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.