Monthly Archives: August 2023

Different, But Still Good . . .

Since Jan wanted to get her glasses adjusted today at the Sam’s Club Optical up in Webster, we decided to have lunch up that way, specifically at Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux again.

And we both got something different this time.

Jan got the Ragin’ Blackened Redfish with Double Broccoli,

while I started with a cup of their Chicken and Sausage Gumbo,

and then moved on to their Voodoo Shrimp & Grits.

I regularly have the Shrimp & Grits at Snooze, and occasionally at Gator’s, so I was interested to compare and contrast the three.

And they’re all good, but different.

Snooze’s version.

Gator’s version.

But I’ll stick with the versions from Walk-On’s and Snooze, since they’re the top two.

First up, I like the Grits in Walk-On’s dish the best. It was creamier, probably because according to the menu, it has cream cheese in it.

Seasoning-wise, I think Snooze comes out on top, with Andouille sausage, and a house-made savory soffrito, a mixture of minced onion, carrot, and celery, gently fried in olive oil until soft and fragrant.

As far as the shrimp, Walk-On’s version squeaks by. Their shrimp is bacon-wrapped and crispy-coated with a sweet chili glaze.

But you’ll need extra napkins because the shrimp is sticky and messy. But delicious.

Finishing with lunch, we headed over to the nearby Sam’s Club so Jan could get her new glasses adjusted so they sit better on her nose. Before leaving Sam’s, we availed ourselves of their $3.19/gal gas, the cheapest around. Then it was on across the street to Wal-Mart for our weekly Wal-Mart stuff, getting home by about 4:30pm

We’ve got a busy next few months coming up, starting with Landon’s 13th Birthday Party in the next week or so, date TBD. Then the weekend of the 1st of Sept, our friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt are going to be down in this area, and hopefully we’ll be able to get together a couple of times while they’re down here.

Katy Mills Train 1

Moving on, besides Labor Day on the 4th, our granddaughter Piper’s birthday is the 7th, followed by our daughter Brandi’s birthday is the 15th, followed by our 56th Anniversary on the 28th.

On into October, my birthday’s the 5th and Jan’s is the 25th, and in between we’ve got the Wings Over Houston Airshow on Saturday the 14th, which is also the Ring of Fire Annular Eclipse. Then finishing up the month, we got one of Jan’s favorite holidays, Halloween.

November brings us the Nutcracker Market on the 9th, and then of course, Thanksgiving on the 23rd. And of course, mixed into all this are our usual monthly get-togethers with friends.

Like I said, a busy time coming up.


Thought For The Day:

Licenses & Permits:

When the government takes away your right to do something and then sells it back to you.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


August 19, 2009

Good Mexican food in Maine?

We headed out from our overnight at Walmart about 10 am, heading toward Bangor, ME, about 150 miles away.

As we were passing through beautiful downtown Gorham, NH,  we remembered what we’d heard about the great breakfast at Welch’s Restaurant, so we decided to stop.

Luckily there was a spot on the next block where we could safely and easily park the rig and toad.

The meal was really good.  Jan said her Blueberry Pancakes were the best she’d had since Whitehorse, BC last year, and from her, that’s a lot.  And my Meatlovers Breakfast Sandwich really hit the spot.

After our meal we again headed east on US 2… into a maze of road work, one after the other.

Apparently they’re in the process of four-laning US 2, so long stretches of it were down to one lane with flag people, or even traffic lights, governing land direction flow.  Several times we sat for as long as 10 minutes.

But finally we pulled into Pumpkin Patch RV Resort in Hermon, ME,  just west of Bangor, about 3 pm, and got set up.

After checking with the office for recommendations, we headed out to Pepina’s Mexican Café for what turned out to be some excellent Mexican food.

Coming back home, Jan sat outside with Mister while I finished aligning the satellite dish.

Tomorrow we don’t have much on the agenda,  probably just rest up,  slept late, and make a Walmart / Sam’s run.


August 19, 2010

Landon Update

Well, this morning started off exciting with a call from our son-in-law Lowell about 9 am telling us that Brandi was in labor so they weren’t going to have to induce it.

Then our son, Chris called about 15 minutes later to be sure we had heard the news.

Hearing this, we went ahead and booked Jan a flight out of Chicago Midway this afternoon at 5:50 pm and she finished up her packing. She’d done most of it last night in anticipation of this happening.

We left Elkhart about 1pm, stopping off at a CVS to get a new battery for Jan’s watch. She took it off Friday, November 30th, her last day of work and hasn’t worn it since. So it definitely needed a new battery.

When she retires, she retires!

Of course, things can’t go too smoothly. About 30 miles down the road we had a flat tire on the right rear of the truck.

My tire pressure monitor system alerted me that I was losing pressure in that tire, luckily right before an exit, so I pulled off thinking I would find a tire place to put on my spare. But as luck would have it, by the time I got through the toll booth the tire was down to about 10 pounds, so I pulled over to a nice big parking area and started changing it myself.

And as I was removing the old tire I found a nail sticking out of it.

We got to Chicago Midway about 4:30 pm, in plenty of time for Jan’s 5:50pm flight, only to find out that it was delayed until 6:50.

Bummer!

We had both brought something to read in case this happened, but ran into a problem.  I had planned to stay at the airport until Jan’s flight took off, but we found there is nowhere to sit outside the gate area. We were hoping for a restaurant or something so we could sit and wait until it got closer to her boarding time. But no luck.

So after talking it over, Jan said I should just go ahead and start home. After thinking it over I told Jan to go thru security and as soon as she got checked in at her gate, I would go ahead and leave.

She called about 20 minutes later, so I headed home. I was surprised to find almost no traffic on the way out of Chicago, I guess because I was on the toll road, but it was smooth sailing all the way.

Got back to the rig about 9 pm, and am now tracking Jan’s flight on a website called FlightStats. You enter the airline and flight number and it shows you a real-time map of the flight position, along with the speed, altitude, and distance from the destination.

Also talked with Lowell who said Brandi is doing fine. They’ve given her a pill to keep things moving along, and are still looking for Master Landon to arrive tomorrow sometime.

As it stands right now, it’s 10:47 pm EDT and Jan’s plane is 22 miles at 3500 feet, doing 315 miles an hour.

FlightStats says Jan’s plane has landed, so now I’ll wait to hear from her after she meets up with Chris.

It’s 11:04 and Jan just called to say she’d met up with the kids and they were going downstairs to get her luggage, and that she’d call me tomorrow.

Glad to know she’s safe and sound in Houston.


August 19, 2011

Lasagna and Laminate . . .

After coffee this morning, I drove down to the Thousand Trail’s office to settle up. We’ve used up our 50 free days and now have to pay $5 a day, still a great deal for 30 amp full hookups.

After lunch I started working on another chore on my list. First up today was fixing a problem with my AC intakes.

I’ve found that the open areas on the AC intakes would allow the thin foam filters to be sucked up into the opening, causing the filter to stretch and tear.

AC Intake 1

So I purchased a couple of pieces of chicken wire, and using Guerilla Tape, taped them over the intake without obstructing the air flow.

AC Intake 2

I also found a thicker foam filter, 1/4” instead of 1/8”. After cutting it to the right size, I placed it on the grill and screwed it back on the ceiling.

AC Intake 3

Another job checked off the list.

Next I started trying to unbolt the computer desk from the floor so I can remove the carpet under it before I start laying the new laminate flooring. They definitely didn’t want this thing to move, as it is really fastened down. This will be a multi-day job.

Our daughter Brandi called a little before 6 to talk about Landon’s 1st birthday party tomorrow. She’s having the party at a friend’s house up in Katy, TX and plans on Skyping it so we can watch some of it too.

For dinner, Jan thawed out and heated up some lasagna. Along with cheese sticks and fresh hot garlic bread, it was a great meal. And we still have enough for another night.

Then to top it off a great day, our son Chris called a little before 9. We really missed them at the reunion last week, and are really looking forward to seeing them in November when we get back to Houston.


August 19, 2013

A Day with Landon . . .

Today was our chance to spend the day with Landon, and his other grandparents, Sonja and Lendell, so about 10am we headed back over to Brandi’s to meet up with them.

But our first stop was at the Kroger’s near her house to fill up the truck with gas. At $3.33 it was the cheapest around, and with my $.30 a gallon Rewards Card discount, $3.03 was a great price.

Getting to Brandi’s and meeting up with Sonja, Lendell, and Landon, we decided to take their Ford Escape since Landon’s car seat was already installed in it. Our first destination was Sandy McGee’s in Richmond, about 10 miles south.

Jan and I have been eating at Sandy McGee’s for over 20 years. Back in the 1990’s Jan worked here in Richmond/Rosenberg for about 8 years at what was then Polly Ryon Hospital. She and her coworkers ate here regularly, and when I was in the area we would always eat here too.

Their menu consists of delicious sandwiches, salads, and soups. Nothing is plain jane. There’s some extra special touch to every item. They are known for their great fresh fruit salads, all year long.

Sandy McGee's 1

But what they are most widely known for is their Broccoli-Cheese Soup. To me, the texture is more of a bisque, but whatever you call it, it’s delicious.

Sandy McGee's 2

When I get the sandwich, fruit salad, cup of soup combo, I always upgrade the cup to a bowl. It’s that good.

We were happy to see that Sonja and Lendell liked the place as much as we do, and Landon went through his 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich and fresh fruit like a buzz saw.

Our next stop was supposed to be Katy Mills Mall, back up north on I-10, but it got delayed. Since Landon had eaten so well, and it was now really his nap time, he fell asleep just a few minutes after we got back in the car. So we decided to just drive around until he woke up.

So an hour and a half later we were at the Mall (the kid’s a really good napper). They have a great kid’s play area that Landon really loves. So while Jan and Sonja supervised Landon, Lendell and I walked down to the Food Court to people-watch and have a smoothie.

After about an hour Landon was ready for his second treat, a train ride. The Mall had this really cute train that runs all around the Mall. No tracks, just battery power.

Katy Mills Train 2

Katy Mills Train 1

After Landon and Jan had done the Casey Jones thing (without the big crash at the end) we all headed over to Books-A-Million for some light browsing. Jan was looking for some more books to read during our upcoming gate guarding sabbatical. Last year she read 84 books in 4 months, so she wants to be sure she doesn’t run out.

Wrapping things up at the Mall, we all headed back over to Brandi’s to drop off Sonja, Lendell, and Landon, and say our goodbyes. They’re leaving for home in Oklahoma this evening, but we’ll see Landon again Wednesday night when we get together with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for one last time until November.

On our way home we stopped off at Kroger’s again, but this time for some of their Private Selection brand coffee. It’s one of our favorites, but there’s no Kroger’s where we’ll be gate guarding so we wanted to stock up.

We got back to the rig a little after 6pm. Tomorrow we’re going down to the Clear Lake area to take care of some errands and eat lunch at Monterey’s Little Mexico for some of their delicious Chicken Tortilla Soup.


August 19, 2014

We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat . . .

With no trip down to Webster today, it was another day to take it easy and goof off. Pretty much too hot to do anything outside, although it was actually a little cooler today. Only 98, rather than yesterday’s 101. Every little bit helps, I guess.

A little before 5pm we lost shore power. When it didn’t come back on in a few minutes, I went out and checked the power pedestal. I took my 3 light tester with me and plugged it into the 20amp socket.

No power. And cycling the breaker didn’t help. Nor did resetting the GFI button

While I’m standing there thinking, I hear something familiar. The outside AC unit is running at the bathhouse on the other side of the rig. So the power’s not out at the park

Going back to the pedestal, I took another look at the breakers. I had kind of concentrated on the 20amp power and hadn’t cycled the 50amp breaker. It looked OK but when I touched it to flip it, it dropped into the middle position showing it had really blown. So I cycled it and the power came back on.

So I had been misled by a faulty 20 breaker or socket. But the other thing I noticed was that the 50 amp breaker was almost too hot to touch, an indication that either the breaker has a problem, or the connections inside are bad. I’ll have to keep an eye on it.

Since I’m from Alabama, and we were recently there for a couple of weeks, I was interested to see this story about this record-sized alligator caught near Camden, AL

One thing that surprised me is that Camden, although near the Alabama River, is about 100 miles from the coast, and even further in ‘river’ miles. That’s a long way for a gator to swim, especially one this big

Alabama Gator 1

This big boy measured out at 15 feet long, and when they tried to weigh it, it broke the winch. Finally using a backhoe, they weighed it out at 1,011.5 pounds.

Alabama Gator 2

And it looks very possible that this might be a new world record. A couple of months ago, the Safari Club International declared a 14 foot 8 inch gator caught in 2007 and weighing 880 pounds as a new world record. Sounds like this one has it beat.

Alabama Gator 3

The other thing surprising about this is that the boat that they used to capture this gator was only 17 feet long. According to the article, they several times found themselves being dragged around, towed up and down the river by the gator.

To paraphrase ‘Jaws’, “I’d want a bigger boat.”

Tomorrow Jan and I have our trip down to Webster for Jan’s breast cancer checkup.


August 19, 2015

A Good Excuse . . .

I started on my new AC installation project first calling the office to see if by any chance they had a tractor with a front loader on it that I could use to lift the unit up, but no luck with that.

Then I dragged the box from the back seat of the truck and over to the patio. I had already popped the straps and removed the top last night so I could get the instruction booklets out.

New AC 1

There is a small wood pallet underneath the box that I figured was bolted to the bottom of the AC and that I could use to lift the whole thing up on the roof. But as it turned out, everything was just stacked together and held in place by the two straps that I had already cut off to get to the manuals.

Foraging ahead I unboxed everything and turned the unit on its side to check out the control box and how it was wired up.

New AC 2

That’s when I found there was no control box. So then I went round and round with a guy from PPL who said the control box was in the outside unit.  I said “No, it’s not. All I have in the outside unit is a foot-long cable with a nine-pin connector on it.”

Then he said that then it must be in the inside unit. I told him it wasn’t, and that my inside unit had no controls of any kind on it, since it was for a ducted system with an external thermostat. Like this.

New AC Inside Cover

Finally giving up, I called Coleman, and after I finally got through to somebody, (apparently they’re not really geared to working with the retail consumer) we figured out what the problem was.

Normally the control box is part of the inside unit and ties in with the controls on the cover. But since I was using an external thermostat, there were no controls there, and I would need to purchase a separate control box. Which looked like this.

New AC 3

ROAD TRIP!

By now it was 2:30 and we’d have to hustle to get into Houston and PPL before the rush hour hit. So by 2:45 we were on our way in.

PPL’s 75 miles away, but a good part of the distance has a 75 MPH speed limit, so we were there a few minutes after 4pm and back on our way about 4:20. But that 20 minutes was just enough for the going-home travel to sock in. and it was now bumper-to-bumper on the Beltway.

It ended up taking us almost as long to make the 30 mile trip back to Brandi’s as it did to make the 75 mile trip into PPL. We had an Amazon package delivered there today, and we wanted to see if they wanted to have dinner with us, but they already had other plans. Jan had already said that our surprise trip into Houston was a good excuse to have dinner at Torchy’s Tacos, so that’s where we headed.

Torchy’s has about a dozen restaurants around the state, and it’s not your average taco place. They’ve got tacos with Blackened Salmon, Seared Ahi Tuna, Fried Chicken, Grilled Portobello Mushrooms, and Fried Avocado. And more. You can check out their menu here: Torchy’s Menu

Jan got the Brushfire Taco, which has Jamaican jerk chicken, grilled jalapeños,
mango, sour cream & cilantro, and is served with Diablo sauce on a flour tortilla, along with a Baja Shrimp Taco, which has hand-battered fried shrimp with cooked
cabbage slaw topped with pickled jalapeños & onions, queso fresco, cilantro & a wedge of lime.

Torchy's Tacos Jan's

I got the Green Chile Pork Taco, which has slow-roasted pork carnitas with green chiles and topped with queso fresco, cilantro, onions, & a wedge of lime, as well as a Grilled Jalapeño Sausage Taco, with shredded cheese & Pico de Gallo, served with Poblano Sauce and on a flour tortilla.

Torchy's Tacos Greg

All really good, and a great place to eat.

We were back on the road about 6:30, getting home about 7:30, after another busy day.

So how do I get it up on the roof?


August 19, 2016

Sweet Rice and Food Trucks . . .

Although it did rain for a short time this morning, the afternoon was clear and not too hot. In fact the forecast is for high 80’s to 90 for the next 10 days or so, and that sounds nice, especially for August in Texas.

Early in the afternoon, I started making gate-guarding calls. I left a message with Jamie of Gate Guard Services, and hopefully he’ll call back tomorrow.

Guard 1 took my name and email address and said they’d email me some paperwork to fill out. She also wanted to know when we’d be available, and seemed pleased when I told her next week. But as of tonight I still haven’t received any email from them.

As far as the wind farm thing, the girl at SiteWatch said she’d email Buster and he would call me as soon as he was free. But so far I haven’t heard from him either.

If I don’t hear anything in the next day or so, I’ll start calling down my list of gate-guarding companies and see what I can stir up.

Later I spent some time working on new web stuff, getting things set up for a new company’s website.

A little after 4pm Jan and I headed up to Ellinger to have the Catfish Buffet at Peter’s BBQ . It was as good as usual, and at $10.95, at least they didn’t raise the price again.

Besides the Fried Catfish and Fried Shrimp which are both delicious, I really enjoy all the veggies and salads almost as much. Corn on the cob, boiled red potatoes, pinto beans, green beans with bacon and onions, boiled cabbage, cooked carrots, mac and cheese, and sweet rice. The salad selection is good too, with potato salad, fresh pea salad, Cole slaw, Jell-0 salad, and macaroni salad.

As for desserts, they’ve got banana pudding, peach cobbler, blackberry cobbler, and soft ice cream.

All in all, a very good buffet, especially if they don’t raise the price for the 3rd time.

I was surprised by the sweet rice. It looked like mashed potatoes, but the texture was different and it was sweet. I’d never had it before, so I had to ask what it was. It was good, but the sweetness was a surprise when I first tasted it.

We spent a few minutes talking to one of the ladies working there who confirmed my thought that all the vegetables were fresh, and the meats, like brisket, ribs, chicken, steak for chicken fried steak and hamburger, etc., are all bought fresh every morning.

And it certainly shows . . .  and tastes.

Brandi’s been off this week so she and Landon spent the day at the Typhoon Texas Waterpark right down the road from them.

Mommy and Landon at Typhoon Texas

Then later the entire family all headed out to the Katy Food Truck Park to have dinner. Lendel and Sonja, Landon’s other grandparents are down from OK for Landon’s 6th birthday party tomorrow. Jan and I thought about going into Katy for it, but Jan’s on the 3rd day coming off a migraine, so we begged off until we see them tomorrow.

Food Truck Park

We’ll head into Brandi’s tomorrow about 11:30 and then on to the Main Event Entertainment complex for Landon’s birthday party. until around 4pm.

Really looking forward to it, and also seeing Lendel and Sonja again.


August 19, 2017

Pet Peeves and CFS . . .

First off, some pet peeves of mine.

First up, read the all the other comments before you post a comment on Facebook, especially on one that asked a question about something. Being the 14th person to answer the inquiry doesn’t add to the conversation, especially if your answer disagrees with mine.

Second, please don’t turn on your emergency flashers in heavy rain. Although legal in a few, it is illegal in most states.

The reason I bring this up was due to the fact that recently we were driving in the rig when a heavy rainstorm came up. I slowed down a good bit and a lot of cars passed us, just flashing away.

The trouble was that as soon as they all got about 50 yards ahead of us, all the yellow and red flashing lights coalesced into a blinding mishmash reflecting around in the rain. You no longer had any idea how many vehicles were ahead of you, or how far ahead they were.

Plus I don’t think many people realize that when your emergency flashers are on, your turn signals don’t work. So you can’t safely signal a lane change.

But the real problem is the number of deaths this has caused, including wiping out an entire family.

Picture this. You’re driving your semi along in heavy rain, pretty much following the ‘colorful mishmash’ ahead of you. But what you don’t realize is that a family has pulled over onto the shoulder to safely sit out the storm, and turned their flashers as they’re supposed to.

And you, following all the flashing lights in front of you, slam into the rear of the family car at 50mph.

And it’s happened a number of times around the country.

About 4pm Jan and I out to the Fish Pond restaurant north of here on I-45 to meet our old friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt for dinner.

Ed and Debi Hurlburt

But our first stop was at the park dumpster to throw in three MORE bags of bad food from the fridge and freezer.  &*^%^&&%!

Jan had the Catfish Platter,

Fish Pond Catfish 2

while I had the Chicken Fried Steak with Fried Okra and Mashed Potatoes.

Fish Pond CFS

I must say I was simply aghast at the fact that a waitress at a restaurant in Texas asked me if I wanted white or BROWN gravy on my CFS.

Oh, the horror!  Is nothing sacred?

As is usual with our dinners with Ed and Debi, we spent the usual 3 hours just talking about anything and everything, not leaving until after 7:30.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get together again before we leave for Colorado River on the 27th. But then they’ll be following us over on the 29th, so it’ll all work out.

Tomorrow afternoon we’re heading down to Brandi’s and Lowell’s to meet them at the Rainforest Café in Katy Mills Mall to celebrate Landon’s 7th birthday.

Brandi and Landon

Really looking forward to it.


August 19, 2018

Happy Almost Birthday, Landon . . .

After a quiet morning and coffee, of course, Jan and I headed up to Brandi’s in Katy. We were all getting together for Landon’s pre-birthday birthday.

His real birthday is tomorrow, August 20th, but today we were all meeting at his favorite Rainforest Café over in Katy Mills Mall.

Rainforest Cafe 8-19-18 1

Not only were Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper with us, but Landon’s Aunt Sherry as well. In addition, close friends, Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox were also there.]

And as a side note, Chantelle is the travel agent who’s putting together our upcoming European River Cruise/London/Paris trip.

After we’d finished our meals, and Landon had opened his presents, they brought a Lava Birthday Cake for everyone to share.

Rainforest Cafe 8-19-18 2

Later, getting our hugs, Chris and Linda headed back to Kingsland, about 4 hours away, while Jan and  I, along with Miss Piper, left for Clear Lake. We dropped Piper off at her apartment before we finally got home a little after 4:30pm.

Brandi and Lowell are closing on their new house this coming Friday, but it could be Thursday. Then just as soon as the closing is done, the movers are scheduled to show up. They expect to be completely moved by the end of the day.

Landon still has another birthday party to go to, this time on September 8th at the Smith Ranch north of Katy once again. This will be the one with all his friends, along with the giant water slide, the petting zoo, and a lot more.


August 19, 2019

It Works . . .

My WiFi Module came in today, and I also bought home some CAT-6 cable to wire it up. I pull out a twisted pair of wires and it’s perfect for making small connections.

Mr Coffee Upgrade 4

It was easy to figure out which pads to solder too since they were only two that had a circuit trace going to them.

Then once I had it hooked up, I wired it into the module.

Mr Coffee Upgrade 5

Then I download the app and after a few times going round and round I finally got the module paired with the app and I was good to go.

Once I confirmed that the app would turn the machine on and off, I then linked it with Amazon Alexa and I was done.

For now.

I’ve got a small plastic box ordered that I will use to mount the module and then double-stick tape it to the back on the machine.

As it stands right now, I’m setting aside Thursday to do the rear brakes on the truck. Hopefully the weather will hold, though there is a 30% chance of rain.


August 19, 2021

The Big One One!

After a quiet morning, we drove over to Gator’s about 1pm for lunch once again.

Jan got the Strawberry Walnut Salad with Chicken again,

Gator's Bar & Grill Strawberry Walnut Salad with Chicken

while I got my fav Blackened Chicken Breast Sandwich with Bacon and a side of Texas Toothpicks. And the Sweet Potato Waffle fries, of course.

Gator's Blackened Chicken Sandwich 20210819

We also spent some time with Margie, the owner, talking about all the new menu items coming up. We’ve actually known Margie since the 90’s when she was a manager/supervisor for Monterey’s Mexican Kitchen so it’s always nice to see her again.

And in more Monterey’s news, their location on the other side of the shopping center from Gator’s, that’s been closed since Hurricane Harvey in 2017 is getting close to reopening. They finally started renovating the place a few months ago, and it looks like it’s going to be real soon now. So close that there was a Coke truck out front. So any day now.

Tomorrow is our grandson Landon’s birthday, the big One One. And rather than the big get-togethers he’s had in the past, often with his BFF Sophie,

Rainforest Cafe Landon and Sophie

this time Landon just wanted a small family party. So Jan’s riding into work with me tomorrow and then we’ll head up to Brandi’s about 3:30.

Looking forward to it.

And we’ve got another one scheduled for September. Our granddaughter Piper’s birthday is the 7th of September, and her Aunt Brandi’s is on the 15th, so on the weekend in between, Chris, Linda, and Piper are all coming down to Brandi’s for a big family party.

Can’t wait.

I spent time this afternoon updating the software on one of our digital photo frames. We have two, one with photos of family, friends, and our RV travels, and the other one from our European trip in May 2019. But I had been meaning to add some photos from our Christmas in NYC trip so I thought I’d work on that today.

However while I was doing that I also tried to fix a weird problem. Even though all the photos are at 4032 x 3024 resolution, for reason a few are rotated 90° to the right. So trying to figure this out, I went online to see if the company was any help.

The first thing I found was that I was about 8 versions behind in updating the firmware on the photo frame. Well, to start with, who knew that a digital photo frame even needed firmware updates? But it was worth a shot.

The process was pretty simple. Just download the correct firmware update file for your model, put on an SD card, and plug it into the frame. And a couple of minutes it’s done.

And it didn’t help.

So I went back to take a closer look at the photos themselves. And I can’t find any difference at all. In one case, the camera wasn’t moved, and the two photos were only about 30 seconds apart. So right now I don’t know what is happening.

But I’ll keep looking.


August 19, 2022

I Still Don’t Know How He Did It . . .

I spent part of today finalizing the design for the faceplate of a line of epilators that we’re having custom-made in Poland. We wanted something clean and simple with our logo on it.

My client is very happy with it so I am too.

BioMak Faceplate 3

And if we order 10 at a time there’s no extra charge for the custom faceplate. Nice.

This past Wednesday when I was coming home I found this guy blocking my left turn trying to make his left turn.

Long Flat Bed On Ave L 1

And everyone else’s too.

What’s hard to see here is that there is a deep ditch on the left of this street, and a power pole on the right. So I’m still not sure how he made the turn. Or actually if he did. I checked later and there was no tire marks down into the ditch or in the grass next to the pole. I

He finally backed up so everyone could get by, and when Jan and I came back by 15 minutes later he was gone.

You can get a better idea how long he is here.

Long Flat Bed On Ave L 2

Going straight wouldn’t work since he’s got the same type of turn at the end of the next block. And he can’t turn right for the same reason he can’t turn left.

So I not only don’t know how he got out, actually I don’t know how he got in here, either.

But I’ve got an idea I’ll check out this weekend.

As I said in last night’s blog, tomorrow we’ll head up to Katy to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and his BFF Sophie at Andretti’s Indoor Karting & Games for his birthday celebration.

Really looking forward to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now They’re Just Messing With Us . . .

I was on my way up to Katy a little after noon to bring my baby back home. Getting to Brandi’s, we had to wait for a bit for the housekeeper to finish so we could lock up afterward. And then it was on over to the nearby Grimaldi’s Pizzeria at La Centerra for lunch.

We’ve been eating at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria’s since we first discovered them in 2009 while we were visiting NYC and ate at their original location over in Brooklyn.

We started off with the ‘Small’ Strawberry Spinach Salad.

I say ‘Small’ because it’s large enough for 4 people, so it gives us two servings each. And it was really good.

And then it was on to our usual pizza, The Don, with Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, and Meatballs, to which we added Ham, Bacon, and Mushrooms. And we always get the Large 18” so we can eat half and have half to bring home.

Finishing up, Jan made a quick Trader Joe’s visit since it’s right across the street. And then since this was a ‘splurge day’, we drove back down the street to check out a new place, Handel’s Ice Cream.

If you thought Baskin-Robbins was doing good with 31 flavors, Handel’s has 140 flavors, cycling through 45 at any one time.

That’s why they have all those rows of freezers.

We both had two scoops in a dish, Jan’s was Black Cherry and Coffee Chocolate Chip, while I got Caramel Pretzel Crunch and Vanilla Turtle.

What was outstanding was the amount of ‘ingredients’ in the flavors. It seems like there’s more ‘stuff’ than cream in there.

Really good.

Unfortunately, coming home, we were in prime going-home traffic, so our normal hour trip took two hours, getting us home about 5:30.

While I was at Brandi’s I got a glimpse of Landon’s 8th grade schedule for this year.

He’s taking:

Spanish
AP English
AP Social Studies
AP Science
and Algebra.

Now I didn’t start Algebra until the 9th. But the one that caught my eye was this.

Principles of Applied Engineering

????

WOW, I didn’t get something like that until college.

I’ve posted several photos from the new James Webb Telescope, and now there’s this one of new stars being formed in that bright red starburst area.

But then some people notice something down in the area within the red box. And this is what they found.

One commenter said, “The aliens know we’ve found them and now they’re just messing with us,”


August 18, 2009

Climbing Mt. Washington and here a moose, there a moose…

We left Moose River Campground about 11 am and headed up US 2  toward Gorham, NH.

The road wasn’t too bad, a bit curvy, but OK,  and we pulled into the Walmart about 12:30 pm and set up house.

Gorham Walmart

Actually, when we Wally-dock,  there’s nothing to set up.  We don’t lower the jacks, or put out the slide.  The only thing we do is just unhook the truck so we can drive around.

We decided to try a place called Crabby Jack’s Mexican Café for lunch,  since we were hungry for Mexican.

Big Mistake!   The service was bad and food wasn’t any better.

Now we’re Crabby!

After our so-called lunch, we headed down to Gorham’s Visitor’s Information booth to check out the sign that got Jan all giddy.

It said “Moose Tours”

After signing up for the 6:30 pm tour that evening,  I noticed a brochure on Mt. Washington.  I knew it was in New Hampshire,  but I didn’t know it was close by.

Turns out that it’s right down the road.  It’s about 8 miles to the base of the mountain,  and then about 8 miles to the summit,  all 6288 feet of it.

We decided we had plenty of time to do the mountain before our moose tour, so we headed out.

And it is a heck of a climb.  During the 8 miles, you climb over 5000 ft.  And it seems like it’s straight up at times.

Mt Washington 1

But, although it was a little hazy,  the view was spectacular.

Mt Washington 2

The Mt. Washington Auto Road gave birth to the oldest man-made tourist attraction in the US.  When it was built in 1861  (Yes, 1861),  it was called the Mt. Washington Carriage Road.  And stagecoaches took visitors to the top.

It’s still the same road, and not much improved, it seems.

And then in 1869 they built the Cog Train.  It runs on a train track with a cog track in the center that lets the train climb the steep grades like a roller coaster does…clack, clack, clack.

Cog Train 1

That little yellow dot is the train coming up the mountain.  It takes about an hour to come up and an hour to go back down.

It only takes about 20 min in your car.

Cog Train 2

“I think I can, I think I can…”

Cog Train 3

This gift shop building dates from 1878.  Note that it is chained down!

Mt Washington Gift Shop

And here’s why!

Mt Washington Sign

231 MPH !!!

I think they gonna need more chains.

The new buildings are built to withstand 300 MPH winds.

And, of course, we got our official bumpersticker for our trip up.

bumperstickerWEB

I’ve seen these on cars before, and now I know how they got them.

About 6:30 pm we board our tour bus for our “moose tour”.

And we actually saw moose,  4 of them, to be exact.  2 sets of cows and calves.  No bulls, unfortunately.

These pictures were taken about 9:30 pm at night, lit by a spotlight.

Moose 1

Moose 2

Moose 3

Moose 4

Moose 5

These moose were about 30 yards away at the time.

We also saw an osprey, 2 foxes,  a deer,  and 2 loons.

And some pretty scenery earlier in the evening.

Dam

Tomorrow morning we head out to Bangor, ME for a few days before we trek further north to Canada.


August 18, 2010

A Small Scare

Today turned out to be a lot busier and more eventful than we had planned, but it started out pretty normal though,

About 11:30 am Jan fixed sandwiches for lunch using a new Cranberry Horseradish Mayonnaise she bought the other day. Boy was it good!

Then after lunch I went outside to take off the last four cargo bay doors to take over to Michele at Phoenix Commercial Paint.

Jan decided to go with me since she wanted to do some shopping afterward.

After leaving Michele’s we headed down toward Goshen because I also wanted to exchange something at the Tractor Supply Store down there. However about halfway there we realized that I had forgotten the bag with the stuff in it.  Oh well.

And as on our last trip to Goshen, we ran into construction. This is getting ridiculous. A trip that should have taken about 30 minutes took us almost 50. It seems you just can’t go anywhere without something being rebuilt.

Noticing a Panera Bread along the way I stopped off to see if they had enough Asiago Cheese Bagels to complete my collection since I didn’t get all I wanted yesterday. And luckily they had some.

Leaving Panera, our next stop was the Sam’s Club right down the road to stock up on essential household items, and then we headed home, by a different way to avoid the construction. And, of course, we ran into more construction. Different construction, but more of it. This time it took us over 20 minutes to go about half a mile to get through it. There are only a few roads around here that head north and south and they’re all under construction. At the same time!  Geeez! (Put in your own swear word here)

Finally getting back to the rig about 3:00, it was time for a nap. By the time we were up, we decided it was time to go to supper so we piled into the truck and headed back down to Goshen. Can you see where this is going?  Yes, of course you can.

Even though we took a completely different route than the two this morning, guess what? More construction. This time we had to go three or four miles out of our way to get around it.

Now for the scare.

About halfway to Goshen we got a call from our daughter Brandi. We were expecting one since Wednesday is the day she sees her obstetrician, and she always calls us with a report. But today the report was upsetting.

Instead of being on her way home, she was in the hospital. At her doctor’s office they found her blood pressure was very high, so high that they told her to go straight to the hospital.

She said she didn’t know anything else, but that they had her on an IV and were monitoring her. Jan told her to let us know when heard anything.

Hanging up the phone Jan went into a small meltdown, but quickly realized there was nothing she could do until we got more news.

We decided to continue on to our dinner destination, South Side Soda Shop and Diner

South Side Soda Shop

And I’m really glad we did, because the place was good enough to get Jan’s mind off the situation, at least for a few minutes.

South Side Soda Shop was featured on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” with host Guy Fieri, and it was easy to see why. The food was delicious, and they have some really unusual dishes, including PhillyChili,  chili served over pasta in a large ice cream sundae glass, and Spiral Fries.

Spiral Fries2

Spiral Fries are made by taking a large potato and cutting it into one long spiral string, dumping it all in a basket, and frying it up. It’s basically just one VERY long French fry. And VERY good.

I had a sandwich, and Jan had the Crab Cakes. And we both agreed how good it was. We will definitely go back. I want to try the PhillyChili.

For dessert we had a piece of their award-winning pie. It wasn’t quite as good as we had at The Pie-O-Neer in Pie Town, NM  this past June, but it was good. You can read more about our visit to Pie Town here.

Leaving the diner about 6:30 pm Jan called our son-in-law Lowell to check on things since she didn’t want to disturb Brandi. Lowell was in the room with her and said there had been no change. Her BP was still high.

With the news still unsettling, we started talking about Jan flying back to Houston tomorrow. It’s 1300 miles, a two day trip by car, and a three day trip by RV. And because our cargo bay doors are off being painted, that’s not really feasible, anyway. We figured I’d stay here to take care of the cats and handle the repainting stuff and Jan would fly down for a week.

As we were discussing things, we stopped by OfficeMax on our way home since Jan wanted some new pens.

We got home about 7:45, and about 8 Lowell called with some good news, Brandi’s blood pressure was down, and they were thinking about sending her home and putting her on bed rest for two or three weeks until the baby comes. We were all very relieved, but we told him Jan would be ready to fly down on short notice if needed.

Then about 8:30 our son Chris called and said things had changed and her blood pressure was back up and they were thinking about inducing labor tonight or tomorrow. So back in panic mode again. But at least, even though it’s still almost 3 weeks until her due date, the baby is already heavy enough to be full term.

Chris said they were going to decide about 10 pm what they were going to do. And a little about 10 Brandi called and said they had decided not to decide yet. They were putting her on a 24 hour monitoring program and would make a decision tomorrow night.

So we’re stuck in the holding pattern again. just waiting to hear.

I guess at this point, the old cliché holds, that no news is good news.


August 18, 2011

Sliverleaf and Tuna Noodle Casserole . . .

It was really nice to be able to sleep until after 10 this morning. Even Jan didn’t get up until almost 9:30. We just sat around with our coffee and enjoyed the view out the front windows, and life in general.

Later in the morning I called the Blanford Post Office to confirm that I could get General Delivery there, and then called Terri at My Dakota Address to send our mail out.

Later in the afternoon I helped Jan go through some old magazines. She ended up throwing out over 30 pounds. Less weight, better fuel mileage.

For dinner Jan fixed a great tuna noodle casserole, one of our favorites.

Hey. What can I say? We’re simple folk.

Speaking of fuel mileage, I had a couple of readers ask me how I could figure it so accurately in a previous blog.

The reason is the Silverleaf VMSpc Engine Display.

Silverleaf 2

The Silverleaf VMSpc plugs into the diagnostic port underneath the dashboard and connects to my laptop that sits on the center console when we travel.

In my case I run two programs on the laptop: In the bottom section I’m running Delorme Street Atlas w/GPS. The top section is the Silverleaf display.

The really nice thing about the Silverleaf is you get to design your own panel. You can choose the instruments you want to display, where you want them on the screen, what color they are, and what they say. You can also set alarms so that if, for example, your battery voltage drops below 12 volts, an audible/visible alarm goes off on the screen.

Across the top, left to right, I first have the transmission gear indicator. The left ‘6’ shows what gear is selected on the console. The right one shows what gear the transmission is actually in.

Next, in order, are the tachometer, the turbocharger boost pressure, the instantaneous MPG, and the clock. Down the left side, the first four gauges are alarms for voltage, transmission temperature, water temperature, and oil pressure. Next are numerical gauges for the oil pressure, transmission temp, engine temp, and the total hours on the engine.

Starting from the top of the second column, CSPD shows the Cruise Control Set Speed,  next is the total miles on the coach (it had 62511 miles when we bought it), the miles we’ve put on the coach, and the fuel minder. It shows the miles left on this tank, the remaining fuel in the tank, and the recent MPG.

The next column starts with a speedometer. The neat thing about this is that the Silverleaf program allows me to set a modifier on the speedometer.

The tires (295’s) presently on my coach are bigger than the original 285’s. This means my dashboard speedometer is not correct. It reads 51 mph when I’m doing 55, for instance. But by adding a modifier to the gauge, it displays the correct speed.

Next are the generator hours. This lets me track the generator fuel usage at about 1 gallon of diesel per hour.

Underneath that, the green ball means the Cruise Control is set and engaged. If the ball was yellow, it means it’s not engaged, and a red ball means it’s turned off. Just to the right is the miles since my last oil change/filter etc., service.

Next is a vertical bar graph that gives me a instant picture of my engine performance, and below are the miles we’ve traveled so far this year. We’ll probably do another 2-3000 before we get back to Houston right before Thanksgiving.

The right hand column below the clock shows the battery voltage, the fuel rate, the engine torque, the Max Intake Manifold Temp, and the distance to the next rest area.

Lastly, across the bottom are the miles we’ve traveled so far today, and the miles we’ve traveled so far on this tank of diesel.

This last reading, coupled with the fuel used from the Fuel Minder gauge, gives me a very accurate reading of the MPG on this tank. In this case, we’ve gone 488.2 miles and used 52.5 gallons (150 – 97.5) of diesel. This gives me an average of 9.3 mph.

Driving 55 does save gas. From testing, I know that if I drive 65, my mpg drops to between 7.5 and 8 mpg. This difference in miles per gallon saves me about $1000 a year.

Just a note, the fuel usage is very accurate on the Silverleaf because the program actually counts the pulses in the fuel injectors, You can’t get any better than that.

Another neat feature of the Silverleaf is that if you ever get a Check Engine light, just use the Diagnostic drop-down menu at the top of the screen and it tells you the code AND what the code means.

It may seem like a lot of information, some of it not too useful, but it gives me an ongoing picture of my engine’s performance and lets me quickly see any changes.

I hope this all makes sense. If you have any questions or comments be sure and let me know.


August 18, 2012

Whoopeeeee!

As of 7pm this evening we’ve been told that we can stop logging at the gate. The rig is going to start moving tomorrow, and we’re free a couple of days early.

But the nice part is that we still get paid until Monday when we actually leave here.

We’re FREE!


August 18, 2013

Storm Shelters and Brake Jobs . . .

When we were driving over from Breaux Bridge, LA last Thursday, we came across this ‘Instant’ Storm Shelter. Just dig a big hole, drop in the shelter, cover it over, and you’re done.

The company, called Survive-A-Storm, makes a whole line of shelters from small panic rooms to community-sized shelters. If I was living in Tornado Alley, I’d want a shelter buried in the ground like this one. After all, it worked for Auntie Em.

Survive A Storm

Brandi sent over this photo this morning.

Landon Knows There's Another Present

Apparently Landon’s just sure there’s one more birthday present at the bottom of the bag. Miss Kitty just doesn’t care.

About 1:30 Jan and I drove down to Chris and Linda’s for the afternoon. Chris had ‘volunteered’ to do a front brake job on our truck. A week or so ago, I started hearing a scraping noise from the front whenever I was braking, but since we were on the road pretty much constantly, I decided to wait until we got back to Houston to take care of it. The fact that Chris would be here to help out was strictly ‘coincidental’

Dropping off Jan, Chris and I drove over to O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to pick up some ceramic disc pads. I wanted to use ceramic because although they’re a little more expensive, they last a lot longer and won’t damage the rotors when they wear down. But all they had were the metallic brake pads so that’s what we went with.

As I had hoped, the brake job itself didn’t take too long. Jack up one side, put a jack stand under it, remove the tire and wheel, unbolt the caliper unit, retract the calipers, remove the old pads and install the new ones, and then put everything back together. Then rinse and repeat on the other side.

Easy-Peazy!

Of course, Chris was the one doing all the work, I just handed him tools and ‘supervised’. The only real problem was a balky hydraulic jack that didn’t want to lift the truck high enough to get the jack stand underneath.

I was happy to find that both rotors were still in good shape and didn’t need to be turned or replaced. I figured they would be since they were replaced during my last brake job three years ago.

After we (Chris) finished up, he got a shower, and then we entertained ourselves for a while watching P.J., their Black Lab. chase squirrels back and forth across the yard.

Finally about 5pm we headed right outside the subdivision to Barcenas Mexican Restaurant, one of our favorite places. We ended up spending a couple hours just catching up on everything. Nice. Then by 7:30 we were on our way home for the night. It was sure nice not to hear the noisy brakes anymore.

Tomorrow morning we’re going over to Brandi’s to pick up Landon and his other grandparents, Sonja and Lendell. We’re all going to have lunch together and then take Landon to a play area at Katy Mills Mall. Should be fun.


August 18, 2014

Where Am I . . .

After coffee and muffins this morning, I made a call to Jamie at Gate Guard Services to let him know we were in the area and available for a gate the first part of next week. He said he had several things in the works and would let us know. Otherwise call him next Monday. Sounds good.

In getting ready for our gate guarding, I ordered a couple of these Vent Fan Insulated Vent Covers to help keep the heat out of the coach when it’s 100+ degrees outside. On past gates you could feel the heat coming down from the vents, so hopefully this will help.

Vent Cover

Sunshield Vent Insulator

I haven’t found anything yet for the skylight over the shower, so I may have to put something together for that.

Our son Chris came by about 4:30 to say ‘Hi’ and show off his new Yamaha bike and trailer. He was on his way up to Inks Lake north of Austin, and just west of Burnet.

New Chris and New Bike 2

Nice ride. He and some of his fellow firemen are planning on taking a week-long bike trip out west this fall, and he’s trying to get in some riding time to get ready.

We had planned to be down in Webster tomorrow for Jan’s breast cancer follow-up checkup, but she realized this afternoon that her appointment is Wednesday afternoon, not tomorrow.

Whenever we do go down, we’ll at least be cool. Brandi and Lowell offered us the use of their truck for the trip. Really nice of them.

I came across this new app (at least it’s new to me) on an app site called Where Am I? It’s simple but kind of neat.

Screenshot_2014-08-18-21-22-01

It shows where you are, the address, the city, the zip code. and a lot of other info.


August 18, 2015

Now To Get It On The Roof . . .

Jan and I headed out about 10:30 for a trip into Houston, with our first stop at Schobel’s Restaurant in Columbus for breakfast. They do a great omelet, and good coffee too.

We planned to have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon about 5:30, but we were doing some shopping first.

I have been noticing for a while that my front Coleman Mach V AC was laying down on the job a bit. So I had been thinking about replacing it with a new one. I’ve been doing some research on different brands and models, and came right back around to Coleman. The two we have are original, so they’ve been going for 16 years with only a total of $30 in repairs. I had to replace the compressor start caps on both units, one in 2009, and the other in 2013. Not a bad record overall.

Being cheap, my first thought was to maybe do a little RRAN (repair and replace as necessary – a military aircraft term) on the units, probably starting with checking the Freon level.

RV rooftop AC’s are mechanically very similar to home window units. Which means they both come sealed, with no ports to access the Freon in the system. But you can use one of these to check the pressure and add Freon if necessary.

AC Saddle Tap

It’s a saddle tap and it’s made especially for tapping into sealed systems like window AC’s  and refrigerators. But the compressor also has a lot of miles on it, with the possibility of leaky seals, worn bearings, etc. And of course the whole thing could just die next week.

All that, plus the fact that I’d really like to upgrade the size, led me to the Coleman Mach 15 from PPL. It has 15,000 BTU, an 11% increase over our 13,500 BTU units. And according to the specs, it also has a 1/3 hp fan motor, the largest one in the RV industry, especially recommended with a ducted system like we have in our American Eagle.

I thought about also replacing the bedroom unit, but I think I’ll wait. Since it cools a much smaller area, it’s still doing a good job for now.

So we made a stop at PPL Motorhomes to pick up a new Mach 15 upper unit, along with a ducted, cooling-only, external thermostat, inside unit.

Now, how am I going to get this 110 pound unit up on the roof?

Our next stop was at the Toys R US near Katy Mills Mall to pick out Landon’s gifts for his birthday party this Saturday. We got him 4 different Lego sets, all superhero based. He loves both, so he should be pretty happy.

I also found this other neat Lego set, but Brandi said Landon didn’t watch The Big Bang Theory and wouldn’t know who they are.

Lego Big Bang Theory

We got back to Brandi’s about 4pm, and got in a little nap before Brandi, Lowell, and Landon showed up about 5. Then it was off to have dinner at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro, one of our all-time favorite restaurants. You can’t believe how good their Shaking Beef Vermicelli is.

Finally, after getting our last Landon hugs,  and everybody else hugs, we headed back toward Columbus, getting home about 7:45.

So how do I get it up on the roof?


August 18, 2016

Battlebots and Zero-G . . .

A number of you gave me gate guarding leads, and I really appreciate it. I’m going to start calling tomorrow, starting of course, with Jamie of Gate Guard Services fame.

And you never know. When I called him about this time last year, he didn’t have anything for us. But then he called us back two days later with our gate near Carthage.

Since not much happened today, I thought I’d update you on some of my recent repairs/upgrades.

Back in June, I replaced our dying/leaking water pump with this new Shurflo model I got from Amazon.

Shurflo RV Water Pump

It replaced one I installed in 2008, soon after we bought our coach. And this one is quieter, more powerful, and cheaper than the old one. In fact it puts out a better shower than a lot of park’s shore water.

Next is our new Zero-G RV and Marine Hose that we got a few months back. I’d been waiting for someone to come out with a flexible hose that was drinking water safe, and the Zero-G fills the bill.

However, unlike those ‘Pocket Hoses’ on TV, the Zero-G doesn’t expand. It just gets soft and very flexible. So much so, that you can just wad it up in a ball.

Zero G RV Hose

It seems very heavy-duty, with a canvas feel, almost like a fire hose. I really look forward to traveling this winter and not having to wrestle with a regular hose when it’s 40 degrees.

I’m a really lucky guy. I married a girl who likes military airshows, science fiction movies, and makes me take her to Hooters. And if that wasn’t enough, she also likes Battlebots.

We’ve really been enjoying the recent episodes on Thursday nights, amazed at some of the ideas that the contestants come up with, and enjoying seeing one of the robots coming apart in pieces and flying across the arena, or even catching fire and blowing up.


August 18, 2017

Back Home in Conroe . . .

Finally.

Since we got into Poche’s RV Park last night and pretty much just collapsed without dinner, we were hungry this morning. So after we pulled out about 9am, our first stop was about 15 minutes away at the Cracker Barrel in Lafayette.

We’ve stopped here before, so we knew they have a number of long RV spaces in back, and we left the generator running for Miss Karma so she stayed cool and comfortable while we were inside.

Jan had her usual Old Timer’s Breakfast,

Cracker Barrel Old Timer's

while I tried their new Pecan Pancake Breakfast.

Cracker Barrel Pecan Pancakes

Don’t know what’s in these besides just pecans, but they’re really, really good, with a unique taste.

Our next stop was the Rest Area at the Texas border for a bathroom break, and then it was on to the Buc-ee’s in Baytown, 90 miles further along. I noticed yesterday when we stopped that they had diesel for $2.11, the cheapest I’ve seen recently, so I wanted to top off the tank. That way we won’t have to worry about it when we headed over to Colorado River on the 27th.

Coming around the Sam Houston Tollway, we got on the Hardy Toll Road, missing the majority of the Houston rush hour traffic heading north and encountering only a few slowdowns.

We pulled up to the Lake Conroe TT ranger station right at 4:30 and got checked in. And found of course, the rules have changed once again. In the past I would just go ahead and pay for our days ($5/day since we’re out of our free days), and the $3/day for 50 amp, so $8/day, and then just call them with our site number after we got parked and set up.

But apparently not enough people were calling in with their site number, so they said they never knew what sites were open and which ones weren’t. So now they take and hold your driver’s license until you come back with your site number. Then they give you your license back, as well as your packet of information, which includes the site map.

So anyone coming here for the first time doesn’t get a site map showing them what sites are what, until after they’ve already found a site.

Am I missing something here?

I told the lady that we weren’t going to be going back out tonight, so since they wanted everyone’s site number quicker, did they still want me to call them with my site number like I always do?

She said, “No, just give it to us tomorrow when you come out.”

“But I thought you wanted the site numbers quicker, but you don’t want me to call you? I can just wait until tomorrow or even the next day?” She looked confused for a moment, and then said, Yes”

Am I missing something here?

Plus, as busy as the ranger station can be with 3 or 4 RV’s checking in,  now they have every RV’er coming back again to the ranger station, so they’re essentially now handling twice as many people.

Am I missing something here?

I don’t think anybody thought this all the way through.

It does however look like they going to do a good job on the repaving, at least on the entrance area up to the Activity Center. They’ve taken the old asphalt up and have a hard gravel and dirt base underneath. If they don’t cheap out on the asphalt thickness and quality, it should last a long time.

But then this is ELS we’re talking about.

After getting unpacked and set up in G-37 and we rested up for a while, Jan decided that she did want to go out to get something to eat after all. So a little before 6pm we headed out for the Whataburger in Willis.

And of course I had to stop at the ranger station to get my driver’s license back. There were 3 RV’s lined up trying to check in, and four cars parked around trying to get their licenses back, and all of us crowded shoulder to shoulder into that small building.

I don’t think anybody thought this all the way through.


August 18, 2018

Family & More . . .

I had planned to lift up the bed this morning and see if I can see an obvious oil leak high up on the side of the rig’s engine.

But we got a call to meet Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper for lunch up at the Cheddar’s in Webster. Chris and Linda are down from Kingsland this weekend for Landon’s Birthday, so it was good to get together.

Chris said they’re really enjoying the slower country life up in the Texas hill country, especially the lack of traffic. Miss Piper’s working at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center up in Houston, where Jan worked back in the late 70’s/early 80’s, so it was interesting to hear them compare parking lots, buildings, and jobs. Neat!  And it was great to see everyone even though we’re all getting together again tomorrow at Brandi’s up in Katy.

Coming home we made a WalMart stop for a few things before we headed back down to Santa Fe and home.


August 18, 2019

Another Day, Another Project . . .

Our family get-together up at Brandi’s in Katy yesterday was kind of a pre-birthday party party for both Landon and Miss Piper.

Landon’s upcoming 9th birthday is on August 20th. But his birthday party is scheduled for September 7th. Which also happens to be Miss Piper’s upcoming 26th birthday. But with everyone’s busy schedules, this weekend was the best time for all of us to get together.

Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper came down Friday night, but Jan and I got there yesterday morning about 11am. And found everyone already in the pool, so Jan and I quickly joined them.

Everyone In The Pool

There are enough chairs, swings, and loungers scattered around for everyone to take it easy.

Sherry and Piper

And our son, Chris, really had the right idea.

Chris In The Pool

About 4pm Brandi’s brisket was sliced up

Brandi's Brisket

and we all chowed down on it along with potato salad, baked beans, Mexican corn, and Hawaiian roll. And of course, Brandi’s famous homemade Peach Cobbler with Blue Bell Natural Bean Vanilla ice cream.

YUM!

Later we had the pre-birthday birthday cakes for Miss Piper and Landon.

Piper and Landon Brithday Cakes

Piper and Landon at Brandi's

Then Landon previewed his Halloween costume, going as Mr. Pug, which also happens to be his YouTube site. He’ll also be wearing red Converse sneakers for that extra splash of color.

Landons Pug Morrison Halloween Costume

He’s up to 36 subscribers, but he’s always on the outlook for more.

Finally, after a great day with family Jan and I headed home about 7pm. Need to do this more often.

I mentioned the other day about modifying our Mr. Coffee to add a battery backup for the internal clock/delay timer so it doesn’t lose its settings when the power goes out. But last night I had another idea.

Rather than a battery backup, why not just add a WiFi module and let Alexa control the timer, and also allow us to start it brewing when we’re on the way home.

So I found this one on Amazon and ordered it.

Mr Coffee WiFi Module

WiFi Relay Module

Then this afternoon I started ripping our Mr. Coffee open to get to the control board.

Mr Coffee

I thought I had a piece of CAT 6 Ethernet net cable to use a couple of the fine wires to solder across the switch contacts to let the WiFi Alexa module start and stop the machine, but I couldn’t find any. So I’ll bring some home from work tomorrow.

Mr Coffee Upgrade 1

Mr Coffee Upgrade 2

Mr Coffee Upgrade 3

Another day, another project.


August 18, 2020

Wires and More Wires . . .

This evening, around 7:45 after it had cooled down a bit (all the way down to 91°) I went outside to make a couple of passes at degreasing the wiring harness at the rear of the coach engine compartment.

I figure I’ll have to do it a dozen or so times before it’s clean enough that I actually want to handle the wires. So maybe this weekend.


August 18, 2022

A Change Of Plans . . .

Jan and I headed into Webster about 12:30 this afternoon so I could get a haircut before our monthly Alvin Opry Group get-together, this month at Cheddars. Which was ironic since our very first one was at this Cheddars a year ago yesterday.

Jan was happy to see that they had brought back her favorite Key West Chicken and Shrimp.

Cheddars Key West Chicken & Shrimp 20220818

While I was unhappy that they had NOT brought back my favorite Chicken Enchilada Soup. So I decided to try their Chicken Tender Platter with the Hot Honey Sauce.

Cheddars Hot Honey Chicken Tenders 20220818

Very good, but not really hot.

We had a great time seeing everyone again, and we’re all scheduled for Saltgrass Steakhouse for next month. Already looking forward to it.

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that we were having Landon’s Birthday party at the Rainforest Café in nearby Katy Mills Mall. Well, there’s been a change of plans.

Now it’s going to be at Andretti’s Indoor Karting & Games, also nearby.

Turns out that this place (there’s 8 of them around the country) is not a typical deal where you putt-putt around an oval, but uses high-end very powerful electric carts, sized for adults, with speeds of up to 35mph.

And when you’re sitting 6 inches off the ground, 35mph seems much faster.

Andretti's GoCart

And the layout is really something with a lot of twists and turns, and ups and downs.

Andretti's Layout

But it’s even more impressive when you see what it actually looks like in person.

Andretti's Track

Now that looks like fun. I may have to join in.

I was afraid however that the food would be your typical ‘snack bar’ cuisine, with day-old hot dogs, chips with melted cheese poured over them, masquerading as ‘nachos, or stale popcorn.  But with an on-site Chef, fresh-baked-daily bread, and everything prepared to order, Andretti’s menu is no slouch either.

Andretti Classic Burger

Now that’s a burger!