Our RV Adventures

Our Saturday in the Texas Hill Country started early, with a 9am breakfast at The Dam Grill, one of our favorite spots. And since Brandi, Lowell, and Landon got in last night, we had a bigger group this morning.

Jan and I both got their 3 egg omelets, differing only in the ingredients. Mine was the ‘Kitchen Sink’ version with 9 different things inside.

And along with Hashbrowns, Biscuits, and Sausage Gravy, of course.

While Jan and I also shared a Blueberry Pancake too.

And, as always, it was DAM good.

(By the way, it’s called The DAM Grill because it’s near the Buchanan Dam.)

And leaving a little later came across this neat Pontiac, I think.

Getting back to Chris’, and after resting up, a rousing game of Pickle Ball broke out in one area,

while Derek and Piper were playing Beerless Beer Pong.

Landon, for his part, just looked cool,

while Bob the Cat look on warily.

BTW he’s call Bob because somewhere along the line, he lost most of his tail and just has 2” stump.

Later in the afternoon Linda fixed us a delicious meal of Stacked Enchiladas, Bean Taquitos, and a Bean & Corn Salad.

Really great.

Then after the sun went down we sat around Chris’ firepit while Linda served us dessert, Sopapilla’s and BlueBell Ice Cream.

Another great day with family.

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Thought for the Day:

If we’re ever in a situation where I’m the ‘Voice of Reason’, then we’re in a very, very bad situation.

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March 31, 2010

Fremont Street Redux and a New Throne…

Last night we went back down to the Fremont Street Experience because we wanted to see both the Queen and the KISS videos on the overhead screen.

In between the two videos we had supper at Mimi’s Café, a restaurant we first tried in Yuma, A good choice for our last meal, so to speak.

Jan and I went to an early lunch at IHOP before heading back to the rig. On the way back I stopped off at the RV park office and paid for another week.

Then it was time to get back to work on replacing the toilet, a job I started last week. But it was more fun running around Las Vegas than working on the toilet. Who knew?

About 4:30 pm we went out to Pepe’s Tacos right down the road from our park to check it out. Not bad.

Then it was back to the rig and the toilet.

Finally about 8:30pm I had the new toilet in and working. I’ve still got some buttoning up to do on it, but at least we don’t have to walk down to the bathhouse to use the restrooms now.

Life is good.

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March 31, 2011

Home in Verde Valley . . .

This morning began way, way too early, 6 am too early to be exact. I got up and let Jan sleep while I went outside and started disassembling our RV site. We plan on leaving the Pima County Fairgrounds here in Tucson this morning and heading about 230 miles north to the Verde Valley Thousand Trails RV Resort near Camp Verde, AZ

A little before 7 I went in to wake up Jan to get ready to go meet Al & Adrienne for breakfast at Poco & Mom’s. Although she was feeling a little better when I talked to her about 3 am, she definitely was feeling worse now.

So about 7:30 I headed out alone to meet Al & Adrienne. We had a great meal and talked about our mutual plans for the next few months.

They plan on spending the summer working in Cody, WY near Yellowstone National Park and we’re going to try to stop in and see them when we’re in the area later this summer, probably in June.

After saying our goodbyes and getting Jan a cheese quesadilla and iced tea to go, I got back to the rig about 9:15 to find Jan up and about, but without a lot of energy to do anything, but she was trying. I told her to stay on the couch and I would get us ready to leave.

By about 10:45 we were hitched and heading out. But the cats were very confused. They couldn’t figure out why we were moving, but Jan wasn’t in her chair for them to sit with. Finally Mister apparently decided he’d just climb up there and wait on her. Then a little before Phoenix, Jan was feeling well enough to leave the sofa and join me up front.

After some steep grades, but a smooth trip overall, we arrived at the Verde Valley TT gate right at 3 pm. And they had all our check-in stuff waiting for us, smooth as silk.

The Verde Valley TT park is really nice. It’s out in the country, kind of carved out around the hills and valleys. And it’s got a really strong 30 amps. With everything else turned off except the frig and the water heater, we were able to run both A/C’s during the afternoon to cool the coach down quicker.

We didn’t do much for supper, with Jan having the rest of her quesadilla, and I had my spaghetti leftover from Argenziano’s on Tuesday.

Jan seems to be on the mend. Hopefully she’ll feel even better tomorrow.

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March 31, 2012

You can never have enough Chachi’s . . .

After everything that’s been going on, today was a pretty quiet day. I was up about 10 and got started on making coffee the first thing. We both missed having our morning coffee while we were staying in the hotel. And even when we did have coffee, it wasn’t very good.

And to make things even better, Jan discovered two Cinnamon Buns in the freezer, and along with the coffee, made for an excellent brunch, and a nice start to the day.

Then a little before noon, we headed out on a couple of errands. Our first stop was the park office to re-up through Tuesday. Next we headed back over to the La Quinta after Jan realized she’d left some clothes in the dresser, and luckily they were still there.

Getting home I worked on some projects around the rig for a couple of hours, before finally deciding to take a nap about 3:30.

About 5pm Jan and I headed over to Chachi’s for more great Mexican food. They’re closed on Sunday, so we wanted to get our fix in for the weekend.

Tomorrow we hope to Skype with Brandi, Lowell, and Master Landon. Because of either traveling, or not having a good Internet signal, this will be the first time we’ve been able to Skype since we left Houston about 6 weeks ago, and we’re really looking forward to it.

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March 31, 2014

Makeup Se . . . er . . . Makeup Blog . . .

Yesterday we left the rig about 10 am, heading down to the Clear Lake area to visit our son Chris.

And leaving the park we came across a trail ride, coming in to camp after a weekend ride.

This is the Colorado River Trail Riders Group, and they do regular weekend trail rides out through the countryside. It looks like they have a lot of fun. Before the start of the Houston Rodeo every year, they may spend a couple of weeks on the road.

Getting into Columbus, we stopped at the Jack in the Box for a quick breakfast. But it wasn’t quick, and more importantly it wasn’t very good. Normally we really like the breakfasts there but this was an exception. It took over 10 minutes to get our Supreme Croissant breakfast sandwiches. So we figured since it was after 10:30, they were making them from scratch. If that was so, then they made them fresh and them put them in the fridge for a while, because when they finally came out, they were lukewarm at best. And that was being generous.

The only positive was that the coffee was good.

Getting into Webster, our first stop was one of our favorites, Floyd’s Cajun Seafood. But it wasn’t for us. Our son Chris had stomach surgery last week, and is still on liquid meals. And what he really wanted was some of Floyd’s famous Crab Bisque. So we picked up a large order and headed over to his house.

Then after spending an hour or so with Chris, we headed over to a client/friend’s house to repair their wireless printer setup. They had recently changed Internet providers from Comcast to Verizon and this disrupted the network that the printers worked on.

Getting this fixed, Jan and I headed over to Pearland about 6pm to meet our friend’s Bonnie and Richard for dinner at Los Cuco’s. a Mexican restaurant that we like in the area. Then, after a nice, leisurely meal, we headed over to Bonnie and Richard’s for coffee and dessert, and more conversation. So by the time we got home, it was almost midnight. A long, but nice day. But, thus, no blog.

Unlike yesterday, today was pretty much a lay-about, easy day. Jan read her Kindle and napped, and I did computer stuff.

Later in the afternoon, I noticed that the AC wasn’t working very well. Today was the first day it got hot enough to really use the AC, so I hadn’t noticed it before.

My first thought was to check the filters on both units and that turned out to be the cause. Both were pretty clogged, and in thinking, I realized I hadn’t cleaned them since last fall when we were gate guarding, so it was about time. But in my defense, we really haven’t used them much this past winter

And cleaning them with the vacuum took care of the problem. I’ll have to put them on my maintenance list to look at more often.

For dinner, I fixed our version of Skyline Chili’s Chili Five Ways, which is made with spaghetti, Skyline Chili, Beans, Shredded Cheese, and Onions.

Actually, Jan has hers Four Ways, because she doesn’t like onions on hers. We also added Ground Habanero for a little spiciness.

Also, FWIW, if you sprinkle Oyster Crackers on top, it becomes Chili Six Ways. Never had it that way.

On the Landon front, Brandi’s boss gave Landon this puppet show. It’s up in his room and he loves it.

He spends a lot of time putting on his own shows.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a quiet and laidback as today. But you never know.

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March 31, 2015

Wide Open Spaces . . .

No, not the western plains, but the many RV parks around Apache Junction. Every time we drive around here at Countryside RV Park, we see more and more empty spaces where yesterday sat RV’s. And a growing numbers of the park models have obviously been closed up for the summer.

The annual northern migration of snowbirdus rves has begun in earnest.

Jan had been wanting some way to have her favorite earrings easier to find than digging through her jewelry case, so I mounted these hooks on either side of the bathroom cabinet to make it a little simpler.

Around 5pm we headed over to the Golden Corral about 7 miles away for dinner.

Later coming home, we made a PO stop to drop Landon’s Easter card in the mail.

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March 31, 2016

Cool Again . . . for Now

First off, the link for the Funeral Potatoes got messed up and was pointing to my old Our RV Adventures website, so no recipe there. But it’s here on Jan’s Favorite Recipe page now.

After coffee I got back on my air conditioner problem. Based on what I found yesterday, I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem is not with the AC itself, but with the missing control signal, I.e. the one that turns on the compressor.

Obviously there is some sort of junction box somewhere, because the yellow wire that comes out from the side of the coach roof  to the AC unit is a slightly different gauge and has a different type of insulation than the yellow wire that ends up at the thermostat, plus it has to pick up the 12v from somewhere. So that’s what I need to locate.

So my next step was to put in a call to American Coach to see if they had any insight on my problem. But unlike most times, they weren’t any help. They kept trying to tell me about the control box inside the old AC unit, and how it was located in the duct.

Well, it’s not.

I’ll probably call back tomorrow and hopefully get another tech, and another idea. So my next task was to post my problem on RV.net and the Yahoo American Coach group to see if the Cloud Mind can be of any help.

With all this done, and no more things to check, it was time to put my theory to the test. The theory that this is all a control signal problem, and not a AC unit problem.

My thought was that the 12v fan signal is working and will turn the fan on. So I figured that all I need to do is bridge the fan voltage over to the compressor contact, like this.

The red test clip jumps from the fan connection to the compressor connection, so that when the thermostat sends voltage to turn on the fan, it also turns on the compressor. The yellow clip lead is just a temporary jumper for the freeze sensor.

So I turned to the thermostat to Cool, and about 30 seconds later I had this.

Not bad for an 85 degree day.

So we’re cool again, but I still need to figure out what’s causing the problem to start with. But that’s for tomorrow.

Brandi, Lowell, and Landon went up to the Dallas area to visit friends over the Easter weekend.

Looks like Landon got in some fishing,

and some drumming.

He may be taking after his mother, Brandi, who played drums, both in the marching band and a trap set like these.

Finishing up, our granddaughter Piper, has moved down to Galveston to be closer to her job. She an Emergency Room Tech at UTMB Hospital, while working toward her R.N. degree.

She’s got an apartment 3 blocks from the Seawall, near the Bishop’s Palace, and only 5 blocks from work. A lot better than the 60 mile round-trip commute from Friendswood she had before.

Looks like she’s got a nice place.

Saturday we’re meeting up with Brandi, et al, and heading down to Galveston to check out her new place. Really looking forward to it.

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March 31, 2017

Dead Shoes Walking?

Today turned out to be a mostly do-nothing day, just puttering around and enjoying the nice cool weather.

With a high of 66 today and a low of 47 tonight, it’s a nice respite from the upcoming 100° temps that will be here soon.

Later in the afternoon I went outside to use up my daily flower garden watering allotment to finish cleaning the rig’s aluminum wheels.

After the first pass a couple of weeks ago, I ended up with this

due to a bad nozzle on the spray  bottle. Blotchy, but it shows the possibilities.

So today I poured the solution into a new spray bottle and tried again. And this is what I got.

Looks great.

So next I tried it on one of the rear wheels, starting with this,

and then ending with this.

Again, really good.

Leaving the coach looking like this.

At least on the passenger side anyway. However I ran out of the spray before I did the driver’s rear wheel. It’s almost done, but needs another coat and rinse.

But since the primary ingredient is phosphoric acid, I may just get a bottle of it at the hardware store or Home Depot and make my own. Or maybe just spray a can of Coke on it.

Yesterday, before I dropped my garbage at the park dumpster, I did my usual survey of the contents, looking for anything interesting. And there, sitting right on top, was a pair of black New Balance shoes, looking almost brand new. So they came home with me. Of course the first thing I checked was the size, which was 10-1/2. Now, ideally, I wear a 9 EEEE or maybe EEE, if I can find shoes in that size. And yes, I have snowshoe feet, which I inherited from my father.

So I usually end up buying 10 to 10-1/2 shoes to get them wide enough. And getting these home later, they fit really well.

Free shoes!

Of course Jan said the reason a perfectly good, little worn pair shoes got thrown away, is that the guy died.

Dead Shoes Walking!

And it’s not the first time I’ve gone dumpster diving. Well, not ‘diving’ as it were, more like dumpster ‘reaching’, since I never actually get into the dumpster, but just reach in.

So far over the years I’ve found a 6ft pre-lit Christmas tree, still in the box, a couple of nice paintings, a brand-new pair of Crocs, still fastened together, and my big score, a Winegard Carryout Satellite dome, in working condition.

Except for the lack of a power cord, don’t know why it was thrown away.

Tonight was the final episode of one of our favorite TV shows, Grimm, and we’re really sorry to see it go. But it least it was a great ending, although it seemed to be touch and go there for a while.

In fact about half way through, Jan said, “I hate this show!” But it got better at the end.

Grimm R.I.P.

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March 31, 2018

The Place Even Smells ‘Shrimpy’ . . .

After talking it over about where we wanted to eat this afternoon, we finally decided on Pook’s Crawfish Hole. I think it was me more than Jan, but she’s was willing to give it a try.

Pook’s is located on FM646, just a few block’s east of Hwy 6, and only about 5 minutes from the rig.

We drive by it all the time and it’s always busy.  So busy that sometimes the parking lot is full and people are parking out along the street. So it must  be good.

But we lucked out today because when we got there about 2pm, the place was only about half full, with most diners sitting the open outside area.

Pook’s is unusual in that it’s only open about 6 months a year, pretty much from January to June, I.e. crawfish season. And boiled crawfish, boiled shrimp, boiled snow crab, and a few sides, are pretty much the entire menu.

Now growing up in South Alabama, shrimp was king, but crawfish (crawdads, mudbugs, etc) were considered just bait. So we ordered a pound of hot boiled shrimp, an order of boiled mushrooms,

and just to stay in the spirit of things, a crawfish pie.

Jan and I split the pie, with Jan really liking it, but I found it kind of bland.

There were 16 shrimp in this pound, making them 16/20’s or Extra Jumbo, bigger than most places around here.

For example Floyd’s sells a dozen shrimp for $13.99, ones that look like they’re 21/25’s, and on the high end at that.

Word to the wise, buy your shrimp by the pound, not by the dozen.

In this case the shrimp were deveined, hot and delicious. And each pound comes with a corn and a red-skin potato, all boiled in the same water as the shrimp. As were the mushrooms, which Jan said were very tasty as well.

Just about everything here is ‘finger food’, so your fingers, hands, faces, get kind of greasy, so this wash station is handy for cleaning up.

I think my grandmother had one just like this, complete with the wringer.

And like the sign out front says, they sell the crawfish live too, in these 30 lb. sack’s in case you want to roll your own.

We’ll go back. Really, really good.

Not sure what’s on the schedule for tomorrow, so we’ll just have to see how it goes.

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March 31, 2019

Nothing Caught Fire or Fell Off . . .

And no leaking oil was seen. So we declared today’s rig test drive a success. So we’re all ready to head up to Kingsland on Friday.

Thought today’s test drive was about 50 miles instead of last year’s 35, I’m not sure the extra 15 miles would have shown up any oil leak anyway.

Last October we didn’t see any oil leak on our test drive, but then it showed up when we headed out for Florida. So I guess we will see for sure on our upcoming trip.

We ended up taking the I-45 route today, since they had finally opened the northbound side, so we left the park heading south on Hwy 6 before looping back up on I-45. That took us all the way up to FM528 in Webster, where a left turn pointed us toward Hwy 35 and on back onto Hwy 6 and south back to Santa Fe and home. As I said, about a 50 mile loop.

That’s about it for today, with a busy week coming up. But more about that tomorrow.

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March 31, 2020

I Can’t Resist Any Longer . . .

Back in the mid-late 90’s, I dabbled in stocks, and I made some decent money. I probably could have made more, but unfortunately stock trading wasn’t like it is today.

Back then it was hard to find a brokerage that would handle small accounts >$1000. And if they did, the commission rates made it hard to make money on small trades.

However today, with companies like E*TRADE, Ally, and Charles Schwab, etc., offering $0 trades, as well as $0 to open an account, as well as all the good quality companies with severely depressed stock prices, I know where our Stimulus checks are going to go.

Probably my best trade was back in late 1996, after reading about a number of clinical studies showing the efficacy of zinc in treating colds, I bought $100 of ColdEze when it was basically a penny stock. Then 18 months later I sold it for about $5000, which paid for our Holland America Alaskan Cruise in May 1998 with a good bit left over.

But most of my profits came from short term trades (3 – 6 months) for maybe $500 profit on a $100 buy. So we’ll see how it goes now.

Jan and I went out this afternoon and put some more time in on the shed, ending up with this.

I’m using the full Kitty Litter bucket to help hold it down in case the wind comes up.

And like before, there was a couple of problems with the instructions. The latches that hold the wall sections together were labeled ‘Q’ in the manual, but the parts I had were labeled ‘WC’. Plus some of the photos didn’t really match the parts that I had. But we got it figured out.

Thursday we’ll start working on the roof, including the front part that slides back and forth to make access easier.

We’re putting it together on the patio to be sure it’s level and square. Then when it’s done, we’ll slide it onto a raised frame behind the patio concrete.

Back when I booked our upcoming September 2020 Alaskan Cruise I didn’t book our flights at that time, because we weren’t quite sure about the dates. We already planned to fly into Fairbanks a week early so we could spend some extra time there, but we weren’t sure what we wanted to do when our cruise ended in Vancouver, B.C. on September 13th, 2020.

So Jan and I were talking the other day, about the one time we’d been to Vancouver was on our first Alaskan cruise in 1998, and then it was only to ride a bus from the airport to directly inside the cruise ship, and how we’ve like to spend some more time there.

We disembark from the Noordam September 13th, about 7am, then rather than get on the bus to the airport, we’ll take an Uber to whatever hotel our friend/travel agent, Chantelle Nugent, finds for us. Then we’ll fly back to Houston on the 17th.

So yesterday I went back to Expedia to check flights and prices, and boy, was there a difference. When l looked at flights/prices back in October, a One-Way ticket from Houston to Fairbanks was between $550 – $650 per person. And a One-Way ticket from Vancouver to Houston ran about $400 each.

But today, the same ticket to Fairbanks was now only $188. And the Vancouver ticket was only $147. That means that all 4 tickets totaled only $670, only a little more than one ticket to Fairbanks.

Of course, it’s all because of the WuFlu situation, and I wish the money we saved wasn’t for that reason, but of course there’s always a chance that Delta and Air Canada will be out of business in September and I’ll lose the money anyway.

Jan and I headed out about 3:30 to make a Kroger stop and then pick up dinner at Los Ramirez on the way home. Kroger wasn’t especially busy, and Jan was able to score some baby wipes for the first time, so she was happy.

And our Los Ramirez was as delicious as always.

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March 31, 2021

Boats and Jeeps . . .

Well, I remembered last night go outside and confirm that I had a good site line for Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet system, so this morning I went online and signed up for the service and paid my $99 deposit.They’re saying mid to late 2021 to receive my system.

Really looking forward to 300 Mbps! And maybe a lot faster.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that Jan and I were going up to Brandi’s on Sunday for an Easter get-together. Well, that’s been expanded to all weekend.

Now we’re going up on Saturday afternoon to spend the day in the headed pool and the evening around the firepit, and then have our Easter dinner on Sunday. And probably some more heated pool time.

In the meantime, I mentioned that Miss Piper had to work this weekend, so she wouldn’t be at Brandi’s, and now it looks like Chris and Linda are off on their own adventure.

They’re off with a bunch of fellow Jeep enthusiasts on a week-long road trip out to Utah. But Chris is probably the only one on the trip who pretty much built his Jeep.

It started like this.

And then he ended up like this.

Of course, he once took a rotted-out boat that was out in a field with a tree growing out of it, and turned it into this.

And not only did he rebuilt the boat, he also rebuilt the Ford 351 Windsor (Mercruiser) engine, and a Velvet Drive inboard/outboard drive unit.

Hopefully we’ll get some photos back from the trip soon.

A few days ago I decided to upgrade the soundbar on our TV system. I wanted something with more bass, I.e. a subwoofer, and the ability to individually adjust the bass, and the treble, especially the treble.

I mentioned before that some reason the treble on CuriositySteam seems muted compared to other streaming channels, so putting all this together, I ordered a new soundbar system from Amazon.

VMAI Soundbar with Subwoofer

It came in today, and once I got it home, it only took a few minutes to substituted it for the old one. The only thing new was the placement of the subwoofer, which I placed behind the TV itself.

And it sounds great!

The remote has pre-set equalizer buttons for Music, Movies, News, and a really neat 3D mode,that simulates Surround Sound. And then of course, separate bass and treble adjustment buttons.

All in all, a really nice unit.

Tomorrow we’re getting an early start, leaving the rig about 7am. We’ve both got our annual physicals with our family doctor starting at 8am.

Here’s hoping for good numbers.

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March 31, 2022

Good Food . . .

And A Clean Bill Of Health!

When I gave Jan a list of suggestions on where she might want to eat today, she picked Twin Peaks.

Note: She picked it, not me.

I just made sure it was in my list of suggestions.

Jan started off with a cup of the Tomato Basil Soup,

and move on to her usual Spicy Chipotle Chicken,

but with two broccolis, rather than the normal mashed potatoes.

I had the Soup and Half Sandwich, with the Brisket Chili and their Old Fashion BLT, along with the Green Beans, instead of Fries.

The Chili was Texas Style, with No Beans, but very good. The overall taste reminded me of their late-lamented Venison Chili.

One thing I like about the TP version of the BLT is that they don’t skimp on the B part.

There are six! slices of bacon on this 1/2 Sandwich.

They weren’t real busy today so we had some extra time to talk with Sylvia, our favorite server.

We were talking about the outfits they wear, and Sylvia said management has had to crack down on some of the girls for being a little too ‘cheeky’. Not on the standard outfits, but on the ‘special’ holiday ones, where it seems pretty much anything goes.

Sylvia said that the only things TP gives them are the plaid tops, the socks, and the belt pouch. The girls have to furnish everything else, including their ‘special’ outfits.

Sylvia is a real sweetheart and always has a big smile for us.

That was the Good Food.

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Next up is the Clean Bill of Health.

After lunch Jan had her yearly Mammogram and everything came back clean. Since she had breast cancer back in 2014 she’s always very anxious about it.

One thing Jan really likes is that her mammograms are immediately read by a physician, so she knows the results before she leaves. And even better this year, she didn’t have to have the additional 3D Ultrasound that they’ve done every year since 2015. After looking at the mammogram this year, the physician said it was identical to last years, so no ultrasound was needed.

Jan also wants me to pass on her insistence that every woman of a certain age needs to get a yearly mammogram. After getting them for years with no problems, when 2014 rolled around, she almost skipped it that year. And of course, that’s the year they found her cancer.

In her case, it was a Stage 0 lump and had not spread. So just a lumpectomy was required, with no additional treatments needed, like Chemo or Radiation.

And almost certainly not the result if she had waited another year before it was found.

And ironically I was diagnosed with a Squamous Cell Carcinoma on my head several months later. Luckily I also came up clean after it was removed, though I still have a large dimple on top of my bald head.

Tomorrow night we’ve got another visit to the Alvin Opry. Looking forward to it.