Monthly Archives: June 2023

Strut Ball Studs . . .

Lunch today was at Dickinson Seafood over in . . . well, Dickinson.

This is one of those places where Jan and I both get exactly the same thing, starting with the Side Salad,

and then moving on to the Blackened Catfish and Shrimp, with Double Veggies and No Rice.

 

 

Being Sunday they were really busy, but the service was as good as always.

Delicious.

Then it was on over to the nearby HEB for our weekly stuff and gas. Then home by about 2:30.

It looks like the replacement strut ball studs are probably going to work.

 

I’ll just have to drill out the old plastic plug, and then maybe enlarge it a little.

 

 

I’ll try to finish it up on Tuesday. I’m going to go ahead and replace both struts while I’m there.

We usually have a pretty good breeze so it was nice to see the flag really waving in the wind.

Seems like Chris is always doing something around his Kingsland homestead.

He recently laid out a pad and installed an above-ground pool,

 

and now he’s redoing the steps leading down to the firepit.

 

Like I said, he’s always doing something.


Thought for the Day:

On a recent forum, people were discussing kids being punished unfairly by teachers for disagreeing with them, and I said that it was nothing new.

When I was in 3rd grade, 1956 or so, I got a spanking, when the teacher told another student that he would get lead poisoning writing on his arm with a pencil, i.e. pencil lead.

When I told her pencil lead wasn’t really lead, but carbon like charcoal, she said I was wrong, I said, “No, you’re wrong.”

That got me a spanking and 30 minutes standing in the corner. Then at the end of class, as we were leaving, she overhead me mumbling “She’s still wrong”, and I got another spanking.

I guess that was my version of Galileo’s “And yet it still moves.”

Unfortunately, two spankings in one day was not my record. That would be three.

And now don’t you feel sorry for Jan for having to put up with me for almost 56 years?


June 4, 2009

Mojitos & Rainbows…

We left Titusville this morning about 10:45 am heading north for St. John’s RV Park in St. Augustine, FL.

Since we were traveling up US 1 instead of taking I-95, I figured that that the 105-mile trip would take 3-4 hours since we were going to be driving thru traffic. But the trip was only about 2 1/2 hours.  It was 4 lane all the way and the traffic was much lighter than I had expected.

St. John’s is a nice little park with concrete pads and long sites. And again, since it’s Passport America we’re only paying $15.00 a night.

St. John's RV Park

St. John’s RV Park

After we got settled in and hooked up, we headed out for a late lunch at a place that some friends had recommended called Columbia Restaurant.

It’s located in the old town historic district and opened in 1905.  It serves Spanish / Cuban food and it was really good.  Jan had a breaded chicken breast dish, and I had a marinated sliced pork loin.  Both delicious!

I also decided to try another mojito. I had one at a Cuban restaurant in Downtown Disney and was not impressed.  Mainly because I don’t think it had any alcohol in it.  A mojito is supposed to be made with rum, lime juice, soda, mint, and sugar.

I think mine had everything but the rum. I mean, no buzz, no tingle, no nuthin’.

But this one today was good. It definitely had rum in it and it made it taste better.

After a big lunch (and the mojito), a nap seemed indicated when we got back to the coach.

We had a really heavy thunderstorm while we were asleep and when we woke up we found this.

Full Double Rainbow

Full Double Rainbow

I had never seen a one like this.  It was full, double rainbow. You can see the 2nd, fainter one, right above the brighter one. And they both went from horizon to horizon.

It took me two pictures to show it all so I had to paste them together.

All and all, a great day with a beautiful ending…


June 4, 2010

Draper UT…

Today we left the Rock Springs WY KOA about 9:45 heading about 190 miles south to Draper UT, which is a southern suburb of Salt Lake City.

This KOA, like other parks in the western states is just a big gravel parking lot, and we had a great view of some petroleum storage tanks. At least they weren’t BP tanks. No telling what could happen.

RockSprings 1

And, of course, every RV needs trees, so here they are. These are the only trees in the park, or anywhere around.

RockSprings 2

But at least the view in the other direction was pretty good.

RockSprings 4

As we moved down I-80 the scenery just got better and better.

UT Scenery 1

UT Scenery 2

UT Scenery 3

A little further down the road, we started to see more and more of the snow-covered Rockies off to our left. Luckily we didn’t have to go over them, though we did crest out at over 7000 feet again.

UT Scenery 4

It’s hard to see here, but there’s a big American flag flying on the top of this hill.

UT Scenery 5

UT Scenery 6

UT Scenery 7

UT Scenery 8

UT Scenery 9

UT Scenery 10

UT Scenery 11

The view as we came down into this valley was just breath-taking.

UT Scenery 12

UT Scenery 13

UT Scenery 14

Somewhere alone here, Mister decided he liked the view better the other way.

Mister on Dash

Then as we got closer to Salt Lake City, the scenery started to change a little, more rolling green hills, less jagged rocks.

UT Scenery 15

UT Scenery 16

We got into Mountain Shadows RV Park in Draper UT about 2 pm and got set up. It’s a nice park, a little tight, but it does have the perfect amount of trees. Just enough to look nice and provide some shade, but not enough to block the satellite.

MtnShdwRV

And the view isn’t too shabby, either.

MtnShdwRV 1

About 5 pm we drove over to Guadalahonkys restaurant to meet Pat and Judy Benson, our friends we first met in Fairbanks AK two years ago.

Guadalahonky’s turned out to be really good. Of course it may be because we’re just getting closer to Mexico.

We’ll be here until  Monday, visiting, sightseeing, getting prescriptions, working on the coach, etc.

Then we’ll be heading further south toward Show Low AZ.


June 4, 2011

Weed and Grass . . .

Our son-in-law Lowell sent these pics of Landon trying out his new backyard pool. Looks like he’s all ready for summer.

Landon Pool 1

Landon Pool 2

On the other hand we woke up this morning to what every RV’er loves on a travel day.

Rain!

Luckily, it was only a light on and off drizzle, and even better, I had already done everything outside last night except for the satellite, and unhooking power and water.

After Jan set out Cinnamon Crunch Muffins for breakfast, we got to work stowing things away and getting ready to roll.

We pulled out of the site and around to the dump station about 9:30. Since there was no one else in line, Jan pulled the toad in behind the coach, and while we were dumping I got the toad hooked up and the lights checked and we were ready to roll

We were out of the park a little before 10, and about 15 minutes later we were on I-5N and heading for Weed, CA about 220 miles away.

It was amazing the way the scenery changed in just few hours. We started out at about sea level with nothing but flat countryside around us, and ended in very mountainous terrain at over 4000 feet. What a change!

Weed 1

Weed 2

We pulled into the Friendly RV Park here in Weed about 2:45 and got parked and set up. This park is really nice with level, paved sites, surrounding by lots of grass, so Mister is a happy kitty.

The only real problem are the trees, lots of trees, lots of tall trees.

And since it was also and rainy, I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to get the satellite to work. I’m pretty sure tomorrow I can find a spot between the trees to get a signal, but for right now I just hooked up to their cable system here. And surprisingly it’s very good, with a strong signal and 58 channels. Not bad!

Around 4:30 Jan and I drove over to Dos Amigos Mexican Restaurant, which turned out to be only a couple of blocks from the entrance to the park.

And it also turned out to be very good. Jan had the Shrimp Enchiladas, which were just filled with shrimp the size of your thumb, and I had Tacos al Pastor, with grilled pork chunks in soft corn tortillas, garnished with onions and cilantro. We’ll almost certainly go back. And speaking of going back, we’ll be able to because we’re going to stay here longer than we had originally planned

We first thought we’d be here for 3 nights and leave June 7th, but we decided to stay longer, so we pushed our Bend/Sunriver TT week from the 7th to the 11th of June.

That way we’ll only stay 3 nights at Newberry RV Park in La Pine instead of 7.

I love it when a plan comes together!


June 4, 2013

What A Racket !!!

I tried a couple of other things on my water pressure problem this morning, including switching out the hose from the faucet, all with no luck.

BTW I’m sure everyone’s seen those TV commercials for the ‘Pocket Hose’ and other brands of expandable/collapsible hoses. Does anyone know if you can get one that can be used for drinking water for the rig?

Jan and I headed out about 2:15pm for dinner and a movie, with a stop by the park to pick up a package (one of the one’s lost on the way to South Lake Tahoe finally showed up) and also sign up for the Honey Wagon. Besides low water pressure?, the only other problem with this Thousand Trails park is that it has no sewer hookups at all.

If Jan doesn’t do too many laundry loads, we can normally go a week on the grey tank, and two weeks on the black tank. So after picking my mail at the office, I stopped off at the County Store to sign up for a Thursday Honey Wagon run.

And it was $25 !!!  WTH!

I think it was about $5 last year. And the last two places where we’ve needed a honey wagon, it didn’t cost anything.

The movie we were going to see was the latest in the Star Trek series, “Star Trek Into Darkness”. Into Darkness is the second movie from J.J. Abrams of TV’s Fringe and Person of Interest fame. His 2009 “Star Trek” rebooted the story with all new actors playing all your favorite characters, and not only new actors, but a new timeframe

Events in the 2009 movie changed the timeline of many the events from the TV series and earlier movies. Spock’s accidental creation of a black hole threw him back in time and changed a lot of things we’re familiar with from the TV series.

Jan and I both really enjoyed this latest movie. I mean, it even had Tribbles.

By the time the movie was over, it was after 5:30 so we headed over to Black Bear Diner for dinner. We’ve eaten at a number of Black Bear’s over the years, including the first two in Weed, CA, and Mt. Shasta, CA. and it’s always really good. And it was no different this time. We finished up by sharing a Blueberry Cobbler Pie with Ice Cream. A great finish. Then after a quick stop at a Rite-Aid and a longer one at Wal-Mart, we finally got home a little after 8pm.

Tomorrow it’s probably more water stuff, with my pressure problems and getting back on my drinking faucet / water filter replacement.


 

June 4, 2014

Green Beans and Pretzels . . .

Officially it made it to 65° here in Elkhart today with a low of 50 expected tonight. Which would have been great, except for the rain that came with it. Which meant no walking and no coffee and muffins outside.

But it was a great morning for reading and computering, so that worked out well.

About 1pm I drove Jan down to get her hair trimmed, something I do with great dread every time. Because since she’s usually at a different place each time, with a different stylist, sometimes she’s not real happy with her cut.

And who’s the closest at hand to vent to?

That would be me.

But today was my lucky day, (and Jan’s too, I guess) because she really liked her trim. So I dodged a bullet for another few weeks.

Life is Good!

Gwen's Graduation

Our great-niece Gwen graduated from 5th grade today, with a lot of awards. She got a top 5 in art, a top 2 in writing, and straight A’s in Science, Reading, and Language Arts.

Way to Go, Gwen!

But smile next time.


A little before 5pm Jan and I drove over to have dinner at the nearby Applebee’s. And as has been our recent experiences, it was really good.

Jan had the Margarita Queso Grilled Chicken and Shrimp. I however, had the Grilled Vidalia Onion Sirloin that they’ve been advertising on TV recently. It also came with smashed red potatoes (that’s how they describe them) and fresh steamed garlicy spinach. The 9oz. sirloin was perfectly medium rare, just slight charred on the edges, and very flavorful.

And we also had our favorite appetizer there, the Green Bean Crispers. These are lightly breaded and fried 6” long fresh green beans, served with both a BBQ Bacon Ranch dip and Zesty Horseradish dip.

They also have the Dessert Shooters, those little shot glass desserts, that are the perfect way to wrap things up, but everyone was too full this time.


Don’t know if anyone else is watching the Fargo miniseries on FX Tuesday nights, but Jan and I have really enjoyed it. They’re down to the last 2 of the 10 episodes, and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Done by the same people who did the Fargo movie back in 1996, the TV show has no direct connection, except the Minnesota location and a really quirky story.

If you haven’t seen it, hopefully they will rerun it at some point. It’s worth seeing from the beginning.


June 4, 2015

Well, Now I’m Confused . . .

Well, we didn’t hear anything new today, or at all, for that matter.

I take that back. One guy asked me to move the truck from out in from of the rig so he could back a new rig in beside us. But the truck hasn’t moved in two days, and we’ve probably had 6-8 rigs in there in that time without a problem. So I think the guy just wasn’t very good at backing a 5’ver in there. So I moved the truck into the parking area right across from us.

But when we first got here and I parked across from us, I was told to park in front of our rig to leave the spaces across from us open to park rigs. I will say that they sell a lot of rigs here, because they’re constantly shuttling rigs around, prepping them for delivery.

While I was taking the outside grab bar apart to check the bulb, I noticed that the engraved writing on the clear plastic handle was losing its embedded paint.

Grab Bar Paint

So I used a Sharpie permanent marker to fill in the letters. There was a lot of reflection in the photo, but to the eye it looks perfectly black.

Jan and I headed out a little after 3pm for some errands and dinner. But first I walked out to the RV Store to see if they had the #895 bulb for the grab bar, which they did.

Then it was off to Sam’s to pick up our prescriptions. We tried on Tuesday, but they didn’t have 3 of the 6 so we’re back today to try again. And this is where I got confused. Four of our prescriptions are normally under their $4 / $10 pricing. At least until now.

As they were totaling up our order, I noticed that prescriptions that were previously $10, were now $17, or $23, or even $46. When I questioned this, I was told that the $4 / $10 prescription deal was not longer in effect, and hadn’t been for a couple of months But they now would match prices.

First I’d heard of this.

Figuring I’d look into it later, we decided to have dinner once again at our new favorite Chinese place, Beijing Garden. So favorite in fact, that we both had the same thing we had last time – Orange Peel Spicy Crispy Chicken Dinner.

Beijing Garden 2

Just as good as last time, and this time we had room to split a serving of their Green Tea Ice Cream.

Green Tea Ice Cream

Wow, this is good. Almost like a sherbet, but still creamy. And the green tea flavor really comes through. We definitely want a repeat on this.

While we were having dinner, I used my Galaxy Tab to check out the supposed $4 prescription discontinuation. And I found nothing. Both the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club website still advertised the deal, and googling further I found no mention at all about any discontinuation. Hmmmm!

Finishing dinner, our next stop was the nearby Wal-Mart where I took a minute to ask the pharmacy there about it. And as it turns out, they didn’t know any thing about it either. Hmmmm!

Getting back to the rig, I sat down to determine how much I had been overcharged. And got even more confused.

Prescriptions that had cost me only $40 total last time, now cost me $111.22. An increase of over $71. A big difference!

But when I checked the other two prescriptions that are not on the $4 deal, i.e., Jan’s Anastrozole, her breast cancer medicine, and Sumatriptan, her migraine medicine, the confusion just got worse.

The Anastrozole cost us $49.86 last time, and just $12 this time. And her Sumatriptan was $89.35 last time, but $37.66 this time, for a total savings of almost $90.

So actually I really SAVED almost $20.

So I’m still confused, but not quite as out of pocket as I thought. But I’m still going to follow up on this.


June 4, 2016

When Did We All Get So Old . . .

Jan and I were on the road for the 2 hour trip down to Seabrook, TX  by 10am to meet up at T-Bone Tom’s for a reunion of Taft Broadcasting’s NASA group employees.

Our last reunion was in 2007 at the Outpost in Webster (that doesn’t even exist anymore) so it’s been a while since most of us had gotten together. And before that, it had been 20 years since some of us had seen each other. So  it was good to see so many friends again. We had almost 20 people there, so it was a good turn-out.

And what was even better was how quickly we seemed to pick right back up regaling each other with almost-forgotten tales of wild times out at White Sands, and stories about people and things at JSC here in Houston.

Taft Reunion 1

But the biggest thing was the fact that we all got OLD!  I mean I had just turned 30 when I started at JSC in December of 1978, and now I’ll be 68 in October. And when we moved here our son Chris was 10, but he just turned 48 a couple of weeks ago.

After a really great time, and the great food at T-Bone Tom’s, the party started breaking up around 3:30. For some reason we just can’t party all night like we used to.

I want to give a big shout out to Perry and Molly (Quintero) Kuhns for putting all this together again. Thanks guys.

Don’t wait too long to do another one. There might not be too many of us left.

Finally heading home we made a Buc-ee’s stop for gas and Cranberry Walnut muffins, before our next stop at our son Chris’ to pick up the new Captain’s Chair armrests he had made up for us.

New Armrests 2

The old ones on the left were made from OSB board and they started coming apart as the glue broke down and the screws wobbled out. Another case of old age taking its toll.

So Chris made up these new ones out of 2 x 4’s and plywood. I’ll take the metal pivot arm off the old ones and install it on the new wood. Then I’ll put the foam back on with the leather cover. And they be good for another 17 years. Or more.

Getting back home about 6, I packed up Barbara Spade’s laptop and took it over to her rig. After de-gunking the computer, I increased the memory from 2GB to 4GB,  which will speed things up considerably.

I had left the MemTest86 running for over 36 hours to be sure she wouldn’t have any problems. And nothing showed up.

But when you run a long-term test like this, you have to be aware that you may get an occasional random error caused by cosmic rays

An article by Berke Durak  calculates that your probability of having at least one bit error in 4 gigabytes of memory at sea level on planet Earth in 72 hours is over 95%.

Of course that assumes you are using non-error-correcting memory (non-ECC). With ECC, he figured, you can wait 2.7 million years before you get an uncorrectable bit error at a probability of 96%.

And since Barbara’s Toshiba laptop uses non-ECC ram, I guess it’s lucky no errors showed up.


June 4, 2017

What a Difference a Week Makes . . .

This time last week we had days in the 50-60’s and nights in the 30’s, really nice. But now we’re seeing days in the high80’s and nights in the 60’s. Summer is here.

I called the park office this morning to extend our stay here until Saturday the 10th of June. Then I went through our schedule and updated it, pushing every thing back 4 days,  which still leaves us a few days of padding before we have to be back at the Colorado River TT on the 25th of June.

Later in the early afternoon I went outside to begin the change-out of the starter solenoid of our rig’s generator. When I started working on this problem, I was surprised to find that Cummins/Onan does not make the diesel engines in the generator. They’re actually 3 cylinder diesel engines made by Kubota.

Kubota Tag

Since all I had to do to swap out the solenoid was to remove the two nuts and pull it off after removing the 3 wires, and then install the new one in its place. I figured it would be easy peezy.

Wrong!

Yeah, the removal went just fine, and only took a couple of minutes.

Generator Solenoid Removed

But before I installed the new one, I wanted to check out the position of the yoke inside the starter, the part that the solenoid hooks into.

Here’s the yoke in the new starter.

New Generator Solenoid Yoke

And  here’s the pin on the end of the solenoid that fits into the yoke.

New Generator Solenoid Pin

The solenoid pin is easier to fit into the yoke if it’s pulled forward, so I used my phone to take a photo of the yoke, and here’s what I found.

Generater Solenoid Burnt Yoke

I’m not sue why, but the left fork of the yoke was blackened and a little melted. So after thinking for a few minutes, my solenoid replacement had morphed into a full starter/solenoid change-out.

Still easy peezy, right? I mean it’s two bolts and off it comes, right?

Nope!

The top bolt was no problem, so after loosening it I started on the bottom one. And there things came to a halt. I could just barely feel the bottom bolt head with my fingers, and when I tried to fit my ratchet into place the handle was too long to allow it to ratchet due to hitting the frame rail.

So I I tried my 12mm box end, which was short enough to move, but with the time it took me to get the box end wrench seated back on the bolt head, and the small amount I could move it, I needed a better way.

So checking Lowes.com, I  found that the local store stocked a stubby 3/8 inch ratchet.

Stubby Ratchet

And since it was now almost 4pm, we were off to the Lowes in RC for a wrench and then on to HuHot Mongolian Grill for an early dinner.

Back at the rig, I was able to get the starter off without a lot more work and was now ready to install the new starter. I left the solenoid off because it looked like it would be a little easier to get the bolts started that hold the starter in place. And it was.

But unfortunately it also meant that I didn’t have enough clearance to get the pin on the solenoid seated in the slot of the yoke. So now the starter was going to come back out, the solenoid installed, and the starter put back on.

But since the sun was going down, that’s a chore for tomorrow.


June 4, 2018

Printheads and New Toys . . .

I hit the ground running this morning at work, pretty normal for a Monday, catching up on a lot of catalog and website updates.

Then it was on to a repair job. On my way into work, I got a text that saying that my new printhead had been delivered. It was for our LP2844 thermal printer that we use to print out the shipping labels for our UPS and USPS packages.

LP2844 Thermal Printer

Recently our printer started skipping lines and missing characters, so much so that both UPS and USPS were complaining about having problems reading the barcodes. My client was just going to buy a new one for $200-$300 or so. But I said let’s try a new printhead first. And it was only $41.

LP2844 Printhead

The black strip in the middle is actually the thermal printhead.

The replacement was pretty easy, and it helped that there was a YouTube video, but it wasn’t as much help as I had hoped. Mainly because the hardest part, actually getting the printhead loose, was pictured like this.

LP2844 Printhead Replacement Video

A lot of help that was.

I finally figured out that not only was the view obscured, but he left out a step in the audio too, that a retaining screw had to also be removed.

The replacement would have been a lot easier if they given a  little more slack in the two data cables.

LP2844 Printhead Replacement 2

There was no reason they couldn’t have. There was plenty of room for the extra length. But finally I got it back together and hooked up.

At first I thought I  had another problem because when I tested it, it was just spitting out labels willy-nilly. But at least they looked good with no missing lines. But after I ran the ‘re-gap’ setup, so it would know where the label started and stopped, it was fine.

At this point my client showed me another LP2844 that he said had the same problem. When it happened that time, he just bought a new one. So I got another printhead on order so now we’ll have a spare printer.

Now on to our new toy.

We’ve always had a problem with the volume levels when we play back TV shows recorded on our DirecTV DVR. Some levels are fine, but others are too low. And it can be different between two shows recorded right after each other, and on the same network.

I know it’s not our TV because it did it on our previous one too. DirecTV says they don’t know what the problem is, but did offer to replace our DVR. But then we’d lose all the shows and movies we have stored on it.

So I decided to order us a SoundBar like this.

SoundBar

It’s 25” long, perfect to fit underneath the TV and puts out 40 watts. It has 3 inputs, Audio, Optical, and Bluetooth, and comes with a remote. It had great reviews, and was a really good deal at only $75.

I could have hooked it optically directly to the DVR, but instead decided to connect it to the Optical Output on our 40” Samsung. That way it will work not only on the DVR, but also when we are using the TV with the computer.

And it works great. Now we have more that enough volume, no matter how low the source level is.

Tomorrow it’s back to sorting through stuff to go to the storage room.

Slowly but surely.


June 4, 2019

I Should Have Played More Computer Games . .

After I spent the morning working on the website, Jan and I headed up to Webster about 1pm for lunch at our favorite East Star Chinese Buffet. Great as always.

Then I made a stop by my client’s to get a file off the old website server that I can’t access remotely, and also pick up an Amazon order that came in this morning.

Then it was on over to my long-time barber’s to get my hair cut. It’s been about six weeks, before we left on our trip, so I was getting a little bushy.

We had heard on the radio that we have a lot of rain coming in tomorrow, but when we came out of our next stop, Kroger’s, it was already starting to sprinkle. And by the time we got over to Kemah, so Jan could pick up some of her favorite essential oils at Bodhi’s, it was coming down hard.

With the rain coming in, 4-6”, we may put off our scheduled trip up to Conroe to get together with our friend’s Chris and Charles Yust for dinner. So we’ll have to see what the weather does.

Although I been working with computers pretty much since the home computer business took off, (actually before, since I started out programming  in Fortran II on an IBM 360) I’ve never been really into games. The only one I had much to do with was Doom, which came out in 1993, and was one of the first of the First Person Shooter games to also utilize 3D Graphics.

But maybe I should have stuck with it.

According to this Hollywood Reporter article, Top Gamers Can Make $15,000 An Hour. And over $10 million a year. They make this kind of money for the same reason that professional ballplayers make $10 of millions a year.

People pay to watch them play computer games streaming online, just like people pay to watch the NFL on TV. The players also get endorsements from the same companies that are attached to pro sports.

Video Gamers Money

And, by 2022, the computer gaming industry is expected to surpass the audience of Major League Baseball.

Now that’s big.


June 4, 2020

It’s Not Cut and Dried . . .

I mentioned the other day that rather than all the DirecTV DNS stations going away, only ABC and CW disappeared. Turns out that DirecTV was able to make some sort of side deal with everyone but those two.

But as it turns out it’s not that cut and dried. Many people around the country are reporting a lot of different things. Some people have no more DNS, some just have FOX or CBS, or some other combination. But DirecTV won’t explain why this is happening, because, they say, their contracts with the different networks prevent it. You can read more about it here.

Guess we’re lucky we only lost the two stations.


June 4, 2021

Murdoch and More . . .

After another day of pretty much all-day rain, things are getting pretty soggy around here. But not too soggy to keep Jan from going into work with me so she could get her toesies done, and then do some shopping, getting stuff for our trip.

And it looks to rain all weekend too. In fact our fav Gator’s Bar & Grill  was supposed to have their Grand Opening this weekend, but they’ve put it off until next weekend, assuming it’s not still raining, of course.

But we still plan on eating there for lunch tomorrow anyway.

But it’s forecast to slack off Monday morning when we’re supposed to head out of town. We hope.

For all you Murdoch Mysteries fans, Jan and I just finished up streaming the 11 episodes of this year’s aborted season 14, so we were very happy to hear that they’ve just started filming a super-size Season 15 with a whopping 24 episodes.

Really looking forward to that.

A Change of Plans:

After getting a lot of input, both direct and online, I’ve decided to make a detour around Memphis, or at least enough of a detour so we don’t have to go over the I-55 bridge to Arkansas.

Everything I’m finding says 2-1/2 to 3 hours to get across the bridge during the day. So based on some other recommendations I’ve plotted a route around Memphis and up US-51 until it intersects I-155 which takes us back over to I-55.

Memphis Avoid Route

And it’s actually only about 24 miles further than the route across the bridge.

When it absolutely, positively has to there in 40 minutes.

The U.S. Space Force is talking to SpaceX about using their rockets to deliver important cargo anywhere in the world in less than an hour. Called Rocket Cargo, the program hopes to send 30 to 100 tons of supplies, and later, maybe, troops to a potential ‘hotspot’ on the other side of the planet in minutes. And if it’s too rough or dangerous to land, the the cargo would be air-dropped into the area.

And strangely enough, the government has been talking about doing something like this as far back as 1963 with this concept.

1963 Rocket Cargo Ship

Nothing new under the sun, I guess.


June 4, 2022

Almost Paradise . . .

We were loaded up and on our way, leaving the Sleep Inn in Montgomery, AL by about 8:30 this morning, with our ultimate destination our Condo down on Fort Morgan Rd that the family had rented for the week. But our first stop was about 20 miles south near the town of Hope Hull to visit the Alabama Safari Park.

But it’s almost 11pm and I’m dead tired after a long day of driving, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for this.

So I’ll just leave you with this photo taken from our condo balcony right about sundown.

 

Guess They Ran Out Of Ducks . . .

Today was a quiet, easy one. Just lunch at Walk-Ons once again, and then home.

And it seems we’ve both already picked out our go-to dishes after only 3 visits here.

Jan got her usual Tuscan Chicken with a Side Salad,

 

while I got a cup of the Chicken & Sausage Gumbo

 

and the Avery Island Salad.

 

With Blackened Jumbo Shrimp, Granny Smith Apples, Candied Pecans, Bacon, Bleu Cheese Crumbles, and a Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette, it’s probably the best salad I’ve ever had.

Last time we were here the gumbo was Duck & Sausage, but I guess they ran out of ducks, because now it’s just plain Chicken. Though as I said, I couldn’t really taste the Duck.

And I’m not sure I would know what duck tastes like anyway.

Finishing up we were back home by 2:30.

Then while Jan watered her plants and swept the patio, I planted the Flag Spotlight and plugged it in using one of my computer controlled switches like this.

 

Not only can I control the light from Alexa and a phone app, but I can also set a schedule so that the spotlight comes on at 8pm, a little before sundown, and goes off at 6:30, a little after sunrise.

Later, after it was good and dark, I went outside and aimed the light a little better.

And this is what it looks like.

 


Thought for the Day:

Who Knew That Windmills Could Produce Both Power And Light?


June 3, 2009

Last Day in Titusville…

Today was our last full day in Titusville.

Tomorrow morning we’ll head about 100 miles north to St. Augustine, spending 3-4 days there.  Then it’s on to Savannah, GA.

Today we went to lunch at the New Peking Buffet with our new friends, Allen and Jan.  After that, Allen and I worked on my engine AC belt problem.

I’m going to try leaving the engine AC off on the trip to St. Augustine tomorrow to see if the belt stays on when it is not powering the AC.  I may do this for the trip to Savannah too.

We will still have AC on the trip.  I’ll just start up the diesel generator before we leave and run the two rooftop ACs just like we were plugged in.  The generator only uses about a gallon an hour so it’s not a big additional cost.

Luckily, the fix I did to the rear rooftop AC a couple of days ago is still working fine.

Well, I almost washed Mister again in the clothes washer. I don’t know what he sees in it, but every time I turn my back with the washer door open, in he goes.

Mister in Washer...Again

Mister in Washer…Again

We’ve been getting a number of comments about our Roller Coaster picture being spread across the Internet, as I mentioned yesterday. I guess this is our 15 minutes of fame.

More from St. Augustine tomorrow…


June 3, 2010

Poison Spiders and a Broken Record…

Well, today started out less than spectacularly, but it got better fairly soon.

We left Fort Caspar Campground in Casper WY a little before 9 am heading for Rock Springs, WY about 230 miles away.  And then it went downhill very quickly.

We should have known something was wrong when we ended up on Poison Spider Rd.

No, really.

Due to a map glitch, Margaret, our GPS system, could not route us on SR 220 like she should have. Instead she routed us on CR 201 and then on CR 319 which is also known as the Oregon Trail Rd.

And, yes, CR 201 is also called Poison Spider Rd as it leaves town. And it runs right by Poison Spider High School. Whose motto according the sign out front is”Caught in a Web of Learning”.

You can’t make this stuff up!

After starting out OK,  CR 201 became a gravel road.  But before we could get too worried, it became pavement again, and all was well with the world.

Until it skipped gravel road this time and went straight to dirt.

But I rationalized that in only two miles we would be turning onto CR 319, which just HAD to be a better road, right?

I mean, it’s also called Oregon Trail Rd.  It’s got two names,  it’s got to be a good road, right?

Of course, when we got there, that’s not what we found. What we found was an even narrower, even rougher dirt road.

I think it was called the Oregon Trail because it was the original one, complete with wagon ruts.

No way was I going any further. I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure what went wrong. Turns out that the GPS program wouldn’t route me on the right road, SR 220, because it couldn’t. No matter what I did, the program would not allow any route on SR 220.

I ran into this once before, when coming back from Memphis to north Alabama on  US 72.  No matter what I did the program would not let us on US 72.

Once I figured out what was wrong, the solution was simply. Turn around and go back to Casper and then back out on SR 220.

Easier said than done, however. I needed to turn around, but there was no room. And I couldn’t back up because, unlike towing a trailer, you can’t back up while towing a vehicle with a tow bar, at least very far.

So, I had to break my perfect record. I had to unhitch the truck so I could turn the rig around in the opposite direction. It’s been a point of pride that I’ve never got in a situation where I had to unhitch to get out of it.

Until today.

After unhitching it took about 30 seconds to get turned around. After hitching back up we drove back into Casper and out of town on 220. Then, once I was past the dead spot on the map, every thing went smoothly.

Leaving Casper, we started climbing up into the beginning of the Rockies, finally peaking out above 7300 feet. We crossed the Continental Divide 4 times today and saw some spectacular scenery.

We’ve seen a lot of these open fences along the roads in Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. They’re snow fences, set up to keep the blowing snow drifts off the highways as much as possible.

SnowFence 1

SnowFence 2

We also see these crossing gates with no train tracks around. They’re set up to keep cars off the highways after they close the roads for bad weather, usually snow or ice, or both. They’re normally near exits so you have a place to go to get off the road, but I did see one out in the middle of nowhere.

SnowGate

About noon we stopped in Rawlins, WY to have lunch. We had planned to eat at another Sanford’s Grub and Pub like we did in Casper. And we even found a parking place right downtown only a block away from the restaurant.

Rawlins 1

But when we got to Sanford’s, it was closed.  We asked a trio of Wyoming Highway Patrol officers, who also found the place closed, where they suggested and they said Square Shooters Eating House, right up the street. So that’s where we went.

Rawlins 3

The place is decorated in Western Dead Animal motif, and the salad bar is a chuck wagon, so we weren’t sure what to expect. But it turned out to be very good.

Rawlins 2

Jan had the Roast Turkey and Dressing with Mashed Potatoes, and I had the Chicken Fried Chicken with Fries, and we both had the homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. All of it really good.

Leaving town we came across another one of the painted mascots that we’ve seen in other towns, a Pronghorn Antelope.

Rawlins Antelope

We seen a lot of others, like bears, moose, pelicans, and mermaids.

Bear 5

Pelican 1

Moose1

P1010203a

We got into the KOA in Rock Springs, WY about 3:30 pm and got set up. About 4:30 we headed out to get some supper and pick up some fuses. We ended up at Village Inn, a family restaurant chain we’ve eaten at several times before.  Their Wisconsin Cheese soup is delicious.

Tomorrow we’re headed for Draper UT to visit some friends.

More then…

BTW our GPS system is called Margaret after the little girl in the Dennis the Menace comics. Whenever you take a turn she doesn’t like, she just nags and nags, and won’t shut up.


June 3, 2011

Lumberjacking . . .

We’re leaving here tomorrow, heading about 236 miles north along I-5 to Weed, CA. We’ll be there for 3 nights checking out the Mt. Shasta area, and getting into worse weather.

We’ll start to run into colder, wetter weather as we head north. The Crater Lake, OR area where we’ll be later next week is still having temps in the 20’s and 30’s so we’ll have to break out the winter clothes.

The Thousand Trails park here at Lake Minden is scenic with lots of trees and grass which makes Mister happy. but unfortunately, no sewer hookups, which makes me unhappy. It also had a lot of rabbits and squirrels, which makes Jan happy. So it’s easy to see who loses here.

Lake Minden 1

Lake Minden 2

Oh yeah, there’s a lake too.

Lake Minden 3

Jan and I had talked about going to a movie this afternoon but that lost out to a nap. What started out as a nice sunny day gradually clouded over and started threatening rain, so a nap was well in order.

Finally about 4:30 we drove into Yuba City for dinner and a Wal-Mart run. But I did take a quick detour to look at the shortest route my mapping program found to get me to I-5 tomorrow. I’m glad I did.

Because of a couple of climbing turns over a high dike separating the rice fields, and a narrow paved road that suddenly degenerated into an even narrower gravel one, I decided to drive an extra 14 miles of better road.

Since it was about 5 pm when we got into Yuba City, we decided to go ahead and eat dinner at, where else, but Lumberjack’s Restaurant, the same place we ate last night, and the same place we’ve eaten 3 of the last 4 nights here. And we had the same Chicken Fried Steak we had before.

What can I say? It’s really good.

After dinner we headed over to the Wal-Mart Supercenter a couple of miles away.  Jan had a small list of things she hadn’t been able to find during our last two Wal-Mart visits because they weren’t Supercenters.

Coming home and getting near the park, we again saw these strange-looking trees we had wondered about. I thought that maybe they were grafted, and at the park guard house I found out I was right.

It turns out the trees are English Walnuts, but the lower trunks are Black Walnuts. The English Walnut has a milder taste and is more popular, but the Black Walnut has a stronger root system. So they graft English Walnuts on Black Walnuts for the best of both. So now we know.

Walnut Trees

Walnut Tree Orchard

We’ll probably pull out of our site tomorrow morning about 9:30, dump and hookup, and try to be on the road by 10. We’ll see.


June 3, 2012

A lot of fun, but not very relaxing . . .

Well, trip day started off with a bang, or maybe just a ssssss!  When the sun came up Wednesday morning, I found I had a flat tire on our truck. Bummer! It had been fine when I drove to the rig at midnight to turn in the logs, and my tire pressure alarm had never gone off, but flat it was. So after Jan came on duty at 7am I got it changed before getting a few hours of sleep before we left.

Our replacement gate guard, Kay Runyon, showed up right on time at 2pm, and after getting her briefed, Jan and I headed for Houston about about 2:45pm. We were going back to our old home for a couple of days for our granddaughter Piper’s High School Graduation Thursday night.

Since we knew we wouldn’t be eating supper until about 8pm, we stopped off at the McDonald’s in Pleasanton for a quick bite, and then it was back on the road. Our first bathroom break was at the Buc-ee’s at the Luling exit on I-10, one of our favorite stops. This place just keeps getting bigger. To give you some idea how big, they’re installing ANOTHER 40 gas pumps to keep up with demand. And this Buc-ee’s is not the biggest one.

We got into Webster, TX about 8pm just in time to meet Chris, Linda, Piper, and Linda’s sister Ingrid for dinner at Mario’s Flying Pizza. It was really good to see everyone again, and after a good meal and great company, Jan and I headed down the road a few blocks to check into our room at the Comfort Suites Hotel. Our son-in-law Lowell’s mother, Sonja, works for Choice Hotels in Oklahoma and was nice enough to get us a Friends and Family Discount there. Thanks, Sonja.

Jan and I were up early the next morning for another busy day. I dropped off my flat tire at a nearby Discount Tires, and then Brandi picked us up at 9am for Landon’s first trip to the Houston Zoo.

He’s all ready to go.

Houston Zoo 1

He really liked the giraffes.

Houston Zoo 2

So much so, he tried to ride this one.

Houston Zoo 3

And of course, what’s a day at the zoo without ice cream?

Houston Zoo 4

After a fun, but exhausting time for all concerned, and right before the rain started, we headed back down to the Clear Lake area for a late lunch at one of our favorite places, Monterey’s Little Mexico, for some of their great Chicken Tortilla Soup.

It was pouring down rain when we left the restaurant which didn’t bode well for tonight’s graduation ceremony, which was supposed to be outside in the football stadium. Hopefully it will work out.

Getting back to our room, Jan and I both had showers, and then luckily, had time for a nap, before meeting everyone at Clear Springs High School to catch a shuttle bus to Clear Creek High School for Piper’s graduation. And Clear Creek High is where Piper’s father, Chris, graduated from too.

Luckily the weather had cleared up and the graduation went off outside as scheduled.

Piper Graduation 1

 

Piper swore later she wasn’t crying, but there seemed to be a awful lot of tearing up, like here,

Piper Graduation 2

 

and here.

Piper Graduation 3

 

Finally the big moment.

Piper Graduation 4

 

And then it’s over.

Piper Graduation 5

 

The proud graduate.

Piper Graduation 6

Piper Graduation 7

After hugs all around, Piper headed out to party with some friends, and the rest of us headed out to Denny’s for a late supper.

Finally it was back to the hotel before another early morning the next day. I dropped the truck off at Discount Tires to get the repaired tire mounted while we met everyone for breakfast at the Egg and I, one of our favorite breakfast places. They have a great hazelnut coffee.

Here’s Landon clowning around with Uncle Chris.

Egg and I 1

And whatever’s going on here between Landon and Jan, Landon’s not having any part of it.

Egg and I 2

 

And it was good to see that Miss Piper hadn’t partied so hardy that she wasn’t bright eyed and ready to go the next morning.

Egg and I 3

And after a great breakfast together, we said our goodbyes and got in our last hugs, Jan and I got ready to head back to gate guarding. We had a few errands, and then a couple of stops for food to take back with us. BBQ from Rudy’s and Chinese food from King Food, and then it was back on the road.

We got back to our gate about 5:30, and after giving our thanks to Kay, got back into the routine, with Jan taking her usual 6-11pm shift, while I went to bed for a few hours before coming on from 11pm to 7am.

We had a great time, but in a way it was good to be back here just to get some rest. We were certainly on the go there.


June 3, 2013

It’s Always Something . . .

I had planned to work my water filter / drinking fountain replacement project today, but another project came to the forefront.

When I was getting us ready for our trip from Likely, CA to Bend,OR last Friday, I noticed a problem. After I had disconnected the shore water and turned on the water pump. I noticed the pump was pulsing on and off, and water was running back out of the shore water inlet connector. Turning off the pump stopped the water running out, so I put it on my mental list to look at later.

Getting into Bend and getting set up, I turned on the water pump again before I hooked up the shore water, and this time the pump did not run and no water ran out. So I finished setting up with no other problems.

But later that night when I took my shower, the water pressure was really sucky. So the next morning I took a look at the problem. Although the pressure coming out of the faucet didn’t seem too bad, it did seem better at the neighboring sites.

I then called the park ranger and ask him to send someone out to take a look at the problem. A maintenance guy showed up a little while later and found that the underground valve wasn’t turned on all the way. So I was hoping that this would fix the problem. But my late night shower told me different. So I was thinking I had a coach problem, but I would have to wait until today to call American Coach.

Calling them this morning, the support guy confirmed what I had wondered about, the check valve on the water input. If it’s not working right, it can let water leak back out, and restrict the water coming in. He told me the check valve is actually part of the inlet connector itself, and is easily replaced.

It only took me about 5 minutes to get the old valve out, but before I worried about replacing it I wanted to be sure it was the problem. So I headed down to the local hardware store and got a adapter that would let me hook up the water back into the coach. Here’s what I got.

Water Inlet Check Valve

The one on the left is the test adapter without a check valve, and the one on the right is the old one.

I quickly installed the new one and went back inside to check the shower flow, and bask in the glory of a job well-done.

Oops!

Although the shower flow might be marginally better, it’s still not as good as when I’m using the pump, and in fact, even when using shore water, turning on the pump makes it better.

So it’s back to square one. I had good water pressure in Likely, so what ever happened, happened in between here and there. Tomorrow it’s back on the phone to American Coach.

Also tomorrow, a movie and dinner is on the horizon. We’ll see.


June 3, 2015

The Rest Of The Story . . .

as Paul Harvey would say.

After being told by the service manager yesterday that the insurance company was dragging their feet in approving the last couple of items on our repair, I found out that wasn’t the case. As it turns out, everything had already been approved. But apparently it just hadn’t filtered down to the people that needed to know here.

So it looks like we’re on track with the repairs, and just waiting for the airbag and windshield to come in. The only problem that might come up is if they want to start working on it Friday. We’ve already been told that they will have to pull our rig into the shop to replace the windshield and the airbag. I figure the service department doesn’t work on the weekends, and we’ve spent enough time in motel rooms lately without adding a couple of extra days. So hopefully they’ll wait to start on Monday.

They said it would take a couple of days to replace the windshield, and that’s about what it took to replace one last year in Elkhart. But then I remember when I had one replaced in 2009 after we got back from Alaska. The guy came out to our RV site, and with two helpers, had the old one out and the new one installed in about 20 minutes.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that after they had repaired the shredded wiring while we were gone to Illinois, that the grab bar didn’t light up. Although it was working before we left Las Vegas, I figured it was probably a bad bulb.

But when I tried to check it out, I found the top screw on the bracket was stuck and when I tried to remove it, it just wallowed out the slot. So I picked up a screw extractor at True Value and got it out.

And I found that the bulb was bad. But so was the socket. When I hooked up my voltmeter to the connector, I got no voltage reading as I toggled the switch. So today I took the panel off and found the problem.

Grab Bar Switch Problem

There was only wire going to the center switch. So it’s not going to work very well. I then used my ohmmeter function to determine that the remaining wire ran from the switch to the center contact on the bulb socket. So I’ll have to get the repair place to take a look at it.

For dinner tonight we had Tomato and Sweet Basil Bisque and Grilled Cheese. For the bisque, we tried a couple of cans of this Campbell’s Slow Kettle soups.

Campbell Slow Kettle Soup

When we were at Sam’s Club the other day we came across a 4 pack of these and for $3.91, decided to give them a try.

And they were really, really good. As good as anything I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Well worth the 98 cents each. We’ll pick up more when we go back to pick up our prescriptions tomorrow.


June 3, 2016

It’s Always Something . . . Again

For us at least, the weather has really been nice here for the last two days. With temps in the high 70’s/low 80’s, and night temps in the high 60’s, it’s been almost perfect.

Once again, the morning and early afternoon was consumed by website work, this time by two different sites, trying to iron out some small fiddly bits, and one bigger one.

I had mentioned before about setting up a MySQL database on one website, and that I was having trouble getting it to work. Well, after talking with Godaddy today I confirmed what I was beginning to think.

I can’t get it to work, because it won’t work that way, Or at least the way I always done it before. Godaddy handles PHP code differently from what I’m used to, so I’ll have to come at the problem from a different direction.

Later in the afternoon, our Sharp Convection Oven – Microwave developed a problem. The door won’t open. When you push the button it feels like it’s not connected to anything and nothing happens.

Our 17 year old Sharp has been a workhorse and this is the first problem we’ve ever had with it. Apparently this is a somewhat common problem, and repair parts to fix it are only about $18, but first I’ll have to figure out how to get the door open. Hopefully I’ll find something online to help out. But it’ll have to wait until we’re back at Lake Conroe on Sunday. It’s always something.

About 3pm we decided to drive into our daughter Brandi’s in Katy to pick up our Amazon packages. We were going to pick them up tomorrow on our way back from Clear Lake, but one of the packages was the new memory for Barbara Spade’s laptop and I wanted to be able to run MemTest86 on the new memory before I give it back to Barbara Saturday evening.

So we combined the trip with meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for dinner at Little V Vietnamese Bistro, one of our all-time favorite places.

Their Shaking Beef with Vermicelli Bowl can’t be beat.

Little V's Shaking Beef Vermicelli_thumb[1]

After a great get-together we got back home about 7pm and I got the new memory installed in Barbara’s laptop and set it up to run MemTest86 all night. I’m not expecting any problems with the new memory, but it helps to be sure.

One of the things that came in today was my new Shurflo RV Water Pump. Another job for Lake Conroe.

Shurflo RV Water Pump_thumb[1]

Shurflo 3.0 GPM  RV Water Pump

Tomorrow is something Jan and I have been looking forward to for a while, especially since we decided not to travel as much this year, meaning we would be here for this.

Jan and I are driving down to Seabrook to attend a NASA/Taft Broadcasting Employee Reunion at T-Bone Tom’s. Taft was the NASA contractor that I worked for on the Shuttle program at Johnson Space Center from1978 to 1987.

The last time Jan and I meet up with a lot of these people was another reunion in 2007 before we started RV’ing. And a few of them I’ve bumped into in the last couple of years. But some of them I haven’t seen since 1987. So it will be interesting to see how old they’ve all gotten.


June 3, 2017

Pancakes and Soup . . .

This morning seemed to be a good time for breakfast, so we headed into RC about 11:30.

Based on a recommendation of blog reader Jeannine Sheridan we decided on Cambell Street Café. And yes, that’s the way it’s really spelled. And that’s how the street name is spelled.

Cambell Street Cafe

But when you try to Google the place, it changes your spelling to ‘Campbell’, and every review spells it ‘Campbell’ also.

But however it is spelled, it was really, really good, with giant portions. And as a bonus, good coffee and great service.

Cambell Street Cafe 1

Jan had two eggs, scrambled dry, with extra crispy bacon, hash browns, and a biscuit.

Cambell Street Cafe Jan

I went with their pancakes, eggs, and Polish sausage.

Cambell Street Cafe Greg

Jan and I both ate on the pancakes and didn’t come close to finishing them.

As we were leaving we mentioned to the owner? and our waitress that we were RV’ers and another RV’er had recommended the place. We said that they were having their RV worked on for a month or so,  and had  eaten here a number of times.

Both said they remembered them, and our waitress said she had waited on them a lot. So I guess Jeannine and her family made a good impression.

Coming home we made a Wal-Mart stop before getting back to the rig about 2pm. At this point I guess I was still a little washed out from my headache yesterday, so, putting off working on the generator solenoid, I took a nap.

But later I did pull the new solenoid off the new starter to be ready to tackle it tomorrow..

New Solenoid

In a follow-up to my travails with my Verizon MiFi and the data speed throttling, I recently mentioned that after my MiFi had throttled back at 10GB, I had switched over to hotspotting my S8+. And that while I had used up the 10Gb on the MiFi in just seven days, it took me almost three weeks to get to the 10GB limit on my S8+.

And now I’m at almost 20GB on my phone, but I’m still not being throttled. And my MiFi is still throttled, and I guess it will be until June 8th when my account resets.

We’ve been recording the Torchwood marathon on BBCA since 4am Friday morning, and it finally finished up at 6pm this evening, so now we’ve got all 37+ hours of the series. Looking forward to binge-watching it in the near future.

But right now we’ve been catching up on a couple of series that we had recorded and saved, Motive and Murder in the First. Somewhere along the line we had missed one or more of the last few episodes of both series, So we’ve streamed the missing episodes from the Internet filling in the blanks, and then watched the ones we still have recorded. We’ve finished with Murder in the First, so now we’re working on Motive.

Jan slow-cooked a big batch of her Chicken Vegetable Soup so that’s what we had for dinner. Really good, as usual.

Jan's Chicken Vegetable Soup 3

Tomorrow, back on the solenoid?


June 3, 2022

A Busy Three Days . . .

It’s been a busy three days.

Wednesday we were in Birmingham getting together with old friends, Bill and Carol Alverson.

Bill and I worked as Broadcast Engineers at several radio and TV stations here in Birmingham back in the mid-70’s, and we always get together when we’re back in the area. And it’s always fun.

Then yesterday, we moved down to Montgomery and get together with Fred and Susan Springall

About 6pm we headed over to the home of our long-time friends Fred and Susan Springall. Fred and I worked together in the mid-70’s when we were both with Storer Cable here in Montgomery, which later became TCI, which later became 3 or 4 other companies along the way.

Susan prepared a delicious Lasagna dinner with salad and garlic bread, one of our favorites. And we spent the rest of the evening talking about anything and everything.

Fun!

Then today we met one of Jan’s former co-workers, Kathy Wilkes, also from when we lived here in Montgomery, until we moved out to Houston in December 1978.

And as in the past we met at the Longhorn Steakhouse up in Prattville, near where Kathy lives.

As I just reminded Jan the other day, it’s been almost 44 years since we moved out to Houston, and we’re still getting together with friends from back in the day.

Tomorrow we head down to Gulf Shores to meet up with the rest of the family, Jan’s sister’s group coming down from Illinois, and our group coming over from Texas.

Really looking forward to it.

I’ve got some more things to post that went on the last few days, but it’s getting late so I’ll catch up later.