Our RV Adventures

Yesterday it was 82° and then 46 last night. And we’re looking at 50’s and 40’s for the next week before hitting 80 again by next Thursday.

Hey, it’s Texas weather. What can I say.

Information You Need:

Reusable water bottles hold more bacteria than toilet seat, study finds

A recent study from US-based waterfilterguru.com found reusable bottles can harbor 40,000 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat – describing them as being like a “portable Petri dish.”

Comparing the cleanliness of the bottles to household objects also painted a dirty picture: they contain twice as germs as the kitchen sink; can harbor four times the amount of bacteria as a computer mouse; and 14 times more than a pet’s drinking bowl.

Experts recommend washing it at least once a day with hot soapy water, and sanitizing it at least once a week – though increase the habit if you’ve been unwell, drink from it while eating, or are filling it with something other than water.

Or maybe it’s just the water. After all, W.C. Fields said he never drinks water. Fish pee in it.

Makes sense to me.

I got a call from the guy that working on our Jeep yesterday who said they’re going to go ahead and replace the oil pump. So hopefully we’ll know something about the oil light problem soon.

Real Or Fake?

This is the Amazon Snake Cat. Supposedly the rarest cat in the world

Maybe.  There’s a big debate going on online.

So you be the judge.

Tomorrow morning we’re heading up to Conroe once again to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt, and hopefully, Janice Evans to check out a new Mexican place, La Pizca (The Pinch) Grill & Cantina. The menu looks good, so we’ve got high hopes for it.

And really looking forward to seeing everyone too.

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Thought For The Day:

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March 17, 2009

Moving day…

Well, we put some miles on the coach today…   2.4 miles actually.

As I had mentioned, we could only stay in the premium site where we were for two weeks and then either had to move on, or move to another site here in the park.

I was unsure if a site would be available when we needed to move since the park has been pretty much filled up due to Spring Break.

But we lucked out and had our choice of three new sites this morning.  We chose a new site at the end of a cul-d- sac.  Nice and quiet. With plenty of woods for Mister to stalk…well, whatever he stalks.  At least he’s away from the alligators.

Beautiful day today… with more to come.

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March 17, 2010

Long hills, but no more cat barf…

We left Laughlin about 8:30am, heading toward Las Vegas.

Although our parking facilities were plain-jane with no hookups, it was free and had a great view. Can’t beat that!

We had a couple of long hills on our way, but our rig had no problem with them,  And one of these hills was a 17 mile long steady climb.

About 50 miles out of Las Vegas we passed thru the town of Searchlight.

Searchlight is a famous gold mining town. During the early 1900’s it was bigger than Las Vegas, with over 7 million dollars in gold taken out between 1907 and 1910. Although the gold mining started to play out in the 1920’s, the town had a resurgence during the 30’s and 40’s during the building of the Hoover Dam because of the El Rey, a famous bordello. At its peak it had a population of 1500, but according to the 2000 census there are only 576 people there.

We pulled into the Roadrunner RV Park about 10:20. We parked out on the street for a few minutes waiting for a space to open up since they don’t take reservations. But by 10:45 we were parked and set up.

Here’s my lovely bride, Jan at the London Bridge at Lake Havasu.

After I got cleaned up we headed out to Claim Jumper, a restaurant we ate when we were here two years ago and really enjoyed. And it was a good as we remembered. We will definitely go back before we leave.

Leaving the restaurant we stopped off at WalMart for ‘stuff’. You can never have too much ‘stuff’, and WalMart has great ‘stuff’, and a lot of it.

Then it was on to Fry’s Electronics so I could pick up some goodies.

By then it was dark and we decided to drive up and down the Strip to see the lights. Between the Luxor pyramid, the Paris Eiffel tower, and New York, New York Stature of Liberty, it was quite a sight.

After driving up and down the Strip, we headed back to our rig. It was a long, but very enjoyable day.

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March 17, 2011

Happy St. Paddy’s Day . . .

Once again this morning started out with coffee about 9:30 and some website work for clients. Then about 10:30 Jan set up an outing for us for lunch, shopping, and errands.

So around noon Jan and I headed over to the Miracle Mile area of Tucson. Our first stop was to drop off some mail at the Post Office and then on to Luke’s Italian Beef. A Chicago-style sandwich shop, they serve a variety of beef sandwiches, cheesesteaks, hot dogs, and Polish sausage. Jan had an Italian Beef sandwich with Provolone cheese, while I had a Polish Sausage Dog, Chicago Style. We both had orders of their great fries. They’re really crispy because they’re fried twice.

After a delicious lunch, we headed west out of town toward the Tucson Mountain Park and Gate’s Pass scenic areas.

We had been thru some of this area before a while back when our friends Al and Adrienne took us out to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum that is located here. But this time we made a giant loop coming back into Tucson by a different, very scenic route.

Our first stop back in town was Wal-Mart for some needed supplies. Then it was on to Trader Joe’s, a western-based U.S. chain, similar to Whole Foods, selling mostly natural and organic foods, it’s a fun place to find products you don’t see in many other stores.

We finally got back home about 6pm, and, after putting away our groceries and checking our emails, we headed out about 7 to DQ.

Tomorrow we plan on revisiting the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch up I-10 in the Picacho Peak area between here and Phoenix.

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March 17, 2012

Pollo and DQ . . .

After a quiet morning, Jan and I headed out around noon for an afternoon of lunch and shopping. Jan had her usual Wal-Mart list and I had a couple of things I needed too.

But our first stop was for lunch at El Pollo Loco, our favorite place for flame-grilled chicken. Unfortunately they’re pretty much only found out west so we don’t get to eat there as often as we like. We went to one last year in Las Vegas, and we were  disappointed. It wasn’t very good. But today, this one was delicious. Their chicken is soaked overnight in a citrus marinade and then flame grilled over an open fire. The skin comes out slightly blackened and crispy-crunchy good, and chicken is moist and flavorful.

After lunch, our next stop was a nearby 99cent store to get some of the spicy mustard the food vendor at the Yuma Rally had used. Don’t know why it’s so good, but it really is.

Next up was a Lowe’s right down the street. I needed some new florescent blubs for one of our bathroom fixtures, and we wanted to look at the Levelor wooden blinds. One of our day/night shades in the bedroom broke a string, so we were thinking about just replacing them like others have done, but to fit our windows it’s a two week special order, so we’ll have to wait until we’re in one place for that long.

Then it was on to Wal-Mart for more shopping, stocking up on groceries, cat food, etc. Jan says a week without Wal-Mart is just, well, sucky.

Finally about 3pm we headed home with stops along the way at Starbuck’s for a Cinnamon Dolce Latte for me, and then DQ for a vanilla cone for Jan. Gotta keep our strength up.

We got home about 3:30, got things put away, and then a little later, we drove down the road a few miles to Voyager RV Resort to visit our friends Al & Adrienne for dinner.

We met them in Fairbanks, AK in 2008 and have been good friends ever since. We always try to hook up with them around the country as our paths cross, and we always have a great time getting together.

After a great supper Jan and Adrienne talked while Al and I cleaned the gunk out of her computer to speed things up. She should really see the difference now.

Time flies when you’re having fun, which is why we didn’t get home until about 9:30, way past Jan’s bedtime. But the great company kept her bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Well, maybe just bright-eyed.

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March 17, 2013

Pima Bound . . .

Today we were heading for Tucson, AZ about 260 miles away. We filled up with diesel at the Pilot station right down the road from the park before getting out on I-10 west.

When we got to Lordsburg about 90 minutes later, we made our usual stop at the Kranberry’s Family Restaurant there. They’re only a couple of blocks off the Interstate and have RV parking. In fact when we parked, there were three other RV’s and a semi there too.

When we came out of the restaurant we could tell the wind had picked up even more. Oh boy. But we really didn’t have a lot of problems with the wind, just a couple of strong gusts. Instead we mostly just had a strong headwind.

We pulled into Pima Country Fairgrounds about 3pm, having gained an hour since Arizona doesn’t do Daylight Savings Time. They only had 30 amp sites available, but I was able to get a spot facing the east so we won’t have the afternoon sun coming into the windshield.

For dinner we decided to not go out, but just have the leftover Grimaldi’s pizza from last Sunday. And it was still really, really good.

Tomorrow we’ll try to catch up with some friends who live in the area, and maybe do some shopping. And of course there’s always the fact that there’s a Grimaldi’s Pizzeria here in Tucson, too.

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March 17, 2014

New Friends and Pizza . . .

After a 35 degree night, we had a beautiful sunny day today. So I managed to get through the last six basement bins, although I didn’t finish getting everything sorted into the final bins. This is because I’m having to rethink my bin categories, mainly because I’ve got too many tools and too much electronic stuff to fit into one bin of each. But it looks like I’ll be able to consolidate some categories that turned out to be smaller than I thought. So hopefully it’ll all work out.

I’ll see tomorrow since it should be another beautiful day.

But the other reason I didn’t get any further with the sorting is that Jan and I met some new friends and spent part of the afternoon talking and getting acquainted over in their very nice Tiffin Allegro Bus. Don and Darlene Couvillon came in this morning and will be here until Friday.

About 3, we started talking about dinner, and since Jan and I had already planned to eat at the Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in The Woodlands, we suggested there, and they agreed.

So about 3:30 we piled into our truck and headed out about 25 minutes away. And as usual, the coal-fired oven-baked pizza was fantastic.

And the company was pretty good, too. Turns out we’ve been to a lot of the same places, and have a lot of interests in common.

After dinner we stopped off for a while at the Barnes & Noble a few blocks over. Jan and I were just looking for a couple of magazines, since we don’t really buy hardcover or paperback books anymore, just Kindle books.

While I was in line checking out, there was a guy in front of me buying Nook. I just wanted to grab him by the lapels, and shake him, “Don’t buy it. The Nook is going out of business. Buy a Kindle!”

But to his detriment, I didn’t.

On the same subject, I read today that B&N is dropping support for the Nook Windows Reader App.

And another domino falls.

On another note, the last couple of days I haven’t seen any quashed snapping turtle parts on the road leaving the park, so I guess my turtle rescue the other day was successful.

Finally, we had a great time getting to know Don and Darlene, and hopefully we’ll be able to get together with them again before they leave.

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March 17, 2015

T-Shirts and Trim Tape . . .

This morning I was back working on my magnetic solar shades, I went ahead and mounted the one on the driver’s, holding the shade up outside, while Jan stuck the magnets on the inside.

They seem to hold just fine, even with all the strong, gusty winds we’ve been having the last few days, so I think the magnets are plenty strong. After looking things over, I think I’ll have a solar screen place in Apache Junction sew the two pieces into one single piece so it will be easier to handle. And I’ll also have them trim off the bottom to the correct length and then hem it so it will look nicer.

Then after I get the solar screen configured like I want it, I will use 3M Trim Tape to permanently fasten the magnets in the correct position on the inside of the windshield.

The stuff is super-strong and is used to fasten trim, moldings, and emblems on to automobiles. It’s the same stuff that the Magne Shade people use to hold their magnets in place.

So far it looks like it will work out fine.

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About 1pm Jan and I headed out on some errands around town, with our first stop at the Pima Air & Space Museum. Not to tour it, which we did back in 2010, but to get a new SR-71 T-Shirt from the gift shop.

I bought one of these shirts when we visited back then, but after 5 years of wear it’s looking a little worn out and faded.

Then it was on up to Bookman’s, the used book store, so Jan could see if they had the last 2 books in the Eragon series, which they didn’t. Guess we’ll just go ahead and get them on the Kindle,

Heading back over to Houghton Rd, we made a stop at the new Dunkin’ Donuts for some more Munchkins (holes) for breakfast. Still don’t know if we got what we ordered, since we got the same surly cashier as the other day, who apparently can’t count, and couldn’t keep our order straight.

Next up was the new Wal-Mart right next door. Turns out that this is one of those ‘Mini’ Super Wal-Marts that we first encountered in Kenedy, TX when we were gate guarding in 2012. It’s a ‘Super’ Wal-Mart because in has a full grocery section, but it doesn’t carry the range of products that the full size stores do. The quickest way to tell the difference is that unlike the big ones, the ‘Mini’s’ only have one entrance, not two.

Getting home a little before 4, we had just enough time to put everything away, and then head back out to meet our friends Al & Adrienne at 5pm for dinner at the Hog Pit Smokehouse, which is right down the road from the new Poco & Mom’s on Tanque Verde

Everyone enjoyed their meal. I even thought it was better than Brushfire BBQ where we ate last week, but Jan was kind of on the fence. She liked some things better here, and some things better at Brushfire.

Finishing up, we went back to their townhome here at Voyager for a couple of hours to keep catching up. As I’ve mentioned before, we first met Al and Adrienne in Fairbanks, AK in 2008, and later have caught up with them in Westport, WA and Cody, WY. They get around almost as much as we do.

Tomorrow they’re talking rain, so we’ll see how much work I get done outside before we leave on Thursday for Apache Junction.

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March 17, 2016

A Day Of Rest . . .

Much Needed Rest!

With our first down day in a while, Jan and I both just vegged out today. I only went outside to tighten down a leaking water hose connection, and that was it.

About 1pm I started putting together a beef stew in the slow cooker. Back in the fall of 2013 a Company Man on one of our gates gave us two beautiful 1-1/2 pound boneless ribeye steaks, already frozen and vacuum-sealed. We tucked them away in the freezer and kind of forgot about them.

We came across them the other day while sorting through the freezer contents, working on using up stuff to make it easier to defrost  soon. And since I didn’t want  to pull our Weber Q200 out, only to find out we’re out of propane, we decide to go with a really good beef stew.

We’d had them thawing out for the last couple of days so they were good to go.

And it was amazing how good these steaks still looked . . . like they just came from the store.

I trimmed some of the excess fat off and then cut them into cubes. Then it was into the slow cooker with a can of mushroom soup, a can of water, and a few pearl onions.

After adding salt, a lot of coarse black pepper, and a healthy dose of

Arizona Black Scorpion Sting for some heat, I put the cooker on high, and let it go for a couple of hours before I added the potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and the rest of the pearl onions.

And after another couple of hours, dinner was served.

Jan toasted up some Hawaiian Bread Rolls to go with it, and it was a real feast. The meat was very tender without being mushy, and the flavor was delicious, with enough heat to make the top of my head sweat. So it was perfect.

And there’s leftovers, too.

Readers from last October and November will remember my quixotic search for boot laces that would last more than a month or so. I lace my boots really tight for the ankle support (needed from jumping out of a perfectly good airplane one too many times.) and so my laces only last a couple of months before they snap.

So loyal reader Lloyd Jackson suggested I get some Paracord and make my own.

You can read more about it here: I Made My Own

And these homemade Paracord laces have been great, going over six months with out a problem. Until this happened.

Karma the Kitty decided she need a new chew toy and it seems my boots, and the laces filled the bill.

So this evening I made up a new set, but this time I added some color.

We’ll see how long these last.

Jan and I’ve been following the flooding news on the TX/LA border, with I-10 possibly closed until next Monday. So it was interested to find this photo online.

That group of buildings is the what remains of the big Welcome Center / Rest Area as you come into Texas from Louisiana. Looks like it’s going to be a while until it reopens.

Wrapping up, I want to highly recommend a book that Jan and I both really enjoyed. It’s not often that you come across a book that makes you constantly laugh out loud, but also pulls at you heartstrings, hard.

it’s the true story of a young boy growing with a neurological condition called Synesthesia, causing him to see black and white text like this.

Growing up he thought everyone saw the world like this. But colored text was only small part of what he saw. Everything had its own color, and the colors changed as the objects moved.

But a few slips along the way, like when he was talking to a Little League friend about hitting, and told his friend he liked to hit the ball right behind the glowing orange tentacles, convinced him there was something wrong with him, and that everyone didn’t see things the way he did.

And it was only in college when he discovered what he had, and that there was a name for it.

Read this book. You will definitely enjoy it. And it’s only .99 cents

The Toaster Oven Mocks Me

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March 17, 2017

Lucky Us . . .

I spent the morning tracking down a problem with Charles Yust’s Toshiba laptop, which was running very slow, glacially slow, as a matter of fact.

After checking a lot of things, including the CPU speed, and cleaning and reseating the 2GB RAM stick, I dug further into the system and found that it was still a RAM problem

The laptop system RAM was showing anywhere for 500 to 2000 Hard Errors per Second. whereas my desktop computer shows maybe 1 Hard Error per Minute, and often goes several minutes without showing any errors.

So I ordered 2 new RAM sticks, one to replace the bad one, and a second one to bump the memory up to 4GB which will also make it run faster.

Finally about 12 noon I headed outside to finish up my rig cleaning by going over it again, this time with Turtle Wax Zip Car Wash & Wax. Took me about 90 minutes and it turned out pretty good.

Probably would have been a little better if I had buffed it dry, but still OK.

About 3pm we headed into Tucson to Voyager RV Resort to look at a problem Chris and Charles Yust were having with another laptop not staying connected to the Internet.

Although I was not able to duplicate the problem, I suspect it might be caused by the fact that the laptop’s connection to their MiFi was Public and not Private, thus causing the McAfee Firewall to interfere with the data flow. So we’ll have to see how it works now, and if the problem comes back.

Later, after Chris finished up with her customers about 6pm, we all headed over to one of our favorite Tucson eateries, Luckie’s Thai. Located in an unassuming strip center storefront location, the Chinese/Thai cuisine is hard to match.

Jan and I each started with a bowl of their Hot & Sour Soup.

Not quite King Food good, but very, very good anyway.

Then Jan got an order of their Sesame Chicken with Steamed Rice,

while I went with the Orange Beef with Fried Rice.

Both very good, with plenty left over for later.

Finishing up, we all rounded out the meal with a shared bowl of their fantastic homemade Coconut Ice Cream.

As seems to be usual for us, we finally left at 9pm as they turned the lights out on us.

Tomorrow we’ll head over to Voyager RV Resort where we be for the next week as we attend the 57th Escapees Escapade which starts on Sunday.

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March 17, 2018

Ouch, Ouch . . .

Friday afternoon as I was coming home from work I got a another call from Brock’s Car Care about the truck.

Turns out a while back the truck’s transfer case cracked. Dennis at Brock’s said he knew it wasn’t recently because the dirt buildup around the crack where oil was seeping out. Apparently this threw the case out of alignment and begin to stress the U-joints. I knew from the rumble that I needed to have them looked at but I was trying to wait until all our upcoming doctor’s appointments were done with.

Unfortunately that didn’t work out too well.

Dennis wasn’t too encouraging about repairing it but I told him to take a shot and see what he could do using used parts where ever possible.

So he called yesterday with the ‘bad’ news. But not really as ‘bad’ as I had anticipated. By utilizing a used transfer case he could fix it for S2126.00 Ouch, Ouch.

However he said he would have to order a new driveshaft since he couldn’t find a used one. Wonder if a lot of Dakota’s have lost their driveshafts, so there’s a shortage?

Of course there’s always the math about putting $2100 into a 14 year old truck with about 274,000 miles on it, a truck worth maybe $5000 per Kelly Blue Book. But there’s a couple of other considerations.

Overall it’s in good shape. It still looks good and runs good, and it’s towable with just the push of a button. AND it has a $1500 Blue Ox baseplate installed on it. A baseplate that probably can’t be installed on many other vehicles, although I do have a call into Blue Ox to check.

So if I replaced it with something else, I would have to find something that was towable, and buy a new pricey baseplate. So I decided to roll the dice and take a chance.

We’ll see how it goes.

Dennis said it should be ready to go toward the end of the week. Luckily Chris and Linda are going up to Kingsland for a few days and won’t be back until Thursday night, so using his truck until then shouldn’t be a problem.

Last night we got together with long-time friend’s Barbara and Tom.

I’ve known Barb since the early 2000’s when I did IT support for the company where she worked. We always try to get together a couple times every year while we’re in the area.

Sometimes we meet at a restaurant and then go back to their home in the South Shore Harbor area. But if we’re really lucky, Barbara cooks!

Last night’s menu was Lasagna, Green Beans with Bacon, Carrots and Chopped Kale Salad. But Barbara’s gift is that every dish gets her special touch.

For instance, after cooking these carrots, she coated them with butter, Amaretto Liqueur and Orange Liqueur. Probably the best carrots we’ve ever had, and Jan’s new favorite.

Between eating, talking, and looking at a couple of computer problems she was having, we didn’t get home until 1am.

I’ll catch up with tonight’s family antics on tomorrow’s blog.

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March 17, 2019

Puddle’s

Tomorrow evening we’ve got our Puddle’s Pity Party concert at the Stafford Center,

preceded by dinner at the Floyd’s Cajun Seafood up in Sugarland.

Since it may be late before we get home, there may or may not be much of a blog tomorrow.

We’ll see.

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March 17, 2020

Our Thoughts and Prayers . . .

Jan and I were extremely shocked and saddened to hear that our long-time friend Charles Yust has been hospitalized after he collapsed and suffered a traumatic head injury and multiple major brain bleed. According to his wife, Chris, he is not doing well.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chris and Charles, and we hope for the best.

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March 17, 2021

Hot Or Cold . . .

It got up to 81° here today, but the humidity was only about 36% so it was still very comfortable, even without the front AC.

But it looks like the cold front that wreaked so much havoc out west is finally showing up in our area,  but not nearly as cold. But it is supposed to go down to about 45° tonight, and just barely make it into the 70’s tomorrow. And it looks like 60’s/40’s the rest of the week.

And speaking of the front AC, it looks like my new control box should be here tomorrow, and should only take me about 15 minutes to get it hooked up and checked out. Of course, then it’ll take me another 15 minutes or so to get all the filters and covers back in place.

RV Driver Annihilates Their New Jeep Wrangler by Flat-Towing It in 4-Low

This is what happens to your new Jeep Wrangler when you tow it at 55mph in first gear, and 4-Low. The mechanic figured that with the gear ratios, the engine was revving at about 50,000 rpm, and then BOOM!

Ouch!

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March 17, 2022

Leprechauns. Who Knew? . . .

Jan and I headed out a little before 1pm, with our first stop at the Home Depot for a new wall toggle switch for our water heater. I wanted one that lights up when it’s on, but when I checked Amazon I didn’t see one I liked, at a price I liked. So I checked Home Depot and found one for $4.65. Website said it was on Aisle 8, Bin 10.

It actually was in Bin 8, right next door. But close enough.

Then it was on up to Twin Peaks for lunch. I told Jan that today being St. Patrick’s Day, I wouldn’t be surprised if the servers were all dressed as leprechauns.

What I didn’t realize is how skimpily dressed the leprechauns would be. Which is why there are no photos.

Sylvia, our regular waitress, wasn’t working today, so we had a new one, Sylvia’s BFF, Victoria. Now if it had been Sylvia, I would have asked for a photo, but felt funny asking for one from someone we didn’t know at all.

This was another of those days when Jan says the place should be called ‘Twin Cheeks’.

But I did get photos of our food, especially since we both got something different this time.

After starting out with cup of their Tomato Basil, Jan got the Avocado Smash Burger and side of Sautéed Green Beans.

I got a bowl of the Green Chile Chicken, as well as a couple of sides, the Sautéed Broccoli and the Sautéed Green Beans.

The Green Beans are really good, with diced tomatoes, onions, corn, and bacon mixed in.

Just as we were finishing up, who should walk in and sit down at the table right next to us, Sylvia and another young lady.

I didn’t recognize her at first, since she was in civilian clothes, her hair was up in a ponytail, and she was wearing a visor cap.

It says something about the place when the servers come back on their day off.

Leaving TP, we drove over to get my haircut. Except there was a sign on the door saying they were closed for Spring Break and wouldn’t reopen until the 23rd. So it will have to wait until next week, I guess.

Getting home around 3:15, I got my new switch installed and checked out.

Looks good.

Jan and I headed up to Webster about 12:45 to have lunch at Twin Peaks once again. And for the first time we sat out in the new patio area. Today they had the doors closed so it was nice inside.

Of course the real reason we were sitting out here was that this was Sylvia’s area.

Jan got her usual Chipotle Chicken with an extra Broccoli instead of the Mashed Potatoes.

I got the Soup & Salad with a bowl of the Green Chile Chicken Soup.

Both the Soup and the Salad are really good, and the Ranch Dressing is made-in-house.

Delicious.

Today all the servers were dressed for their St. Patrick’s Day theme, so I had to get a photo of Sylvia’s outfit, and as a bonus we also got Victoria, her BFF.

It was a Two’fer.

Getting our Sylvia hugs and leaving TP we headed down Hwy 3 and swung by the new Gordon’s Food Service that I talked about yesterday to look it over.

It was really busy, with a lot of cars in the lot.

We’ll probably check it out a little closer this coming Tuesday.

One thing I’m looking forward to checking out is their 15 favors of gourmet popcorn, made in-house.

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about how much I hate updates, especially Microsoft updates. And here’s just another reason.

Known Microsoft Windows 11 Issue Decreases SSD Speeds Amongst Other Issues

Users report that read speeds from SSD have dramatically reduced after the newest Windows 11 update (Windows 11 Version 22H2 – KB5023706). While the few reported events were thought to be localized to the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB SSD, the issue is found to plague other manufacturers and can be fixed after uninstalling the update.

HATE!, HATE!, HATE!

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Thought For The Day:

YUM!

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March 16, 2009

Rainy Day Monday, too…

Rain and more rain. But supposedly much better tomorrow.

We’ll see.

Jan and I didn’t do much of anything today.  Just sat around the coach, watch the rain, read, watched the rain, watched satellite TV, watched the rain screw up the satellite TV, and so on, and so on…

We decided to go back to Lulu’s for supper again, since we may have to move on tomorrow if there are no vacancies here.

Tomorrow night we may be somewhere around Port St. Joe, FL.  We’ll see.

Anyway, back to Lulu’s.  Jan had the Shrimp & Oyster Basket that I had last time.  I just had a sandwich because I was trying to save room for a piece of their Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding with Vanilla Pecan Sauce.

I wish I had just had the Bread Pudding because I was already pretty full when it came.  This meant I was too full to eat it all by myself, so I had to ‘force’ Jan to eat more than the one spoonful she had asked for.

Maybe ‘forced’ isn’t quite the right word. It was more like ‘dueling spoons’ there for a while.

I ask Jan if she thought anyone would mind if I licked the plate?  She just gave me “The Look”.   All you married guys know what “The Look” is, right?

BTW,  I have a bone to pick… or rather a nut to pick with Paula Deen.  About nuts.  Pecans actually.

On her show today, she and some other lady were making cinnamon rolls with pecans. She was saying “P-Cans”.

She asked the other lady how she said it, and that lady also said it ‘P-Cans”.

Then Paula uttered blasphemy.

She said “If you say ‘P-cahns’  instead of “P-Cans”,  you’re just not from the South.

Well excuuuussssseee meee!

I was born and raised in Alabama and we said “P-cahns”.   ‘P-Cans’ was what those damned yankees,  damned carpetbaggers,  damned people from up north said.

So here’s a poll.  How do you pronounce it?

How do you say ‘Pecans’

More tomorrow, depending on where we are…

and who votes my way in the poll…

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March 16, 2010

London Bridge and cat barf…

We left Yuma about 9:30am heading on a two day trip to Las Vegas.

One place we were interesting in seeing was Quartzsite, AZ, a place we’d heard about for years.  Quartzsite is kind of a mecca for RV’ers who like to dry camp out in the desert. The area is surrounded by BLM land where people can park for free.  Every January Quartzsite is flooded with RV’s as the place becomes one big RV flea market.

We took the scenic route which gave us some amazing views, but the many roller coaster dips as we drove over the washes made Jan’s cat, Emma, carsick. Emma proceeded to barf all over the carpet.

A little after noon we arrived in Lake Havasu City, home of the London Bridge.

We parked our rigs at a local Elks club, unhitched our truck, and drove over to see the Bridge.

Robert McCulloch, of McCulloch Chain Saw fame bought the bridge from the City of London in 1967 as a tourist attraction for the retirement community he was building in the area.

Originally built in 1831, the bridge, out-dated for modern traffic, was dismantled, numbered, and shipped to America. It was then reassembled around a stronger concrete core, and opened in 1971.

It was actually built on dry land and then the channel was dredged out under it, making the river.

Remains of the numbers can still be seen today.

Now a large marina lies next to the bridge.

After stopping off for ice cream at Dairy Queen, we hitched up and hit the road again.

We pulled into Laughlin NV around 5pm and got parked in the River Palms Casino RV Park that overlooks the city and the casinos. It’s quite a view at night.

Later we headed over to the River Palms Casino to partake of the 2 for 1 Prime Rib Buffet. That’s $5.40 per person, and it was really good!

Of course, Jan immediately lost $20 in the slots, so they made their money back, which I think was the idea.

Tomorrow we head to Las Vegas.

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March 16, 2011

I Like Naps . . .

I got up about 9:30 just in time to move over to a new site. We had already arranged it with the office that we would move into that 50amp site as soon as they left, but they said to move into it or block it off as soon as it was empty since sometimes regulars park first before coming to the office to register. So as soon as the 5’er pulled out I pulled my truck into the site.

After having coffee and taking our time, we finally moved the rig about 12 noon. ending up 3 spaces away in site 404. I then went down to the office to get my parking sheet changed to my new site number, and let them know my old site was available

After I got parked and set up, I pulled my extension ladder from the truck and used it to move my solar screens to the outside of the windshield from the inside. The front of the rig points directly west into the afternoon sun and the A/C is hard pressed to keep up with the load.

After moving the screens, it’s quickly obvious that this has made a big difference in the heat coming into the rig. It also helps that we can run both A/C’s on 50amps.

After all that work, it seemed like a good time for a short nap.

I like naps.

A little after 5 we headed over to Voyager RV Resort to have dinner with our good friends, Al & Adrienne. We first met them in 2008 while we were in Fairbanks, Alaska. They were working for the cruise line, Holland America, and Jan and I were workamping at Chena Marina RV Park.

We quickly became fast friends and get together whenever we can. Last year we saw them twice, once in February 2010 here in Tucson when we came thru, and then again in May in Westport, WA where they were workamping for the summer.

When we came thru Tucson a few weeks ago, they were on a RV caravan trip down thru Baja, Mexico, so we were happy that our travels brought us back this way. And hopefully we’ll be able to see them again this summer in Cody, WY when we’re up that way.

After a delicious steak dinner prepared by Al & Adrienne, and a lot of great conversation and reminiscing, we headed home a little before 9, after a busy day. We agreed that we’ll plan on getting together a couple of more times before we leave.

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March 16, 2012

Croissants and Checklists . . .

This morning started out on a good note. I woke up with no foot pain. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the fact that I used

my Dr. Scholl’s Heated Foot Spa twice yesterday or not, but something worked.

And even after the foot baths, my foot was still very tender when I went to bed last night, so I was surprised to find the pain completely gone this morning.

But hey, I’m not going to argue about it.

And our day just continued to get better. Jan  had set out a bunch of the Galaxy Gourmet Croissants to rise last night. Our daughter Brandi gave us box of these for Christmas and they’re delicious.

They come as frozen solid little bricks about the size of a pack of cigarettes. but after rising overnight and popped in the oven for about 20 minutes, they come out hot, buttery, flakey and fantastic. And they come in two types, plain and chocolate filled.

Along with coffee and croissants, we watched a number of episodes of The Big Bang Theory that we had on our DVR.

After a very enjoyable couple of hours, I worked outside, catching up on some of the chores I’d been putting off due to my foot problems.

Our friend’s Al and Adrienne called about 3pm to set up dinner for tomorrow night, and we’re really looking forward to seeing them again. Afterwards, it was starting to get hot outside in the sun, so I came in and took a nap.

About 5pm we all headed out for dinner. On the way our daughter Brandi called to pass on Landon’s latest feat of brilliance. She said he was eating something in a plastic bowl, and when he finished, she saw him pick the bowl and head into the kitchen. Hearing a ‘clank’, she went into the kitchen and found that he had tossed the bowl up over his head and into the sink. She figured he had watch her put dishes in the sink and he was just helping out.

Better not give him anything made of glass, though.

Our first stop was Bookman’s, a great used book store. But not just books, they also have used musical instruments, used video games, and more. It’s a great place to browse.

Leaving Bookman’s, our next stop was Poco & Mom’s, our favorite local Mexican place. They do a great job with the New Mexico Hatch Green Chilies on their enchiladas, and a really good Chile Relleno. We always make sure we eat here several time when we’re in Tucson.

On our way home we stopped off at a Quik Mart, and I bought some MegaMillions lottery tickets. There’s a drawing for over $200 million tonight, and although I’m probably not going to win, I certainly won’t win without a ticket.

Wrapping things up tonight I want to pass on a neat new free Android app called RV Checklist.

Done by the people at RV Adventure Treks, it comes with several different sample checklists.

You just touch each red square and it checks it off for you. When all items are checked off, the app tells you you’re done.

But the really neat part is that you can modify their checklists, or even better, upload your own lists.

And did I mention it’s free?

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March 16, 2013

Chachi’s!

Today started out for me with some last minute errands, one of which was still trying to find some tire valve extensions. But everywhere I checked either didn’t have any, or or else only had the 15” ones, way too long for what I need. So when I got home, I ordered some from Amazon and had them delivered to our next park in Tucson. Tomorrow morning Jan and I are heading for Tucson for a week or so.

About 4:30 we headed over to Chachi’s, the same place we ate last night. It was that good.

I both the 10oz Sirloin smothered in Queso, while Jan had the combination plate. All delicious.

After dinner, since we need to fill up on diesel tomorrow as we leave Las Cruces, we checked out a couple of truck stops near the park for accessibility.

We’ll see how it goes.

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March 16, 2014

If I hear one more sound,

we’re turning around and going home right now!

Early Friday afternoon, a couple with two kids parked their new camper right next door to us. They had two boys, one about 5 and the other one around 9. While the parents were setting up, the kids, yelling and screaming, headed off to the playground.

Gregg McHenry and I helped the guy with his shore power hookup and found out they had only owned the camper since Oct. and this was their first chance to really take it out and spend a few days enjoying Lake Conroe.

But it looks like the weather and close quarters brought that to a screeching halt. It rained Friday night and then pretty much all day Saturday. Later in the afternoon, I went outside to get something out of the truck, and I heard a lot of kid-yelling coming from inside the camper. Then sometime after dark, they suddenly packed up and left.

Sometimes family togetherness is a little too much, especially locked in a 30 foot camper with two kids in the pouring rain.

As far as this morning we headed out for breakfast about 10am, back to the Cracker Barrel right down the Interstate. Although they were very busy, we only had a 10 minute wait. Not too bad.

Jan had her favorite Maine Wild Blueberry Pancakes with a side of ‘glass’ bacon. ‘Glass’ bacon is bacon that’s so well-done that if you touch it, it shatters.

I call it ‘burnt’.

I had their Apple & Cinnamon Steel Cut Oatmeal with apples, pecans, raisins, and cranberries. I’ll have it again.

Leaving the CB, we drove over to the Kroger’s Marketplace in Willis to pick up a few things. The ‘Marketplace’ concept is apparently new for this area, but one we’ve seen before. It’s a Fred Meyer’s.

Fred Meyer’s is a grocery store chain located mostly out west and owned by Kroger’s. Jan and I first encountered one in 2008 when we spent 5 months in Fairbanks, AK. We also found them all up and down the west coast.

Besides an extra-large selection of groceries and other items, they also carry furniture, housewares, and even a jewelry department. It’s kind of like a mini-Wal-Mart. A very nice store. Hopefully they’ll open more like it around here.

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March 16, 2015

Google Gone . . .

First up, I don’t know if anyone else has had a problem with Google Search, or Google Voice Search on their Android phone or tablet, but a couple of days ago mine quit working. If I did a Voice Search, it would recognize my question, and then display it. It then would beep as normal, but when it came to the point where it should display, or speak the answer, nothing happened. The screen stayed blank. And typing in my search didn’t work either.

I thought it may have been due to the fact that I was half way through the two part upgrade to the new Android OS ‘Lollipop’ or 5.0 on my phone. But I discovered that my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 tablet, which I had not upgraded, had exactly the same problem. Google Search would just not work.

I did remember that Google had updated on my devices a couple of days ago, and I wondered that might be the problem. So I went into the applications manager on my phone and selecting the Google App Info, clicked on ‘Uninstall Updates’ button. Then I rebooted the phone. This fixed the problem.

Repeating the fix on my tablet also took care of the problem there.

Today I noticed another update from Google, which might have fixed the problem anyway. At least it didn’t cause another one.

* * * * *

After finishing up a couple of other things this morning, I got back on my magnetic shade project. I really liked the idea of the Magne Shade windshield shades, but I didn’t like the $500+ price.

I have a set of the RV Quick Shades that I purchased at a rally a number of years ago, so I wanted to see if I could convert these. The Quick Shades mount inside the windshield and are held in place by suction cups. They work pretty well, but are a pain in the rear to install, especially on the driver’s side. Also, since they’re on the inside, they still let more heat into the coach than if they were on the outside.

Back before we left Houston I ordered a couple of sets of these very strong magnets.

10 Neodymium Magnets 1/2 x 1/4 inch Disc

Today I wanted to do a test run and try adding magnets to one of my Quick Shades They have a fold-over at the top of the shade just the right size to hold the magnets. So I removed the 4 suction cups, and using a long rod, shoved the magnets down inside the fabric, placing them at the position of the removed suction cups.

Then I stood on a step ladder and held the shade against the windshield outside while Jan placed other magnets into position on the inside. Using the step ladder I was only able to reach about halfway up the windshield, but I wanted to see if the shade would hold itself in place. And it did. Later in the afternoon I got my big ladder out of the truck and move the shade all the way to the top of the windshield.

After it had stayed in place for several hours in the gusty winds, I started converting the other shade (my shades are in two pieces). After pushing the magnets in place, I used Liquid Nails to hold the magnets in position in the tube.

I’ll let it set overnight and see how it works.

* * * * *

A little after 5pm, Jan and I headed over to the Golden Corral on 22nd St for dinner.

And that was about it for today.

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March 16, 2017

It’s Awesome . . .

I was up early this morning (well, early for me, anyway) because I wanted to take another shot at washing the rig, after my somewhat failed attempt at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails a couple of weeks ago.

But this time rather than use my pressure washer, I was going to it the old fashioned way – by hand, with a bucket and a brush.

It was raining when I used the pressure washer, so it wasn’t until the rain stopped and the coach dried that I saw how many areas hadn’t come clean.

The fact that the pressure washer didn’t do a very good job cutting through the grime and gunk just reinforced my dislike of those ‘touchless’ car washes that use only water pressure. They never seem to get the truck as clean as a car wash that uses brushes.

So after I gathered all my brushes and my bucket, I headed over to the office to pay for my $5 Rig Washing Pass. And while I was there, I asked about my charges for our stay here.

We were supposed to get the Escapees ‘Special’ Rate, but after I talked to Sharon del Rosario I figured out that I didn’t get it. Instead of the $20 per night rate I paid the $26 per night Passport America rate.

But happily when I pointed out the problem, they promptly refunded me the $30.52 difference. Nice!

I started washing the rig by wetting down large areas with the spray nozzle, and then spraying the surface with undiluted Awesome. After letting it soak for a few minutes, I used my long-reach brush and a bucket filled with a water/Awesome mix to scrub down the area until it was shiny clean and then rinse it all off.

After that it was ‘Lather, Rinse, Repeat’ as I worked my way around the rig. II was rewarding to see how much dirt came off the rig as I scrubbed it down.

Awesome is awesome.

And tomorrow I’m going to do it all over again. Although the rig now looks pretty good, tomorrow I’ll use Zip Wash N Wax to give it some more shine.

About 2:30 Jan and I drove to the other side of the park to visit Don and Sharon del Rosario at their lot here at Cochise Terrace. They have their Tiffin Phaeton parked there as well as a nice casita on the lot. A very nice setup.

While we were visiting Don and Sharon, we mentioned that we were going to have dinner at Wild Dogs, a local hot dog place that came well recommended. So we were disappointed to find out from Sharon that it was closed today for some kind of special occasion.

They mentioned Adolfo’s, another local Mexican place, but we decided to try another recommended place, the Horseshoe Café and Bakery. The only caveat was to get there early.

So we got there a little before 4pm and it’s good we did, since by 4:30 the place had started fill up.

Looking over the large menu we both focused in their hot dog selection. Looks like we were going to get our hot dog fix after all.

As my side, I started off with a cup of their very good Chipotle Ham and Potato Soup.

Just chocked full of ham and potatoes with a great smoky taste.

For my dog, I got The Big Dog. What I didn’t realize was exactly how ‘Big’ the Big Dog actually was.

Not just a footlong, this one was over 14” and almost 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Mine was wrapped in crispy bacon with onions, cheese, and jalapenos. Just delicious.

I first cut off the ends to try the dog by itself, and it was very good, with a crisp skin and a moist, meaty filling with a great taste.

Jan got the Chili Cheese Dog, with Chili, Cheese, and Onions. And just as big as mine.

Digging in, we both decided that if we had known how big these were going to be, we would have shared one. Especially when saw them bringing out the ‘hot from the oven’ homemade pies and setting them on the counter before putting them in the display case.

But even as full as we were, we couldn’t resist getting a couple of slices to go, with Jan getting the Chocolate Swirl and me getting the Blueberry Raspberry.

Sometime tomorrow we’ll drive into Tucson to meet our friends Sherry and Clark for dinner. Really looking forward to it.

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March 16, 2018

A Really Great Meal . . .

And Even Better Friends.

But since we had such a good time we didn’t get home until after 1am, so no real blog tonight.

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March 16, 2019

Assuming The Weather Holds . . .

We had originally planned to have lunch today at our local Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, but then realized that we were also planning to have dinner at the one up in Sugarland Monday evening before our Puddles Pity Party concert. So it was off to SnoozeAm for breakfast.

We got there about 1:30pm and since the place was really busy, I dropped Jan off to get us checked in while I parked. When I caught up with her, she said there was a 45 minute wait.
Yikes!

That means we would get in about 2:25pm, 5 minutes before they were supposed to close at 2:30pm. Now we had noticed in past visits that they let people in right up until they closed, but we weren’t crazy about the wait.

So we decided to sojourn right down Bay Area Blvd to our used-to-be favorite The Egg and I. And it quickly became obvious that it was a lot of people’s ‘used-to-be favorite. There was no wait, and, actually, it was almost half empty.

Quite a difference from before Snooze opened a few months ago.

We had stopped going to the Egg a month or so ago due to sloppy, slow service, and it hadn’t gotten any better by today’s visit.

Snooze is owned by First Watch, and we’d heard that they were converting under-performing Egg and I’s over to First Watch locations. Something we weren’t happy to hear, since our two visits to the one in League City were underwhelming, to say the least.

The last time we were at the Egg, they didn’t know if they were going to be converted, but today they confirmed that they were.

Very possibly because they’re now an ‘under-performing’ store?

We’ve been keeping an eye on all the Yellow Vest protests in Paris, since in many cases they’re taking place in prime tourist areas.

The Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, right next to the Louvre, both places we’re supposed to visit.

And then there’s our scheduled lunch at the Eiffel Tower.

Hopefully things will be a little quieter when we’re there.

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March 16, 2021

An Honest Mechanic . . .

While I was out and about this afternoon, I stopped off at Joe’s Hwy 6 Automotive to talk with Joe about getting new struts and shocks for our 2003 Jeep. Although it drives and handles great, we noticed very quickly that it seemed like the suspension was bottoming out on anything larger than a mild bump.

And when I drove into the parking lot, Joe walked out and asked what he could do for me. When I told him I wanted get a price on new struts and shocks, he said, “let me check it out.” And after bouncing each corner of the Jeep several times, he told that my shocks and struts were fine.

I  said that that made sense since the previous owners, our friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt, said that they had had the front end completely rebuilt not too long ago, and that included shocks and struts.

But then why did it seem to bottom out like it would if the shocks/struts were bad. So he climbed up the car to take a look, on both sides. Getting up, he said, yeah, everything looks new under there, but the problem is that your suspension just doesn’t have that much play to start with. There’s only about 3” between the bottom and the rubber bumper at the top. So it doesn’t take much travel to make it hit the top bumper.

I told him that I appreciated his honesty, and that he probably could have sold me new shocks and struts. He said yeah, but the ride wouldn’t have been any better when you left here, and then I would have lost you as a customer.

Nice guy!

In a few days we’re coming up on the 1 year anniversary of our Rubbermaid Storage Shed that Jan and I assembled on our RV site.

It stills looks brand-new, with no fading or warping from the sun. And even with all the rain we’ve had, it’s never leaked a drop.

An excellent product.

Believe it or not, this is a real live bird.

It’s the rare Great Potoo, also known as the Ghost Bird. It’s found in the southern Hemisphere, with this one seen in Colombia, S.A, my old stomping ground.

Check out the video in the article. The bird’s mouth is enormous.

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March 16, 2022

Not Our Rig . . .

Yesterday was nice and easy, starting with lunch at Denny’s for our favorite Ultimate Omelets. Then it was back over to the other side of the Interstate to the UPS Store to drop off an Amazon return. And by the time we got to HEB next door, I had email confirmation that my account had been credited for the return.

But at almost the same time that Amazon was doing good with the return, they were screwing up on a delivery of ours.

While we were eating at Denny’s, I got an email from them saying that they had made a delivery to our rig, and including a photo of the package.

The only problem is . . . that’s not our rig.

So I figured when we got back to the park we’d drive down the row until we found the 5th wheel with a blue table and pick up our package.

But when we got back to the rig, whoever had received our package, had delivered it to our rig.

Nice Neighbor.

After our UPS stop, we made quick in and out at the HEB right next door. And again the recent price increases hit home.

Starting with our Denny’s Ultimate Omelets, that last Tuesday were $12.99, this Tuesday were $16.50!

And at HEB, the Dole Garden Salad Mix that last week was $0.98, yesterday was $1.38.  Yike’s!  That’s an almost 40% increase.

And then this afternoon when I stopped at Costco on the way home, I found that since last week, regular gas had jumped 20 cents, from $3.49 to $3.69. And to think, on November 1st, 2020, I paid $1.42 at the same Costco.

Another 47 cents and the price will have tripled.

Jan wants to have lunch at Twin Peaks again tomorrow. Sounds great to me.

And now it seems like TP might be getting some competition.  Looks like a place called Boomerjack’s is going to open up, almost right next door.

Previously only in the DFW area, this Webster location is their first outside that area.

Jan likes their menu so we’ll probably be checking it out someday.