Our RV Adventures

Before I left for work this morning, I checked out the one remaining fire ant mount in our yard. It was still active yesterday so I treated it again with the Spectracide Fire Ant Killer. I was hoping that the upcoming rain would finish them off.

But it seems the rain wasn’t needed.

When I looked it over this morning, it was dead.

Dead, Dead, Dead!

And there were a lot of little ant bodies scattered around the mound to prove it.

That Spectracide really works.

Looks like we’ve got our next family get-together scheduled for this coming March. We’re all meeting up in Kingsland March 24-26 at our son Chris’ for the weekend. However Jan and I plan to go up the day before to spend Thursday night in Fredericksburg. Then head over to Kingsland Friday morning.

This evening I made our reservations at the Houston Museum of Natural Science for the King’s Tut Tomb Experience.

Thursday, February 23rd, we’ll have lunch at Katz’s Deli once again before checking out the Boy King at 1:15.

And to get us all in the mood, here’s Steve Martin on SNL.

We’re getting typical Texas winter weather today, with a high of 80 at 2pm, dropping to 66 at 3 and 58 by 4pm when I got home. Then we’re looking at 42° for a low tonight. Then in the 30’s and 40’s for the next week.

Like I said, typical Texas winter weather.

Tomorrow we’re getting together with our Alvin Opry once again, this month at Kelley’s Country Cookin’ over in Alvin. Really looking forward to it, especially since hopefully we’ll some special guests/old friends this time.

Really looking forward to it.

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Thought for the Day:
According to the Flat Earth Society’s website, “The Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe.”

Think about that for a minute.

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February 8, 2011

Cheddar’s And Kroger’s . . .

Another early morning.

Thank goodness for coffee.

And after stopping by the Post Office, I headed over to my client’s office in Pasadena.

I wanted to be sure that I got all the outside cable pulling done today, since it’s supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow. And as it turned out, things went better than expected.

I got all the cables run, both inside and out, connectors installed on all cables, all cables tested and hooked up, and two VOIP phones hooked up. All in all, a good day.

Tomorrow all I should have to do is mount the wall boxes, tie up the cables, set up the remaining two phones, and then, best of all, submit my bill. We’ll see how it goes.

Finally leaving the client’s I got home about 4:45 only to leave about 5:15 to meet everyone for a last get-together dinner at Cheddar’s up in Webster. This is probably our last chance to see everyone before we leave on Saturday. Our next get-together is hopefully going to be in Illinois this coming August when we have a family reunion at Jan’s sister Debbie’s.

Coming home, we stopped off at Kroger’s for some stuff before getting back to the rig a little before 8.

Another long day, with another one coming up tomorrow.

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February 8, 2012

Powerball and Water Heaters . . .

First thing this morning while I was waiting for the RV Mobile Lube guy to show up, I crawled under the coach and coated the levelers with silicone spray to keep them lubricated and ready to go for this next year. One more item checked off my “Before We Leave” list.

The lube guy showed up about 9:30 and got right to work. First off he had me start the engine and let the temperature get up to 145 degrees to make the oil drain easier. While he was under there, he replaced the oil filter, both fuel filters, and lubed the chassis and the driveline.

Next up he replaced the coolant filter, topped off the coolant, and then checked the SCA (Supplemental Cooling Additive) in the coolant. Then he pulled the big air filter to check it out. And after looking at it I told him to replace it. It looked like a a bird had built a nest with all the trash inside the filter. It’s hard to see in the photo below, but that’s a pile of dirt/sand underneath it.

Next he serviced the generator by running it for about 10 minutes, and then changing the oil, oil filter, fuel filter, and the air filter.

The transmission was next. He had me start the engine once more, and with the wheels chocked and the air brakes on, put it in Drive. This put a load on the transmission to make it warm up faster, in this case to 165 degrees. Then after shutting the engine down, he replaced the TranSynd fluid and the transmission filter.

The last thing he did underneath the coach was to check the fluid level in the differential. The level was low, and after looking at the fluid color, I had him pump the old fluid out and replace it with new 85w140.

Wrapping things up, he set the tire pressures to my specs, cleaned everything up, and was on his way by about 2:30. A busy guy.

In between helping the lube guy, I had a project of my own – to finish up installing the replacement power window unit in my truck. Between being so busy and all the bad weather we’ve had recently this is the first chance I’ve had to work on it.

So I went from this

to this.

The installation itself went pretty quickly. Just pull the glass back out, install the motor/track assembly and glass, and then reinstall the door panel.

Which took more time than all the rest put together. If it would fit at one end, it wouldn’t fit at the other. And so on, and so on.

But finally I got it all back together and working. I don’t have to get out of the car at ATM’s any more. Neat!

My next project was flushing the water heater, something that should be done every year.

This is the procedure I’ve always used.

Turn off power/gas to water heater. Be careful not to apply power to the unit until it’s full of water. Otherwise you can burn out your unit.

Open faucet and run water until no hot water is left. Leave faucet open.

Turn off water to coach.

Remove the drain plug (the bottom one) and let a few cups of water out.

Replace the drain plug and remove the T&P valve (the top one).

Pour about a cup of vinegar into the top hole.  I use a turkey baster.

Replace the T&P valve and tighten down.

Turn the water back on and check the open faucet. As soon as the water is flowing smoothly, turn it off.

Turn power to water heater back on and wait an hour.

Turn off power to water heater.

2. Open faucet and run water until no hot water is left. Leave faucet open.

Turn off water to coach.

Open bottom drain plug and let water run out.

Use your ‘magic wand’ to flush out all the gunk still inside the water heater.

Don’t know about online, but the water filter vendors at the rallies usually have them. The wand makes it real easy to flush out all the gunk inside. Continue until only clear water is running out.

Replace the drain plug and tighten securely.

Turn on water to coach.

Leave the hot water faucet open until it stops spitting and spurting.

Turn the water heater back.

You’re done!

When I did this after our first year on the road, I couldn’t believe how much stuff I got out of the unit. I don’t think it had ever been flushed in the 8 years before we bought the rig. We had a lot more hot water after that first flush.

About 4:30 Jan and I headed out for dinner at our favorite local burger place, Stomp’s Burger Joint.

You’re looking at a full pound of Angus Beef there. Makes your mouth water just looking at it.

On the way home we mailed a letter at the Post Office, and then made a stop at Kroger’s for a few things. I got some lottery tickets for tonight’s PowerBall drawing for $250 Million. Unlike a lot of states, Texas makes you pick whether you want Annual Payments or Cash Value when you buy your ticket.

It seems like most people chose the Cash Option, but I always get Annual Payments. As for the reason, check out the stats on tonight’s Powerball.

The $250 million dollar prize taken in 30 annual payments is 8.3 million dollars a year before taxes. The Cash Option is a total of $156 million. That means by taking the money in cash you lose $94 million dollars, or a little over $3 million dollars a year.

I don’t know about you, but I could do a lot with an extra $3 million dollars a year!

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February 8, 2013

Landon Sitting . . .

Today started out with another round of “getting ready to roll” chores.

First up was crawling under the rig to spray the levelers with silicone spray. A lot of scrunching around was involved to get all sides of the front and back levelers. I wanted to do this before I retract the levelers and check out my airbag proportioning valve repair in the next day or so.

Next I sprayed silicone on the slide rails that retract and extend the slide, and then also sprayed the retractable step mechanism.

Then I spent the rest of the morning tidying up a couple of the basement storage areas. But that still needs a lot of work.

Jan’s sister Debbie sent over this photo of her newest granddaughter Annisten, along with the proud daddy Jason. A real cutie!

Then about 2:30pm Jan and I headed over to Brandi’s so she could Landon-sit for a few days while Brandi and Lowell take a get-away weekend

After dropping Jan off and helping her get settled in with Landon, I headed over to a client’s office for a while to try and figure out why CloudPrint stopped working. Think I’ve fixed it but won’t know for sure until I get home.

On the way back to Brandi’s, I made a Home Depot stop for some wood screws and a couple of sets of drawer slide mounts to replace some broken ones in the kitchen.

Then collecting Jan and Landon, we all ended up at Barcenas Mexican Restaurant right outside the subdivision. Jan and I both had the Ground Beef Taco Salad, and Mr. Landon had his usual corn dog and fries. But, as you can see, he also enjoys the chips and Queso as well.

After helping Jan get Landon settled in, I headed back to the rig for the night.

And then it was back to more chores. I did get the living room day/night shade restrung and reassembled, and then tomorrow I’ll mount it back in the valance and rehang it. And that will finish up my blind adventures.

Tomorrow I’m picking up Jan and Landon at 10am for breakfast at The Egg & I, which along with IHOP, is our favorite breakfast place.

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February 8, 2014

Flashdrives and Five Guys . . .

First off, a couple of things.

I had several requests for Jan’s Spaghetti Sauce and Chili recipes, so I’ve posted them under the Jan’s Favorite Recipes tab. Give them a try.

I also updated the Gate Guarding Info tab with a link to our gate guarding adventures this past year. And remember, Jan and I will be giving our Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit seminar at this years 54th Escapade May 12 – 17 in Goshen, IN. Check us out.

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I headed out about 1:30 back up to yesterday’s client. I had left her old computer copying the 17 GB of photos and other data to my 32 GB flashdrive. Because it was so slow, the computer was going to take 7.5 hours to copy everything to the drive, so I left it running overnight and came back today. The copying had stopped on a duplicate file, but it only had about 15 minutes left so I got it restarted and waited it out.

To  show you the difference in the old and new machines, it took only 20 minutes to copy the 17 GB on to the new machine.

After going over the features of her new Windows 8.1 laptop, I headed back down to the rig to pick up Jan. Then it was off to have dinner at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, one of our favorite burger places.

Next up, was a visit to the Wal-Mart right next door. Being Saturday night, they were pretty busy, and of course I picked a checkout line that quickly  ground to a halt. The lady in front of me was paying for $96.22 of groceries with a MasterCard Debit Card that apparently was from her tax refund. But she quickly found out that her card only had $66.11 on it, leaving her $30.11 short. After arguing with the cashier for a few minutes she stormed out without another word, taking her card with her.

Now came the problem. After standing around for a few minutes, the cashier was going to void the transaction so he could check me out and all the people behind me.
But he realized that if he did that, the $66.11 that came off the card would just disappear into the system and essentially be lost. Since he didn’t have the ladies’ card to put it back on, I suggested he try to put it on a Wal-Mart gift card to hold for her in case she came back. But the system wouldn’t let him do that. It wanted the original card.

By this time it had been almost 15 minutes and two managers were now huddled together trying to figure out what to do. I was just about to offer to pay the $30.11 to clear the system so they could check me out, when the lady showed back up, slammed the cash down on the counter, and grabbed her cart and took off. Not sure who she was mad at, but it certainly wasn’t the cashier’s fault.

Tomorrow afternoon we’re going to drive up to Brandi and Lowell’s to spend the night. Brandi left for Miami this morning on a four day business trip, and since Monday is Lowell’s busiest day, we’ll take care of getting Landon to daycare before heading back down this way.

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February 8, 2015

An Hour and 40 Minutes . . .

we’ll never get back.

After coffee and Dunkin’ Donut Munchkins (holes), Jan and I left the rig a little before 10am, heading up to Brandi and Lowell’s in Katy.

Brandi was leaving on a business trip to San Diego early this morning, while Lowell had to take some friends to the airport, and there was not enough room in the car for Landon. So while Lowell et. all headed to the airport, we took Landon over to Katy Mills Mall for the afternoon.

First up was pizza in the Food Court, and Grimaldi’s this was not. Luckily we could buy it by the slice, so we didn’t have to buy a whole pizza. The crust was doughy, and it really had no taste, no seasoning at all.

Next up was Jump Street, an indoor trampoline/bouncy house attraction for the kids. Landon spent about a hour bouncing off the walls and floors, before we headed next door to the movie.

And that’s when it all went terribly wrong.

Unfortunately the movie Landon wanted to see was SpongeBob SquarePants. All I can say is it’s an hour and 40 minutes Jan and I will never get back. Landon said he liked it, but he fell asleep, and so did I. Jan said she looked over and we were both asleep, leaning against each other.

Then, after Landon and I woke up, Jan fell asleep.

Leaving the movie, I noticed that the theater had a bar off to the side. I told Jan I wish I’d seen that coming in. Alcohol might have helped.

But the 3D was pretty good.

We got home about 6pm, and after recovering from our recent torment, Lowell drove us over to a new place he and Brandi had discovered, Torchy’s Tacos.

All I can say is that this is the Little V’s of Tacos. Every thing we had was delicious. Landon wanted chips and Queso and there was enough for everyone, and we all agreed it was some of the best Queso we’d every had.

And their tacos were unique and delicious too. I had a Grilled Jalapeno Sausage Taco and a Green Chile Pork Taco. Both were fantastic.

Jan had a Jamaican Jerked Chicken Taco and Chicken Fajita Taco. She said the Chicken Fajita was delicious, but she fell in love with the Jamaican Jerked Chicken Taco.

Everything is fresh made, and they even have their own line of fountain drinks in the dispenser that use only pure cane sugar, not fructose. It’s now on our ‘Definitely Go Back Soon’ list.

Tomorrow Lowell leaves out for work at 6am (it’s his busy day) so Jan will get Landon up and dressed, then we’ll all go out for breakfast before dropping Landon off at school between 9 and 10.

After that, we’re not sure yet.

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February 8, 2016

Another Too Early Day . . .

Turns out I had a last minute client get-together down in League City this morning so I was up about 8:30, and Jan and I were out the door about 9am. My appointment wasn’t until noon, but we wanted to have time for lunch at our favorite King Food Chinese Restaurant down in that area.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been eating here since 1978, and we’re on our 4th owner. But lucky for us the menu has never changed.

We both had our usual Chicken with Hot Garlic Sauce with Jalapenos, Extra, Extra, Extra Spicy.

Very spicy and very, very good. And it’s the reason we eat here just about every time we’re down in this area.

Getting to the client’s about noon, my  first job was to figure out why a laptop would no longer print to either of the two wireless printers it had been connected to. But it turns out it wasn’t connected to anything, not the Internet, not even the router. But it should have been.

The Wi-Fi was on, but it wouldn’t connect to anything. Well, it couldn’t connect to anything else, because for some reason it was trying to connect to a SonicWall VPN Client. Which is not even a Wi-Fi signal, but is really a virtual hardware device, just like the Wi-Fi itself.

And it wouldn’t let go. The Wi-Fi was hung up on the VPN client and wouldn’t stop. After trying a lot of different things, I finally had to go into the Device Manager and just delete the SonicWall VPN client completely. Then after a reboot, everything worked, the Wi-Fi connected to the router and the Internet, and the printers now worked.

Next up was to set up her new ASUS laptop. This was my second time to get an in-depth chance to play with Windows 10. And so far, operationally speaking, I’m pretty impressed. It was easy to set up and use, and a big improvement over 8/8.1

I was also impressed with how easy it was to connect to the two Canon Wireless Printers. When I originally connected them to the Win7 laptop, it took me about 45 minutes of back and forth to get them working. But with Win10, I just selected each one in the Printer Manager, and then a minute or so later I was printing a test page. Easy Peazy.

Once I had everything set up, I plugged a 64GB flashdrive into the old laptop and started copying over about 18GB of Contacts, Favorites, Documents, Pictures, and Videos over to the new laptop. This took about an hour each way, but since I had my Galaxy Tab with me, I kept busy.

The next part was the only place I had a problem. But the problem wasn’t with Win10, but the Office365 that I was trying to download. But after a lot of starts and stops, I finally got it working too.

By the time I was finished up and we headed out, it was a little after 5pm. And since I didn’t want to spend an hour or more extra in Houston going-home traffic, we decided to have dinner in the Clear Lake area before we headed back to Columbus.

It only took us a couple of minutes to decide on Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, another long-time favorite of ours. And like most places we frequent, we have our favorites. And Floyd’s is no exception.

And we both started out with our usual favorites this time too, with Jan’s Crab Bisque and my Seafood Gumbo.

Just full of shrimp as you can see.

And then we both went with 1/2 and 1/2 Shrimp and Oyster Po’boy’s.

Just looking at the photo makes me hungry all over again.

As I’ve mentioned before, the ‘Floyd’ in Floyd’s Cajun Seafood is Floyd Landry. He and his brothers started the Landry Seafood chain before they sold it to Tilman Fertitta.

There are now six Floyd’s, five in the Houston area and one in Beaumont. We’ve known Floyd for about 20 years, and all he has to do is open his mouth and you know exactly where the ‘Cajun’ in Floyd’s Cajun Seafood comes from.

Now by the time we headed toward Columbus, it was 6:30 and just a straight shot with no traffic. And after a quick stop at Brandi’s, and nearby Kroger’s, we got back to the rig about 9.

Another long day, but with fun and good food.

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February 8, 2017

A Week From Today . . .

We should be parked at the Colorado River Thousand Trails, and we’re really looking forward to seeing all the kids, and our friends.

What with our doctor visits on the 20th and 27th, and a couple of things our son Chris is going to fix on the truck, along with a couple of repairs on the rig, and some general maintenance getting us ready to travel, it’s going to be a busy time.

I’m going to take a break for a couple of days recounting our first year on the road. I’ve found out over the years we have a lot of readers who aren’t RV’ers and I don’t want them to get bored.

Besides I hate ‘theme’ issues. You know, that’s when your favorite magazine does every article relating to the same theme one month. Now that’s great if you happen to like the theme.

But I seem to get ones like “Underwater Water Polo. Everything you need to know about the sport.” Or “Climbing Mt. Everest. Where to Start.”

Or even “Climb inside the new M1 Abrams tank and take it for a spin.” OK, I probably would read that one. But you get what I’m saying.

I like to break it up a bit.

Jan and I have been trying to figure where we want to travel this year. Or at least the first part of this year. Because we have to be back in Houston for a big family reunion the end of June, that means we have about 90 days of travel time starting the 1st of April after the Tucson Escapade.

First off, we want to do our usual Verde Valley and Las Vegas Thousand Trails, then Jan said she wants to the Rapid City/Deadwood area again, where we haven’t been since 2008.

So that gives us this route so far.

Then we’re trying to decide if we want to go west or east.

If we go west then it will be at least as far as the Bend/Sunriver TT in Oregon, and maybe as far as the Long Beach TT.

But Jan’s also thinking about going east after Rapid City, over to the Elkhart area. So that would give us this.

Strangely enough, with the two completely different routes, there’s only a little over 100 mile difference between the two.

One disadvantage that I see to the east route is that we once again bypass Kansas and Nebraska, the last two states we haven’t RV’ed in. But not a big deal.

I don’t know what it is about gates and sunsets, but we always seem to have to have some good ones.

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February 8, 2018

A Galveston Day . . .

We were out the door about 9:30 heading down I-45 to the Oasis RV Park to meet up with our friend’s Chris and Charles Yust and their beautiful Integra RV.

We were planning to spend the day in Galveston starting with breakfast at the The Sunflower Café, one of our favorite places on the Island.

I mean, where else can you get Oyster’s Benedict, Quail and Eggs,

But Chris is the only one who walked the wild side, getting the Breakfast Quesadilla. With Guacamole, Apple Smoked Bacon, Havarti Cheese, along with 3 eggs and all grilled up between two large flour tortillas, Chris said it was delicious.

Charles, Jan, and I all went plain with the Little Breakfast. Two eggs, Bacon, Ham, or Sausage, Fried Potatoes, and homemade Jalapeno Cheese Bread made a great breakfast.

Finishing up, we drove down to the Bolivar Ferry Terminal and got in line. The ferry was just unloading so it was only a few minutes until we were boarded and pulling out.

Along the way we passed the other ferry coming in. On a light day like this they were only running two ferry’s, but if they’re really busy they can run as many as five.

And of course there are always birds following along feasting on the krill and small fish stirred up by the ferry’s passing.

Over on Bolivar we drove out about 20 miles, checking out RV parks and the homes, most of which had to be rebuilt after Hurricane Ike in 2008. We finally turned around at Rollover Pass and the 200 foot wide canal cut through the narrow isthmus, connecting the Gulf of Mexico, the Intracoastal Waterway, and East Bay on the other side.

I was intrigued to find out that the spot has been called Rollover Pass since the days of Spanish rule in the area. Before the canal was cut through in the ‘50’s, it was just a narrow strip of land separating the Gulf and East Bay, narrow enough for smuggler’s to be able to ‘roll over’ their barrels of whiskey, rum, and other goods from one side to the other, thus avoiding the customs offices at the Galveston port. And this ‘shortcut’ was still in use during Prohibition.

Getting back on the island, we drove a ways down the Seawall until we finally headed back to the Oasis RV Park, getting there about 3pm.

Chris and I then spent the next few hours going over her laptop and straightening out some problems she’s been having. Then about 5:30 we all headed up to Floyd’s Cajun Seafood to have our last dinner together.

Then after a delicious meal of Gumbo, Fried Catfish, and Grilled Catfish, we finally said our goodbyes until later this summer when we plan on visiting them down in Ft. Myers, FL. They leave tomorrow morning on their way back there.

Tomorrow Jan has an 8:30 Pre-Op appointment at the hospital, prepping her for her laser procedure next Wednesday. Another early morning.

Thought I’d post this. It’s one of the last photos from Elon Musk’s Starman cruising in his red Tesla shortly before it blasted off out into the solar system.

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February 8, 2019

The Gods Conspire . . .

So far I’m not really impressed with my new Digital Thermostat that I want to use for my refrigerator.

I contacted the manufacturer yesterday describing the problem and got a email back today asking “to kindly send us a video showing the problem.”

Here was my reply:

I guess I’m confused.
What is there to video?
I downloaded the app to my phone.
I plugged in the temperature probe to the unit.
I then plugged the unit into AC power.
The unit started displaying temperature information and the Red indicator light came on.
And after trying everything in the manual, I was never able to get the Red light to flash, either slow or fast, so I could connect it to the WiFi.
Is the unit defective, or is there something else to try?
Should I return the unit to Amazon?

So now I wait to hear back.

Lately we’ve had a problem with Miss Karma playing “Kitten On The Keys”, I.e. lying, sleeping, dancing, etc., on the computer keyboard. Yesterday she cratered the Desktop somehow, and I had to reboot in Safe Mode and run Repair to get it back. So I looked for some kind of cover to go over the keyboard, but after a little Googling I came up with a (cheaper, I..e free) software solution.

And that solution is Keyboard Locker, a free app for your PC or laptop. Just download it and run it. Then when you want to lock your keyboard, type CTRL+ALT+L. And when you want to unlock it, just type “unlock”. Easy Peazy.

And Cheap.

Sometime in the last few months the Google Calendar on my Samsung S8+ phone no longer syncs up with the Google Calendar on my Samsung Tab 4 tablet. If I enter an event on my phone, it doesn’t show up on my Tab. But if I enter an event on my Tab, it does show up on my phone.

Nor does anything from my phone show up on the PC version of Google Calendar.

BUT if I post an event on the PC version, it shows up on BOTH my phone and my tablet.

What’s up with that?

I’ve gone through and compared all the settings and everyone is talking to the same Gmail account, with the same calendars selected. I’ll keep working on it.

At yesterday’s RV show, I did notice a satellite dealer carrying Winegard domes for both Dish and DirecTV. And he was noticeably not mentioning that the DirecTV version will be useless in the next few months when DirecTV starts dropping SD channels to replace them with HD and 4K channels. And he didn’t look real happy when I call him on it in front of several other customers.

He did say that Winegard should have an HD version of the CarryOut dome on the market by April. Will be checking it out.

Tomorrow looks to be do-nothing day, except for brunch at The Egg and I about 1:30 or so, with a stop by my client’s to check a hard drive cloning job I left running on our webserver there.

Then Sunday it’s back up to Sugarland to watch Landon play hockey, along with lunch at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood.

FUN!

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February 8, 2021

The Washed Up Old Guy . . .

Well, our wayward toilet showed up this morning, just as I pulled into work. So I had them just set it right into the back of the Jeep. But as I said, it’ll be Thursday before I get a chance to do the install.

That’s because we’re heading up to Conroe to meet up with some RV friends at China Delight, one of our favorite places up there. Really looking forward to it.

For dinner tonight we had the El Pollo Loco meals we picked up Saturday after our great meal at Babin’s with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon. Perfect since it was only a block away.

Then we finished up the last of the fantastic Bread Pudding we got for dessert at Babin’s. Still great even after being reheated.

Our granddaughter Piper is getting settled in to her new job with the Austin Police Department’s 911 division as a Psychological Counselor.

Here’s a Austin Chronicle newspaper article that talks more about it.

Really happy to see Tom Brady and Bucs win the Super Bowl yesterday, 31 to 9. A pretty convincing win. Didn’t watch any of it, but very happy to see the ‘old’ guy win his seventh SB ring.

When the Patriots were 12 and 4 last year with Brady, and the 7 and 9 this year without him,  and Bucs were 7 and 9 last year without Brady, and then 11 and 5 with Brady, and of course the Super Bowl win, kind of shows that Brady’s not the ‘too old, washed up’ player that the Pats thought he was.

Bet they wish they had him back again. It will also be interesting to see how much longer Brady wants to play. He’s got another year on his 2-year $50 million deal with the Bucs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he hangs up his cleats after that.

He’s certainly showed he’s a franchise player and he’s got nothing left to prove,

We’ll see.

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February 8, 2022

The Early Bird . . .

Jan and I were on our way this afternoon about 12:45 with our first stop at the Lowe’s over on FM646 to pick up a Rubbermaid white shelf board for a project we’re working on in the rig. Then it was on up to Webster to get my X-rays done in prep for my 3 month evaluation with my Neurosurgeon, or more likely his P.A., Alexandria.

We always try to get at our doctor’s appointment about 15 minutes early, even though we’re probably just going to sit there for 15-20 minutes after our appointment. But today, the Early Bird got the . . . early appointment. After I signed in at the receptionist’s window I turned to walk over to the chairs, but just then the door opened and the X-ray was calling my name. I was surprised, since no one had even had a chance to see that I had signed in.

So I was in and out in about 10 minutes and we were leaving the parking lot even before our 2pm appointment.

Nice.

Because our next stop was right up the road at Pho Barr once again. And once again I asked about when the new Pho Barr down in our area was going to open. And once again I was told ‘next month’. But when I reminded him that last month he told us ‘next month’, he just shrugged.

Oh, well.

And after our delicious lunch we stopped by the office for a few minutes before heading home.

Food For Thought:

Recently I reading an article about the Electric Vehicle revolution, and came across some surprising facts that foreshadow a lot of problems.

With an Executive Order and an associated Action Plan, the administration recently called for 50% of all new vehicles sold in America by 2030 to be EVs.

That means an additional 50 million new EVs on the road in the next nine years. And the administration calls for 500,000 new charger stations to be built as well.

All fine and good, I guess.

But what’s missing in all this is where to power to charge all the new EV vehicles is going to come from.

It seems that the average EV uses 3000 kWh per year. So for 50 million new EV’s we’ll need an additional 150 Billion kWh of generating capacity.

Think that solar and wind farms might save the day?

Well, the largest solar farm in the country generates about 1.3 billion kWh per year, and the largest wind farm generates about 6.6 billion kWh of useable electricity per year.

Even the average fossil fueled power plant only generates about 7.7 billion kWh of useable electricity in one year.

So we’re looking at building 20 new fossil fuel plants or almost 50 solar/wind farms in the next 8 years. But there’s a problem.

Due to environmental objections, permitting, and other evaluations, it can take 5 years before you can even think about starting to build a new plant of any type. And even then it can take 10 years before a new plant comes online.

So where’s all this electricity going to come from?

And even if you have the power, will you be able to charge your EV.

Apparently people are stripping the charging stations of their cables to sell the copper, leaving this when you pull in to charge.

Tesla gets all its Supercharger cables stolen at brand new station

That’s reassuring.

Well, at least one of them is.

Today was Black Bear Diner once again, getting the same dishes once again.

Jan’s was the Roasted Turkey with double Broccoli and a side salad.

Mine was the Meat Lover’s Omelet with Fruit and Grits.

And a ‘Cornbread’ Muffin. Not really cornbread cornbread, of course. But better than Cracker Barrel’s and Kelley’s, mostly because it wasn’t as sweet.

Next it was on over to WalMart for our week’s stuff. Then it was home for the night.

Recently I noticed we had a couple of fire ant mounds in our yard, one of them right up against Jan’s Flamingo Flamboyance. So I got a bag of this Spectracide

The instructions said to sprinkle 1/2 cup of the granules on and around the mound out to about 2 ft. Then you lightly water the area with about a gallon of water. And then you wait.

I did this part last Thursday, but when I poked it this past Sunday, the mound was still active, though it didn’t look well. But today it was stone cold dead.

So I used the hose to complete eliminate the dead mound.

However the one out by the street was still active, I think mostly because I really couldn’t get close enough to give it a good soaking because the hose wouldn’t reach. So I treated it again today, hoping that our upcoming forecasted rain will take care of the problem.

Sometime in the next month or so Jan and I will be heading up to the Houston Museum District to take in their new King Tut’s Tomb Exhibit.

And in case you’re interested in seeing it when it comes to your area, check out this video.

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Thought for the Day:

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a Congress. — John Adams

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February 7, 2011

Cat5e and 8 Ports . . .

Got up early this morning, about 9am. (Well, it’s early for me)

First things, first…COFFEE!

I had a busy day planned with a first stop at Fry’s Electronics to pick up 500 ft. of CAT5e Ethernet cable, assorted connectors, wall boxes, wall plates, and an 8 port Wireless Switch. Then it was on to my first client.

As usual he had a laundry list of things that needed fixing so it took me over 2 hours to cover everything. His HP Laser Printer is toast and will have to be replaced, along with an XM radio antenna that had its cable chewed up by a vacuum cleaner. You never know what you’ll run into in this business.

About 1:30 I headed over to my new client’s office in Pasadena. I wanted to get as much of the outside cable-pulling done before it gets cold and rainy on Wednesday. And as it happened things went pretty smooth and I got a lot of the job done.

I headed back to the rig, stopping off at the house to pick up the mail, specifically a Priority Mail envelope that had come in.

Getting home about 5, I checked in with Jeannie and Eldy concerning our dinner plans for tonight. Jeannie was out getting groceries, but as soon as she got back, we headed up to Webster to eat Floyd’s Cajun Seafood. It’s one of our favorite places and we always enjoy showing it off.

After a great meal, Jeannie and Eldy headed back to the RV park, while Jan and I stopped off at Fry’s right across the street. It turns out the the wall boxes I bought this morning weren’t going to work so I traded them in for a different kind.

We finally got home about 8:30 after a long day.

And to think, I thought I was retired.

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February 7, 2012

Ribs and Routers . . .

This morning I started out getting ready for the RV Mobile Lube guy who’s supposed to be here tomorrow morning.

I wanted to be sure everything would start and run, so first off I cranked up the generator and let it for about 10 minutes before I shut it down.

Next I lit off our Cummins diesel just long enough to be sure it would start for tomorrow, and also to raise the coach up on the levelers.

Based on what I’ve been told by two different Cummins guys, I normally don’t crank up our engine even when we’ve been parked as long as five months.

I know some people say different, but according to the Cummins people, if you can’t run it long enough to get it up to normal operating temperature, just let it set. It won’t hurt it. And since without a load, just idling, it can take about an hour to warm, I just let it set.

They did say it was alright to run it for just a few minutes, in this case, just long enough to let the levelers down down and raise the coach up. And I wanted to raise the coach to give the RV Mobile Lube guy easier access underneath, and also so I could spray lubricant on the leveler surfaces.

So it looks like everything’s a go for tomorrow, and also for when we leave, hopefully next Thursday.

Finishing with this, I headed out about 10 am for a day of fun and frolic, well, maybe work and errands, anyway.

My first stop was right down the road from our house in Heritage Park to pick up a client’s laptop. They want to upgrade it to Win 7 and double the RAM from 2GB to 4.

Leaving there I headed up to Pasadena to get a client’s network straighten out. They recently got a Epson Wireless Printer and couldn’t get all four computers to see the printer at the same time.

Turned out the problem was all their computers weren’t on the same network. It took a while to get it fixed, but when I left about 90 minutes later, it was all working and they were happy. So I’m happy.

My next stop was Fry’s Electronics to pick up the RAM for the laptop upgrade job, and also take back a defective router that I bought a couple of weeks ago and found out the WiFi section won’t work

Then it was over to my client’s to reinstall the replacement router, and “Eureka”, the WiFi works now. Another problem solved.

I finished up with a couple of errands, including picking up our winter spread at the cleaners and dropping it off at the storeroom before heading home.

After passing Spring Creek BBQ on the way, I had a hankering for ribs, so Jan and I headed back over to the Victory Lakes area to get our rib fix there. Ribs, along with BBQ Beans, Corn on the Cob, Green Beans with Bacon, and Fresh Hot Rolls, just can’t be beat.

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February 7, 2013  

Cuckoo, Cuckoo . . .

After coffee this morning, I spent some time working on some more rig chores before Jan and I headed out about 2pm.

My first stop was, what else, a client’s office for a few minutes to take care of a couple of problems. Then we headed over to Brock’s Car Care to pick up our truck.

I was happy to hear that they found the fix for my overheating problem. For the last year or so, if we were idling or driving slowly with the AC on, the engine would start to overheat. Turning off the AC fixed the problem.

Turns out that my truck has a completely separate electric fan for the AC condenser and it had pretty much died. Replacing the fan fixed the problem.

Also along with the fan, I had Freon added to the AC, an oil change and lube, and everything checked out overall. So we’ve got a clean bill of health for another year.

Then we headed back down to League City to turn our rental truck back in to Enterprise. The Dodge RAM truck we rented was a nice ride, although if I bought one, the first thing I’d do is buy some step rails for it, because getting up into it was a steep climb.

Dropping off our rental, our next trip was about 20 miles away to Los Cucos over in Pearland. We were meeting longtime friend’s Bonnie and Richard. Jan and Bonnie worked at the same hospital back in the 1990’s and have remained friends ever since. Bonnie and Richard are always on our get-together list whenever we’re back in Houston.

After dinner, we drove back to Bonnie’s for coffee, Blueberry Dump Cake, and good conversation, finally heading home about 8.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a Landon weekend. Jan will be taking care of him starting Friday afternoon, and lasting into Sunday, while Brandi and Lowell get a weekend off. I’ll be in and out, but mostly will continue to work on things here around the rig.

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February 7, 2014

Now we know where Lucy retired to . . .

I hate Bookbub . . . and Freebooksy, too.

I’m really tired of all these free Kindle books that keep showing up in my Inbox. They just won’t stop, and I can’t keep up. Between the books I buy and all the free ones, I’m falling behind. I figure I’ve got enough books now to last me until I’m 104.

I keep telling myself that it’s just an incentive to live that long, but I’m afraid that with all those book inside, my Kindle will get too heavy to lift

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I didn’t get to bed until about 2 AM this morning working on some client stuff, and then made the mistake of telling Jan I would take her to breakfast at IHOP at 9 AM. You’d think I’d learn by now to keep my mouth shut.

After a good breakfast, and catching up with one of our waiter friends that we’ve know for years, we headed back toward the rig, but stopped off at a nearby Goodwill store to drop off a couple of bags of clothes that we were getting rid of during our cleaning frenzy.

Back at the rig, I spent the next few hours getting a laptop ready to deliver this afternoon. The big problem with all the machines I’m delivering now is that they all come with Windows 8 and need to be upgraded to 8.1.

Which is a 3.2 GB download!

And so far I haven’t found a way to download it once and use it over and over. Instead I have to download it separately for every machine. I also install Classic Shell, a free download that makes Win 8 (or 8.1) look just like Win 7, much better for my clients.

I got to the client’s about 2:30, figuring I’d be there about an hour, configuring her WiFi, installing her printers and scanner, moving her files from her old machine to the new one, and going over the features of her new Dell laptop.

Well, that’s what I figured, but what I didn’t figure on was that she had over 17 GB of photos on her old machine. And it was so slow (I installed it in 2005) that when I plugged in my 32 GB flashdrive and started copying everything over, it told me it would take 7.5 hours to copy it all.

Rut Roh!

So I’ll let it run all night and go back tomorrow afternoon and finish things up.

Getting back to the rig just in time, Jan and I headed over to the Monterey’s Little Mexico in Dickinson to meet our friend Maria and her sister for dinner before we all drove over to the Alvin Opry.

We were going tonight specifically to see one of our favorite singers, Moses Rangel. Singing C&W, Rock N Roll, and Gospel, he’s got a great voice and performs all around the country.

Moses, along with John Mark Davis, are two of our must-sees, and can hold their own on any stage.

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Finishing up, I think I know where Lucy, of Peanuts fame, retired to. Known for her Help Booth, and first appearing in the comic strip in March 1952 at about age 8, she would be 70 now, and probably ready for retirement.

And it looks like San Leon, Texas is where she ended up. But I guess that once helping people is in your blood, you don’t give it up easily.

I found her old booth leaning upside a garage near our RV park. Maybe she and Schroeder finally got hitched,and they’re now living out their golden years here in Texas. I figure Schroeder is probably playing honky-tonk piano at some C&W bar in the area.

There’s not a lot of money in Beethoven.

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February 7, 2015

Bigger Tips . . .

Our son Chris was back at work around 9am, starting out by  sanding down the high spots on yesterday’s glass and resin work.

Then he used his multifunction tool to trim off any overhanging fiberglass cloth underneath.

Next, Chris used a spreader to towel on fiberglass body filler to fill in and smooth out the surface.

And after it was dry, it was back to the sanding.

When he finally finished up for the day, he was here.

He’s still got some more to fill in on the front section, but that will have to wait until next Tuesday or Wednesday.

But remember he started out here yesterday with this. He’s doing a great job.

While Chris was working on the rig, I installed the new right angle fitting on my air compressor. With the way the hose sticks straight out, it gets banged around a lot in the back of the truck so I wanted to try and fix that.

So I got a right angle fitting to take care of the problem, ending up like this.

Later after Chris had finished up and headed home, Jan and I left the rig about 3:30 to make a Sam’s Club/Wal-Mart run up in Webster.

On the way up, we checked out a new RV park being built at the corner of SR96 and Hwy 3. It looks like it’s close to being done, but the entrance road was blocked off, probably because no one was working on the weekend. We’ll check it out  later during the week.

Heading back around 5:30, we decided to stop and have dinner at the Twin Peaks in Webster. Jan loves their Tomato Soup and I really like their Venison Chili.

One problem with eating at Twin Peaks is finding out your waitress’ name. The place is usually kind of loud, and if you don’t catch her name to start with, then you have to look at her nametag. Which is strategically placed in an area where it is impolite (so Jan says) to stare for very long. And for some reason the print is kind of small. It’s almost like they want you to spend extra time trying to figure out their name.

Probably think it will make their tips bigger, I guess.

Tomorrow Jan and I are going up to Brandi and Lowell’s in Katy to fill in as Landon sitters. Brandi is going on a business trip to San Diego tomorrow and won’t be back until Tuesday, so we’ll watch Landon while Lowell takes Brandi and some others to the airport. And with Monday being Lowell’s busy day, and his leaving the house early, we’ll get Landon to school before we come back home Monday afternoon.

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February 7, 2016

In This Corner, Weighing In At . . .

Well, it was up and out by 7:30 this morning, on our way to meet Vance and Bonnie Clegg for the breakfast buffet at Schobel’s Restaurant in Columbus. On the way, I did make a quick stop for gas at $1.48⁹ a gallon, the cheapest I’ve seen around here so far.

We thought the buffet started about 8am, but they seemed to be running late today, because it wasn’t up and running until about 8:15. But we were having so much fun talking we didn’t even care.

But when they did get it put out, it was great as usually. Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Ham, Sausage, Chicken Fried Chicken, Fried Potatoes, Grits, and Biscuits with Sausage Gravy. And they even had Bread Pudding for dessert.

All really, really good.

And as I said, so was the conversation. Turns out we have a lot in common with our travels, military stuff, and music. Both Vance and I were in bands, He was in the Marines as a RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) in F-4 Phantom Jets at MCAS Beaufort. I was a DOD contractor working on F-4’s at MCAS Beaufort, although I don’t know if we ever nailed down the timeframe.

We talked well after we were finished eating, until we finally had to relinquish our table to the busy restaurant. Hopefully we’ll be able to do this again soon.

Getting back home I checked in with Brandi about our visit this afternoon, since we had just remembered about the Super Bowl today. We figured Lowell might not want to go out and miss part of it, so we were going to offer to come tomorrow night. But it turned out, Brandi was cooking dinner so we would be staying in anyway.

Weighing In:

We headed out a little before 3pm for Brandi’s house in Katy, about an hour away. We did make one small detour along the way, circling through the Oasis Truck Stop about 15 miles east of Columbus. We had noticed that they have CAT Scales in the back and we wanted to check them out for weighing our RV.

Getting a straight front/rear weight is no problem. Just drive onto the scales and tell them on the intercom that you want to weigh. No problem. But with an RV, it’s also important to get your side to side weight too. In other words, how much weight is on each individual wheel.

For example, our coach is rated for a maximum of 12,000 pounds on the front axle and 20,000 pounds on the rear axle, for a total of 32,000 pounds. But it’s important to know how much is on each front tire, and each rear dual tire set.

In our case, ideally there should be approximately 6000 pounds on the each front tire and 10,000 pounds on each rear tire set. I said ‘ideally’ because it’s usually not the quite the case. Due to the weigh of slides on one side, batteries on the other, waste tank locations refrigerator, etc., it’s sometimes hit or miss. But you want to get it as close as possible.

And to do that, you need to be able to get a normal front and back weight, and then a one side only weight. So you need to be able to pull onto the scales so that only your right or left tires are on the scale platforms. Then you can just subtract the single side weight from the total axle weight, and then you know the weight on each tire.

So that’s what we were checking out here at Oasis. Can we pull onto the scales with only side registering. And here, as seen below, the answer is ‘yes’.

But over the years, we have seen CAT scales with guardrails along side that prevent this. This is done to keep truck drivers from ‘fudging’ their weights the same way.

But here it looks like we’re good to go, so we’ll probably stop here this Sunday as we head back to Lake Conroe.

When we got to Brandi’s, she was whipping up a delicious meal of Pork Tenderloins, Roasted Parsnips, Carrots, and Pearl Onions, Wild Rice, and French Bread. And homemade Brownies and Blue Bell Ice Cream for dessert.

YUM!

And as soon as Brandi said ‘Come and Get It!’, Miss Kitty assumed her position under the table.

Everyone knows that anything that hits the floor belongs to Miss Kitty, and she doesn’t want to miss anything.

This was certainly evidenced back in August by Landon and Miss Kitty bumping heads, knocking out two of Landon’s front teeth. When they hit the floor, Kitty ate them.

You can read all about it again here:

https://ourrvadventures.com/2015/08/the-rest-of-the-story-2/

After a really great meal, we all curled up to watch the Super Bowl, including once again, Miss Kitty who also has her place on the sofa too.

We all watched the game until a little after the start of the 3rd quarter, when Jan started nodding off. So we headed home, getting back to the rig about 9pm.

A very long day, but a very nice one too.

Wrapping things up, as far as the Super Bowl goes, here’s a couple of interesting facts.

1. There are five friends who have attended every Super Bowl since SB 1

http://www.today.com/news/meet-5-friends-who-have-attended-every-single-super-bowl-t70936

Tickets for that first contest were only $10.

2. There is only ONE known recording of Super Bowl I. But no one is allowed to see it.

Played on January 15, 1967, it was broadcast by both NBC and CBS, one holding the rights to AFC games and other the rights to the NFC games. Neither one saved their tapes, recycling them after use.

This was before any type of home video recording, with everything saved on large 2” reels recorded on large RCA VTR’s (video tape recorders) like this.

Not something found in the average home.

Check out the link below to find out why this recording may never be seen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/sports/football/super-bowl-i-recording-broadcast-nfl-troy-haupt.html?_r=0

(Hint: It’s the lawyer’s fault)

Maybe Shakespeare was right.

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February 7, 2017

Year One Recap –The Adventure Continues . . .

First, I’ve finally got a date and a time for our Seminar “Oil Field Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit” at the upcoming 57th Escapade starting March 19th in Tucson.

It’s going to be Wednesday, March 22, at 11:30am in Old Pueblo Rm 4. That’s really a great time for us since it backs up into the lunch period, and people can hang around and ask more questions without us having to vacate the room for the next speaker.

Since I had so many positive comments about yesterday’s blog about our first year on the road, I thought I’d continue on with it.

After finishing lunch at Monterey’s and resolving our airbag issue, we hit the road for real, heading back to the Canyon Trail RV Park in New Braunfels once again. We wanted to visit our now-late long-time friend Gina Ellis who lived nearby and show her our new RV.

Our next stop was the KOA in Junction, TX, and then on to Las Cruces, NM. The trip from Junction to Las Cruces was 487 miles, a distance that we drove regularly in our first few years. But we’ve slowed down over the years, and now try to limit our daily trips to around 250 miles or so. After Las Cruces, our next stop was in Gila Bend and finally onto the Chula Vista RV Resort where we stayed right on the Pacific Ocean, our fanciest (and most expensive) RV park so far.

At this point our next ‘hard’ date was back in Tucson around the middle of March for our 2nd (and unfortunately, last) Life On Wheels seminar. So we spent a lot of time in the San Diego/Los Angeles area, taking in the San Diego Zoo and Wildlife parks, the Queen Mary, the Aquarium, and many other sights, and staying in places like Escondido, Temecula, and Tucalota Springs.

Finally, by the first week in March, we were at the Boulder Oaks RV Park in Boulder City, NV, overlooking Lake Meade, which was our base to do Las Vegas and the Boulder Dam. Then on March 11th, leaving Boulder City and heading for the Meteor Crater RV about 40 miles east of Flagstaff, we encountered our first major breakdown.

Cruising along on I-40 about 40 miles or so west of Flagstaff, I hear, and feel, a large ‘WHOOMP!”. Quickly pulling over, and assuming I’d had a blow-out (on brand-new tires??), I got out to check. And found nothing wrong.

Both the rig and toad tires were just fine, and the engine, which I had left running, sounded fine, so what caused the noise? Well, getting back into the rig, and starting to pull out again, I then saw the problem. In the few minutes I had been sitting there, the engine coolant temperature was creeping in the red.

Rut Roh!

Turning off the engine and going back outside, I opened the engine compartment and took a look. The radiator on our Cummins 350 ISC is on the driver’s side of the coach, and looking to the left at the radiator fan, I said to myself, “I’m sure there used to be blades on that fan hub.”

But the 24” diameter fan had been reduced a few jagged stumps sticking up from the hub. And even worse I could now see antifreeze leaking from a gash in the radiator. So we weren’t going any further today. At least not under our own power.

Before I came inside I went ahead and unhooked the truck to get ready to be towed. Then back inside, and through the miracles of cellphones, GPS, and the Internet, I got busy.

My first call of course was to Good Sam Emergency Road Service to tell them I needed a tow into Flagstaff. The GPS told me exactly where I was, so I was able to give Good Sam the mile marker where we were, and the exit they would need to turn around at to get back to us.

Next was a hotel reservation in Flagstaff, and with that information I was on the phone to Spartan, our Eagle’s chassis manufacturer, to have a new fan blade overnighted to the hotel. They said it would go out that afternoon.

I love it when a plan comes together.

A  little research on the Internet gave me an idea of where I wanted the coach taken, but I thought I’d check with the tow driver first. And he showed up a little over an hour after I called Good Sam. Great response time

With the driver confirming my choice of repair places, and that that was where he was planning to take us, I put in a call to them to let me know we were coming, what the problem was, and that I would have a new fan for them tomorrow morning.

The driver spent about an hour prepping the coach, disconnecting and securing the driveshaft, and then plugging his truck’s compressor into our rig to supply air pressure to release the brakes. And we were off.

From the time I called Good Sam, it was about four hours until we were parked in the shop’s yard. They let us plug into 120v to keep the fridge running and a heater going to keep rig cat’s Mister and Emma warm.

By time I got over there the next morning, they almost had the radiator out. I told them while they were at it to see if it needed cleaning.(it didn’t). They called the next afternoon and said it was ready to go, so I went over and settled up, and told them we’d pick the rig up the morning.

The only thing anyone could figure is that a rock got kicked up by the rear wheels and cracked a fan blade. This unbalanced the entire hub and caused the rest of the blades to shear off, one of the pieces hitting the radiator.

This is what it looked like.

By now we were running up on the start of the Life On Wheels, so we headed south, first to Pioneer RV Park north of Phoenix and then Rincon West in Tucson.

Meteor Crater would have to wait until another time.

While we were at the LOW, and knowing a smart husband never tries to teach his wife to drive, Jan took the 4 hour course from The RV Driving School. The gentleman was very patient, and by the end of the course, Jan was comfortable handling the rig, and still drives regularly.

Very Highly Recommended!

Of course a week later, Jan almost ran me over while parking the rig, but that’s another story for another blog.

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February 7, 2018

Not Done Yet . . .

Jan had her checkup this morning, first to take X-rays to see if anything remains of her recent kidney stone, and then remove the stent if the stone appeared to be all gone.

But it wasn’t all gone. Unfortunately a large chunk was still there. So the decision was to either do another lithotripsy, which might or might get all of it once again, Or be a little more invasive and use an internal laser to blast it to dust.

Since the laser is 100% effective, and the effectiveness of the lithotripsy depends on the density of the stone, Jan decided to just get it over with.

So she has her Pre-Op this Friday and the procedure next Wednesday. And hopefully that will be the end of it.

Leaving the doctor’s office we head over to the nearby Sam’s to pick up a few things. Going down one of the rows I came across this.

It’s a 25# bucket that holds 30 days of meals for one person at 1800+ calories a day. Just add water. And it also includes a stove and a water filtration bottle. Costing $99 that makes it a little over $3 a day.

Not bad and the meals look pretty good. Heads up to all you preppers out there.

After Sam’s we went next door to WalMart for a bunch of stuff. And after criss-crossing the store a couple of times we were both kind of pooped so we sat down at one of the benches next to the Customer Service area for a couple of minutes.

Just as we were getting ready to head out to the truck a lady walked by glancing at us. Then she stop and came back.

“Are . . .  are you Greg White . . . and Jan?”

My first thought was that she doesn’t look old enough to be an old girlfriend, so that’s OK. So maybe they finally got my picture up on the Post Office wall?

But she then cleared things up by saying, “We read your blog.”

Whew!

Turned out to be a nice lady named Arlene Harrison, who along with her husband David, have been reading the blog for about a year.

And it turns out we have a lot in common, just a little behind us. They’re also full-time RV’ers, but for 9-1/2 years to our 10. And they’re getting ready to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, where we had ours back in September.

And they’re going to be spending a month in Rapid City, SD this summer, where we spent 3 and a half weeks last summer.

Hope she and David will keep in touch.

A little after 4pm we drove over to the Jimmy Changas on I-45 to meet up with Chris and Charles Yust for dinner. And after a great meal, and talking until the place started to fill up, we all went back to Chris and Charles’ RV and talked some more.

And we’ll do it again tomorrow when we meet to spend some time down in Galveston.

Really looking forward to it.

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February 7, 2019

I’ll Have What She’s Having . . .

Jan and I were on our way up to Houston about 10am. But what we anticipated being a really nice time, turned out to be somewhat disappointing.

We got to our first stop, Katz’s Deli, a little before 11am, and got seated immediately.

So far, so good.

Now Katz’s is really known for sandwiches like this Reuben.

But we both started with a cup of their delicious Broccoli Cheese Soup.

Glad I didn’t get the bowl. This cup was big enough.

Jan then got their Open Faced Tuna Melt sandwich,

while I got their Fire Dog done New York Style, I.e. with sauerkraut and grilled onions.

For our sides, we both got the Mixed Veggies, really good, because they were done al dente, and not cooked to mush like a lot of places.

Jan wondered what kind of tuna they used, saying it was the best she’d ever tasted.

My Fire Dog seemed to actually be a Polish Sausage dog, and pretty spicy. And very good, especially I added their Spicy Deli Mustard to the mix.

Then for a to-go dessert, we got a couple of their famous Coconut Macaroons, mine plain, and Jan’s Chocolate Dipped.

But after this things went sharply downhill. We couldn’t get our check. We waved, we “Sir”’d, we did everything but trip him as he walked by. It was like he was deliberately ignoring us.

Don’t know why  He only had about 5 tables, including us. He did stop by a couple of times during the meal, and we told him how good everything was. But that was it.

Finally, after we waited almost 30 minutes, I flagged down the hostess as she was coming back from seating someone. We told her how long we’d been waiting and she just shook her head, and went and got our check from the computer.

Coming back, she apologized like it had happened before, and then signing my credit card slip, I did something I haven’t done in a long time.

I left a $0.00 tip and wrote on the slip why.

You may also be familiar with the original Katz’s Deli in New York City. It was the setting for the famous scene in When Harry Met Sally with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.

“I’ll have what she’s having.”

Since we were now running late, we decided to skip iBurn and go straight to the Houston RV Show at the NRG Center. And following the theme of the day, we were again disappointed. After paying $12 to park, and $24 to get into the show, we found . . . not much. At least not much of what we were looking for.

Not being in the market for a new RV, we were mainly hoping to cruise the many vendor booths, just to check out all the new, neat stuff. But unlike the many RV shows that we attended in 2006 and 2007, leading up to our RV purchase the end of 2007, there was one row of vendors, maybe about 40 total. And only about half of them were really RV-related.

There were several home remodeling companies, new windows for your home, etc. Probably the largest number were for RV parks around Texas, including the Thousand Trails locations.

The one thing we did find was one of the Candied Nut vendors, so Jan got a couple of tubes for $10.

We did walk around a bit looking at some of the rigs though. We did like this 44 foot Newmar Ventana.

At $279,997, it was marked down from $363,224. And after $56,000 down, and only $1604 per month for 240 months (that’s 20 YEARS), it can be all yours.

So wrapping this all up, we paid $36 to buy $10 worth of nuts.

But at least the Macaroons were delicious with our evening coffee.

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February 7, 2020

Sonny’s BBQ . . .

After a light breakfast at our Slidell, LA La Quinta this morning, we were on our way toward Montgomery AL by about 8:45. We only had about a 280 mile run but we had a mini breakfast and left a little early because we wanted to stop off outside of Mobile to have lunch at Sonny’s BBQ, one of our long-time favorites.

And by ‘long-time’ I’m talking 53 years or so. Sonny’s, along with Fat Boy’s, were two of our favorite places down in the Titusville/Cocoa Beach area when Jan and I first started dating 1967. Fat Boys’ mostly faded away with only few left scattered around Florida, but Sonny’s is still going strong. So a lot of good memories.

And really good BBQ.

The last time we were here was about 3 years ago, but we still knew our favorites, with Jan getting her 2 Meat plate with their BBQ Beans and Fries.

While I always get the Pork 3 Ways, this time with Beans and Beans.

We had thought we might have enough BBQ left over to have for dinner at the hotel tonight, but somehow it didn’t work out that way. LOL.

We got into our hotel, an Extended Stay America, in Montgomery about 3:45 where things didn’t get off to a great start. First I had to wait about 10 minutes for someone to show up at the front desk because they ‘were out on the property helping another guest’. But finally someone showed up and we got checked in for our 3 night stay here.

But when I got around to the side entrance, my key cards didn’t work. So it was back to the office for more cards. This time we got in the building and then tried to get into Rm #209. The door did unlock, but the safety latch was on the door. The room was dark, so it took me a few seconds to realize that someone might actually be in the room. Then the door opened and there stood a sleepy looking black guy.

So it was back to the office to get a new, hopefully unoccupied, room. And we ended up with #210, right across the hall from our first one. And of course, our new key cards didn’t work in our new door locks. So it was back to the office for new ones.

Which did finally work. Yah!

Our beautiful daughter Brandi checked from her 2020 Leadership Conference out in San Diego. That’s her in the middle.

Have you ever noticed that these conferences are never in places like Detroit, or Newark, or Omaha? No, they’re always in places like Miami, San Diego, or even Honolulu.

Why is that?

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February 7, 2021

Sometimes They’re Just Too Efficient . . .

Jan and I headed up to Snooze for breakfast about 1pm this afternoon with Jan going for her usual favorite Bravocado Toast.

And although recently I’ve been going for the Shrimp and Grits, this time I went back with the 3 Egg Classic Breakfast.

I don’t know what kind of bacon this is, but it’s probably the best I’ve ever had. This comes with hash browns, but I always substitute fruit.

Then it was on over to the WalMart for a prescription and some grub stuff and on down the Interstate to the HEB for more stuff, and the home by 5.

The only thing that could have made it better was Cowboy Coffee sitting out on the patio listening to the windchimes. But unfortunately they’re closed on Sundays.

Sometimes Amazon is just too efficient and jumps the gun. My new toilet was originally scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. But instead, they tried to deliver it this morning about 10:45. Even though the delivery instructions on my account say “M-F 9:30 am to 4:30 pm”. But hopefully it will show up tomorrow.

Originally it was going to be Toilet Tuesday for the install, but now it looks like Toilet Thursday

Tuesday is now a get-together up in Conroe at the China Delight with Debi and Ed Hurlburt, past owners of our Jeep, and Janice and Rick Binns. And it’s kind of a reunion since the last time we saw Rick and Janice was almost 5 years ago, also up in Conroe.

Looking forward to it.

I mentioned the other day that we had finished up rewatching all 6 seasons of Grimm and were looking for something to replace it.

Right now it’s Warehouse 13, Pandora, and Murdoch Mystery.

While Murdoch was off for so long before they started filming again, we had started the series back over, seeing some of the early seasons that we had never seen.

But with the new season now starting February 20th, we’ve gone back and started rewatching Season 13, so that when 14 starts in a couple of weeks, we’ll know where we are.

And it looks like our Grimm replacement is going to be The Mandalorian on Disney+. It’s one of several Star Wars spin-offs and takes place about 5 years after the 3rd movie, Return of the Jedi. Which of course is really called Episode VI.

If you don’t know, don’t ask.

The Mandalorian is a bounty hunter in the Boba Fett genre, again, if you don’t…, wearing a similar suit. Except for some reason he doesn’t have a nifty jetpack like Boba.

If you’ve heard any of the hype about ‘Baby Yoda’, this is where it comes from. And although it’s called Baby Yoda, it’s really not, but just a baby of Yoda’s race. Obvious since the adult Yoda was in the 2nd SW movie, Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.

Again, don’t …

We’ve watch 2 episodes so far and it’s pretty good, though hard to figure out what’s going on so far.

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February 7, 2022

For A Monday . . .

Work today was pretty good, at least for a Monday. As usual there were a lot of orders over the weekend, but only a few of them were through PayPal, which are the only ones that I have to worry with. So nice.

As I mentioned before, tomorrow afternoon I have an appointment with my Neurosurgeon to get more X-rays on my neck in prep for my 3 month checkup next Monday. Hopefully I’ll be able to take Advil again. Since my cervical fusion I’ve only been able to take Tylenol, which has never worked for me.

And supposedly I’ll be released from the 20# weight limit on what I am allowed to lift. But unless something changes I’ve still got another 3 months to go my Bone Graft Stimulator.

But before that, we got a busy day tomorrow.

On the way to my appointment, we’re making a quick stop at Lowe’s to pick up an order, and then after the appointment, it’s lunch at Pho Barr once again. And hopefully an update on their new location opening down in our area.

Then next up is a stop by the office to use a Bluetooth Code Reader on my boss’ truck.

I’ve talked about these before. They plug into the diagnostic port on your vehicle, and then using a free phone app you can read any fault codes, and then clear them if necessary.

These work great and are only about $15.

Then after dropping off an Amazon return at the Webster UPS store, we’re making a Costco stop, and wrapping things up with a stop at the PO for our mail.

Like I said, a busy day.