Our RV Adventures

Since I’m still happy with Windows 11 I let the 10 day window expire during which I could have rolled back to Win10. Can’t really tell any difference operationally, just a different look.

As I’ve mentioned, I never know exactly what I’m going to be working on at my IT consulting job. And today was no different.

My client had ordered a new seat trim panel for his ‘95 T-Bird. But he wasn’t able to get it installed correctly.

So it was my turn.

The problem was that the trim panel was kind of generic and made to fit a number of different models and accessary levels.

It had mounting screw holes with no corresponding screw holes in the seat frame, and vice versa. It also had control mounting holes for other devices that had to be plugged. But by drilling new holes in the seat frame and trimming some excess plastic from the panel, I finally got it mounted and screwed down in place.

Who knows what’s next.

Since a number of you have been having problems seeing the latest blog post here, I thought I’d pass on this article on how to do it on pretty much every computer or phone.

How to Force Refresh in Your Internet Browser

Let me know if you’re still having problems.

Tomorrow we’re getting together with our Alvin Opry group once again. This time at the Gringos down in Texas City. Then it’s on back up the feeder to our local WalMart for our weekly stuff.

And here’s Miss Fabulous!

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Thought For The Day:

So when is this “old enough to know better” supposed to kick in?

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April 12, 2010

Antelope Valley…

A couple of days ago I told you about eating at Peggy Sue’s 50’s Dinner in Yermo, CA while we were staying there. It was our second time there, and it’s always good.

Then that night while we were watching Tori & Dean’s Home Sweet Hollywood, a show on Oxygen channel. It, along Gene Simmon’s Family Jewels, are the only two reality shows we watch.

Anyway, Tori (Spelling) & Dean recently did an RV road trip from Los Angeles to Atlanta,and one of the places they stopped was Peggy Sue’s. And our waitress, Barbara, was in the show. It was neat to see where we had just been, up there on TV.

Anybody seen KFC’s new Double Down? It went on sale today and I really want to try one.

It’s a chicken sandwich, made from CHICKEN. It’s two slices of thick bacon, a slice of Monterey Jack, a slice of pepper jack cheese, with Colonel’s Sauce between two fried or grilled chicken breasts. It’s a meatwich!

Gotta have one!

We’re parked here at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds RV Park. And as fairgrounds go, it’s pretty nice. It’s basically just a big concrete parking lot.

But it’s quiet, level, and dry. I really don’t have a good track record with fairgrounds. Before now, we’ve parked in three fairgrounds, and I’ve gotten stuck in two. But in my defense only one of those was my fault.

Anyway we’ll be here until sometime after the 20th, and we’ll make day trips into LA, about 70 miles away.

We heading out for a late lunch/early dinner about 2:30, and on the way we stopped off at a Barnes & Noble so Jan could find a book, and then when she found it, she decided she already had it. Oh, well.

For dinner, we were heading to Famous Dave’s BBQ, probably our favorite BBQ chain, except maybe for Sonny’s BBQ in the southeast area. A great meal as usual, and we have leftovers for tomorrow.

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April 12, 2011

Burgers and Wildlife . . .

Today started off on a happy note,

Jan was feeling much better. She been suffering from one of those serial migraines, that comes and goes over several days, but it looks like this one has finally passed

After coffee about 10, and a lunch of the leftover pizza from our visit to Stromboli’s a few days ago, we headed into Cottonwood about 2 pm to drop off some letters at the Post Office and do the Wal-Mart thing.

Then before heading home I stopped off at Radio Shack to get an power line RF filter for the dash radio in the rig, but with no luck. Apparently they just don’t carry things like that anymore. I’ll have to check online.

About 5 pm, Jan and I headed back into Cottonwood to have dinner once again at Bing’s Burger Station.

And once again, it was really, really good. And once again, I  had the Ribeye Steak Sandwich. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to go back again before we leave.

Tomorrow we’re going to spend the day at the Out of Africa wildlife park right up the road.

Hopefully we’ll have some good pics for you tomorrow.

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April 12, 2012

More Thumb Twiddling . . .

We were awakened this morning by something very unusual here . . . a heavy downpour that lasted about 30 minutes. That was it for the rain, but it did stay pretty cloudy and windy the rest of the day which kept it a little cooler. Nice.

I headed over to the office later in the morning to mail a letter, and also check in with Jamie. And he just said “Soon”.

But while I was there I got to finally meet in person Bob Lindsey, a gate guard that I’d corresponded with for a year or so. He’s currently at a gate about 15 miles south near Three Rivers, TX. Hopefully we’ll be able to get together soon.

Back at the rig, I ordered some things things from Amazon, including this canopy for our upcoming gate guarding adventure,

It’s 10 feet x 10 feet and the sides are removable.

This is how it will be used.

Looks like a rough life, doesn’t it.

By ordering using Amazon Prime, and paying an extra $3.99 we get next day delivery, so it will be here tomorrow. That’s pretty good for a box that weighs over 40 pounds.

I did get some more info about how the sewer trailers work. It turns out they’re essentially a portable septic tank.

The small green tank at the front of the trailer is removed and placed near your rig. This is where your rig’s sewer hose connects. It also contains the lift pump that pumps the waste up into the big green tank.

As the big tank fills up over a period of time, the solids settle to the bottom, and the liquids rise to the top. When the liquids reach the outflow outlet, they flow down into the smaller white tank. Here they are treated with a high dose of chlorine using swimming pool chlorine tabs. Then after treatment, the disinfected waste water is drained out into the field. When needed, the solids are pumped out of the big green tank. In fact I suspect that the whole trailer is just swapped out at that point and the servicing is done back at the yard.

A little after 5 Jan and I headed down I-37 to Three Rivers to have dinner at Agave Jalisco, a Mexican restaurant that our fellow gate guarder, Bob Lindsey, had recommended.

Turned out to be very good. Just good ole straight-forward Mexican food. Jan had the Chicken Fajitas and I had the Combo Fajitas with Beef, Chicken and Shrimp. Nicely done and well-seasoned.

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April 12, 2013

Rally Withdrawal . . .

After coffee my morning started out on the phone with Thousand Trails trying to figure out what we’re going to do on Sunday. Our two weeks are up here at Countryside RV Resort. Two weeks at $3 a day is a nice deal, and it didn’t count against our 50 free days.

But (there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there) I was also told that we could extend for another two weeks under the same terms. But (there it is again) that was a fib.

Turns out that Countryside RV Resort and Golden Sun, both here in Apache Junction are ‘Swap’ parks with Verde Valley Thousand Trails up in Camp Verde, AZ. And because these are ‘Swap’ parks (never heard of Swap parks and there’s nothing on the TT website either) we have to be out a week before we come back in to one of the parks here, or even before we can use the Verde Valley TT park under our regular TT membership.

We want to stay in Apache Junction until the 1st of May, so what we’re going to do is stay here at Countryside for a week at the paid rate of $140 a week and then we can go back to the $3 a day rate until the 1st.

But (there’s another one) we now parked in one of the 25 spaces allotted to Thousand Trails and we can’t stay in one of those sites during our paid week.

So now we have to move one space to the right on this Sunday, and then next Sunday we move one space back to the left.

Don’t you just love it.

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Jan and I headed out about 2pm for some shopping and dinner.

Our first stop was at the SanTan Sam’s Club for Beef Jerky and bottled water. Then it was next door for some Wal-Mart stuff. By then it was 4pm and we were getting hungry. Originally we had planned to eat at the El Pollo Loco back closer to the park, but since we were so close we decided on Grimaldi’s Pizzeria again.

But when we got there we found that they were restoking their coal-fired oven like they do every day at this time, and wouldn’t be making pizza for about 45 minutes. We thought about waiting, but lucky for us there was an alternative nearby.

At the other end of the block was Famous Dave’s BBQ, one of our favorite BBQ places. We also really like Sonny’s BBQ, but there mostly only located in the southeast. And of course there’s Rudy’s BBQ, but that’s only in Texas. But Famous Dave’s are all over.

The food was as delicious as usual, and we had a great waitress. She was even an artiste.

She drew this ‘Piggy Plate’ with two different flavors of BBQ sauce.

Jan had her usual 1/2 Rack Rib Platter and I have the Rib and Meat Combo with the Hot Link Sausage. It was my first time to get the sausage and, boy was it good. And what made it even better was the mustard-based corn relish in the center of the platter. Very tangy and flavorful, and went great with the sausage.

And even better than last night, we weren’t seated in the screaming baby section.

Finally heading home Jan made a quick stop at the Ross clothing store on Signal Butte before we finally go home a little before 6.

About 6:45 we figured we needed to work off that big dinner so we did a little over a mile walk about the park. Really nice cool as the sun was going down.

Jan and  I have decided that we’re going into ‘Rally Withdrawal’

In the past, we had a couple of rallies to go to every year. Enough to feed our habit. But not this year. And now the withdrawal pains have kicked in.

It’s kind of like ‘hitch itch’, with the added benefit of a burning rash. But then again, maybe that’s really a problem I need to discuss with my doctor.

Anyway it now looks like we’re going to try to make the Escapade coming up in Gillette, WY the last part of June. We were there in 2010 for the American Coach Rally and it’s a really nice complex with over 1200 Full Hookup Sites.

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April 12, 2014

Just When We Thought It Was Over . . .

Well, It was nice while it lasted.

Spring, I mean.

There’s another cold front coming through, really cold, at least for Spring in Texas. And by Monday night, we’re looking at night temps in the 30’s and day temps in the 60’s.

Actually pretty nice.

Later in the afternoon, Jan started making one of her Famous Pound Cakes. Tomorrow we’re driving over to Livingston to visit Chris and Charles Yust of C and C RV Insurance at the Escapees Park there. Jan wanted to bring a dessert, so her pound cake, along with fresh sliced strawberries and whipped cream should fill the bill.

For anyone that wants to try it, I’ve posted this recipe under the Jan’s Favorite Recipe tab.

While Jan was pound caking, I finally got back to installing the replacement lift motor on our bathroom Fantastic Vent fan. Actually the lift motor is what started my recent Fantastic Fan adventures.

The lift motor died on the bathroom fan, the second one in 4 years, and so I ordered a new one. But before the lift motor came in, the fan motor in the kitchen just up and died out of the clear blue. So I ordered a replacement fan/motor combo.

And when the new fan motor came in and I got it installed, I liked it so much that I ordered one for the rear unit too. So I waited to install the new lift motor until I got the fan motor in and installed. I could still lift the lid manually so I could wait it out.

I got the new fan motor installed a few days ago, and then today I finally got around to installing the lift motor. No problem, except for one thing.

The motor is connected to the fan using Insulated Quick Disconnects like these.

But for some reason the ones that come on the new lift motor are slightly larger than the standard 1/4” size. So before I could install it, I had to replace the connectors with new standard ones. But after that, it went pretty smooth, and finished up, it looked like this.

I really like the new clear blades.

For dinner we fixed salads with lettuce, spring greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded cheese, and Chinese crispy noodles. Jan also adds sliced avocados to hers. For dressing, Jan uses Balsamic Vinaigrette, and I like a homemade BBQ Bacon Ranch, made from Hidden Valley Bacon Ranch mixed with Rudy’s BBQ Sauce. Really good.

For dessert, we finished off the last of the Strawberry 7-UP cake that she made recently. You can also find that recipe on Jan’s Favorite Recipes. Also really good.

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April 12, 2015

The City in the Sky . . .

When we had breakfast at the park Homestyle Grill the other morning, I bought something to go along with my BBQ Larvets worm larva snacks.

A Strawberry Scorpion Sucker is the perfect thing to compliment BBQ’d baby worms, isn’t it.

Jan and I headed out for Jerome about 1:30, but our first stop was the park Activity Center. I was surprised to see how busy the place was, with what looked like a pool tournament going on.

The distance to Jerome is only about 15 miles, but it takes about 30 minutes since you have to gain over 2000 feet along the way.

After driving the main loop around town, we luckily found a parking spot right at the base of the hill.

And even better, the first store we came to was the Jerome Ghost Pepper Co.

Linda, the storekeeper, give us a number of samples of her hot wares. Then I went back to the truck and let her sample some of my hot stuff. Based on her reaction to one of my bottles,

I won.

As it turns out, Linda is a former RV’er, so we had a good time talking about traveling, and she and Jan really hit it off.

She set us up with a new batch of hot sauces to take with us, including a larger bottle of the Belizean Heat, second from the left. Jan bought a small bottle of this from the iBurn store back in Houston, and was happy to find a refill.

Making our way up the steep hill, we came across the famous ‘Sliding Jail’. Jerome’s first jail was originally built up on the hill right below the upper line of cars.

But during the early years of the town, when the now present road wasn’t there, the constant blasting caused the jail to slowly slid down the hill,

finally ending up about 100 yards below its original location.

As we made our way up the steep hills, I noticed a number of stores had this emblem above their doorways.

This means that these establishments have an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) there. Just the thing for when tourist start dropping to the sidewalk from the steep climbs. Hope I don’t need one.

After Jan hit a couple of gift shops we made our way over to the Mile High Grill for an early dinner. Several friends had recommended the place so we to give it a try.

We both started out with a cup of soup. Jan had the Soup of the Day, Carrot Ginger,

and I had the Rio Verde Chili Pork Stew.

Both delicious. The last time we had Carrot Ginger Soup was in 2010 at the fabled Pie-O-Neer restaurant in Pie Town, NM.

Since today is National Grilled Cheese Day, Jan went with their off-the-menu Grill Cheese Sandwich, and, staying with the Cheese theme, for her side, she had the Nacho Mama’s Mac and Cheese.

I went with the Diablo Burger and the Buffalo Chips

Normally the avocado goes on the burger, but since I don’t like it, I got it on the side for Jan. The green stuff was a delicious spicy chimichurri sauce.

Wrapping up, for dessert, we shared an order of their much-recommended Warm Croissant Bread Pudding. Again, very, very good.

Finally finishing up a great meal, we headed back to the truck for the drive home. Luckily, as full as we were, it was all downhill.

Otherwise we might had really needed the AED.

Tomorrow we’re taking the Verde Canyon Railroad train ride, lasting from 1 to 4pm. We’ve heard a lot about it, and we’re really looking forward to it.

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April 12, 2016

Bearteeth and Pizza . . .

After our coffee and cereal this morning, it was back to the ole grind, as in reading and watching TV for Jan, and playing on the Internet for me. Isn’t retirement great?

Later in the afternoon Jan took all my shirts out of the closet and got me to go through them, throwing out ones I didn’t want any more. Of course I know it was all just an artful ruse to give her more room in the closet at my expense.

For dinner tonight Jan fixed chips and onion dip, and DiGiorno Pizza. This is the first time we’ve tried the cheese-in-the-crust version, and it was really good. Of course, Jan spices it up by adding sliced mushrooms for some extra oomph.

A few days ago someone posted a photo of the snowed-in Beartooth Highway.

The article said that they’ve finally started clearing the snow pack from the Beartooth.

We drove the Beartooth with our friends Al and Adrienne Cox in July of 2011. But in the summer it’s a little greener.

  
And if you look very carefully, you can pick out the name-sake peak in the distance.

 

And zooming in, gives you a better look. Looks like a bear tooth to me.

  

You can read more about our day’s adventure here. The Last Time I Was At 11,000 Feet, I Was In A Plane

We even visited Red Lodge and checked out a bank where on September 18, 1897, the Sundance Kid, Kid Curry, and others of the Wild Bunch attempted “to make an unauthorized withdrawal from the Carbon County Bank.”

Check it out.

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April 12, 2017

The Magic Elixir . . .

Due to not having our front Fantastic Vent fan working this morning we finally had to turn on the front AC to keep things cool in the coach.

We closed the door to the bathroom and left the back of the coach with the windows open and the fan running.

About 1pm I got the ladder our of the back of the truck and got ready to climb up on the roof to take a look at my vent fan problem. Whenever I’m on the roof Jan sits outside with her phone to keep an eye on me. When I asked if she’s going to try and catch me if I fall off, she says no, but she will call the EMT’s on her phone.

What a sweetheart!

Climbing up the ladder, I had a cloth bag with my voltmeter, screwdrivers, pliers, and a can of magic elixir with me. First off I had to get the cover off by removing the four nuts and washers,

With the cover off I could finally get to my first suspect that might be causing the problem, the plunger switch that keeps the fan from starting until the lid is open. Since the fan motor quit while it was running, I wasn’t expecting this to be the problem. The switch normally sticks when the lid is closed and then the fan won’t start when the lid opens.

But one of the rules of troubleshooting is to always start checking the easiest things first, and that’s the switch. I had left the fan turned on low before I came up on the roof so I reached under the lid and pressed down on the plunger.

It was too bright on the roof for me to take photos so I got this one from the Net.

It took only a few pushes on the plunger before the fan started running. So strangely enough, it was the switch. Glad I checked it first. So now I got out my spray can of magic elixir, Strike Hold and sprayed several squirts into the plunger switch, pushing it down a few times to work it in.

I discovered Strike Hold at an FMCA rally in Goshen, IN in 2014 and I’ve used ever since. I’ve used it to resurrect Kindles, phones, and a number of other devices.

The first time I bought Strike Hold I got the pump spray bottle, but I found that it seemed to evaporate pretty quickly, so the next time I got the spray can, which has been great.

About 4pm Jan and I headed out to try a Chinese place down in Paradise Valley that had been recommended. I noticed that the good Chinese buffet next door to the Buffalo Wild Wings where we ate yesterday was out of business. So that’s when we found out about Golden Flower Chinese Restaurant. And getting there we found a bright and cheery place located at one corner of a strip mall, staffed by very friendly people.

We started off with our usual Hot & Soup, something that we use to grade every new Chinese place. And Golden Flower got a ‘A’.

Jan got an order of Sesame Chicken,

while I got the Spicy Kung Pao Chicken.

We also got an plate of their House Special Fried Rice, with Chicken, Beef, Shrimp, and Pork.

Jan said the Fried Rice was the best she’s ever had, and the Sesame Chicken was fantastic. My Kung Pao was great, but not very spicy to me. But that’s just me.

All we can say is it was all delicious, probably in the top 3 or 4 of our favorite Chinese places in the country. We will definitely go back before we leave.

Well recommended!

Coming home we stopped at the nearby Sam’s Club to drop off a prescription and get gas. At $2.46/gal it was the cheapest place around, with most other places at $2.60 to $2.80.

Then we made a PO stop to finally get my Arizona CCW application in the mail. They say 6 to 8 weeks, but some people say they got theirs quicker.

Here’s hoping.

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April 12, 2018

Shrimp, Shrimp, and, of course, Shrimp . . .

After a quiet morning, me doing web site stuff and Jan reading, I went out about 2pm to add air to the rig’s tires.

I used my Sears 150 psi Air Compressor to quickly air up all my tires, the front ones to 105# and the rear duals to 100#. All of the tires were in the 90# range when I started, not because they had leaked down in the last 5 months, but because when I last topped them off the temperature was in the high 90’s, while today it was in the low 70’s.

I’ve had this compressor since January 2011 and it’s never had a problem. It can air up the big RV tires to 120# plus without breathing hard. The one I have came from Sears but they no longer sell it. (Do they still sell anything?) But you can get the same one under the Porter-Cable brand from Amazon, probably who made it for Sears.

Porter-Cable 150psi Air Compressor

I did add this Power Tank TIG-8170 Digital Inflator with a locking chuck to make it easier to air up the tires without bending over the entire time. Just lock the chuck on the tire valve and go to it.

The only other thing I’ve done to it in the last 7 years was to replace the compressor’s air hose with a longer one.

I also planned to add water to the rig’s house batteries, but discovered that I was out of distilled water. So it got put on the WalMart list for tonight.

About 4:15 Jan and I headed up to Webster to meet up with Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper at the East Star Chinese Buffet for dinner.

We’ve never eaten here, but a number of our friends have recommended it, and it turns out Chris and Linda have eaten here too.

How did we get left out?

I ended up getting the shrimp, the shrimp, and, of course, the shrimp. And some veggies too.

Cold Boiled Shrimp, Hot Pepper Shrimp, and Shrimp with Veggies.

The Trifecta.

Everything was really good, although Jan didn’t like the Hot & Sour Soup as much as I did.

But we’ll go back.

Coming home we made a WalMart stop for a few things before getting home about 8.

Tomorrow, more work, and probably more machine repairs.

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April 12, 2021

Now All I Need Are Ping Pong Balls . . .

I’ve been looking over online recipes to combine several of our new toys, our FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer, our Inkbird Sous Vide Immersion Cooker, and our George Foreman Grill.

And I think our first meal is going to be Sous Vide BBQ Pork Ribs.

I’ve looked over a lot of different recipes online, and this one seems to cover everything.

The Food Lab’s Complete Guide to Sous Vide Barbecue Pork Ribs

Depending on how you want to do it, you can cook them either low and slow – 145° for 36 hours, or hotter and faster – 165° for 8-12 hours, or even somewhere in between. It all depends on how you like your ribs.

But no matter how you like them, they all start with the vacuum sealer and end with the grill.

You first coat the ribs in your favorite rub or sauce, add a couple of drops of Wright’s Liquid Smoke, vacuum seal them, and then pop them in the water bath with the Sous Vide cooker. And that’s where the ping pong balls come in.

With some of the cooking times running as long as 36 hours there’s always a danger of the immersion cooker’s water reservoir running dry while you’re at work or just out and about. So you float the ping pong balls on top of the water bath to slow down the evaporation of the water.

And after the ribs are finished in the Sous Vide cooker, then you remove them from the bags, and put them on the grill for 30 minutes or so, after covering them in your favorite rub or sauce.

Tomorrow I’m going to take a first run at my computer-controlled hibiscus watering system, to see how long the pump has to run to provide sufficient water each day.

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April 12, 2022

I Think She’ll Know . . .

Jan had a doctor follow-up visit this afternoon, after which we drove over to Texas Huddle for lunch. Although it’s been a while since we’ve been here, it’s one of our favorites, especially mine. And that’s due to the fact that they have a PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger on the menu.

Yes, that means Peanut Butter & Jelly.

We both started with a Side Salad instead of the included fries,

and then Jan got her usual Mushroom Swiss Bacon Burger.

And of course, I got my reason for being here, the PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger.

With Grape jelly, of course.

Really, really, really good. As usual.

Then it was on back down to the League City area and our local WalMart for a few things, before getting back to the rig about 4:30.

We’ve noticed that our park owner, Rob, has been working in the yard across from us, using his small front loader to pile up and haul off the large amount of junk that’s been across the fence from us since we moved here. Things like a couple of junk trucks, a rotting 5th wheel, rusting barrels, and just mounds of generic trash. At first we thought that he was just helping out the people who live in a trailer toward the front of the lot.

But today Rob re-fenced the cleared area and it became obvious.

He’s putting in some more RV sites, maybe 5 or 6 added to the 17 he already has. At least the view in front of our rig is a lot nicer now that all that junk is gone.

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Sometimes you’ve just gotta wonder what some people are thinking.

This is the 24 can pack of Coke Zero.

Note the handy-dandy push-in handle to make it much easier to carry.

So when you’re designing this packaging, which was just redone about a year ago when they changed the color scheme, where would be the most logical place to put the bar code?

Why, on the bottom, of course.

And yes, I know that it’s down there so it can be slid over the scanner at check-out, but no one does it that way.

The customers don’t want to lift it up onto the conveyor belt and then back into the cart, and the cashiers tell you to leave in the basket to scan because they don’t want to have to pick it up either.

But why not put a bar code on top too. In fact Jan’s 30 bottle pack of Joint Juice, which is also heavy, does just that.

So now after you put it in the basket you have to turn it over to scan, and then turn it back over to carry it.

Think, people. Think.

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I forgot to ask Jan if she heard mutterings from her Mushroom Swiss Burger, but according to these guys it’s very possible.

When Lewis Carrol wrote Alice in Wonderland, he told us about talking mushrooms. Who knew how right he was.

New Study Shows Mushrooms Communicate With Each Other Using A Vocabulary Of 50 Words

Scientists found that mushrooms “talk” using electrical impulses that spike when fungi come into contact with food sources or potential dangers.

“Assuming that spikes of electrical activity are used by fungi to communicate, we demonstrate that distributions of fungal word lengths match that of human languages,” he said. “We found that the size of fungal vocabulary can be up to 50 words, however, the core vocabulary of most frequently used words does not exceed 15 to 20 words.”

I would think that ‘Please don’t eat us’ would be part of their vocabulary.

Of course, they could just sing, “Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know.”

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And if talking mushrooms weren’t scary enough, there’s this nightmare.

And as the caption says, it’s real.

Remind me to stay away from deep-sea geothermal vents.

With Jan’s two medical things today, brunch was at Snooze, since it was really close by both offices. And since the weather was so nice today, with partly cloudy, low 70’s, and a nice breeze, that we sat out on the patio for the first time this year.

We both got our usuals, Jan’s Bravocado Toast and my Shrimp and Grits, and sharing an order of their Bacon, But Different. Always delicious.

Her first appointment was pretty quick, just a blood drawing at her oncologist office, but then things went off the rails.

When she got to her Mammogram appointment, they had her down for a standard mammogram, not the diagnostic one she’s supposed to get since she had breast cancer back in 2014. And for some reason they couldn’t do a diagnostic one today.

So somewhere between her oncologist office sending over the order for the diagnostic mammogram and the mammogram receiving the correct order, someone dropped the ball.

So now she’s got a new mammogram appointment for next Tuesday. Hopefully they’ll get this one right.

Coming home we made a quick HEB stop before getting back to the rig a little before 3pm.

Since I got my hotel reservations for the big total eclipse next April, I next decided to order the special glasses that you will need to safely observe the eclipse. And once again I’m glad I got ahead of the curve.

I first ordered a set of ten of these.

Solar Eclipse Glasses – CE and ISO Certified Safe Shades for Direct Sun Viewing – Made in the USA (10 Pack) by Soluna

I got the set of 10 for about $17, a good deal since according to the reviews back during the last big eclipse in 2017, this set of 10 was going for over $120. Supply and Demand, kind of like the hotel rooms in Waco that I talked about yesterday.

I got 10 which will let me give out 1 to everyone in the family.

If you buy any glasses for this purpose, be sure they have the NASA ISO certification number 12312-2 on them. This tells you that they are safe to use for eclipse viewing without blinding you.

Kind of an important thing, if you ask me.

And while I was looking at glasses, I came across the perfect apparel for Eclipse Day.

America Totality Spring 4.08.24 Total Solar Eclipse 2024 T-Shirt

I’ll probably end up getting Jan one too before the big day.

And speaking of the big day, if you miss this Total Eclipse next year, then you only have to wait until 2044 for the next one.

BUT you can see an Annular Eclipse passing through Texas this coming October 14, 2023.

An annular eclipse is when the moon and the sun line up, but the moon appears smaller than the sun.

This makes the sun appear like a bright ring.

Several of our readers wanted to know Brandi’s recipe for the Hatch Green Chile Beer Bread. Turns out that it was the one thing she did from a mix.

You can find it here at Soberdough.com. At least it’s sober dough until you add a can of beer.

They’ve got everything from Hatch Green Chile Cheese Beer Bread to Mimosa Muffins (with Champagne) to Cheesy Garlic or Cinnamon Swirl.

Check it out.

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Thought for the Day:

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April 11, 2010

High Winds and Cat Barf…

We left Barstow Calico KOA about 10:45 am heading toward Lancaster, CA.

It’s only about a 100 mile trip so we didn’t have to get an early start, but the trip had a little more adventure than usual.

Adventure #1 Cat Barf!

Although the road wasn’t curvy or roller coastery (Is that a word? If not, it should be.) , Emma got sick again, just like she did coming up from Yuma, AZ to Laughlin, NV.

But on that trip the road was roller coastery (See I told you it should be a word) as we went up and down because the highway went thru all the dry washes along the way.

But this time it was probably connected with –

Adventure #2: The Wind.

The wind we encountered along SR58 coming from Barstow was the worse since we were coming into Dawson Creek, BC, Canada in April 2008 on our way to Fairbanks, AK. On that trip, we ran into 60-70 mph winds that came close to blowing us off the highway several times. We even had a problem with our large awning starting to unfurl along the side of the coach.

My first thought was to pull over, but there was no place to pull over. The roads in this part of Canada are narrow two-landed, with no shoulders. So we just had to press on… slowly.

We found out later that the road had been close right after we came thru, after two 18 wheelers had been blown off the road. We ended up staying in Dawson Creek for three days due to the bad weather and low temps. It was in the mid-teens while we were there.

Anyway, I think the weaving back and forth due to the winds today got to Emma. But lucky for me, Emma was sitting in Jan’s lap, not mine.

We arrived at Antelope Valley Fairgrounds RV Park about 1:15 pm and got set up. There was no one at the office, but the sign said to just pick a site and check in with the office later.

Then it was off to have lunch. Our GPS said there was a Shakey’s Pizza nearby so we headed over there. We found the building but it was now something else, that had also gone out of business.

But on the way we passed a place called Crazy Otto’s that looked good, so we headed back there. We both had the soup and sandwich combo, a bowl of chicken tortilla soup and half a chicken salad sandwich. Both were delicious, and the half sandwich was so thick that I ate mine with a fork. It was too big to hold.

Coming back we saw the office was open so I went in and paid up for a week.

Then it was time for a nap.

About 6 pm we headed out for dinner. After checking their website, we found a  Shakey’s Pizza over in Palmdale, about 10 miles away.

Shakey’s was a pizza place my family and I ate at on our big Western trip in the summer of 1964. It was near Disneyland where we were staying, and we thought the pizza, chicken, and fried potatoes were really good. Back then it was kind of a Vaudeville theme with a straw-hatted piano player doing sing-a-longs. They also had a spinning the pizza dough in the air and catching it.

It’s different now, but the food is still good.

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April 11, 2011

Bagels and Stars . . .

Today was the day for our day trip down to Mesa to get an estimate on our cargo bay door damage and to pick up our prescriptions from Sam’s Club, so we were up at the awful hour of 7:30, a time of day that should be outlawed. The day should not start until 10 am.

Jan fixed us a great breakfast from Panera’s Asiago Cheese Bagels, and toasted them with butter. Fantastic.

Then, about 8:30 Jan and I went outside to remove the cargo bay door to take to RV Renovators to get ready to leave, not an easy task, believe me. But we got it done somehow.

After dropping off the garbage at the dumpster, we headed out about 9 tam o make the 120 mile trip to Mesa.

We got there about 11, and were warmly greeted by ‘Cinda, who was all ready to take care of us. She turned us over to Levi, who looked over our door, and told us what else he needed to know to give us the estimate. He said he’ll email it when he’s done. RV Renovators certainly lived up to their reputation with us.

Leaving RV Renovators, we headed a couple of miles down the road to El Pollo Loco, our favorite grilled chicken place. Their chicken is fantastic and we always try to eat there when one is nearby.

After lunch, it was just another few miles to the Sam’s Club where we picked up our prescriptions, and a few other things. Between Wal-Mart and Sam’s we never have a problem with getting our prescriptions around the country.

Before heading back to Verde Valley, I decided to make a quick stopover at Roy’s Train World. Our faithful blog readers already know I’m crazy about model trains. (Of course, Jan says I’m just crazy, but that’s a topic for another blog.)

Ironically, I haven’t had a layout since I was 13 and we moved to Colombia, South America, but I still like to visit model train museums and train stores as we travel, and I read a couple of model train magazines each month.

As a side note, I’ve probably visited 20-30 train stores in the last 7- 8 years, and almost none of them had anything in the way of a decent train layout. And I think this is a big mistake. The layouts are what bring the young kids into the hobby. I know it was for me.

When I was a kid all the department stores had large layouts at Christmas time, just the thing to grab a kid’s interest. But now, nothing. Oh well, they didn’t ask me. As a matter of fact, no one asks me. Personally I think that’s a big mistake of their part, as I always have plenty of advice on just about any subject.

Just ask Jan.

On our way home we stopped at DQ for a cone for Jan and a Moo-latte for me, and then hit the road. We got home about 4:30 and got all the stuff unloaded. Jan had been fighting a bad migraine on and off all day, so we decided to stay at the rig for dinner.

Later, my first job was to change out the 1003 bulb in one of our Smart Light’s. If you haven’t seen these, they’re great.

They replace your patio light with a motion-detecting version that turns on when you approach the rig. Perfect when you come back at night and didn’t leave a light on.

Another thing I did after I got home is look up the mileage we traveled last year, which was about 9800 miles.

This took us from Dickinson, TX to Yuma, AZ, Las Vegas, Lancaster, CA, San Francisco, and then up US 101 to Westport, WA. Then over to Gillette, WY for the American Coach Rally, down thru Salt Lake City, to Show Low, AZ.

Next we headed east thru Amarillo and Abilene to Burnet, TX for our daughter’s wedding, down to San Marcos to visit a good friend, further east to Montgomery, AL, north to Louisville, KY for the big Good Sam Rally, then a zigzag northwest to Vandalia, IL to visit Jan’s sister and her family, then back east thru Cincinnati and Celina, OH to Elkhart, IN for another rally.

Our final leg took us from Elkhart to Dickinson, TX by way of Jackson, MS and Baton Rouge, LA.

All in all a pretty busy year. But with all the talk about high fuel prices, I was curious to see what our numbers looked like.

With all the talk in the RV work about hanging up the keys if diesel goes up too high, just think about it this way.

We traveled for about 9 months, or 36 weeks. Boiling it down, if the price of gas jumped from $3 a gallon to $5 a gallon, our diesel cost would jump about $70 per week, or $10 a day.

Not enough to us to stop traveling.

Wallydock an extra night, don’t eat out, stay in an Elk’s or Moose lodge, it shouldn’t be enough to change your lifestyle for.

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April 11, 2012

A Hidden Gem . . .

or No Gate Yet.

About 10 am I walked over to the office to pay the fingerprint fees that they forget to ask for down in Corpus yesterday, and also to see if anything was up on our gate. Was told it would be soon. Hope so.

Getting back to the rig, I caught up on some maintenance chores, cleaning AC and fan filters, stowing some stuff away, and just getting ready to travel on short notice.

For lunch, we had more leftover Rudy’s BBQ. I’m not sure we brought enough home. We might have to go back to Corpus for more.

Later in the afternoon, I took a nap, or tried to. I got two calls that woke me up, one a wrong number, the 3rd time in 3 days, and one a political call.

A little before 6 Jan and I headed about 25 miles north to Pleasanton to have dinner at China Garden. Right next door to the ill-fated Bill Miller BBQ, we noticed how busy it was then, and wanted to give it a try.

And it turned out to be a hidden gem.

Housed in a pretty nondescript building, the parking lot seems to be always crowded, certainly a good sign.

And waiting for our food after our order was taken, we noticed a steady stream of take-orders leaving the restaurant, again a good sign.

We ordered our usual Hot & Sour Soup, Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce, Extra Spicy, and the House Special Fried Rice. And it was really good.

Good enough that hopefully we’ll be able to go back before we leave the area.

Our next stop was right across the street at the HEB for gas and a much-needed car wash. Then it was home for the night.

Here’s hoping for a gate tomorrow.

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April 11, 2013

Wanted In Texas . . .

According to the State of Texas, my beautiful wife Jan is a scofflaw, a nefarious individual, a shady character, even a fugitive from justice. For the last 5 years, she’s been evading her civic duty.

She hasn’t been showing up for jury duty. For the last 5 years.

Of course we no longer live in Texas. We’re South Dakota residents. We have SD Drivers Licenses, we vote in SD. we have SD carry permits, and we have SD tags on our vehicles. What part of this does Texas not understand?

I’ve called Harris County a number of times over the years when we got jury notices, but today was the first time they told me I was supposed cancel our voter registrations. Huh? Who knew?

I didn’t have to cancel our Texas Drivers Licenses. Didn’t they notice we haven’t voted since 2006? If we die, are we supposed to cancel our voter registration first?

Even more importantly, has someone been voting in our place? I mean, if dead people apparently vote in Chicago, why not absent people in Texas?

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Jan and I did another walk this morning, for 1.25 miles this time. Since the temp was still in the 60’s, it was a nice walk. And once again we used Runkeeper to track our progress. A really neat program for your smartphone.

We spent the afternoon doing pretty much nothing. Jan napped and read, while I worked on several projects, both physical and digital. But later in the afternoon, even I got in a short nap.

Nice!

Although we had all originally planned on eating at home this evening, Jan decided she had a hankering for Chili’s, so we headed out for the Chili’s a couple of exits west on the freeway.

As usual our food was good, but as usual it seems, we got seated in the screaming/squalling baby section. The kids a couple of tables away behind me never stop fussing and whining.

Growing up, our kids (and our granddaughter Piper) got one, and only one, outcry. Then it was out the door. I spent a lot of time out in the parking lot with Piper, believe me.

Unfortunately these parents weren’t as considerate.

After dinner we made a stop at Home Depot for some screws I needed for a couple of projects, and then it was on to Fry’s for a few things, including finishing up with a Cinnamon Dolce Latte from the in-house Starbucks.

Getting back home, it was cooler, and since the sun hadn’t gone down yet, we decided to do another walk, but only a mile this time. But still a nice walk.

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April 11, 2014

How Cold Can It Be . . .

After a nice, quiet morning, about 1:15 Jan and I headed out for the 1:45 showing of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The second movie in the Captain America franchise, this one continues the non-stop action of the first one, as well as the plot tie-ins with the other Marvel movies, like Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and The Avengers. And even better it also directly ties in with the Agents of SHIELD TV show. If you go for this sort of thing, don’t miss it. And lucky for me, I have a wife who likes these movies as much as I do. In fact, she even likes Dr. Who.

After the movie we headed a couple of exits south on I-45 to have dinner at Ryan’s, one of our favorite buffet places. We both love their fried chicken.

But the first thing we noticed walking in to the place, was how warm it was . . . no, not warm, HOT!  We assumed that maybe their AC was on the blink. But when we ask our waitress, a young lady named XXXX, she laughed and said, “Well, that’s the story they’re using today.”  When we inquired further, she said that starting a month or so ago, all Ryan’s restaurant thermostats are now controlled from the corporate offices . . . in Eagan, Minnesota!  Where it was 57 degrees today. Apparently they’re only allowed to control the temp by 3 degrees at the restaurant.

Somebody needs to tell them this is Texas, not Minnesota.

Our waitress also said that over the last few weeks, a bunch of customers have asked for their money back and left because of the temperature.

On another note, ever taste or smell something and have it bring up an old memory? It’s happened to me before, and it did again today at Ryan’s. And strangely enough, it was caused by a Rice Krispies Treat, like one below.

I’ve always liked them, and usually get one when we’re at Ryan’s. But these were different. When I saw the colored bits, I figured they were just Rice Krispies dyed with food coloring. But one taste told me different and took me back.

They were not Rice Krispies, they were crushed TRIX cereal.

And suddenly, for a few seconds,  I was 10 years old, sitting at the breakfast table in our house on the Bon Secour River near Gulf Shores, AL.

Weird!

After Ryan’s, we hit the Wal-Mart next door for a few things, and also the 99cent Store across the street before getting home about 7pm.

BTW,  I XXXX’d the name of our Ryan’s waitress to keep her from getting in trouble. We’ve had a couple of cases where I’ve mentioned a place here on the blog and have been contacted by the company. Just being careful.

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April 11, 2015

The Worms Crawl In . . .

Right before we left Apache Junction, we bought a new Memory Foam Gel-Filled Mattress Topper and installed it on our bed. And as much as we liked our old mattress Topper, we both agree that we sleep better on the new one.

Of course, to install the new topper we had to strip the bed all the way down to the bare mattress, which mean removing and re-installing our Touch of Class Dual Control Heated Mattress Pad. We haven’t needed it since we were in Houston back in February, but since we got to Cottonwood, we’ve had night time temps in the low 30’s. But when we tried to start using the heat again, only Jan’s side was working.

So after a few cold nights on my side of the bed, I decided to take a look at the problem. The first thing I did was to use my ohmmeter to check the resistance at the connectors on both sides of the blanket, and then compare them. As it turned out, both sides read the same 120 ohms. So it wasn’t the wiring in the pad itself, which was a good thing.

So next I swapped the controllers between the sides, and my controller worked on Jan’s side, and her controller didn’t work on mine. So it wasn’t the controller. And then swapping them back didn’t help either.

So it must be the connector at the bottom of the blanket, so I tried plugging and unplugging the connector a number of times, again with no luck. So now it was time to bring out the big guns, Strike-Hold.

So I sprayed both the connector and the plug and let them soak for a while. And plugging in the controller about 30 minutes later, I had heat on my side. Strike-Hold has resurrected a number of my devices, including a Kindle Fire, and a laptop.

As I’ve said before, Strike Hold, The Magic Fluid. Give it a try for what ails you.

I mentioned a while back that when we stopped at the Bowlin’s Picacho Peak on our way over to Yuma to visit our friends, Chris and Charles Yust, I bought a box of these Larvet’s.

Larvets Sampler Gift Pack- BBQ, Cheddar Cheese, & Mexican Spice

Yes, these are BBQ’d worm larva.

Jan finally told me that she was tired of seeing them on the counter, and if I didn’t eat them, she was going to throw them out. So eat them I did.

Actually they were kind of a letdown. There was no taste to the larva, not even of chicken. They were like a hollow crunchy straw that just melted away in your mouth. The BBQ taste was like a BBQ potato chip, but with more heat. I tried to get Jan to try one, but she just shuddered and looked away.

Wuss!

Remember, I do these things so you don’t have to. Or want to.

Later for dinner, after my worm appetizer, Jan fixed up some the Rudy’s BBQ that we bought before we left Houston and froze.

So we had Rudy’s Moist Brisket and Jalapeno Sausage, Broccoli Salad and Loaded Baked Potato Salad from Wal-Mart, and Firecracker (Hot) Sweet Pickles from Famous Dave’s BBQ. A very good dinner, believe me.

As it stands now, we’re going to do our Jerome trip tomorrow, but we’ll see how that turns out.

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April 11, 2016

Passing The Torch…y

About 4pm Jan and I headed down to The Woodlands to have dinner at the new Torchy’s Tacos there. We’ve eaten at the one in Katy several times with Brandi, Lowell,and Landon, But it’s our first time for this one, since it only opened a couple of months ago.

And as usual, it was delicious.

Jan had the Trailer Park Taco with Fried Chicken strips, and the Jamaican Jerked Chicken Taco, both her favorites.

I had my usual Grilled Jalapeno Sausage and the Green Chile Pork, both really good.

Torchy’s actually started as a Food Truck operation, but now has grown to over 40 stores, and one visit will tell you why.

There’s also a new Torchy’s opening soon at the Baybrook Mall, down in our old stomping grounds, so we’ll have to try that one soon too. You can’t have too much Torchy’s.

As we were leaving, we noticed this motorcycle in the parking lot just as the owner came out. Jan asked him if the seat was comfortable, and he said it was. Also said it was a Franken-Bike. He started out with the engine from an old  Honda 750 and combined it with a bunch of junkyard parts from a lot of different bikes.

He described it as a “Work in Progress”, and it looks like it.

Getting back to the Conroe area we made a quick Wal-Mart stop to drop off some prescriptions, and pick up a couple of things from the grocery section.

Tomorrow, maybe a movie.

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April 11, 2017

Up On The Roof, Again . . .

About 2pm Jan and I drove to the Buffalo Wild Wings down south on Sunset. We’ve eaten here a couple time before and it’s always been good.

Didn’t get any pics of the ‘Before’, but this is the ‘After’, the remains of 20 wings, (10 each), mine with Mango Habanero Sauce (Their 3rd Hottest) and a side of ‘Blazin’ (Their Hottest). and Jan got hers with Bourbon Honey Mustard and a side of Hot (The 4th Hottest).

Even better than the great wings, it was 1/2 price Wing Day.

On the way home we made a stop at an O’Reilly Auto Parts to get an air filter for our Dodge Dakota truck and then it was back to the rig.

We left the windows open and our Fantastic Vent Fans running when we headed out for lunch at BWW,  but when we got back around 4pm the kitchen fan was no longer running. The lid was still open and would close when I hit the button so I knew it had power.

My first thought was the plunger switch that keeps the fan from running until the lid is open, but normally it acts up by sticking close and not letting the fan start up went you open the lid, not while the fan is running.

I did try using a stick to hit the switch from inside, a ploy that’s worked in the past, but no luck this time.So it looks like tomorrow I’m up on the roof, again,

The last time we were in Las Vegas, in 2015, we discover an abandoned RV park just south of the Vegas Thousand Trails. You can check out our visit at the link above.

It looked like it had been a real nice park in its prime, but the only thing it housed now was a bunch of vagrants living in lean-to and piles of boards.

Blog reader Reg commented this:

We tried to stay at that park about 10 years ago but they only accepted class A less than 10 years old. It soon closed after that. The cost was too high for TTN at that time and the bull dozers leveled it. The car wash next door also went with it, and it had a bay to wash motor homes.

Looks like they got too uppity and too picky.

Now it looks like it’s going to be either high-end apartments or houses. I’ll try to get some photos tomorrow.

I was finally able to park across the road this afternoon when we got back from BWW.

The dolly just to the left of  red trailer was gone so I fit in there. The guy in the rig next to us was hoping we could move tomorrow, in the morning at least, since he has a crew coming in to wash his rig.

So it all worked out.

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April 11, 2018

Scoping It Out . . .

Work today was only about half machine repair, so I guess I lucked out. I have come to the conclusion that these boards are not designed very well. There are two boards in this model of machine, a power supply board and an oscillator board. But every board will not work with every other board.

I started to notice that I would swap out what seemed to be a bad board with another one that would work. But the supposedly bad board would work in another machine with a different board. So each machine has to be ‘tuned’ by swapping out boards until you get a set that works.

This is a symptom of boards that are designed with sloppy tolerances, tolerances so wide, I.e. + or – 30 % instead of +- 5%. So that if the tolerances of a particular set of boards go the wrong way, they don’t work together. But each board might work with another one. It’s just the luck of the draw.

At some point I’m probably going to have to start repairing the actual bad boards. And to do that I’m going to need an oscilloscope of some sort. I sold off mine a long time ago so I’ll have to get something new. Luckily digital scopes are a lot cheaper than they use to be, $100’s instead of $1000 of dollars.

Even Amazon has a nice selection of scopes, even some kits. Since I don’t have any schematics for most of these units, what I’ll do is to use the scope to start recording waveforms at key points on each board which I can then use to diagnose bad boards.

Tomorrow I’ll take care of some chores before our planned jaunt in the rig this weekend. I want to check the pressure in the rig’s tires, and the water in the house batteries. The engine batteries are sealed so I don’t have to worry about them. I’m also going to untie the anemometer pole from where it’s zip tied to the ladder on the rear of the rig.

As it stands now we’ll probably do this on Sunday since it looks to be stormy all day Saturday. I’m thinking about just making a 40 mile loop, heading south on Hwy 6 down to where it joins up with I-45, then back up north to FM517 where we’ll take that back over to Alvin, and then back down Hwy 6 to Santa Fe and home.

We may make a stopover at the La Marque Buc-ee’s to top off on diesel, and then another stop along the way to fill up on propane. We’ll see.

I noticed yesterday that my Texas Lottery app had been updated, and I was happy to see that they’ve finally fixed the problem with the lottery ticket scanner function not working. That’s make finding that winning ticket a lot easier.

As it stands right now we’re getting together with our son Chris and his family for dinner tomorrow night. Really looking forward to that..

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April 11, 2019

We’re In B.C. – A.C. Mode . . .

I spent the morning working on a lot of cruise-related items, trying to cross off a bunch of things off our B.C list. That’s B.C., as in Before Cruise.

And of course, A.C. is for all the After Cruise things we’re putting off until we get back. Things like the rig’s oil leak, the rig’s generator problem, etc.

I first sent out quote requests to 3 car services for transportation  to and from Houston Intercontinental for our flights. We want to leave the truck here, plus not having to worry with parking. And by the time I got all the quotes back in later in the day, I was surprised to wide range of prices.

The highest one was $227.50 each way, for a total of $455. The middle one was $190 each way, for a total of $380. But the one we went with, and one that our daughter Brandi uses when she travels. came in at $166 for a total of $332.

This is for a Lincoln MKT SUV, taking us right to our terminal gate. Our flight on Lufthansa leaves at 3:55pm, and since it’s recommended that we get there 3 hours early, that would be 1pm, so I’m shooting for 12pm, to allow for traffic, etc., getting there. And considering what 31 days of long-time parking would cost, it’s a real bargain.

Next I went online and booked the two additional London tours that we want to take on two of our extra 3 days, one a walking tour of Dr. Who Film Locations, and the second one, a visit to Hampton Court, Henry VIII’s residence. This will still leave us two free days for anything else that comes up.

Then I put in calls to Chase, Capital One, and PayPal to have them flag our card accounts for overseas travel, so we don’t have any nasty surprises. I’ve tried doing this online in the past but I found that it works much better actually talking to a real person, though it did sometimes take a bit to talk to someone.

Last up for the morning was to go online with LegalZoom and update our wills. Actually only took about 20 minutes to do mine, and I’ll finish up Jan’s this weekend.

Later, heading out for lunch and shopping, we stopped by the PO for our mail, and also to double check that they’ll just hold our mail until we get back. Turns out that when our box fills up it is automatically moved into an overflow box until we return.

After lunch at Cheddar’s, and shopping at WalMart, we got home just in time to watch the second launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. And it was amazing to watch not only the two boosters, but also the central core return to earth and stick the landings, the two boosters at the Cape, and the core on a droneship barge in the Atlantic.

Amazing!

Tomorrow it’s back to work, and then tomorrow night we’re attending the newly-resurrected Alvin Opry for what’s sure to be a great show.

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April 11, 2020

Bingeing . . .

Over the weekend Jan discovered that our CBS streaming service has every episode of Frasier available, so she’s been binge-streaming it, starting with the very first show. It’s amazing how well it’s held up, and how funny it is/was.

I went outside about 2pm to get our new shed installed on the plywood base I got at Home Depot on Thursday.

After getting the base into position, I used my RV leveler to level the board side to side, with a slight tilt to the rear for drainage. I did this by adding or removing larger rocks from underneath the board.

Then I used these 10” screw-in anchors and polypropylene strapping to fasten the base to the rock gravel.

And as hard as they were screw into the dirt/gravel/rock mix, they’re not coming out any time soon.

So now I was ready to slide the shed off the patio and onto the base. I did have to use a large pipe to lever the shed up on the base, but then it just slid into place with no problems.

I still have to use these metal bars to fasten the shed to the base through the shed floor,

but I’m going to wait and hear from the park owner to be sure he’s happy with where it’s positioned. Hopefully I should be able to screw it down tomorrow, and then we can get started sorting stuff in the bins and moving things out there.

For dinner tonight Jan rewarded me for all my hard work today by insisting I take her over to our nearby Whataburger for dinner. As before we did online ordering and then ate it in the WalMart parking lot across the street.

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April 11, 2021

Two. Count’em. Two.

Today was a quiet one for a change, with lunch at Los Ramirez and then a quick stop at the nearby HEB.

Jan got her usual Pechuga Rellena, with a grilled chicken breast, grilled shrimp, and grilled broccoli,

while I got my usual Beef Fajita Taco Salad.

It’s easy to see why we both get our usual ‘usuals’.

You can now add O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to the list of companies that have made masks optional, at least here in Texas. No more masks signs when we stop off there on the way home.

And, although they still have the signs up, HEB didn’t seem to be policing the lack of masks at our local one this afternoon.

Well, after not grilling anything since about 2012, somehow, we’re now a two-grill family.

When we were getting ready to start RV’ing in 2007, our kids, Chris and Brandi, gave us a very nice Weber Q200 gas grill,

and we used it a lot as we traveled around the country the first 5 years or so. But the last time I can remember using it was while we were gate guarding in 2012, when we did hot dogs. And that was it.

Then a few years ago, we loaned it to Brandi and Lowell who’ve had it ever since. But since we’re redoing our patio area, we wanted to start grilling outside, so when we were up there visiting over Easter, we brought it back home with us. Their poolside area has a big built-in BBQ grill, so they hadn’t used ours in a while, anyway.

But while we were up there, we saw an ad on QVC for the new George Foreman Inside/Outside 15 serving electric grill.

So since Jan wanted something that would also let us grill inside as well as outside, so I put in an order for one. Which showed up this past Friday.

After I got it all put together out on the patio, I cleaned up the Weber, getting the dust, dirt, and a dirt dauber nest out of it, and then used a wire brush on the grill surface. And it came out looking really nice.

So my next step was to connect up a new propane tank, and hit the igniter button a couple of times. And amazingly, it fired right up.

So we’re now a two grill family, I guess. Jan says the first thing we’re going to do is hot dogs, and then some ribs.

But with two grills I guess we could do both at the same time.

I mentioned a while back that all of the Texas Bunch is heading up to Illinois the 2nd week of June for a big family reunion with her sister Debbie and the rest of the Illinois Bunch. Then on our way back home, we plan on detouring down through Alabama to check in with family and friends.

But since we’ll be gone about a week and a half, Jan was worried about her patio hibiscus not getting enough, or any, water. So I came up with a computer-controlled watering system to keep it watered while we’re gone.

I’m going to use an empty kitty litter bucket for the water reservoir, a small submersible pump, some plastic tubing, and a smart plug like this to control it.

I can set it to automatically turn on for several minutes a day to keep it watered, or even control it manually from anywhere. I’m going to set it up in the next week or so, and let it keep the plant watered until we leave so I can get some idea how long it needs to run each day.

Hopefully, we won’t come back to a dead plant.

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April 11, 2022

Finally, Something Drone-Worthy . . .

I finished booking all the hotels along our route on our upcoming Alabama vacation.

We’ll leave here the 26th of May, spend the night in Slidell, and arrive in Athens, AL on the 27th, where we’ll be for the next 5 days, catching up with relatives and friends.

Then it’s on down to Birmingham where we’ll stay for one night, again seeing long-time friends. And the next two nights after that, we’ll be in Montgomery seeing a couple of more old friends, before ending up down at Gulf Shores on the 4th for the next week.

We’ve got a 7 bedroom condo right on the Gulf, room enough for the 22 people that make up the Texas branch and the Illinois branch of Jan and her sister Debbie’s families.

We’ll be there for a week, with Jan and I finally getting home on Sunday, June 12th.

Really looking forward to it.

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One thing about visiting Brandi is that the dogs, Jack and Baxter, are always happy to see us, and bring us toys to play with.

“Did someone say Treat?”

What’s unusual about this photo is that Baxter still has his kerchief on. For some reason Jack doesn’t like Baxter to wear anything around his neck and does his best to pull it off.

And this is Landon and Jack checking in on his Zoom school class back in the day.

Linda Sand, a long-time blog reader, said that a few years ago when they were passing through Marathon the Buc-ee’s/Target mini-store there was a Prada store back then.

So what’s next? A Chick-Fil-A?

It looks like that’s what happened up in Wharton, TX. Somebody got the whole town riled up by posting a Chick-Fil-A Coming Soon sign.

Wharton police said they are looking for the “heartless individual” who placed a sign promising a Chick-Fil-A coming soon at a major intersection. The issue with it is, it was done as a prank and there are no plans for the restaurant there.

“A witness said this act was ‘Udderly heinous and heartless,’”

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I’m sure everyone’s heard about Amazon working on drone delivery of their products. And in fact they’re starting it up in places around the country with a $65 charge.

But finally someone’s starting to deliver something’s that really drone-worthy.

Blue Bell, the Texas Ice Cream maker, is starting up ice cream deliveries by drone up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Now that’s something I’d pay extra for.