Our RV Adventures

Or

Really Good German Food.

Jan and I were on our way this morning a little after 8am, heading for Fredericksburg about 6 hours away, counting our 3 stops.

Since our Jeep’s still in the shop, and not wanting to stress Old Faithful (313,000+ miles) we rented a car, a 2023 Toyota Corolla. Pretty nice so far.

Jennifer, our office manager and Karma-sitter, send over this photo of her making herself right at home.

Our first stop was at the Buc-ee’s up in Katy, a little over an hour away. The second one was at the Buc-ee’s in Luling, another 90 minutes along. (Are you sensing a pattern here?)

One thing I found interesting was this ad board at both Buc-ee’s locations.

Might need to rethink my vocation choices.

Our last stop was at the US87 exit from I-10 at the Love’s Travel Center. This in only about 30 minutes from Fredericksburg, but keeps us from running to the restroom as soon as we get there.

And in the next couple of years we’ll be able to make this a 3 Buc-ee’s trip, since they’re going to be building one at that exit too.

We got into Fredericksburg about 1:45pm, right on schedule. And our first stop was at Der Lindenbaum for lunch, actually the real reason for our visit here.

Our daughter-in-law Linda’s mother was born in Germany and said that Der Lindenbaum’s (The Linden Tree) was the best German food she’s had since moving to the States. And we never had anything better when we made our Germany/Austria visit in 2019.

And as with most places we like, we have our favorites. We started off with an order of their fresh-baked German Marble Rye Bread.

Then’ Jan’s is the Jägerschnitzel.

Jägerschnitzel is a crispy breaded pork chop, covering in Wild Mushroom Brown Gravy, along with German Potato Salad, and, of course, their delicious Red Cabbage.

Jan said it was fork-tender.

I got the Bürgermeister Plate, with Polish Sausage, Bratwurst, and Knackwurst, along with Sauerkraut and German Potato Salad.

Of course, I had to add an order of the Red Cabbage to my lunch too.

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Thought For The Day:

They had to do a ‘study’ to figure this out? Really?

Study find squeezing stress balls not as effective as punching someone in the face.

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March 23, 2009

Scavenger hunt…

Today Jan and I  did a scenic tour of Baldwin County pawn shops on a scavenger hunt.

And the prize was…

A new…er, used VCR.  The one in our coach died a couple of days ago and so far we’ve been unable to find a replacement.

The only ones I’ve found still on sale are DVD/VCR combos that are too big to fit in our overhead cabinet. So I had the bright idea to check out pawn shops. So off we went. And found ZIP.

Apparently pawn shops got out of the VCR business a good while ago, so no luck there. So I’ll have to figure something else out.

Next time, maybe a tour of Baldwin County flea markets?

After our tour Jan and I went back to Lulu’s for dinner.  Just had to split another Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding.  Mmmmmmm!

Yesterday was Garbage Day, except here they don’t pick up. Instead, we drop it off.

There have been a few parks we’ve stayed at that have garbage cans at each site, but most have dumpsters somewhere.

The ones here are convenient to dropping off our garbage on the way out, and we’ve never found them overflowing as we have in some parks.

Tomorrow we’re going to take the Ft. Morgan ferry over to Dauphin Island, see Bellingrath Gardens and then come back the long, scenic way thru Mobile, Daphne, and Fairhope.

Road Trip!

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March 23, 2010

Eau de toilette – part deux…

Well, we didn’t get started out today until about 1pm.

We had heard about a chocolate factory tour (with free samples!) here in Las Vegas.

So a little Googling sent us to Ethel M’s Chocolate Factory and Cactus Garden.

They have a self-guided tour of the plant where you can watch the candy being made.

It turns out that Ethel M Chocolates was started by the founder of Mars Candy after he retired from running the company. He wanted a custom candy manufacturer to make small batches of candy by hand using high-quality ingredients.

And they take their chocolate very seriously. Just look at these signs posted around the factory.

I had never seen how chocolate is grown so this was interesting.

The pod at the top is a cocoa pod which contains the cocoa beans on the bottom left.

And finally we came to the most important part.

THE FREE SAMPLES!

Then it was on to the Cactus Garden that was on the grounds of the Chocolate Factory. Not exactly sure why a chocolate factory would have a Cactus Garden, but it was interesting.

Leaving the factory we drove over to Camping World so I could check on getting another pedestal base for our toilet.

Turns out that I can buy a new toilet for almost $100 less than I can buy a new pedestal. So we drove over to Vegas Trailer Supply to just buy a new one. I’m tried of  fooling with this one.

Getting it back to the rig, we were hungry, so we drove over to Buffet Asia to try out another Chinese buffet. It was slightly better than the one last night, but not by much.

After this we headed home and I got started putting the new toilet, well, trying to, anyway.

It turns out that, although this was the same model toilet from the same manufacturer, they had decided to completely change the base mount where it fastens to the floor.

So I’ll have to try again tomorrow after getting some more screws.

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March 23, 2012

Nothing so far . . .

No mousies were found in any of my traps this morning, so maybe I’ve finally thinned out the herd.

About 11am, the park host lady showed up with a Priority Mail package from our daughter Brandi. Really glad it came before we have to leave on Sunday. The box contained our mail, and at the bottom, a nice surprise – a couple of boxes of Girl Scout Thin Mints Cookies. Hmmm!

Later Jan fixed us a great lunch of cheddar cheese and bacon quesadillas, using the Oscar Meyer Pre-Cooked Bacon. Really good.

And of course, a few Thin Mints for dessert.

A little after 1pm, Tom and Barb Westerfield pulled out of the fairgrounds, headed for Las Cruces for a few days. We’ll be there on Sunday too, so maybe we’ll be able to get together for dinner.

After Tom and Barb left, I worked outside for a while around the rig. I cleaned the rig windshield and then adjusted the new wipers I installed recently, so they’ll track better. Then I caulked around the bottom of a couple of windows to see if I can eliminated the stains that come down from there.

Lastly I tidied up a couple of bays and washed them out. That was about it because it was pretty hot out in that sun.

After a short nap to rest up, Jan and I headed out a little after 5pm for dinner and some shopping.

Jan had been wanting to eat at Red Robin for a while, so we first headed up just north of downtown to the Tucson Mall area. Red Robin is another of our favorite burger chains, and their burgers come with all-you-can-eat steak fries as well.

Jan always gets the Mushroom Cheese, and I usually go for the Burn’in Love Burger with jalapenos and chipotle mayo.

Leaving Red Robin, we stopped off at the Sam’s Club a couple of miles away for kitty litter and a few other things before getting back home about 8pm.

Tomorrow’s our last full day here in Tucson. Time to move on

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March 23, 2013

Shirts and Shower Curtains . . .

Today turned out to be pretty much a stay-at-home day. Something that it seems we don’t do often enough.

I think Jan pretty much read most of the day. It looks like I’ve got her hooked on one of my favorite authors, Saxon Andrew. Saxon has 5 different science fiction series, with anywhere from 4 to 7 books in each series for a total of 20 books, all of them excellent.

A friend turned me on to Saxon, who I guess you could say writes in the Golden Age style, with rousing space battles and amazing inventions that save the day at the last moment.

I, on the other hand, worked on some projects, some around the rig, and some website stuff.

I never heard back from the Blue Ox people about getting my Aventa tow bar serviced, so I guess I’ll have to try and catch them at another rally, or maybe visit their factory in Pender, NE later this year.

About 4:30 this afternoon we lost power again. And just like yesterday, our 30 amp breaker wasn’t popped. And resetting it just in case did nothing. The outlet was just dead.

I think today we probably were drawing too much power. Jan had just taken a shower, so the water heater was running, plus she was using the microwave for supper and the AC was running.

I had called the RV office this morning and reported yesterday’s problem, but no one ever came out to fix it. So today I was still using the outlet for the empty site behind us. And now that one was dead too.

So I pulled a little more power cord out and connected us to the outlet of the site beside us. I told Jan that I had enough cord length to reach 5 other outlets before we would no longer have power to the rig. So she can blow the breaker a few more times before we’re out of luck.

I now think that the problem is that there is another circuit breaker in the line somewhere, which is blowing before the 30 amp breaker in the outlet box at the site. And having two breakers in series like this is against every electrical code I’ve seen.

I’ve got to go down to the RV office tomorrow and re-up for another week, so I’ll ask them then.

Finishing up, for you Big Bang Theory fans, I came across this website called SheldonShirts.com. It tells you where you can buy pretty much all the shirts that the characters wear on the show, and even things like Sheldon’s Clothing Folding Board that he used to fold his laundry, and of course Sheldon and Leonard’s Periodic Table shower curtain.

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March 23, 2014

They sent the wrong %#@$*%^ parts . . .

We were promised heavy rain and thunderstorms, but except for a few minutes of light sprinkles, it didn’t show up. That make it a little easier to get back on my slide problem. So about noon I headed outside to give it another shot.

The first thing I did was to release the motor brake so I can move the slide manually. You just pull it down until it clicks. This brake is what keeps the slide retracted while we’re traveling.

This is how the slide can be moved manually.

After a lot of trial and error I managed to get the shear pin holes in the shaft and spur gear lined up and was then able to use a pin punch to knock out the rest of the pin.

So now all I needed to do was hammer in the replacement pin, and I was all done, right?

WRONG!!

They sent the wrong %#@$*%^ pins!

When I first looked at the pins that American Coach sent me, they did look a little big. But I figured once I got the old one out, the new one would fit. But it was definitely too big.

About this time, Janice Evans showed up with a breakfast casserole for us to have tomorrow morning before we leave to go back  the Colorado River Thousand Trails for another two weeks. Thanks, Janice.

Since we were heading out about 1:30 for Wal-Mart, I decided to check the Tractor Supply Store that’s right down the Interstate. So after dropping Jan off to get her hair cut, I drove down there to see what they had.

But unfortunately, they didn’t have exactly what I needed. I found a close one, but it’s a little small and may not be strong enough. I did check to see if they had any bolts that looked like they could work, but didn’t find anything. The pin is only 9/64” and I couldn’t find any Grade 8 or Grade 5 bolts that small.

Getting back to Jan, we picked up some stuff there, and then we drove across the street to have dinner at Culver’s, one of our favorite places.

We’ve eaten at a number of Culver’s. but never in this area. It’s always been up in the IN/IL area. Didn’t realize that they were spreading down here. But we’re glad to see them.

Jan had a Mushroom and Cheddar Butterburger, and I had a double Bacon Cheese Deluxe Butterburger. Really, really good.

On the way home we made a quick stop at the Lane Bryant store in the Outlet Mall. Back home I installed the new pin, but I’ll be surprised if it works.

While I was doing this, Lynette and Gregg McHenry dropped off a jar of hot sauce he’d made.. Later I tasted it  and it’s really, really good. Thanks Gregg and Lynette.

Depending on how long it takes to get the slide in tomorrow morning, we hope to head out around 10am, but we’ll see how it goes.

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March 23, 2015

Convenience Can Be Expensive . . .

There’s joy in the Oilpatch tonight. For the first time in months, the rig count actually went up this week. By ONE whole rig. But, hey, it’s something.

A little after 12 I went down to register and pay at the Countyside RV Park office. The ‘resort fee’ TT members pay at Encore parks has gone up from $3 to $4 this year, but still not bad at all, especially since it doesn’t count against our 50 free TT days.

Finishing up at the office, I drove up to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter on Apache Trail to pick up some antifreeze for the truck. My radiator has a small leak that I’m pretty sure I can fix, but it’s toward the bottom of my list since all I have to do is add a little coolant every couple of weeks or so.

I’ve normally just grabbed a jug of the pre-mixed 50-50 type, which goes for about $10.50 a jug. But a jug of the old-fashion concentrate type caught my eye, and then the price difference caught my eye too.

As I said, a gallon of 50-50 costs $10.50, but a gallon of full strength, I.e. twice as much, costs $12.50, only $2 more. Convenience isn’t cheap.

While I was there, I checked out their sewing department, and found just what I need for my solar screen project. It’s a black crochet thread, the perfect size for what I need.

About 4:30 we made the 20 minute journey over to the Famous Dave’s BBQ at SanTan Village, just at the other end of the block from the Grimaldi’s Pizzeria where Jan and I had dinner last night.

We walked out of there happy and stuffed with BBQ, and enough left over to take home. Always good.

If tomorrow morning is like this morning, I.e. not much wind, I plan on putting a first coat of gray paint on the rig bumper that my son Chris repaired a month or so ago. Apache Junction is pretty much the first place we’ve been that hasn’t been windy.

We’ll see how it goes.

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March 23, 2016

Smoking . . .

We didn’t walk this morning, knowing we’d get our walking in this afternoon at Wal-Mart. And since it was pretty windy, we didn’t set outside either.

Later in the afternoon, I went back outside to take a look at my truck AC condenser fan problem. I was planning on getting a new 50amp cartridge fuse this afternoon, but I wanted to see if that was going to fix the problem, at least temporarily until I can replace the fan.

So I looked over the over fuses, hoping to find another 50 amp that I could borrow to test things out. And going down the row, I came across a 50 amp for the Power Seats.

Wait, I don’t have Power Seats, so that one was available. So I plugged it into the fan position and try it out. And it did work, although the fan was still grinding walnuts, as before.

So I thought I’d give it a better test when we go out this afternoon. But what I found then was that besides the noise, after a few minutes a very pungent burning smell appeared, making me think it might start smoking and burst into flames at any minute. So the fuse comes out until I can replace the fan.

But the AC will still work anyway. I just have to be careful using it idling or at low speeds, which is when the condenser fan actually comes into play.

Jan and I headed out for dinner and shopping, with dinner being at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Conroe.It’s been a while since we’ve had some good hot wings, which for me means Mango Habanero, their 3rd hottest, because I like the sweetness, and a side of Blazin’, which is their hottest.

While we were there, and after we finished eating, I spent some time updating a bunch of apps on my Galaxy S5. The 4G in that area runs about 50 Mps, a lot quicker than here at the park. Just wish I had taken my Galaxy Tab with me too.

One of our blog readers ask about how I map out our walking paths at the parks. I use Google Maps Satellite View and then the Measure Distance function.

If you right-click on the map where you want your walk to begin, a white dot appears on the map. Then you just left-click following your path on the map, using smaller segments as you work your way around the curves.

The white box at the bottom of the map keeps a running total of the distance. The route shown above, totals 5,258 ft., but actually is about 1.03 miles according to Runkeeper. Close enough for our walking.

I mentioned last week that I tried to refill one of my Touch Free Soap Dispenser empties because of the high, $8 – $15, cost of the store-bought refills.

I popped the lid of the empty off and poured in the liquid soap, happy that the Softsoap refill only cost $1.98. But I was kind of disappointed when, rather than coming out as a foam as before, it came out more as a thick liquid with a few marble-size bubbles. But hey, it worked.

Then blog reader Joe Green suggested I try diluting the Softsoap. so I poured half of it back into the original container, and then topped off the refill with hot water and shook it.

And that did the trick. Now when we use the dispenser, we get a perfect handful of foaming soap.

So now I’m even happier since a refill will only cost me $0.98 rather than $1.98.

Tomorrow afternoon Jan and I are driving over to the Escapees park in Livingston to have dinner with Dennis Hill and his wife, Carol. He said he’s smoking a butt.

I certainly hope that has more to do with pork, rather than cigarettes. But knowing Dennis, you can never be sure.

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March 23, 2017

It’s Dead, Jim . . . Again

I was up at about 8am this morning to see off our temporary next door neighbor’s Chris and Charles Yust on their trip back to San Angelo, TX

Just goes to show you how much I like them that I would get up that early.

But they didn’t even get out of the Voyager RV Resort without a problem. While they were hitching up their Trailblazer in the designated area on the road leaving the park, a Winnebago Tour came by with the door awning still out, scratching the side of their rig. Unfortunately they weren’t able to get a tag number.

Not a good start to their journey.

We had planned to go over to the Fairgrounds for the Pet Parade and Chili Cook-off starting at 11am, and the Closing Ceremonies at 3. But as the morning wore on, Jan developed an upset stomach so we passed it by. In fact we ended up not leaving the rig at all for the day.

Hopefully she’ll feel better tomorrow.

The last couple of parks we’ve stayed at  I’ve noticed that my Cradlepoint CTR350 Wi-Fi router and Verizon aircard was taking longer and longer to connect. Then this morning sometime between 7:40 (the last email) and 8:15 (when I noticed the Internet was down) the Cradlepoint died. In fact it no longer even showed up on my list of available Wi-Fi signals.

I originally had a CTR500 that I bought in 2008 which lasted until July  2015 when it went ports up. In trying to replace it, I found that Cradlepoint was not longer in the aircard router business. So while I was looking around for a replacement, our friend Janna Clark came through with a CTR350 from her box of old, outdated electronics. And that 350 worked fine until this morning.

Looking things over, and after cycling the router power several times with no improvement,  I then plugged the aircard directly into the computer, dialed in, and found I could get on the Internet with no problem, so it wasn’t the aircard.

Next up was to do a full reset on the router, taking it back to the factory settings. At this point I logged into the router directly  and set it up once again. I was now happy to see the router showing up on my Wi-Fi list.

Thinking I had fixed the problem, I unplugged the aircard from the computer and plugged it into the the router. But rather than the problem now being fixed, the Wi-Fi signal disappeared from the list. And when I unplugged the aircard, the Wi-Fi signal came back. And the signal came and went every time I repeated the sequence.

Ok, that’s weird.

So my next thought was maybe it was actually a power supply problem, with the added load of the aircard lowering the voltage. But my VOM showed 5.13 volts unloaded and 5.03 volts under load.

So no problem there.

At this point, I figured “It’s Dead, Jim” and started to look for a replacement. Amazon had a new 350 was about $150, more than they cost originally. But a used, like new one, was available for $20, so I put my order in and had it sent to the Santa Fe RV Park in Apache Junction where we’ll be starting this Saturday.

Of course the aircard still works directly on the computer, we just don’t have Wi-Fi in the coach for our Kindles and Galaxy Tab. But we can hotspot my phone for these if need be.

With the rally over, tomorrow will be a fix-it day with several projects on the menu.

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March 23, 2018

Well It Was Fun While It Lasted . . .

Which Was About 10 minutes.

I spent a good while last night working on a client’s laptop, trying to get her Gmail account synced to the Outlook 2016 part of her Office 365 program. I had already spent Tuesday afternoon working on the machine remotely through TeamViewer, but I just couldn’t get it to work.

Normally this is pretty simple. Just set the Gmail account for IMAP and Let Secure Access. Then go into Outlook 2016, click on Add Account and off you go. But it just wouldn’t work. It actually wouldn’t let me enter all the account parameters like Server Ports, encryption, Secure Password Authentication, etc. So after going around in circles for a while, I told them to drop it off at the office so I could work on it 1 on 1.

So last night it took a while to research but I came across a posting talking about problems with the very latest version of Outlook 2016, and it listed a fix, a back door, so to speak, that let me get to the full setup. And at that point it just took a few more minutes until it was done.

I got a call from Brock’s Car Care about 11:30 saying our truck was repaired and ready to go. Apparently the electrical switches on the new (used) transfer case were defective, but they didn’t check this, since they didn’t know about the Tow Mode.

So they took the switches out of the broken case and put them into the replacement. And now everything worked.

Leaving work about 3:30 I drove over to Chris’ to pick him up so he could drive me back over to Brock’s to get my truck and head home. There was no new charge so I got in the truck, ready to go. But first of course, I had to check out the tow mode. And this time it worked perfectly. YAY!

I made it down FM 528 about 1.5 miles toward I-45 and decided things were going so well that I would stop at the convenience store and get a Mega Millions ticket for tonight’s $421 million drawing, but before I could turn in, I heard a ‘DING’, and looking down I saw my Oil Pressure gauge sitting on ZERO.

Not this again.

Since I changed out the oil filter back the beginning of February, I’ve not seen the oil pressure problem again . . .  until today.

Since I didn’t want to take a chance with the engine, I called for a tow back to Brock’s, called my son Chris to be sure I could use the truck again, and called Brock’s to tell them about the problem and that I was on the way back.

By the time I got towed back to Brock’s they had closed, so I took an Uber over to Chris’ to get his truck and finally head home.

I’m hoping that maybe Brocks bumped against  the oil pressure sensor cable and loosened it. Or it could just be bad luck that the oil sensor or the oil pump died at the same time as everything else.

But either way, since Brock’s is closed on weekends I won’t know anything until Monday at the earliest.

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March 23, 2019

A Week Lost, Now Found . . .

After a quiet morning talking over our upcoming trip, I went outside about 1 pm to clean the oil off the back of the rig, and then do the wheels if I had time. I had stopped by the storage room on the way home from work on Friday and picked up my pressure washer to do the job. I had bought a gallon of Mean Green Cleaner/Degreaser at WalMart the other day just for this job.

They don’t explain why Mean Green Degreaser is purple.

I wanted something that would be safe on painted surfaces, and yet still cut the oil coating the rear of the coach, and this stuff seemed to do the job. I ran it through my Karcher pressure washer,

first soaking the entire area down and then letting it percolate for a while. Previously I had modified the washer solution pickup by adding a longer hose so I could pull directly from a jug of cleaner, instead of constantly refilling the small tank.

After spraying down the entire area and waiting a bit, I put on the high power nozzle and was able to just wash all the caked-on gunk with no problem. On a roll, I opened the engine compartment doors and repeated the procedure.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any before and after photos, so you’ll just have to use your imagination on how good it looks. In fact overall, except for a few scrapes, our 20 year old “Beauty” still looks pretty good. The only real problem is where the clear coat is coming off in places, making it look like it ‘s peeling after being sunburnt.

Next I started in our aluminum wheels, using Busch’s Aluminum Wash,

the best stuff I’ve found. They will take a wheel that looks like this,

and make it look like this, though somehow I didn’t get a before and after on the same wheels.

Add a little ‘Tire Wet and it looks really good.

We had originally planned to do our test drive tomorrow until I realized that I had found a lost week. For some reason I thought that next weekend was April 5th, 6th, 7th, when we’re going up to Kingsland to get together with the whole family at our son Chris’. So we’ll put it off until next weekend.

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March 23, 2020

A People-Person Call . . .

Tomorrow morning Jan and I have our annual doctor checkup appointments. I was wondering if they were still on, since we didn’t get the usual robocalls confirming our appointments. So I put in a call to the office and talked to them.

When I ask about our appointments, the lady went off for a couple of minutes and came back and told me that they were only doing Tele-Health appointments using FaceTime. When I reminded her that these were our annual checkups that involved a lot of blood draws and peeing in a jar, she again went off for a couple of more minutes. This time when she came back, she said ‘OK’, and that we could come in for our 8am appointment as long as we were feeling OK.

Jan was also supposed to get her yearly mammogram tomorrow afternoon at 1;30 and we got a robocall this morning confirming it. But then this afternoon I got a people-person call asking if Jan could come in at 9am tomorrow morning instead. When I told her Jan had another appointment at that time, she rescheduled her for 7:30am Thursday.

Yikes! That’s two days this week I have to get up way too early. But since it’s for my Sweetie, it’s OK.

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March 23, 2021

Jonsin For Bravocado . . .

Jan was jonsin’ for her Bravocado Toast at Snooze, so we left for Webster about 1pm. And though it rained earlier this morning, it was sunny and in the high 70’s by the time we got there so we sat outside on their patio.

I got my usual 3 Egg Classic with eggs over medium, bacon, fruit, and an English Muffin.

After lunch we made a quick stop at the nearby UPS store to drop off an Amazon return. Just walk in, give them the open bag, show them the QR return code on my phone, and they give me a receipt.

Quick and easy.

Coming home, we made a quick stop at our storeroom to drop off some stuff, and then a Cowboy Coffee stop so we could sit out on the patio and enjoy it.

Several readers have asked about my AC repair. Well, so far, so good.

It’s running just fine, and just in time too, since even though we’re getting temps the in 50’s/60’s at night, it’s running into the high 70’s/low 80’s in the daytime.

And no, I still don’t know what caused the problem with the Control Box. The AC stopped working but then we got a cold snap and didn’t need it for a few days. And then when I took the cover off days later, and was just looking up at the Control Box, all of a sudden there was a bright flash and a sharp ‘Crack’ from inside the plastic box. And then smoke started coming out.

So I’m still not sure what caused the circuit to wait a week to short out with me just looking at it, and more importantly, how it drew enough current to burn through a 10 gauge wire without popping the breaker.

Sometimes it’s just one of those things.

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March 23, 2022

Planning . . .

I mentioned the other day that we have had two Holland America Alaskan Cruises cancelled in the last 18 months or so, one in August 2020 and the other one in May 2021, both succumbing to the WuFlu

When we started thinking about rebooking this year, we realized that we really didn’t have a big need to revisit places along the cruise, ones like Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, etc. We saw all these on our previous HAL cruise in May 1998.

What we really wanted to do was revisit our old haunts in Fairbanks, North Pole, Denali, Talkeetna, etc., places where we lived and visited there during our five month work-camping gig in 2008. Plus adding a few new ones like Soldotna and Homer.

So we’ve decided to just fly up to Fairbanks around the middle of August, and then rent a car for two weeks or so. Then after spending about a week there, head south hitting all our other spots along the away. And then fly home from Anchorage.

So now we’re making a list of places we want to visit, things we want to see, and places we want to eat at. Especially the ‘eat at’ part.

We had also talked about taking a overnight detour down to Alyeska to spent on night at the Alyeska Resort there. We stayed there one night on our 1998 cruise, and really enjoyed the great restaurant at the top of the mountain, which you get to by taking the ski-lift to the top.

Back then we took the lift to the top in the early afternoon to make a reservation for that evening. At that time it was sunny and beautiful out, with one of the servers putting up the umbrellas for diners on the patio.

But when we came back up about 5 hours later for dinner, it looked like this.

And this was the middle of May.

But all these plans went out the window when we checked and found that a room for one night this coming August is $599.

No thanks.

Tomorrow we’re meeting up with the Alvin Opry Bunch at the P.F. Chang’s by Baybrook Mall. Jan and I have never been there so we’re looking forward to trying it out, as well as seeing old friends.

I forgot to mentioned in yesterday’s blog the flamingo that Debi brought along for Jan when we met up at the Golden Corral in Conroe.

It’s only about a foot tall, so it will have to be an inside flamingo until it grows up enough to be released into the wild to live outside with the rest of the flamboyance.

Thanks a lot, Debi.

Just the Retro-Blogs tonight, since we’re getting ready to travel up to the Fredericksburg/Kingsland area for our family get-together. Jan and I are going up a day early to spend Thursday night in Fredericksburg before heading over to Kingsland to meet up with everyone else, before we all head home on Sunday afternoon.

Really looking forward to it all.

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Thought for the Day:

I want a closed casket funeral. However, towards the end of the service, I want the organist to play “Pop Goes The Weasel” over and over until everyone in attendance is staring at my coffin with horrified anticipation.

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March 22, 2009

Par dee! Par dee!

We had our first real RV get-together this afternoon.  As I mentioned yesterday we were invited by the couple next door to a Potluck/White Elephant. It was a good turnout with about 30 people and quite a spread.

Besides our Big Daddy’s beans (which went over great!) we had ribs, Swedish meatballs, several kinds of chicken, multiple veggies, different salads, and a lot of deserts.

Mm Mm Good!

After the meal, they started calling out the numbers we had been given when we turned in the White Elephant gift we brought.  We brought a bottle of sparkling red wine we got in Florida a few years ago and it was a big hit.  It quickly got traded around the maximum three times.

Jan got a candle-burning hurricane lamp that clamps to the side of a picnic table.  Jan was really happy with it, so happy we had to go buy candles for it later in the afternoon.

Most of the people at the Potluck seemed to be Canadian snowbirds. The ones we talked to have been here since October and will be leaving in the next week or so.  As will we.

Another example of how long-termers here make themselves at home is this pic.

Just like home.

Some people have so much stuff it looks like they brought their backyard with them.

As we were driving down to Orange Beach to get Jan’s candles, I noticed the red surf warning flags were posted up and down the beach.  I was curious to see what they considered dangerous surf so coming back from buying candles, we drove out to where our beach property used to be.

And I couldn’t believe what I saw.

They’ve turned into a bunch of wussies down here.

This is what I saw!

Dangerous Surf?

When I was growing up down here we would have considered this moderately good surfing waves, and I certainly surfed in much bigger.

But according to the signs in Gulf Shores proper, you can be fined for swimming when the red flags are out.  I don’t know what the State Park says yet.  I will be interested to find out.

But while we were checking the surf out I did get some nice sunset shots, so enjoy and I will see you tomorrow.

Nice!

Condos, Condos, Condos

One of our old beach cottages.

Beautiful End to a Great Day!

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March 22, 2010

Eau de Toilette…

I spent most of the day working on the toilet in our rig.

Apparently to no avail. It works OK, but the water that is supposed to stay in the bowl leaks out down into the holding tank.

But probably more than you wanted to know.

Later, we went to supper at New China Buffet. Not great, but we’ve had worse.

We’ve got another Chinese buffet to try tomorrow night that had a really crowded parking lot.

A little before 9pm we headed back to our rig.

Tomorrow we plan on taking a chocolate factory tour, and trying to visit the Pawn Stars shop again.

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March 22, 2011

Trains and Tombstones . . .

First off we have a new Landon photo taken while he was Skyping with his other grandmother in OK.

This morning started really early, (Hey, for me, 7am is EARLY) but at least we had time for coffee.

It was really nice outside this morning since the winds had died down, and the light, but steady, rain all night had finally settled the dust. And it looks to be nice for the next several days with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the low 40’s.

Really nice.

About 9am Jan and I headed out to Tombstone, AZ, “The Town Too Tough To Die”, about 55 miles away.

The first 25 took us east on I-10 to Benson where we got on State Road 80, toward Tombstone.

Passing through Benson, we took a loop around the Escapees SKP park located on the outskirts of the town. This park is a co-op park that allows the owners to build structures on their lots next to their RV pads. And some get even more involved.

This owner build his own outdoor western-themed train layout. I told Jan this makes me want to reconsider buying a lot in a park somewhere. If I weren’t RVing fulltime I’d have a big train layout like I did as a kid.

Nearing Tombstone, we took a tour of an Arizona ghost town called Fairbank. Founded in 1881, it prospered from being the nearest railroad station to the bustling city of Tombstone, one of the largest cities in the western US at the time.

But a combination of floods and droughts gradually killed off the town, although there were a few remaining residents until the 1970’s when the last of the buildings were condemned.

Today the area is owned by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and is open to the public.

Leaving Fairbank, it was only a few minutes further down the road to Tombstone. And just about the first thing you see coming into town is Tombstone’s legendary Boot Hill. And it was our first place to stop.

Apparently only about 200 of the 300 graves here are identified, due to some buried without grave markers, and some markers lost. But the ones that remain are very interesting.

Some of the first graves you find are the result of the (in)famous Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury were killed in a shootout with Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday. The two other initial participants, Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran when the shooting started.

The feud between the Earps and the Clanton gang continued for another six months, resulting in the death of Morgan Earp and the severe wounding of Virgil. Finally in April 1882 the Earps left the Arizona Territory for Colorado.

Later, after serving as a film consultant for silent cowboy moves, and also as a deputy sheriff, Wyatt Earp died in January 1929 at the age of 80 in his small apartment in Los Angeles.

On a Trivial Pursuit note, his friend Bat Masterson, died in New York City at his desk at the New York Morning Telegraph newspaper where he was head sports editor. A big change from a gunfighter/lawman in the Old West.

The gallows still stand at the old Cochise County Courthouse, and some days they got a real workout.

In this case, 5 in one day.

It’s good that they clarified they hung these guys ‘legally’, caused this guy was just lynched outright.

And in one of those ‘Oops. Sorry ‘bout that’ moments, this poor soul was done in by mistake.

Oh, well.

After driving around Tombstone, and deciding that the place had been turned into a complete tourist trap, we pressed on to Bisbee, AZ.

Our first stop was lunch at the Bisbee Grille, a place that got great reviews, but we weren’t as enamored of it as the reviews were.

Bisbee is a quaint little town scattered up and down the mountain side, with a lot of neat shops and stores. It has a real artist’s colony feel to it.

This post is starting to run long so I’ll finish up the rest of our trip tomorrow.

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March 22, 2012

Two More Down . . .

+ one.

When I got up about 10 this morning I found two more mice in my traps. But they’re getting smaller, so maybe I’m working my way thru the herd.

About 10:30 our friend (and GMAC Insurance Agent) called with a computer problem. This was the first day of the big Good Sam RV Rally up in Phoenix and she was having a problem with printing from their 2nd computer. Luckily I was able to get her problem fixed over the phone and get her going again.

I headed out a little after 1pm to get gas, make an Ace Hardware run, and then a stop at Fry’s Market for some groceries, and some Mega-Millions lottery tickets for tomorrow night’s $290 million dollar drawing. (crossing my fingers . . . and toes, and eyes . . . and . . . )

Getting back to the rig, I decided to take a nap before we headed out for supper.

We picked up our friend’s Al & Adrienne at their home in Voyager RV Resort and headed over to the Silver Saddle Steakhouse for dinner. This will be our last get-together for a while until maybe later this year.

Silver Saddle has been voted the Best Steakhouse in Tucson a number of times, and after eating there again, it’s easy to see why.

You can watch your steak being flame broiled over the open-pit mesquite grill that sits off to the side of the dining room. The steaks come out perfectly done, with that slightly-burnt crispy edge that meat get when its cooked over an open fire. Really, really good.

We’ve known Al and Adrienne since we met in Fairbanks, AK in 2008, and have been good friends ever since.

When we got back to the rig, we found an email from our daughter Brandi showing our grandson Landon helping daddy mow the grass. Very cute.

When I checked my mouse trapline about 9pm I found a third mouse in my traps. I can’t believe all these have been living in our rig. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe they’re coming in from the outside.

I think I’ll put a trap out in our water bay tonight, since it’s the only place they could be getting in the rig.

We’ll see.

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March 22, 2013

Rib Fix . . .

I called the Blue Ox guy about 11 and they put me on the standby list to get my Blue Ox tow bar serviced. So hopefully they’ll be able to fit me in tomorrow.

Otherwise I’ll try to catch them at another rally, or, if necessary, we’ll make a detour by their factory in Pender, NE. This would work out well because Nebraska, along with Kansas and Oklahoma, are the only three states we haven’t RV’d in yet. So it might all work out anyway.

About 3:30 our power went off. At first I thought we had popped the breaker since we’re on 30 amps and both the AC and dryer were running. But when I checked the breaker, it wasn’t blown. I reset it anyway, but no luck.

My next thought was that the power to the whole park had gone off, but I seemed to be the only one out looking around, so maybe not. My next try was to move the plug to the other box on the pole. And that worked.

It could have been that the power came back on right when I moved to the new box. But for right now I left it like that since we were getting ready to leave in a few minutes for dinner. I’ll check it out later.

About 3:45pm Jan and I headed up to north Tucson to have dinner at Famous Dave’s BBQ, one of our two favorite BBQ chains, (the other being Sonny’s BBQ). We were both going into rib withdrawal and needed our fix.

Jan had a Half Rack of ribs, while I had my usual Rib and Brisket Plate. Along with their Devil’s Spit sauce, it’s a meal that’s hard to beat.

Leaving Famous Dave’s, we first headed a few miles north to an El Pollo Loco so we could pick up some of their delicious marinated grilled chicken to have for meals here at the rig.

Then finally heading home, and after we stopped to fill up the truck, we made a quick stop by Sam’s Club for a couple of things. It was kind of ironic that, after having BBQ for supper, we encountered a large BBQ Cookoff being held in the Sam’s Club parking lot. If we’d known beforehand, it might have been interesting to check it out. But we were so full we didn’t even want to think about more BBQ.

By the time we got home, it was dark and the drag strip right down the road was in high gear. And like last year, they obviously had a jet-powered dragster there.

I say ‘obviously’, because you can tell by the sound even if you can’t see it. And I’d be willing to bet that the jet engine they were using was a GE J-79, Used in the F-104 Starfighter, the F-4 Phantom, the A-5 Vigilante. and even the B-58 Hustler.

The J-79 was noted for making a particular ‘howling’ noise at different thrust settings, especially when it was throttled back on approach and landing. And the jet dragster tonight was howling up a storm when they shut down at the end of their run.

In fact the howl was one of the things that led to the F-4 being called the “Phantom”, and when I used to do DOD work at airbases around the country, even Jan knew when an F-4 went over.

And since we got home after dark, I didn’t get a chance to check further on the power problem. But there’s always tomorrow.

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March 22, 2014

Now It’s Three in a Row . . .

I was up about 10am and kind of moped around, delaying going outside and working on the slide, and then I was saved by the bell, or at least by the phone call.

Our son and daughter-in-law, Chris & Linda were in the area checking out the bluebonnets, and looking at some property, and were going to come by and visit for a while.

Wow, dodged a bullet.

We had a great time, and even better, by the time they left, I could justify it being too late to start on the slide before we headed out for dinner.

A good visit, and a good excuse. It’s a Two’fer!

About 4 pm we drove over to Jan and Dave Evans’ site to pick them up for dinner, and then we went by Lynette and Gregg McHenry’s so they could follow us.

We were heading to Cilantro’s Mexican Grill, a Mexican (obviously) restaurant over in Willis, right off the Interstate, and near the Kroger Marketplace that I mentioned the other day.

And, yes, that means we’ve had Mexican food three days in a row. Not really a record for us, though. When our kids were young, we once had dinner at the same Mexican restaurant 7 days in a row. It was that good.

Jan had the Cilantro Jalapeno Chicken,

and I had the Combo Fajitas once again.

I lost track of what the other couples had, but we had a good time, and spent almost 3 hours talking and laughing.

Later, Jan and I both agreed that had we not had dinner the two previous nights at El Bosque, we would have been really impressed with Cilantro’s. But in comparison, it wasn’t quite up to snuff. It was good, just not as good as El Bosque.

Tomorrow I’ll take another look at the slide, and start getting ready to travel on Monday.

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March 22, 2015

Fooled Us Again . . .

We pulled out of the Santa Fe RV Park a little after noon, heading 4.4 miles away to the Countryside RV Park where we’ll be for the next two weeks. And at this point I’m not sure if I really did anything to make a difference, but I had no problem with the rig’s air compressor/airbags this morning.

But unfortunately, I did TWO things differently, not just one. First, right after I cranked up, went to high idle, and brought the levelers up, I cycled the Manual Air Dump switch 3 or 4 times to see if that would make any difference, and second, I walked over to talk to the park manager for a couple of minutes. When I came back to the rig about 10 minutes later, we were up on the airbags and ready to roll.

So I don’t know what made the difference. I’m pretty sure that I had let it idle this long before, so I don’t know. Maybe it was cycling the dump switch. I guess I’ll find out in two weeks when we head up to Verde Valley.

Jan and I headed out about 3pm on our way over to SanTan Village, and the Grimaldi’s Pizzeria there. Along the way though, we stopped off at a Michael’s so I could picked up some heavy-duty sewing needles to use on my magnetic windshield shade project.  I was hoping to also find some heavy black thread to go along with my new needles, but they don’t really carry sewing stuff, just larger yarns for knitting. So I’ll have to find a JoAnn’s or a Hancock’s to pick some up.

We thought we had it scheduled out. Every Grimaldi’s we’ve ever eaten at restokes their coal-fired ovens from 3 to 4pm, so by getting there about 4:15, we should have been all set, with no delay. But maybe because Arizona isn’t on Daylight Savings Time, or something else, the Grimaldi’s at SanTan restokes between 4 and 5. Bummer. Fooled again.

But we weren’t in any hurry, so we got our salad, and just sat and talked, and people-watched, one of our favorite pastimes

Then, a few minutes after 5, our pizza, a large with Pepperoni, Mushrooms, Meatballs, Italian Sausage, and extra Mozzarella. showed up at our table and was just as delicious as always.

Since we brought home some of the salad, and half the pizza, we decided we had room for dessert, so we split a piece of their really delicious Bailey’s Irish Crème, Oreo Crust Cheesecake. Well worth the splurge, believe me.

The other day after Jan and I had dinner at Dry River Co. in Tucson, I wondered if the fact that Grimaldi’s pizza was always crispier than others was due to their coal-fired ovens. And according to their menu, the coal-fired ones run hotter than either, gas, electric, or wood-fired ones. So now we know.

And it looks like Jan and I will be right back at SanTan Village tomorrow evening to have dinner at a group favorite, Famous Dave’s BBQ. Really looking forward to it.

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March 22, 2016

Slobberless . . .

We again did our 1 mile (actually 1.12 miles) walk this morning and then sat outside holding Karma while we drank our coffee. She seems to like it better being held rather than on the ground and on her leash.

At least until a couple walking their dog passed by about 25 yards away. The small white dog wasn’t much bigger than Karma and never paid any attention to her, but Karma freaked and started scratching to get down and away.

Luckily I was able to keep ahold of her as she tried to claw her way to freedom, and I was able to get her back in the rig. Of course five minutes later she was at screen door meowing to get back out.

I’m not falling for that again.

When we were back inside, I gathered up the garbage and walked it back over to the dumpster. I also took my camera along to get some photos of a really neat 5th wheel we saw on our walk.

It’s painted up as a computer motherboard, complete with case cooling fan.

And a really neat circuit pattern on the front.

On this slide they’ve started painting computer components like capacitors, transistors, and other parts.

Even better, the white circuit traces are covered with glow-in-the-dark strips, so the whole thing lights up at night.

The rig is owned by Oran and Angie, who travel with their two kids, selling TV Boxes and providing remote desktop and website support to clients. You can find him here at TechEvolution.info.

Later in the afternoon I crawled back under the rig to check the contents of my recently-installed slobber can.

When we traveled from Lake Conroe to Colorado River about three weeks ago I found our truck with a good cover of engine oil when we arrived. I had seen this to a much lesser extent when we used the PacBrake a lot in the mountains out west. But this was a good bit more oil.

While we were there I researched possible causes of this problem and came up with idea that the oil spray was coming from the ‘slobber tube’, also known as a breather tube.

So before we left Colorado River I hung an extension tube and a soup can from the slobber tube to see what was happening.

But although I confirmed the can was still there when we got here, I didn’t get under the rig until today.

And I found an almost empty can with just a little bit of sludge at the bottom.

So was this just a one-time problem, or what?

I’ll leave the can on for now, and if I don’t get any oil collected on our trip to Colorado River next Sunday, then I’ll remove it and see what happens on the next trip.

Last Tuesday coming back from our our daughter Brandi’s in Katy, we decided to try out the newly-opened Grand Parkway Tollway section between I-10 in Katy and I-45 north near The Woodlands. Our friends Jim and Peri Dean had tried it and liked it, so now it was our turn. And after giving it a try, we found we both liked it and didn’t like it.

We liked it because we were coming home during the afternoon rush, and it was 75mph the entire way, only slowing down to a crawl once we were back on I-45 N.

But for what it’s worth, it’s 5 miles longer than taking Beltway 8 like we usually do, and it’s more expensive – $7.62 vs. $3.00 for the Beltway.

I also mentioned at the time the weird pricing at the six toll spots along the way, and today I finally logged into my EZ Tag account to double check the amounts. And they are weird.

1. $1.98
2. $1.03
3. $1.35
4. $0.95
5. $1.20
6. $1.11

What kind of toll is $1.03?

So we’ll probably just reserve this route for rush hour travel.

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March 22, 2018

Almost, But Not Yet . . .

I got a call from my doctor’s office a little before 11 this morning, giving me the results of the lab tests from our visit this past Monday.

And overall, they were really good. Most importantly I’m off Metformin. My A1c was 5.7, which is great, and a good drop from last year. The only real downside was my calcium level was a little low so they changed my blood pressure meds to drop the diuretic.

Jan and I headed up to Webster about 11:30 to meet with her oncologist as a follow-up to her recent lab tests and mammogram. And Jan also got some good news.

All her lab tests came back normal, as well as her mammogram as I had already mentioned. AND her doctor also said that if she’s still problem-free this time next year, Jan can stop taking her Anastrozole. It’s not expensive, and it doesn’t seem to have any side effects for her, but the less stuff you take, the better. At least that’s always been my view.

Finishing up, the doctor told her that it was 4 years ago today that she was first diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Ironic.

With this good news we headed right down the street to have lunch at King Food. Next it was on out to Friendswood to our GP’s office to pick up the changed prescriptions for both Jan and I. Then it was on over to Brock’s Car Care with a stopover at the Kroger’s on the way to fill up Chris’ truck before we returned it.

But at Brock’s, our-so-far-great day skidded to a halt. After paying the bill and picking up the key, the first thing I did was to try to put the truck into tow mode, since it involves the transfer case that was replaced.

And it didn’t work.

The procedure is to turn the key to the ON unlocked position, put your foot on the brake, and then put the gearshift in Neutral. At this point you press a ballpoint pen into a depression at the bottom left of the 4WD switch.

The lights on the switch flash and there’s a Click-Clunk and the transfer case is now in tow mode. If the truck is not already hitched up or the parking braking is not on, the truck will roll away. In fact the truck is towed in Park.

When we get to our destination, I just reverse the procedure before unhitching.

But now nothing happened – No lights, no Click-Clunk, no nothing. Plus the Service 4WD light was now on. Going inside I told Dennis about the problem and gave him the key back. He said he’d be in touch.

Putting in a call to Chris to tell him we’d have his truck a little longer, we drove over to the nearby Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart to drop off our new prescriptions and pick up a few things.

Finishing up about 4pm we sat out in the parking lot for a while thinking maybe we’d hear from Brock’s before we headed back down to Santa Fe, but no luck. So about 5pm we started toward home, going down Hwy 3 to avoid all the going-home traffic on I-45. I did make a stopover at Fry’s Electronics for a few minutes before we got home about 6pm.

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March 22, 2019

Booting Up . . .

Finishing up on yesterday’s fun and folic, our next stop was for some WalMart shopping. And after all that food at Stomp’s Burger Joint we really needed a walk, so I parked at the far end of the parking lot, We could almost see the store from there.

Between football-ravaged ankles, as well as knees and ankles banged up from jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, I’ve usually worn boots most of my adult life, normally what I always called ‘Engineer’ boots, the short ones. Otherwise my ankles get sore very quickly walking any distance.

And I’d been talking about getting some new boots for our Europe trip, so I decided to see what WalMart had, based on my good experience with a pair of their Brahma boots that I bought back in 2014.

For the last umpteen years I’ve usually got my boots at Red Wing Shoes, mainly because that was the only place I could consistently find boots in my size. Which for me is around a 9 EEE or EEEE.

So yes, I have snowshoes for feet. I got these from my father, who said that he never had shoes that fit him until he enlisted in the Navy during WWII.

But Red Wing boots are very expensive, about $200 a pair, and it seems like the soles only lasted a few years before they would start coming apart.

But back in 2014 when we were gate guarding, I suddenly needed a pair of steel-toed boots so I grabbed a pair at WalMart for about $50. And five years later they’re still going strong with little or no wear on the tread.

But the tops are a little scuffed so I wanted some new ones, And this time I ended up with two pair, one black and one brown.

For a total of $55.

So I thought I’d start the break-in by wearing the black ones to work, and out and about. And I discovered that they apparently don’t really need any break-in period. They were just as comfortable as my 5 year old ones. And without the steel toes, much lighter too.

Finishing up at WM, it was on next door to Sam’s for gas. And a big shock. Since I filled up about a week and a half ago, the price jumped from $2.08 to $2.28.

Yikes!

When we got home, I dug out my Porter-Cable air compressor from the truck and started to check the rig’s tire pressures in prep for our test drive on Sunday.

And found out it wasn’t needed. The pressures were right where I set  them back last October before we left for Florida.

I’ve really been happy with these Ironman tires that I got back in 2015. I chose them because of all the big rigs in the oil field that were running them. And because these are truck tires, there’s a fast turnover, so these tires that I had install the first part of July 2015 have a date code of 0615.

Now that’s fresh.

Today was a big milestone for me at work. I was finally able to get a clean copy of our in-house Zen Cart shopping cart database transferred over and working on a new installation up on Godaddy. A big step toward my goal of getting our company shopping cart website up into the cloud and off my desk at work.

So to celebrate we went out for dinner tonight at a local fav, Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant, where Jan got her usual Grilled Chicken Breast stuffed with Shrimp and Broccoli, while I got  the Beef Fajita Taco Salad.

A  delicious way to celebrate.

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March 22, 2020

Worse Than The Disease?

Later this afternoon Jan and I went outside, and with her help, we laid the shed box down on its side and pulled the top off.

Since it was still sprinkling, all I really wanted to do was pull out the instruction manual since I didn’t want it to get wet. I do have a downloaded copy, but sometimes there are updates in the box, as there was this time, a change in the number of several parts.

We hope to get started in the next few days while we’re in quarantine. Though it’s hard to tell since I will be going into work tomorrow as usual.

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March 22, 2022

Live Long and Prosper!

And A Nice Surprise!

We were on our way up to Conroe a little after 10am to meet up with the Conroe Bunch at the Golden Corral there. Jan and I got there about 11:35 with Janice and Dave Evans showing up a few minutes later, followed by Debi and Ed Hurlburt.

When we got there, Janice said we needed a table for 8, not for just the 6 of us.

???

And that was the surprise. A few minutes later long-time friends Eldy Tompkins and Jeannie Sparks walked in.

We first met them at a rally in 2010 and have met up a number of other times around the country, as far off as Oregon. So it was good to catch up.

They full-timed for 3 years in a motorhome, then sold their rig, and bought a house in Florida where they lived for 7 years. But then they were re-infected with Hitch-Itch, sold their house, bought a 5th wheel and hit the road again.

From left to right: Ed, Debi, Jeannie, Jan, Janice, Dave, and Eldy.

We were all talking about the bad weather and heavy rain . . . and hail last night. Though we only got about an inch of rain, and a lot of thunder and lightning this morning, up north in the Conroe area, they got it a lot worse.

We said our goodbyes about 2 and were back on the road towards home. And just like our trip up, there was a minimal amount of traffic and we had a smooth trip home, getting there about 3:30. After a stop at Cowboy Coffee for Sugar-Free Hazelnut Lattes, of course.

Live Long and Prosper –

Today is William Shatner’s Birthday. He’s 91.

Looks really good for 91. Of course people lived longer in the 25th century.