leaving Beef’s we headed over to Sam’s Club for vitamins and other stuff and then back to Wal-Mart for groceries. We saved our shopping until now since the cold stuff would have been in the truck too long.
Finally we head home, arriving about 7:30, and both kind of pooped. A 9 hour day of doing stuff. Jan said as glad as she was to get out of the rig, she was looking forward to getting back and doing nothing for a few more days.
Me too.
August 22, 2012
Lake Whitney Thousand Trails . . .
After a nice night at the Lake Whitney Thousand Trails I was up a little early to take a look at my Onan generator problem. But, after extending the generator from the front of the rig, I confirmed what I remembered from the last time I worked on it. Everything is contained inside the housing, and there’s nothing for me to check out without climbing underneath and start taking off panels.
One thing I was trying to confirm was whether or not the generator has a separate fuel filter. Turns out it does, but unlike the oil and air filters, it’s not listed on the front of the case.
I did try the manual start out on the generator, again with no luck, so I retracted the gen slide and went inside to start up the rig diesel.
The first thing I noticed was that the engine didn’t start up immediately. Normally, the engine turns over for just a second and then starts right up. However this morning, it turned over for 4 or 5 seconds without catching. Turning the key off and then trying it again, it started right up.
OK. After checking the gauges, I put the engine in High Idle, started the levelers coming up, and went outside to unhook the shore power. And just as I was storing away the cable the engine just up and quit.
BUMMER!
Going back inside, I once again tried to start the engine, and once again it cranked right up. So not wanted to tempt fate any longer, we hit the road.
And then then engine ran fine the rest of the day.
We got into the Ramblin Fever RV Park in Mount Pleasant, TX about 1:30pm and got set up.
After a nice nap, we headed out about 4:15pm to have dinner at Two Senoritas, a Mexican restaurant we passed on our way to the RV Park.
My Chicken Tortilla Soup was really good, and Jan said her Chile Relleno was delicious.
Tomorrow we’ve got a long travel day, 332 miles, that will end up at the Tom Sawyer RV Park on the Mississippi River in West Memphis, AR.
Starting Our 2nd Year Of Gate Guarding
August 22, 2013
60,000 and Counting . . .
We had planned to leave out from here in Houston about 9am this morning, but I guess we were itching to get on the road because we found ourselves ready to go a little after 8. Pulling out of our site we stopped in the park office lot just long enough to hitch up the truck and we were on the way. Like our last several days of travel we had the generator running so we could run the coach AC’s, since it’s supposed to be in the mid 90’s all along our route.
A few minutes later we were heading west on the Beltway 8 Tollway, and then onto I-10W. Our first stop was about 150 miles later at the Buc-ee’s off the Luling exit. We pretty much always stop here going or coming. This morning we got coffee and a couple of kolaches for brunch since we didn’t’ have any thing before we left Houston. About 50 miles later we were turning off I-10 onto Loop 410 S in San Antonio, and then a few miles later we were on I-37S. And along in here we hit another milestone.
Since we picked up our RV at the dealers on January 6th, 2008, we’ve traveled 60,000 miles. In the last 6 years we’ve been from Key West, FL to Fairbanks, AK. And from San Diego to Newfoundland, and a lot of places in between. We been in every state, except for some reason, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. But we’ll get them some day.
About 20 miles later, we stopped at a new Pilot Travel Center that’s opened since we were here a year ago. And again, I’m really enjoying my Pilot / Flying J RV Plus Card. I get 6 cents a gallon off the Cash price, and no card dollar limits at the pump. Just fill and go. I even used it when I went inside to get a couple of gallons of diesel coolant to take with me.
The billing date, at least on my account, ends on the 15th of the month, and payment is due by the 30th. Since it doesn’t cost anything to get the card, it ought to be in every RV’ers wallet.
After topping off our diesel, and adding a bottle of Diesel Kleen to the tank, another 20 miles down the road, we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Pleasanton to top off the pantry with groceries
Finally we pulled into the Gate Guard Services lot off exit 83 about 3:45 and checked in at the office. They were expecting us and there was an open site in the RV parking area waiting for us. 50amp full hookups, and it’s free while we’re waiting for a gate, or coming off a gate, for that matter.
Getting us parked and connected to shore power, I tracked down Jamie, our supervisor, in the shop building and got the scoop on what should be our new gate. One oil company just bought some oil leases from another oil company, and we will be replacing some gate guards employed by another gate guard company. Luckily it’s only about 6 miles from here, so we won’t be out in the boonies and should have no problems with cell and data service. Yay!
About 5pm we headed down to the Three Rivers area to have dinner at Pepe Broudreaux’s, one of our favorite local places. Jan ordered the Shrimp Diablo, a spicy shrimp and pasta dish, and I had my usual Blackened Chicken Breast stuffed with crawfish, bacon, and cheese. Delicious as usual, and big enough portions so we had leftovers for later.
Coming home, and passing back through Three Rivers, we saw a trailer parked in a vacant lot selling stickers and decals for your windows. Jan had been wanting a oil well sticker so we stopped to see what he had. Turns out he had pretty much what ever you want. He has a laptop and a large format stencil cutting machine, and a catalog of thousands of images stored on the hard drive. He also has a digital camera and a scanner so he can make a stencil from your artwork too. Jan found the perfect picture and he cut it out to order. He has dozens of colors and backgrounds of stencil materials so you can get pretty much any color you want. Neat.
Jamie said our gate might start Monday, but probably Tuesday, so we’ve got a few days to prepare, and also play around in San Antonio a little.
August 22, 2014
BBQ and Bison . . .
Jan and I started out this morning with Peru FTO Cecovasa coffee, made from beans roasted by our good friend, Bob Sutton. Bob’s really into the whole coffee thing. Me, I either like it, or I don’t.
And I like this.
Jan and I headed out into the furnace (101°) about 4:30 to Peter’s BBQ for the Friday Night Buffet. Located about 10 miles up US71, it’s one of our must-eat places when we’re in the area, especially on Friday night. For $11 you get all the Brisket, Ribs, Sausage, or Chicken you want from the BBQ area. Then you go out to the dining room for the sides.
And by sides, I mean Fried Catfish, Fried Shrimp, Fried Chicken, Roast Pork, and even Hushpuppies. Then there’s all of the conventional sides.
And when you’ve filled up on all this, there’s Banana Pudding, Peach Cobbler, and Ice Cream.
Did I mention it’s only $11?
While we were driving up to Peter’s, it started sprinkling a little, and then died out right before we arrived. But once we got inside, it just started pouring down, enough so that it killed the satellite TV signal in the dining room. But in typical perverse Texas fashion, the sun shone brightly the entire time.
Leaving Peter’s BBQ, we headed further up US71 to the Wal-Mart in La Grange. The one in Columbus is closer, but is one of the older, smaller ones. But the one in La Grange, while not a full SuperCenter, is kind of a mini-Super. It’s not as big, and only had one entrance, but it does have a full Grocery department, which is what we were looking for.
Well that, and Landon’s birthday present.
Heading home we got a view of the Frebo Ranch bison herd, or at least a part of it. We’ve seen more at various times.
Finally getting home a little before 7pm, we found it had really cooled off . . . all the way down to 96 degrees! Yah!
Tomorrow is Landon’s birthday party. Last year Brandi and Lowell held it at their home. So, having learned their lesson, this year they’re having at Smith Ranch – Katy.
With waterslides, bouncy houses, horseback rides, and a petting zoo, it ought to be enough to keep everyone busy, and send everyone home pooped.
And, even better, when it’s all over, Brandi and Lowell just walk away and go home to a nice, clean house.
Neat!
August 22, 2015
Two Minutes . . .
is all it took.
Today was Landon’s 5th birthday party, so after a quick stop for breakfast at the Columbus Whataburger, we headed into Katy to meet up at Brandi’s before heading over to Smith Ranch north of Katy. Smith Ranch is an entertainment center in a rural sitting, hosting birthday parties, weddings, and other special events. In fact it’s the same place Landon had his birthday party last year, and he wanted to go back again this year.
What the kids really like is the huge water slide they have there, and the kids make really good use of it. Of course sometimes it’s hard to get out of the way of the next slider and you just get bowled over.
But it’s still fun
And why slide when you can just leap?
Of course the highlight of the party was the piñata.
And yes, that’s a mustache-shaped piñata. For some reason Landon decided he wanted a mustache-themed party, so that’s what he got. A mustache piñata, a mustache cake, and mustache balloons and tablecloths.
Unfortunately there was a problem with the piñata. It was just too tough. Everybody wailed away at it, but it wouldn’t break. But what did break was the stick.
Finally after some help by one of the big kids, the goodies were released and the kids scrambled. I told Brandi that next year don’t get a piñata made out of plywood.
It started raining hard toward the end of the party, so Landon took his presents back to the house to open.
Once that was done, we all adjourned to Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro about 3:30 for an early dinner. It was Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper’s first time and they really enjoyed as much as we do.
Then came my surprise. While we were at the party, our son Chris, and our son-in-law Lowell told me they were going to follow us back to the rig and help get the new AC on the roof.
And it couldn’t have been more simple. And yes, it only took a couple of minutes.
They pulled the picnic table up against the rig,
And with me on the roof holding a big piece of cardboard to slide it on, Chris and Lowell just picked up the AC and handed it up to me.
Easy Peezy.
Tomorrow I’ll go up and swap the units out. I don’t expect to take more than a hour or two.
Thanks guys. We really appreciate it.
* * * * *
In late-breaking news, we have a gate. We leave Monday morning for a gate between Henderson, TX and Carthage, TX , about 260 miles away. We’re back with Jamie and Gate Guard Services again, and back in East Texas.
We’re supposed to be on the job Tuesday morning at 8am, so that means we’ve got a lot to do before we leave here on Monday.
Blue Moon Gate
August 22, 2016
On Site, But Not On Our Pad . . .
Jan and I were up at 5:45am to be ready to pull out of our Indian Woods Campground site by 6:45.
Normally Jan drives the truck behind me when we come in to a new site, but after scouting out the site yesterday afternoon and seeing we would have plenty of room to unhitch and get turned around, we got hitched up and pulled out about 7am.
Pulling onto the pad about 45 minutes, we found Jamie waiting for us with our Generator/Water trailer. While Jan talked to Jamie I got us unhitched and then pulled the coach around and parked off to the side of the gate.
Jamie then parked the generator trailer behind us and got our shore power and water hooked up. Then we waited, waited for anyone to show up to tell us where to actually park.
Jamie didn’t think we’d be able to stay inside the gate where we were now parked since we were pretty close to the three wells. So we looked outside the gate for other ideas, and found two possible sites.
The first one wasn’t really very good, and would require a lot of work to get it ready. Right along the fence line, it was basically a water-filled ditch, and was only wide enough to park the rig and the two support trailers all in a line, as well as our canopy and pickup.
The next, better place, was on the left side, right before you come into the gate. It was big enough, but the ground was very soft from the rain.
Not something I’d want to drive the coach out on. But with 6 inches of gravel, it might be a possibility.
But we’d have to wait and see. But finally someone showed up, someone who as it turned out was pretty ticked off that we had a motor coach, and not as he said, ‘a small camper’ that would fit on the side of the road. But when we showed him the foot of water filling the ditch, he mellowed somewhat.
Jamie finally gave up and left, saying he’d be back tomorrow morning with our sewer trailer, lights, and the rest of our setup stuff.
Then a couple of hours later a pipeline guy showed up to look at the problem, and quickly came up with a solution. He was going to lay down roadway mats, made up of double stacked timber planks. And that’s exactly what he did.
It only them about 30 minutes to get this laid and packed down. I guess if it will hold the shovel, it will hold the our rig.
Tomorrow they’re supposed to bring in a load of rock to build a ramp up onto the pad and then we’ll see.
It rained on and off all day, but it seemed to drain off pretty quickly. And with us at the top of the hill, we should stay relatively dry.
We hope.
It’s beginning to look like this is not a workover, but a full blown drill job of three holes. Looks like they’ve already got the cranes here to drag the drill rig between the holes, and then this afternoon a flatbed came in carrying what looked like the big metal plates that they build the rig on so they can drag it.
But we’ll know more tomorrow, I guess.
Maybe.
August 22, 2017
ButterBurgers and Dollar Tree . . .
I spent the morning tidying some client’s website stuff before Jan and I headed out a little before 1pm to the nearby theatre to see Despicable M3. the 3rd one in the series.
As we were leaving the park, I was happy to see that they had started to pave the entrance road from the turn-off, pass the ranger station, and passed the Activity Center, including a new larger parking area directly across from the Center.
Even better, it looks like they’re doing about a 4” layer, thick enough to stand up to the heavy rig traffic.
Our senior tickets were $13.50, and a medium popcorn and a medium drink were $13.50. There’s a problem here.
The movie was good, a little slower than the first two, mostly because they did a lot of character development, setting up the premise for the next few movies. We both enjoyed it.
After that we had Butterburgers at the nearby Culver’s.
Mine had two patties, cheese, bacon, mayo, mustard, pickles, and onions. Really good.
For us it’s pretty much a toss-up between Whataburger and Culver’s. It’s like apples and oranges.
I do like Culver’s big crinkle cut fries better than Whataburger’s shoestring ones.
After lunch, we headed across the Interstate to the Dollar Tree to pick up a jug of Awesome and a container of the new Awesome Orange powder that we’ve seen online.
Supposed to be really good. We’ll see.
Coming back to the park about 4:30 it was good to see that they had almost completed paving both side of the road around the ranger station. So far though, I haven’t seen any sign that they’ll paving the interior park roads, but I hope so.
We’ll see.
Wrapping up, ESPN has pulled sports announcer Robert Lee from the play by play calling of an upcoming college game, due to the fact that his name is similar to a Confederate general.
The problem is . . . he’s Asian.
And ‘Lee’ is about as common as ‘Smith’ in his culture.
And finally, Anderson Cooper’s relatives owned Michelle Obama’s relatives.
What should we tear down now?
August 22, 2018
On To Budapest . . .
Looks like we’ve got our basic itinerary nailed down for our European trip next year. We’ll leave here April 26th, arrive in Budapest on the 27th. Then after two days there, our cruise leaves on the 29th.
Fifteen days later we arrive in Amsterdam, where we’ll spend two additional days before taking the train to Paris. After four nights there we’ll take the Chunnel train to London for another four nights. Then finishing up, we’ll fly home on the May 23rd making it a 28 day trip. Yowza!
Tomorrow is probably going to be an errand day, hopefully with lunch at East Star Chinese Buffet.
August 22, 2019
And It Was The Perfect Day For It, Too . . .
Although it rained heavily earlier this morning, it had cleared by the time I was up and about and caffeined. So after I got back from O’Reilly’s with the brake cleaner, I was outside and pulling off the driver side rear wheel by about 10.
Although I had pulled the passenger side wheel the other day to look at the rotor, I started on the other side today because it was opposite the sun, giving me a little shade. Then this afternoon I planned to switch over to the other side, again for the shade.
But as happens, my best-laid plans ‘gang aft a-gley.’
I knew something was up when I noticed that the rotor was in really good shape, and not worn down as the passenger side was.
This what the other rotor looked like.
And when I removed the caliper, and then the brake pads, I found the piston in the caliper was jammed and could not be moved, in or out.
At that point I was done for the day, so I put everything back together and headed inside to see about getting new calipers.
I’m surprised that I couldn’t feel any difference in the braking with one side working and the other side jammed, but since 60-80% of braking is on the front wheels I guess it was just masked. But I never felt any kind of pulling when I braked either.
And checking out Amazon for Rear Brake Calipers, I found something strange. On some vehicles the calipers are the same on both sides, but I have a different one on each side. The right side caliper was $43.51, but the left side one was $63.21. And this is the same model from the same manufacturer. This totaled $106.72.
And this was for remanufactured ones.
So I put in a call to O’Reilly’s to see what they had. And they had a set for $105.98. And these were new ones, too. So I told them to order me a set, and was told they would be in this afternoon.
However when I went to pick them up I was told that the price would be $149.98.
WTH?
But I cooled down when I was told that I would get back $22 each or $44 total when I bring back the old calipers to them. So that gives the $105.98 that I was quoted.
So now I’m pushing all this back to this Saturday, Sunday, or next Tuesday, I guess.
August 22, 2020
Volcanos and Piñatas . . .
Jan and I headed up to Katy a little before 4pm to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Landon’s BFF, Sophie.
Landon and Sophie are both 10 years old and their birthdays are within a few days of each other, so they often have their parties together, as they did last year.
But this year we’re just having family dinner at the Rainforest Café in Katy Mills Mall, one of Landon’s favorite places.
On the way up, though it was clear when we left the rig, by the time we got on the Sam Houston Tollway, it was pouring down rain. And it pretty much stayed that way until we finally got on I-10 heading out toward Katy. Luckily I had allowed enough extra time so we weren’t late for our 5:30 reservation.
Like a lot of places, Rainforest Café seems to have cut back on their menu somewhat, but everything is always good.
Jan got her favorite Shrimp Tacos,
while I tried something new, the Korean Spicy Chicken StirFry.
And of course for dessert, we all shared their famous Volcano Lava Cake, complete with sparklers.
This seems to be their most popular dish, since they brought out about a dozen of them while we were there, always making a big production of it, as they did for Landon and Sophie.
Really, really good.
Afterwards we had planned to walk around the mall a bit, but found with their reduced hours, the stores all closed at 7pm, which was about when we got out of the restaurant. So Jan and I said our goodbyes, got our hugs, and headed home, encountering much nicer weather on the way.
