Monthly Archives: May 2023
It Was That Good . . .
After our breakfast this morning Jan decided to catch up on laundry since it’s right next door here at the motel, while I did work stuff on the computer here in the room.
Then about 11:45 we headed down to Decatur to meet up with long-time friend, Anne (by long-time, I’ve known her since she was 13) and her friend Alan at The Railyard. Located in downtown Decatur, it’s a popular place for business people and workers to have lunch.
And the food was really good.
Jan had the Fish Tacos with Beans,
while Alan and I both had the BBQ Shrimp & Grits.
This is Shrimp & Grits, along with Pulled Pork. Jan asked me how it compared the Shrimp & Grits that I often get at Snooze. Told her it was apples and oranges. Both are really good, but the addition of the pulled pork makes them really different. But delicious.
Anne got a salad, and we all shared an order of the Maple-Glazed Carrots.
Note that I didn’t manage to get a photo until after said ‘sharing’. They were really good, and not over-cooked or mushy.
We were having such a good time laughing and talking that they pretty much had to run us out when they closed at 2pm. And because of this I forgot to get a photo of Anne and Alan, so here’s last years.
And we’re already planning for next year.
Getting our good-bye hugs, Jan and I headed on down US31 to Big Bob Gibson BBQ once again. Jan had decided that she liked the one forkful of Peanut Butter that I gave her from my slice yesterday, that she wanted her own piece. And of course she wasn’t getting another slice unless I got one too. So we two slices to go from the drive-thru to have later this evening.
And it was just as good as yesterday.
Then before heading home, we made a stop for a few things at a WalMart Neighborhood Market, I think our first time to visit one. And we also got gas there at $2.92/gal., the best price I’ve seen around here.
Tomorrow we’re making a daytrip down to Birmingham to have dinner with long-time friends, Bill and Carol. Bill and I worked together for the Alabama Educational Television Network from 1972 to 1975, as well as a local radio station, as Broadcast Engineers. Really looking forward to seeing them again.
Thought For The Day:
May 17, 2009
Sponge Bob and Tarpon Frenzies…
After eating a great breakfast at the Geiger Key Marina Smokehouse Restaurant here at the RV park, we headed back down to Key West with our friends to spend some more time exploring.
The first thing we noticed was that there was a new addition to the scenery. Since we left last night, a Disney Cruise ship had docked right on the square.
After finding a place to park, we wandered some of the many gift shops before taking a tour of Key West on the Old Time Trolley. It’s a 90 minute ride going past all of the major sites in Key West. Our tour guide, Tim, was excellent and really kept us laughing.
We also came across what seems to be the original ‘Sponge Bob’, although his pants weren’t square.
After wandering thru more gift shops, we ate a late lunch at Alonzo’s Oyster Bar, right on the water at the Key West Marina. Once again the food was good and the scenery was great!
Right across the dock from us, a fishing boat had come in and was cleaning some of their catch, throwing the waste overboard.
This attracted a lot of gulls, and some very large tarpon, all of them fighting over the feast.
Some of the tarpon seemed to be at least 6ft in length.
But now it was time for us to head back to the RV park since our friends planned on heading back up to West Palm Beach, about 220 miles north.
We had a great time visiting together and will see them again in a few days when we stop over in West Palm on our way up north.
May 17, 2010
A Coos Bay Day…
Today was just pretty much a lazy, do-nothing day in Coos Bay. We slept in late and hung around the coach until almost noon.
I forgot to mention that yesterday at 12:32 pm on our trip up from Klamath we racked up 30,000 miles on our coach. Not bad for only 2 – 1/2 years on the road and traveling from Alaska to Key West to Nova Scotia to San Diego. (Not in that order, of course)
I talked to our friend Allen Bode this morning. We met Allen and his wife Jan last year in Titusville, FL while we were both at the Manatee Hammock RV Park. They are out in this part of the country and we were hoping to make our schedules match up so we could get together. But it looks like we’ll have to try it later.
About 11:30 am we drove back over the marina area to have lunch. We decided to try another seafood restaurant that was recommended to us, the Sea Basket. And it was just about as good as yesterday.
After lunch we went by the Post Office to drop off some packages to our son Chris and our granddaughter Piper.
Then we stopped by Walmart to pick up some things and it was back to the rig for the night.
Tomorrow we’ll head further north to Seaside, OR. On the way we’ll stop about 60 miles up the road at the Sea Lion Caves. Hopefully we’ll see some sea lions. We haven’t done too well on the whale front.
May 17, 2011
Great Muffins and So-So Pizza . . .
I woke up about 10 am to another cold, rainy, dreary day, pretty much like yesterday, and tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same.
But Thursday is looking up. We’ll see.
I quickly made coffee in my nice, clean coffeemaker, anticipating some of the muffins that we got last night.
I mentioned my clean coffeemaker because I spent a good while yesterday running pots of CLR through it to clean out the calcium buildup. And then I had to run 6-8 pots of clean water through it to clean out the CLR.
At 11 we got to see ourselves on TV again on the The Talk. We were shown in the audience right when the hosts were introduced. We’ve got another shot at stardom on Friday the 20th, but we don’t know if we’ll be shown again.
Later Jan fixed us egg and cheese sandwiches for lunch that, along with Kettle Salt and Cracked Pepper Potato Chips, made for a great lunch.
About 5:30 we headed out for supper at a local Italian place called Di Cicco’s. Turned out to be so-so. Better than Pizza Factory, not near as good as Crusty’s Pizza in Camp Verde, AZ, or Da Boyz in Yuma.
We agreed that they don’t have oregano or basil in their kitchen, or at least they don’t use it.
On our way home we stopped off at a Chevron station to get a cappuccino as a nitecap.
That’s about it for today.
May 17, 2013
Good Coffee, Good Soup . . .
We really enjoyed the cool (actually more like cold) weather last night, With the temp in the mid 30’s, it was nice to have the windows cracked open a bit and the mattress pad heater cranked up. Really good sleeping weather,
And tonight it’s supposed to be 31 degrees. Nice.
With the cold weather our morning coffee was especially good. Cinnamon Hazelnut. Hmm, Good!
Since the park office was closed when we got here yesterday, I went down there about 1pm to register and pay the $3 a night that staying at an Encore park costs us. Not bad for staying in South Lake Tahoe.
While I was out and about, I stopped off at an mini-mart to pick up some lottery tickets for tonight’s Mega-Millions and tomorrow night’s Powerball drawings. Right now the Powerball is over 600 million, and could be substantially higher by the time of the drawing.
I wander how long it’s going to be until we get a $1 Billion prize.
As I mentioned yesterday, we’re parked in a nice wooded area, with a lot of Ponderosa pines surrounding us. The nearest rig is a couple of hundred feet away, so that’s nice.
Of course all these trees wouldn’t be so nice if I couldn’t get a satellite signal, but it all worked out.
Before I left on my errands, I got a batch of soup going in the Crock-Pot. A couple of boxes of chicken stock, 3 or 4 frozen, previously poached, chicken breasts, a can of Rotel Hot Diced Tomatoes with Habaneros, a can of kidney beans, a couple of fresh, sliced-up jalapenos, and you’ve got the perfect meal for this kind of weather.
We’ve been checking out things to do in this area, and I brought back a few brochures from the park office. They do have another zip line for Jan to try, and someone recommended the paddleboat cruises on the lake. But most of the attractions here seem to revolve around snow skiing, water skiing, jet skis, golf, and gambling.
We also noticed that the Donner Pass area is only about 45 miles from here, so we’ll probably make a sightseeing trip over that way while we’re here.
Tomorrow? Who knows?
May 17, 2014
Finally . . .
Jan and I were up at 6:30 this morning getting ready to make the 350 mile trip up to Elkhart for the first time since last July. But we had a last breakfast with Jan’s family here before we left the area.
We pulled out of the Timber Trails Campground out in Mulberry Grove about 7:30 to meet Jan’s sister Debbie, her husband Jim, and daughter Christian (Jan’s niece) at the Denny’s in Vandalia at 8am.
We’ve always enjoy our visits here with Debbie and her family, and this one was no exception. And it was really nice to have one last get-together with at least part of the extended family.
But since we had a long day’s drive in front of us, we were back on the road by 9 heading north on I-70 where we got on I-57 in Effingham. Later, we got off I-57 onto US24 and then took that east until we headed north on US421.
US421 took us all the way up to the I-80/I-90 tollway, where we headed east to Elkhart. And $10.50 and 50 minutes we were pulling into the Elkhart RV Park, kind of our home away from home.
We were quickly steered to our site right and Jan and I got connected and set up. Then it was off down the road to have our first meal here at King Wha, our favorite local Chinese place. And it didn’t disappoint.
Getting back home, the long day and the change to EDT started to get to us, so we were in for the night.
May 17, 2015
Rethinking . . .
our Love of Twin Peaks
Most of you have probably heard about the big shoot-out at the Twin Peaks Restaurant in Waco, TX. It seems members of possibly five different biker gangs opened fire in and around the restaurant, even spilling over into the parking lot of the restaurant next door. You can read more about it here at this link.
So far it seems like all of the 9 dead and almost 20 wounded, were bikers, and not patrons.
Regular blog readers know how much Jan and I like the food at Twin Peaks, and try to eat at one whenever we find one in the area. But now maybe we’ll check out the number of bikes in the parking lot before we eat at one again.
As far as our home here behind the service department of Affinity RV, things were pretty quiet today, even for a Sunday. We just read, watched TV, and did computer stuff.
We did start going over the list of things we want to take with us on our 1500 mile trip back to Vandalia, IL this coming Wednesday. We’ll do it in two 750 miles days, spending the night in Amarillo, TX on the way.
We had planned to be making this trip in the rig, but our blowout changed that. But since we didn’t want to miss the family reunion, a road trip it is.
Around 5pm I drove across the street for a few things at Fry’s, and then picked up dinner at the Taco Bell in the parking lot. We both like their new Steak Doubledilla meal, and wanted to have it again. It’s delicious and cheap.
Finishing up, Brandi sent over this photo of Landon.
Don’t know the reason for the tiger makeup, (National Tiger Day, maybe) but he does look cute.
May 17, 2016
Where It All Started . . .
First off, Karma’s still doing OK. She’s actually moving a little slower than last night since the long-term time release painkiller wore off. But she’s eating and drinking just fine.
My week of FAST WAVE Wi-Fi here at the park is over, and I did not renew. All I can really say is that the service is just sucky, and at about 2.5 Mbps, not any better than my 3G aircard. Plus it drops out a lot.
Now I know that most RV’ers are used to spotty, low quality park Wi-Fi. But this is a brand-new, park-wide system just completed last month. They’ve got antennas all over the park, with one just 3 sites away, giving us 5 bars of signal. It’s really a shame that the actual service is not any better.
Compare this Wi-Fi at $15 a week to the free Wi-Fi at the Harris County Public Library yesterday, where we had 28+ Mbps. Too bad they don’t have RV hookups at the library.
Apparently an era has ended in Las Vegas. No more free parking. At least at the MGM casinos. This includes the MGM Grand, Circus Circus, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, The Mirage, New York New York, Monte Carlo, and finally, The Bellagio. And the last one is the one that affects us.
Whenever we’re in Las Vegas, we drive down to the Strip one night, park in the Bellagio’s parking garage, and take in the famous fountains out in front.
But now if we do this, it’s going to cost us $10. Bummer.
Now the next question is, will this spread? I guess it could go either way. Either all the other casinos will match this so they all make more money, or the other casinos will use it as an advertising gimmick, i.e., Play here and get FREE Parking!
It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Recently I stumbled across this site that tracks Florida’s Lost Tourist Attractions. And one of the many listed here was Florida Wonderland.
Florida Wonderland was where Jan and I met July 5th, 1967. Jan lived in Titusville, and I had come down from Alabama for the summer to spend some time bumming around. I had relatives living in nearby Sanford, and while there, saw an ad in the Florida Today newspaper wanting someone to take care of the animals, and do the porpoise shows at the Marine Life part of Florida Wonderland.
The Marine Life facility was located across the street from Florida Wonderland and was right on the Indian River. In fact the two large ponds for the porpoises were fed by the river.
Besides the two porpoises, Thor and Lori, we had a 12 ft. alligator, two manatees, Bruce and Vivian, a very large tortoise, and a sea lion, as well as a few other smaller animals.
The fish we used to fed the animals had to be kept iced down, and we didn’t have an ice machine over there, so I had to walk across the street to get ice several times a day.
And on my first afternoon, I walked across the parking lot to where the ice machine was, and encountered a beautiful long-legged redhead. And I was smitten from the start.
Jan was one of the saloon girls working at Miss Kitty’s Pleasure Palace, one of the attractions in the Dodge City western town area of the park.
I was skinny and had hair back then, but even so it took me about two weeks to get her to go out with me. She said later she thought I was just another stuck-up college kid, driving a red sports car. Glad I didn’t give up.
And now, this September 28th, we will have been married 49 years.
It’s been great!
May 17, 2017
On To Hermiston . . .
I had planned to be up at 7am so we could be on the road by 9, earlier than usual. But since we wanted to hopefully weigh the coach at the weigh station and then diesel up at the Fred Meyer’s in Bend.
But it didn’t quite work out that way, since I woke up feeling really under the weather. So I slept in until about 8:30 hoping to feel better by then. But though it really didn’t work out that way, we were still able to pull out of the park by 10am, only an hour late.
As we approached the weigh station I saw flashing red and blue lights so I was prepared to abort. But then I saw it was the Highway Patrol who had someone pulled over right at the entrance, so I pulled on in.
This weigh station only has a single platform so the front and rear wheels have to be weighed separately. For the front I got 12,050 pounds, and 18,750 on the rear for a total of 30,800 pounds, comfortably below our Max GVWR of 32,000. And this total includes a full Fresh Water tank, a full Grey Tank, and a full Black Tank.
And me.
So that’s 834 + 500 + 350 pounds for a total of 1,684 pounds.
And me.
I just didn’t feel like fooling with backing up and doing a side to side weight. And we’ve never had more than 100 pounds difference between the two sides anyway.
So it was on to the Fred Meyer’s to take on some diesel, and unlike yesterday, it went very smoothly . . . and quickly.
I dumped my bottle of Diesel Kleen in the tank first and then the guy started the pump.
Actually pretty easy. Of course they weren’t near a busy as yesterday.
Finished fueling up, we had to wander the parking lot for a few minutes until we found a place to hook up the toad. Or at least hook up the toad and then still be able to navigate out of the lot.
But finally we were back on US97N a little after 11am.
And I’m going to continue this tomorrow when I’m feeling better.
May 17, 2018
Business Is Booming . . .
I spent the morning and afternoon working on a couple of different things. First up I continued to sort through more stuff, separating things into ‘Stay In The Rig’ and ‘Go To The Storage Room’ piles.
Second were new knives to be posted on the KnivesByLaClaire.com website. Business is booming and they’ve sold all the knives presently on the site, so we’re restocking and adding a new line of knives made from USA blanks. So that’s going to keep me busy for a while.
Once I decided that I wasn’t going to be ready to take a load over to the storage room today, we drove over to Pho 20 to have dinner. As in the past, we started out by splitting the House Crunch Salad. Then Jan tried a new entry on the bill of fare, the Spicy Teriyaki Chicken, a hotter version of the regular one.
Since I had my half of the salad, I lightened up with the White Chicken Meat Pho, but without the added veggies this time.
And as in the past, the owner, Sherry, had left a present for us. She knows how much we both like Hot & Sour Soup, and although it’s not on the menu, she’ll make up a big batch and leave it in the freezer until we come in. Some good eating this weekend.
Now that I’ve got the last of the electronic parts in, I’ve come up with a way to mount the actuators on top of the valve bodies. I’m going to use U-Bolt clamps like these,
to hold the actuators and stainless steel band clamps to secure everything to the valve body. At least that’s the plan, but we’ll see how it goes.
Our daughter Brandi looks to be having a really good time down in the Dominican Republic, along with her friend Chantelle.
From left to right, that’s Chantelle, Brandi, and a friend to be named later.
I did want post some of the artwork done by my niece Stahlie. Actually she’s my first cousin once removed, but according to the genealogy sites, she’s still called my ‘niece’.
A very talented young lady.
And beautiful, too.
When he’s not playing hockey, Landon’s playing soccer, just like his mother did.
Lowell sent over his soccer team photos for 2018.
May 17, 2021
Satellites and Sunflowers . . .
This past Saturday evening SpaceX put another 52 Starlink satellites into orbit, less than the normal 60 since they had a couple of paying customer’s satellites onboard, taking up the space.
And I’m hoping that every launch puts us closer to getting our Starlink online. We’ve paid the $99 deposit, so now we’re just waiting for Starlink to tell us we’re ready to got in our area. Then we’ll pay the $499 for the equipment, and we’ll be ready to go.
And I’m really looking forward to getting speeds like this.
Yes, that’s over 300 Mbps, compared to what we have here at the RV park.
That’s a big difference!
And at my client’s up in the Clear Lake area, we get between 50 and 60 Mbps, so Starlink is even 6 times faster than that.
For now!
Elon Musk says that as they get more and more satellites on orbit, they hope to get speeds up around 1 Gbps. That’s 1000 Mbps.
Since all these launch from SpaceX’s facility down at Boca Chica, Jan suggested we might take a trip down that way to try and see a launch sometime. We saw a Shuttle launch from the Cape in 2009, and I was at the STS-3 Shuttle landing at White Sands in 1982.
So it would be nice to add another one to the scrapbook.
Boca Chica is about 20 miles northeast of Brownsville right out on the Gulf of Mexico, and just south of South Padre Island by about 5 miles.
So we’ll have to see what we can put together, but almost certainly after we get back from our June vacation to Illinois and Alabama.
And since we’re on the subject of rockets, here’s what’s going in the Gaza area of Israel right now.
On the right you can see the ballistic rockets that Hamas is launching into Israel. And on the left you can see the interceptor rockets that Israel’s Iron Dome defense system has launched maneuvering to intercept them.
The term ‘ballistic’ means that once launched, the rockets follow a predicable path and don’t maneuver, making it possible to know where each rocket is going to land.
The Iron Dome system quickly knows whether a incoming rocket is going to land in a field, or out in the desert, and ignores those, only going after ones that look to be headed for populated areas.
The interceptors are very smart, smart enough divide up the targets so they don’t all go after the same few rockets, and to re-target themselves to another rocket if necessary.
A really amazing system that’s said to stop over 90% of the incoming rockets.
Tomorrow we’re making the trip down to Galveston once again to meet up with Jim and Peri Dean for lunch at Sunflower Café, a really great breakfast/brunch/lunch place.
Really looking forward to seeing them again.
May 17, 2022
Mascot Sightings . . .
As I said in last night’s blog, today was a Twin Peaks, Kroger, Storage Room, Take 5 Oil Change kind of day.
Our usual TP server, Sylvia, was there, and besides her usual great service, she gave us her phone number so we can text her to see if she’s working on a day we want to come. If she’s not going to be there, she said she’ll tell us who to ask for.
We’ve seen a lot of mascots as we’ve traveled around the country –
Mermaids in Beaufort, SC,
Javelinas in Sedona AZ,
Bears in Easthampton MA,
Mackinac Island Moose,
Seabrook TX Pelicans,
And Pearland TX Pears.
And now it looks like Dickinson TX, right down the road from us, has their version.
A Heron.
We’ve only seen this one, so we don’t know for sure.
But we’ll keep our eyes open.
Synchronicity . . .
Lunch today was another stop on our Southern BBQ Tour. We picked up my cousin Marjorie about noon, and after talking a bit, we headed down to Decatur and Big Bob Gibson BBQ, our go-to BBQ place up in this area.
Gibson’s has been around since 1925 and regularly shows up on Top 10 BBQ places in the US, and one entire wall of the place is covered with ribbons and trophies they’ve won in BBQ contests all around the country. Yes, it’s that good.
Jan had the Smoked Turkey with a Side Salad and Green Beans,
while I went the traditional route with a Two Meat Combo Plate with Ribs and Pulled Pork, along with Beans and Beans.
Really, really good.
And you don’t come to Big Bob’s without getting a slice of one of their homemade pies, Jan split a piece of the Chocolate Pie with Marjorie,
while I got a slice of the Peanut Butter Pie. Note that I don’t split it with anyone.
But I did give Jan a forkful of mine, and she said she’s getting the Peanut Butter from now on.
Our waitress says that the pie people come in at 3am to start baking that day’s pies, and at 8pm the night before on holidays. And it shows.
Marjorie, being my grandmother’s sister’s daughter, is my First Cousin, Once Removed, and is 94 years young. And sharp as a tack.
She knows all the latest family gossip, and she’s really funny. We always have a great time, and are already looking forward to next year.
Finishing up, we all drove around Athens for a while, checking out more of our old haunts and favorite places, before dropping Marjorie off at her home.
Tomorrow we’re getting together with Anne and her BFF Alan down at the Railyard down in Decatur. Can’t wait.
Synchronicity
syn·chro·nic·I·ty
1. the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.
I’ve seen this repeatedly as I post each day’s Retro-Blogs™, finding that we ate at the same restaurant on the same day on multiple years, and sometimes even in different states, but still the same restaurant.
Or even got together with the same friends on the same day, and again in different states.
It’s spooky.
Thought For The Day:
A husband and wife were having dinner at a very high-end restaurant one night when a stunning young blonde walked up to the husband, hugged and kissed him, and then whispered in his ear.
“I’ll see you later.”
Hearing this, the confused wife stuttered,
“Who was that?”
“That was my mistress.”, the husband replied calmly.
Outraged, the wife hissed,
“I want a divorce!”
“Fine.”, the husband said, “But remember our pre-nup. There will no more $10 million townhouse, no more vacation homes in Aspen and Majorca, no more weekend shopping trips to Paris on my jet, and no more Mercedes S-Class in the driveway.”
As the wife digested this new information, they both noticed a family friend walk into the restaurant with a beautiful redhead on his arm.
‘Who’s that with Jim?”, she asked.
“That’s Jim’s mistress.”
“Ours is prettier.” the wife said.
Jan said that the moral of this story is that if you going to have a mistress, always have the prettiest one.
May 16, 2009
Old Friends and Good Times…
Our friends showed up about 4:30pm after driving down from West Palm Beach with their 5th wheel trailer. They’re parked about 3 spaces down from us here at the RV park.
As soon as they got settled in, we headed the 10 miles down the road to Key West and sunset on the historic Mallory Square.
From where we were on the pier we couldn’t see the sun set directly, but it was beautiful, none the less.
After watching the sunset we walked across the street to the world-famous Hogsbreath Saloon. The food was really good and the drinks were great.
Jan had Chicken Tenders and Jalapeno Poppers appetizers, and I had the Grilled Chicken Sandwich. But the drinks were a whole ‘nuther story.
Jan had the GoomBaySmash, which is pineapple juice and coconut milk mixed with Bacardi Coco Rum. It wasn’t long until she feeling very, very good.
And I think my Hogarita was made with rocket fuel. The few times I’ve ordered a mixed drink I normally complain about the fact that there seems to be little or no alcohol in it.
A couple of weeks ago Jan and I were eating at a Cuban restaurant in Downtown Disney, a commercial shopping/restaurant area that’s not actually part of the Disney theme parks. Since I had never had one, I decided to order a Mojito, a drink made with rum, sugar, lime juice, soda, and mint leaves.
And I would swear that this drink had absolutely NO alcohol in it whatsoever. I mean it was sugar/lime/mint favored, but I might as well have been drinking ice tea, and it would have been a lot cheaper, too.
However I think my Hogarita had my drink’s alcohol in it and two or three other people’s drinks. I certainly got my money’s worth.
And I’ll just say that I’m glad I wasn’t driving us home.
May 16, 2010
First Time in Oregon…
We left Klamath River RV Park about 10 am heading for Oregon.
This was a really beautiful park and we wish we could have spent more time here.
This is our first time to be in Oregon. The only other state out here we haven’t been in yet is Utah. But that’s coming up.
On today’s trip, we tried combating our continuing cat barf problem by not feeding the cats this morning before we left.
And believe me, they weren’t happy about this, and let us know it.
But it did seem to work. Mister tried to barf once, but didn’t have anything to throw up. Finally they were both so miserable they just curled up together on the sofa. This from two cats that really don’t like each other.
I guess misery DOES love company.
Getting into Oregon, we started seeing acres of cranberry bogs. Always thought they grew in the northeast, not the northwest.
We arrived at the Midway RV Park in Coos Bay about 1:45 pm and got set up.
Note the large pelican carving just to the right of our site.
I think Jan, who collects pelicans, might be trying to figure out if this one will fit in the coach somehow. I don’t think so.
A little later we headed out a seafood restaurant called Fisherman’s Grotto that the park manager had recommended to us. And it was great. Jan wants to go back tomorrow.
About 7 pm I fixed coffee and we had the pie we brought home from Marie Callender’s last night. Delicious as always.
Not sure yet what we’ll do tomorrow.
May 16, 2011
Mexican and Muffins . . .
Today was a pretty quiet day, nice for a change. I got up about 10:30 and made coffee. We were still pretty full from dinner at the casino last night so we didn’t have a muffin like usual.
We both spent the morning catching on Internet stuff since we had gotten behind in Las Vegas due to the power being off at the Thousand Trails park the last 2 days we were there, and then being on the road.
About 4:15 we headed up to Oakhurst to meet our friends Dave and Lynn Cross for dinner at El Cid, our favorite local Mexican place, stopping at the bank first on the way.
We had a good time getting together with Dave and Lynn, but we were kind of disappointed in our meal. Don’t know if it was an off-night, or if we’ve been spoiled by La Fonda or Esther’s Taco House, but it didn’t seem to be as good as last year. It wasn’t bad, just not as good.
After stopping off at the Von’s in Oakhurst for some groceries, we got home about 6:15 just ahead of the rain. In fact it’s supposed to rain for the next couple of day.
May 16, 2013
On to Tahoe . . .
We didn’t have a lot to do this morning before we hit the road, so about 8:30 we walked over to the casino restaurant for breakfast. This time I didn’t make the mistake of ordering the Miner’s Breakfast with the enormous ham steak like I got last night. This time I got the Breakfast Skillet with eggs, diced ham, bacon, and cheese, and a biscuit and gravy, while Jan had eggs, bacon, hash browns, and a biscuit. One thing nice was that unlike many restaurants, this place had really good coffee.
I pulled out of the Tonopah Station RV park about 9:45 with Jan following in the truck. Yesterday while we were driving around, I scouted out a filling station with an easy in/out right on our way out of town. While I was filling up, Jan waited about a block down the road. I took on 72 gallons of diesel at 3.86 a gallon, about 40 cents a gallon more than we paid a couple of weeks ago in Apache Junction.
When I was finishing fueling, Jan followed me about half mile down the road where I stopped and hooked up the toad. Then we were on our way to South Lake Tahoe, CA, about 260 miles away.
For a while, out in front of us, we could see a line of snow-covered mountains off in the distance. Based on the map, I think these were in the Yosemite area.
From the time we left Tonopah, it was overcast, and it just got messier as we went along.
Like yesterday’s travels, we had a lot of long, straight runs, always climbing, but mostly staying in the valleys.
Coming into Hawthorne, we started to get some light drizzle, which pretty much stayed with us for the rest of the trip, but never caused any problems.
Finally, just south of Carson City, we turned on to US 50 for the 30 mile run to South Lake Tahoe. Climbing to over 7100 feet from the 5000 feet of Carson City, it was the curviest road of our entire trip, but it certainly was a scenic one.
Finally peaking out on the ridgeline, we started back down, and taking a turn, there was Lake Tahoe out in front of us.
Due to the drizzle, wind, and low-hanging clouds, the lake was dark and choppy, with some white caps.
We got to the Tahoe Village RV Resort a little after 4pm, only to find the office had just closed at 4. But we found our paperwork waiting for us, so we found our site and got set up.
We’re park among Ponderosa Pines, and it took a little positioning to get a satellite signal, but I finally got it working.
Around 6pm we headed to try Jalapeno’s Taqueria, a nearby Mexican restaurant that was recommended to us. Turned out to be very good.
Coming up here, we were hoping to get away from the triple-digits we had in Apache Junction and Las Vegas, and we certainly got our wish.
When we got here today it was 50 degrees and is going down to 35 degrees tonight. Tomorrow it’s going to be 59 and 32.
Nice!
May 16, 2014
Into the Heart of Darkness . . .
We started out the morning meeting Jan’s sister Debbie, husband Jim, son Jason, and granddaughter’s Ella and Annisten at Denny’s for breakfast.
Ella.
Annisten
Both real cuties.
After that we all went back to Debbie’s for the rest of the afternoon. We got to spend a lot of time with Ella and Annisten, and then later Gwen when she came in from school.
We also got to see Debbie’s daughter Christina for the first time, since she’d been working before.
About 6pm we all headed down to Los Amigos, a really good Mexican restaurant here in Vandalia. It’s unusual to be able to get this many together at one time because of everyone’s schedule. And even then we were missing Jason who had to work.
(LtoR) That’s Debbie with her back to the camera, Annisten, Avery Jane, Gwen, Jim, Ella, Laura, Kurt, Tana, Christina, and Jan.
Landon’s been taking swim lessons the last two weeks. Or rather drown-proofing lessons. Today was graduation day, and Landon passed and got his diploma.
But he sure doesn’t look too happy about it. Maybe it was that Pass/Fail Sink or Swim Final Exam that upset him.
On another note, I got a call at 7am this morning from Gate Guard Services in Whitsett, TX, the office that we work out of. They are desperate for Gate Guards and wanted to know if we were in the area.
So if you’re interested in giving Gate Guarding a try, get Diane a call at 830-570-1319 to see about getting started.
Tomorrow Jan and I say our goodbyes here and make a 340 mile run up to Elkhart for a while. We’re really looking forward to it.
May 16, 2015
Edelbrock and Stromberg . . .
Well, after two days of cold rain, today was pretty sunny. Still cold, but sunny. At least we didn’t get snow like some areas around here, but we did get a little sleet yesterday morning on our way to breakfast.
About 4 Jan and I headed over to the Golden Corral to have dinner. The place was pretty busy, but that meant the food was fresh and hot. And just like last time our visit was really good. I imagine we’ll go back again before we leave the area.
I noticed recently that ABC is doing their version of Dallas, but updated and now set in the Bakken shale area of North Dakota.
It’s called ‘Oil’ (catchy title, huh).
While I’m on the subject of TV shows, Jan and I were disappointed to learn that one of our favorite shows, ‘Forever’ did not get renewed for next season. Last time I looked it was doing OK, but I guess it didn’t keep up the ratings.
Forever was about a New York City Medical Examiner named Dr. Henry Morgan who for reasons he didn’t understand, was immortal. Born in 1779, he was shot in 1814 aboard a ship and thrown overboard. But he didn’t die then, and he can’t die now. It was very well acted with Judd Hirsh, of Taxi and Numbers fame, playing his adopted son, Abe. Henry and his then-wife Abigail rescued Abe from the Belsen concentration camp as a baby, and raised him as their son. Of course now, Abe is in his 70’s and Henry still looks 35.
We’re sorry to see it go.
While we were leaving the Fry’s yesterday afternoon, I saw this nice looking ‘31 Ford in the parking lot. Based on the discoloration on the exhaust pipe, it looks like it’s driven on the street regularly, and not just a show car. And also it doesn’t look like a lot of ‘muffling’ is going on there, so it’s probably pretty loud too.
But then that’s straight pipes are for, aren’t they?
Looks like he also did a nice job on the engine too. Not to be picky, but the tag says it’s a 1931, but I don’t think the engine is.
That sure looks a Flathead V-8, and they didn’t come out until 1932. Nice looking Edelbrock head and Stromberg carbs, though the 3 Stroms can be hard to keep sync’d up. But not as bad as the twin SU carbs on my ‘65 Triumph Spitfire.
Coincidently, right across the row was this ‘work-in-progress’. Looks like he’s still got a ways to go.
Not sure what we’ve got planned for tomorrow. Probably just thinking about everything we need to take when we leave for Illinois on Wednesday.
May 16, 2016
Karma Update . . .
Jan and I were up at 4:30am and out the door by 5. God, that was early. We were supposed to be down in La Marque by 7:00, and though the trip should only take about an hour and 40 minutes, I was allowing two hours.
You never know when a wreck will cause things to grind to a halt, and we didn’t want to miss our drop-off window. But as it was, we only lost about 5 minutes and got there about 6:45, and then had to wait for 15 minutes until they opened at 7.
Animal Alliance is a non-profit organization that only does spaying, neutering, and shots for dogs and cats. And the non-profit part certainly makes a difference. When I called around the Conroe area, I found one vet that wouldn’t even quote me a price unless we came into the office, and another place that wanted about $300. Ouch.
But our son Chris told us about Animal Alliance down in La Marque that spays cats for $55 plus $14 for the legally-required rabies shot. So that’s a total of $69 vs $300. Well worth the 180 mile round trip.
They have a very nice facility with separate entries for dogs and cats. But what’s kind of strange is that the two separate entries open out into the same large counter area.
Inside it’s a very efficient operation. After filling out a short form, Karma and I were called in so she could be examined by the vet. And it turns out she weighs 7.1 pounds and is in really good shape.
Jan and I were back on the road by 7:30 and headed up to the IHOP on the Interstate, for coffee, English muffins, and some nice conversation. By the time we left the place was getting busy, so we just sat in the parking lot, listened to the radio, and napped a little. It was very overcast and a little rainy, so we were comfortable.
About 10:30 we headed up to Webster to have lunch at our favorite King Food. Always great, and enough to bring home leftovers. Then it was over to the Harris County Public Library where we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and Interneting in comfort. While we were there, I was amazed at the speed of the library’s inhouse Wi-Fi. With a 5 ms ping, 28+ Mbps download, and 18+ Mbps upload, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any faster.
Finally about 3:30, we drove back down to La Marque to pick up Miss Karma. And after some brief post-op instructions, we were on our way home. With our trip occurring in the middle of the Houston rush hour, I took some precautions that turned out to really be needed.
As we headed north, Jan was monitoring the traffic using the Sigalert app on my Galaxy Tab 4. And as we got into downtown Houston, we saw a complete traffic stop on I-45 north that quickly built up from a 30 minute delay to a 2 hour delay as detailed on our Garmin GPS’ live traffic info. That would mean that our 1:40 trip was going to take 3 hours and 40 minutes.
But Sigalert showed me that I could exit I-45 and go east on I-10, then north on US 59. Then at I-610 come back west until I could get on the Hardy Toll Road and head north again.
Surprisingly, all this zig-zagging only added about 3 miles to our trip, but cut down the delay to only about 20 minutes over the normal 1:30 trip. Later, on the 10pm news we heard that traffic was completely stopped for 3 hours, not just 2.
We really dodged that bullet.
May 16, 2017
When is 3G not 3G . . .
It has been really windy all day, as high as 30mph. And since the temps just barely made it up to 45°, the wind chill stayed down in the low 30’s.
We had more snow forecast for this evening, but it came early, around 2pm this afternoon, It only lasted about 10 min, and since it was 41°, it didn’t stick. So we’ll see how it goes this evening.
And now a little before 8pm it’s snowing hard, and sideways due to the high winds. So far it’s been going on for almost 45 minutes. And some of it actually stuck. A little.
I spent the morning adjusting our upcoming travel schedule, adding a day here, deleting a day there, to try and match up our PassPort America stays with the valid PPA days for that park. Mostly this consists of staying away from Fridays and Saturdays. But there are a few that are different.
About 4pm we headed into Bend to have one last dinner at Baldy’s BBQ, whose large servings will give us leftovers for tomorrow night’s dinner in Hermiston, OR. Nice since we’ll be in a long pull-thru and won’t have to unhitch.
On the way I was glad to see that the weigh station was closed to trucks, so hopefully it will be available for us tomorrow on our way into Bend.
One thing I did along the way was to pick up a bottle of Diesel Kleen from Auto Zone. Since we’re getting diesel at Fred Meyer’s tomorrow before we leave Bend, I wanted to add it then.
One thing that jogged my memory to do this, which I do about every 3rd tank, was a radio ad that said that Cummins now approves and recommends Diesel Kleen for its engines. So I assume that’s the same for you people running CATs too.
I’ve been using it for 4 or 5 years since several oil field truck drivers recommended it to me and said their company used it in all their trucks.
At Baldy’s Jan got her usual full rack of ribs,
while I changed course and went with the Beef Brisket Platter with Salad, Chipotle Potato Salad, and Baked Beans.
Just as good as always.
Coming home we stopped by the Fred Meyer’s to get gas for the truck and double-check our routes in and out for the rig tomorrow when we fuel up and hitch up. But getting gas reminded me of one of the few reasons I don’t like Oregon.
You can’t fill your own tank. In this case it took us over 20 minutes to fill up. They only had two guys handling 24 pumps (4 lines x 3 pumps per line x 2 sides to each pump), and since they had the lanes coned off, there was no way to pass around the rear vehicle still gassing up, so you got to set there and watch the two front pumps set empty.
In Texas I would have been in and out in 5 minutes. Just stupid.
The other thing I finding frustrating concerns Bend itself, and the problems with the signage they allow. Apparently their zoning only allows very small signs, and none in store windows it seems, Which makes it very hard to find the address you’re looking for, especially since many streets are lined with trees, making it even more difficult.
We drove pass one place 3 times before we were able to see the small sign.
Readers will remember that about three weeks ago, right before we left Las Vegas, I upgraded my Galaxy S5 to an S8+, and my 3G aircard to a Jetpack 4G MiFi, all with unlimited data.
Of course everyone knows that ‘unlimited data’ only means 10GB at 4G before you are throttled back to ‘3G’ for the rest of your billing cycle. But I have this covered because once my MiFi maxes out at 10GB, I switch over to my S8+ for another 10GB, and then Jan’s S5 for another 10. So I’m covered for a total of 30GB.
Now that should be more than enough because on my old 3G aircard I normally used 20 to 25GB per month. So why is it that in my first 8 days, I used 10GB on my MiFi without any change in my usage. And this is something I’ve heard other people complain about.
Why are they using more data on their 4G MiFi even though they’re doing the same things as on their 3G aircard?
So when is 3G not 3G?
Apparently it’s when Verizon throttles your 4G back to ‘3G’ speeds at the end of your ‘unlimited data’.
Since I have 4 lines as part of my package, I actually still have my 3G aircard for my use. So noticing that my throttled-back 3G seemed slower than my normal 3G, I made a comparison.
Checking several times during the day, I found that under my 3G aircard, I’m showing between 1.0 and 1.3 Mbps, which is pretty normal for me around the country.
But when I access SpeedTest.net using my throttled-back MiFi, I show a consistent 660 kbps, less than 2/3 of the aircard’s speed.
Now I wonder why that might be.
May 16, 2018
Up On The Roof . . .
Cue The Drifters.
That’s where I spent part of today at work , , , up on the roof. I was installing a solar-powered LED motion detection floodlight light like this.
The bright lights in the background at the office causes the camera to darken down the foreground of the parking lot too much. So it looks like this.
I tried putting a piece of cardboard over the top of the camera lens to block out the background lights, but that just reflected the IR LEDs back into the camera, actually making things worse.
So we decided to install a couple of motion sensing lights to brighten up the parking lot, so I got to try out my new ladder.
Since we started RV’ing, I used a Cosco model like this.
It telescopes to make a 13 ft. step ladder if necessary. It’s very sturdy . . . and very heavy, almost 50 pounds. And it’s kind of overkill for what I need.
So I found this one on Amazon for about $80.
But then it folds down like this.
I picked it up yesterday but just left it in the truck to use today. And it worked out great. At 24#, it’s half the weight of my other one and very versatile, since with 3 hinge points it can be configured into many different setups, including a stepladder and scaffolding.
So far I really like it.
The push buttons I ordered from eBay came into today,
the ones that I’m going to use on my Remote Dump Valve System so hopefully I’ll get to start wiring it up this weekend.
Tomorrow we’ll probably move some more stuff over to the storage room and then have dinner out.
May 16, 2021
A Tale Of Two Keyboards . . .
Last Saturday week when Brandi, et. al, came down to our area for our Mother’s Day get-together, they dropped off Landon’s Lenovo laptop so I could replace the keyboard in it.
Landon had knocked over a small glass of water onto it, and a lot of keys in the center part stopped working, though the computer worked just fine with a external keyboard plugged in.
Looking on YouTube, it looked like a pretty simple job. Just remove the 9 T4 screws holding the back of the case in place, pop it off, and then remove 3 Phillips screws inside.
Finally pop out the keyboard from the front, unplug it, and reinstall the new keyboard.
The reverse the screw removal process and you’re done. Easy Peezy.
Maybe 45 minutes as most.
Well, NO!
But more on that later.
Since the new keyboard came in this past Friday, I figured I take care of the install Saturday afternoon and then take it back up to Brandi’s today.
So about lunch time we just headed back over to our new favorite place, Gator’s Bar & Grill. And after trying something different last time, we were back with our old favorites once again.
The Fried Chicken sandwich with Coleslaw, and Sweet Potato Waffle Fries for her,
and the Blackened Chicken Breast sandwich with the Sweet Potato Fries for me.
Of course, I have to add Texas Toothpicks and Bacon to it, too.
And we decided to again split one of their well-known desserts, this time the Hummingbird Cake.
It’s a spice cake made with bananas and pineapple, and a cream cheese frosting. Kind of carrot cakey, in a way.
We both agreed it was really good, but not quite as good as the Brown Butter Cake we had a couple of visits ago. I mean how can you go wrong with whisky-soaked peaches and Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream?
You can’t, right?
Back at the rig about 3:30 I dove into the keyboard replacement, thinking I’d be done in an hour and then I could take a nap.
But 6-1/2 hours later, about 10pm I was finally finished.
YouTube lied.
Yes, some models of Lenovo laptops only take about an hour, and some Lenovo laptops with the exact same model number of this one only take an hour. But with some Lenovo laptops with the exact same model number, but a different range of serial numbers, it’s an entirely different story.
I have never in my life worked on a laptop where I have had to completely dissembled it to repair something. And by ‘completely’, I mean completely.
As in every last part and component taken out and set aside leaving only the bare metal/plastic shell.
Starting with this –
And ending up with this –
That is the back of the keyboard in the bottom half of the photo. So now, finally, after 4 hours of carefully removed modules and boards, labeling everything, and collecting the many screws in 11 different envelopes,
I was finally ready for the 5 minute job of actually swapping out the old keyboard with the new one.
Then it was another 2-1/2 hours of carefully replacing all the parts, modules, and screws.
Then you take deep breath, hold it, and press the Power button.
Lo and behold, it booted up and everything worked fine. Lucky for me, otherwise I would have probably had to buy Landon a new laptop.
But, hey, I figured that if little kids working in Chinese sweat shops could build one of these to start with, I should be able to take one apart and put it back together.
It was pouring down rain all morning, but we still headed up to Brand’s a little after noon to have lunch and drop off Landon’s laptop.
We had placed an order online with the El Pollo Loco up in Katy, which is only a few miles from Brandi’s, which we picked up on the way.
After a great time together, but wanting to get back on the road ahead of all the rain coming our way, we were back on the road about 3:15, and, though it poured all the way, we were home by 4:30.
All in all, a nice weekend. Even considering.
Our daughter-in-law Linda said she’d been hinting to our son Chris that she’d wanted a miniature donkey for their property up in Kingsland.
So he made her one. Out of junk.
I think the butterfly is a nice touch.
May 16, 2022
An Errand Day . . .
So far, the new Shipping computer at work is rocking along with no real problems. Bodes well for our upcoming two week Alabama vacation.
Sometime coming up, I going to have a PowerField Services Tech come over and check out our QuietDiesel 7500 diesel generator to see if he can get it running again. If it looks to be too expensive, I.e. more than $1000 or so, I’m thinking about replacing it with one of these.
It’s gas, of course. And Propane too. And it has a full 50amp output with 9500W/12500W peak. In addition it also has a 30amp outlet and 4 20amp outlets. It comes with a key fob remote electric start and built-in transfer switch. And it will run for about 12 hours on the 6.6 gallon tank.
And it’s only $1000 with free delivery.
We’ll see.
Tomorrow it’s Twin Peaks for lunch, Kroger to drop off a prescription, Take 5 for an oil change in the Jeep, and then a stop by our storage room to drop some winter stuff off.
