Monthly Archives: August 2022
Our Next Family Get-Together . . .
We’ve been talking about this for a while, but this past Monday we finally pulled the trigger.
Jan and I had wanted to revisit the Snake Farm (now Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo) in New Braunfels, and also eat at the Magic Time Machine nearby in San Antonio, both long-time favorites of ours.
Though we’ve visited the Snake Farm over the years, the last time was December of 2008 after we wrapped up our first year of RV’ing. And that’s when we discovered Miss Piper’s love of big snakes.
And then the next year when Piper and Brandi visited us up in New York City in July 2009 she found another one.
The Magic Time Machine is a unique restaurant location, as much entertainment as restaurant.
Inside it’s a maze of alcoves, cubbyholes, and other Nooks and Crannies.
The Salad Bar is actually a Salad Car, a 1952 MG-TD outfitted as their Soup and Salad
And the servers are all dressed as characters from movies, TV shows, and literature.
Over the years we’ve had Wonder Woman,
The Joker,
and more recently, twice in fact, Lady Ga Ga.
And our food has always been good too.
One time back in the 80’s we were there with Chris and Brandi, and one of the servers was dressed as Tarzan, just wearing a loincloth. There were lit candles on each table, and as he was bending over to serve one table, he backed into a candle on the table behind him, setting his loincloth on fire.
When he realized what had happened, he started jumping around, yelling, and grabbing glasses of water from the tables and throwing it on his rear end.
And all of us at the surrounding tables started laughing and clapping, thinking it was part of the show.
It wasn’t.
Finally he ran out of the dining room while he still had some dignity.
We’ve got this scheduled for October 15-16, and it looks like everyone’s on board. We’ll drive over on Saturday morning, about a 3-1/2 trip, meet everyone at the Snake Farm. Then sometime around 5 or so, we’ll make the 20 minute drive in San Antonio for dinner at the Time Machine.
Afterwards, Jan and I plan on spending the night nearby, then doing some more driving around, before heading back to Santa Fe Sunday afternoon.
Tomorrow is Landon’s first day as a 7th Grader, and then this Saturday, the 20th, he turns 12.
It’s a big week for him.
And to celebrate, we’re all meeting up at the Rainforest Café in Katy for his birthday.
Really looking forward to it.
Thought for the Day:
August 17, 2009
On The Road Again . . .
Well, we did a 20 mile test drive on my fuel filter changeout and it looks like we’re good to go!
As soon as I can find another filter, I’m going to buy one as a spare so I’ll always have one on hand. I probably wouldn’t be able to install it on the road because I would have to hang over the very hot muffler to install it.
So I would have to wait a few hours for things to cool down.
The park we’ve been at for the last several days here in St. Johnsbury, VT is called…
Unfortunately for Jan, the only moose we saw there was this cutout at the entrance.
It’s a very pretty park with very friendly owners.
The only problem with our parking spot is that there is no shade, but then the satellite reception is great!
Now that the coach is ready to go, today is our last day here at Moose River.
Tomorrow we’ll drive about 50 miles over to Gorham, NH.
Since I couldn’t find a decent RV park in the area, we’ll Wally-dock for the night.
August 17, 2011
Uh Oh! 30 amps!
We had one last breakfast at Robbi’s Restaurant this morning with Debbie, Jim, Tana, Gwen, and Jan and I. We really had a great time visiting with Debbie and her family, and, of course, seeing Brandi, Lowell, and Landon one last time too.
After saying our goodbyes, and getting last minute hugs, Jan and I headed back out to the RV Park to get ready to leave.
I’d gotten up at 6:30 and pretty much had everything done before we left for breakfast, so all we really had to do was hitch up the toad, unplug the power, and head out.
We pulled out of our site right at 11, and a few minutes later we were on I-70 heading east toward Terre Haute. It warmed up pretty fast so about 40 miles down the road I started up the generator so we could run the house AC’s.
Then about 15 miles west of Terre Haute we turned north on SR 1, heading thru Paris, IL to the small (very small) town of Blanford, IN. Right outside of Blanford, we entered Indiana and the Eastern Time Zone. This means that during our travels this year we’ve been in all four US time zones.
And Jan was happy to see a Super Wal-Mart as we passed through Paris which is only about 15 miles from our park.
A couple of miles north of Blanford we arrived at the Horseshoe Lakes Thousand Trails Resort.
This Thousand Trails is kind of unusual in that you don’t check in at the guardhouse, but at an office down a side road. Then once you’re checked in, you come back out the side road and enter the park itself using the gate code you now have.
As we’ve done with a couple of the other large, heavily-forested TT parks, we left the rig at the office, and after unhitching the toad, we drove it around to find a spot. I took my compass with me so I would be able to check for satellite availability. Finding a good spot, we left a bag chair to hold it while we went back for the rig.
We found a really nice site, across from the lake, with some trees for shade, but open enough for good satellite reception, and 3 bars of 3G on my phone.
All that, along with the really good water pressure means a happy camper.
So far this looks like a really nice park, and hopefully we still feel the same way at the end of our two week stay.
I’ve got a lot of projects lined up, and maybe I can make a dent in the list.
The only problem we’ve had so far is when Jan was fixing supper, and everything suddenly got very quiet and very dark.
Then I hear Jan say “Uh Oh! 30 Amps!
So, no, she can’t run the microwave and toaster oven at the same time that the AC and the dryer are running.
August 17, 2013
The Birthday Boy . . .
This Tuesday, August 20th is Landon’s birthday, but today was his birthday party, and a party it was. Jan and I headed out about 10:30 to get his presents and also pick up a few supplies at Wal-Mart, and then it was back here to do the wrapping.
We got over to Brandi’s about 1pm, and found our son Chris and his family, wife Linda, and daughter Piper already there. They were all blowing up balloons and Piper was putting the streamers up.
Landon’s birthday cake was really neat.
The theme for the party was Pirates, and the cake was an ocean with an island, and it was all made of individual cupcakes covered over with icing.
Landon in the meantime, was taking a nap with his other Nana so he would be fresh for the party that started around 2pm.
The highlight of the party was a Water Slide that they had rented for the occasion, and it was a big hit.
There was over 50 adults and children at the party, so Brandi and Lowell’s big house came in handy. There was room enough for everyone.
Finally it was time for Landon to open his presents, and he had a ball. Got some great gifts too. Jan spent a good while picking out just the right wrapping paper for his presents at Wal-Mart this morning, and I kept telling her it wasn’t necessary.
Kids, especially boys, just don’t care what a present is wrapped in. It could be wrapped in old garbage bags or newspaper, and as long as the kid thinks there’s a toy in there, it’s history. Again, he just doesn’t care.
After all that, Landon settled down long enough to have some of his birthday cake.
Then he finished things up with a Happy Birthday kiss from his cousin Piper.
Everyone was pretty much gone by 5pm, so we were able to spend some time together as a family, just catching up. Jan and I finally headed out about 8:30, and I’m sure Brandi was glad to see us all go. If only for the peace and quiet.
Tomorrow afternoon we’re going over to Chris and Linda’s and Chris and I are going to put new brake pads on my truck. Then we’ll eat supper at Barcenas, one of our favorite local Mexican places.
August 17, 2014
A Prickly Time . . .
Since we got here to the Colorado River Thousand Trails Jan and I have been fighting a sandspur invasion. And apparently it’s all Misters fault.
When we were at Maxie’s Campground in Broussard, LA a couple of nights ago, we let Mister lay outside on his leash for an hour or so. And it seems that the ground he was lying on was full of sandspurs. And then he brought them in the rig on his coat. And then the sandspurs apparently stuck to our rugs better than Mister.
So all of a sudden Jan and I were stepping on sandspurs IN the rig. By the time we figured out what had happened, and I checked Mister over, there were none left on his coat. They were now all over the rig. And even though I’ve gone over the rugs several times, we’re still finding them, the painful way.
About 4:30 Jan and I headed into Katy to have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro, our favorite local Asian place.
We were surprised about how much traffic we encountered heading into Houston. In fact we hit on and off, bumper to bumper traffic as soon as we got on I-10E. It slowed things down enough that it took about an hour and twenty minutes for the normally one hour trip.
While we waited for Brandi to get home, I helped Landon assembled a present we got him while we were up in Elkhart, IN. It’s a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton kit. But it’s more like a puzzle.
There are no real instructions, just pictures, and the parts aren’t labeled in any way. But after fooling with it for a while, I finally got it finished.
What’s really strange about this photo is that the T-Rex skeleton is flat black in color. But when it’s hit with the flash from the camera, it fluoresces bright white, almost glowing. The pieces seemed to be made from some sort of stiff wood or paper, very light, but strong, and the black color goes all the way through. It’s not a paint. Strange.
Little V’s seems to make pretty much everything from scratch, even Landon’s Corn Dog Bites are made in house.
As far as us grownups, everyone went with their favorites. We started out with an order of their Pork Spring Rolls, also made in house, and to order. Even the Peanut Sauce is homemade.
Next up was our favorite Shaking Bowls. Jan’s bowl was Chicken and mine was Beef. Topped off with Sriracha and some of their special hot sauce, it’s hard to describe how good this is.
And no meal at Little V’s is complete without a spoonful of Crème Brûlée for dessert, the perfect end to a filling meal.
After getting our Landon hugs, Jan and I drove back to the rig, getting home a little after 9pm, and luckily encountering a lot less traffic than our trip in.
August 17, 2015
Two Repairs in Two Days . . .
I hope.
I check the water level in the radiator this morning and found it hadn’t dropped any since we topped it off yesterday at Chris’. So that’s one problem out of the way.
Next up, the AC/Heater blower fan in the truck. I mentioned when we were back in Prescott, AZ last June that it seemed like our AC blower wasn’t putting out as much air as it should. The first thing that comes to mind is the blower motor itself. So I did a little Googling and found that in most cases it’s not the blower, but the resistor pak that is used regulate the blower speeds.
So before I replaced a $50 blower motor, I thought I’d replace the $8 resistor pak first. So before right before we left Prescott after our two-month rig repair, I picked one up at a NAPA Auto Parts.
But one thing led to another, and with all our traveling, I never got around to changing it out. Part of the procrastination was that the manual seemed to show that you have to remove the glove compartment and part of the dash to get to it.
But a little more Googling showed me a video that said different. In fact it only turned out to be 15 minute job, and that because I managed to drop the two screws in the grass and had to use a big magnet to find them.
The resistor pak is mounted the airduct to help keep the resistors cool and hides right behind this plastic panel.
From underneath you can see it’s held in with only two screws.
Remove those and the plug harness falls right out.
Some people online mentioned a problem with a melted harness and/or connector but mine looked fine. So after unplugging the old one, I sprayed the connector with Strike-Hold magic elixir, and plugged the new one in.
Once I found the screws in the grass, it only took a couple of minutes to get the unit remounted.
For a quick test, I cranked up the truck and turned on the AC. It seems to be blowing harder, but I don’t think I can really tell until we’re on the road.
And that will be tomorrow when we drive into Katy to have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro.
It’s a 55 mile trip, and we won’t even have to stop for water.
August 17, 2016
Recuperating . . .
After several days of early risings, I finally got to sleep in this morning, made much nicer by the steady rain on the rig’s roof.
It’s nice to just set back for awhile and do not much of anything. After coffee and toast, I spent the morning catching up on some web stuff that was delayed during our recent traveling.
Then I started looking through some recent ads I’d seen for gate guard openings. I’m also trying to track down a listing I saw recently for wind farm gate guarding jobs in OK. I know I saved it off somewhere.
About 2pm I went down to the park office to settle up for our stay here. We used up our 50 free days a good while ago, since we alternated between Colorado River and Lake Conroe every two weeks. So now we’re paying $5 day plus $3 a day for 50 amps. So we’re paying $8 day, still a very good deal.
Of course our projected 12 day stay here may get cut short if we get a gate in the meantime.
This coming Saturday is Landon’s 6th birthday, and Brandi is having his party at the Main Event Entertainment Center in Katy. With bowling, bocce ball, billiards, laser tag, and a rock climbing wall, it’s got something for everyone. Should be fun.
We got Landon a couple of robot kits for his gifts, a Table Top Robot Crab that runs around the table top and when it senses the edge, turns and goes in another direction,
and a Solar Powered Transforming Robot that makes a number of different units.
They’re both for 8 years and up, but he’s really good at building up the animated Lego kits so I suspect he’ll have no trouble with these either.
August 17, 2019
A Day At The Pool . . .
We didn’t get home from Brandi’s up in Katy until kind of late this evening. So I’ll just post a few pictures of the day.
August 17, 2020
I Don’t Like To Read Books Anymore . . .
I have a number of favorite books, mostly sci-fi paperbacks, that every few years I pull out and reread. Now many of these I’ve bought again in Kindle versions to just to have them available, but some of them were from back in the mid-90’s and were never converted to Kindle.
One of these is called Anti-Ice written by award-winning, best-selling author Stephen Baxter. So when I saw my old copy in my bedroom cabinet, I thought I’d give it a try.
And that’s when I discovered I don’t really like books anymore, at least not the real, touchy-feely, wood-pulpy kind.
You know, the ones that you can’t read in the dark, the ones that you can’t make the print larger when your eyes are tired, or the ones that you can only carry a couple around with you at any one time.
No, I now prefer the ones that light up in the dark, the ones that I can resize the print with a squeeze of my fingers, or easily carry around the 1527 books presently in our Kindle account.
Those kind of books.
August 17, 2021
An Alvin Opry Get-Together . . .
Our long-time friend Chris Yust, who’s actually now on a Carnival cruise in the Caribbean, was nice enough to send Jan these beautiful Flamingo earrings, her new favorites.
Thanks, Chris!
Jan and I left for our lunch date about 11:15, to meet up with a bunch of old Alvin Opry friends at the Cheddar’s up in Webster.
Starting off next to Jan on the left, is Connie Taube, Maria and Bob Sutton, Sadye and Harry Dudley, finishing up with Hugh Jordan on the right.
We’ve known Bob and Maria since the mid-80’s, and the others since the late-90’s when we first started going to the original Alvin Opry.
We had great time, so much so that we’ve already scheduled the time and place to do it again next month.
So good seeing everyone.
Thought For The Day:
You never appreciate what you have until it’s gone. Toilet paper is a good example.
Paladin, Paladin, Where . . .
After a lot of loud banging starting early this morning around 7pm, this is what we saw when we came out to leave this afternoon.
Boy, that was quick.
Very nice looking building.
Our lunch destination today was Twin Peaks once again. We had planned to visit there about a week and a half ago, but Sylvia wasn’t working that day. A while back she gave us her phone number so we could text her to see if she was working when we wanted to stop by.
But when I texted her yesterday about today, she said she would be there.
And as before, she knew exactly what we usually ordered.
For Jan, that’s the Chipotle Chicken with Double Sautéed Broccoli.
But I did a changeup. I usually get the Half and Half, half a sandwich and a cup of soup. Now normally that’s a BLT and Brisket Chili. But I noticed that they had a new sandwich on the menu, a Pork Cubano. So I got that with the Brisket Chili, and an extra side of their Sautéed Green Beans.
Really good, but next time I’ll probably go back to the BLT. The Cubano was just too messy and drippy.
And after getting our goodbye hugs from Sylvia, we drove over to the office for a few minutes before heading back home for the day.
I came across an article last night talking about Have Gun Will Travel, the TV show starring Richard Boone.
It was so popular that in the first 4 of the 6 years it was on, it was always in the top 4 or 5 of ALL TV programs, not just Westerns. And even afterwards, it was usually in the top Ten. It only stopped because Boone did not want to do it any more.
While many shows like Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger, Dragnet, Superman, and others originated on radio before moving to TV, Paladin was the only one that started on TV and then became a radio show.
About 10 years later, Boone came back with another show, Hec Ramsey, another favorite show of mine. Hec Ramsey was a turn-of-the-century lawman who started using the latest technology to catch criminals. Kind of a Western version of William Murdoch on Murdoch Mysteries.
Of course, you all remember Paladin’s business card.
I’ve always wondered, that when it first came on in 1957, if I was the only 9 year old who thought that Paladin’s first name was Wire?
FWIW, according to one book on Paladin’s adventures, his real name was Clay Alexander. This one story was only place among the TV shows, radio shows, and books, where his name was ever given.
Thought For The Day:
Will whoever keeps asking if this country can get any more insane, please stop?
With Family in Vandalia, IL
August 16, 2011
Cell Phones and Gas Pumps . . .
Under the heading of ‘Make Up Your Mind”:
According to this gas pump at the local Wal-Mart, you can buy gas by texting the pump to turn it on.
But of course, according to this label, you’re not supposed to use your cell phone.
You’d almost think this was a government operation.
We did our usual 9 am breakfast at Robbi’s for the second to last time this morning before heading over to Effingham for some shopping.
Then it was back to Debbie’s where Jan and Debbie worked on a quilt, and I read and goofed off.
All in all, a very nice afternoon.
Jan and I left about 5:30 to first eat supper at Los Amigos, a local Mexican restaurant, and then on to Wal-Mart for grocery stuff and gas.
Then it was back to the rig to get ready to travel tomorrow.
We’re going to have one last breakfast together and then we’ll hit the road, heading east on I-70 about 100 miles to just west of Terre Haute, IN and then north about 25 miles to the Horseshoe Lakes Thousand Trails Resort.
We plan on staying two weeks and then we’ll probably head over to Elkhart.
August 16, 2013
Old Park, New Park?
After being on the road pretty much continuously for the last couple of weeks, it was nice to have a quiet morning of just coffee and not much else.
Jan and I had been thinking about where we will stay when we come back to Houston for the winter starting right before Thanksgiving. For the last 5 years we’ve always stayed at Galveston Bay RV Park down near Dickinson.
It’s hard to give up views like this out our windshield, but since Brandi and her family have moved out to the Katy area west of Houston, we talked about finding someplace more central, kind of half way between our son, Chris, and his family, and Brandi and hers. And once we got here to Advanced RV Park and saw how nice it was, we were thinking that this might be our place to spend the winter.
So a little after noon I walked over to the office to check out the possibility. But that idea quickly got shot down. After the lady checked the computer, she said she could accommodate us for the 2-3 months as long as we didn’t mind leaving the park for 5 or 6 weekends and then coming back in. Otherwise, no go.
They have 201 sites here, 108 pull-thrus, and 93 back-ins, so you think they’ve have some room. But the 93 back-ins are only 35’ long, so we wouldn’t fit in those.
Oh, well. It was worth a try.
Finally about 3:30 Jan and I drove over to Brandi’s and Lowell’s new house. So new in fact, that her subdivision isn’t on any maps, much less her street or address. Street Atlas, Streets and Trips, or my Garmin GPS with the latest map updates, does not show any roads there at all.
Google Maps shows the subdivision streets listed as ‘Proposed’. But having visited the area before, and knowing roughly where it was, we were able to find it with only one wrong turn.
Landon was still at daycare when we got there, so first up we got a tour of their new house. And boy is it beautiful. And big. Depending on the room, it has either 14 or 15 foot ceilings. Like I said, Big.
It’s two stories, and has 4 bedrooms, a study/bedroom, a media room, and 4 baths. Like I said, Big.
When we first saw pictures as it was being built, we wondered how it was going to work with the dark oak plank flooring and matching dark kitchen cabinets. But with the high ceilings, light gray walls, and white floor and ceiling trim, it’s perfect.
A little later, Jan and Brandi drove over to pick up Landon from daycare and dinner from a Peruvian chicken place called Pollo Bravo. When they got home, Landon hit the floor running, wanting to show us everything. He just goes and goes.
The Peruvian chicken was really good, especially with fried plantains, and a very spicy green sauce. Really good.
After a great time, Jan and I headed home about 8:30, stopping right down the road to get a car wash. The truck was just filthy from being behind the rig with all the rain we’ve been going through. In fact it was really hard to see out the side windows, so it was needed.
We knew there had been some stormy weather down this way while we were visiting Brandi’s. but found out how stormy when we got back to the rig and found our sat dish and stand blown over and around on the side of the rig.
When we left it was around in the front of the rig. It must have been really, really windy because the stand and dish have stayed up during 50 and 60 mph winds down at Galveston Bay. I was kind of worried about the sat dish being damaged by hitting the concrete, but setting it back up and telling it to re-align took care of it.
Tomorrow is Landon’s 3rd birthday party. Next Tuesday, the 20th, is the actual date, but tomorrow is the party. They’ve rented one of those big blow-up water slides for the kids, so they should have blast.
August 16, 2014
What Happened to the Cold Front?
A little before 9am, Jan and I left Maxie’s Campground in Broussard, LA, about 10 miles south of Lafayette on US90. And about 15 minutes later we were on I-10 heading west toward Columbus, TX, and the Colorado River Thousand Trails Park 300 miles away..
Overall, it was a smooth trip, with no real problems. Jan had planned to take over driving when we made a rest stop at Texas Border Welcome Center about 110 miles along the way, but it started raining on and off about 25 miles earlier so she decided to bow out.
Since it was about 2pm on a Saturday, I wasn’t as anxious about driving through downtown Houston as I might have been on a weekday. But I checked my Sigalert app just to be sure there were no upcoming problems.
We pulled into the Colorado River TT about 3pm and got checked in. I was a little worried about being able to get a 50amp site, because it was hit or miss when we stayed here several times earlier in the year. But apparently the park is not near as busy in the summertime. In fact it looks like it’s only about half full, and there are so few people here that they’re no longer doing the Wednesday night Potlucks.
In a similar vein, what happened to the Houston cold front I read about last week? It was 100 degrees here today, and looks to be 98 to 102 degrees for the next 10 days.
But online I read stories about record cold around the country. Pittsburg, PA is having one of their coldest summers ever with night temps in the 40’s. And now the leaves are starting to change there . . . in August!
In West Virginia, they’re also having record-breaking cold weather and summer vegetables aren’t ripening. And Washington, D.C has had 40% less 90 degree days than normal.
So my question is, where’s our abnormally cold weather? I want our share, especially since we’ll be gate guarding in the area in the next couple of weeks,
Speaking of ‘heat’, our son-in-law Lowell alerted me to this new local store. It’s called iBurn and they sell hot stuff, lot’s of different kinds of hot stuff, from sauces to rubs to condiments and salsas. A little bit of everything.
A visit is definitely in order.
August 16, 2015
We’ve Been Re-Radiated . . .
After coffee and donut holes Jan and I headed out about 8am for the 105 mile trip down to our son Chris’ house, where we were going to install a new radiator in our 2004 Dodge Dakota toad. Well, he was going to install it while I watched and supervised.
We knew it was going to take us awhile because with our leaky radiator, we could only go about 35 miles before we had to stop for 10 minutes or so to let the engine cool down so I could add more water. I had six gallons worth of water jugs which I figured would enough, and it was.
We did make three cool-down stops along the way, finally getting to Chris’ about 10:45. And of course we got right to work . . . by going to lunch.
Well, we had to let the engine cool down, right?
So Chris, his wife Linda, and Jan and I drove over to one of our favorite Mexican places, Barcenas, and even better, it’s right outside the subdivision. After eating up and catching up, we next drove over to the nearby O’Reillys to pick up the new radiator.
All nice and shiny. And not leaky, I hope.
Of course it all starts with the getting the old one. Part of the problem that my truck actually has 3 radiators, (Well, four if you count the small one for the power steering. But it’s not in the way.) And two of them were blocking us from the getting the main one out.
Down at the bottom, and only about 10 inches tall, is the radiator for the automatic transmission. Then behind that one is another larger one that’s the radiator for the air conditioner. The small one can be disconnected, but there wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver, but Chris finally got the lines off and that radiator out of the way..
The AC radiator could not be disconnected without losing the the Freon, but Chris finally got it pulled forward enough to unbolt the main radiator and pull it out. (For some reason the lighting here makes the truck look like it’s been in a wreck.)
Then of course you do it all in reverse, putting it all back together.
After Chris got everything hooked up, but before he put all the covers and cowling back on, we filled it with antifreeze and water, and fired it up to check for leaks, both water and transmission fluid. Of course Chris did his usual great job and not a drip was to be seen.
Thirty minutes later it was all buttoned up and we were ready to roll.
It actually didn’t take as long as I thought it might. Chris started working at 12:30, and we did the leak test at 2:45pm. And by 3:15 he was washing up.
Of course this is a guy that took a hulk of a boat that had been laying out in a field with a TREE growing out of it, and turned it into this.
Not only did he rebuild and re-fiberglass the hull, he also rebuilt the inboard engine and transmission.
In case you’re keeping score, it’s a 1977 16 ft. Century Arabian, with a Ford 351 Windsor (Mercruiser) engine, and a Velvet Drive inboard/outboard drive unit.
The new radiator cost me $192 w/tax. I had been quoted between $500 – $750 for a shop to do it.
It’s nice to have a kid who’s handy with tools.
August 16, 2016
Home Again at Colorado River . . .
With a 300 mile trip ahead of us today, and wanting to avoid the rush hour traffic going through Houston in the afternoon, we were up at 6:30 and pulling out of our site by 8am.
Since we stayed hitched up last night, prepping for travel this morning consisting of stowing the satellite stuff, letting in the awnings, and unplugging shore power, at least on the outside. Inside Jan finished up with her stuff and we were ready to roll.
We took I-20 back toward Shreveport for a few miles and then got onto US79 south about 30 miles until we got on US59 at Carthage, the location of our last year’s gate guarding job.
Then it was another 170 miles down through Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Livingston, and Cleveland before we got on the Sam Houston Tollway and headed west.
Coming through Nacogdoches we passed right by the big Foretravel plant. And I guess due to this, there seems to be a lot of RV sales lots here for a town this size.
Then just outside Lufkin, the light drizzle we been driving through since we left Miss Ellie’s RV Park turned into a heavy downpour for a while before settling down to a steady rain.
Of course right before I started to navigate the obstacle course where US59 merges into the Tollway, the bottom dropped out, so much so, I couldn’t even see the lane lines. So I just followed the semi in front of me and hoped he could see the lane better than I could.
Finally out on 1-10 west the rain cleared up as we passed through Brookshire. We got into the Colorado River Thousand Trails a little before 2pm and got set up in A1, one of our favorite sites here.
We’re here for 12 days before we move back to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, or we will if we don’t get a gate before then. I’m go to start making some calls tomorrow.
One encouraging sign was when we passed the US Rig Count sign as we left the Katy area. A little over 2 weeks ago, the rig count was 462, and today it was 481, up 17 just this week. So every little bit helps.
Looking back over our trip, we averaged a little over 8.4 mpg going over to Gulf Shores and then up to north Alabama. Then coming home where we had a lot more hills, we dropped down a little to about 8.2 mpg. This is with me holding 55 to 60 the whole trip. Not bad.
August 16, 2017
She’s real fine, my 4 0 9 . . .
Cue the Beach Boys.
Back at the client’s this morning, I concentrated on getting full access to the webserver. And to do that I had to figure out how the other IT guy was getting from his personal computer into the webserver, which is a Linux machine, not Windows.
Normally you use a program called PUTTY to telnet into the other computer, but it wasn’t installed on his machine, so I went looking for OpenSSH, another popular telnet program, but no luck there either. Of course I could have just installed PUTTY or OpenSSH and used them, but I figured that whatever program he was using would have the IP address and ports already entered.
And finally I found it – TightVNC. And there was the needed info – 192.168.1.200::5901. Now to figure out the password.
I had found various passwords scribbled on Post-It’s around his office, and started with some of those. But I quickly ran into a problem. He had the security protocols turned on, so after three wrong passwords the system would lock me out for a while.
So I had to get smarter. I had noticed that there was a lot of references to 409, the song by the Beach Boys, and I knew the password had seven characters (the system wasn’t masking the password length) so I started trying variations on this theme – and the second try – ‘fine409’ hit paydirt.
Now although I was into the the webserver, I still didn’t have root access, so it back to my password list. And in this case the fifth try was the charm, and I was in with SuperUser access. And that wrapped it up for today.
Now I can work on it remotely from home.
I know Karma will be glad to get back as well, since for the last almost two weeks, her entire world has been our bedroom here at Brandi’s
With two big dogs, Kitty and Baxter, and two other cats in the house, we decided to keep her out of the fray. But I should have brought a couple of her toys with me when I brought her with me. She’s been really bored.
Then on Friday we were scheduled to come on back to Lake Conroe TT for two days before moving over to Colorado River for two weeks. But this evening I changed our schedule to where we stay nine days at Lake Conroe, a week at Colorado River, and then back on our two week schedule at Lake Conroe.
August 16, 2018
A Done Deal . . .
We’re now officially homeless. At least in a Sticks & Bricks way.
I got a call from the title company this morning about 11 saying they were hoping to get the release from HOA faxed over in the next few minutes, so Jan and I went ahead and got ready.
And about 11:30 we got a call saying that they were ready to go, but they were really booked up and we could close either at 12:30 or 1pm. Otherwise we’d have to wait until Monday since the buyer wouldn’t be available until then. The only problem was that the closing was at an office up in the Galleria almost 50 miles away.
But we were ready and out the door in about 5 minutes. We were lucky enough not to hit any traffic slowdowns, and were at the office about 12:45. And after about 30 minutes of signing and initialing form after form we were done and on our way back down to Clear Lake.
Since the buyer wasn’t scheduled until 1:30, after us, we decided to have the funds deposited in our bank account via EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) which they said would be later in the afternoon.
We had already decided that we were going to celebrate the sale, whenever it happened, by stopping off for steaks at Saltgrass.
As usual we both started off with their Wedge Salads.
These salads are why we don’t eat at Longhorn Steakhouse, our other local favorite, and come here instead. Longhorn doesn’t always have a Wedge Salad, and when they do, it’s actually done with a large stalk of Romaine, and not a lettuce wedge. And Jan doesn’t like Romaine.
As for our steaks, Jan got the Center-Cut Top Sirloin with the Grilled Broccoli, while I got my usual Ribeye, also with the Grilled Broccoli.
The broccoli actually is their Steamed Broccoli, but we learned a while back to ask places to throw it on the grill for a bit. Makes it much better.
Right after we got home I got an email from the title company with my copy of the closing documents and a note saying the funds had been sent. And when I checked an hour or so later, it was there.
Yippee!
As I said yesterday, now that the whole ‘house’ thing is out of the way , I want to get my on my project list, with the first big one to track down the rig’s oil leak. Since it seems to be coming from up on the side of the engine, I’m going to start by looking under the bed to see if I can see anything from up top. Hopefully I’ll find something loose and easy to fix.
Jan saw an ad on the TV for the Nutcracker Market which runs November 8-11 this year, so I went online and got us tickets. Put on each year as a fundraiser for the Houston Ballet, it’s a high-end Christmas market with home décor, food, clothes, and toys.
Starting from a humble church bazaar, it’s grown to welcoming over 100,000 visitors during the four days, visitors who spend almost $20 million dollars.
Really looking forward to it.
August 16, 2020
Red Sprites and Blue Jets . . .
This is not a scene from the latest sci-fi blockbuster. Nor is it something that just washed up on Galveston beach. It’s an actual photo taken during a thunderstorm over Mt. Locke, TX back in July.
It’s a Red Jellyfish Sprite, an atmospheric phenomena that wasn’t even discovered until 1989.
They were first observed during Space Shuttle missions looking down into thunderstorms from above.
Although there had been reports of strange lights during thunderstorms in the past, they’re usually found high up, as much as 50 miles above the clouds during a storm. But even when they’re lower down, they flash on and off so fast that they’re hard to see, until you play back the video. In fact it took 4.5 hours of filming to catch the one above.
And they’re even other types, like these Carrot Sprites.
And don’t get me started on Blue Jets, Pixies, and Elves. Google them.
With Jan supervising from the ground, I got up on the rig roof about 7pm this evening to open up the condensation drain holes in our front rooftop A/C. And this time I not only opened them up, but I drilled them out a lot bigger so that some little tiny piece of crud won’t stop up the drain. And I also drilled a couple of extra drains in the bottom of the pan.
I dare it to stop up again now.
When I’m on the roof, Jan always insisted on being outside to watch me. One time I asked her if she was going to catch me to cushion my fall if I slipped and fell off the roof.
She said, “No, but I will call 911.”, she said with a smile, holding up her phone.
Not so sure about that smile.
August 16, 2021
More Pompeii . . .
I mentioned in last night’s blog that I had put in for a refund of the $99 deposit I had made when I signed up for a Starlink system. I was told it would be 7-10 days until I got my refund, but it showed up in my PayPal account this evening. Nice!
Getting back to our trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science this past Tuesday, (you can click above to read about it again) this is a facsimile of the famed Rosetta Stone. For some reason I always pictured it smaller.
Dating from 196 BC, and discovered by one of Napoleon’s officers in 1799, it contains the same document, written in three different scrips and two languages, Ancient Egyptian in both Demotic and hieroglyphic text, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek.
Since Ancient Greek was well-known and easily read, it allowed linguists to translate and read the hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt for the first time, though it took more than 25 years before this was accomplished.
As I mentioned in last Tuesday’s blog about our visit to the Museum, it’s amazing how much some of these almost 2000 year old objects would look perfectly at home today.
Like this shovel and a pitchfork,
and these carpentry tools, a set of dividers, a chisel, a plum-bob, and a right angle framing square.
Even this glassware used for cooking looks like stuff found in a high-end shop.
And this solid gold jewelry could be found in a Cartier’s store window.
But the thing that stands out more in these Pompeii exhibit are the ‘bodies’. But of course they’re not really bodies.
When the excavations of Pompeii started in the mid-1700’s workers were finding these mysterious voids inside the solidified volcanic ash. It was only when they noticed jewelry and bits of cloth in the voids that they realized that these were left after the bodies inside them decayed away over the intervening 1700 years or so.
So they started pouring plaster of Paris into each one as they were discovered.
And the posture of some of the bodies showed how fast that some of the victims were engulfed in the ash. In fact I’ve seen some that were found standing up, or even running.
Even the pets were caught, like this dog.
And this just goes to show that, as I titled the first episode in this visit, Nothing New Under The Sun, this the recently-excavated version of a Pompeii Fast Food Joint.
With no place to sit, you just strolled through, picking your food from the dishes, and then dropping a few denari on the counter as you left. Sounds familiar.
Finishing up at the Pompeii exhibit, we headed down to the main level to everyone’s favorite . . . Dinosaurs!
This Dimetrodon is not really a dinosaur, but a prehistoric reptile and lived about 50 million years before the dinosaurs ever showed up.
Another T-Rex.
A Stegosaurus, the guy with the big spiked tail.
A Triceratops.
And of course, this isn’t a dinosaur either but a Wooly Mammoth, who lived 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.
A real youngster.
More Tomorrow . . .
