Our RV Adventures

After a lazy morning, Jan and I headed up to Webster to meet up with long-time friends, aka The Alvin Group, some of whom we’ve known since the mid-80’s.

We usually rotate around to different places, and this month was the Saltgrass Steakhouse once again.

Jan and I both got the Wedge Salad, but I got mine as my entrée while Jan got hers first before her steak.

Jan’s the 9 oz. Center Cut Filet, with the Green Beans, along with some creamy horseradish.

For my ‘salad’ course, I started everything off with a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup before moving on to my Wedge Salad.

Really good, especially after I picked all the avocado out to give to Jan.

And here’s the motley group.

Then on the way home we WalMart’ed once again before getting back to the rig about 5:15.

And chalked up another nice day.

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And now, just to stir up things, there’s this.

Texas red chili purists are wrong. Beans do belong in chili, and historically, they’ve always been there

An article in the Sept. 14, 1877 edition of the Fort Scott Daily Monitor penned by an anonymous writer visiting San Antonio from Kansas gives one of the earliest published descriptions of chili.

“Speaking of hot things, at San Antonio they have a dish called chili con carne,” the article reads. “It is of Mexican origin, and is composed of beef, peas, gravy and red pepper. It is awful seductive looking, and gives a fellow the idea that he has a soft thing on hash. They always have enough to go around, for no stranger, no matter how terrific a durned fool he is, ever calls for a second dish. He almost always calls for a big cistern full of water, and you can’t put the water in him fast enough with a steam engine hose.”

The historian wrote that bean’s were often called ‘peas’ back then.

So let the Bean Wars began.

Again.

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Thought for the Day:

A married man should forget his mistakes. There’s no use in two people remembering the same thing.

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March 9, 2009

We’ve got satellite TV again…

Jan is ecstatic!

We’ve got satellite TV again.

The Direct TV receiver/DVR we had when we left TX last year died a few months later.  I bought a new cheapy one at a pawn shop in Arizona, but never set it up since we were heading to Alaska.

Alaska is so far north that you need a larger disk to pick up the satellites, plus where we were parked for 5 months in Fairbanks had a big mountain in the way.

Then when we got back to Houston, the park we were at on Dickinson Bayou was so windy, everyone’s dish kept getting blown over so I didn’t even try.

But it’s working now and Jan’s happy, and as you remember from a previous post, if Jan’s happy, yada, yada, yada.

In weather news, when we got up today it was foggy, and it stay pretty foggy all day.

Here’s how it looked out the front of our coach this morning.

With more to come tomorrow.   Oh, boy!

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March 9, 2011

Cactus Queens and Dairy Queens . . .

When we got up this morning we had a nice surprise waiting for us from our daughter Brandi. New Landon Photos!

But the real surprise was how much he’d grown. In these two new photos he’s almost 7 months, lying in his ‘Froggy Chair’. And note that he’s more hanging out of it than ‘in’ it.

And here he is in the same chair at two months. Quite a difference!

Brandi said he’s getting so tall, he’s growing out of a lot of his outfits.

We got up at 8:30 even though we didn’t want to, because I still had a lot of work to do on my seminar today. We were really overwhelmed by the attendance at yesterday’s seminar. As I said I thought we might have 20 or so. We had 117.

For today’s class I had planned on giving everyone a CD containing the programs that I was going to talk about. But based on yesterday I was going to need a lot more CD’s. So I made 50 last night and then did another 30 this morning.

And at the same time I was revamping my outline. I realized yesterday that I didn’t talk near as fast as I thought I did, so I knew I had to shorten the topics I planned on covering.

About 11 Jan and I took a break to walk over the the food vendor to get hot dogs for lunch. Turns out they were nicely grilled rather than boiled, and were delicious. We brought them back to the rig and had them with the last of Jan’s Twice-Baked Potato Casserole from the BBQ potluck on Saturday that Dennis Hill did for the parking crew.

Then it was back to making CD’s, and finally we able to started printing the handouts. The class was called Do’s and Don’ts of Computer Security

Just to be on the safe side we printed up 120 handouts, and Jan finished stapling them together just fifteen minutes before the class started at 1pm. Talk about cutting it close!

The class went pretty well, and once again we had a lot of questions.

A LOT OF QUESTIONS!

But that was good. Everyone seem to have a good time and enjoyed themselves. And once again Jan had to drag me out of the room so the next seminar could start.

We ended up with about 79 attendees, so we were almost perfect on the CD’s and a little high on the handouts, but I’d rather have too many than not enough.

At 2:30 Jan sat in on a panel-discussion seminar entitled “How Not To Kill Your Spouse Living Together In A 400 sq.ft. RV” or maybe it was “Staying Married & Happy In An RV”, or something like that.

While Jan was learning to count to 10 before tazering me, I went shopping in the Vendor area. BTW I don’t think the ‘counting to 10’ thing is so she’ll calm down and reconsider tazering me, I think she just wants to give me a headstart to be fair about the whole thing.

Anyway, I went ahead and bought the new TireTraker Tire Pressure Monitoring System that I had my eye on.

Unlike my other system, the batteries in the tire sensors are replaceable, so they don’t have to be sent back to the factory for service every three or four years or so. I’ll let you know how it works.

We were supposed to have the Pizza Party at 6pm, but the pizza showed up at 5:30. So they had to get on the fairgrounds PA system to let everyone know to come and get it early before it got cold.

It’s really amazing how well this was organized. All 300 or so people were fed in less than 15 minutes. Almost like magic.

And there were plenty of seconds (and thirds) for anyone who wanted it.

Finally about 8pm, we all decided we needed a Dairy Queen fix so off we went to our local hangout. We’ve been there so many times, they now recognize us when we come in the door.

Or at least the girls behind the counter run and hid.

I’m not really sure what that’s all about.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a slightly less hectic day, although Jan had 8am front gate duty again, so no sleeping in.

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March 9, 2012

Leaving Yuma . . . almost.

Today was the final wrap-up of this year’s rally, finishing up with coffee and donuts, and a lot of hugs and goodbyes. All the attendees were supposed to be off the fairgrounds by noon, so the exodus soon started, with some lining up at the dump station before heading home, or just back on the road.

But luckily for us, a number of people stayed around long enough to help us clean up the main hall by stacking the tables and chairs, and then sweeping the floor.

Then it was our turn to head back to the rig and pack things up to travel. Normally we hang around for a few days at the fairgrounds while they wrap things up with the rally. But there’s a horse show coming in to the fairgrounds right after us today so we have to be gone by 5pm ourselves.

We all pulled out a little after 2pm and headed down the road . . . about 15 miles away to the Foothills area east of Yuma. We had been invited to spend a few days on Daryl and Cheri Lawrence’s RV lot while I help them out with some website stuff, as well as helping out Charles and Chris Yust who are also parked here.

After I got our rig parked and hooked up, we all sat around in the shade and just had a great time talking. Then a little before 7, Chris Yust and Cheri Lawrence set out a great dinner with grilled halibut Chris caught in Alaska, grilled shrimp from Galveston Bay, with baked potatoes, salad, and French bread, along with cupcakes for dessert.

And here’s the cook, Chris, hard at work.

And when the food is laid out, the crowd closes in, kind of like a pack of hyenas surrounding a limping antelope. You just know it’s not going to be pretty.

Tomorrow, I’ll be working with Daryl and Chris on website stuff, and hopefully we’ll also be able to visit the Yuma Indoor Flea Market too. We’ll see.

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March 9, 2013

YAY! Jan’s Home . . .

After cleaning up the RV and getting rid of all the liquor bottles and other evidence of the partying that went on while Jan was gone, I headed out for Gina’s about 11am. Along the way I stopped off at the DQ in Startzville to pick up a couple of her favorite Strawberry Malts to take with me.

I got to Gina’s about 1pm, and after getting all of Jan’s stuff loaded up, we headed out for home. But since Jan hadn’t had lunch yet, we drove over to Milagro’s to have a late lunch of Shrimp Enchiladas for Jan and a Ground Beef Taco Salad for me. And it was the usual great meal we get here.

Then it was back on the road to Medina Lake. Then just after we crossed US281 at Spring Branch, we made a Starbuck’s stop for a couple of Cinnamon Dolce Lattes, our favorites.

Along the way we passed this entrance to a high-end subdivision. Someone really wanted this road cut through solid rock and spent a lot of money doing it.

And from the road you can see it winds all the way up the mountain that way.

$$$$$

Getting into Boerne, I made a couple of quick stops at RadioShack and Home Depot before getting back to the rig about 5pm. And boy, were the cats happy to see her.

And so were the deer. Jan went out pretty quickly and started putting out the food for them, and they came from everywhere. You’d think I hadn’t been feeding them while she was gone.

Jan’s sister Debbie sent over another snow-covered bird feeder photo.

Too much snow for my taste.

Tomorrow we drive over to San Antonio for some shopping before we head out for Balmorhea, TX on Monday morning.

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March 9, 2014

Problem Found, Solution to Come . . .

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that while she was shopping at Tractor Supply Store, she found her new favorite shirt.

And to see why it’s her favorite, you have to see this close-up. It’s called ‘Girls Just Want To Have Guns’.

After getting up about 11am (Hey, it was really 10, and I didn’t go to bed until after 2am.), I went thru some more bins and started putting away some stuff getting us ready to move tomorrow.

We plan on leaving about 10am or so and make the 120 mile trip over to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails for a two week stay, and then we’ll come back here for two weeks.

About 3:45 we picked up Lynette and Gregg McHenry and headed up to Peter’s BBQ in Ellinger for an early dinner. This was our second visit since we’ve been here, and It was as good as before. Jan got a sliced brisket sandwich plate, and I got a double meat (brisket and ribs) plate. The plate part means you have access to their great sides bar. With about 10 different delicious vegetable selections and several desserts, it all makes for a great meal. We certainly plan another visit when we’re back in the area.

We got back to the rig about 5pm, and then, crossing my fingers, I cranked up the rig and tried to bring in the slide as a test, hoping that the greasing that I had done a few days ago would have solved the problem that I had bringing in the slide two weeks ago before we left Galveston Bay RV Resort. (that sentence ran longer than I thought).

But I still had the same problem. The slide would pull in normally on the front end, but not enough on the back end, causing the slide to try and pivot around the rear end. At this point I again started sliding my 3’ ruler underneath the cabinet, and unlike last time, this time I kept hitting something under there. And it turned out to be this.

A piece of the Corian floor tile that had come loose and was jamming the cabinet end of the slide and keeping it from coming in. So now the problem was solved.

NOT!

Although it now moved easier, it still wanted to run crooked. About this time Gregg McHenry showed up and figured out that, hidden under the grease and gunk, the shear pin on that side of the drive was sheared. Apparently the gear was tight enough on the shaft that it would move that end of the slide a little before it started slipping.

By this time it was starting to get dark, and since we didn’t have enough time to knock the other half of the pin out, and then get everything lined up, and had no replacement shear pins anyway, we decided to just push the slide in manually, and worry about it at Lake Conroe. As far as the shear pins, I’ll stop at the Camping World that we pass by, and hopefully, pick some up.

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March 9, 2015

BBQ and A Bucket . . .

After our coffee this morning, Jan and I walked over to the Market Building to look around some more. Then since it was getting close to lunch time, and Jan wanted to eat before the 11:30 seminar she was going to, we decided to have quesadillas from the food truck parked in front of the building, so Jan had a plain cheese one and I had a really good Chicken and Bacon one.

I was working on my own seminar, “Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit” that will be held Wednesday at 11:30am in Old Pueblo Hall’s Seminar Room 1. I haven’t given this seminar since the rally back in September of 2012. And we’ve gate guarded twice more since them, and learned a lot more, too.

Jan came back to the rig for a while before heading back over to her next seminar.

When Jan got back about 2:30, we headed out on some errands, dropping a big bag of trash off as we left the fairgrounds. Sure hope they empty the dumpsters soon because the one we used was brimming over with trash.

Our main chore was to get the truck washed. We got it washed a day or so before we left Houston, but with about a thousand miles since we left, and a lot of rain and mud along the way, a wash was really needed.

The place we used, Octopus Car Wash, did a really nice job, especially the wheels and the fender wells, areas a lot of places don’t do very well.

Coming back toward the park, we stopped off at the new Dunkin’ Donuts to pick up a couple of dozen Munchkins (holes) to have for breakfast with our coffee over the next week or so

Getting back to the rig, I carried the shower bucket over to a nearby bathroom to empty it. A shower bucket is a kitty litter bucket we keep in the shower when we’re boondocking like this with no sewer connection. You’d be surprised how much water runs down the drain just waiting for the water to get warm in the shower. So we run it into the bucket until it’s warm, and then every 3 or 4 days I dump it out. Works for us, and keeps our grey water tank from filling up so fast.

A little after 5pm we drove over for dinner up at Brushfire BBQ. We’ve really liked this place in the past, but for some reason it just didn’t click with us tonight.

It wasn’t  bad, it just wasn’t as good as we remembered. Or maybe we just remembered it better than it really was.

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March 9, 2016

I want one!

Well, as forecast for today, the weather was pretty much non-stop heavy rain, interspersed with bouts of even heavier rain. And it looks to be the same for the next couple of days.

We didn’t try to leave the park today, but if we had it might have even been worse than back in December when the bridge coming into this park looked like this.

Some places in Texas have reported rainfalls of over 10” so I guess we’re pretty lucky so far.

With all the rain, I didn’t get chance to try out my slobber tube collection can idea for our rig’s oil spraying problem, but this is what I came up with.

I plan on punching a couple of holes in the top of the can and use a piece of coat hanger to hold it in place and away from the oil pan and the engine.

Then I’ll slip a length of the heavy vinyl tubing up over the slobber tube shown below and let it rest in the bottom of the can.

I’ll have more photos when I finish it up.

For dinner tonight we had Baked Spaghetti from Crusty’s Pizza in Camp Verde, AZ, just south of the Verde Valley Thousand Trails. No, it wasn’t long distance delivery or take-out, but just a vacuum-sealed bag from the freezer.

Before we left Verde Valley last July, we picked up several of their Baked Spaghetti Dinners to vacuum-seal and freeze for later. ‘

We had them a couple of them while we were on the gate last year, and this is the last one.

And heated up, along with some cheese and grilled bread, it was a great meal, and a nice reminder of our time at Verde Valley.

I got an email from Passport America this evening, announcing a new program. Join now through April 30, 2016 and get 4 extra FREE months on your membership.

Just click on the ad above and follow the directions on how to enter my PPA membership number on your signup form. Don’t miss out on this great deal.

Jan and I have been member of Passport America since we first started RV’ing in 2008, and have probably saved thousands of  dollars in those 8 years, using it at RV parks from Alaska to Quebec and Nova Scotia, and down to the Keys, and over California.

And when we stayed in the Keys in 2009, we were saving $45 a day at a $90 a day park, so just one day’s savings paid for our year’s membership. Check it out.

I came across this article the other day on recent advances on the rocket belt/jetpack front from a new company, Jetpack Aviation. Unlike most previous models, this one, the JB-9, uses small jet turbines.

But the big advance is in the duration of the flight. The best of the original versions, the RB 2000, could fly for only 30 seconds, but even the test flight shown in the video below flew for over a minute.

Even better, this new version is supposed to have a flight duration of 10 minutes, a top speed of over 120 mph, and an altitude ceiling of 10,000 feet.

And most importantly, a built-in parachute in case things go horribly wrong. Especially important if you’re a mile or so up. I want one!

OK, so now where’s my flying car?

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March 9, 2017

One Last Time . . .

For one last time we were out the door at 8:15 for the two hour drive down to Clear Lake for our last two Dr. appointments.

Mine at 10:30 was a redo with my GP to repeat some blood work that gave some anomalous results. There seems to be some disagreement between two different blood testing companies.

In Jan’s case, she had blood work done at her oncologist, and then 8 days later, the same blood work done at our GP. Tested by two different companies, they show a couple of major discrepancies. Levels that were outside the norm on one were firmly in the middle of the normal range from the other lab.

It’s kind of like the saying “A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.” So which lab do you base any treatments on?

Although my appointment was at 10:30, I didn’t get called in until after 11:15, which meant that when I got out at 12:15, we didn’t have time to have lunch one last time at King Food before Jan’s endocrinologist appointment at 1pm.

So our Plan B was the nearby Whataburger as soon as Jan was finished. Not a bad Plan B.

Then it was on over to our son Chris’ for goodbye hugs. And it was our good luck that Miss Piper was there too. So we got double hugs!

We were back on the road to Columbus by 2:45, managing to stay mostly ahead of the Houston going-home traffic. Along the way we called our friend and Colorado River park ranger, Barbara Spade, to meet us at the Los Cuco’s Mexican Restaurant in Columbus for dinner.

Since Jan and I had eaten about three hours earlier, we just shared a Fajita Mexicanas Platter for one. A great time, great food, and Barbara was nice enough to treat us.

It doesn’t get much better than that.

Heading home we made a quick stop at HEB for a couple of things before getting back to the coach about 6:30.

Tomorrow we have a 250 mile trip to Junction, TX, the first stop on our way to Tucson. Really getting the hitch itch.

There is a possibility that there will be no blog tomorrow night. Phone/Data service has always been very spotty there in the past, so we’ll see if there’s been any improvement.

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March 9, 2018

Nailed It !

I went into work this morning still trying to figure out how to fix my SSL certificate problem. While I was off yesterday I spent a lot of time working my way through the server trying to locate the folder where the SSL certs were stored. And it was slow going continuing at work this morning.

But finally, a little after noon, I thought I had it worked out. So after figuring out how to stop the webserver, I started moving the new SSL files that I had downloaded from Godaddy into the SSL area on the server.

This was a two step process, involving downloading the files to my PC, SSH’ing them to the Linux machine, moving them into the SSL area, and then renaming the old files from XXXX.crt to XXXX.crt.2017. Finishing up, I renamed the new files to the correct names.

Then crossing my fingers, I restarted the server.

And it failed.

But it gave me an error message that lead me to what needed to be corrected. So then it was fix it, cross fingers, and restart.

And it failed . . .  again.

But did make it a little further and left me another error message.

So fix, cross, restart.

And it failed again. But this time, no error message.  ???

So I went back over things several times but I could find nothing wrong.

To be sure I hadn’t screwed something else up, I put all the 2017 files back in place and once again restarted.

And it worked. So I hadn’t screwed up with that.

So, making a list of questions,  I got on the phone with Godaddy and luckily got a Linux expert. After going over what I’d done, and what I had, he questioned a couple of the files that I had listed. He said something wasn’t right, and they shouldn’t be there, and would interfere with the initial setup of the new SSL files.

So I moved the files in question out of that folder, then cross, restart . . .

and it worked.

And when I went to the website, the Not Secure message was gone.

YAY!

The Godaddy guy and I tried to figure out why those files were in that folder. They couldn’t have been there last year when the 2017 SSL files were installed. And in fact the file dates showed they had been copied over in May 2017.

If I was just a little more paranoid, I’d might just think it was to sabotage anyone who came along after him.

Now that I’ve got root access to the server, I can get back to my original task which is to move the website off this in-house and up to Godaddy in the cloud.

For dinner tonight we had has become our usual Friday night meal at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, starting of course, with a dozen raw oysters. But since this batch was a little small, we actually got 14 instead of 12. Nice.

After dinner, we stopped by our son Chris’ for our mail and Sam’s Club for a prescription, and then it was back home for the night.

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March 9, 2019

It Was Fun While It Lasted …

And Cheaper too!

The weather held off long enough for me to get one of my rig’s windshield wipers replaced, which involved replacing the hardware on the wiper arms themselves. But when I have to replace them next time, probably two years from now, it will only take me a couple of minutes per wiper, rather than the hour or so that it has taken in the past.

We headed out about 1pm with our first stop at Cheddars for lunch, our usual Key West Chicken & Shrimp for Jan, and the Veggie Plate with a bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup for me.  Then it was a quick stop at my client’s for some Amazon stuff that came in after I left work yesterday.

After that it was right down the street to the HEB to pick up some of their Lola Savannah Texas Pecan Coffee, and a couple of things for Jan. Next up was a stop at WalMart and then Sam’s Club for a prescription and a fill-up for the truck.

Just a month or so ago, gas here was $1.74. Then last week it was $1.88. And today it was up to $2.05. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Tomorrow morning we’re meeting some good friends for breakfast at the IHOP over in Seabrook. Now Jan and I are not really morning ‘breakfast’ people. We’re more early or late afternoon ‘breakfast’ people. So you can tell that they’re REALLY, REALLY good friends since we’re meeting them at 8:45 in the morning.

I mentioned earlier that our idea to extend our stays in Paris and London had fallen victim to scheduling and, well, more money than we really wanted to pay due to cancellation charges.

But as usual, we have a backup plan. We’re going to forget about staying extra days in Paris, and concentrate on a possible London extension for the 3 days. It then basically just depends on getting flight home changed without paying United’s outrageous ticket change fees. So we’ll play it by ear once we’re there, maybe by getting ourselves bumped to a later flight.

We’ll see.

Several readers have asked about our cruise route, so here’s a map,

It’s 3 rivers, the Danube, the Main, and the Rhine, 5 countries, Hungry, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, and The Netherlands, and 13 stops in 15 days.

Don’t forget to Spring Forward tonight/tomorrow morning.

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March 9, 2020

Only The Lonely . . .

I spent today at work trying to recover a corrupted InDesign file. Last week I made a price change to our catalog, save the file, and then tried to generate a PDF file from it, which is what we print the catalog from.

But now I just get an error message and then InDesign shuts down. And it does the same thing if I just try to print the file directly from InDesign instead of from a PDF.

I think I’ve figured out to fix the problem, but I’ll have to do it one page at a time, for a 133 page document. Fun!

Brandi set over a photograph of the finished version of Landon’s New York City Skyline puzzle.

This puzzle has almost 1500 pieces, smaller than 1/8”, and needs a special pair of tweezers to build.

And Landon did a great job on it.

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March 9, 2021

Are The Seven Dwarfs Next?

Jan and I were on the road up to the Snooze in Webster a little before 1pm, for a tasty start to an errand day.

Jan got her usual Bravocado Toast, the reason we come here, at least for her.

Though I have occasionally veered off to Snooze’s Shrimp and Grits, I went with my usual 3 Egg Classic Breakfast, with Bacon, Fruit, and a Grilled English Muffin.

Then it was on up Bay Area Blvd. to make an office stop to pick up some Amazon stuff that came in yesterday after I left.

Then we made a stop at the big HEB down on 96 to pick up some things. Jan likes their fresh-made meals, so she wanted to pick up some extra to take up to Brandi’s in Katy for her house-sitting gig.

Next up was the always-necessary WalMart stop for a few more things, before heading home, with a stop at Cowboy Coffee for Cold, Blended Sugar-Free Hazelnut Cappuccinos with Almond Milk and Sugar-Free Whipped Cream.

Perfect for sitting out on the patio and listening to the wind chimes after we got home and put the groceries away.

First they came for Gone With The Wind, and now it’s Dumbo, Peter Pan, Animal House and Dr. Seuss.  And Pepe Le Pew has been cut from the new Space Jam 2 movie because he’s now designated a ‘stalker/rapist’.

Can Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs be far behind?

So when are the mandated Book Burnings scheduled to start?

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I find it kind of entertaining to listen carefully to prescription drug ads on TV, where they list all the side effects. And it’s amazing how it often seems the side effects are as bad, or even worse than the disease that it’s treating.

Or the birth control method that says in fine print at the bottom of the screen that it’s 93% effective when used correctly and 86% effective with typical use.

There’s a name for the women who use this birth control method for any length of time.

Mothers.

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March 9, 2022

More Beans . . .

A few months back I mentioned that I had purchased this WiFi-Controlled Water Faucet Switch so that I could turn off/on the shore water without going outside. But it was only yesterday that I got around to getting it set up and installed.

B-Hyve Smart Faucet Switch

And it was probably the easiest setup of a WiFi/Internet device I’ve come across. But that did not extend to adding to my Alexa system.

I tried following their guide which didn’t work at all, so I tried a couple of other ways I’ve used in the past, finally getting it to where Alexa recognized the commands and says it had turned the switch on, but it didn’t work.

But I could still turn the switch on/off manually. So this morning I sent an email to the company’s tech support to ask for help.

What I got back was from ‘Matthew’, who said, “I do not have any access to any of the Alexa app information but I can help you out the best I can with getting your Alexa compatibility to show up in our app.”

So he knows less about it than I do, but he’s going to help?

I’ll let you know how it goes.

A couple of weeks ago when we were coming back from Spring after meeting up with our friend’s Debi and Ed, I glanced over at the location of The Catch just north of Almeda Mall, and thought I saw a For Lease sign on the storefront. And when I checked after we got home, I found that, unfortunately, I was right. According to Google, it is Permanently Closed.

It always seemed busy when we were there, but it was kind of hard to get there. You had to work at it.

I know they were looking for a location down in our area, so I hope this closing doesn’t put the kibosh on that.

And just to stir up things, there’s this.

Texas red chili purists are wrong. Beans do belong in chili, and historically, they’ve always been there

An article in the Sept. 14, 1877 edition of the Fort Scott Daily Monitor penned by an anonymous writer visiting San Antonio from Kansas gives one of the earliest published descriptions of chili.

“Speaking of hot things, at San Antonio they have a dish called chili con carne,” the article reads. “It is of Mexican origin, and is composed of beef, peas, gravy and red pepper. It is awful seductive looking, and gives a fellow the idea that he has a soft thing on hash. They always have enough to go around, for no stranger, no matter how terrific a durned fool he is, ever calls for a second dish. He almost always calls for a big cistern full of water, and you can’t put the water in him fast enough with a steam engine hose.”

The historian wrote that bean’s were often called ‘peas’ back then.

So let the Bean Wars began again.

I was finally able to complete  the Census Bureau’s Economic Census form that’s due next Wednesday, by Law. It’s 51 pages of data, the vast majority of which does not apply to our one owner, one employee, and one consultant (me) firm. But every question must be answered, even if it’s NO. But what took so much time was actually waiting for our accountant to get me the financial part of the info.

But it’s done now, though I won’t submit it until Friday after I give it one last read-through.]

A reader recently asked me about the big jump in the number of subscribers to this blog as shown on the top left of the blog page. What apparently happened was that at some point during a Jetpack update, the subscriber list numbers got reset back to baseline number of subscribers. These are people who come directly to the blog and subscribed from here.

Jetpack is a very powerful WordPress add-on that provides a lot of extras. It handles some security tasks, site backups, and also tracks visitors to the site, including sending out the daily email blogs to people.

But it needs to be set to track external subscribers, coming in from Facebook and other blogs, and that’s what got turned off. So now it’s turned back on.

After talking about adding a Roku Streaming device to our system, another reader wondered if it was going to replace our Firestick. The answer is NO. It plugs into our Samsung TV in place of our DVD player that we almost never use. So both will be hooked up and online, but the Firestick will continue to be our primary streaming device. But the baseline Roku has some shows and movies available that we would have to pay extra for on the Firestick.

Tomorrow’s going to be Saltgrass Steakhouse at 2pm with our Alvin Opry Group. Then afterwards it’s on down to WalMart for some more WalMart stuff.

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Thought for the Day:
“I don’t know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn’t be a feasible business by itself.” — the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

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March 8, 2009

Pensacola…

Today we took a roadtrip over to Pensacola, FL about 25 miles away.

Heading out we went over the Alabama Point bridge, passing by the front of SanRoc Cay, the shopping/lodging/entertainment area built on property that my parents once owned.

Diagonally across the street is a large hotel/restaurant complex we ate at with the entire family about 5 years ago.

Oops!… Sorry about that.

It’s not there anymore. In fact, it’s totally gone.

The entire family ate dinner here in June 2004 at a large seafood restaurant that was part of the hotel.  Then in September 2004 Hurricane Ivan roared thru Gulf Shores as a Cat 3 storm.

These buildings and many more at Gulf Shores just disappeared.  There are still many blank spaces along the beach where the buildings still haven’t been rebuilt.

Another casualty was the row of beach houses built where my parents also owned property and houses.

The pink cottage on the left used to be one of two on the right that were all the way down next to the condo in the background. They were called ‘Sea Fever’ and ‘Sandpiper’.

My parents once owned all the property that you see on both sides of the road.  They gradually sold off parts and then built the two cottages on the two lots that were left.  They used them as rental units intermixed with family vacations for many years.

They sold off the ‘Sea Fever’ in the mid ’80’s and then my mother sold the ‘Sandpiper’ in 1993 after my father died.

The dentist who bought the ‘Sandpiper’ moved it from the beach side of the access road to where you see it now.  He then built a very ugly 3 story house on the beach lot.  Somewhere along the way, the owner of the ‘Sea Fever’ tore it down and built something else.  And other cottages lined both sides of the road.

Then Hurricane Ivan swept thru and everything was washed away except for the ‘SandPiper’.  It was my father’s design and he knew how to built things to survive Gulf storms.

We later spent the day driving around Pensacola, eating lunch at another Sonny’s BBQ,  stopping by a Sam’s Club to pick up a new color backup camera for the rig, and looking up old haunts.

Just another day in paradise…

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March 8, 2011

Coffee, Nectar of the gods . . .

Thank goodness for coffee!

I’m not sure Jan and I could have gotten moving this early this morning without it. Jan had front gate duty starting at 8am so once again we were up before 7 to get ready. The front gate is where the local people get their day passes to visit the rally, and Jan had the first shift.

Luckily they had donuts at in the Vendor building so we had that final sugar rush to put us over the top. And after getting Jan set up at the gate, I made a circuit of the vendor booths to get a first look at the new products offered, and seeing where some of my money will be going in the next few days.

No new rigs came in today so it looks like that part of the rally is over for me. Which was good because it left me time to go back to the rig and work on my seminar outline.

I wanted to fine-tune it some more and then print 40 copies to hand out to the attendees. I was hoping for maybe 20-25 people if I was lucky, so I figured 40 would be plenty.

As it turns out, my calculations were a little off.

This seminar, “10 Things to Never Do With Your Computer”, was kind of put together at the last moment to fill in a hole in the schedule. So I figured I’d just take each point, talk about why it was important, and take questions.

Around noon I was satisfied with the handout so I printed them out and Jan stapled the two pages together for me. Then a little before 1pm we walked over to the Fine Arts Building where I was speaking.

When we got there I was happy to see there was already 5 or 6 people inside, meaning I wouldn’t be talking just to Jan. I went up front to set up my laptop and check the mic system. Then, a couple of minutes later I looked up and the room was half full. Wow!

Right about then Jan comes up that says she’s out of the 40 handouts. Oops!

Since it’s still about 5 minutes before 1, I ran back to the rig and print 30 more copies.

Still not enough. As it turns out, we had 117 people show up. Very gratifying.

The class seem to go well and we had a lot of good questions. In fact a number of people stayed around afterwards, still talking. Jan finally had to drag me out so the next seminar could start.

I told everyone that didn’t get a copy that I would print some more handouts up and leave them at the registration table later this afternoon. And a lot of people did just that.

Tomorrow I have another seminar entitled “Do’s and Don’ts of Computer Security”. Hopefully it will go as well as today’s.

With the nice weather, and since we’re parked grass, Mister really loves to get out on his lease. However the dead grass gets all over him and he’s a real mess. If he wasn’t so afraid of vacuum cleaners, I’d try to just vacuum him. Because it’s so dry here, if you try to brush him off with your hand, you just build up a static charge on his fur and start drawing sparks, which he doesn’t like either. You just can’t win.

Finally, a little after 5, the four of us headed out for dinner at a nearby Golden Corral, and while we were in line, we ran into Mike and Linda, RV newbies who’ve only been on the road since last October. But Linda’s not new to driving big rigs since she’s a former truck driver, and she kept us all laughing with her tales of the road, and what a trucker sees from their cab high off the ground.

Getting back about 7pm, we had a great Country/Swing concert from a duo called “Ea$y Money”. They were really good and got the crowd on their feet, with even some line dancing going on. A really great time.

Then, about 8pm it was back to the rig to work on tomorrow’s seminar.

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March 8, 2012

Last Full Yuma Rally Day . . .

Today was the last full day of the 2012 rally in Yuma, AZ, and also the time for my last seminar of the rally called “10 Things Every RV’er Needs”. Running from 10:30 to 11:30, I guess it went well because we had people still hanging around asking questions up until noon when I had to go out front and man the front gate so Jan could attend a Pet First Aid seminar.

Then after Jan’s class was over, she came out to join me on the gate while I went back and brought us out hot dogs for lunch. When we got off at 2pm, we had planned to check out the Yuma Indoor Flea Market down the road, but decided to wait until Saturday.

We spent the rest of the afternoon back at the coach, with Jan reading on her Kindle while I took a nap. Then about 5 pm we met up with Al and Adrienne and drove over to have dinner at Mi Rancho, another very good local Mexican restaurant that they had found.

This is Al and Adrienne’s first RV rally and they’re really excited with everything they’ve learned the last few days, so we spent the entire meal just talking RV’ing.

We finally got back to the fairgrounds a little before 7pm, just in time for the final round of door prizes, including a Sea Eagle Inflatable Kayak, and a Kindle. Then, with everything over, people pitched in to put away all the tables and chairs, leaving just enough out for the final coffee and donuts get-together tomorrow morning before everyone starts heading.

As usual at a rally, we all had a great time and are certainly looking forward to the next one.

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March 8, 2013

Still Not Much . . .

going on here with Jan gone.

In between rain showers I did get outside  and installed the Wiper Huggies I mentioned yesterday. I may have a better understanding on why they don’t work very well for some users.

It’s very easy to install them upside down as the instructions are somewhat confusing. And of course if they’re upside down, they’re pulling the wiper blades away from the windshield, not toward it. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose. I’ll let you know how they work out.

I got my toad tow light test box working and it shows that there’s definitely a problem with my lights. And it’s an intermittent problem since they worked before we left Canyon Lake.

So now I’ll have to get under the truck and trace the wire harness from front to back to see where the problem is. More fun!

Tomorrow I’ll drive back over to Gina’s and pick up Jan. Then Sunday we’ll do some last minute grocery shopping, and then get ready to travel on Monday.

We’ll be heading about 350 miles out I-10 to Saddleback Mountain RV Park in Balmorhea, TX. There we’ll wait for a couple of days before we head further west.

Jan’s coming home tomorrow.

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March 8, 2014

On The Road . . .

Somehow I left out of yesterday’s blog that last night we had dinner at Los Cabos Mexican Grill with Lynette and Gregg McHenry. With all of us having done the gate guard thing, that was pretty much the entire conversation. But’s it always a lot of fun to hear other guard’s trials and tribulations.

And the food was really good too.

As far as today, it was a road trip day. We were heading down to our house in Friendswood to get together with Chris, Linda, and Piper, and to drop some stuff off at our storeroom that I had cleaned out of the rig.

We left the rig about 10 with our first stop at Schobels’ Restaurant in Columbus, TX for another of their great omelet breakfasts. We both got the same ones as last time, with Jan getting her Veggie Omelet, and of course, my Spanish Omelet. With the excellent biscuits and the grits (hashbrowns for Jan) it’s a great meal for the price. And although we haven’t tried it, their breakfast buffet looks really good, too.

Back on the road by 11, we made a pit stop / shopping stop at the Tractor Supply Store in Katy about an hour later, where Jan was looking for her favorite magazine, Countryside & Small Stock Journal.

Now I can’t explain why her favorite mag is about raising chickens and planting truck gardens, just as I can’t explain why one of my favorites is Model Railroader.

But Jan struck out this time because the March issue wasn’t out yet. So we’ll check back again.

We got to Chris’ about 1pm, and then split up. Jan and Piper headed off to get Mani-Pedi’s while I stopped off at the storeroom, and then took care of some other errands like a much-needed car wash and a stop at the nearby Kroger’s for gas. And once again I was happy to see that my Fred Meyer’s (Kroger’s) card is still giving me the $.10 a gallon discount no matter how much I buy each month. I just have to buy something.

My next stop was Home Depot to pick up a 2’ x 2’ piece of 1/2” plywood to put a new top on our entry step. That took me right up to 3pm when we all met at the Longhorn Steakhouse near our house. Longhorn has become our favorite steakhouse chain and we’ve never been disappointed. And this time was no exception.

By 4:30 we were on the road headed home, with a pit stop at the Flying J in Brookshire. While there I took a look at their selection of Lug Nut Covers.

I’m missing several on the rig and wanted to replace them, but after looking at what they had, I realized I wasn’t sure of the correct size. So I’ll try again later when I know the size for sure.

Of course, since I got the truck washed today, it poured down rain all the way from the Flying J to the rig with no let up. But we finally made it home about 6:15 and settled in for the night.

About 8pm we had coffee and some of  the delicious Blueberry Coffee Cake that our daughter-in-law Linda had baked and sent home with us. Really, really good.

What I get done tomorrow depends on how this weather turns out.

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March 8, 2015

From Donut’s To Ribeye’s

Today was the first ‘real’ day of the Escapade. Thursday (when we arrived) and Friday are considered ‘Early Bird’ days for those who want to come in a couple of days ahead.

It was also the first day that the vendors were open, so about 10am Jan and I walked over to Old Pueblo Hall to check things out. They have coffee and donuts available, and lucky for us, we got the last two donuts from Dennis Hill. Then we spent some time walking around the Market, checking out the new stuff and saying ‘Hi’ to a lot of old friends from over the years.

A little later I walked over to the other side of the building to check out the facilities of the room where Jan and I will be giving our Gate Guarding Seminar this coming Wednesday at 11:30. Later we came back to the rig and Jan heated up last night’s Luckie’s Thai leftovers. Still delicious.

While Jan read, I went back over to the hall about 1pm for the Seminar Presenter’s Meeting so that all of us could get familiar with the equipment we’ll be using, like the sound system, wireless mics, and the video projector. Looks pretty much the same as what I used for other rally’s so it shouldn’t be a problem.

About 3pm Jan and I walked over to Thurber Hall for the Escapade Opening Ceremonies.

There are almost 900 RV’s here, so we probably had 1600 – 1700 people there, a pretty good size crowd. The first thing they did was to draw tickets for the 4 $200 door prizes to open the show. And No, Jan and I didn’t win.

Later, after the ceremony was over, we connected up with Bob Parker and Donna Huffer, and we all headed in toward Tucson for have dinner at the Silver Saddle Steakhouse, one of our favorite local places.

They grill their steaks right in front of you, on a open pit, my favorite way of doing a steak.

But one thing that has always disappointed me about the place is the lack of a Ribeye on the menu. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another steak place that didn’t serve a Ribeye. But tonight we were in luck.

They had a 17 oz. Bone-In Ribeye on special, and boy, was it good.

Tomorrow starts the first day of seminars so Jan and I will be checking out the many choices. Really looking forward to it.

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March 8, 2016

Photos and Fideo . . .

Our weather today alternated between bright, sunny skies and heavy rain with a lot of wind filling the gaps in-between. And it looks like it’s going to be the same over the next few days.

But based on state weather reports, we came off pretty easy, all things considered. I saw articles about bad storms hitting RV parks around the state, with some damage shown.

Brandi send over a couple of Landon’s school photos this afternoon, and although it’s only been a couple of weeks since we last saw, it looks like he’s grown even more.

Now that we’ve got our pantry in order and know more about what we have, I decided to do some baking, so Jan picked out a package of Bruce’s Sweet Potato Biscuit Mix.

Although there is no use-by date on the package, I pretty sure we bought them in 2008 in either Montana or Alaska, so there was some question about their viability. But we won’t know until we tear the package open, right?

So opening the bag, I gave it the smell test. And so far, so good, it smelled like sweet potatoes and cinnamon.

So I dumped it a large bowl, added the called-for amount of milk (strangely enough, it called for 2%, which is what we had) and mixed it up. I did end up adding some more milk to thin it out a bit, and then dropped the clumps on a greased cookie sheet.

I laid out eight biscuits before I noticed in the small print that the package was supposed to make 5, so I guess they’re a little smaller than what they’re supposed to be.

And after 15 minutes in the convection oven, and a brush with melted butter, this is what I ended up with. They look more like scones than biscuits, but they do smell good.

For dinner tonight I fleshed out my leftover Chicken Tortilla Soup with cans of black beans and Ro-Tel Habanero Tomatoes, and then made up a batch of Fideo noodles to put the now-thickened soup over.

With melted cheese on top, and some tortilla chips for crunch, it was maybe better than the first iteration two nights ago. And then for dessert a little later, we had a couple of the biscuits(scones?) each, heated up and buttered. Really, really good, especially for 8 year old biscuits.

When I opened the black beans tonight I saved the empty to try and use for a slobber tube collector on my rig engine. If the weather isn’t too bad tomorrow, I’ll give it a try.

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March 8, 2017

Propane and Crème Brûlée . . .

Since we were going out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel this morning, we slept in a little, not getting up until about 7:30, but were still hitched up and on our way by 10am.

Getting out onto I-45 I was happy to see that replacing the rig’s fuel filter the other day took card of our ‘lack of power’ problem, so we were easily cruising along at 60mph and had no trouble climbing some of the steep ramps.

About 10 minutes before we arrived at Colorado River TT, I called the office to ask that that the propane guy meet us at the fill station so I could top off our tank before we got parked.

The last time we got propane was December 24, 2014 right here at Colorado River. We were down a little below 1/4 of the tank and it took 24.4 gallons to fill us up.

Since we usually only use propane for running the fridge when we’re on the road in the non-summer travels, we normally wouldn’t need it this quickly, but back in 2015 when we were gate guarding up near Carthage, TX, the electric side of our water heater died, so we used the propane side for a month or so until I could fix it.

The reason I said the “non-summer’ months is that during the summer we run the generator to keep the AC’s going.

About 3:45 we headed into Katy to our daughter Brandi’s. But on the way we made a couple of stops, first at the park office to settle up for our propane and two days of 50amp. Then it was on to the hardware in downtown Columbus where I was able to find the small vinyl tubing I was looking for.

We got to Brandi’s about 5:30 and waited to hear from them. Brandi and Lowell were off with Landon getting him fitted out for his ice hockey gear for the lessons he’s going to be taking the next couple of months,

Finally we all met up at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro, one of our all-time favorite restaurants anywhere.

We started off with an order of Pork Spring Rolls, everyone’s favorite.

While Jan and Brandi shared the Chicken Curry, and Lowell got his Little V Pho, I went with my usual Shaking Beef Vermicelli.

And of course we finished up with Crème Brûlée spoons, just the right amount of dessert to end the night.

Saying our goodbyes for the next 3+ months we headed back to Columbus.

Tomorrow it’s back down to the Clear Lake area for our last two doctor’s appointments, which hopefully will finish us up for this year.

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March 8, 2018

Nomads and Castaways . . .

.Now that I’ve gotten root access to our webserver I spend most of the day SSH’ing into work working my way through the server’s many misnamed folders trying to get a handle on where everything is located.

The previous guy had a bad habit  of giving folders names that have nothing to do with the contents. So I figure he was either very paranoid or very high, or very probably both, since the two go together

While we were at Pho 20 with Rudy and Caroline Legett last night, Sherri, the owner, knowing how I like hot peppers gave me a whole bag of these Thai Peppers.

Even knowing my love of heat, she was horrified when I took one out of the bag and started eating it. Thai peppers are around 20X hotter than jalapenos, and have less heat than most habaneros.

Sherri is always giving us something extra, and/or fixes us something special, as she did last night. This time it was a shrimp/mango/cucumber spring roll that we shared with Rudy and Caroline. Very good.

My number finally came up and I got my copy of Nomadland downloaded from the library to read.

The way the reviews read it was about RV’ers/Workampers and how bad their lives are, working for Amazon, harvesting beets, or selling Christmas trees or fireworks.

But it’s really a story of people, who down on their luck through a myriad of different reasons, are just one step above homeless. Referring to themselves as ‘houseless’, they travel from one low-paying job to another, trying to stay one repair ahead of breaking down along the way in their rag-tag campers, trailers, and vans. It is an interesting read so far,

On a similar subject the LA Times recently had an article entitled ‘Castaways’ in motor homes feel stranded on society’s fringe. In this case it seems these people are maybe a half step below the folks in Nomadland. living in barely-functional RV’s parked often illegally on California streets, trying to survive day to day. Also an interesting, though sad read.

Tomorrow it’s back to work on the webserver  and  then dinner once again at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood up in Webster.

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March 8, 2019

Lend Me Your Ear . . .

It looks like the blog is pretty much back to normal, and everyone who’s signed up should be getting their email copies. Let me know in a couple of days if yours hasn’t started back up by then.

I finally made the last big breakthrough I needed at work today. I was able to get into the phpmyadmin function and get it to work.

This means I now should be able to start moving the website off our in-house server and up to Godaddy. I really want to get this done before we head off to Europe.

Although the server is backed up daily, it would be just my luck if the server itself cratered while I was gone, with no one around to get it going again. Now I’ll be able to blame it all of Godaddy.

I’ve been checking back on eBay every day recently and today I struck gold. Or at least the 1995 Ford Thunderbird front passenger window that my client had been looking for. Not bad at only $85, and it’s on its way.

Jan and I were happy to see that there’s a big Van Gogh exhibit coming to Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, starting this coming Sunday and running through June 27.

Vincent van Gogh: His Life in Art

A must-see for Jan and I. And we’re also going to be checking out his works on display in Amsterdam, Paris, and London.

And like a guy online, we’ll be looking for a picture of a Sunflower with “To Amy” on it.

I mentioned last week about the possibility of us expanding our stays in the Paris and London a few days, but it’s beginning to look like it won’t work out. The big problem seems to be the hotel in Paris. We can’t extend our stay at the one we’re already booked into, and the only alternative is MUCH more expensive.

I just heard back from our travel agent, Chantelle Nugent, and because of the cancellation charges and extra fees, more expensive hotels, etc., it would increase the cost of our Paris/London tour by about 50%, rather than than the $300-$400 I had hoped, so we’re just going to go with what we have now.

Last up, I want to pass on my new favorite tech website. It’s called NewAtlas and it covers everything from computers to medical to autos, and more. Check it out.

I’m still hoping the weather will cooperate this weekend so I can maybe get some stuff done on the rig.

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March 8, 2020

Missing Their Best Friend . . .

Jan and I met Brandi, Lowell, and Landon up at King Food this morning, where apparently I traded my wife off for a plate of their delicious Honey-Glazed Chicken Wings with Garlic and French Butter.

Better than a bag of magic beans, I guess. And anyway it was more of a rental since I’ll get her back on Thursday.

Both Landon and Baxter are missing their best friend.

Baxter watched them take Kitty to the vet for the last time this past Thursday, and was waiting at the window for her when they got home.

And even today, she’s still waiting at the window. Both of them still missing their best friend.

Yesterday we were out and about, first eating lunch at Los Ramirez, and then doing some grocery shopping for Jan’s stay at Brandi’s. She wanted to get the ingredients for her world-famous spaghetti sauce, which everyone wants when she’s up there.

She also want to get few things for her lunches, so our first stop was the local HEB. And I was curious to see how much, if any, panic shopping was going on. And if looks like they were doing a good job keeping everything stocked.

Though the shelves were a little thin, they had plenty of toilet paper, water, bleach, etc., all the things that people seem to be looking for. The only thing I noticed out of stock were those Lysol or Clorox Wipes.

Next up it was across the Interstate to WalMart, and things were a little more hectic there. The toilet paper aisle was much barer, thought still stocked, as was the water and bleach supplies. But once again, the Lysol/Clorox Wipes were AWOL. Hopefully things will settle down and the panic will subside.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been anticipating a new piece of software coming out, especially something from Microsoft. Probably the last time was waiting for Windows 7 to replace the Windows Vista abomination.

And before that it was probably the original DOOM,

pretty much the only video game I’ve ever really played for any period of time.

Even Miss Piper got in on the action.

She would pound the mouse on the table, yelling “DOOM!, DOOM!”, as she fired her gun and killed the demons. And she was pretty good at it too.

Of course then she grew up and got a real gun.

But I’m really looking forward to the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, and it really looks fantastic.

It’s just about like watching a movie, or seeing it in real life.

They say that all 37,000+ airports in the world are in the program, utilizing high resolution satellite and ground photos. And if you turn the Weather option on, it will display the actual weather in that place at that time, whether it is rain, snow, lightning or sun.

Check this out.

At least now I’ve got a new computer that should fast enough to run it.

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March 8, 2021

Another Monday, Another Problem . . .

I’ve been running through my head what to check next on my AC problem. But my first question is why the control box shorted out when it did. All I had done was take the inside cover off of the unit, and I was just looking up at the box when it Snap-Crackle-Popped right in front of me.

I knew that this was the first time it had happened since once it burned through, it wasn’t doing it again.

Jan and I have been planning our upcoming trip in June. All of the Texas family are meeting up in Vandalia, IL with Jan’s sister, Debbie and all her bunch. And it takes a lot more planning going by Jeep rather than in our RV.

First off, fuel. With the 150 gallons of diesel in the rig, we could go about 1200 miles. So  this 950 mile trip wouldn’t have involved any fuel stops.

But with the Jeep, the 18 gallon tank gets us about 250 miles, so that’s a data point.

And then there’s potty breaks. With the rig, our potty traveled with us, so all we needed was a wide shoulder on the side of the road. Of course fuel stops are also potty breaks, but they don’t always match up.

We plan to spend the night in Jackson, MS going up to Illinois, where, coincidentally a Sonny’s BBQ is located about two miles from Red Roof Inn where we plan to stay.

Then coming home we’ll loop back down through Alabama to catch up with family and friends before finally making our way back to Santa Fe.

Really looking forward to the trip.

Recently the long-awaited trailer for the long-delayed new Top Gun movie with Tom Cruise reprising his role as Maverick.

And what could be better than this trailer?

How about the same trailer, done in Legos?

And even better, how about a comparison of the two trailers.

Really neat, but do you ever get the feeling that some people have too much time on their hands?

And here’s a really amazing video of an artist who paints 3D illusions, on trees. .

Almost unbelievable