Our RV Adventures

So lazy in fact that we didn’t even go out to eat. And we really enjoyed it.

And I did use the time to take care of a couple of chores.

One of my first jobs was to replace the bedroom A/C’s thermostat. Don’t know what happened to it, but since we came back from our Hill Country weekend, it won’t stay set. Over a period of a couple of days the set temp will gradually increase up to the maximum of 85°.

Now in the past when it went ‘wonky’ (a technical term) replacing the two AA batteries fixed it up. But now this time.

So it was time to jut replace it with one I found at WalMart. Another Honeywell model, in fact.

And this is 3rd Honeywell thermostat we’ve had in the rig.

When we bought the rig the end of 2007, it had those round Honeywell models for both A/C’s.

So while we were up in Alaska in 2008 I replace both with these Honeywell digital models.

And they’ve both worked fine until now, 15 years later.

So now I’m replacing it with another Honeywell model.

And it only took a few minutes, since the mounting holes from the old Honeywell lined up exactly with the new one.

And in just a few minutes I had this.

And then this.

Finishing up our Hill Country trip, as I mentioned yesterday we made a Pottery Ranch stop

And the first thing she saw as we got parked was this guy.

I told her that if it would fit in the Corolla, she could have it. Well, at least until I saw this.

Yikes!

Well, maybe not.

But she did find some other (smaller, cheaper) things she wanted.

Including this RoadRunner for Brandi.

They had a little bit of everything.

Including this flock of flamingos.

And Jan almost brought home this hippo, but couldn’t figure out where she’d put it.

Finally on our way home, we did stop for some photos of a nearby abandoned stone farmhouse in the middle of a field of Bluebonnets.

Just beautiful.

As is this Bluebonnet close-up.

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Thought for the Day:

The Difference Between Men And Women

Let’s say a guy named Fred is attracted to a woman named Martha. He asks her out to a movie; she accepts; they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them is seeing anybody else.

And then, one evening when they’re driving home, a thought occurs to Martha, and, without really thinking, she says it aloud: “Do you realize that, as of tonight, we’ve been seeing each other for exactly six months?”

And then, there is silence in the car.

To Martha, it seems like a very loud silence. She thinks to herself: I wonder if it bothers him that I said that. Maybe he’s been feeling confined by our relationship; maybe he thinks I’m trying to push him into some kind of obligation that he doesn’t want, or isn’t sure of.

And Fred is thinking: Gosh. Six months.

And Martha is thinking: But, hey, I’m not so sure I want this kind of relationship either. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space, so I’d have time to think about whether I really want us to keep going the way we are, moving steadily towards, I mean, where are we going? Are we just going to keep seeing each other at this level of intimacy? Are we heading toward marriage? Toward children? Toward a lifetime together? Am I ready for that level of commitment? Do I really even know this person?

And Fred is thinking: …so that means it was…let’s see…February when we started going out, which was right after I had the car at the dealer’s, which means…lemme check the odometer…Whoa! I am way overdue for an oil change here.

And Martha is thinking: He’s upset. I can see it on his face. Maybe I’m reading this completely wrong. Maybe he wants more from our relationship, more intimacy, more commitment; maybe he has sensed – even before I sensed it – that I was feeling some reservations. Yes, I bet that’s it. That’s why he’s so reluctant to say anything about his own feelings. He’s afraid of being rejected.

And Fred is thinking: And I’m gonna have them look at the transmission again. I don’t care what those morons say, it’s still not shifting right. And they better not try to blame it on the cold weather this time. What cold weather? It’s 87 degrees out, and this thing is shifting like a garbage truck, and I paid those incompetent thieves $600.

And Martha is thinking: He’s angry. And I don’t blame him. I’d be angry, too. I feel so guilty, putting him through this, but I can’t help the way I feel. I’m just not sure.

And Fred is thinking: They’ll probably say it’s only a 90-day warranty…scumballs.

And Martha is thinking: Maybe I’m just too idealistic, waiting for a knight to come riding up on his white horse, when I’m sitting right next to a perfectly good person, a person I enjoy being with, a person I truly do care about, a person who seems to truly care about me. A person who is in pain because of my self-centered, schoolgirl romantic fantasy.

And Fred is thinking: Warranty? They want a warranty? I’ll give them a warranty. I’ll take their warranty and stick it right up their…

“Fred,” Martha says aloud.

“What?” says Fred, startled.

“Please don’t torture yourself like this,” she says, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. “Maybe I should never have…oh dear, I feel so…”(She breaks down, sobbing.)

“What?” says Fred.

“I’m such a fool,” Martha sobs. “I mean, I know there’s no knight. I really know that. It’s silly. There’s no knight, and there’s no horse.”

“There’s no horse?” says Fred.

“You think I’m a fool, don’t you?” Martha says.

“No!” says Fred, glad to finally know the correct answer.

“It’s just that…it’s that I…I need some time,” Martha says.

(There is a 15-second pause while Fred, thinking as fast as he can, tries to come up with a safe response. Finally he comes up with one that he thinks might work.)
“Yes,” he says. (Martha, deeply moved, touches his hand.)

“Oh, Fred, do you really feel that way?” she says.

“What way?” says Fred.

“That way about time,” says Martha.

“Oh,” says Fred. “Yes.” (Martha turns to face him and gazes deeply into his eyes, causing him to become very nervous about what she might say next, especially if it involves a horse. At last she speaks.)

“Thank you, Fred,” she says.

“Thank you,” says Fred.

Then he takes her home, and she lies on her bed, a conflicted, tortured soul, and weeps until dawn, whereas when Fred gets back to his place, he opens a bag of Doritos, turns on the TV, and immediately becomes deeply involved in a rerun of a college basketball game between two South Dakota junior colleges that he has never
heard of. A tiny voice in the far recesses of his mind tells him that something major was going on back there in the car, but he is pretty sure there is no way he would ever understand what, and so he figures it’s better if he doesn’t think about it.

The next day Martha will call her closest friend, or perhaps two of them, and they will talk about this situation for six straight hours. In painstaking detail, they will analyze everything she said and everything he said, going over it time and time again, exploring every word, expression, and gesture for nuances of meaning, considering every possible ramification.

They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for weeks, maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions, but never getting bored with it either.

Meanwhile, Fred, while playing racquetball one day with a mutual friend of his and Martha’s, will pause just before serving, frown, and say: “Norm, did Martha ever own a horse?”

And that’s the difference between men and women.

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April 2, 2010

Albuquerque…

We left Las Vegas about 7:45am heading for Albuquerque, NM, on our way to the Trinity A-Bomb Test Site on Saturday.

As I said yesterday, Trinity Site is opened to the public twice a year, on the first Saturdays in April and October. I had wanted to visit the site when I was working for NASA out at White Sands Missile Range in the early 80’s. But my schedule never matched up.

Since we were leaving early, I decided to take the shorter route over Hoover Dam. Later in the day the heavy traffic of the tourists visiting the dam would have meant a very slow trip.

This time we did have to pull over and get inspected before driving over the dam. They were curious about all the stuff in the back of our truck. But it only took about 5 minutes and we were on our way.

We found that in the last few weeks since we visited the dam, not much more had been done on the bridge.

I still don’t think they’re going to have this bridge finished by August as they promise.

About 5 miles past the dam, we did have a 10 minute delay due to the construction being done on the road approaches to the new bridge.

About 70 miles out of Las Vegas we passed the turn-off to the Grand Canyon Skywalk. The Grand Canyon Skywalk is the glass-bottom walkway built out over the Grand Canyon 4000 feet below.

This is something else that has been on my bucket list, and if we have time I want to visit it on the way back to Las Vegas. I’ll probably have to get Jan a little drunk to get her out on it. On second thought, maybe a LOT drunk.

We stopped off in Kingman AZ about 10 am for Starbucks Coffee and a bathroom break.

On our way toward Flagstaff we encountered a lot of snow still on the ground along the roadway.

And even more still on the nearby mountains.

We got into Flagstaff about 12:30 and ate lunch at Coco’s. It was in the high 40’s there and large snow drifts were still piled up everywhere.

One of the reasons there’s still so much snow here is that the elevation is over 7000 feet. We had climbed almost a mile in altitude since we left Las Vegas this morning.

About 35 miles out of Flagstaff we passed the turn-off to Meteor Crater. We visited the crater when we were thru here two years ago. And it’s a really stunning site.

The crater was created about 40,000 years ago when a meteor, about 150 feet in diameter, and traveling at around 30,000 mph, stuck the Arizona desert. The meteor weighed over 300,000 tons and created a crater 4000 feet in diameter and almost 600 feet deep. The rim around the crater was pushed up almost 150 feet high.

A few miles further east we drove thru Winslow AZ, as in “standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona” fame. This song, “Take it Easy” by the Eagles, is really Winslow’s only claim to fame. It’s actually a pretty run-down place since the Interstate bypassed the town. Previously, the town was a main stop on the old Route 66, but it had been all down hill since then.

Today a statue commemorates the spot and the song.

And it’s complete with a ‘flat-bed Ford”.

We tried to get up close to the spot but there is so much construction in the area that you can’t get anywhere close to it except by walking three or four blocks.

I had decided to get gas in the Winslow so I had been checking out prices. When we came off the Interstate there was a Shell station with unleaded at 3.099. Ouch.

I decided to wait a while. And I’m glad I did.

While we were at the Flying J we saw a really nice bus conversion, complete with dogs hanging out the window.

The nameplate says it’s called ‘OLROVER”

After stopping for a bathroom break at a Petro Truck Stop about 80 miles outside of Albuquerque, we arrived at our Holiday Inn about 7:30pm.

After having dinner at the hotel restaurant, we turned in for the night. We want to get an early start tomorrow.

More from Trinity Site tomorrow…

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April 2, 2011

Grey Valves and Faucet Woes . . .

I got up about 10 this morning to find Jan already up and feeling well. It’s good to have her back to normal.

So the first thing was to get the coffee started, check the email, and talk about the day’s plans.

As it turned out, we had none. Isn’t retirement grand!!

Around 11, Nancy Bertling, a former coworker of Jan’s called to say hi and ask for some suggestions for a laptop for her father. We’ve known Nancy for a long time and it was good to hear from her. Hopefully she’ll keep in touch more often.

About 1 pm Jan fixed a lunch of cheese toast and chips, and of course, homemade bread made it perfect.

After lunch I replaced the foam air filter in the rear A/C after cleaning the one in the front yesterday. But the rear one was starting to shred so I just replaced it instead of trying to clean it.

It’s amazing how much better the A/C’s work without all the Yuma and Tucson dust clogging them.

About 2 pm I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and install the new grey tank valve that I got at Camping World before we left Tucson.

Unlike the black tank valve I installed a week or so ago, the 4 bolts came off with no problems. This of course, warned me that I would more trouble with something else later. And I was right.

Removing the old valve and seals was no problem, but one soon appeared. The instructions tell you install the seals on the ends of the pipe and then slide the valve into place. And this worked fine on the larger, thicker black tank valve.

But the grey tank valve is thinner, and no matter how I tried I could not slide the valve body between the pipes without pushing the seals off.

So my next idea was to apply silicone grease to the valve seal area and to the seals, and then stick the seals to the valve and slide it in place. But the first time I did it with the valve open, and when I closed the valve to test it, I could tell a seal had come loose and was in the way.

So the second time I closed the valve first and tried it again. This was much better, but after tightening things down, I had a small leak around the valve handle. So back apart it came.

And the third time was the charm. One of the seals had shifted slightly and was pinched, so I slathered on more silicone grease to hold it in place better, and that worked great. No leaks.

Since it was almost 5 we decided to eat supper at Hog Wild BBQ. But alas, Hog Wild was not to be.

Our friends, Bob Parker and Donna Huffer, were already there and called to say there had been a shooting nearby and the police had the road passing by Hog Wild closed, but they thought we could come in from the other direction.

As it turned out, they had the road closed at both ends and we just couldn’t get there from here. They were letting people out of the area, but not in. So Jan called Bob and Donna and told them to meet us at the Sizzler steakhouse outside the cordoned-off area.

It’s been a long time since we’ve eaten at a Sizzler, but it turned out to be pretty good. I think everyone was happy with what they had. I know my 16 oz. Ribeye was very good, not quite Texas Roadhouse good, but good, nevertheless. And the salad bar, although extra, was excellent.

Oh, yeah, the shooting turned out be a Suicide by Cop.

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April 2, 2012

Last Day in Las Cruces . . .

We hope!

I headed over to Rush Truck Center about 10 this morning to be sure that our air system rebuild kit had been ordered, and I was assured it was on its way. They want the rig there about 11am, but we plan on leaving the RV park about 10:30 to stop off on the way to take on some diesel.

Coming back to the rig, I picked up Jan and we drove up the road a couple of miles to El Comedor for breakfast. Jan had the Huevos Rancheros and I had the Huevos con Chorizo, both delicious

Coming back to the rig, we detoured by the Pilot//Flying J to check out the best way to get in and out without problems, and of course, we also got cappuccinos, since we didn’t have coffee at home this morning.

About noon, I called American Coach Parts to get a price on a new clear plastic grab bar to replace the broken one on the entry door of our rig. Ours still lights up, but the constant exposure to ultraviolet light over a long period of time causes them to become brittle and ours snapped the other day.

The price wasn’t too bad, about $42 plus shipping. I’ll order one when we’re parked long enough for it to arrive.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing some cleaning around the rig, and finishing up some projects I’d been working on.

Our daughter Brandi called about 1:30 so she and Jan could rave about how smart and wonderful Landon is. And why wouldn’t they? He is smart and wonderful.

We pretty much goofed off the rest of the afternoon, before heading out about 5pm to have one last dinner at Chachi’s. We’ve had the same waiter every time, and he now remembers our drink order, and how Jan doesn’t want lettuce on her taco. Really on the ball, and he got a good tip.

Getting back to the rig, I spent some time getting things ready to travel tomorrow, hopefully all the way to Balmorhea, and not just across the road to the repair place.

We’ll see.

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April 2, 2013

Hippity Hop . . .

Today started out as a work/chores morning with me working on computer/website stuff, while Jan drove down to the park laundry to do some rugs and a quilt that are a little too big for our rig washer.

Lowell sent over some Landon Easter pics. It’s amazing how much he seems to have grown in just the couple of months since we last saw him.

Later in the afternoon I worked on repairing a couple of cables, one was the power cord to my Winegard Carryout Satellite Dish,

There was a locking pin on the 12v power connector where it plugs into the dish that is supposed to keep it from accidently coming loose. But instead it makes it very difficult to get it loose when we stow it away for travel. So a little quick work with a pair of needle-nose pliers took care of the pin.

Next up, I resoldered a loose wire on the cable for the Remote Alert System for my BrakeBuddy Braking System.

This is what provides the auxiliary braking for our pickup when it’s being towed behind the RV. The Remote Alert lets me know that the BrakeBuddy is activating properly when we’re on the road.

The rest of the afternoon I mostly puttered without really accomplishing a lot, but it was fun.

A little after 5pm we headed out for supper at a local Mexican place called Los Gringos Locos (Crazy White People?). Although our waitress was a little hit or miss, the place was busy, the food was good and, as usual, the conversation was a big part of the evening.

Leaving the restaurant, we drove out of town toward Tortilla Flats for a little ways to check out the RV parking at the local Elks lodge, and get a good view of Superstition Mountain, the fabled home of the Lost Dutchman Mine.

Tomorrow, probably more of the same.

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April 2, 2014

And they don’t ship fast anymore, either . . .

Remember the good old days when your Fantastic Vent fan pretty much had a ‘forever’ warranty? Then a few years ago they were bought out by Attwood, and that great customer service went away.

A few years ago, Pre-Attwood, I needed a lift motor for our bathroom fan and they sent me a new one completely free. Then last year I needed to replace the same motor again. Now Post-Attwood, it was $37 plus shipping.

Then last month I needed a new fan motor for the kitchen fan. And it was $69 including shipping. But it did ship out the next day.

Then last Thursday, I ordered fan for the bathroom unit, because I like the power of the new one in the kitchen. When I called Monday to get a UPS tracking number, they didn’t have one yet. Said it would probably ship out that day, and to call back Wednesday, I.e. today.

So when I called today I was told that there was still no tracking number because . . . wait for it . . . it hadn’t even shipped yet. When I questioned why, I was told that they had changed procedures in the warehouse. When I asked, “To make things slower?”, I got a “Well, ah . . . “ answer.

Which means it almost certainly won’t be here by Friday and we leave here to go back to Conroe on Monday. At least I had it sent to our daughter Brandi’s, so I won’t have to track it down back here at Colorado River.

On the upside, Brandi called this afternoon and said my slideout shear pin had come in. Jan and I will go over there Saturday afternoon and pick it up. And of course we’ll use it as an excuse to eat at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro once again.

* * * *

Today’s project was to pull out our Splendide washer/dryer and reattached the dryer vent hose. It had come loose at the dryer end since I last worked on it in January 2013, and the only way to fix it is to pull the unit out.

First up, both doors have to come off, as well as the top latch hardware.

Next, the bottom retaining strip comes off.

Then I pulled the straps from underneath the unit. The last time I worked on it I installed these to make it easier to pull the washer out of the cabinet.

As you can see there’s really no room to get a grip to pull it out.

And after a lot of tugging, it  starts to move.

The floor dolly makes it much easier to handle. The dolly also makes it easier to move the unit out into the kitchen when I actually need to work on it.

Almost out.

The string is used to pull the drain hose out of the way as the unit is pushed back in so it doesn’t get crimped.

Here I’ve re-installed the vent hose on the washer and am using the stick to guide it to the outside vent hole.

And here it is all fixed in place.

And all buttoned up. Then to double-check, I started the dryer and checked to be sure I had airflow from the vent.

Another repair checked off the list.

* * * *

While I was outside working on the dryer vent, blog reader’s Jim and Perri Dean came by to say ‘Hi’, when they were cruising the park to pick out a space to park their 5’er. We last saw them in Las Vegas in May 2013, and it’s good to get back together again

* * * *

For dinner Jan headed up the leftover fish and shrimp from last night’s seafood meal. She also did up a can of the Bush’s Grillin’ Steakhouse recipe beans. And along with a salad, it was a really good meal.

Tomorrow, who knows?

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April 2, 2015

A Successful Test Nap , , ,

Well, after last week’s +1 rig count, it just goes to show that one good week does not an increasing trend make. This week’s count dropped by 48 rigs.

* * * * *

When I got up this morning I opened our new Dream Serenity 2” Memory Foam Gel Filled Mattress Topper and unrolled on our bed. Out of the box it was about 3/4” thick, but within a couple of hours, it had expanded to its 2” height and was ready to install.

It took us about 45 minutes to get the bed stripped down and the old mattress topper removed and dragged out to the living room.

Around 2 I decided to make the sacrifice and protect Jan from a rogue topper, so I took a nap on our newly topped bed. Turned out to have a different feel, but was very comfortable. You can definitely feel the Memory Foam, but if it’s going to be any cooler in hot weather, I don’t know. We’ll see tonight, I guess.

* * * * *

About 3:45pm we drove over for our antepenultimate meal here and we’d decided we wanted to go back to Joe’s Farm Grill over in Gilbert.

Jan had the Pesto Grilled Chicken Sandwich with the Asian Slaw,while I again did the Mix N Match with a Carolina Hot Dog topped with BBQ Pulled Pork and Coleslaw, and a Sonoran Hot Dog wrapped in Bacon and topped with Beans, Sour Cream, Cheese, and Jalapenos. Both delicious and sating my hot dog craving for a while.

Jan and I also shared a Grilled Wedge Salad and another order of their Fried Green Beans. The Grilled Wedge Salad was another of Joe’s dishes that was featured on Diner’s, Drive-ins, and Dives, and was really good.

After dinner we walked next door to check our their produce stand and coffee shop, before heading home for the night

Tomorrow will be our last time here, since we’re leaving for Verde Valley Sunday morning.

Fun.

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April 2, 2016

It’s A Small World After All !

Now try getting that tune out of your head.

Jan and I  were up a little after 6 this morning, so we could be on our way by 7. We were meeting up at Brandi’s about 8:15 to head down to Galveston to meet up with Chris and Piper.

After a pitstop at the La Marque Buc-ee’s, we met up with Chris and Piper about 11am at the Sunflower Café on 14st in Galveston. We eaten here for breakfast a number of times and it’s always delicious. And lucky for us, this morning was no exception.

Pretty much everyone went with their favorites, with mine being their Migas, with Fried Potatoes and Refried Beans.

Jan had her usual “Small’ Breakfast

though I’m not exactly sure why they call it “Small”.

Lowell and Miss Piper had the Belgian Waffle with Fruit.

Now that looks delicious.

Brandi had a big bowl of  their Sweet Tomato Basil Soup with Rye Bread, while Landon had his Kid’s Pancakes.

Is this a handsome group, or what? Probably because I’m not in it.

Leaving Sunflower Café around 1pm, we all drove over to check out Miss Piper’s new apartment. She’s on the 3rd floor here,  in an attic efficiency. The skylight on the roof opens to her living room/bedroom.

And she’s got a great view of the city.

And a nice balcony to enjoy it on.

This is her living room/bedroom. We love the way she’s decorated it.

The apartment comes with all appliances, including this full-size washer and dryer. The refrigerator is behind me to my left.

And it has beautiful all-tile shower, really, really nice.

Piper’s place is only few blocks away from the Seawall, and only five blocks from UTMB Hospital where she works. So she’ll be able to ride her bike to work when the weather is nice.

And her father Chris is very happy her apartment is in a really good neighborhood.

After getting our good-bye hugs, Brandi, Lowell,Landon, Jan, and I headed back to Katy, and then we left for Columbus, getting home about 5

After we’d been back for a while, I went out to the truck to get something, and a gentleman walked over,  introducing himself as Jim. He said he owned the 2005 American Eagle that is parked behind the American Dream that’s right across from us. And since there’s also another Eagle  up front, we’ve got a mini-American Coach rally going on.

I think it’s the first time I seen this many American Coaches in one spot since the American Coach Rally  we attended in Gillette, WY in 2010, when there  were over 120 American Coaches clustered in one place.

We talked for a good while about our travels, and repairs and problems on the road. And then one of those “it’s A Small World After All/ Cue the Twilight Zone Theme” moments occurred.

Yesterday, I posted this on the blog concerning getting help online about my recent AC problem.

I did get some help from my posts on RV.net and the Yahoo American Coach group. One guy  said that on his friend’s 1995 Dream they found the front junction box in the same overhead cabinet as the Slide Control Panel, Tank Level Display, and Inverter Panel. He said they found a removable panel there. The problem is I don’t have a removable panel there. I may try removing a couple of the control panels to see if there’s anything behind them.

The guy also said that the one for the rear AC was located in the back of the TV alcove in the bedroom, but I’ll wait till I need that one before I look for it.

And today, as I started relating this story, Jim started chuckling. And then he said that he was the Jim S, that had posted about his friend’s 1995 Dream, and that was the Dream in question parked right across from us.

Now that’s just spooky!

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April 2, 2017

Mmmmm . . . Bacon!

For some reason I tossed and turned a lot last night, so I didn’t get up until about 11:30, and then got coffee started.

Jan was watching an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives about a place that does specialty waffles. Jan looked over at me and said, “Waffles really sound good.”

And my answer to this was, “Oink, Oink!” So 15 minutes later we were on our way to the Oink Café over in Tempe.

We had eaten at the Oink Café in Tucson a little over a week ago, and really enjoyed it. How can you not like a place whose slogan is “Breakfast, Lunch, Bacon!”

And a spur of the moment trip is not unusual for us either. Years ago, early one Saturday , we were jonsin’ for a good bowl of gumbo. And this was before there were any good gumbo places in the Clear Lake area. So with 15 minutes notice, we were on our way to Mulate’s in Breaux Bridge, LA, 225 miles away. Any you haven’t lived until you’ve spent a Saturday night listening Zydeco music and watching Cajun dancing.

And this runs  in my family too. Back in the summer of 1963 after a late lunch, my parents started talking about doing a trip out west, and an hour later, we were on our way for a three week trip, doing Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and even Disneyland.

Getting to Oink, we had about a 15 minute wait before we got seated, but as before, worth the wait. And of course we both went with waffles. Jan’s with Strawberries and Whipped Cream, while I went with a Waffle Combo, with an egg.

and Jalapeno bacon.

In addition, following up on my Half Flight of Bacon last time, I got another one this time, trying out the other 4 bacon flavors.

Last time I got Applewood Smoked, Honey, Jalapeno, and Pepper,

while this time I got the Hickory, Sugar Cured, Pecan, and Apple Cider.

All were  delicious, but I will say that the flavors that stood out the most, that I could identify by taste alone, were Jalapeno, Pepper, Hickory, Pecan, and the Apple Cider.

Getting home, I finally started working on changing out the cartridge in our Moen shower faucet. After removing the coverings, I used a pair of slip joint pliers to try and pull the cartridge out of the housing. But it wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard I pulled.

But I was prepared for this, having a specialized cartridge puller from my last time doing this.

But I quickly discovered that sometime since then, the screw tip had broken off, leaving it too short to screw into the cartridge handle. So it was off to the nearby Home Depot to get a new one.

The one they had was completely different, and was a Danco product,

a company I’ve not been too happy with in the past.

And getting it home and trying it out, I’m still don’t like Danco. Despite fooling with it for over an hour, I still wasn’t able to get the old cartridge out.

And in fact, I didn’t expect to have a problem getting the old one out this time since I had thoroughly coated with Plumber’s Silicone Grease the last time.

So checking the Internet, I found that Lowe’s sells the old one, the one that worked last time, so I’ll pick one up tomorrow and take the Home Depot one back.

Hopefully it’ll work this time.

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April 2, 2018

Doctor Says I’m Normal . . .

Jan says it’s more like Abby Normal.

When the labs came back from my recent doctor’s visit on the 19th of March, I was told that a number of my values were out of whack, I.e. calcium, kidney function, liver, electrolytes, etc., and they wanted me to come back in last week and do a retest. So today I was surprised when the doctor’s office called to tell me everything was fine, I.e., normal.

So now I’m confused. Why were a bunch of my levels way out of bounds last week, but perfectly normal this week? Did they really need my additional $80 that badly?

I’ve had a couple of requests from blog readers wanting further explanation on things I mentioned in the blog.

When I reposted the blog about our visit to the Cat Tails Zoological Park  outside Spokane, WA in 2011, I mentioned wiring up a transfer switch bypass, and a reader wanted to know more about that.

And when I posted my list of cars I’ve owned in yesterday’s blog, I mentioned a 1992 Ford Ranger that I broke in half on the Atchafalaya River Bridge in Louisiana in1994. So another reader just had to know the story behind that.

I’ll posted more info on both these in the next couple of days.

BTW I’ve already received car lists from several of you, so get yours in ASAP so I can post them here.

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April 2, 2019

Who’s In Charge Of This?

We were out the rig door and on our trip about 9:45 this morning, heading into Houston for the day.

But our first stop was at my client’s to pick up some things and drop off some things. Actually the dropping off was the initial reason, but then the UPS truck pulled up with some things that I had ordered, so it was just serendipity, I guess.

Then it was on up to the Montrose-Westheimer area to have lunch at Katz’s Deli once again. And this visit was much better than the last one, with the waiter that we had just abandoned us. Jaygi, our waitress this time, took great care of us.

We had planned to once again have their great Broccoli-Cheese Soup, but they were out because a delivery didn’t show up. Bummer!

But when I found out that Jan had never had Bagels with Lox and Cream Cheese, I ordered us some of that.

I first had it in the early 60’s when we were flying back and forth to Colombia, SA where we were living at the time. We (me, my mother, and my little sister) would always stay at a hotel in Miami Beach while waiting for my father to catch up with us. And there were small Jewish deli’s everywhere.

So I learned to love Bagels, Lox, and Cream Cheese, Matzo Ball Soup, Potato Latkes, Chocolate Rugelach, and of course, a big bowl of Chicken Soup.

Howard’s mother would be so proud.

Jan got her usual Open Face Tuna Melt and Steamed Veggies,

while I had the Reuben Dog with their made-to-order potato chips.

Both really good, especially the pickles. Jan always used to give me hers, until I insisted she try one. Now I only get mine.

Next it was on around the loop to the IBurn store on Bellaire,  a place we don’t visit enough, because they’ve always got new stuff. Hot stuff.

Jan got the some Habanero Salsa and a new bottle (a big bottle this time) of her favorite Marie Sharp’s Belizean Heat, her go-to hot stuff.

I got a new bottle of my fav, Volcanic Pepper Dust, that’s now been upgraded with Carolina Reaper peppers, and a jar of their Scary Cherries, with the cherries soaked in Carolina Reaper-infused syrup. My son-in-law Lowell turned me on to these, so it’s time for a new jar.

Jan and I had a nice talk with the young lady owner, especially about the ‘fabled’ Pepper X, which is supposedly more than twice as the Carolina Reaper. I had hoped to buy some, but they didn’t carry it. She said that they think it’s all hype.

It has not been officially tested and rated yet, it’s just all hearsay. And the company wants a VERY large order guarantee. So they’ve passed for now.

And of course, as I mentioned before, it’s not being sold on Amazon.

Hell, everything’s sold on Amazon, so I guess I’ll wait and see what happens.

Next we headed over to the Museum District and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to see the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit. But this blog’s running long and I have a lot of photos for you, so I’ll save our visit for tomorrow’s blog.

Finishing up for today, I wish that whoever is in charge of these things would come up with a pronunciation and stick with it.

Back in college I took several Art Appreciation classes for electives, and it was always Vincent Van ‘Go’. And this was from French guys with doctorates in Art History. And yeah, I know Van Gogh was Dutch, but it’s just the next country over, and he did most of his painting in France anyway, and died there too, so don’t confuse things.

But now it seems like it’s Van ‘Goff’ or even Van ‘Goth’. And this is not the first time they’ve pulled this stunt.

Leading up to 1986, everyone was talking about how Halley’s comet was coming. And it was always pronounced ‘Heylee’s Comet. Then suddenly one day it was Hallee’s Comet.

Who decided?

And there was when Your-Anus (Uranus) suddenly became Urine-Us

Like that’s a real improvement?

And don’t get me started on why for 76 years Pluto was a planet, and suddenly it’s not.

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April 2, 2020

Almost Done . . .

Jan and I went out about 11:30 to get in some work on the shed.

The first step was easy. Just screw the two pieces of the gable together and then fasten it to the rear wall.

Off to the left you can see the on-the-site supervisor keeping a close eye on things.

But after the gable, everything slowed down, a lot. After fastened the two black roof sections together along the ridge, I then started to assemble the metal frame that strengthens the roof. But no matter how I tried to fit it together, it just wouldn’t line up.

I twisted and turned the pieces trying to make it match the manual without a lot of success. Until I finally figured that the diagram in the manual was printed as a mirror image, instead as the way it actually should be. Once I figured that out it went pretty smoothly and we ended up with this.

We went in for a while when the sun came out, but then later in the afternoon, the clouds rolled back in so we headed back out to work on the front part of the roof, the part that will slide back and forth on a track. And we ended up with this.

Next up, for this weekend if it doesn’t rain, is to install those tracks and get the roof working. Then all we’ll lack is putting the doors and latches on.

So hopefully the weather will hold.

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April 2, 2022

It Turned Out To Be ‘The Other’ . . .

First off, I mentioned a while back that we were planning a trip to up to Alaska later this year. In most cases we’re going to be revisiting old haunts from our cruise in 1998 and our workcamping there for 5 months in 2008, but we also want to visit Soldotna and Homer, where we’ve never been.

So I thought I’d throw this out to our many readers.

What things do you recommend that we see/do in that area?

And nothing to do with fishing, please.

I said in yesterday’s blog that we were going to eat at Pho Barr today, one way or the other. In other words, we were going to eat at the new one if it was open, or go on up to Webster to eat at the old one.

And the ‘old one’ it was.

When we got to the new one, we found this notice on the door.

And according to Theresa, the owner of Cowboy Coffee, that’s a regular problem in this area. She spent weeks waiting for the inspectors to come by after she called them. Then they would finally show up, look at something for a minute or so, scribble their name,  and then leave.

Then it was on to wait on the next guy.

So now we’ll be checking every day next week.

When we got to the Webster location,  Daniel, our usual waiter, said he was worried that we might be upset that he had ‘misled’ us. We laughed and reassured him that we weren’t mad.

And of course the food was just as delicious as always. Just hope it’s closer to home soon.

Finishing up for the day, it was on to our local WalMart for our weekly stuff and then home.

This is Pink Floyd, the African flamingo.

Also known as No. 492 due to the number on the leg band, the flamingo, and another one, No. 347, escaped from a Kansas zoo in 2005 after the zoo forgot to clip their wings that year. And though No. 347 disappeared soon after, No. 492 has been on the lam ever since.

And, identified by the leg band, the flamingo has been seen as far north as Wisconsin, but has apparently wintered-over in south Texas for the last few years.

A really beautiful bird.

I spent some time this evening upgrading one of the hard drives in my Dell computer here at home. The C drive is a 500GB SSD (Solid State Drive) with contains the Windows operating system, and my D drive or Data drive was a 1TB regular hard drive, that contains all my other libraries and files, like the Documents, Pictures, and other standard folders. But it was starting to get full.

So I got a new 4TB HDD, hooked it up externally, copied the entire old drive over to it, and then swapped them out. Only took about 30 minutes.

So now I have plenty of space.

Until I fill this one up, I guess.

Lunch today was at our local Monterey’s Little Mexico once again.

Jan got the Pollo Hacienda, with a Grilled Chicken Breast, Charro Beans, and a Side Salad.

And I got the same thing I’ve pretty much always gotten here, a bowl of their Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Then it was on up the feeder to CostCutter’s for haircuts, and then right next door to HEB for our weekly stuff.

Then home.

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This past Sunday, our last day in the Texas Hill Country started (and ended) with breakfast at Hooper’s (nee Grand Central Café).

Besides the really good food, the building’s other claim to fame was that it was a primary filming location for 1974’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre when it was located in Round Rock, TX. Then in 1998 it was moved to its present location here in Kingsland where it’s  been a series of restaurants since then.

Then late last year the café was sold to a new group and was renamed  Hooper’s after Toby Hooper, the director of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But luckily, the food is still delicious.

Jan got her favorite Avocado Toast,

while I got my usual omelet, with meat, meat, meat.

And cheese.

The only other meal I was able to get a shot of of was Derek’s Eggs and Chicken Fried Steak with Hashbrowns.

Looks good.

And by about 10:30 we were getting in our last hugs and saying our goodbyes, we all headed home.

Chris and Linda right down the road, Piper and Derek back to Taylor, and Brandi, Lowell, Landon, Jan and I back toward Houston.

All in all, a very nice, fun, and successful family reunion.

In Texas, at least, that means no cops and no gunfire.

But along the way, our first stop was at Pottery Ranch, just north of Marble Falls. A favorite of Jan’s.

But more about this tomorrow.

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Thought for the Day:

Why does this sound even scarier today?

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. – John Adams, 2nd President of the United States

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April 1, 2009

Heading Out Again…

After a month, today we headed out from Gulf Shores, AL  to Port  St. Joe, FL. It was supposed to be an easy 175 mile run, thru Pensacola, Ft. Walton Beach, and Panama City. We stayed on US 98 all the way down, keeping off the Interstates.

But when we got to the park we had planned to stay at, we found the grass sites so muddy that it didn’t seem like a good idea to park and risk getting stuck, so we headed back out, checking online for another park as we went.

We finally ended up in Carrabelle, FL at a very nice park right across the street from the Gulf. But by the time we got there, it was getting dark and bad weather was closing in.

I’m glad we were able to get off the road before it got completely dark.

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April 1, 2010

Road Trip !!!

About noon we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for a lunch of hot wings and potato wedges. I really like their Mango Habanero sauce, but I wish it was hotter.  I had them combine the Mango Habanero, and Blazin’ which is their hottest, but it wasn’t that much hotter and it lost the sweetness of the mango. Oh well.

We also checked out the Lucky Star Chinese Buffet next door. We had seen it when we last ate at BWW. It looks pretty good, so we’ll probably try it out when we get back from New Mexico. Maybe we will finally fulfilled our quest to locate a good Chinese buffet in Las Vegas.

Coming home we stopped off at Sam’s Club for some supplies, and then Lowe’s to return some toilet parts that I didn’t need.

But the real news is our upcoming road trip tomorrow to check off something on my bucket list.

Twice a year, on the first Saturdays in April and October, White Sands Missile Range opens public access to Trinity Site,

Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945 at 5:29:45 am. I spent a good bit of time at While Sands Missile Range back in the 80’s and I always wanted to visit the site. But the open house never coincided with my schedule.

But we’re still in Las Vegas which is close enough to make the drive. It’s about 660 miles one way to the site, which is about 30 miles east of San Antonio, NM, which is about  65 miles south of Albuquerque. We’ll leave Vegas tomorrow morning about 8am and spend the night in Albuquerque.

Then Saturday morning, we plan on driving down to San Antonio and then out to Stallion Gate about 12 miles east. The gate will be open from 8am to 2pm for visitors to the site. Then it’s about 17 miles out to the site.

I mentioned yesterday that Tuesday night we went back to the Fremont Street Experience. We wanted to see the Don McLean/American Pie tribute again, and also see the Queen and KISS shows that we didn’t see the first night.

As before the shows were fantastic.  And here are some more pictures.

More tomorrow from Albuquerque…

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April 1, 2011

Buffets and Big Steaks . . .

I got up a little before 10 to find Jan was already up and feeling better. Not 100% yet, but definitely on the mend.

I fixed coffee while Jan tried to catch up on several days of email and blogs, but she tired out before she finished. There’s always tomorrow.

Around 1 Jan fixed us a lunch of cheese toast and chips. She’s still eating light while she’s getting back to normal. And of course, since the cheese toast was made with some great homemade bread, it was all good.

After lunch I went outside to hang up the two side solar screens before the afternoon sun hit the side of the coach.

Although we can run both A/C’s on 30 amps, we can’t run both A/C’s with the TV and the computer on, so I want to cut down the heat load as much as possible.

I also clean the filter on the front A/C, as I noticed that the air flow from the vents didn’t seem to be up to par. Taking the vent cover off I discovered that the filter sheet was completely clogged. I was surprised to find this since I had just cleaned them less than two months ago.

But in looking closer I discovered the problem. The filters were clogged with dust, lots and lots of dust. Apparently the six weeks or so we’ve spent in the dusty climes of Yuma and Tucson had taken its toll.

But a quick rinse in the shower took care of the problem, and the A/C started putting out a lot more nice cold air.

Jan said she kind of had a hankering for Chinese, and I remembered there was a Chinese buffet around here somewhere, but I didn’t remember which town, Camp Verde or Cottonwood.

So tracking it down, a little before 5 Jan and I drove over to Cottonwood to have dinner. And it was really pretty good.

After dinner, we drove around Cottonwood, checking out the town and the surrounding area.

After a nice drive, we got home about 6:30, but first drove around the park some, while also looking for a dumpster.

Tomorrow I’m thinking about installing the new grey tank valve I got before we left Tucson.

We’ll see how it goes.

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April 1, 2012

Eight Days A Week . . .

This morning we started our eighth day in Las Cruces with coffee and and some of the frozen croissants that our daughter Brandi and her husband Lowell gave us for Christmas.

They’re called Galaxy Gourmet Croissants and are available by mail. They come in both chocolate-filled and plain, and are shipped frozen in dry ice. And they’re delicious.

After catching up on the email and Internet stuff, I got back on some chores around the rig. That’s one nice thing about being stuck here, I’m getting some things done.

Brandi sent over these photos of Landon et. al., down on Galveston Island this afternoon. It’s amazing how much he’s grown in the 6 weeks we’ve been gone from Houston.

Getting back home about 2pm Lowell called us so we could Skype with Landon. Lowell was using his iPad on his end, and I tethered my Droid to my computer so I could use the 4G signal here in Las Cruces.

Unfortunately, though we had a great picture, every time I tried to do a snapshot, Skype would crash and we’d have to reconnect. It did it twice, so after that I just gave up trying to grab photos.

We really enjoyed watching Landon play in the backyard, talking up a storm. And now at 19 months, he’s talking in sentences

We ended up Skyping for about a half hour, and hope we’ll be able to do it again in a couple of weeks.

About 3pm Jan and I headed about 35 miles down to northern El Paso to have dinner at Famous Dave’s BBQ. We had a real hankering for ribs, and Famous Dave’s has some of the best.

And their BBQ Beans with meat aren’t too shabby, either. A really great meal.

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April 1, 2013

Home in Apache Junction . . .

First off, a recap of Sunday’s trip from Tucson to Apache Junction.

I’d already done a lot of pre-packing Saturday evening so we weren’t in any real hurry this morning.

And since we weren’t leaving here until around 11am, we headed out to Bruegger’s Bagels about 9 for coffee, breakfast bagel sandwiches, and some relaxing conversation.

Back at the rig a little after 10, we were hitched up and pulling out right at 11. Since it was Easter Sunday morning, we had little traffic, and it was pretty smooth sailing though Tucson.

About a hour down the road we made a stop at Bowlin’s at Picacho Peak Plaza, a chain of 10 gas station/gift shops in New Mexico and Arizona, and one of Jan’s favorite stops. Somehow she always manages to find a piece of jewelry, a neat shirt, or something else at their gift shop.

In this case, she found a ring, a shirt, and a pair of socks.

I got a coffee. Funny how things work out like that.

On the other hand, if I had room in the rig I would have liked to have taken this with me. Well, room in the rig and $600 to blow up.

It’s a 4th of July in a box. It’s about 6 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and a foot deep. And it’s chock full mortars, skyrockets, firecrackers, and pretty much everything else that goes bang. swoosh, or flash.

It’s not called The Big Bang for nothing.

After a smooth trip the rest of the way, we pulled into the Countryside RV Resort in Apache Junction about 2:15. The office was closed, but they had a check-in packet waiting for me in a box by the door

Containing almost 500 sites, Countryside is just one of many RV parks in the area, necessary to accommodate all the snowbirds who swarm into the area every fall.

Luckily our packet contained a good map to our site, and after unhooking the truck, we found our site and got parked and set up.  Once we were squared away, we went out for supper.

We ended up at JM Chinese, a small Asian restaurant that we’d heard about. And boy was it good. Jan said her Pan-Fried Noodles were some of the best she’s had. And my Schezwan Garlic Chicken was delicious. Very hot and spicy.

It was interesting to see some of the unique desert landscaping in the area. This yard is right across the street from us and shows what can be done. And even better, there’s no mowing.

We got back to the rig and about 7:30 and that was it for the day.

During the day my wrist had been hurting me a lot, not sure from what, maybe arthritis, maybe gout. But it hurt like hell, so much so that I didn’t feel much like typing.

Today we stayed around the rig all day, though about 11:30 I did drive down to the park office and turn in my registration form.

For dinner Jan fixed Chili Taco Salads using a can of Skyline Chili, If you’ve ever been in the Cincinnati area  and had Skyline or Gold Star Chili 5 Ways, you know what I’m talking about.

Using Spring Mix salad greens, jalapenos, cilantro, grated cheese, salsa, hot Skyline Chili, and some tortilla chips, it make a delicious meal. One we’ll certainly have again.

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April 1, 2014

Like a Real Wal-Mart, only smaller . . .

They just opened the High Roller in Las Vegas.

At 550 feet, it’s the highest Ferris Wheel in the world, higher than the one in London, or in Singapore.

It doesn’t have open cars (some people would say “Thank goodness), but instead it carries pods that can hold up to 40 people at a time. It takes about 30 minutes to make a full rotation and costs $25 in the daytime, and $35 at night.

Here it is under construction, so the cars (pods) haven’t been installed yet

Jan and I can’t wait.

_______________________________________________________________

Around noon Jan and I headed down into Columbus for lunch and a little shopping. Our first stop was the Sonic Drive-in for a couple of hot dogs. Jan always gets a Chili Cheese Dog, while I usually get the New York Dog with mustard, sauerkraut,, and onions, my favorite dog. And unlike our stop at Jack in the Box the other day, today’s visit to Sonic was as delicious as usual.

Then we made a stop at the HEB and Wal-Mart, which conveniently, are located side by side. But it was kind of a useless trip, because both of these are small stores, especially the Wal-Mart. They only stocked about half of the things we were looking for, things that we normally find at the larger stores.

After a nice, quiet afternoon, about 5pm we headed up to La Grange to have dinner at Sealand Seafood, where we’ve eaten a couple of times before. And it was just as good this time.

We both had our usual 2 fried catfish, 6 fried shrimp, and 6 fried oysters.

It’s hard to say enough about how good this place is. My family was in commercial fishing and shrimping on the Gulf Coast for years, and I like to think I know good seafood. And this place is good.

Everything is delicious, and I would swear it’s all fresh and not frozen. Even their fries, the double-battered type, are really good.

Did I say this place was good?

Coming home, we stopped off at the bigger Wal-Mart in La Grange to pick up the stuff we couldn’t find in Columbus. Oh well.

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April 1, 2015

At Least It Wasn’t Beer . . .

This is the second morning we’ve made coffee with the water coming through our new Camco EVO Premium Water Filter.

It may be our imagination, but we both remarked how much better the coffee tasted the last couple of days. Before this, we used one of those foot long blue Camco filters you see everywhere. And along with that, we have another filter under the sink that feeds the water fountain dispenser.This one uses an ice maker type of water filter, and this is where we get our coffee water each morning.

According to the literature, the new filter takes out a whole lot more stuff than the little one, so maybe it really does make a difference.

Jan and I headed out about 1pm for a couple of stops. Leaving the park, I finally remembered to get a photo of these two cacti growing out of the rain gutter of one of the park models here.

I guess if they’ll grow in the desert, they’ll grow just about anywhere.

Our first stop was the Wal-Mart up on Apache Trail to pick up one of the Mattress toppers we looked at the other day. We wanted the Dream Serenity 2” Memory Foam Get-Filled one that we saw the other day. But the one Queen that they had in stock then, was now gone. Bummer.

But the Wal-Mart over on Signal Butte wasn’t too far away, so we drove over there. And lucked out because they had one in stock.

Then later we drove over to Organ Stop Pizza. We ate here when we were in Apache Junction several years ago, and we wanted to go back again.

Organ Stop is pretty much a pizza place built inside the world’s largest Wurlitzer organ. I say built inside because you are surrounded on all four sides by some of the many instruments connected to the massive keyboard.

One of the things really surprising about this place is that the pizza is actually very good. Plus they have pasta dishes, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, etc., and a very good salad bar.

The organist plays for about 45 minutes each hour, with a 15 minute break in between. And they take requests besides their standards. So we finished our meal and wanted to wait around for a little longer to hear more of the next set. But that was not to be.

We had really good seats only about 8 feet from the stage, and we had noticed a very tall guy walking back and forth between us and the stage, carrying a tray with four glasses on it. He must have gone by 4 or 5 times. We were sitting at long tables with benches for seats, and the seats on the other side of us didn’t really have a great view. Which is probably why no one was sitting there. But then another guy ask if the seats at the far end of  our table were taken, and we said ‘No’. So he pushed past me  to get by and then ‘told’ me to get up so he could move the bench. Note, told, not asked, or said please.

I happened to looking at Jan who was sitting right across from me, and suddenly out of nowhere the guy with the four glasses starts to move behind Jan. I have played this over and over in my mind since then, and I would swear that the guy didn’t trip or anything. He just let the side of the tray fall and dumped the four glasses of ice water right on top of Jan, also splattering me too.

The guy didn’t even apologize, he just mumbled something and walked off. Jan jumped up and ran for the bathroom to try and wring herself out. I started getting our stuff together and suddenly the guy shows back up, still never apologizing, or saying anything, actually, and starts using his hand to wipe the ice and water off the table.

The suspicious part of me thinks that he and his friend were walking around looking for someone with a good table who was almost finished, and we were it. Or Jan was, anyway. At the time, she thought it was funny.

Funny, bur very cold.

Luckily we had a long-sleeve denim shirt in the truck she could wear, but she still made a squishy sound when she walked.

She said she was just glad it wasn’t Coke or Beer.

Organ Stop Pizza is well worth a visit if you’re in the area. But bring a change of dry clothes, just in case.

As for me, remember my motto: Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean someone’s not out to get you.

Words to live by.

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April 1, 2016

Blahish . . .

We were both running kind of slow this morning, Jan nursing a migraine, and me still feeling kind of ‘blahish’. But as usual, after coffee, we perked up a little, at least enough for Jan to read, and for me to get back to looking at my AC problem.

As I  related yesterday, I’ve narrowed the problem down to something in the rig wiring between the thermostat and the AC unit itself. In fact with a little creative rewiring, the AC is working fine, which was nice yesterday when it got up to 88 here.

Post-coffee, I got back on the phone with American Coach trying to get some information on the wiring. They did email me the schematics for the rig, including one that shows the position of all the junction boxes in the rig, measured from the front axle.

But  they also told me that there was no junction box for the control wiring, but then couldn’t  explain why the wire gauge and insulation type changes between the AC unit and the thermostat.

I did get some help from my posts on RV.net and the Yahoo American Coach group. One guy  said that on his friend’s 1995 Dream they found the front junction box in the same overhead cabinet as the Slide Control Panel, Tank Level Display, and Inverter Panel. He said they found a removable panel there. The problem is I don’t have a removable panel there. I may try removing a couple of the control panels to see if there’s anything behind them.

The guy also said that the one for the rear AC was located in the back of the TV alcove in the bedroom, but I’ll wait till I need that one before I look for it.

And of course, now that I’ve got the AC working, a cold front has moved in. Yesterday, the high was 88, while today it was 71, with tonight in the low 40’s. Nice.

If I hadn’t got the AC working before the heat started back up, as usual, I had a backup plan. Right now we’re parked pointing directly east, so we get the sun through the front windshield all day long. So I was going to the turn the rig around  and point in the other direction.

We used to do this when we stayed at Galveston Bay RV Park and parked in one of their 5’er sites on the water. All our utilities could be pulled under the rig and connected up with no problems.

And even better we’d have a really nice view. Right now we’re just looking at the rigs across the street. But turned around, we’d be in the shade and looking at this.

Tomorrow we’re meeting up with our daughter Brandi and her family, and we’re all going down to Galveston to check out our granddaughter Piper’s new apartment.

Really looking forward to it, except for the ‘getting up at 6:30 to leave at 7 to be at Brandi’s at 8:15’ part.

That part I’m not looking forward to.

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April 1, 2017

WooChi . . .

Today was another nice, quiet, cool day with not much going on, though the excitement did pick up later in the afternoon.

I  had thought that I might get around to replacing the cartridge in our leaking Moen shower faucet, but life, I.e. doing nothing intervened.

A little before 2pm Jan and I headed out to have lunch at one of our two favorite Chinese places here in Apache Junction, #1 Eastern Buffet.

But as we had heard, #1 was now under a new name, and I assume, a new owner, since the place has under gone a major renovation.

Now known as Woochi Super Buffet, it seems like even the food has been upgraded.

Their Hot & Sour Soup was really good, almost King Food good, and everything else seemed hot and fresh.

In fact there were 4 or 5 young women roaming the food aisles, apparently calling in needed food on their cell phones which was then passed out through a window.

Our next stop was the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to pick up some Tire Black to finish off my recent wheel cleaning, and also check to see if they had phosphoric acid, but they didn’t, so it was on to the Ace Hardware right down the street. And that’s when things got interesting.

Turning in to the parking lot, I followed a black Fiat Pop and parked right next to him. As I got out, a strong gust of wind grabbed the door from my grasp and  my door edge scraped along his right rear wheel well edge.

With no hesitation, the Fiat driver jumped out and started yelling at me, saying I damaged his car and he was calling the police. Which he did.

As we waited, I gave him my insurance card, which as it turned showed my National General Insurance had expired 13 days ago. It haven’t of course, I just hadn’t yet put the new card in the truck after printing it out. And now he started ranting about how I didn’t really have insurance and I was lying to him.

He was calling National General when the police officer, and after about 30 seconds, he told the officer that they said I didn’t have insurance.

So I now called Nat Gen for myself, and noted that it took me a little almost 3 minutes to work my way through the phone tree to talk to a person who could confirm that I had insurance in force. So at this point I handed the phone to the officer who after talking to the agent, glared at the guy who had lied to him. It was obvious that he hadn’t really talked to anyone since he didn’t have time to get through to Nat Gen.

While we were standing there, I looked carefully at the paint smear, about the size of a silver dollar, like this.

Wetting my fingers I rubbed the smear, noting that there was no damage to the metal. And as I rubbed, the paint smear just disappeared, ending up looking like this.

And this was with only about 15 seconds of rubbing.

30 more seconds with a dab of rubbing compound, or even toothpaste, and you couldn’t tell it had ever happened. When I showed it to the officer, he just grunted and again stared at the guy.

When I called Nat Gen around 8 this evening, no claim had been entered, and they said they would call me back if one was. Told them they shouldn’t pay any claim because there was no damage.

So we’ll see.

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April 1, 2018

SC vs. WM . . .

I spent part of the morning going through our new prescriptions, comparing Sam’s Club Extra Value List prices with WalMart’s $4 / $10 List, and Sam’s Club won out.

In fact, using Sam’s Club over WM directly saves $44 a month. And that’s just for drugs on both lists. And when you figure in Sam’s Club EV List prices against WM’s regular non-list prices, the gap becomes even bigger, approaching $70 per month.

Of course to get the SC’s Extra List drug prices, you have to be a PLUS member, which is an $30 upgrade to the regular $69 membership. So for $30 a year I get to save ~ $70 a month.

Sounds like a really good deal to me.

I spent the rest of the morning/afternoon working on a new website for a client, and correcting spelling errors. I started with this.

And after a little correcting, touching up, and brightening, I had this.

I also had a question about the spelling of ‘collectables’, but although the ‘I’ version is used more, either way is acceptable. (Or maybe I should say it’s ‘acceptible’.)

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Last week I was talking with my client about the cars we’ve owned. (he owns two Studebaker Avanti’s)

In talking about this I realized I had lost track of a few of ours, so Jan and I talked it over and finally came up with this list.

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1965 Triumph Spitfire                                             1967
Raced in SCCA races

1964 VW Beetle                                                       1968

1964 Chrysler Simca 1300                                     1969

1970 AMC Ambassador Station Wagon             1970 New
Our First New Car

1978 Plymouth Horizon                                         1978 New

1980 Plymouth Champ                                          1980 New

1983 Chrysler LeBaron                                         1983 New

1990 Plymouth Acclaim                                       1990 New

1992 Ford Ranger                                                 1992 New
Broke this one in half on the Atchafalaya
River Bridge in Louisiana

1994 Ford Ranger Quad Cab                               1994 New

1999 Saturn SL2 Sedan                                         2001

1996 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Police Car        2000
Bought this from a retired officer friend of
ours. Full-blown police car with the 9C1
package, LT1 Corvette engine, and all the
bells and whistles.

1998 Dodge Intrepid                                              2004

2004 Dodge Dakota Quad Sport                          2007
What we have now

What’s On Your List?

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For dinner tonight I whipped up another batch of my Veggie Soup, but added some grilled chicken breast and more carrots this time. Really good.

Tomorrow it’s back to work.

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April 1, 2019

It’s On Fire . . .

I put in a call to Verizon this morning and found out that we’re good to go on being able to use a European SIM card in both my S8+ and Jan’s S5. So another item checked off our travel list.

Tomorrow morning we’re heading downtown to make a day of it, with our first stop at Katz’s Deli for lunch about 11. Then it’s on down to the iBurn store on Bellaire to stock up on the latest in hot stuff. Since I recently got  some Carolina Reaper powder off Amazon, now I’m looking for some Pepper X, which is supposedly over twice as hot as the Carolina Reaper. I’m always ready for another challenge.

Then it’s our long-anticipated visit to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and their new Vincent Van Gogh exhibit. Hopefully they will allow non-flash photography so I can get some shots for the blog.

Amazon is having a great sale on their 7” Amazon Fire tablet. Normally it’s $49.99, but right now it’s on sale for $34.99

Jan has had one for a couple of years, and loves hers. So at this price, I had to have one too.

And in keeping with our upcoming Vincent Van Gogh exhibit, I also ordered this Starry Night cover for it.

Wrapping up, I finally found some green diesel antifreeze on Amazon and ordered a couple of gallons. I did stop off at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts this morning and found they not only didn’t stock it, they can’t order it either.

Hopefully these two gallons will hold me until I can either have it drained, flushed, and refilled with red, or do it myself.

I did check the RV Mobile Lube website, but they don’t list any coolant-related services except for a coolant filter change, or coolant testing. But I’ll call them later to make sure.

I mentioned a while back that when I found out how much my client was paying for simple 72” banana plug Electrode Cords, which was about $17ea, I told him I could make him up top quality ones with soldered connections (the other ones are crimped on) for about $6 each, including packaging. And here’s the first example.

Came out pretty good.

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April 1, 2020

We’re All Good . . .

Jan and I got our test results back from our doctor yesterday, and things look pretty good, for both of us.

Our A1C levels were in the mid-5’s, very good. HDL was high, LDL was low, also for both of us. The only small glitch was with the Levothyroxine that Jan takes because she doesn’t have a thyroid anymore.

Our doctor always give us our prescriptions when we leave the office, but we’ve learned to wait until our tests come back before we fill them. A couple of times in the past, the doctor had prescribed something fairly expensive, only for her to change it up after our tests come back, leaving us with medicine we can’t use and can’t return.

But this time she just wanted to adjust the amount of Levothyroxine that she takes each day, so no problem.

I’ve noticed that Amazon seems to be doing a good job catching up on shipping. Twice in the last couple of weeks I ordered things for work that were scheduled for 4 or 5 days out, but ended up coming earlier, in one case, only two days.

A couple of days ago while I was unpacking our Rubbermaid shed, Jan was sitting out in the shade ‘supervising’. But she quickly discovered she was getting bit by fleas in the grass.

So I got a sprayer of Black Flag Flea & Tick Spray to take care of the problem.

And yesterday afternoon I took a few minutes to hose down all the grass and rocks surrounding our site. It only used up about half the bottle, so I’ll do it again in a couple of weeks.

Regular readers know that Jan’s and my favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh. In fact we’ve seen his paintings in Paris, London, New York, and Houston. And our favorite painting of his is definitely ‘Starry Night’

Of course this is the ‘animated’ version.

And here we have our personal ‘Starry Night’ collection.

That’s a Samsung Tab 4 case, an Amazon Fire cover, a checkbook cover, a set of luggage tags, and a tote bag.

So now, Jan, who normally hates spiders, has one she kind of likes.

This is a Maratus constellatus, an Australian Peacock Spider, one of a number of Peacock Spiders.

And here’s some more examples.

Though these are very colorful, they’re also very small, ranging from 0.005 inches to 0.33 inches.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy, and in the mid-70’s. perfect to get some more work done on our shed project. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the roof in place, and maybe a little more.

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April 1, 2021

Good News . . .

Jan and I are still among the living, and our doctor says we’re liable to stay that way for a while longer.

But to find all this out, we were out the door about 7am, getting to the doctor’s office about 7:35. We waited about 10 minutes before calling to let them know we were there, and they said to come on in. And everything was very different from our last visits.

Before they only let Jan and I in one at a time, and no one was able to wait in the waiting area, but had to wait in their car until they called you.

But today they let both of us come together, as well as a couple of other patients. And the nurse in the reception area who checked us in and took our temperature, wasn’t even wearing a mask, though most of the other staff was.

The other thing that was unusual was that we were both done and out the door by 9, only a hour after we got there, and not the usual two hours. Nice, but it was kind of a problem with our lunch schedule.

Figuring we would be done between 10 and 10:30, we had planned to make a Harbor Freight stop which would get us to our lunch destination right about 11. But now we had a extra hour to kill.

So we decided to head on down to the League City area for a car wash/vacuum, and then a quick stop by the HEB for some hibiscus food for Jan. And by the time we were done with that, a quick stop at HF and we were at the Texas Huddle Grille just a little before 11.

But on the way down to League City, we did see something new. A General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drone. It passed over us as it landed at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, nee Ellington AFB. it was moving too quickly for me to get photo, but it looked like this.

What was kind of funny was that as it passed over over us, the next aircraft in the landing pattern right behind it looked to be a Cessna 172.

Ellington Field JRB is home to the 147th Attack Wing, who fly Reapers, and before this, MQ-1 Predators, on surveillance/attack missions around the world, but particularly, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course the ones they’re flying here are for training.

Getting to Texas Huddle, we found a very nice, sports bar-themed place, with the usual ubiquitous TV’s lining the walls.

Jan got a Mushroom Swiss Bacon Cheeseburger, but for her it’s a Mushroom Cheddar Bacon Cheeseburger, with the Wedge Fries.

While I got my long-awaited PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger.

I’ll admit it doesn’t look very appetizing, but it was just as delicious as I hoped. Actually maybe, more so, since I had them bump the cheese up from Cheddar to their Ghost Pepper Jack Cheese, and then I added some of my Carolina Reaper flakes to bump it up a little more. Maybe a lot more.

Jan and I each took a bite of our respective burgers, and almost simultaneously said, “We’re coming back.”

And we definitely will.

Chris and Linda sent back some photos from their Utah trip. They got to their condo a little before 2pm our time and got settled in.

Note the name on the hood of his Jeep. “Franken Jeep”

As I mentioned yesterday, he pretty much built it using parts from a lot of other Jeeps.

Looks like they’re going to have fun.

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April 1, 2022

One Way Or The Other . . .

Catching up on a few things –

I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s blog that we were going to attend the Alvin Opry tonight.

I was wrong. Somehow I lost a week. The Opry is next Friday, not tonight.

When I was trying to install my new water tank fill valve the other day, I found that with the shorter ball valve, the water line wouldn’t quite reach, so I got these two adapters that I’ll use to make up the difference in length.

Should work.

Another thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that while we were at Twin Peaks yesterday, our server, Sylvia, told Jan that her favorite Tomato Basil Soup is going away. Really upsetting for Jan.

And for both of us, it’s just another in a long line of our favorites that Twin Peaks has discontinued over the years.

Average Joes – A 3 Mini Hot Dog Platter
Pork Sliders – A 3 Mini Pork Slider Platter
Greek Salad

and more recently –
Venison Chili
Half Wedge Salad

and now –
Tomato Basil Soup

I guess we can hope that they’ll introduce something new that’s better.

I told Jan tomorrow we’re eating at Pho Barr one way or the other.

By that I mean we’re going to try the new one near us to see if it’s now open as promised. But if it’s not, then we’ll head up to the one in Webster instead.

When I drove by there this morning on my way to work, I did notice that they had taken down the white film covering all the front windows, hopefully a good sign.

But we’ll see.