Monthly Archives: August 2023

Back From The Dead?

Yesterday afternoon they started trenching in the water lines to the new section of our RV park, so it looks like some headway is being made.

Still don’t have any idea what the time frame is going to be.

Today was pretty much back to our normal  Sunday routine, with lunch at  Denny’s and then HEB stuff from HEB,

Coming home, we made a quick Post Office stop and then back to the rig.

It looks like one of our favorite restaurants, Texas Huddle, may be coming back from the dead.

I mentioned a while back that they abruptly closed June 2nd, saying they had major A/C problems. And it dragged on and on with their Facebook page saying they would be back any day now. But commenters were starting to get suspicious, wondering how long it takes to fix an A/C anyway.

Then on July 3rd, after several people said they thought some of the furniture had been removed, Jan and I stopped by and found the door padlocked with the big lock and a note saying that they had been locked out due to non-payment of rent. And after I posted this on FB all of the encouraging comments from the TH management disappeared. And around this same time other commenters said that many of the cooks and waitstaff were still owed wages from the closure.

Then this past Saturday, August 11th, the post resumed, saying they were reopening the next day, but for takeout orders only. The post said you could call ahead or just come in.

So maybe they’re back. We’ll see, I guess

Though I told Jan that the only reason I could think of that they wouldn’t have table service is that they didn’t have any waitstaff. Maybe because they hadn’t paid them what they were owed.

Who knows?

Jan and I just hope that Juana, our favorite server, comes back.


Thought For The Day:

Not Sure This Is The ‘Happily Ever After’ She Was Imagining.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


August 13, 2009

America’s Hometown…

Today was our day to tour Plymouth, which calls itself  “America’s Hometown”, which I guess is true since it was America’s first town.

After making the 40 mile trip,  we first decided to have breakfast at the All American Diner in downtown Plymouth, and it was excellent!

Leaving the diner we drove down and parked along the waterfront.

Plymouth Harbor

Plymouth Harbor

The first thing we came upon was the Plymouth Rock monument.

Plymouth Rock Sign

Plymouth Rock Building

Plymouth Rock Building

Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rock

It’s amazing to stand over the Rock and imagine almost 400 years ago the Pilgrims landing here.

Next we walked a few blocks away to where the Mayflower II is docked.  Built in England in 1956 from the original plans, it made the voyage to America in 1957 and was given to the Plimouth Plantation group for display here.

Mayflower II

Mayflower II

And then of course we had to hit the gift shops.  Here’s Jan modeling the latest in holiday attire.

Turkey Hat

Heading home we stopped off at Target for more ‘stuff’ and then made the drive home.

The park we’re staying in is really nice, probably the nicest one we’ve ever stayed in.

Normandy 1

Normandy 2

Normandy 3

And the landscaping and flowers are really something.

Flower 1

Flower 2

Flower 3

Today is our last full day in Massachusetts.  Tomorrow we head north to Saint Johnsburg, VT for a few days at Moose River Lodge.

As it stands now we should be in Nova Scotia within the next two weeks.  We’ll see.

More tomorrow from Vermont…


August 13, 2010

How Much is that Doggie in the Window?

This morning started out with a pot of SnickerNut Cookie coffee and a pineapple-orange muffin, and a nice quiet time was had by all.

We have been on the road almost continuously since the 15th of February, and have put a little over 10,000 miles on the coach, with another 1200 to go before we get back to Houston.

It’s really nice to just sit around and do pretty much nothing, except for going out to dinner.

Since we’d had coffee late in the morning and knew we were going to have an early dinner at Ryan’s (Hmmmm ! Fried Chicken !), we just had chips and dip for lunch.

The dip was made with one of the dip flavor packets we bought from Dip’n Good Dips at The Rally in Louisville, KY last month. This flavor was Jalapeno Veracruz and it was really good.  We’ve still got Hot Habanero left to try, and I predict we’ll be ordering more when these are gone.

Jan spent the afternoon working on a craft project gluing seashells on some things and I caught up on some orders and straighten out a problem with our MyDakotaAddress mail service.

About 4:30 we headed out a few minutes later, stopping off at the park office to pick up our mail, and then it was off to Ryan’s.

Getting back to the rig we noticed this “doggie in the window” in a rig back behind ours. When we first saw him he was standing up in the window just about filling up the entire dashboard.

Doggie in Window

Tomorrow I’m going to a gun show in Shipshewana and Jan’s going to check out an Amish Farmer’s Market.


August 13, 2011

Pistols and Potato Salad . . .

Breakfast again started out at Robbi’s Restaurant about 9 and once again ended up with trips to Rural King and Wal-Mart before heading down to Debbie’s for the day.

We mostly just took it easy enjoying the great company and talking, talking, talking.

Gwen, Tana’s daughter spent the day again, and was really good helping out and keeping tabs on Landon.

Debbie Gwen

She’s cute as a button and smart as a whip, a deadly combination when the boys start hanging around in a few years.

Later in the afternoon Lowell, Brandi, Tina, Tana, Jim, and I went down to his target practice area and fired a couple of his pistols for a while. We punched a lot of holes in the targets and everyone had a good time.

Around 6 pm we headed out to the fire pit to roast hot dogs over the flames, to have along with a big batch of Debbie’s potato salad.

Debbie Cookout 1

Landon made himself right at home,

Landon in Chair 2

even kicking back and taking it easy.

Landon in Chair 3

In fact everyone did.

Debbie Cookout

Debbie Cookout 2

We had planned to roast marshmallows, but by the time we were finished with the hot dogs, the thunder, lightning, and then rain moved in, so we all moved inside.

After a long, fun day, Jan and I headed back to the rig about 8, ready to do it all again tomorrow.


August 13, 2013

Rain and Idiots . . .

After a great time catching up with all my relatives here in Athens, we pulled out of Northgate RV Travel Park a little after 9:30. Our goal was Meridian, MS 230 miles away, but our first stop was a Pilot/Flying J about 20 miles away.

I was looking forward to trying out my new RV Plus Card.

RV Plus Card Logo

I got a letter about this from the Good Sam’s people a couple of months ago and thought I’d give it a try, It turns out to be Pilot/Flying J charge card for merchandise, gas, and diesel. Depending on your level of Good Sam’s membership, you get from 3 to 7 cents a gallon off the CASH price on unleaded, and 5 to 9 cents a gallon off the CASH price on diesel.

If you want to pay manually every month, you get a $1000 credit limit, but if you allow auto-debit from your bank account, you get a $2500 limit.

But the first use of my new card didn’t get off to an auspicious start. What’s supposed to happen is that you swipe your card, enter your code (a 4 digit number that you can choose) and you’re off and running. But after swiping my card, the system stuck on ‘Authorizing Card’ for about 30 seconds and then said “Please See Cashier”.

Bummer.

So inside I went. And found a long line of other upset people. Turns out that Pilot’s TCH network was down, They could still process regular credit cards like VISA, MC, etc., but any of their own cards, like the RV Plus card, and their commercial trucking cards could not be run.

That explains why all the truck fueling lines were stacked up about 4 deep. They said the network had been down for about 15 minutes, but had no idea when it would be back up. About that time I noticed that the guy standing in front of me was parked a couple of spaces over from me at Northgate park in Athens. He was parked in the next lane over in the RV fuel area.

He was holding an RV Plus card so I asked him how he liked it. He said it was great and that this was the first time he’d ever had a problem. He went ahead and used his VISA card, but since I wasn’t really hurting from diesel and wanted to try out my card, I thought I’d just head on down I-65 to the next Pilot about 70 miles away. just north of Birmingham.

This time things worked perfectly, just swiped my card, entered my PIN, and started pumping. The other nice thing about the card is that there are no credit card limits like with VISA, etc.

If you want to sign up, you can go here: RV Plus Card, It doesn’t cost anything to get the card, and there are no additional fees, monthly charges, or anything else. You must be a Good Sam’s member to sign up for the RV Plus card, but if you’re not, you can sign up for them at the same time.

BTW if you do decide to sign up, and you’re nice enough to enter my code 1060986 in the PROMO CODE box, I’ll get $5 credited to my account. Thanks.

Leaving the Pilot, it was getting hot and sticky so I started up the generator and turned on the house A/C’s. Since it was somewhat cloudy it cooled things down pretty quick.

Things went pretty smooth until about 20 miles from the AL/MS border when the grey clouds we’d been seeing in front of us turned black and the bottom fell out. The rain was coming down in sheets and traffic slowed to about 30 mph.

One thing that drives me crazy in situations like this is when people start putting their emergency flashers on and keep driving. First thing is, on most vehicles, if your flashers are on, you no longer have turn signals since they’re usually the same circuit. The other problem is that in rain when you have a number of vehicles in front of you with their flashers on, it all just mixes into a smeared multi-colored blur. It becomes almost impossible to know how many cars are ahead of you, and more importantly, you lose your depth perception. It becomes very hard to tell how far ahead they are.

I was about 50 yards behind a semi and could keep him in view so I just kept moving. Finally getting into MS I thought I’d try to wait it out at the Welcome Center lot, and the semi in front of me had the same idea. But we both ended up just passing through since the lot was full.

Getting back on the Interstate it looked like I could see a little blue sky ahead so I keep going since we only had about another 15 miles or so. And by the time I had turned off the highway toward our RV park, it had really slacked off.

Getting close to our park we were on a nice divided highway, and I ended up stuck in the right lane when I should have been the left, but the heavy traffic behind me kept me from getting over in time to make my turn-off. So finally getting into the left lane, I had to go another 1/2 mile down the road before I came to a crossover that would let me make a U-turn. I already had my turn signal on, and as I approached the turn I moved over to the right so I was now pretty much straddling the center line for about 50 yards. Hey, I’m 65 feet long and making a U-turn.

There was nobody behind me in the right lane, and several behind me on the left. And as I slowed to start making my turn, THEY STARTED PASSING ME INSIDE MY TURN ON MY LEFT!

I came very close to turning in a big yellow school bus, the first vehicle to pass. But what really stunned me was that two tractor trailers followed the bus by me. I could maybe understand the bus driver not realizing what I was doing, but two semi’s as long as I am?

The third vehicle, another semi, held back and let me finish my turn. I know my turn signals were all working because I could see them reflecting in the water on the road.

Finally about 3pm we pulled into Benchmark RV Park, a very nice Passport America park with 50 amp FHU sites for $18 a night. And even better with all the rain, gravel access roads and concrete pads.

The office was closed until 4:30 and since it had started pouring again, we just sat inside with the generator still running and waited out the storm before plugging in.

A little before 5 we headed out to have dinner at Weidmann’s, known as The Oldest Restaurant in Mississippi. It opened in 1870 in the Union Hotel here in Meridian, and moved to its present location in 1923. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to learn more because it’s late and I’m tired.


August 13, 2014

Like, WOW!

After coffee and cinnamon toast this morning, I finished mounting a voltmeter to keep better track of my house battery voltage, since I’ve already got one up front that monitors my engine batteries. I was able to just tap into the power bus of the lights overhead so it was pretty easy.

House Battery Voltmeter

After doing pretty much nothing the rest of the afternoon, we headed out a little after 4pm for dinner at Lulu’s at Homeport. But we first made a detour to stop at Tallulah’s Treasures, one of Jan’s favorite gift shops in this area.

Tallulahs

We’ve been coming here for a lot of years and Jan always finds something there, and today was no exception with a new addition to her octopus collection.

Then it was on up to Lulu’s on the Intracoastal Waterway. The ‘Lulu’ in question, is actually Lucy,  as in Lucy Buffett, Jimmy Buffett’s older sister. She’s had a restaurant in this area for quite a few years, first on Weeks Bay, and then in its present location since 2004. It’s one of our never-miss places when we visit Gulf Shores.

We got there a little before 5pm so we were able to get a table right on the water without a wait. Which wouldn’t have been possible 15 minutes later. The place filled up fast.

Lulu's 2014

Jan tried something different this time, the Blackened Shrimp Tacos.

Lulu's Blackened Shrimp Tacos

One bite and Jan said, “Like, WOW!”. She said it was the best seafood taco she’d ever had, shrimp, fish, or otherwise.

I started out with a cup of Seafood Gumbo, and then went with my tried and true Half and Half Loaf, which is Lulu’s version of the half shrimp, half oyster Po Boy.

Lulu's Half and Half Loaf

But we were careful to save room so we could split an order of their Bread Pudding made from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding

Can’t miss that.

As we were leaving, I saw something I wish we could have for Gate Guarding.

Lulu's Mister

It’s a high capacity misting fan, one that would really keep us cool on the gate. Bet it works a lot better than the one we have.

Leaving Lulu’s we spent some time just driving around the area, checking out all the places that have changed, and the occasional place that’s still the same since I lived here 50 years ago. Finally, after a Wal-Mart stop, we were back at the rig by 7:30.

Tomorrow is our last full day here in Gulf Shores, and the week has sure gone fast. We’ll leave here Friday morning, taking two days to make the 600 mile trip back to Houston for Jan’s checkup visits and Landon’s 4th birthday.

Speaking of Landon, Brandi sent this over.

Landon in Straw Hat

Cute, or what?


August 13, 2015

Gumbo . . .

We reluctantly pulled out of our site at the Gulf State Park a little after 8:30 this morning. I say ‘reluctantly’ because we always really enjoy our stay here and it’s never long enough.

For me it’s like coming home, since I lived here from the time I was two until I was thirteen and we moved to Colombia, South America, When we moved to Gulf Shores in January 1951 and my parents opened their motel, the main beach road had only been paved for about six months. There was one restaurant, four motels, and a lot of empty beach.

I used to know every building, and every family here. Now there are so many condos and multi-story hotels that it’s hard to get my bearings.

They say you can’t go home again, but it’s always fun trying in Gulf Shores.

We got hitched up in one of those semi-circle pull-thru’s they have here and headed out for one last drive along the beach road a little before 9. And by 10am we were turning onto the I-10 washboard and headed west.

On a quick segue, who is this guy and why is he on every billboard in Alabama.

Lawyer Billboard

Well, almost every one.

We started to see his billboards up in north Alabama, and saw them all the way down to Gulf Shores. I have never seen so many billboards for one thing.

In some cases he has billboards opposite each other on both sides of the road. In other cases, you will be passing one billboard and you can already see the next one further down the road. One time I counted 10 billboards in a 5 mile stretch.

I can only imagine how much he spent on this media buy. I  guess he’s hoping for a lot of accidents.

We pulled into Poche’s RV Park right at 3pm and got set up in our usual site. They have several corner pull-thru’s reserved for over-nighters right on the lake with a really nice view.

About 4:30 we headed out to have dinner at Pont Breaux nee Mulate’s. We’ve eaten here for about 30 years, mostly just for one thing, the gumbo.

Their gumbo here is the standard against which all other gumbos are measured. The only other gumbo that equals it is at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood in Webster, TX. And that’s probably because the ‘Floyd’ in question is Floyd Landry, one of the brothers who started the Landry’s Restaurants chain before they sold it off.

Pont Breaux Gumbo

Note two things here. It comes with potato salad, and the gumbo looks kind of green.

The potato salad is one of those regional things you find around the country, like some areas put Cole slaw on their pulled pork BBQ sandwiches. In fact some places serve their gumbo with the scoop of potato salad already in the bowl.

Different strokes, and all that.

And the gumbo has a green tint because of the filé powder I sprinkled on it, because you can’t have real gumbo without filé.

For dessert we had our usual Bread Pudding with Vanilla Rum Sauce.

Pont Breaux Bread Pudding

I don’t think they cook all the rum out, or maybe they add more rum afterwards, but the sauce has a little kick to it. Really good.

Tomorrow we’ve got another 300 mile run, this time to the Colorado River Thousand Trails west of Houston in  Columbus,  TX. Really looking forward to seeing the kids and grandkids again.


August 13, 2016

Getting The Taste Out . . .

Jan and I were up and out the door by 9:45 this morning, heading over to my cousin (2nd Removed) Anna Jean’s. We missed seeing her last year, so it was good to get together again, and talk over old family stories.

Later, her sister Marjorie and her husband Walter, showed up to add to the fun.

Marjorie and Walter

We ended up spending about 3 hours reminiscing about family members, both past and present.

Anna Jean

And Anna Jean’s still pretty spry for 91 years young.

Hopefully we won’t have to skip another year.

Finally saying our good-byes to Anna Jean, Jan and I headed down to Decatur to get that bad taste out of our mouths. Specifically the taste of the BBQ we had a couple of days ago.

So to take care of that problem, we went right to the top . . .  well, one of the Top Five, anyway

A while back the Food Network did a series on the Top Five Restaurants in the US in six different categories: burgers, steak, pizza, tacos, barbecue, and ice cream. And we were really surprised to see the one on the Top Five BBQ Restaurants in the US .

We’ve eaten at The Bar-B-Q Shop in Memphis a couple of times, and have eaten at Big Bob Gibson’s a number of times over the years, since it’s only about 15 miles south of here.

And at the top of the list, Killen’s Barbecue, is only a few miles from our home in Friendswood, but somehow we’ve never made it over there. But hopefully soon.

Killen’s Barbecue
3613 E Broadway St, Pearland, TX 77581

The Bar-B-Q Shop
1782 Madison Ave, Memphis, TN 38104

Skylight Inn
4618 S Lee St, Ayden, NC 28513

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q
1715 6th Avenue SE, Decatur, AL 35601

Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que
3002 W 47th St, Kansas City, KS 66103

Jan went with her usual Pulled Pork Sandwich and Fries, while I went with my go-to Combo Plate, with St. Louis style Ribs, Beef Brisket, and Pulled Pork, along with Potato Salad and BBQ Baked Beans.

Although they’re also known for their Chicken and Turkey, I stuck with the BBQ standards, ribs, beef and pork.

Big Bob Gibson's Combo Plate

Everything was delicious, even the brisket. I had about resigned myself to not finding good brisket outside of Texas, but this was good.

A couple of years ago we were in Memphis and ate Central BBQ, one of the highly rated BBQ places in the area, and the ‘brisket’ I got was like thinly-sliced deli roast beef. Definitely not brisket.

The ribs were really good, juicy and meaty, with a lot of flavor. And that was before I added sauce. And unlike the other place, their sauces are really good too.

Big Bob Gibson's Sauces

The one on the left is a very good (award-winning) conventional tomato-based BBQ sauce. The white sauce is another of those regional things (north Alabama, East Tennessee, South Carolina) for use on pulled chicken and turkey. Vinegar-based, it’s tangy and spicy with a little kick.

The reddish sauce on the right is another not quite as tangy vinegar-based sauce for pulled pork. Another one of those regional things.

And not only was everything delicious, we had half left to bring home for later.

And besides their BBQ, Big Bob’s is also known for their homemade pies.

Big Bob Gibson's PIes

Mine, on the left, is Peanut Butter Pie, while Jan’s on the right, is Chocolate. Both delicious.

Tomorrow we’ll head out for Meridian, MS on our way back to Houston. We’ve already decided to change our route home, and stay on I-20W to Shreveport and then down to Houston, rather than going down to I-10 and all the flooding.

In fact, it seems that I-10 is closed at the LA/TX border anyway, so we’ll try to avoid all the trouble.


August 13, 2017

Governmental Dumbness . . .

But I repeat myself.

Kinda par for the course, right?

In a fantastic display of business acumen, the United States Post Office wants to raise stamp prices again. They’re losing too much money because less and less people mail letters every year. Well, that’ll encourage ‘em to mail more letters.

It’s called a death spiral for a reason, guys.

In other stupidity, the city of Philadelphia passed a ‘soda tax’ that took effect this past January. But unlike other cities that tax ‘sugary’ drinks, Philly is taxing everything non-alcoholic, fruit juice, diet drinks, anything with any sort of sweetener in it, artificial or otherwise at 1.5 cents per ounce.

In many cases it more than doubles the price of the drink,

phillybeveragetaxover100pct0817

and makes ‘soda’s more expensive than beer.

The mayor in pushing this bill though assured the public and the city council that the beverage distributors would absorb the cost of the tax and the public wouldn’t see any increase.

Unfortunately no one asked the beverage distributors about this. But even without eating the tax, they’re hurting anyway, with some reporting sales down nearly 50 percent, and both Coca Cola and PepsiCo having to lay people off.

And PepsiCo is no longer selling 12 pks and 2 liter bottle because they’re become so pricey no one is buying them anymore.

And now convenience stores and family grocery stores located near the city limits are starting to go under. If you going outside the city for your ‘soda’, why come back in the city for your gas, cigarettes, beer, etc.?

Oh, and the sales of alcoholic beverages have skyrocketed.

Who could have seen that coming?

Of course, not to be outdone, Cook County, IL (basically Chicago) had to get in on this largess of tax money. But they decided to cut the public a break and only tax ‘soda’ at 1 cent per ounce additional.

But then they already have a 3 percent soft drink sales tax as well as a 10.25 percent general sales tax. And it’s all cumulative. So you’re paying a tax on a tax on a tax.

And because many small business’ computer systems can’t handle all this taxing going on, people find that they’re paying the new tax on bottled water as well.

And now in one of those real ‘gotcha’ moments, the U.S Department of Agriculture is threatening to withhold $87 million in food stamp payments because of the new tax. Apparent food stamp recipients can not be charged this tax, since their purchases are supposed to be exempt from state and local sales taxes.

The city tried to have merchants charge the tax and then immediately refund the tax, but Ag Department said NO.

So the whole thing may go down in flames anyway.


August 13, 2018

Last Minute Travels . . .

I know it’s been usually hot in other areas of the country, but here in Texas we’re really having a mild August.

For the last couple of weeks the temps have stayed in the low 90’s, even dipping down to 88° this past Saturday. Of course the nigh time temps are still in the high 70’s/low 80’s so not a lot of change there. But still nice.

We did get enough rain over the weekend for me to see that I still had two tiny leaks on my recently-caulked windshield. So while I could see the drips, I marked the spots on the glass with a black Sharpie so I can come back in a while and spot caulk the leaks.

As of right now we’re still on track to close on Thursday, but that’s not certain, so we’re still planning to be down by Wednesday night. I did stop off at the house this afternoon and picked up all the trash bags from the house to drop off at the dumpster.

Jan got a phone call from me this morning. My name showed up on the screen, but it wasn’t my number listed underneath my name. This was the second time this has happened in the last couple of weeks, so be on the lookout for this new scam.

I was looking at Google Maps the other day to see what county we are in here at Petticoat Junction. I thought we were probably in Galveston County but I wanted to be sure since the county lines run in some strange ways around here. But then I noticed this about the city limit line of Santa Fe.

Petticoat Junction RV Park

The line passes right through the middle of our rig. So when we’re back in the bedroom, we’re in the city of Santa Fe. And when we’re sitting up front, we’re just in Galveston County. Who knew?

It’s amazing how much TV we’re not watching now. We kind of got out of the habit during our recent 3 week Illinois/Alabama trip when we were so on the go that we just never set up the sat dish. Guess that’s kind of going ‘cold turkey.’ But we’ll see how it goes during the new Fall season.

Several people commented or emailed about my gentle ribbing of Jan’s list-making for our upcoming European trip, saying that without Jan’s lists I might not know what to pack.

I said it was a guy thing, but maybe it’s more a family thing. My family.

Back during the summer of 1964, we were living in Athens, AL after moving back from Colombia, SA  the previous fall. We were eating dinner, my father, my mother, my 3 year old sister, and myself. My mother commented, wondering about when we were going to take that ‘out west’ trip we’d been talking about. My father looked over and said, “What about now?”

And two hours later, about 8pm, we were on the road for an almost 4 week trip. We hit the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, spent a week staying at Disneyland (my fav), drove up 101 in California, Napa, a lot of the Spanish Missions, etc.

So I guess packing the day before we leave for our cruise is just in my blood.


August 13, 2019

Never Enough Time . . .

I had originally planned to pull a rear wheel this morning to check my truck’s brake rotors, but decided to wait until later this evening when it would be a little cooler, and if I pulled the passenger side, I would be in the shade.

Later, about 1pm, Jan and I headed out for breakfast at Snooze, and then a couple of shopping stops.

Jan got her usual favorite Bravocado Toast, along with a bowl of fruit.

Snooze Avocado Toast

When we were up in Waco a few months ago, we had breakfast at Magnolia Table, the Chip and Joanna Gaines place. And of course, Jan ordered her fav Avocado Toast, and was kind of disappointed with what she got.

Magnolia Table Avocado Toast

Not what she expected, especially when compared with Snooze.

I got my usual 3 Egg Classic Breakfast, also with fruit.

Snooze 3 Egg Classic

Our next stop was at the office to pick up my Amazon order that finally got delivered today, with one of the items in the box was my Cummins oil filter.

The new gasket was supposed to be delivered by USPS yesterday, and in fact, it was shown as Out For Delivery. But it never showed up. And rather than coming today, the tracking shows it back up in north Houston for some reason. Hopefully it will show up someday.

After that we made a couple of more stops, including a WalMart run, before finally heading home.

About 6:30 I went out to pull the rear wheel to take a look at the rotor. And as I thought the rotors definitely need to be replaced.

Truck Rear Brake Rotor

In fact it’s pretty much a shadow of its former self, and pretty scarred. If I had been able to replace the pads a couple of months ago like I had wanted to, but something, weather, traveling, illness, family, etc., always seem to intervene.

So I’ve got a pair of ACDelco rotors coming in on Thursday.

ACDelco Brake Rotor

I’ve already got the pads, so I should be ready to go. But family, a get-together at Brandi’s this weekend, will put the brake job on hold until at least next week.

Along with the new rotors, I also ordered a set of 24 new lug nuts so I can replace all of them, not just the one that was rounded off.

New lug nuts

Hopefully at some point here in the next week or so, I’ll be able to change out the oil filter gasket and get that out of the way at last.


August 13, 2020

A New Address . . .

One thing nice about Petticoat Junction RV Park where we’ve been for almost 3 years is that the owner, Rob, is always making improvements.

As sites go empty, he’s been expanding them to a full concrete pad. Not just a gravel pad and a concrete patio.

PJRVP New Pads

And now we’re getting locking mailboxes in the few weeks.

PJRVP Mail Boxes

It will be nice to have a real address here.


August 13, 2022

So Good To Have Jan Back Home . . .

We headed up to Webster about 1pm to have lunch once again at Texas Huddle Grille.

And Juana, our usual waitress, remembered our order, and even remember how we wanted it.

Jan got her usual Keto (no bun) Cheddar Bacon Cheeseburger with a Salad and their Grilled Veggies.

Texas Huddle Cheddar Swiss Keto 20220626

For me, based on the recommendation of a manager last visit, I got my PB&J Burger with a heaping helping of their Flaming Raspberry Wing Sauce, on the burger, and a side of it too.

Texas Huddle PB&J Burger with Flaming Raspberry

Very tasty, though I wouldn’t call it ‘Flaming’, but more like Hot. But it will be a standard addition from now on.

But I still sprinkled on some of my Carolina Reaper flakes for a little extra zip.

Then it was home for the rest of the day.


We had our usual great time at the Alvin Opry last night. And we’re always impressed to see how Shalane Colston, the show coordinator, decorates and personalizes the tables.

Alvin Opry Table Top 20220812

And the stage is well-done also.

Alvin Opry Stage 20220812

But the big attraction of the evening, at least for Jan, was John Mark Davis, who’s her not-so-secret other heartthrob.

John Mark Davis 20220812

John Mark is the full-blooded son of the Chief of the Adai Caddo Indians of Louisiana, and has performed all over the country. He has opened for Mark Chesnutt and Tracy Byrd, and was offered a slot opening for Dwight Yoakum on a recent tour, but due to a prior obligation was unable to accept.

He was also twice an award winner in the Nashville’s Music City Song Fest, and really knows how to work a crowd and keep you entertained. He’s also known for his hilarious versions of Kaw-Liga, Running Bear, and Please Mr. Custer.

We’ve been following John Mark for over ten years and he’s always a great act, and we look forward to seeing him again soon.

Tomorrow’s agenda looks to be Gators and HEB. But things can change.

 

 

 

Just Passing Through . . .

Going back to yesterday, we headed out for Alvin about 4:30pm, but we only got out to Hwy 6 before we found our way blocked by this going by.

Very slowly.

In case you’re counting, that’s 24 axles.

They had a whole crew out in front of the transport raising the power lines and holding them up until it passed.

Not sure where it was going, but it looks like a big honkin’ transformer to me.

But finally it was on up to Alvin to have our usual pre-Opry dinner at Monterey’s Mexican Restaurant. Then it was on over to the American Legion Hall where the Opry is held once a month.

The doors open at 6 with the show beginning at 7, so we don’t usually get there until about 6:45. But tonight we were there right at 6, because as I said the other night, Jan’s other Heartthrob, John Mark Davis, was performing the pre-show from 6:15 to 6:50.

After Jan got her hug from John Mark, I asked her if she had almost knocked his wife over while getting her hug like last time.  She said, “No”.

Then she said, “His wife wasn’t with him.”

Well, that explains it.

When the main show started, we were happy to see an old friend, Robyn Mundy. We used to see her at the old Alvin Opry when she was a young girl. Now she’s all grown up.

A really good singer and a heck of a yodeler, too.

Next up was a young lady we’ve seen a couple of times before, Allie Rae.

She’s got a great stage presence and a voice that belies her size.

Next up was another favorite of ours, Glenda Lynn. We’ve seen her several times and she’s got a great voice and a wide range.

I told Jan that the way she belts out a song, she doesn’t really need a mic.

And besides being a great singer, she’s also the mayor of the small Houston suburb town where she lives.

Next up was the featured singer, Elle Tompkins, another outstanding performer.

This was our first time to see Elle and she did several ‘old-school’ songs from the likes of Reba McEntire and others

Really good and we hope to see her again.

Jan and I both agreed this was one of the best Opry shows in a good while.

And already looking forward to next month.


Back to today, it was lunch at Los Rameriz once again,

All delicious.

before making our weekly pilgrimage to Wal-Mart for groceries, etc.

While we were out and about this afternoon, I put in a call to Dr. Woo, the optometrist that did our recent eye exams and gave us prescriptions for new glasses. Jan is very unhappy with the correction in her right eye.

Her left eye is sharp and clear, and the bottom bifocal sections on both lenses also are fine. But her right eye is out of focus, and no better than her old ones

So on our way up to Brandi’s on Tuesday for her latest Landon gig, we’ve got an appointment to check in with Dr. Woo to see if her new lenses were done correctly.

Tomorrow looks to be Denny’s and HEB.


Thought for the Day:

The probability of you drinking a glass of water that contains a molecule of water that has also passed through a dinosaur is almost 100%.

Personally I think it’s the ‘passing through’ part that bothers me.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


August 12, 2009

Au Bon Pain and no Duck…

Today was our day to do the Boston tourist thing, so we headed out about 9:30 am for the 30 mile drive to Boston.  But first, we stopped off at McDonald’s for a Chicken Biscuit for breakfast.

It was very overcast when we got there, in fact the tallest buildings were disappearing into the low-hanging clouds.

We found a parking garage near where we were going to catch the Old Town Trolley tour.

One more city and we’ll have the complete set.  We’ve ridden the Old Town Trolley in Key West,  St. Augustine,  Savannah,  and Washington, DC,  and now Boston.

All we lack is the one in San Diego,  which we’ll do next year when we go thru there again.  We were in San Diego in February 2008 and really enjoyed the city.  It’s a beautiful place and we look forward to going back..

I had already bought our Trolley tickets online so we just walked the several blocks to the #1 Trolley stop and boarded our ride.

Our 1 hour and 45 min tour took us past just about all of Boston’s famous spots.

Paul Revere’s house

Old North Church – “One if by Land,  Two if by Sea”

U.S.S. Constitution – “Old Ironsides”

Bunker Hill Monument

Boston Massacre site

Cheers – TV bar

Fenway Park – Home of the Boston Red Sox

Harvard/MIT/Cambridge

Boston Tea Party site

After completing our tour we got off near the Museum of Science because we wanted to take the Boston Duck Tour, which originated from there.

On the way there we stopped for lunch at Au Bon Pain (The Good Bread),  a soup and sandwich place that I had heard of before.  The Italian Wedding Soup that I had was delicious!

After lunch, and looking at the map, we decided to take a taxi the rest of the way to the Museum.  And it was all for naught.

We got there about 2:15 pm, and when I went to get the tickets, I found the first time we could get a duck tour was 4:30 pm.  After thinking it over we decided that after the hour and a half tour, we would be trying to leave downtown Boston during going-home traffic, and this is something we didn’t want to do.

So calling it a day, we took a taxi back to the garage.  But before we left, we walked across the street to Starbucks for a coffee, and then down the street a ways to hit some gift shops.

Leaving the parking garage, I was surprised to find that it costs $36 to park for less than 5 hours in Boston.

Ouch!

We made the drive home and then sat outside the rig watching Mister roam about.

All in all,  a nice day.


August 12, 2010

Pretty Toes and Pizza…

Today started out with Jan heading out about 10 to get a pedicure at the nearby WalMart.  I got up about 10:30 and started removing the 3 cargo bay doors that I’m going to take over to Michele at Phoenix Commercial Paint this afternoon.

The doors came unbolted with no problems, but they were still attached to the coach by the hinge area. I wiggled, pulled, and tugged on the doors and eventually got one of them off. But I was stuck on the last one. Finally though the door came right off.

Jan got back a little after 11 and fixed us sandwiches from the leftover pork loin from Lunker’s the other night.

About 2 pm I loaded up the doors and drove over to Michigan to drop them off with Michele.

The rest of the afternoon we pretty much just goofed off around the rig.  Then, about 5 pm Jan, and I headed over to Mancino’s for a great meal of pizza and garlic breadsticks. On the way we made a quick detour to drop some letters off at the Post Office, and then it was on to supper.

Getting back to the park about 7:15 we again drove around the park checking out all the new rigs that have arrived.

Tonight is the first night for the Perseid Meteor Shower sometime after midnight.  I’ll try to take a look later, but with the lights in the park, and possible clouds, don’t know what I will be able to see.


August 12, 2011

Rural King and iCarly . . .

This morning started just like yesterday, with all of us meeting at Robbi’s Restaurant in Vandalia for breakfast about 9. Part of the Day’s Inn Hotel, it’s the local’s hangout for breakfast, where everyone knows everyone, and their business.

After a good breakfast, we split up. Brandi and Lowell headed over to St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch, and maybe get in a little gambling, while Jan and I (well, Jan, really) took care of Landon for the day.

The rest of us first stopped off at Rural King, kind of a combination of a Tractor Supply Store and Menard’s, and then headed over to, where else, Wal-Mart.

Driving back to Debbie’s, we passed the towing yard and saw the results of a tour bus/semi-trailer collision about 10 miles east of Vandalia yesterday.

The tour bus was carrying Miranda Cosgrove, actress, singer, and star of “iCarly”, and her family. “iCarly” is in its 4th season on Nickelodeon, and apparently a big hit.

The news reports say that the semi-trailer jackknifed and overturned on I-70 W. Miranda’s tour bus then plowed into the empty trailer.

Miranda ended up with a broken ankle, and luckily, no one was killed.

But the results look like this.

iCarly Wreck 1

iCarly Wreck 1a

iCarly Wreck 2

No mentioned of what caused the trailer to jackknife.

Getting back to Debbie’s and getting things unloaded, I headed back to the rig to take some ‘Momentum’ and lay down. I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday and it had really started to bother me.

But Jan lost no time snapping some more photos of Landon.

Debbie - Landon 10

Debbie - Landon 11

Here he’s discovered a whole basket of Beanie Babies, with his cousin Laura and her daughter Ella.

Debbie - Landon 13

And here, Landon wishes PaPa (me) would stop taking flash pictures of him.

Debbie - Landon 12

We had a great dinner of homemade tacos and burritos with all the fixin’s, courtesy of Debbie, Jan, Christina, Tana, and Laura.

Brandi and Lowell showed up about 7:30 pm, and then Jan and I headed back to the rig about 8:30 after a long day of Landon-wrangling.

And we’re going back for more tomorrow.


August 12, 2012

An Abundance of Riches . . .

I mentioned in the last blog that we heard there was another catered meal on the way, and it showed up. The very next day,

This one was a little different, but very, very good.

Catered Meal - R Const

It was really a buffet, with fried shrimp, fried chicken nuggets, fried catfish, fried mushrooms, French fries, hushpuppies, baked beans, turnip greens, mac ‘n cheese, green beans, and homemade banana pudding for dessert.

A guy could really hurt himself. And I think I did.

And once again we hear there’s another meal in the pipeline. I hope my stomach can take it.

We’ve been back in the high temps the last week or so.  It was officially 106 degrees here yesterday (Friday), but our thermometer showed 113. Today it was 102 and 110.

A cool spell.

Now up in Celina OH where we’ll be in two weeks, it’s in the low 80’s in the daytime and the mid 50’s at night. A guy could get used to that.

Luckily our water misting system is still doing its job keeping us pretty comfortable. Sometimes I’ll turn it off for a few minutes to do some paperwork, or something I don’t want to get damp, and it’s amazing how fast it gets just downright HOT and sweaty.

Our daughter Brandi passed on the latest bit of Landon-lore, about Landon, Kitty, and The War of the Toys.

Kitty (I don’t know. Don’t ask.) is their 125# Black Lab who adores Landon and is very protective of him. When Landon was just a baby, Kitty wouldn’t let anyone near Landon that she didn’t know, until Brandi or Lowell told Kitty it was OK.

Kitty

But like siblings, they sometimes fight, usually over toys.

Brandi said the other day she and Lowell heard Landon yelling “Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy”. Looking up they saw Landon and Kitty in a tug-of-war over a toy. Brandi said they told Landon he was going to have to take care of himself.

Looking around, Landon saw another toy that Kitty liked. Letting go of the contested toy, Landon picked up the other one, showed it to Kitty, and threw it across the room. Kitty dropped the toy in her mouth and took off after the new toy. Landon then scooped up his prize and headed off in the other direction. Mission accomplished.

Smart Kid!

My small computer fan that had been in orbit over Texas for the last several days (see the last blog post) finally came to earth.

Computer Fan

Although it is really a computer fan, it’s for my Black & Decker Battery Charger. The fan died a while back, and because of that, while the charger works fine in 2 amp and 10 amp modes, it shuts down due to overheating running in 25 amp mode. The charger is still under warranty, but Black & Decker has sold off their battery charger line and others to a company called Baccus Global. And their ‘warranty’ support leaves a lot to be desired. With having to pay postage both ways, along with a $15 ‘evaluation fee’, I was fast approaching the cost of a new charger.

So I decided to take the charger apart and see what was what. Turns out that the fan itself has just died, so a quick check on eBay found a replacement. I’ll get it installed and checked out in the next couple of days.


August 12, 2013

Last Day of Relative Fun . . .

Today is our last day here in Athens, and our last chance to get together with my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Theo, or Ninny and Buddy as I’ve always called them. So Jan and I headed over to their house about 11:15 to meet Ninny.

Ninny

After catching up for a while, we headed out for lunch at Rosie’s Mexican Cantina over in Huntsville before visiting Buddy at the Floyd Fann State Veteran’s Home.

We always try to eat at Rosie’s every time we visit here since it’s the best place we’ve found in the area for Mexican. So after a great lunch and more catching up, we drove over to see my Uncle Buddy.

He has been at the Veteran’s Home for the last several months getting physical therapy and rehabilitation to help his walking ability.

Buddy

My Uncle Theo (Buddy). who will be 91 next month, is here as a WW2 combat veteran. He fought in the North African Campaign, landed at Normandy on D-Day, and then as a Staff Sergeant, started out with Patton’s Third Army when it became operational in August 1944. Staying with the 3rd all the way to the end of the war, he was awarded the Bronze Star, Two Purple Hearts, and was one of a select few to receive the French Legion of Honor medal, awarded by France for conspicuous honor fighting during that campaign.

We spent about an hour catching up since last year. He’s so animated and cheerful, it’s hard to believe he’s almost 91.

Getting back to their house, we talked with Ninny a while longer before heading back to the rig about 5pm, leaving with a homemade peach pie and some of her wonderful Banana Nut Bread. You can’t beat that.

On the way home we made a couple of side trips to CVS and Wal-Mart. Coming out of Wal-Mart, it was pouring down rain and I got soaked getting back to the truck. I was afraid it would be raining when we got back to the rig since the storm was headed that way, but we got back just ahead of it.

Tomorrow, we’ve got a 230 mile trip down to Meridian, MS for the night. Then it’s Breaux Bridge, LA on Wednesday night, and into Houston on Thursday.


August 12, 2014

I Went 4 for 4 . . .

Today turned into an errand/chore day for me. We hadn’t washed the truck since we left Houston back in May, and it had gotten pretty dirty since then. But before I did that, I had a couple of returns to make.

Last week when we were up in Athens, AL, I bought a $25 bottle of R-134a Freon when I thought my truck AC problem was low Freon. So when I found out I had a AC compressor clutch problem instead, I didn’t need $25 of Freon. So back it went to Wal-Mart.

Next up was Home Depot. Since I hadn’t had any luck finding a replacement setscrew for our American Standard single handle lavatory faucet., at least locally, the other day I bought a generic replacement handle kit that was supposed to work with Delta, Price Pfister, and American Standard faucets.

Well, it may work with Delta and Price Pfister, but not with my American Standard. So I thought maybe the setscrew in the replacement kit would fit my original handle. But no luck. So back it goes to Home Depot.

Then it was off to the car wash to get all the road grime off. Of course we’ll be putting it right back on when we make the two day trip back to Houston starting this Friday.


I mentioned yesterday about the possibility of us gate guarding up near Huntsville, TX this year, instead of down in the Whitsett area. I had heard that pretty much everyone had bumped the gate guard pay up to $150 per day. But I was curious if this was so in other areas too. Friend and blog reader Lynette McHenry told me the $150 is now the standard everywhere.

Good to know. That’s an extra $700 every four weeks.


About 4pm Jan and I made our pilgrimage up to Foley and Lambert’s Throwed Rolls, one of our favorite places. There are three Lambert’s around the country. The other two are both in Missouri, and during our travels we’ve managed to eat at all three.

Of course, besides the great Southern comfort food, the other attraction is the ‘throwed rolls’. And they do throw them. In some cases, 30 or 40 feet across the dining room.

Jan and I were sitting at the far front of the restaurant and the rolls come out of the kitchen at the rear. The guys come with trays of rolls bigger than softballs, hot out of the oven, and start yelling, “Hot Rolls, Hot Rolls!”.

Immediately hands go up all over the dining room and rolls are arcing through the air.

Lambert's

Some are easy underhand tosses to a young girl or boy a few booths away, and some are full-on overhand spiral passes that almost brush the ceiling.

I went 4 for 4 on the rolls that came my way. But there was a 5th one that I don’t count.

Lambert's Ham

It was the ham’s fault, the one pictured above, hanging just behind Jan’s head. The guy throwing the roll had to pull it just as he launched it due to a lady suddenly standing up between him and me. So it ricocheted off the ham and almost hit someone at the table beside us.

At least that’s the story I’m going with.

Two things though. First, you’ve got to cushion your roll as you catch it, softening the catch as much as possible. Otherwise the soft, hot roll just flattens in your hands.

And second, those hams hanging up there are real. I had figured they were plastic, but I noticed how the ham didn’t move at all when the high-speed roll hit it. So I felt it as we were leaving, and it was real. Who knew?


August 12, 2015

Last Day on Pleasure Island . . .

Today was a day of wrapping up our stay here. It was a week that seemed to last only a couple of days or so. Maybe we’ll try two weeks next year.

I did make a couple of phone calls this morning, one to Jamie, our Gate Guard Services supervisor for the last three years. I know things are really tight in the guard business, but I thought I’d get our name in the queue anyway.

My other call was to the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts in Friendswood, TX, near the house. Regular blog readers might remember that while we were in Las Vegas last April, the radiator in our Dodge Dakota truck developed a leak, After a couple of tries, I was finally able to patch it using JB Weld. It lasted about 5000 miles, including the 3000 mile round trip from Prescott, AZ to Vandalia, IL and back for our family reunion.

But then it started leaking again . . . and I repaired again . . . and again. It quickly became obvious that the part plastic/part metal radiator was just plain rotting out. I can’t imagine why it didn’t last. It’s only got about 240,000 miles on it.

They just don’t make things like they used to, I guess.

Anyway, it finally started leaking on the backside where I can’t reach it without removing the radiator. And if I have to take the old one out, I might as well put a new one back in. According to my Haines and Clymer manuals, it should only take a couple of hours.

But I’ve been nursing it along until we get back to Texas. Although I could do it myself, that would leave me doing it at an RV park with no way to go back to the auto parts store for that one extra part that you didn’t think or know you’d need.

So I was checking with O’Reilly Auto Parts to be sure they had one in stock. So Jan and I will drive down to Friendswood on Sunday morning, pick up the new radiator, and Chris and I will install it.

At least that’s the plan.

About 1:30pm Jan and I headed up to the theater on the other side of the canal to see the new superhero movie, Ant-Man. The latest from the Marvel people, it stars Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, inventor of a suit that lets a man shrink to the size of an ant, or smaller, but still have his normal strength. He can also mentally control real ants as well, and use them to travel or fly.

But this story picks up years later in the present where Hank recruits a new person to wear the suit to prevent the suit’s secrets from being sold on the open market.

This all probably only makes sense to someone acquainted with the Marvel universe. As I’ve said before I really enjoy how Marvel manages to link up all their movies, as well as the Agents of SHIELD TV show.

We both liked Ant-Man and look forward to the next one. (there’s always a next one.) And lucky for me I have a beautiful wife who enjoys these movies as much (well, almost as much) as I do.

After the movie, we headed back down to Wintzell’s Oyster House for dinner. We just ate here this past Sunday, and enjoyed it so much we wanted to have our last Gulf Shores meal here. And in fact we enjoyed it so much we both ordered the exact same thing we had before.

Jan had her Cajun Seafood Pasta, with Shrimp and Scallops.

Wintzell's 3

I once again had the Low Country Boil,

Wintzell's 2

and we both started out with their really good salads.

Wintzell's 1

And this meal only cost about half as much as our meal at King Neptune’s last night, and it was much, much better. A really good last meal here in Gulf Shores.

Before heading home we made a quick stop at the new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Orange Beach for a few things.

Tomorrow we’ve got a 300 mile run to Breaux Bridge, LA, before we head on into the Houston area on Friday.


August 12, 2016

Out in the west Texas town of El Paso . . .

Jan and I were disappointed in the Perseid Meteor Shower last night. We were told to expect around 3 meteors a minute, based on the forecasted 160 to 200 an hour. But as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog we saw 12 in about an hour. So one every 5 minute or so.

When we went in at 1am, I told you Jan, “You realize that as soon as we shut the door, the sky is going to light up like fireworks.

So did anyone out there see the big show? Let me know.

About 1:15 we drove over to my Aunt Virginia’s house to pick her up for lunch. We ended up having to wait about 30 minutes for the yard guy to finish up, and then we were on our way.

We took Virginia’s Lexus since it’s easier for her to get in and out, and headed over to Huntsville to have lunch at Rosie’s Cantina, a really good Mexican restaurant here.

Rosie's Cantina 1

Jan and I both agreed that the décor here reminds us a lot of Pappasito’s in the Houston area.

And the food here is as good as pretty much any place in Houston. Jan had the Chile Relleno with spicy beef inside, while my Aunt Virginia had the Chicken Quesadillas, also Landon’s favorite.

I had the Tacos al Carbon with Beef Fajita meat. Charro Beans, and Mexican Rice which was really good, with the beef fajita meat tender and flavorful. Jan and Virginia both said theirs was really good, and both had enough to take home.

Me, I was hungry and ate all of mine.

Later, heading back to Virginia’s, we stopped by the cemetery to see my Uncle Theo’s grave and the new headstone. He died in May of 2015, and I talked about him here.

Theo Wesley Calvin, Jr.

Here’s some of that post:

As it turns out, Uncle Theo not only landed at Normandy on D-Day in June 1944, but he was also was part of the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in November 1942, and the Operation Husky landings in Sicily in July 1943. In all, he fought in 7 campaigns during the war, and received a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, signifying that he was wounded twice, both times in France.

He also fought in the last major offensive of the war, the Battle of the Bulge during December 1944 – January 1945. Dug in near Bastogne, Belgium, he said it was so cold nobody wanted to fight. “We could see the enemy, but we didn’t shoot at them, and they didn’t shoot at us.”

Among the many medals Uncle Theo received were a Bronze Star, the Belgium Fourragere, and the French Legion of Honor.

Back at Virginia’s, we spent some time just talking over family and friends.

Aunt Virginia Calvin

Finally saying our goodbyes, we got back to the rig about 6:45. Tomorrow we’re getting together with my cousin’s Anna Jean Lee and Marjorie Walker.

Anna Jean and Marjorie

I say ‘my cousin’s’, but I’m not exactly sure where they rank. They are my grandmother’s sister’s daughters.

So I think that they are my first cousins once removed, but after that I get a headache.

But I know we’ll have a good time together.

Finishing up, it looks like I’m going to have to double-check our route home. I saw this evening that there’s severe flooding in the Lafayette/Breaux Bridge area of Louisiana, which is one of our scheduled stop-over points on our way back to Houston on Tuesday.

So when we stop in Meridian, MS on Sunday night, I’ll decide then if we’ll continue on to Breaux Bridge, or stay on I-20 through Jackson and Shreveport and then down to Houston.

I guess we’ll see then.


August 12, 2017

A Yen For . . .

Yen.

I spent the day working on my new/old client’s problems, but at least I could do it remotely using TeamViewer, which lets me see and control the computer desktops at the client’s office from my laptop here at Brandi’s in Katy.

I’m finally starting to get a handle on things. In many cases I’ve figured out what the other guy has done, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why he did it.

I do know that the superfast SSD (Solid State Hard drive) and the increased Internet bandwidth (up to 400 Mbps) that he said was needed to host the website, were not needed or used for the website he was hosting on a server in the backroom. But instead was being used to slake his online game-playing addiction.

In fact the webserver that was running the company’s website to take orders was partitioned off so that it only was able to use about 15% of the bandwidth, with the rest allocated for gaming.

I also found that he’s been using the Point of Sale computer as a bootleg music server, holding thousands of albums, unfortunately mostly hip-hop and rap.

The one thing I haven’t found yet, but still expect to, is his almost-certainly extensive porn collection. But I’m still looking.

Still no news about the rig. Hopefully we’ll hear something today or tomorrow.

Tonight for dinner, Brandi and Lowell took us to a new place right down the road call Yen Hibachi Steakhouse. They said it was really good, and boy, were they right. Also with us were Brandi and Lowell’s friends Eric and Chantelle Nugent, and their son.

The look is kind of Asian Modern Fusion, very nicely decorated.

Yen 1

Yen 2

And of course the Hibachi area with the grills.

Yen 3

The chef starts things off with a big fireball which really grabs the kid’s attention.

Yen Fireball

Then while the waiter brings out our soup and salad,

Yen Soup and Salad

the chef whips up the Fried Rice, in the shape of Mickey Mouse. Again a kid pleaser.

Yen Fried Rice

Now with the steaks, seafood, and veggies on the grill,

Yen Steaks and Stuff

the kids get the onion stack volcano.

Yen Volcano

Finally the entire meal is on our plates and ready to eat.

I had the rare Rib-Eye Steak,

Yen Steak

and Jan had the Chicken

Yen Chicken

Very, very good. We certainly want to go back.

Tomorrow and Monday I’ll be traveling back down to Clear Lake again for more client stuff.


August 12, 2018

Lists of Lists . . .

With days running out on when we need to have the house cleared out, Jan and I were out the door a little after 11 this morning.

Our first stop was for lunch at our new favorite nearby Mexican place, San Lorenzo’s. We first ate here a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. And today so did a lot of other people. The place was packed.

We had about a 15 minute wait, but it was worth it. Jan once again had the Pollo Margarita with a Grilled Chicken Breast and Shrimp, Grilled Veggies, and Charro Beans.

San Lorenzo Pollo Margarita 2

The Sliced Avocado on the left actually came with my Beef Fajita Taco Salad.

San Lorenzon Beef Fajita Taco Salad

Since I don’t care for Avocado, Jan always gets my cast-offs. And I think we’ve already established that I like a lot of pepper on my salad. And of course it’s also liberally sprinkled with my Volcanic Pepper Flakes for added heat.

Since I had never had the Taco Salad here before, I was a little concerned that there was no sign of any meat. But not to worry, the bottom 2” of the taco shell were solid with fajita meat. And it was really good.

When we finally left a little before 1pm, the place was still on a wait. That’s how good it was.

Our next stop was at the storage unit to drop off yesterday’s house stuff that we still had in the truck since our access to the unit was blocked by a moving van. But today was no problem. Then it was on up to the house.

Since we don’t yet know if we’re closing this coming Thursday or next Monday, we have to assume it’s Thursday to be sure we’re out in time. So today we got everything out in the living room and divided it up for staging. Leaving the house about 3pm, we made a WalMart stop before dropping off a load at the storage unit on the way home.

As it stands right now, tomorrow after work I’ll stop by the house and load up with about six bags of trash for the dumpster. Then Tuesday, Jan and I will take a load of stuff by Salvation Army, drop off some leftover packing materials at work, and take a last load to the storeroom.

Then on Wednesday after work I’ll again go by the house and reload all the stuff back in the truck that normally resides there. We emptied the truck when we took a bunch of furniture to Illinois on our recent trip, and since then it’s all been sitting in the garage.

And that should wrap things up. Of course this may all change if we don’t close until next Monday. Then we won’t be in quite the same hurry. But we’ll see.

Jan has always been a list maker. She has a WalMart list, a Sam’s list, an office supply store list, and even a list for cleaning out the house we’re selling.

But now she’s gone into overdrive. She’s started so many new lists of things to take,  not take, do, not do, see, or not see on our upcoming European River Cruise, that she’s now resorted to making lists . . . of her other lists. It’s gotten that bad.

She’s got a list for what to do 8 months out (Now), 4 months out, 4 weeks out, 4 days out, and probably one for 4 minutes out. I on the other hand will pack a couple of days before and be ready to go.

I think it’s a guy thing.


August 12, 2021

Razzoo’s

We were outside for a while this morning with our coffee, admiring the 9, count’em 9, hibiscus blooms.

Hisbiscus 9 Blooms

Yes, there are 9, you just can’t see them from this side.

And this is our ‘frog pond’.

Patio Frog Pong

We have a whole family of frogs living around our patio, ranging from little ones about the size of a dime, up to the big guys the size of a silver dollar, or larger. It’s positioned so that the AC drains off the roof into the ‘pond’, so it’s always filled. Remember a damp frog is a happy frog.

Jan and I headed up to the Spring area about 9:45, to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt for our monthly get-together, this month at the Razzoo’s Cajun Café right across I-45 from the Splashtown Water Park.

We got there about 15 minutes before our 11am time, only to have Debi and Ed show up a couple of minutes later. We talked outside for a few minutes until the doors opened and we got seated immediately.

The décor was kind of interesting in a funky kind of way, with one divider wall made out of bottles,

Razzoo's Bottle Wall

and a miscellany of random objects hanging from the ceiling.

Razzo's Ceiling

Since we’d never been there, Jan and I had looked over the menu online last night, so we already had an idea of what we wanted. But we all started with an order of their Rat-Toes,

Razzon's Rat-Toes

which are their Crab and Shrimp Stuffed Jalapenos. Really good, and really Hot.

Jan got a Blackened Chicken Breast with sides, while I just got a bowl of their Seafood Gumbo.

Razzo's Seafood Gumbo

After the great start with the Rat-Toes, I had high hopes for the Gumbo. But unfortunately it was ‘Yankee’ Gumbo, or at least northern Louisiana Gumbo, or at least that’s what I’ve always been told.

Southern LA gumbo seems to be done with a thin roux, just slightly thicker than water. But this ‘northern’-style gumbo was thick, almost like gravy. And, sorry to say, this tasted about like gravy. Or at least gravy with seafood in it.

But Razoo’s redeemed themselves with the reason I only had the gumbo as my entrée, their Peach and Pecan Bread Pudding.

Razzo's Peach and Pecan Bread Pudding

Really, really good, and I have half left to bring home.

And the other thing that was really, really good was the company. And as usual we spent almost 3 hours talking over our many RV adventures over the years, as well as our time oil field gate guarding.

Razzon's Ed and Debi 20210812

And of course, planning our get-together for next month.

Good Friends and Great Times.

Saying our goodbyes until next month, Jan and I drove over to the other side of I-45 so she could pick up a few things to take with her down to Brandi’s.

I mentioned yesterday that Jan was going to be dog-sitting this weekend while Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and BFF Sophie are staying with some friends at their lake house. I said that it was on Lake Livingston, but I heard wrong.

It’s actually on Lake Jacksonville, south of Jacksonville, TX. This mis-identification wasn’t helped by the fact that I didn’t realize there was a Jacksonville, TX, which looks to be about 50 miles or so south of Tyler.

Getting down to the Katy area we made a quick stop at El Pollo Loco for a call-ahead order of a chicken meal for Jan, finally getting to Brandi’s about 3:30.

Then after helping Jan get all of her electronics set up, I was back on the road for home.

Just me and Karma until Sunday.