Our RV Adventures

I was on my way up to the Webster area by 10:30 this morning for my 11:20 appointment with my dermatologist, Dr. Joe. As it turns out, Dr. Joe, is his ‘official’ nickname, because his real one is Dr. Narin Apisarnthanarax.

Hence, Dr. Joe.

And after liquid nitrogen freezing a number of spots on my head, he said that he thought I should have the dreaded Photo Dynamic Therapy again, and reminded me it had been 5 years since my last treatment.

So 3 weeks from today, I’ll have my head grilled to Extra Crispy once again.

Ouch!

Before I left I did circle around back again to see what Dr. Joe’s driving this time. And it looks like he’s gone Electric.

That’s a Tesla Model X SUV that has 1020 Peak Horsepower, will do the 1/4 mile in 9.9 seconds, and 0-60 in 2.5.

Wow!

Dermatology and Plastic Surgery pays really well.

One thing new I noticed on my way up to Dr. Joe’s was this full-blown drill rig just about 1/2 mile off I-45.

And they’ve even got 4 crew trailers around back.

Wonder if they need gate guards? Sure would be a short commute.

Tomorrow I’m dropping Jan off at Brandi’s for the next 5 days so she can Landon-sit until Brandi gets back from her business trip on Saturday.

Just me and Karma now.

---

January 30, 2011

Croissants and Armadillo Eggs . . .

10 Days and Counting . . .

Hot coffee and warm, flakey croissants started off this morning.

The croissants were from the gift we got from Brandi and Lowell at Christmas, a box of Williams-Sonoma Croissants.

These croissants are fantastic, so good, in fact, that they’re on the list of Oprah’s Favorites.

They come out looking like this, but they start as little frozen logs. There were two types in our box, plain and chocolate-filled. And both are delicious.

They’re shipped overnight, frozen in a Styrofoam container. You let them thaw out and rise for 9 hours and then pop them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or 13 minutes in our convection oven. They come out crispy, flakey, and fantastic.

After finally getting moving, we left the rig about noon heading back to the storeroom we’re trying to empty out.

We spent the afternoon going thru the last of my mother’s boxes of papers and photos, bringing back a lot memories at the same time. As we sorted thru things, we placed the stuff we wanted to save in plastic tubs for storage.

Between the consignment shop and Goodwill, we got rid of the last of the furniture yesterday. Then tomorrow we’ll take the washer and dryer to a used appliance store to get rid of them, and we’ll be finished, except for putting the plastic storage tubs in our other storeroom.

Finishing up about 3:30 pm we headed back to the rig, stopping off at Wal-Mart for supplies.

We got home a little before 5, just in time to get ready to go out for dinner with Eldy Tompkins and Jeannie Sparks. They’re parked two spaces down from us, and ended up here at Galveston Bay RV Park after reading about the park on our blog. We first met them last September when they were vendors at a rally in Elkhart, IN, where they were selling the line of Tastefully Simple products. We bought several of the dip mixes, and really liked them.

We had decided on T-Bone Tom’s, a local steakhouse restaurant that has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. We ate there several times years ago and never really cared for their BBQ. But after watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, we found out they’re really known for their steaks, homemade sausage, and their Armadillo Eggs.

Armadillo Eggs are about the size of a tennis ball, and are made by hollowing out a jalapeno, stuffing it full of sliced BBQ brisket, rolling it in two kinds of flour, and then breading it in panko crumbs. They are then deep-fried to order, and they are delicious!

For our entrée, we all had steaks. I had the rib-eye, Jan had the sirloin, Eldy had the T-Bone, and I’m not sure what Jeannie had. But we all thought they were great. Then even though we were all stuffed, we couldn’t resist their desserts. Jeannie and Eldy split the Strawberry Daiquiri Cheesecake, and Jan and I split the Homemade Bread Pudding. But by the time the dessert came, Jan decided she was just too full, so I had some and then we brought the rest home.

We had a great time talking and getting to know each other. We sat there talking for about two hours, and hope to be able to do it again before we leave. If not, we’ll be seeing them in Yuma, AZ starting the 7th of March.

On another note, we’ve got some really cold temperatures coming in the next several days.

Tonight and tomorrow night the temperature is in the high 50’s / low 60’s. Then Tuesday night the low is supposed to be 27 degrees. And the next 3 nights are supposed to be in the high 20’s too.

---

January 30, 2012

Hats and Hooter’s . . .

The Latest Landon Pics!

He’s really proud of his new hat.

This morning started early. Instead of just getting up about 10, I was up, coffeed, and out the door by then.

I had spent the weekend cleaning up a mailing list and printing out thousands  of labels so my client could get them on the flyers and out the door by this coming Wednesday.

I also wanted to get back on updating and moving his UPS shipping program to a new computer.

But this was not to be. Exporting the database out to a file was no problem, but when I went to install the new 2012 version of the UPS Shipping program, I found out the 450 MB file I had spent an hour downloading a week ago, was glitched and would not execute. Bummer!

Don’t know what the problem was, because it seemed to download OK.

I think I’ll go over to another client’s office tomorrow and re-download it there. They’ve got a 6 Mbps line while this client only has a 1.5 Mbps one.

I’ve also got a new computer to install in the graphics department where they do the paper catalogs. But I have to wait for the lady to pull everything she wants to keep off the old one.

During this time I was also on the phone with RV Mobile Lube setting up an appointment for a tech to come out next Wednesday and service our rig. They were last here two years ago, and it’s about that time again.

They handle rigs in the Houston, Dallas, and Texas Hill Country area, and come to your site in a big step van and change your engine oil, transmission oil, and all filters, and hit any chassis lube points. And they do the same for your Onan generator.

I had them used the Transynd synthetic transmission fluid last time and will do it again. Although it adds about $170 to the cost, after it’s done twice, it reinstates some of Allison’s warranty coverage, and I won’t have to have it serviced again for 75,000 miles, about 8 years for us.

Another nice thing is that they keep your service records online so you can keep track of your service intervals. (You can click this shot to enlarge it.)

They should be here about 8 am, and based on last time, it takes a couple of hours.

I got back to the rig about 5pm, and then Jan and I headed up to Seabrook to have dinner at the Hooter’s there. It was time for our hot wing fix and this is the place for it.

But, on a more disturbing note, I’m afraid Hooter’s may be going upscale. They now have a podium just inside the entrance, and one of the young ladies seats you at your table and gives you the menus. What are things coming to?

I don’t know about you, but upscale service is NOT what I come to Hooter’s for!

---

January 30, 2013

Cartoons and Artwork . . .

We didn’t do much today. Just hunkered down and hoped we wouldn’t blow away.

Due to the cold front coming through, yesterday’s high was 74, today’s was 58, we had high winds most of the day. At one point, the Weather Channel said the wind was blowing at 25 mph, with gusts to 40. Talk about Rock N Roll. And it’s supposed to go down to the mid-30’s tonight.

Our friend Gina posted this cartoon on Facebook that tells the story about Weather in Texas.

Worked on a few projects, mostly today. Printed out 1200 address labels for a client, and decided that I want to redo the tie-downs for the strings at the bottom of the Day/Night Shades. This is because this is where at least two of my shade’s strings were broken. It looks like that over time the strings are rubbed in two.

But the good news is that it looks like I may not have to completely restring the last two shades because the strings just broke at the tie-downs. I’ll fool with it tomorrow.

The new Denso 26” wiper blades I ordered Monday from Amazon came in at Brandi’s today, so I’ll pick them up tomorrow and get them installed. I’ll probably use Rain-X wipers on the toad again. Those, along with using Rain-X Wiper Fluid, seem to do a good job of keeping the windshield clean and non-squeaky.

My very talented great-niece Stahlie posted some of her recent artwork today.

Although it looks like it might be done in oils, it’s actually done on the computer using Autodesk Sketchbook.

A commenter ask if it was done in watercolors. Stahlie said “No, she doesn’t do watercolors because they don’t have an “Undo” button.”

I like the way she thinks.

For dinner we finished off the homemade Chicken Vegetable Soup from a couple of days ago. Still very good.

Tomorrow night we’re getting together with Lillis and Dick Palmer again for dinner at King Food.

Then on Friday night, it’s probably our last visit to the Alvin Opry.

Busy, busy, busy!

---

January 30, 2014

Getting in on the ground floor . . .

Jan and I spent the morning going through stuff so we could get everything out of the front of the rig so Chris and I can start putting down the new flooring tomorrow morning. And as many readers have requested, I will be posting before, during, and after photos.

About 3 PM Jan and I headed out for our daughter Brandi’s up in Katy. Jan will be staying there for several days while our son Chris and I do the floor. On our way we stopped off at Sam’s Club to pick up a couple of prescriptions.

I was kind of worried about the traffic on the way, but it seemed we were able to stay just ahead of it all the way there. And we timed it perfectly, getting there just a minute before Lowell and Landon showed up.

Brandi showed up about 30 minutes later bearing dinner from a local Mexican grilled marinated chicken place. We’ve had this once before, and it’s really good, especially the spicy tomatillo sauce. Very good.

Landon has his own iPad and spends a lot time learning and playing on it.

I said my goodbyes a little before 7 finally getting back to the rig a little after 8 PM. I spent the rest of the evening getting things ready for tomorrow.

More from the floor tomorrow.

---

January 30, 2015

Under Pressure . . .

Jan set out some croissants last night to thaw and rise for this morning. Later in the afternoon, I finally unboxed and assembled my new Karcher Pressure Washer that I bought myself right before Christmas.

I really like the one Charles Yust has, and decided that I needed one too. Wal-Mart had this one on sale right before Christmas for $89.95, marked down from $129.95, a real deal.

It has a tank that can hold detergent or car wax, so I might try it with vinegar to get more of the drilling mud off the rig roof. I also want to see how it will work on my the rig’s wheels. So depending on what the weather does tomorrow morning, I may give it a try on the rig or toad. It’s supposed to rain some tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes.

About 4:15 we headed down to Peter’s BBQ to check out their Friday Night BBQ Buffet.  As usual it was delicious. I mean, how can all the BBQ, sides, and desserts you can eat, be anything but?

There were also a number of other RV’ers there that we chatted with for a few minutes. We had invited our friend Randy to go with us, but he was already getting together with his family.

Tomorrow we’re going into the Houston area to stop off at Brandi’s before we all have dinner at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro.

---

January 30, 2016

Do I Smell Brownies?

Although Jan was back to normal this morning, we decided no to walk today, and just start fresh Monday morning over at the Colorado River Thousand Trails in Columbus. And since we leave for Columbus tomorrow morning, Sunday’s out too.

In addition, we were also going over to Janice and Dave Evans about 1pm. Janice wanted me to take a look at some computer problems she was having. Things like, strange popups and messages, changing homepages, and slow-downs.

I started out by running the free version of SuperAntiSpyware which found a number of browser add-ons that were probably causing the ‘Search’ popups and other stuff. Then as a double-check, I also ran the free Malwarebytes AntiMalware to catch anything that the first one missed.

Then it was on to CCleaner and Glary Utilities to clean out the ‘gunk’ in the registry and other areas to speed things up. When that was all wrapped up, we all piled into Janice and Dave’s SUV and headed down to the Potatoe Patch restaurant in the FM-1960 area for linner.

Based on what we heard, and what we read on the Net, it’s kind of a Lambert’s Throwed Rolls clone.

And it is, to a point. At least it’s kind of a mini, scaled-down version.

Rather than the four ‘endless’ pass-around’s at Lambert’s – onion fried potatoes, fried okra, macaroni & tomatoes, and black-eyed peas, here you get a single large serving of fried okra and fried green tomatoes.

But these are both very, very good, especially the fried green tomatoes. Unlike any we’ve had before, these are very thinly sliced and almost crispy fried like potato chips, but not too crunchy. Really just perfect.

My Jan had the Chicken Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Mac N Cheese,

while I had the Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Corn on the Cob.

Dave’s Jan had the same Chicken Fried Chicken, but with Sweet Potatoes and Cole Slaw, while Dave went with the Beef Liver and Onions with Mashed Potatoes and Creamed Spinach.

They did have ‘throwed rolls’, but following the scaled-down Lambert’s theme, they’re a little smaller, and they don’t throw them near as far.

Unlike Lambert’s large softball-sized ones, PP’s are about the size of a hardball. But they’re both soft and puffy yeast rolls, and taste pretty much the same, and that’s very good.

But they do kind of wimp out on the whole ‘roll throwing’ thing.

Rather than an overhand throw of 50 feet from one end of  the dining room to the other like I’ve seen at Lambert’s, here it’s more of an underhand toss from 10 – 15 feet away.

But I guess if you call yourself the ‘Home of the Throw’d Rolls’ as PP does, you’ve gotta get’em at least a little airborne to use the phrase.

One thing that might be influencing the whole underhand, overhand thing is the fact that the ceilings at Lambert’s are more than twice as high as the ones at PP’s, so it’s hard to get a good high arc on the long distance ones here.

I did try to get the roll guy to throw me one from about 30 feet away, but he wimped out and walked a lot closer before he would toss me one.

But all in all, it was very good food, and we’ll definitely go back, hopefully soon.

Friend and blog reader Jim Hamm sent over this article about medical marijuana being a big help treating migraines, in some cases dropping the frequency from more than 10 per month to less than 5 a month.

http://www.livescience.com/53461-medical-marijuana-reduces-migraine-frequency.html?cmpid=NL_Health_weekly_2016-01-24

Do I smell brownies in my future?

Tomorrow we’ll head for Columbus and the Colorado River TT about 10am for the next two weeks. And as has been our routine lately, we’ll have breakfast at the Cracker Barrel in Conroe before we leave here. We’ll be ready to roll before we go eat, and only have to bring in the slide, unhook shore power, and then crank up and go when we get back.

---

January 30, 2017

The Vicissitudes . . .

Of Texas weather.

Two nights ago it got down to 31 degrees here at the gate. There was enough moisture in the air that the shack railings were covered in a thin layer of ice. And when I went to leave for home about 5:15am I found a heavy layer of hard ice on the truck windshield. Heavy enough that I actually had to scrape it off with an ice scraper.

And why do I have an ice scraper? Well, our late friend Gina Ellis gave me one years ago. After being a paramedic, an EMT, and a police sergeant, she ended up as a Fraud Investigator for American National Insurance, headquartered in Galveston, TX.

Now why an insurance company in Galveston would be giving out logo-branded ice scrapers, I don’t know. But it’s certainly come in handy over the years.

But never in south Texas before.

Then yesterday and today it hit 80 degrees.

For lunch today we had our leftovers from our visit to Maya Mexican Restaurant a few days ago. Jan had the Chicken Poblano and I had the Verde Chicken Enchiladas. Still delicious.

Then for dessert we sampled some of Jan’s latest batch of chili. She did it a little different this time so we were both anxious to try some.

Normally she’ll get 5 pounds of ground beef and cook it up with some onions in the electric skillet outside on the picnic table so it doesn’t smell up and grease up the rig. Then we vacuum-seal it and freeze it until it’s needed.

But this time we got a pound of extra-lean ground beef (only 7% fat) and put it straight in the crockpot with some fresh chopped onions. After letting it cook and brown some, she then added her regular chili ingredients. And it turned out to be a really great batch, very hot and spicy.

Jan brought me into work this afternoon, so she can come back in tomorrow morning to work the day shift here at the gate. Then I’ll go home and come back at 5:30 to let her go home. Then we’ll do the same thing on Wednesday.

Karma was really enjoying the warm sun this afternoon. She spent most of the time sound asleep in the living room window.

Catnapping, I guess.

---

January 30, 2018

Big Winner . . .

First thing this morning I went outside to take a look at a truck problem For the last few weeks, my oil pressure gauge has been going wacky.

At least I assume it’s the gauge/oil pressure sender unit since I can drive for long distances with the gauge setting on zero. So unless I have a ‘magic’ engine that can run for hours with no oil pressure, then it’s either the sensor or the wiring.

I’m eliminating the gauge itself since when it drops to zero, I also get a CHECK GAUGE light, which means the light is also getting bad info.

But today I was trying to check the easiest possible problem – a dirty/intermittent wiring harness connector. The sensor/connector is located on the lower driver’s side of the engine right about the oil filter. I don’t have any ramps or jacks, but I was hoping I could get under the truck to unplug the connector and spray it with Strike-Hold.

But I couldn’t get far enough underneath to reach the plug. In the past I’ve driven the truck up on a curb to raise one side enough to get underneath. But no curbs here at the park. I’ll have to check with our son Chris to see if I can run by and have him take a shot at it. Plus he has jacks and ramps.

If have to replace the sensor it gets a little more complicated. Since the sensor is sticking into the oil itself, you’ve got to be REALLY fast removing the old one and replacing it with the new one.

Otherwise you need to drain the oil first. So it would be nice to have cleaning the connector fix the problem.

After calling to be sure she was working today, about 12:30 we headed up to Pasadena to see our friend Julie and have lunch at the Monterey’s Little Mexico where she works.

We’ve known Julie for years, when she worked at the Monterey’s down here in Dickinson. But that location was taken out by Hurricane Harvey, and won’t reopen until sometime in March. Hopefully.

Right before we got on I-45 we made a stop at the HEB to get gas. I’m not sure what’s going on in the oil market, but gas had jumped another 10 cents a gallon since yesterday.

And to think it was just $1.93 right before Christmas.

Of course I never go to Monterey’s that I don’t get their fantastic Chicken Tortilla Soup, and so I did this time. Jan however went a little different, getting their Chicken Ixtapa, a grilled chicken breast  with sautéed veggies and charro beans.

Saying our goodbyes and coming back home we made a atop at the HEB again, this time for a few things, and to check my lottery ticket. But as I looked around I didn’t see the Lotto machine. Turns out that HEB is out of the lottery business, and has removed the machines.

So where was I supposed to cash in my Big Winner $2 ticket?

---

January 30, 2020

If Goofy Is A Dog, What Is Pluto?

I’m sure most of you heard about the big explosion at the factory here in Houston last Friday morning. Occurring at about 4:15am, it unfortunately killed two employees who had come in early to use the exercise facilities. It was very lucky that the blast didn’t happen a couple of hours later, because then the entire workforce would have been on site.

The strength of the blast totaled almost 50 homes, and damaged almost 300 more, with debris found over a mile away. And the sound of the explosion was heard much further away.

Our daughter Brandi was awake at the time and heard the blast. And she lives almost 15 miles from the site. She said all the dogs even started barking at the same time too.

But wait, there’s more.

Brandi works as Inside Broker for CRC Insurance, the largest commercial insurance and reinsurance company in the country. And as it turns out, her company is the brokerage for both Watson Grinding and Manufacturing and Watson Valve Services. The two companies are (or were) located side by side, and are under the same corporation, but are actually separate companies with separate insurance policies.

At this time authorities are still not sure which company’s building caused the blast.

And on another strange coincidence, Brandi’s husband Lowell, who is a Shipping Booker for AAACooper Transportation, said that both these two companies are customers and he calls on them regularly.

I mentioned the other day about a free streaming service called Pluto TV. There are native apps for it both on our Samsung TV and my new Amazon Firestick 4K unit, or you can just go to PlutoTV.com on your computer.

One thing I noticed on Pluto TV is how sharp the old programs are. We were watching one of the classic TV channels that was showing Dennis The Menace. It was crystal-clear sharp, like it had been filmed yesterday, but in B&W.

And the other thing was that it was still funny. Probably a lot funnier than today’s shows will be in 60 years.

Finally, another good source for streaming cable channels is USGOTV. Pretty much every thing is available on here, from A&E to WeTV. And more.

Check it out.

---

January 30, 2021

Squeezed To Order . . .

This afternoon Jan and I decided to check out the latest Breakfast/Brunch/Lunch place here in our area – Eggcellence.

The one we went to is across from Baybrook Mall and has been there for a while. But there’s another coming in right down the Interstate in the old Steak and Shake location. And when I asked if this one was going to close when the other one opened, they said No.

The main reason we came today is because Jan saw they had a Greek Omelet, one of Jan’ favorites. And she said it was delicious.

Jan said we’re coming back just for this alone.

I had the Texas Sampler with two eggs, bacon, ham,and sausage, with fruit instead of  hash browns. Also really, really good.

And we both had a large glass of their Squeezed To Order Orange Juice. Really good, and really expensive, at $6 a glass. So probably a one-time thing.

We decided that Eggcellence will replace the Toasted Yolk Café in our dining repertoire. We’ve tried it a couple of times without being especially impressed.

Long live the new King.

After our meal we headed over to the nearby UPS store to drop off our DirecTV DVR to be returned. And it went just as they said.

I gave them the unit, my DTV account number, and my last name, they printed me out a receipt, and I was done.

Nice.

Looks like we’re getting an Amazon Delivery Station right down the Interstate from us. Delivery stations are different from warehouses, in that orders are sent from the big warehouses to local stations where they’re then put on the delivery vans for the ‘last mile’ delivery as they call it.

One thing this means is that we should be able to get more ‘order by 9am’, same day deliveries. Neat!

Miss Karma is just about back to normal but she’s still not very happy about the ‘whole syringe squirting antibiotic in her mouth’ thing. I told her it’s for her own good, but I don’t think she’s buying it.

---

January 30, 2022

A New Game In Town . . .

Today was an easy one, with lunch at Pho Barr up in Webster and then a quick HEB stop on the way home.

We did find out that their new location down in our area is supposed open ‘next month’. What we didn’t find out is if ‘next month’ was 2 days from now, in February. Or if they were actually talking about March.

I guess we’ll see.

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about our Kroger’s Prescription Plan which has saved us a lot of money over our previous plans with WalMart/Sam’s. It cost us $72 per year, and covers Jan, myself, and Karma the Cat. Besides human prescriptions, we can also get discounts on vet drugs too.

Though Kroger’s works through GoodRX, the discounts are much better than you can get through the free Standard GoodRX app, or even their $20 per month Gold family plan. And as I said, Kroger’s version is only $6 per month, or $72 a year.

But now there’s a new game in town in the drug business. Cost Plus Drugs, an new online drug supplier, started by Mark Cuban of Shark Tank/Dallas Mavericks fame, promises to shake up the prescription drug market. And this includes possibly building their own factories to keep the costs down.

I did compare a couple of their prices against our Kroger’s prices, and Kroger’s came out a little ahead. The Metformin that Jan takes is $5.90 on Cost Plus, but free under Kroger’s plan. And my high blood pressure meds are $7.50 under Cost Plus, and $6 from Kroger’s.

I’ll keep checking back and let you know.