Daily Archives: April 27, 2023
Double Beans . . .
Jan and I were on the way about 1pm heading up to Webster for a couple of errands, with the first being to drop Jan off at Aldi’s, while I did my part by stopping off at the Kroger’s right up the street to pick up Jan’s prescriptions. I did have to spend a few minutes getting some of the prices corrected, since for some reason they didn’t price all of them through our Kroger RX Savings Club plan.
While we were out and about, I got a call from our Doctor concerning the blood work they had me repeat this past Tuesday. And everything was fine this time, as I had told them it was just a glitch.
Getting home we got Jan’s Aldi stuff put up and then headed right back out to meet up with long-time friends (since the mid-80’s) Bob and Maria at the Dickinson Monterey’s.
Jan had her usual Pollo Hacienda with Double Beans instead of Rice,
while I, after a cup of the Chicken Tortilla Soup, got the Steak Fajita Tacos, also with Double Beans.
As usual, we talked for almost 3 hours, just catching up. We see each other every month at our Alvin Opry get-together, but with all the people there, it’s hard to get any time with each other.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch was scrubbed again today, again due to weather. It’s been rescheduled to tomorrow, again at 6:30 pm.
You can stream it here.
Thought for the Day:
“… that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back–you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going.”
April 27, 2010
High in the Sierras…
We decided to go out for breakfast about 9 am while we were waiting to see if our new site was open yet. Noting that the site was on the way out, we drove by to check it out and found that it was already empty. But there was a problem.
Although it was a pull-thru, the site was kind of short and rolled off down the hill in the front. By the time I had pulled far enough into the site to setup I’d be tilted downhill too much to get leveled. I thought I’d talk with the Park office when we got back.
On recommendation of the office we had breakfast at Pete’s Place in Oakhurst and it was really pretty good. The bacon was especially good.
We got back to the park about 10:30 and I stopped off at the office to find out if another site was available. One of their people took me out to look over two other sites and I picked 511.
About 11:30 we moved into our new site and got set up.
This is a really nice area of the park, off the main road so it’s nice and quiet.
But because of all the nice trees it took a while to get a sight line on the satellite, I had to move it three times before I got a signal. Here’s how I ended up finding a hole in the trees.
If I had a roof-mounted sat dish, we’d have been out of luck. As it is, I had to set up the dish about 30 feet behind the coach.
The weather had been overcast and drizzling on and off all day, and it seemed like the perfect time for an afternoon nap.
And it was.
About 4:45 pm we drove into Oakhurst to have dinner at El Cid, a Mexican restaurant that advertised in the park brochure. And it was well worth the trip. The chips were hot, the salsa was cold, the iced tea was good, and the food was great!
And the view wasn’t too shabby either. We sat out on the glassed-in patio that overlooks the High Sierras,
and looks down on a cactus garden with numerous bird feeders. And tulips, too.
Jan was happy to see all the finches since she used to feed them in Houston before we went fulltime. She was surprised to find out that the finches stay here all year, even during the winter with snow on the ground. In Houston they only stay around for a couple of months in the fall.
We saw several of these red headed birds too, but no one knew what they were. A little Googling told me that these are male house finches. We had never seen them before.
Even bluebirds were hanging around. Don’t know how happy they were, though.
We got back to the rig about 6 pm and settled in for the night.
The weather is supposed to be even worse tomorrow, so we’ll probably wait until Thursday before we do any sightseeing, but we’ll see.
April 27, 2011
Wigwams and Pie . . .
We left Show Low about 9:30 this morning heading 170 miles away to Williams, AZ to spend a few days seeing the Grand Canyon and other sights in the area.
Overall the trip was pretty uneventful, with some road construction on SR77 between Show Low and Holbrook and a lot of smoke around Flagstaff.
Holbrook, where we got on I-40W was on the old Route 66, and was also home to one of the 7 Wigwam Motels in the country. My family and I stayed here on a trip out west in 1963.
Built in 1950, it first closed in 1974, but the original owner’s family renovated and reopened it in 1988. And, in fact, the same family still operates it today.
It’s good to see it’s still around. There are only 3 of the original 7 still in existence.
After getting on I-40, our first stop was at the Flying J Truck Stop in Winslow, AZ, to fuel up with diesel and propane, and we wanted to eat breakfast at the adjacent Denny’s.
We finally got back on the road about 1:30 for the hundred mile run to Williams, with Mister spending the whole trip catching rays in the front window.
Sometimes wide awake . . .
Sometimes dozing off . . .
And sometimes, just completely out of it.
Approaching the Flagstaff area we started seeing a lot of smoke in front of us. It turned out to be a Forest Service controlled burn. Although it wasn’t too bad, we did hit several thick patches and you could certainly smell it.
While passing through some of this, we were passed by Kenny Chesney’s tour bus. He’s got an upcoming gig in Vegas and travels in style. Must be nice to have someone to drive the RV for you.
Just as we were pulling into the Canyon Gate RV Park in Williams, our daughter Brandi called to check it and tell us that Landon’s daycare had called and said a little girl in his group had BIT him. We all figured that just as soon as he has some teeth, he’ll bite’r back.
After getting set up, everyone rested up, and then about 5:30 we all headed out for a drive around the area, and dinner.
And as it turned out, dinner was at the Pine Country Café, where we ate last year when we were through here. Our meal was good, but what we really came for were the pies.
They bake 44 different kinds of pie every day, but when a particular flavor is gone, it’s gone for the day.
Jan had this huge slice of Coconut Cream, with enough left over to take home.
And I had this delicious Strawberry Cream Cheese.
I didn’t have any left over.
Tomorrow Jan and I are taking the Grand Canyon Railway train trip to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It leaves about 9:30 and returns to Williams about 5:30 or so.
It’s supposed to get down to 29 degrees here tonight, but it’s just after midnight and it’s already 31.
So I think it might get colder. We’ll see.
April 27, 2013
Tortilla Flat . . . Not
Jan hasn’t been happy with her last few pedicures, so I’ve been drafted to fill in. I must have done a pretty good job painting them because she said I can do them from now on.
We had planned to do a day trip this afternoon up into the Superstition Mountains to check out Tortilla Flat and some of the old towns up in the mountains.
But we ran into a couple of problems. I was originally supposed to drive, but found I had a leaky rear tire on the truck, so we put it off.
Our neighbors came and ask for help with their power pedestal. And a little checking showed us what it was. The big 50 amp twist-lock plug that connects the power cord to the rig was starting to melt. The plastic cover had burned through in a couple of places and wasn’t letting power into the rig.
So our first chore was to find a new plug, and after checking Home Depot (only had 30 amp versions) and two RV parts places (both closed on the weekends) we ended up at a Camping World where they had the part.
Getting back to the park I started replacing the plug, and it didn’t take long to see what might have been causing the long-term problem.
It looks like this plug had been replaced once before, before they owned the rig. And whoever had done it, had done it wrong. They had tinned or soldered the stranded wire until it was a solid clump. This is a big NO-NO.
When the wire is a solid mass, it was no way to flex, expand and contract, with temperature changes. And over a period of time, this causes the connections to loosen, and then they start to overheat and melt.
The replacement job took about an hour and went pretty smoothly. I cut back the insulation until I had bare wires again, and as I put it back together I sprayed all the connections with an anti-corrosion coating that should help keep problems under control.
After powering up the rig and checking things out, we were getting hungry, so we picked up Jan at our rig and headed over to a place we wanted us to try called Streets of New York, a nearby pizza, pasta, subs place. Oh, and chicken wings too.
We all had a little bit of everything. Jan had the Chicken Parmigiana, while I went with a small pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom pizza, and some Honey Hot Chicken Wings.
We all agreed it was really good. Jan and I especially liked the Honey Hot Wings with a crispy crust on them.
Tomorrow we’re going to try our trip to Tortilla Flat once again. That is, if something doesn’t break once again.
April 27, 2014
and Good Food . . .
Once again Jan and I sat outside and enjoyed our coffee and Buc-ee’s muffins. It was more overcast than yesterday, and a little windier, but still very nice. Mister always enjoys us being out there with him, since he can crawl all over us and annoy us. And he really enjoys his work.
After we finally came inside I unbungeed the drawer I repaired yesterday, put it back under the fridge and replaced all the pots and pans. Hopefully it’ll last another 15 years.
Today was a Red Letter Day. I finally finished up the last of the bins and got everything sorted away. We’ll take the empty bins down to our storeroom in Clear Lake later this week. on one of our last trips.
Tuesday night we’re getting together with Chris, Linda, and Piper down in Clear Lake for a last meal together before we leave this coming Friday. Then on Thursday night we’re getting together with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon up here in Katy. Because everyone is so busy it’s hard to get us all together in the middle of the week.
About 4 pm we picked up Maxine and Cliff Phillips next door and headed down to Columbus to have dinner at Los Cabos. This was Maxine and Cliff’s first visit and our 3rd or 4th, and it was as good as before. And they thought it was as good as we do.
It’s always kind of dicey taking friends to a restaurant you really like, and then the place has an off-day. But it was all good tonight.
Maxine and Cliff are leaving for the New Braunfels area tomorrow morning, so hopefully they’ll keep in touch and we can meet up down the road somewhere.
April 27, 2015
Wasted Away Again . . .
Today was such a stay at the rig day that we not only stayed at the rig, we never left the rig. Actually we never even unlocked the door.. Can’t get much more stay at the rig than that.
Yesterday, coming back to the rig, we decided to check out something I had noticed on the satellite view of the area around here. This is what I saw.
It looked to be an abandoned RV park right next door to the Las Vegas Thousand Trails, so I thought I’d see if we could drive into it and take a look.
And as I had thought, it definitely was an RV Park at one time, and larger than our TT park next door.
It must have closed before we first came here in March of 2008, and then again in 2010, because I don’t remember any RV park along Boulder north of the Roadrunner RV Park where we stayed when we first visited here.
In a lot of the spaces you can still see the concrete patios, but we never saw any sign of pedestals or any other hookups. Too bad the Thousand Trails didn’t take it over and expand the park.
I went online yesterday and made the reservations for Jan and I to ride the High Roller Observation Wheel Wednesday night at 8pm.
We’re going to go by and pick up our tickets tomorrow afternoon, since we have to get them ahead of time. Don’t know why we can just print out our tickets like most places.
Before our ride, we’ll have dinner at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville which is just opposite the Wheel out on the Strip.
We’ve really been enjoying our mild weather here the last week, with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the 50’s at night. But it’s not to last.
By Thursday it’s supposed to be in the mid-90’s. Glad we have a 50 amp hookup.
April 27, 2016
Wild Weather and Great Food . . .
My morning started really early this morning, around 4:40 am, when my Galaxy Tab 4 began screaming at me.
When I go to bed at night (actually early morning) I take my Tab with me. I’ll usually read for a bit before putting it on the charger and going to sleep. But what was screaming at me was my Simple Weather Alert app,
This app ties you in to the National Weather Service alerts for your area. And when I silenced the app and checked the alert, it said there was a Severe Tornado Alert for the area. But a second glance told me it wasn’t for the Medina Lake area, but for Conroe,and the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails. Thing was, the free version of this app doesn’t auto-update its location, so you have to tell it manually where you are locate.
So maybe I need to spring for the $1.99 Pro version. At least it won’t wake me up at night unless it’s important.
And as far as Conroe and Willis, it looks like they did get some damage, but I’m not sure how much.
Yesterday was sheeting changing day on our bed, and this time we tried something different. Just about a year ago Jan and I installed a new 4” Memory Foam Gel-Filled mattress topper on our queen size bed, but a more comfortable sleep came with a new problem.
This new topper does not grip the bed underneath as well as the old one. So it tends to slide around and start to hang off over the end. We’d tried putting some of that no-slip plastic fabric between the topper and the mattress, and although it helped somewhat, it really didn’t fix the problem. But a little Googling gave me a couple of possible solutions. One cheap, the other more expensive. Guess which one I picked.
Some people had had good luck with a 4’ x 6’ piece of that heavy-duty Non-Slip rug pad. But that would run us about $30 at Home Depot.
The other solution was a $2 package of large safety pins. Our topper is in a heavy fabric bag, so the idea is to use a bunch of pins, in this case 20, to fasten the bag to the edge of the box springs underneath it. So that’s what we did. We’ll see how that works, and I’ll let you know.
As we were finally changing the sheets, we noticed how well these have held up. We bought two sets of these a couple of years ago, and they still look like new. They haven’t faded, pilled, or snagged, and are still soft and comfortable.
Milani 1500 thread count sheets
And these 1500 thread count are only $25 a set, for a top and bottom sheet, and two standard pillow cases. And they come in a number of different colors.
I’ve mentioned before about saving and scanning your Wal-Mart receipts using the Wal-Mart app on your phone. Over the last months we’ve gotten about $60 in rebates, and just this past weekend before we left Conroe, Jan found a dropped receipt in the parking lot as we entered the store. And between that one we found, and ours, we got back a little over $5 back. Check it out.
This afternoon, about 4pm, we headed into San Antonio with Dave and Lynn Cross to have dinner at one of our favorite San Antonio restaurants, La Fonda on Main.
We’ve eaten here a number of times over the years, and it’s always great. And it should be, as the’ve had a lot of practice, being open since 1932.
And here’s what they say about their clientele.
It is fascinating to hear how popular La Fonda has been as a dining spot of history’s most celebrated people. Every famous officer in World War II seems to have eaten here, including Generals’ Eisenhower, MacArthur and Hill. Even American presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson enjoyed La Fonda’s fare. Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Yul Brenner, Veronica Lake, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, along with many other stars, have visited this historic restaurant.
We got there a little after 5pm, and got seated immediately, but it wasn’t long until the dining room was almost full. And it’s easy to taste why.
Jan and Lynn had the Beef Chile Relleno with a Green Chicken Enchilada,
while Dave and I each had the La Fonda Special, with two Cheese Enchilidas, a Pork Tamale, and a Beef Taco.
After that delicious meal, Jan and I were too full for dessert, but we couldn’t pass up their wonderful Tres Leches Cake, so we got a piece to go.
And getting back to the park, we dropped off Dave and Lynn at their rig and called it a day. A very nice day.
April 27, 2017
Going To Hel . . . Hooters?
Today, our last day to journey down to LA proper, we were on the road by 9:30, heading down to the Hollywood Blvd/TCL (nee Grauman’s) Chinese Theater area for our 12:15 TMZ Hollywood Tour.
We were going down early so we could check in for the tour early and then have lunch. I had made our reservations online a couple of days ago so all we had to do was to check in at TMZ’s booth in the Hard Rock Café, get our badges, and then head right across the street to the Hooters.
We had first eaten here in 2010 prior to our last Hollywood Tour, and hoped it was as good as before.
As usual we both went with our favorites, Jan getting her Original Chicken Strip Cheese Sandwich with their new Big Dipper Fries.
Previously they only had Curly Fries, but the Big Dipper’s are more like Steak Fries, but shaped to hold dips/sauces. Very Good.
I of course went with my usual wings, all drums, coated with their Habanero BBQ sauce with side sauces of Chipotle Honey for the sweetness, and Triple Dog Dare, their hottest sauce.
Jan and I both agreed that Hooters has really upped their game, I imagine, due to all the competition with Buffalo Wild Wings and the like. The wings are larger than they used to be, with a lighter breading that forms a slight crispy crust, almost like our absolute favorite wings, the Sweet Tangy Golden Sauce Wings, from the Beeville Diner down in, where else, Beeville, TX, where we ate several times while we were gate guarding down in south Texas.
As we left Hooters we noticed a police car right in front of the door, and two police officers on the sidewalk. Turns out that apparently Jan and I are going to Hell because we ate at Hooters.
At least that’s what the protesters were saying, signs, chanting, and all.
We waited about 15 minutes before our TMZ Tour Bus showed up and we were on our way.
Unlike our last Starline Tour in 2010 (You can read about it here) the TMZ tour is more ‘spot the stars’ type. However the Starline tour was a ‘homes of the stars’ so if that’s your thing, take that one.
Because we were star-spotting, AND didn’t see any, there weren’t really any photos to take. So nothing really from that.
But we were shown the very best viewpoint for the Hollywood Sign, and aptly enough it’s from Hollywood Blvd.
Right down the street from the Hard Rock Café there is an opening between the buildings where they’ve set up a viewing area for the tourists.
We were back at the Hard Rock Café by about 2:15 and quickly got on our way home, wanting to get ahead of the going-home traffic, which we did.
We did fight the winds, forecasted to be in excess of 60mph, all the way home, finally getting back about 3:30pm.
Lucky for us the wind didn’t really pick up until later in the evening when is was rocking the coach back and forth. But according to the news, trees and power lines were blown down all over LA.
New blog readers Rob and Dottie dropped by to say Hi. It’s always good to meet new friends.
Tomorrow we’re having lunch at the Shakey’s Pizza up in Palmdale, then some shopping, and maybe a drive out to the poppy fields.
April 27, 2018
Tesla’s and VW’s . . .
Our park shore power went off about 8:15 last night and didn’t come back on until about 11:30.
Luckily it was nice and cool so we stayed comfortable and just read our Kindles. It’s really nice to have books that light up. Yeah I know I could have just cranked up the generator, but the quiet was kind of nice.
I did get started on pulling out the dryer to replace the thermal fuse yesterday morning. I got the doors off and outside vent cover removed and the vent hose loosened, and I was already to go. But then my get-up-and-go never even showed up.
I woke up with a headache and was just downhill from there. Jan said she didn’t need to do laundry and even if she did, the park laundry is only about 50 feet away. So it will wait until Saturday.
Finally about 2pm we head out for an early supper at the East Star Chinese Buffet up in Webster, one of our new favorites. So favorite in fact that we’re already scheduled to have dinner there on Sunday with Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper.
As we were going inside I did see this really neat VW Beetle restoration.
Very nicely done. Inside, the owner came over and said he saw me checking it out. He said it was a ‘68 (I thought it was a little earlier since we owned a ‘65 once upon a time) and he drives it every day. Very nice.
I did quickly discovered a problem with getting there so early. They don’t put out the cold boiled shrimp and the hot pepper shrimp until 4pm. Note to self for next time.
Looks like I’m getting deeper in the machine repair business at work. Found out my client has bought 30 of these low-end, Polish-made, epilators.
The problem? None of them work. All were apparently returned under warranty. And it’s going to be my job to get them working again.
We’ve only got one unit in so far, and I’m still waiting on the schematic, but getting the case open I was struck by déjà vu all over again.
Rather than using a crystal oscillator and a digital voltage step-up circuit to get the high voltage needed, they went old-school.
That transformer and the big coil make up a Tesla coil. you know, one of those big dome things that give off bolts of lightning.
I recognized it instantly as a smaller version of all the ones I built in high school. Nothing really wrong with this design I guess, EXCEPT it probably blanks out every radio, TV, and cell phone within 100 feet.
And the workmanship is all that great, either.
But at least so far, all the parts I’ve checked are still readily available. In fact, I already found a bad transistor and ordered a package of them from eBay, 20 for $7.
Hopefully all of them will be this easy to repair. We’ll see.
Getting home about 4:15 this afternoon, Jan and I headed right back out to have dinner at Pho 20 right down FM646. Jan had her new favorite Spicy Chili Garlic Chicken, along a House Crunch Salad, while I got my usual While Chicken Meat Pho with Veggies. Delicious, and why we keep coming back.
Then after dinner, and a quick stop at the Victory Lake Lowe’s, it was home for the night.
Tomorrow I’ll try to get the dryer out, repaired, and back in. Hopefully. But we’ll see how it goes.
April 27, 2021
Hail The New King?
Jan and I were out the door early this morning, for a follow-up doctor’s appointment. Early for us was about 9:30, which meant no coffee.
Yikes.
After dropping Jan off at the doctor’s, I headed over to the nearby Harbor Freight store. When I’ve got time I like to just walk every aisle checking out all the neat stuff. Stuff that I didn’t know I needed, but found out that I wanted anyway.
Then when she was done, we drove over to Snooze to have our usual delicious breakfast. Jan’s Bravacado Toast,
and my favorite 3 Egg Classic.
Then after a quick stop by the office to pick up some Amazon stuff that had come in this morning, our next destination was the WalMart out on I-45.
Now originally I had planned to drop some of our new prescriptions there this morning, hoping we could pick them up now. But this morning before we left the rig, I was checking both the WalMart and Sam’s Club cheap prescription lists to see which pharmacy would be lower for each one.
While we’re RV’ing, it worked better for us to keep our prescriptions with Sam’s/WalMart since it was so easy to transfer them from town to town as we traveled around the country.
In the past, I’ve found that every year drugs keep getting added and deleted from the lists. But like this morning, I always started out with the GoodRx app to give me a starting point.
And I as I went through the drugs on GoodRx I kept noticing that Kroger’s Pharmacy kept showing up as the cheapest over and over, sometimes even listing the cost as FREE. And a little checking showed that Kroger’s has their own Discount Prescription Plan. It’s $36 per year for an individual, or $72 for a family, of any size.
So now I have to go back through all our prescriptions, and compare Kroger’s, WalMart, and Sam’s, while figuring in the $6 per month extra cost for the new plan.
Sounds like it might spreadsheet time.
Then a while after getting home, we sat out on the patio, again enjoying an adult beverage. And in case you’re keeping score, it was a Jack Daniels Southern Peach like this.
Really good.
