Our Wings Over Houston Airshow visit started when we left the rig about 8am with our first stop the Jack In The Box a little ways up Hwy 6 for 3 Supreme Croissants. 2 for us, and 1 for our golf cart driver.
Getting up to the AirShow entrance up Hwy 3, we found we had timed things perfectly, finding a parking spot in the Handicapped lot, only about 50 yards from the entrance gate.
Our first stop was to get our bag searched, with the officer asking if I had any guns, knives, or alcohol. I told him No, that I left all the fun stuff at home and got a chuckle from him. (Actually I left my gun and folding knife in the Jeep.) Then we got our tickets scanned from my phone and we were in.
Since our Family Chalet viewing area was all the way down at the other end of the flightline, we were given a number to call to request a courtesy golf cart ride to the location. But getting inside the gate, we found a couple of golf carts loading up people for rides.
One driver said he’d be right back for us as soon as he dropped his group off. And a few minutes later we were on our way. And when we got to our location, our driver, Randy, gave us his phone number and said to call him when we were ready to leave.
And when we were ready to go, he was there in about 10 minutes, taking us right to our Jeep out in the parking lot. And he said to call him next year if we come back. And we will.
Tonight I thought I’d start with my photos of the Ring of Fire Eclipse.
The quality is all over the place since I was just holding up my eclipse glasses in front of my phone camera.
Apparently we were not in quite the right spot to see the full ring, so this is what we got at the peak occurring at 11:58am.
For the big eclipse next April I’m going to order a lens kit for my Galaxy S21 phone.
More AirShow stuff tomorrow.
Jan and I were talking this morning about one of our favorite BBQ places, Famous Dave’s, and where the nearest one in Texas was located. Which as I thought, was in El Paso. But . . .
it turns out there’s kind of one over in Baytown right off I-10E. However, for some strange reason, they’re take-out/delivery only. Turns out you actually pick up your order at a Johnny Carino’s restaurant location.
Never heard of that before. And it looks like they don’t really carry the entire menu, but a large subset.
Wonder if you can pick up your order and then eat it at Johnny Carino’s?
I love weird, amazing, strange, etc. facts, and this one pretty much covers all 3.
In December 1899. the SS Warimoo was ferrying passengers between Canada and Australia. While at sea Captain John Phillips realized he had the opportunity to do something extraordinary. He commanded that the ship steer for the point where the equator crossed the International Date Line. The ship arrived in time to straddle that point as the clock struck midnight on December 30, 1899. The forward part of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere and the middle of summer. The rear part of the ship was in the Northern Hemisphere and the middle of winter. Half of the ship was on 30 December 1899, while the forward half skipped a day ahead and into 1 January 1900.
The ship was not only in two different days, two different months, two different years, two different seasons, and two different hemispheres but also in two different centuries, all simultaneously.
Thought for the Day:
Some things never change, even today. Or maybe even more so.
“Too many people spend money they earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” – Will Rogers
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
October 17, 2009
Mexican times two…
Today we decided we needed a Mexican fix, and we got it, twice!
For lunch we headed over to El Camino Real, a nearby place that we really like. And, as usual it was great.
Coming home we stopped off at an Ace Hardware to pick up some plumber’s putty to use in installing the new faucet in the bathroom.
Then passing a Dairy Queen, we dropped in for a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard. Mmmmmm !!!
I worked on the faucet for a while, trying to get the old one out. These things are only supposed to be tightened by hand, but it always seems like they use big, honkin’ wrenches on them.
I haven’t been able to find my basin wrench, but before buying another one, I want to try my strap wrench. But it’s down in a bay somewhere, and I felt a nap coming on.
Nap time over, it was on over to El Maguey, our other favorite Mexican place here in Elkhart.
October 17, 2010
Mexican and More Mexican . . .
First off, here’s Mister really enjoying his fuzzy blanky.
Later, about 11:30 am, we met our son, Chris, his wife, Linda, & our granddaughter, Piper at Chuy’s for lunch. Chuy’s is one of our favorite Mexican places and it’s nice to have one so close by now.
About 1 pm I drove over to a client’s for some computer work. While I was there, our daughter, Brandi called and said Landon’s Baptism is set for Nov. 7th at their church in Katy. We’re really looking forward to it.
I headed back to the rig about 6:15, getting back just in time for this great sunset.
Among other great sunsets we’ve seen, is this one this past September in Elkhart, IN.
and this one in Gila Bend, AZ, less than two weeks after we first hit the road in February 2008.
I got home a little before 7, just in time to get Jan and head back out to meet our long-time friends, Bob and Maria at La Brisa about 7:15.
As usual, we had a great time talking and didn’t leave the restaurant until about 9. I think they were getting ready to close up.
Tomorrow I’ve got a bunch of errands to run and also pick up some computer stuff at Fry’s Electronics, my favorite computer store.
October 17, 2011
Mexican and Muffins . . .
After a relaxing morning of coffee and muffins, Jan and I just enjoyed the brief burst of sunny weather we woke up to today, because tomorrow we’re back to rain and more wind. Wheeee!
After lunch I headed back over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame to work on their computer system some more. And by the time I left about 4:30 I was finally starting to get a handle on the things that still need to be done..
After getting home we all headed over to El Maguey for a great Mexican meal and a lot of good conversation, getting back to the rig in time for our favorite Monday night TV programs.
And now for another installment of . . .
Things Every RV’er should have:
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about testing your power connections using an AC Receptacle Tester, today’s post will tell you how to not only test your power, but protect your rig at the same time.
To do that you need one of these. a Progressive EMS (Electrical Management System).
They have permanently mounted units like this one,
and portable, hang-on-the-pedestal models like this one.
Available in both 30 and 50 amp models, these units monitor your incoming shore power three different ways.
First, after you plug into the pedestal and flip the breaker on, the unit cycles through a number of tests on the incoming power, including voltage, frequency, and all possible mis-connections, i.e. open ground, open neutral, etc., before it applies power to the coach.
Second, it monitors the power all the time to be sure that the voltage levels stay over 104 volts, and under 132 volts. Voltage levels outside this range can damage your rig and your appliances.
Third, it acts as a surge suppressor to protect your rig from voltage surges and nearby lightning strikes, just the surge suppressor power strips you plug your computers and other electronics into.
I bought my Progressive EMS from Daryl Lawrence of Lawrence RV Accessories at a rally in Casa Grande, AZ, a month after we started our full-timing life. And in the last four years I’ve lost track of the times that the unit alerted me to problems with the power at the pedestal.
Once, on Cape Cod in 2009 the EMS gave its life in a shower of sparks to protect our rig from over 400 volts. And even though it was a weekend, Progressive overnighted me a new board to get my EMS going again. Now that’s service!
October 17, 2012
Mexinese, or maybe Chinican . . .
Lunch today was a combination of leftover Mexican and Chinese, kind of Mexinese, or maybe Chinican. Whatever, it was really good
After lunch I finished up the affidavits to send off to South Dakota to get our absentee ballots sent out to us. So after printing them out and signing I took them over to the Post Office in Colonial Beach and sent them off.
For dinner Jan and I headed into Colonial Beach to have dinner at Fat Freda’s once again. We both enjoyed their soup and sandwiches last time and wanted to give it another shot.
Not sure what tomorrow is going to hold. We’ll just have to see.
October 17, 2013
Groundhog Gate . . .
or The Ceremonial Changing of the Hoodie
Although our days have been very nice, in the high 70’s and low 80’s, our nights are getting a bit nippy, sometimes with a vengeance. Last week we were still having nights in the mid/high 70’s until the recent cold front came through.
A few nights ago the Weather Channel said the overnight low was supposed to be 62 degrees, but at 4am, it was still 77. So I’m thinking, Boy, did they screw up this forecast. But a few minutes after 4 a little north wind started up. Then the temp started falling like the bottom dropped out of the thermometer.
And by 4:30 it was 63 degrees! 14 degrees in 30 minutes. Maybe I shouldn’t have insulted their forecasting skills after all. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a drop like that.
Anyway, when Jan comes out to relieve me a little before 7am, it’s still pretty chilly, about 60 degrees, and for some reason, we only have one hooded jacket, so every morning before I go in to go to bed, we exchange the hoodie jacket outside.
In retrospect, this story was a long way to go to get nowhere.
As far as Groundhog Gate, as usual Jan has been counting the days until we head back to Houston, probably since before we even got here. So a couple of weeks ago she gleefully told me we only six weeks until we leave the gate. But after thinking for a moment I told her I didn’t think that was right, that it was more like 7 or 8 weeks. She said, No, she was sure that it was only six weeks, but she would go inside and check. Then a few minutes later, I heard some VERY unladylike language emanating from the rig. She had discovered I was right.
Then the other day she was watching a TV ad that mentioned it was only three weeks ’til Halloween, and I heard another “NNOOOOOOOOOO!”. Turned out she forgot she was watching a DVR’d show. Oops.
I told her later that this was a Groundhog Gate, where the day never changes. Trucks come in, trucks come out. It’s hot, it’s cold, it’s rainy, it’s windy. It’s just the same day, over and over and over again.
Or at least it seems like it sometimes.
Yesterday I finally completed a mammoth 22 hour, 1.7 GB download. And it only took me two tries. The first time it got to about 20% before it froze, but made it all the way though the second time. What I was doing was downloading the latest 2014 map update for the Garmin 1490 GPS that we use in our truck. And at 1.7 GB it’s probably the largest file I’ve ever downloaded.
They have a program called Garmin Express that, after you plug in your GPS to the computer, tells you what updates you need and sets you up to download them. The only real problem is that the Garmin Express software does not let you pause or resume the download, or pick up where you left off if you get knocked off line. So you just have to start it up and hope for the best. But it’s done for this year at least.
October 17, 2014
A Big Drop . . .
Today was grocery day so I left the rig (RV and oil) a little after 10 for B/CS about 25 miles away. But before I even got to the paved road, I had to stop and take some pictures.
I think I’d mentioned before about there being llamas along our road, but this was the first time they’d been near the fence. When I stopped the truck and got out to take a picture, a couple of them walked over to the fence, but I didn’t get any closer since I didn’t know the owner. And because they spit.
They seem to make themselves right at home among the cows. All told, there seem to be 20-30 out in the field.
Wal-Mart only took about 45 minutes since my list was pretty short, mostly because of all the Gate Food we’ve been getting from Ama’s, which as I hoped, has been delivering to the frack site that’s going to be working for another week or so.
One thing new on my list was doggie treats. If there’s an animal nearby, Jan’s going to try and feed it. Birds, deer, squirrels, and now apparently, dogs. Old Dog and New Dog will be coming around a lot more once they realize there’s treats involved.
And apparently Old Dog now thinks we belong to him. I mentioned a few days ago how Old Dog tried to run New Dog off one morning, even though New Dog is much bigger. Well, Jan said the other morning both of them showed up together, and immediately Old Dog laid down about 3 feet in front of Jan to keep New Dog away.
I think we have a new owner.
Getting back to my Wal-Mart trip, before I left there, I stopped in the McDonald’s for Ice Caramel Mochas and some pies before heading over to the Sonic out in the parking lot for Corn Dogs (Me), a Chili Cheese Coney (Jan) and Ched’R Peppers (both) to bring back for lunch.
Due to one of our frack rigs moving out, the traffic was a lot lighter today, with 202 vehicles coming in, to yesterday’s 290, and 324 the day before that.
We do have a workover rig coming in there tomorrow morning, so that usually means they had a problem with the frack that they need to fix. But that shouldn’t increase our traffic too much.
Good.
October 17, 2015
A Brief Reprieve . . .
When I got up about 11 this morning, Jan was sitting in the rig watching TV.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Turns out that the company man had come by about 10, after all the equipment had rolled out, and said that we had a few days off until the workover rig comes in sometime next week. In addition, he gave us a key to lock the gate if we leave for a while.
Whoopee!
So we had a nice, quiet morning, just talking and relaxing for the first time in a good while.
Very nice!
Later, Jan and I headed out about 4:45 to have dinner once again at what’s turned out to be our favorite local place, Longhorn Grill. But first we drove down to check out the pad after everyone had pretty much pulled out this morning after the completion of Completion. But as it turned out, everything wasn’t cleared out, I guess waiting for the arrival of the workover rig.
Heading back past the rig, we crossed paths with the landowner, Mr. A. He was just doing his evening rounds, checking out things since the pullout. Told him we were heading out for dinner. We also stopped in for a few minutes with the other gate guards to see if we could bring them anything back from town.
And as our two previous visits, Longhorn was just as good as before. Jan had her 10oz. Sirloin, while I had my usual 14oz. Ribeye.
And of course, we both had a salad with their great homemade dressings.
Jan and I both agree that their salads are so good, they rank right up there with the ones from Outback Steakhouse, which are our other top favorite.
To wrap things up on a high note, we split a piece of their also-homemade Strawberry Cheesecake. And this time I managed to get a picture of it.
Compare the size of this normal single serving with those thin slivers you get at other places. YUM !
And even better, with the size of the steaks, we had a lot to take home with us, along with some of their homemade yeast rolls. This means steak sandwiches in a few days.
Coming home, we stopped off at the local HEB to pick up a few things, and maybe find a couple of items that the Wal-Mart here doesn’t carry. (Hint. HEB doesn’t either.)
Another good thing about not working for the next few days is that tonight and tomorrow night it’s supposed to be in the mid 40’s here, so it’s nice to be inside
On another note, since yesterday there’s been 131 attempts to break into this blog. There will be nothing for an hour so, and then 15 minutes of almost constant attempts. Persistent little devils.
But they really don’t stand a chance hacking my password. Mine is 8 characters of upper case, lower case, and numbers. This gives a combination of 62 possibilities per character, i.e 26 upper case, 26 lower case, and 10 numbers.
Multiplying this out at 62 x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62 means they have a 1 in 218,340,105,584,896 chance to guess my password. That’s 218 Trillion with a ‘T’.
That means it would take 6,931,432 years to try every combination.
Of course they could hit the right one tomorrow, but it’s not likely.
October 17, 2016
Still Nothing Yet . . .
I waited until about 2pm without hearing from anyone before I put in a call myself. But only got voicemail.
So if I don’t hear from anyone by noon tomorrow, I start calling some of the other numbers that I talked to earlier.
Catching Up on Small Stuff
I spent most of today finishing up my taxes on TurboTax and finally submitting them on E-File at 9:42 today.
According to the USPS Priority Mail tracking, the county auditor of Lake County, South Dakota received Jan and my Absentee Ballot Request Forms today, so hopefully we’ll get our actual ballots back later this week, or the first part of next.
When I mentioned that the S.M.A.R.T. software on my ASUS laptop was telling me to replace the HD soon because it was failing, several readers asked me where they could get this software, since they didn’t find it listed on Amazon.
And the reason for that is that the S.M.A.R.T. software is actually built into the HD firmware and is constantly monitoring the hardware. Now it’s not perfect because catastrophic failures are still possible. An example of this was a while back when the HD in my desktop machine suddenly died. The drive motor just froze up with no symptoms or warning.
It’s kind of like a tire pressure monitoring system on your RV. It will monitor and warn you about a slow leak, but a sudden blowout probably won’t show up before it goes “BOOM’.
Also be aware that since the S.M.A.R.T. operates at the DOS level so you’ll only get a warning when booting up and shutting down.
Several readers have asked for an update on the Zero G RV and Marine Hose that I started using a while back. It’s a flexible drinking-water-safe hose that won’t kink. But though it’s flexible, it’s not expandable like the ones you see on TV. Instead it feels like canvas, like a fire hose.
And being flexible, it’s easy to just wad it up and stow it away. And no wrestling with a stiff hose when you’re trying to pack up when it’s 40 degrees outside.
The heavy-duty cast aluminum couplings are nice too, and so far the hose shows absolutely no wear since we bought it in June.
Well recommended.
So tomorrow we’ll just keep circling in our holding pattern, waiting to hear from someone.
October 17, 2017
On The Mend, Maybe . . .
It’s been a rough couple of days for me. And for Jan too, since she has to listen to my hacking cough, and take care of me.
About this time every Fall I get a cough. Not really bad, but just a tickle in my throat that makes me cough ever so often. So when I started coughing a little last week, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve always figured it was an allergy of some sort. Possibly ragweed, since it’s supposed to be bad this time of the year.
But night before last it got really bad, coughing all during the night every few minutes, not letting me get a lot of sleep. But except for the constant nagging cough, I really didn’t feel that bad.
So Jan and I headed down to Clear Lake to meet up with Chris, Linda, Brandi, and Landon at the Webster Cheddar’s for lunch. My cough did abate somewhat, during lunch, but returning with a vengeance after I got to work.
I spent most of the afternoon sitting at my desk/workbench soldering up a bunch of connectors.
Jan spent the afternoon over at Chris’ as he worked on Landon’s Halloween costume. So I actually worked until 6pm rather than 3:30 like I normally do. Leaving work I stopped at the corner CVS to get some strong cough syrup
By now I was starting to feel pretty dodgy, but still felt OK to drive home. Getting back to Conroe, we stopped at Kroger’s for a few grocery items, and gas. Nice to see that it’s dropping again, now down to $2.19.
We had planned to make a Culver’s for dinner, at least for Jan. I had planned to just get a shake or Concrete Freeze. But when we got there Jan said she thought I was running a fever, so I decided to go with the “feed a fever”? meme, so I ordered a small single hamburger.
By the time we got back to the rig I was on my last legs, and after taking the cough syrup I went straight to bed . . . at 9:30. And didn’t get up until noon the next day. Then after Jan fixed me some oatmeal I went back to bed until about 5pm.
Got up feeling a little better, but very sore in my joints from the coughing.
Later I had some soup and then went back to bed by around 10:30. But if I don’t feel any worse I’ll go in to Clear Lake tomorrow.
October 17, 2019
Choices, Choices, Choices . . .
Jan and I spent most of the day, on and off, talking about our proposed Alaskan Cruise-Tour next September. Or maybe I should call it a Tour-Cruise, since it starts in Fairbanks and ends up in Vancouver, B.C.
We have been trying to figure out how many extra days we want to spend in Fairbanks before the cruise actually starts. We kept going back and forth on whether we wanted 4, 5, or 6 extra days. So I made an executive decision that we’ll just do 7 days extra.
We had originally planned on staying at the Pike’s Landing Lodge, but since the cruise actually starts with a 1 one-night stay at Holland America’s hotel, The Westmark, we decided to just stay there the entire so we wouldn’t have to move twice.
We had already planned to get an Inside room, based on our last Holland America Alaskan cruise back in 1998. We had an outside Partial Seaview room which meant we could look out and see the feet of the people walking on the Promenade Deck and the sky behind them. Plus we were almost never in the room during the day anyway.
But on this cruise we’ve got our choice of two different Inside rooms, one Regular and one Large. The only difference is the size, with the Regular one at 151 sqft and the Large at 233 sqft.
And since the price increase is only $65/person, we’re going with the bigger one.
The next decision was about our meals. On our 1998 cruise, we only had two choices, Early Seating at 5:45pm and the Late Seating at 8pm, and a pre-assigned table.
But we really liked the Open Time/Open Seating for meals on our Viking Cruise. Of course, within a couple of days we had met up with a great bunch of people and ended up sitting with the same people at the same table anyway. But it was our choice of friends and our choice of table.
But now we have a 3rd choice, Open Time/Open Seating just like Viking. It’s the same menu, just in a different dining room.
So that’s what we chose.
October 17, 2020
Coiled Up, Cleaned, and Ready . . .
First off, I want to thank everyone for the many kind comments and commiserations about Landon’s yearbook cover artwork and his contest loss. They were much appreciated.
Underneath the rig this afternoon, I ran the tap through the offending bolt hole and then easily installed a new Helicoil and had no problem getting it below the flange surface. Then after I popped the tang out, I was able to screw in a test bolt with no problem.
Next up was to use the nylon end brush in my drill to clean off any small stuck pieces of the old gasket. Then I used a piece of 400 grit emery paper to polish it up, leaving me with this.
Then on the patio at my worktable, I did the same thing to the adapter head, leaving me with this.
Hopefully tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be ready to apply a thin coating of Permatex Ultra Black Sealer to the gasket and the adapter and install it onto the flange over my head. Then I’ll install the oil filter and top off the oil level.
If all that goes well, it will be time to crank it up and see if anything leaks during a high-idle (1050 rpm) test, probably for about an hour. That’s assuming nothing untoward happens.
In fact, just in case, I’m going to have Jan crank it up while I’m underneath the engine on the phone with her. Who will have her hand on the key ready to turn it off if I yell, or maybe scream.
If all goes well, then we’re planning our test drive for next weekend, probably on Sunday, heading down Hwy 6, back north of I-45 with a first stop at the Katy Buc-ee’s to check things out. If all is still OK, we’ll head on out to do a loop around at Columbus and then back to Buc-ee’s once again.
We’re going to try to schedule a stop-over there for a dinner get-together with Brandi, et. al., before heading back down I-45. We’ll do a last stop at the La Marque Buc-ee’s to top off our diesel tank and back to our home park.
This will give us a 260 mile test drive which should be a good enough test. At least we’ve never been to get this far in the past without leakage.
Then it will be time to schedule our much-delayed Alabama trip, maybe around the middle of November.
October 17, 2021
Getting Immersed . . .
Jan and I decided on Gator’s from lunch this afternoon, and got to sample one of their new treats.
Margie, the owner, who we’ve known for about 30 years, has been trying to expand her already-delicious menu, concentrating especially on Keto items. So she wanted us to try this new Blueberry Muffin.
It was delicious. I told Margie that if I didn’t know it was Keto, I wouldn’t know it was Keto.
From lunch Jan got the Keto Avocado Toast with a side salad instead of fries.
However they still gave her fries anyway. So I took them home.
Having a sweet tooth today I got the Stuffed French Toast with Strawberries, Sweet Whipped Cream, and Sweet Potato Fries.
Definitely not Keto, but really delicious.
Sweet tooth assuaged.
I’ve mentioned before that we’ve got two Van Gogh exhibits coming up in the next two months, the first one a week from tomorrow, on Jan’s birthday.
Called “Immersive Van Gogh”, it’s a traveling version of the original one we saw in Paris in May 2019. So we’re really looking forward to seeing this updated version.
But there is another.
Called Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, it’s a rival exhibit, both of them touring the US at the same time.
So of course we had to sign up for both of them the second one on November 21st, with
Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Sophie coming with us.
Both of them are apparently very popular, with both sold out into December.
To find out more you can check out this comparison article.
Houston has two competing immersive ‘Van Gogh’ exhibits but only one is worth the ticket price
