Our RV Adventures

Recapping yesterday, getting back to the rig about 4pm we turned around a little later and headed back up to Webster to meet up with long time friends, Barb and Tom at Angelo’s Pizza about 5pm.

I’ve known Barb since the early 2000’s when I did IT support for BAHEP (Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership) when she worked, and still does. But this is the first time we’ve gotten together in a while.

And this is the first Jan and I have been to Angelo’s in a while. Actually a long, long while.

Like maybe 40 years or so. Don’t remember an exact year, but both Chris and Brandi were still kids, so it was probably in the early 80’s.

Jan and I both started with a Dinner Salad with their really good Bleu Cheese dressing,

and then Jan moved on to their Grilled Chicken with Veggies.

Said it was really good.

I went with my usual Italian restaurant order, a big bowl of their Pasta Fagioli Soup.

All delicious!

Afterwards we followed Barb and Tom to their place, where we spent a few more hours catching up while I set up her new HP Pavilion laptop.

Before finally heading home about 10pm, we promised to get together again soon.

Now on to today.

Before we left for lunch this afternoon, I got a chance to try out my new ‘Bionic’ Weed Trimmer on some of the grass surrounding Jan’s Flamingo Flamboyance.

I found it worked pretty good as long as I didn’t push it too hard. Otherwise it would just bog down. I was happy to see that the tie-wrap cutting blades show no noticeable wear on them.

Not bad for $18.

Lunch today was at Twin Peaks once again, and our favorite server, Sylvia, was up to her usual excellence, seeing us come in the door and having our drinks at our table almost before we got to our table and were seated.

Jan started off with a salad, along with their made-in-house ‘chunky’ Bleu Cheese dressing.

Jan then got her usual Chipotle Chicken with double broccoli.

I went with the Soup and Salad Lunch Special with a bowl of their Brisket Chili and a Salad, also with their made-in-house ‘chunky’ Bleu Cheese dressing.

Great Service and Great Food.

Got a notice that my Garmin GPS had a new map update available, so I brought in this evening to update it. The file was 4.2GB and took about 45 minutes to download. Nice thing about Garmin is that no matter how old your unit is, you still get lifetime free updates. And mine is now 11 years old.

Saw a story about this giant gator lounging on a golf course in Sebring, FL.

Looks like he’s waiting for a passing golfer to ‘play through’.

Finishing up, I saw a TV ad the other day showing some new EV, and at the end there was a small legend shown on the screen saying ‘Tailpipe Emission-Free’.

I guess wanting you to ignore that over 60% of the electricity used to charge said EV come from fossil fuels.

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Thought For The Day:

“Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading”

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February 16, 2010

Red Lobster and Raccoon Cams…

Today we took a trip about 60 miles north to Austin and Fry’s Electronics to pick out a new computer for our friend Gina.

Found her a nice deal on a 3 GHz Gateway Slimline with 6 GB of RAM and a 1 TB HD. Also picked up a remote-controlled video camera for back porch raccoon watching.

On the way up to Austin we stopped off at Red Lobster for lunch. I’m normally not a big RL fan, but I was pleasantly surprised this time. Of course I had a grilled chicken BLT, and not seafood, so what do I know. Jan had fried catfish that she enjoyed and Gina liked her fried shrimp, so we were all happy.

Our friend Gina lives on a 600 acre cattle ranch about 30 miles north of San Marcos in the Texas Hill Country. It’s so remote that we have to open 2 cattle gates to get to her house. But it has really fast internet, so go figure.

Now I’ve got to get all this set up before we are supposed to leave on Friday. We’ll see how that goes.

On another note, the problem with my oil pressure sending unit has returned, so it looks like replacing it did not fixed the problem. The only thing that makes sense is that it’s a problem with the wiring.  I’ll have to crawl under the truck and see if I can find the problem. It was really strange to make 120 mile roundtrip with the oil pressure sitting on zero, though occasionally, it would jump back up to normal.

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February 16, 2011

Coons and BBQ . . .

Today was the first day we didn’t have an early morning planned, so we slept in, had great coffee, and some of the wonderful cranberry muffins that Gina had baked for us. Delicious!

Finally, about 12:30 we headed into New Braunfels to the closest HEB to stock up on their Snickernut Cookie coffee. We really like this flavor and this is probably our last chance to lay in supplies for the next 9 months or so.

Coming back to the area we got to Gina’s a little before 2:30pm and headed back out in her car.

Our first stop was at the feed store over in Sattler to pick up 6 – 40# bags of raccoon food (actually dog food) for Gina’s nightly feeding sessions.

About a year ago I installed a ‘CoonCam’ so Gina could watch and record her nightly visitors and their antics.

The camera can pan, tilt, and zoom, and records both stills and movies.

Here’s just a small part of the nightly mob.

This guy managed to jump about 3 feet up to this bird feeder, apparently thinking he was missing out on something. Now he’s trying to figure out how to get down.

Coming back to the Canyon Lake area we stopped to fill up the tank on Gina’s car and then headed to Driftwood, TX, about 20 miles away to Salt Lick BBQ, one of our favorite BBQ places in the Hill Country.

In fact, we all like it so much that our daughter Brandi had her wedding dinner there last June. We had about 50 guests and everyone loved it.

As usual we ordered the ‘Family Style’ menu. It’s all you can eat of everything shown below.

We also got a half BBQ chicken to go with it all. They brought out a platter piled about a foot high with ribs, brisket, and sausage, so there’s always plenty of leftovers.

And of course, you have to save room for their great peach or blackberry cobbler with ice cream. But having room doesn’t mean being able to eat the entire dessert, so we had leftovers of that too.

After dropping Gina off, and saying our goodbyes until next year, we got back to the rig a little after 6pm, just in time for Jan to have one last chance to feed the deer. And the deer know it too.

As we parked in front of the rig, the deer started heading our way, clustering around the front of the truck, waiting for Jan to start passing out the goodies.

Tonight we’ll start packing up, getting ready to head out tomorrow morning, probably about 8am, since we got a 370 mile run to Balmorhea, TX.

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February 16, 2013

Running Out of Time . . .

While Jan and I were sitting outside yesterday with our coffee and enjoying the view, I got this shot of our local Roseate Spoonbill, “Rosie”. A beautiful bird.

And Lowell send over this photo from the Valentine’s Day party at Landon’s daycare.

He says these are his ‘girlfriends’. Looks like they think so too.

Yesterday was another scramble to try and wrap up client ‘stuff’ as much as possible, so I hit the ground running pretty early. And it was rush, rush, rush all day.

But I finished up everything with one client and almost everything with the last one. Just a couple of small things that I’ll handle on Saturday.

So then after a stop at Brandi’s for the mail, and dropping off some stuff at the storeroom, I finally headed home about 5:30pm. And about 6:15 Jan and I headed up to Pasadena to have dinner with our friend Barbara, her fiancé, Tom, and their friend Doug.

And as usual with our get-togethers, the food was good, the conversation was great, and the wine flowed freely, some might say ‘too’ freely, which is why we didn’t get home until midnight, and you didn’t get a blog yesterday.

But we had a blast. So there.

Today started off pretty much like yesterday, coffee outside, and then rush, rush, rush. But today was different because Jan was with me.

Leaving about 11pm, our first stop was Fry’s Electronics for a couple of client things. And then after taking care of the last of the client stuff, we made a stop at Home Depot for some shelf brackets.

A couple of our bedroom cabinet shelves are missing a support or two, so I wanted to get that fixed.

Then, next up was a stop at Sally Beauty Supply for Jan, and then the Target right next door, along with the ULTA across the parking lot.

Like I said, busy, busy, busy, rush, rush, rush.

But our next stop was much more relaxing, a late lunch at our favorite Chinese place, King Food, with our longtime friends, Bob and Maria. And it was so relaxing that we got there at 3pm and didn’t leave until about 7.

It’s hard to believe we had this much to talk about.

But finally we said our goodbyes, and got our hugs, and then headed off to another restaurant.

Yep, you read it right. We went from one restaurant right to another one. But we had a good reason.

Well, besides more food.

We getting the whole family together tomorrow night at King Food for a final meal before we hit the road on Monday. Well, the ‘whole’ family, except for Miss Piper, who has to work tomorrow night.

So we were going to stop by Sam’s Boat, the restaurant / grill / sports bar where she works to see her one last time.

But when we got there, she said she had be able to get night off after all, so she would be at dinner tomorrow night. Great!

So now we didn’t need to stay and eat, right?

Wrong! But we did just have a couple of appetizers, I.e., a dozen raw oysters, and 10 mango habanero hot wings.

I mean, we had to order something so we could leave Piper a big tip, right?

And the good food there had nothing to do with it, right?

Right?

Finally after getting a picture of these two beautiful girls, we headed home,wrapping up another busy day. One more to go.

On a final note, my great-niece Stahlie posted some more of fabulous computer artwork.

This young lady has some real talent.

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February 16, 2014

Sunflowers and Floor Mats . . .

About 10 this morning, Jan and I, along with our long-time friends, Bob and Maria, headed down to Galveston to have breakfast at The Sunflower Café, our go-to place for a great breakfast. Bob and Maria had never been there, so it was fun introducing them to the place. After breakfast we drove around the island for a while before heading back to the rig.

While Bob, Maria, and Jan headed into Houston to visit Sur la Table, a really neat cookware store, along the lines of Williams-Sonoma. I, on the other hand, went off to work for a client. As usual, as our time runs out here, I get really, really busy. since everyone waits until the last minute.

About 5:30 we all met back up at La Brisa for dinner and more fun. Afterwards everyone came back to the rig for some delicious coconut cream pie.that we got at the local Randall’s Market.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get back together next Sunday, right before we leave. We see how it goes.

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I think Landon is training for the next Olympics in this shot. He never seems to stop.

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A number of you had asked to see the finished product of the Great Floor Upgrade.

So here it is.

Our son, Chris, really did a great job. Thanks again, Chris.

Later this evening I cut out the floor mat using the template I made of the pedal area.

And here’s what it looks like in place.

I was lucky that it fit the first time with no trimming.This is really just a trial fit. I want to scrape up some old glue and then use double-stick tape to hold it in place, although it seems to stay in place pretty good as it is.

In looking at it, I may try to find some small metal trim strip to cover the edge. I’ll check it out.

Tomorrow looks like another busy day with clients, but we are having dinner with Chris, Linda, and Piper, so that’s better.

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February 16, 2015

The All Clear . . .

Jan and I headed up to Webster about 9am this morning, awfully early, but for a good reason. Today was her first mammogram/ultrasound after her bout with breast cancer earlier last year.

She was told it would take about 3 hours, and it did, almost to the minute. And she was told she would have her results before she left, and she did.

Everything came back clean, with no reoccurrence of the cancer. So we’re all clear to leave for Tucson March 1st on schedule.

We still have appointments later this week and the first of next week, but it’s routine eye exams and annual checkups. So we’re good to go.

When Jan was finished up, we drove over to Floyd’s Cajun Seafood to have lunch. It’s our first time back there since we moved down here, and it was nice to be greeted by Brett Floyd, one of the co-owners. We’ve known Brett ever since Floyd’s opened back in the late 90’s, and we laughed about how we’ve both gotten greyer in that time.

And as usual the food was delicious, with Jan having a cup of their Creamy Crab Bisque and an order of the Crabmeat Stuffed Mushrooms, while I had a bowl of Seafood Gumbo and some Boudin.

We were happy to see how busy they were, and in fact they were on a wait by the time we left. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to go back before we leave.

Since both of us tossed and turned last night, by the time we got home a nap was in order, which took up most of the afternoon. I would have like to have gotten some more stuff done outside, but the  cold and rainy weather nixed that. From the time we left the rig this morning, until we got home, the temperature had dropped 20 degrees as the front came through.

It’s supposed to sunny and dry tomorrow, but the temp won’t get much above 50, so we’ll see how it goes.

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February 16, 2016

Wash Day Blues . . .

We didn’t walk this morning because I was in repair mode – Splendide washer repair. A couple of days ago our washer went wonky and stopped pumping the water out when it goes into spin mode. The drum starts to turn but I don’t even hear the pump try to pump.

Since we had a washer full of wet clothes, we loaded them into a plastic garbage bag and took them down to Brandi’s yesterday to finish up.

So this morning, after looking over the Splendide service manual, I was hoping it was the pressure switch (cheap to buy and easy to replace), I ruled out a clogged drain line (another easy fix) since the pump would at least try to start pumping in that case.

But a call to Westland Sales disavowed me of that easy fix. The tech reminded me that the pressure switch also governs the amount of water that fills the tub at the beginning of the wash cycle. So if the switch wasn’t working, the tub would overfill. And it wasn’t.

Then he gave me the bad news. It was probably the pump itself.

Then he gave me the badder news. The pumps are no longer available.

So if it is the pump is bad, I’m out of luck. At least as far as buying a new one. But looking at a photo of a pump, there might be another way.

There’s really only two things that can go wrong with a pump like this. Either the pump rotor is jammed, or the motor has died.

The motor can be repaired, even if I have to rewind it. There are no brushes in this type of motor, so that’s not a problem either.  Actually  the most likely motor problem is a broken wire leading to the windings.

As far as the pump itself, unless the pump rotor broke, it’s probably the bearings. And they can probably be kludged also.

So we’ll see.

The next step is to pull the washer out, turn it upside down and check out the pump situation. I didn’t start today since we’ll be down in the Clear Lake area all day tomorrow with two doctor checkup appointments for Jan, and then dinner with friends. So I’ll tackle it starting Thursday morning.

Blog reader Judy Hughes reminded me I didn’t give y’all a Traveling with Karma update since we moved over to Lake Conroe from Colorado River this past Sunday.

All in all, she took it pretty well for a first time. Especially  if ‘pretty well’, means hiding as soon as we pulled out and not coming out until we were parked. But she didn’t seem to care when I started up the diesel, didn’t really seem to notice at all. I guess she didn’t like the floor moving under her feet though.

The newest thing she does is to get up on the dashboard and look out through the curtains, just watching what’s going on. She does this several times day, over and over. But she still shows no inclination to go outside though, so that’s good

The biggest change, though, is how she’s bulked up. We’ve had her for two weeks now, and when we first got her, I measured her for a harness so we could take her outside on a leash. But by the time we got it from Amazon yesterday, it almost too tight.

Thinking I might have mis-measured, or they sent me the wrong size, I checked her again. And she’s definitely filled out in the body.

Our little girl is growing up.

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February 16, 2017

Tomorrow’s A Busy Day . . .

Recapping some of yesterday.

We left the Spacious Country RV Park about 10:15, a little late due to the fact that the park people were late showing up to settle up on our electric usage.

We gave a $100 deposit when we checked in, and then got $20 back when we left. Not bad.

We were leaving that early so we could get to Colorado River TT around noon, the park checkout time. Our ranger friend, Barbara Spade, told us the park was very full and we might have a problem getting a 50 amp full hookup site. But as it turned out, we had our pick of two sites down on the river, took one of those, and got parked and set up.

One notable thing on this trip was that we passed 140,000 total miles on our American Eagle coach. The rig’s computer records this total and we can see it on our Silverleaf computer interface.

As you can tell this was about 34,000 miles ago. When we bought our rig, it had 64,511 miles on it, so that means we’ve put 75,489 miles on it since we picked it up January 6th, 2008.

Later, after a short catnap, we headed into Katy to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at our favorite Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro.

Like most places we eat at regularly, we all have our go-to dishes. For us, we all start out with an order of their Pork Spring Rolls with peanut sauce.

While everyone has their own favorite entrees, I always go with the Shaking Beef Vermicelli Bowl.

The beef strips are marinated in a delicious sauce, and then the broth soaks into the noodles. Just fantastic.

And finally we all finished up with a a little dessert, spoonful’s of Crème Brule.

The perfect light end to a great meal.

Today, after my first full night’s sleep in a month or so, I started working on a few things around the rig.

First up was to tackle the rat’s nest of cables behind the computer table. It’s been accumulating for a while, so before they start actually breeding new cables back in there, it’s time to cut it down to size.

Later. I went outside and installed the new Rain-X wipers on the truck. I’ve used this brand for several years, and combined with the Rain-X wiper fluid I also use, it keeps the glass crystal clear while the rain just beads up and runs off. I’ve also got new blades for the rig that I’ll install later.

After a few more chores, I fixed coffee and Jan and I sat outside for a while and enjoyed the view.

A few minutes later we noticed one of the bald eagles that live in the area swoop down and start eating on a fish he’d caught in the river.

A really great sight.

Tomorrow we have a very busy day, starting off getting to Chris’ down in the Webster about 10am so he can install a new AC condenser fan on our Dodge Dakota.

Then it’s lunch at King Food, haircuts for both of us, and a visit to the Verizon store to look at new plans and a new phone for Jan.

Last up will be dinner with some old friends and then back to their house to work on a computer problem.

All in all, a busy, fun day.

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February 16, 2018

Ben Hur, Redux . . .

First off, Jan wants me to thank everyone for all their get-well wishes. She’s still having no pain, and getting her strength back after the procedure.

Work today consisted of the usual stomping out small fires, all taken care of, with the last one still smoldering.

The Shipping computer is supposed to be able to access the customer database on the Office Manager’s computer so shipping addresses can be double-checked. But for some reason it’s started running very slowly, taking a long time to pull up customer info over the network.

But other network data flows at the normal speed, and calling up the customer data locally runs just fine, so it’s not the database itself. And I can copy files from one computer to the other with no problems or slowdowns. So why is the network only running slow on this connection.

I’ll figure it out.

As soon as I got back home from work we turned right back around and drove back up to Webster to have dinner at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, our local go-to place for seafood. And since it was Friday night and we didn’t get there until about 5pm, we had about a 15 minute wait to get a table

Finally getting seated, we ordered our ice tea, and of course, a dozen raw oysters.

Then it was back to our usuals, with Jan getting the Grilled Catfish Filets with the Grilled Steamed Veggies.

As for me, in over 20 years of eating at Floyd’s I’ve never eaten here that I haven’t had a bowl of gumbo, and this time was no different. But after listening to Jan rave about the Grilled Steamed Veggies, I decided to give them a try as well.

And Jan was right. I don’t know what it is about grilling already steamed veggies, but they are so much better. Enough so that it will be my standard side dish from now on.

Finishing up we made a quick stop by WalMart for a few things before we headed back toward Santa Fe, with another stop at the HEB for gas. It’s nice to see the price starting to come back down, now at $2.15. Much better.

When I was coming home this afternoon, I ended up behind this Ben Hur wanta-be.

Certainly can’t park too close to any curbs.

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February 16, 2019

The Egg and I Who?

After a nice quiet morning of hot coffee and whipped cream (Saturdays and Tuesdays are whipped cream in our coffee days. And of course, Karma has to have her share too. The whipped cream, not the coffee.), we headed out about 1pm to have brunch, this time at Snooze AM, a new Webster breakfast/lunch place in Webster,  and actually just a couple of blocks away from The Egg & I, our usual weekend breakfast place.

I texted Miss Piper to see if she could meet us, but she was spending the weekend in Houston with friends.

The last time we ate here was right after Jan’s first cataract surgery when she was still a little woozy from the drugs.

She got their Smash Avocado Benny, their version of Eggs Benedict, and was not a happy camper. She said the English muffin was soggy and she just didn’t like the taste. But when I pointed out that they had another version of an avocado-themed dish, their BRAVOcado Toast, she decided to give it another try.

And it was perfect for her, down to the Dressed Greens she gets with The Egg and version, But she says this dish is actually better. And more importantly, at least to me, is that it’s cheaper.

So Jan now says “The Egg & I Who?”

I got my usual Shrimp & Grits, which I think is the only thing I’ve gotten every time we’ve eaten here.

With the sautéed shrimp, Andouille sausage, peppers and leeks, topped with an sunny side up egg, it’s pretty much my favorite non-eggs, bacon, English muffin, fruit breakfast.

Then afterwards, it was on over to WalMart  and Sam’s Club for a few things before heading home.

I didn’t plan on looking at our rig’s leaking oil filter problem this weekend because, although the temps were OK,  we were looking a 90% chance of rain. Except that it didn’t.

But there’s always tomorrow, so we’ll see.

I missed it by a week, but this past February 9th was the 11th anniversary of the beginning of our RV travels. After buying our 1999 American Eagle on December 27th, 2007. And after prepping and new tires, we picked it up from the dealer on January 7th, 2008, and then headed to Alaska on the 9th of February.

Well, we headed there by way of Las Cruces, Casa Grande, Yuma, Gila Bend, Chula Vista, Temecula, Long Beach, Barstow, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Casper, Billings, Garrison, Cle Elum, Cache Creek, Prince George, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Watson Lake, Whitehorse, Haines Junction, and Tok, finally ending up in Fairbanks on April 26th.

And found this.

And it’s been a wild ride ever since. And it’s not over yet, though we’ve slowed down a bit.

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February 16, 2020

Not Bad For a V7 with 299,767 Miles . . .

As Well As Another 90,000+ Being Drug Around Behind The RV.

After breakfast at our Super 8 motel this morning, we headed toward home about 8:30 or so, somewhat slowed down by the steady rain. We made a quick pit stop just outside Baton Rouge as the rain finally started to taper off.

Our next stop was at the Breaux Bridge Pilot where we got gas for $1.93, as well as a couple of Jamocha Shakes for the road at the adjacent Arby’s.

Our last stop was at the Baytown Buc-ee’s for a couple of kolaches for dinner after we got home. But that took about an hour longer than we had planned.

Coming into the Webster area they had all six southbound lanes narrowed down to ONE, due to bridge construction. So instead of getting home about 4pm, it was a little after 5.

When we pulled into our rig site this afternoon I checked the truck’s odometer and found we were at 299,767 miles. Plus of course, the 88,000+ miles it’s traveled behind our RV, where the odometer doesn’t register.

I had hoped we’d make 300,000 miles on this trip, but not quite. However we should make the 300,000 mark in a week or so.

But what really makes this remarkable is that the 4.7 liter V8 engine in our 2004 Dodge Dakota has actually been a V7 for about 6 months or so. By that I mean that one cylinder, #7 specifically, is dead.

While the rest of the cylinders have about 125 – 135# of compression, #7 has only about 25#. However it just keeps running.

Yes, it’s got a lumpy idle, kind of like I’m running a full race cam, and it sometimes smokes a little, uses some oil, and the gas mileage is down about 10%, but it just keeps running.

It will do 75 mph on the Interstates with no real problems. It just down a little on power and won’t accelerate as fast. And we had no problems with it on our recent almost 2000 mile trip.

So my thought right now is just to keep running it until it dies, and then either have the engine rebuilt, or replaced with a rebuilt one, for about $5000-$7000. Much cheaper than the $15-20,000 that even an equivalent newer, but used truck would cost me.

Of course it could just keep running as is and outlive us all.

Finishing up, when we got together with my Aunt Lenette and Aunt Virginia last Friday, Lenette mentioned that she and her husband Tom just died a couple of weeks ago, had been married for 70 years.

Gives Jan and I, now at 52+ years, something to aspire to.

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February 16, 2021

Frozen –The Sequel

Jan and I headed down about 8:30am for our free breakfast here at the Texas City La Quinta. I told Jan as we were on the elevator I wouldn’t be surprised if it was already gone, since I don’t think they were planning on a full hotel out of the blue like this.

And I was right. All the little paper bags were gone. Of course according to another guest, all they contained was a protein bar and a bottle of water, so it wasn’t a big loss. But the coffee was good, at least.

But that was one reason we got muffins yesterday at Buc-ee’s so we were all set breakfast-wise.

When we got back to our room after ‘breakfast’ we found that the water was off. And with a little inquiring, we found out that it had been turned all up and down this side of the highway.

Rut Roh!

It’s actually easier to get by without electricity than water. You know, no toilets, etc.

Finally, about 1pm we headed over to the rig to pick up a few things ;and check things out. And as we were still finding the traffic lights off as we got closer to Santa Fe, we were pretty sure that the lights were still off at the rig, and we were right. Everything was frozen solid. It was 30 degrees in the water bay, and 32 degrees in the rig.

And 33.6 in the refrigerator. I had been worried about it, since it was so cold yesterday (16 degrees) before we left, that I was not able to get it to start up on propane. But it looks like mother nature took care of the problem.

In the past the rig’s plumbing has been pretty forgiving about being frozen, but we’ll see about this time when it thaws out and I turn the water back on.

Leaving the rig, we started looking around for a place to eat lunch, and finally found the Black Bear Diner open over around FM646 and I-45.

They were short-staffed and only had about half the tables open, and though they told us it would be a 45 minute wait, it only turned out to be about 15. Nice.

The service and the food were just as great as always, with Jan trying the Black Raspberry Stuffed French Toast with Bacon,

while I went with my Bacon Cheeseburger Salad and a side of Fruit.

In talking with the manager, he said they tried to open yesterday afternoon, but the door lock was so frozen up, they couldn’t get it open. He also said that they were closing at 5pm today so everyone could get home safely before it started freezing again. Nice guy!

Then it was on down the Interstate to the Buc-ee’s for more coffee, kolaches, and muffins for tomorrow’s ‘free’ breakfast.

Getting back to the hotel, we found some enterprising guy had set up a food truck in the parking lot. Maybe lunch tomorrow if he’s still here?

I also went by the front desk and got us a 3rd night here since I doubt things will be thawed out before Thursday.

Karma seems to have settled in to hotel life just fine after spending a couple of hours head-bumping her way around the room. And now that she seems to know the layout, she’s right at home.

And finally as far as getting power back goes, CenterPoint Energy seems to be falling further behind. Yesterday they showed 1.34 million customers without power in Houston and surrounding areas.

Then this morning they were showing 1.22 million, so they were making progress. But then this afternoon they were showing 1.44 million without power.

But as soon as they get the wind turbines defrosted, everything will be fine.

And on this note, our power here at the hotel went off at 7:33 pm and as of 9:15 was still not back on. But on the other side of the Interstate, it’s never gone off.

However at least we’re warmer than in the rig.

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February 16, 2022

Whipsawed . . .

Work today was pretty busy, which is nice because the time passes quicker. Otherwise I get bored. And as Jan will tell you, I don’t do nothing well.

Then I tend to wander off and get in trouble. You can count on it.

Tomorrow we’ve got a lunch get-together with our Alvin Opry bunch, and at Saltgrass Steakhouse for the 2nd time this week. But at the one in Webster this time.

Then Friday we’re looking forward to Season 4 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime. This season will be 8 episodes, with two new ones dropping each week.

And as I mentioned a few blogs back, The Orville is coming back for the 3rd season. But its premiere date has changed. Originally it was going to be March 10th,but it’s now been pushed back to June 2nd.

Oh well.

Tomorrow’s also going to be one of those typical winter days in Texas, with a high of 80° and a low of 37. That’s a 43° temperature swing in one day.

Nothing like getting whipsawed.

So far the Jeep is working great after the recent repair, and it looks like the O2 sensor replacement has fixed my loss of gas mileage problem.

Since we got together with old friends tonight, we didn’t get home until almost 11pm, so you only get the Retro Blogs tonight.

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Thought For The Day:

“If you are confused, you understand the situation perfectly.”

Sen. John Kennedy

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February 15, 2010

Started Scratching Our Itch!

Today Jan and I started scratching our bad case of Hitch Itch.  As much as we enjoyed visiting with our family and friends, we were anxious to get back on the road, since we’ve been parked on Dickinson Bayou since right before Thanksgiving.

We left Galveston Bay RV park about 10:30 and hit the road…and stopped about 5 miles away at Monterey’s Little Mexico for one last bowl of their great Chicken Tortilla Soup and chips and salsa. Couldn’t leave town without one last bowl!

But we were only going about 220 miles anyway, so it only took about 4 hours until we arrived at Lake Pointe RV Resort on Canyon Lake. We’re going to be here about 4 days visiting with our friend Gina, setting up her new computer and installing a video camera on her back porch so she can watch the raccoons when they come to feed.

And they are well-fed. I think a couple of them are about the size of Great Danes. Prime eat’n size as we use to say back in Alabama.

We plan on heading out from here on Friday morning, stopping over one night in Fort Stockton before we get to Los Cruces, NM for a couple of nights. Then it’s on to Tucson, AZ to spend several days with some friends we met in Alaska in 2008.

We plan to end up in Yuma, AZ about the 3rd of March. And after that, we’ll see.

Since we’re back on the road, I’ll start posting every day again, if only to make a certain someone happy.

 

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February 15, 2011

Hot Wings and Cold Rivers . . .

Another early start this morning as we left the coach about 8:45am heading to Gina’s to pick her up for her doctor’s appointment over in Wimberley. Then leaving there, we drove over to the pharmacy to drop off her prescriptions.

Next we headed over to the square to have lunch at one of our favorite places, the Cypress Creek Café. We try to eat here every time we’re in the area and it’s always great.

Jan and Gina loved their Chicken Fried Chicken and Chicken Fried Steak, and I crave their Devil’s Breath Buffalo Wings. I had them back in June and I was back for more.

As I mentioned before, the Devil’s Breath wings are made with the Naga Jolokia chilies, also known as Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost chilies. The restaurant says they have to import them from Amsterdam, Holland because they’re not available here in the US.

Although the Ghost Chilies were considered the hottest until very recently, they’ve now been upstaged by the Naga Viper, and at 1.3 million Scoville Units, it’s almost 30% hotter.

Owwie!

Just like the menu says, you have to sign a waiver before they will serve you, and for some reason, only the manager can witness it.

After a great (and hot!) lunch, we went back to the pharmacy to pick up Gina’s prescriptions, before stopping off at a local garage to have Gina’s car inspected. Then our final stop was at the local Brookshire Brother’s to pick up some groceries.

Heading back to Gina’s, we took the scenic River Road route, which of course, includes, what else, a river. . .

and a road over . . . er, thru it.

You find a number of these low water crossings around the Hill Country, and most of the year they’ve got water over them.

And because it’s under water most of the time, the roadway is slick with algae. So slick, in fact, that if you gun your engine going up the slope, you can slide sideways right off into the river, just like this guy did a few years ago.

After getting Gina settled in at home, Jan and I headed back over to the rig. And as soon as we drove up, the deer started coming out the trees and bushes near the rig. They knew Jan was home.

And as can be seen from these earlier photos, they will eat right out of your hands.

Tomorrow will be our last full day here in Canyon Lake and the Texas Hill Country. We always look forward to coming back to this area to visit Gina every year.

Thursday morning we’ll make a 370 mile run (long for us) to Balmorhea, TX, out in the middle of the west Texas nothingness, about halfway between Ft. Stockton and Van Horn. But they do have a nice Passport America RV park for $10 a night.

 

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February 15, 2012

. . . to a Precious Few.

Well, Jan finished up the last of her doctor’s appointments this morning, so we’re all set to hit the road tomorrow morning, heading about 230 miles away to Canyon Lake, TX in the Hill Country.

We’ll be spending a few days visiting our friend Gina, before starting our trek out to Yuma, AZ by the 26th.

But in the meantime, today started out OK but quickly fell apart. I had just planned to wrap a couple of things up and have an easy day.

But, NNNOOOOOO! Everybody and his brother either broke something or needed something done at the last minute. So I spent most of the day falling further and further behind.

Finally though, I wrapped things up in time for Jan and I to meet our friends Bob & Beth at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood and Texas Steakhouse over in Pearland. We hadn’t been there for several years and were surprised at how busy they were. We got there a little after 7 and still had about a 40 minute wait.

But it was certainly worth it, Jan and I both had steaks, really good steaks, and of course the obligatory cup of gumbo. You can’t go to Floyd’s without having gumbo. Or at least I can’t.

After a great meal, we all got in our hugs, and then Jan and I headed toward home with a quick stop at Brandi’s to pick up a hat I’d left, and then a stop by the storeroom to drop off some last minute stuff. Then finally we got home a little after 10, after a long, busy day.

Tomorrow, the Hill Country.

 

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February 15, 2014

Great Steaks . . .

First off, I thought I’d pass on a couple of tips that I use to keep track of things as far as RV’ing goes.

I have a file called American Coach Numbers. Here’s a sample below.

Initial Mileage
62,511

TAG
43F T26

VIN
4VZBN8299XC032375

FIN
719NX4475530

CUMMINS
45810300

Rear Axle Type
Rockwell RS19-145

Rear Axle Inner Wheel Seal
2140-DD4-801017

SCA Test Strips
Fleetguard CC2604-A
NAPA FIL 4105
DANA/WIX Strips

AC Belt
Dayco 17475

Serpentine Belt
Dayco 5080690

Onan Generator
Fuel Filter  149-3513

FG Fuel Filters
FS 1022
FS 1242B

FG Oil Filter
LF 3000

It contains information about our coach, tag number, VIN number, FIN number, all the different belts and filters used in the coach. And whenever I buy a new repair part, it all gets logged in.

Here’s the info on my recent Kwikee step repair.

PowerGear
Kwikee Step
28 Series
Ser. #97749
Linkage Kit #909533000

This allows me to go back and find any past repair part without having to start all over looking it up.

Next, I also have a folder on the computer called American Coach Docs. This folder contains the manuals and documentation for everything I have in the coach, from the Splendide Washer/Dryer, and the Dometic Refrigerator, to the Onan 7.5 KW generator. And everything I buy for the coach, from our new Hamilton Beach Coffee Maker, and our Tire Trakker TPMS, to our DirecTV DVR gets included too. I’ve found almost every manufacturer, no matter what, has their manuals online. But in a few cases I’ve just scanned the manual to a PDF file and in the folder it goes.

This really saves time when I need some information about something. A couple of clicks and it ‘s right at my fingertips.

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About 3 PM Jan and I headed into Houston to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for an early dinner. After some talking, we ended decided to splurge and have dinner at Taste of Texas, one of the top steakhouses in Houston.

But it would have helped if we’d decided to get there a little earlier. We got to the restaurant a little before 4 PM, but still had an hour wait. But it was worth it.

I think this is the only steak place we’ve been to that sells their steaks by the ounce! Jan got a Filet, while I got a 16oz Ribeye, one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.

We all had a great time and a great meal. As you can see, Landon had a great time too.

Tomorrow we’ll getting together with some friends for breakfast at the Sunflower Café down in Galveston. Really looking forward to it.

 

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February 15, 2015

Two Weeks From Today . . .

Yesterday it suddenly dawned on me that we leave for Tucson, two weeks from today. That’s March 1st, TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!

YIKES!  That’s a real scary thought.

My ‘To-Do List to Do Before We Leave’ seems to be getting longer, not shorter.

First up, I changed out the windshield wipers on the truck, using the same Rain-X wipers I used two years ago. Previously I replaced my wipers every year, but I’ve found that these Rain-X Latitude Wiper Blade – 21″ (Pack of 1) with the graphite-infused rubber, last a lot longer than other blades. And even this time I only replaced them ‘just because’, since they still weren’t streaking, and the rubber wasn’t ragged and worn like you would expect after two years.

The Denso blades I ordered from Amazon for the rig should be in on Tuesday, so that’s up next.

Next up I was back on the step motor problem. Using the test leads I made up last night, I put 12v directly to the motor, with the only result a spark when I touched the terminal. So I figured I’d take it out and have a look. Pretty easy, I just removed the 4 corner nuts and it came right out.

Then I removed the 3 screws holding the motor to the gear box and pulled it apart. This is where I was this time last year when I replaced the linkage arm, which had broken off.  Replacing a Broken Step Motor Linkage.

I thought maybe the gearbox was jammed, but without the motor attached, everything moved freely. I was happy to see, that unlike newer models that have plastic, easily stripped gears, everything in mine is all metal.

When I first tested the motor earlier and thought it was bad, I had checked online, and found replacements were anywhere from $161 to $238. Ouch!

So figuring I had nothing to lose, I checked the motor by itself.

And it worked fine!  WTH!

Thinking there must be a problem somewhere, I put it all back together and tried it again.

And it still worked.

Now I was confused. Why hadn’t it worked before, or even better, why had it stopped working to begin with?

So I crawled back under the rig, and reinstall the motor/gearbox combo.

And it still worked fine.

I glad it’s fixed, and I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to spend a bunch of money, but it always bothers me when I don’t know why something quit working, or why it started again. That usually means the original problem is still lurking in the background, just waiting to jump out and say “BOO”!

Jan said it was probably lonely under there, and just wanted to be held. I guess that’s as good a reason as any.

Just in case I left the step set so that it goes in and out every time we open and close the door, so I can keep an eye on it. I’d rather it fail now than when we’re back on the road.

Finally, as I was working on this, I keep thinking that the motor looked awfully familiar.

And then I remembered where I’d seen something like it. A few years ago I had to replace the power window regulator (lifting mechanism) in our 2004 Dodge Dakota, and this motor looked a lot like that motor.

So I went back on line, and found that most of the motors used in Kwikee steps are Ford Taurus power window motors, and you can buy them at AutoZone for $40. The only difference is the power connector, which you just cut off the old motor.

So now I know for next time.

Although we had planned to eat in tonight, I decided we should go out and spend some of the money I just saved us, so about 4:30 we headed up to Webster to eat at King Food.

Along the way, we checked out the new RV Park that’s going up at SR 96 and Hwy 3 in League City. We driven past a week or so ago, but the entrance was blocked off. But today it was open, so we drove through it.

This is going to be a very nice park, with all-concrete roads and pads and looks be more than 100 sites.

It has a mixture of both back-in and pull-thru sites, a nice pool, and it’s built around a big lake. The sites are on 3 sides of the lake but the road goes all the way around.

Everything looks ready to go, except for the clubhouse, which has plywood on the doors.

The one funny thing about the operation is that there is not a sign anywhere giving the name of the park, or when it will open. But hopefully we’ll know something before we leave the area.

Since Galveston Bay RV Park seems determined to start pricing their way out of our comfort zone, I ask Jan it she could live here, and she said, “YES”.

So we’ll see.

 

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February 15, 2016

They Can’t Get’em All . . .

We didn’t walk this morning since we had to head down to Brandi’s about 1 pm, and that’s often about the time we finish up with our walk-breakfast-walk routine.

From last night when the park was almost full, this morning it was now half empty as everyone headed home after the long holiday weekend. Now we would have our choice of sites instead of the slim pickings we had yesterday.

As I said, we headed out for Brandi’s about 1, getting there about 2:30, so that we could pick Landon up at his school, while Brandi and Lowell could attend a Parent-Teacher conference.

We headed out for Landon’s school a little after 3 to get in line to wait for the the dismissal. We drove Lowell’s truck so that we wouldn’t have to switch over Landon’s car seat, as well as the Student ID Tag that identifies the truck as being Landon’s pickup vehicle.

The way this school handles parents picking up their kids is a model of modern technology.

We lined up in the truck outside the school grounds along the street until we were waved in. As we entered, one of two ladies logged us into the computer system with an iPad, using the unique number showing on the Student ID Tag that hung from the rearview mirror, while the other lady holds up a sign directing us to the right or left lane as we queued up.

Based on our position in the line, which was tracked from the Student ID number entered earlier, the computer now knows which one of the numbered pickup stations we will stop at. At this point Landon’s teacher receives a computer message to send Landon out to, in this case, Station 6, and the teacher monitoring Station 6 also knows to expect Landon, and tracks him down if he doesn’t show up on time.

And in our case, when our line stopped,  we stopped because the vehicle in front of us stopped at Station 5, so we were sitting at Station 6, and there was Landon waiting for us.

This is much safer for the kids since they’re not running hither and yon, out into the streets as cars are zipping in and out all trying to pick up their kids and get on their way. The only possible problem I can see is what if the computer system goes down? And it will, believe me.

So, do they have a backup plan without computers, or are they just going with the chaos method?

Brandi and Lowell showed up at the house about 4:30 and then we all headed out for dinner. They were introducing us to La Finca Mexican Restaurant, a place they’d eaten at several times, but a first for us.

And now we want to know why they’ve been hiding this place from us. It was delicious.

We knew we were in for a treat with the first dip of salsa. It was thick, chunky, and just full of smoky chipotle flavor. Very good.

For our meal, Jan and I split the Combo Beef and Chicken Fajitas Poblanas for Two.

Although it was more like ‘For Four’, than Two. With Beef, Chicken, poblano peppers, red peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and cheese, it was a full meal and then some. In fact we took half of it home for tomorrow.

Really, really good and we’ll go back.

Wrapping up, I thought I’d post this video of a Roadrunner/Rattlesnake Deathmatch. I had seen this a while back, but fellow gate guard JW Wilk’s reposting on Facebook made me want to pass it on to you.

Based on this video, I think the Coyote was probably lucky he never actually caught the Roadrunner. It wouldn’t have turned out well.

When we were on our very first gate back in 2012, there were roadrunners all over the place, always zipping around with a mouthful of lizard or grasshopper.

They were very curious, and seemingly not afraid of anything. One time I sitting out under the canopy on the gate, reading my Kindle, and I suddenly felt something watching me.

Looking down there was a big male roadrunner less than a foot away, just looking up at me. After we stared at each other for about 30 seconds, I guess he figure he wasn’t ‘that’ hungry, and stalked off.

Later that summer, on another gate, the landowner told my wife there were a lot of rattlesnakes in the area and wondered if we had seen any of them. Jan said we hadn’t and that there were so many roadrunners around that they were probably keeping them under control.

He looked at Jan very seriously and said, “They can’t get’em all.”

 

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February 15, 2017

Back At Colorado River . . .

A short blog tonight.

We had an uneventful two hour trip from the Spacious Country RV Park in Cuero, TX to the Colorado River Thousand Trails in Columbus, TX, wrapping up our latest adventures in gate guarding until sometime in the late August/ September timeframe.

Luckily we were able to get a 50 amp full-hookup site down on the river without a problem, even as full as they were.

About 3pm Jan and I headed into Katy to have dinner at our favorite Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, finally getting back to the rig about 8:30.

I’ll flesh this all out tomorrow. I still haven’t gotten back to a normal sleep schedule, so I’m dead tired and this is all you get tonight.

 

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February 15, 2018

Git ‘Er Done . . .

Jan’s still feeling good, with no more pain. But she’s still feeling kind of washed out, with not a lot of energy. So today became a stay at home day, finishing up some of our leftovers and stuff we bought ahead for times like this.

About 2pm I  ventured outside to take down our last window awning. Between cold weather, wet weather, and hospital visits, this is pretty much the first time I’ve had a chance to git ‘er done.

With all the practice I’ve had it only took me about 15 minutes to have it down, out of the frame and in the backseat of the truck ready to drop off.

With the awning down, I headed out about 3:15 to drop off the awning at Sundowner Canvas and then stop off at the Friendswood WalMart to pickup one of Jan’s prescriptions that wasn’t ready yesterday afternoon. We did save about $25 by not picking up one of them, since the problem that it was for hasn’t shown up., and probably won’t now.

In on of those rare occurrences, almost like a total eclipse of the sun, everyone in the family is off this coming Sunday, so we’re have a big get-together at Brandi and Lowell’s new digs up in Katy. Really looking forward to it.

I’d like to get the new awning up soon, but tomorrow I work, Saturday it’s supposed to be raining, and Sunday we’re up in Katy. But maybe between rain and traveling I can squeeze in some time. This one, at 135 inches long, is the biggest and might be a little hard to hold up while I slide the rail and torque tube onto the fabric.

 

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February 15, 2019

It’s Like Y2K All Over Again . . .

After talking it over with our mailing company this morning, they were able to push us up a little in the queue so that our mail-out ad cards should be hitting the addresses the week of Feb. 25th, just in time for the beginning of the March sale.

I mentioned a few weeks back about a disappearing package. My client bought an $700 machine on eBay that was shipped and then was out for delivery here in Houston by the Post Office on December 28th. And then . . . POOF!

It just disappeared. Finally after 30 days missing, the PO said the sender should apply to collect the insurance. So I contacted the seller through eBay, (the only way you can contact an eBay seller. You never get an email address) But after resending me the PO tracking info, he took a powder and I never heard from him again.

So I entered a complaint with eBay who said they’d contact the seller and get him to contact me. But that if he didn’t by the 12th of February, to contact them again and they’d get involved.

So when I still didn’t hear anything by then, I contacted eBay on the 13th and the $727.49 was back in our PayPal account on the 14th. Nice work.

I suspect that the seller cheaped out and didn’t buy the insurance on the unit, and then got stuck. But at least we were covered with their purchase guarantee.

It’s Like Y2K All Over Again.

Come April 6th, 2019, be careful where you drive. Or at least be careful where your  GPS tells you to drive. Turns out that in a retro-Y2K twist, the date stamp in the GPS will reset, and it suddenly won’t know where it, and you, are. This is because they only programmed a 10bit register to store the week, So every 1024 weeks, or about 20 years, the date rolls back to zero.

This of course, is reminiscent of the whole Y2K fiasco where to save memory space (back in the days when it was really expensive) they stored the year as two digits, i.e., 1980 was ‘80’, 1999 was’99, and of course, 2000 was ‘00’.

WHOOPS!

Newer GPS implementations use a 13bit storage area, which should last until the sun goes red giant and engulfs the planet. Hopefully that’ll be long enough.

You can read more about it here:

GPS Date Problem

Now, units produced since 2010 or so, should be using the new ICD-200/IS-GPS-200 specifications, and should be OK. I say ‘should’, because apparently some manufacturers have been somewhat lax in updating their software.

Saves a few bucks, don’t you know. So be careful out there.

 

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February 15, 2020

Not The Way I Wanted To Remember Her . . .

After breakfast at the motel this morning we were on our way home a little after 8:30, via an overnight stay in Slidell about half way.

But our first stop was at the Golden Rule BBQ in Birmingham once again. In fact we timed our motel departure so we would get there right at 10:30am when they opened.

Once again we both got the Jumbo Sliced Pork Sandwich, mine Outside Cut, and splitting a order of Fries.

This so we wouldn’t be as full as when we were here the other day, wanting to have room for their delicious home-made pie. Jan got her usual Double Chocolate,

while I got the Lemon Icebox version.

Our tummies full of great BBQ, 45 minutes later we were back on I-20/I-59 heading for Slidell about 320 miles away. Or ‘Slidle’ as the British lady on our GPS pronounces it.

We made a gas stop at Hattiesburg, paying $1.99/gallon, a nice improvement over the $2.21 we paid in Athens.

Since we’d had a big lunch, getting into Slidell we decided to just grab a sandwich at a Chick Fil A right near our hotel before getting to our room.

And once again we lucked out. We had a very nice King-Size room, made even nicer because it was only $62 a night.

And with a nice computer table as a plus.

There was no blog this past Wednesday due to the storms, high winds and power outages in the Athens area. This on top of the four days of rain that they’d already had.

So a lot of big trees came down, including this 100 year old oak tree on the Limestone County Courthouse lawn.

When it came down about 6:30 Wednesday night, it actually trapped five cars in its extended branches. Though no one was injured, three people had to be cut out of one of the cars when they were trapped inside.

I mentioned in past blogs that I had three girlfriends over the years when I lived here. And a few years ago when we were visiting here, I mentioned to Jan that I was kind of looking around wondering if I would run into any of them.

But then I realized that I was looking for them like they looked when they were 16 or so. Not in their 60’s as they would be now. And I told Jan that I had resisted looking any of them up, even Sam (Samantha) the future duchess I knew in South America, on FB or elsewhere because I didn’t want to find out something bad had happened to them.

Well, as it happened, one of my relatives, who remembered who I had dated back then, told me that one of them had died last March at the age of 68, apparently of cancer.

As I said, not the way I wanted to remember her.

 

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February 15, 2021

Blog Called on Account Of . . .

Rain, Sleet, Snow, Ice, and it’s cold as Hell!

The temperature went down to 21° last night, but we stayed warm and toasty.

Until the power went off at 2am. And stayed off.

And as of 10pm tonight, it’s still off.

But we held out as long as we could.

Finally about 1pm when it was 25 outside the rig, and 41 inside the rig, we gave it up.

We knew that they were going to be doing short (30-60 minutes) rolling blackouts, but we had been off almost 12 hours. And then our daughter Brandi called from up in Katy saying she had heard on TV that if you didn’t have power now, you probably wouldn’t get it back for a couple of days.

So I was on the phone to the La Quinta over on I-45 in Texas City, booked us a room, and we were on our way over there about 45 minutes.

We were so cold that turning the heater in the Jeep was almost painful. And even more painfully was the fact that that when we got to the hotel they couldn’t check us in since their power had just gone off and the computers were off.

And though a real comedy of errors, we didn’t finally get into our room until about 8:30pm.

But more about that tomorrow.

We’re warm and toasty again.

 

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February 15, 2022

Scenic Views . . .

We had lunch today at Twin Peaks once again, but something different this time, rather than our usual.

Jan had been wanting to try their wings, but didn’t want a whole order of 6. So she had 4 and I had 2.

In addition, she got a side salad and a cup of the Tomato Basil soup, while I got a bowl of their Green Chile Chicken soup.

Sylvia, our regular waitress, saw us come in and was already getting our drinks together when we were seated.

Since TP wasn’t really busy, we got a chance to spend a little time talking to Sylvia. A very nice young lady.

After lunch we had planned to make a WalMart/Sam’s Club stop, but when we came out it had started to rain so we called it a day.

Looks like I’m going have to find a new storage room. We’ve had a climate-controlled 10’ x 20’ with the Extra Space Storage location over on FM517 since 2018 with no problems. They did jump the cost last year $20 from $132 to $152, the first increase in our time there.

But then a few weeks ago I got a post card from them saying they were jumping the rent from $152 to $232 per month. WOW!

That’s a $80 bump, or more than a 53% increase!

I’m going to double check with them tomorrow to be sure it’s not a mistake, but otherwise we’ll be moving on. There’s a Public Storage location about 1 mile or so away that looks to be much more reasonably priced.

Tomorrow it’s back to work after I was off for my doctor’s appointment yesterday.