Monthly Archives: December 2023

Reminiscing . . .

After our hotel breakfast this morning, we decided to take a drive around the Cuero area checking out our old haunts.

First up was tracking down the RV park we stayed at after we moved over here from Kenedy. It was a little off the beaten path, but it was a nice little park. I had forgotten the name, but it turned out to be Spacious Skies RV Park.

After circling through the park, we headed off to find the gate that we had been guarding while we were here.

But a couple of minutes later, we came across this sign. Didn’t realize there was a prison in this area.

Took us about 20 minutes but we finally found our old gate.

Called Barnhart Gate, there was a guard shack just inside the gate in the green area on the left where we just directed trucks to the correct site.

I also worked at a site deep inside the area at a new drill pad, usually working out of my truck. Sometimes Jan and I alternated 12 hour shifts at this front gate, and sometimes we worked the same shift with Jan at the front gate and me at the inside one.

Also, we didn’t have all these warning signs when we were here.

And this mansion up on top of the hill oversees all this oil.

And this is the entrance to the place.

And a closeup of the sign over the entrance explains it all.

‘Oro Negro’ means Black Gold.

And here’s a photo essay on the place from Facebook.

Oro Negro Ranch

And according to the signs at our old gate, there are almost 35,000 acres of oil leases. And that just down that one road.

Which explains why they have their own herd of Texas Longhorns.

And also llamas.

I’ll post more of our Saturday in Cuero tomorrow.


Thought For The Day:

They say that those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.
Of course, that means that those of us who DO study history are doomed to stand by watching helplessly while the idiots in charge repeat it.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


December 11, 2009

‘a vacation from our permanent vacation…’

Since we’re not traveling right now, I probably won’t be posting every day, just for special things.

If you’re just visiting our blog for the first time, or you are new to blogging, note that the most recent posting is at the top of this page. To read the posts in order you can start at the bottom and work your way up. To go to the very beginning of our blog, Click Here and then scroll to the bottom of the page. Also, at the bottom of each day’s post, is a reference to Comments. You can click here to post your comments, or read what others have written. You can also email Greg at [email protected] or Jan at [email protected].

Check out our new 2009 Highlights tab at the top right of the page.

Yesterday, today, and for the next few days, we’re taking a ‘vacation from our permanent vacation’.

We’re in the Texas Hill Country, staying at a friend of our son’s lake house on Inks Lake, near Lake Buchanan, northwest of Austin. We’ll be here until Sunday and then drive down toward San Marcos to visit a friend of ours for a few days.

P1030354a

P1030355a

P1030356a
With Jan and I is our daughter Brandi, our son Chris, his wife Linda, our granddaughter Piper, and her boyfriend Porter. This trip is kind of a Christmas tradition with us, as we always try to come up sometime close to Christmas.

P1030357a
This morning we drove into Burnet, about 10 miles away to eat lunch at Tea-licious, a really nice tearoom with very good food. After that we hit the HEB and Walgreen’s for some stuff and then home.

Tonight we’ll probably eat at Diego’s, a local Mexican place we like, and then head down to Marble Falls to look at Christmas lights.


December 11, 2010

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Loaf . . .

The weather was still nice this morning so we were able to get our walk in, but, boy, was it windy.  We were getting wind gusts in the 30’s, and, of course, we were walking directly into it on the last leg of our walk.

Although it’s been in the 70’s the last several days, the weather is about to change. It will be in the low 40’s tonight, with a high only in the 50’s tomorrow. Then tomorrow night we’re down to 30 degrees. Wish the weather would make up its mind. Hot or cold, just pick one.

Getting back from our walk, a nice pot of coffee seemed in order, and so it was. Then we just sat around and enjoyed life and the view.

Our son Chris called a little after noon to see if we wanted to have lunch. So about 1:30 we drove up to Kemah to meet them for lunch at Chili’s. Jan and I both had the Margarita Chicken, which was as good as always, but the service was rotten. It took forever to get our order in, and even longer to get our food. That seems to be the norm for this location. We may have to start trying another one just a little further away.

After lunch Jan and I went across the street to check out a Craft Fair/Farmer’s Market there. Jan was looking for a small Christmas to hang up in the rig, and we found the wreath and more. Jan found a pumpkin cream cheese loaf and some cookies, and I found a jar of HOT Habanero salsa, all delicious.


December 11, 2011

I can’t believe he ate the whole thing . . .

First off, our son Chris won a big screen TV last night at his office Christmas Party. Unfortunately he didn’t find out about it until later, because he was at work!

Lucky for him, he didn’t have to be present to win.

Getting over to Brandi’s about 10am, Jan, Landon, and I headed into Webster to have breakfast at The Egg and I, probably our favorite local breakfast place, besides maybe, IHOP.

Jan ordered Landon a pancake off the Kid’s Menu that started out like this,

Landon's Pancake 1

and then went from this,

Egg and I 2

to this,

Egg and I 1

and ended up like this.

Landon's Pancake 2

Plus the cup of fruit he had before the pancake came. In fact his tummy was so full he fell asleep on the way home.

We had planned to let him take his nap and then head over to Bass Pro Shop’s Santa’s Wonderland, but just as we got back to the house, Brandi and Lowell showed up.

Jan thought they wouldn’t be back until later in the afternoon, but I had laughingly said that I wouldn’t be surprised if Brandi couldn’t stay away from Landon any longer.

Turns out I was right.

So after putting the still-sleeping Landon to bed, Brand went with him, and Jan and I headed home. Hopefully we’ll be able to take Landon to the Santa’s Wonderland a little later.

Getting home, Jan went right into nap mode. Keeping up with a 15 month old all weekend is hard work. In fact we both had naps.

About 5pm we headed over to Dickinson to have dinner at Monterey’s Little Mexico. Yeah, I know we were just here Friday night, but what can I say, the Tortilla Soup is great.

Tomorrow, it’s back to doing the client thing with three to see tomorrow, maybe more if I can fit them in. We’ll see.

So far, our humming ghost hasn’t reappeared. As Linda Sand commented, maybe he hums because he forgot the words.

Works for me.


December 11, 2013

Back to Dreary . . .

This morning we were back to dreary once again with no sun to be seen. A little warmer to be sure, but only in the low 50’s. The only good thing was no wind. Dickinson Bayou in front of our rig was smooth as glass.

But it was a little different up in Fairbanks AK today. We spent 5 months there in 2008, but it was the summertime. But even then it only made 80 degrees one day, and that was the 4th of July.

Downtown Faribanks 2013 12 11

This was taken sundown today at 2:20pm. It was 3 degrees, with a low expected tonight of –11 degrees.

Makes our weather not sound so bad.

About noon I headed out for some errands with my first stop at the Post Office to get some Christmas stamps and mail off the first batch of  Christmas cards.

After that, I checked a nearby Radio Shack looking for some soldering iron tips, but they don’t stock them, and it looks like no one else in town does either so I’ll probably have to get them online. Amazon here I come.

My last stop before heading home was to pay some bills. Then after a quiet afternoon that included a nap, Jan and I headed out about 5pm to meet Chris and Linda at Barcenas Mexican Restaurant, right near our house. And even better, Miss Piper showed up since she got off work early.

We’ve been eating at Barcenas since 1998 when it opened and it’s always good. And tonight was no exception. We spend some time talking about our plans for getting together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, trying to figure out everyone’s schedule. But somehow we’ll make it work.

Not sure yet what’s on the schedule for tomorrow. But I’ll probably take another look at my leaking shower problem. I have a couple of more ideas I want to try. And if the weather stays halfway nice I want to look at the problem with our step not wanting to retract or extend.

It’s always something.


December 11, 2014

Original Mexican and Old Friends . . .

As happens quite often, our stay-at-home day turned into a road trip. In this case, a 280 mile round-trip to Galveston.

Jan got an email late last night from her long-time friend/coworker Linda Furlong. wanting to get together today down in Galveston. Linda and Jan used to work together at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster. Then a few years before we started full-timing, Linda decided she wanted to move somewhere completely different, so she upped and moved to Billings, MT. And we’ve visited her there several times over the years as we’ve RV’ed around the country. But it’s going to be a lot harder to visit her next time.

She’s moving to Peru next month!

Her long-term goal is to open a bed & breakfast there. Though she’s visited there a number of times, now she’s going to be teaching down there, while she gets the lay of the land.

She’s going to be staying in Cusco, known as the Historical Capital of Peru, and the ancient capital of the Inca Empire. In addition, the famous Incan city of Machu Picchu is located nearby.

Wow. And people thought we’d gone off the deep end just because we chucked it all and started RV’ing.

We left the Colorado River Thousand Trails about 11:30am, heading for Galveston, about 135 miles away. After a quick stop for gas and a restroom break along the way, we met Linda at The Original Mexican Café.

Old Mexican Cafe 4

Old Mexican Cafe 2

Built in 1916, it’s the oldest continuously operating restaurant on Galveston Island still at its original location. We have eaten here a lot over the years, but not recently. So we were happy to try it again. And we weren’t disappointed.

Linda Furlong and Jan

And with the great food and good company, we spent two hours talking and eating, laughing and going over old times. Then Linda and Jan drove over to Murdoch’s Souvenirs on the Seawall so Jan could get some shells for her new shell jar, and I followed.

Finally saying our goodbyes, and promising we’d try to visit her sometime, Jan and I headed home about 4:45 with a detour by Brandi and Lowell’s to pick up my new Power Converter which had been delivered this morning.

Powermax 110 Volt to 12 Volt 55 Amp Power Supply Converter Charger

We finally got back to the rig a little before 8pm, and the first thing I did was to hot-wired the converter into my battery circuit using the jumper wires off an old battery charger that I had thrown away. I knew they would not take the full 55 amp output for a long period of time, but I didn’t expect them to have to.

I was happy to see that the converter quickly brought my engine and coach batteries up to 13+ volts, and held them there, even as I went around and turned on every 12 light in the rig. I was happy to see that the coach voltage hardly dropped a tenth of a volt, still staying above 13 volts, as I did this. And the cooling fan on the back of the unit never came on. Nice.

Next up, I’ll order the new transfer switch and wire up the power converter permanently under the bed. I’ll probably do these both at the same time so I only have to get under there once, but it may be after Christmas before that happens.


December 11, 2015

Old Friends and Good Music . . .

Since our daughter Brandi’s day surgery for sinus problems got pushed back to 1pm today, our original reason for staying at Brandi’s house, to take Landon to school this morning, went away. So we were able to sleep in a little, or at least I was. Jan’s pretty much always an early riser

A little after 10am Jan and I made the half-hour trip over to Richmond to have lunch at Sandy McGee’s, an almost legendary restaurant there. Jan and her coworkers used to eat here a lot when she worked at Polly Ryon Hospital there in the 1990’s. And I always wanted to eat here whenever I was in the area too.

Located in an old pharmacy building on Main St. in downtown Richmond, its very eclectic décor is a large part of its charm.

Sandy McGee's 1

Sandy McGee's 2

But the food is what makes the place famous. Their award-winning broccoli-cheese soup, along with their great sandwiches and cut-to-order fruit selections really can’t be topped.

My favorite is the Miller’s Choice, which has fresh oven-roasted turkey breast, big chunks, not dinky slices, melted Swiss Cheese, fresh spinach, with mayo and a honey-mustard vinaigrette,

Sandy McGee's Miller's Choice

as well as a cup of the broccoli-cheese soup, and fruit.

Really, really good.

Jan had their Chicken Salad Croissant,

Sandy McGee's Chicken Salad Croissant

a fresh baked butter croissant with creamy chicken salad, lettuce, tomato and avocado slices, as well as a cup of the broccoli-cheese soup.

Getting back to Brandi’s, we thought we now might have to pick Landon up from school, since we weren’t sure if Brandi’s surgery would be done in time for Lowell to pick him up. But after Brandi was taken in for the surgery, Lowell drove back over to the school to pick him up a little early, and then took him back to the hospital.

So since we were no longer needed for possible Landon duty, about 3:15 we headed out for Pasadena and the Jimmy Changas restaurant there to meet up with some old friends for dinner and then a visit to the local Opry.

Our daughter Brandi called about 4:15 to let us know she had survived the surgery, and was on her way home. Hopefully this will put a stop to all the sinus problems she’s been having.

When we got there about 4:30, we were seated immediately, but within about 15 minutes the place started filling up. Unfortunately part of our group got hung up in the Friday afternoon traffic and didn’t make it until after 5. But we all had a good time, and a good meal.

Afterwards we headed right down the street to the Pasadena Hometown Opry. Jan and I have never been to this one before, but we went to the Alvin Opry for more than 15 years, until it closed about a year ago.

But seeing the schedule of performers tonight was like being back there. Four of the six performers were Alvin Opry alumni, and, as it turns out, some of our favorites, too.

Earl Epps looks like George Jones, and sings like him too.

Hometown Opry Earl Epps

And in some cases, maybe better than the original. Probably because Earl is always sober.

Missy Brown has a vocal range that would astound you, and she really put it to use on O Holy Night, hitting a couple of dog-worthy notes there at the end.

Hometown Opry Missy Brown

She’s as good as anybody you hear on the radio.

Shawn Johnson started singing at the Alvin Opry as a kid, and we’ve watched him grow up.

Hometown Opry Shawn Johnson

His version of the Christmas song, ‘The Gift” brought tears to a lot of eyes. Not mine, of course. I just have allergies.

Margie La Blanc is from Louisiana, and really knows how to belt out a song.

Hometown Opry Margie La Blanc

She’s a much-featured performer on the Opry circuit, and her take of Brenda Lee’s “Rocking Around The Christmas Tree” was a real hit.

During the intermission, we had a chance to say Hi to them all, as well as a lot of familiar ex-Alvin Opry faces in the audience as well.

The show ended right on time at 10pm, capping off a night with good friends and familiar faces. Really nice!

After saying our goodbyes, we were on the road for the trip back to the rig by 10:15. After a potty break, and refueling with coffee and gas at the Flying J in Brookshire, we were home about 12:15, wrapping up a really nice day. Long, but very nice.


December 11, 2016

Never Boring . . .

You know you’re in Texas when it’s 45 degrees and you’re running the heaters on one day, and it’s 70 degrees with the AC going on the next day.

It’s never boring

Jan and I headed out for lunch at Barth’s about 12:30, not wanting to miss their Turkey & Dressing and Fried Chicken.

Barth's Turkey & Dressing

In fact not wanting to waste plate space on the creamed red potatoes and veggies, Turkey & Dressing and Fried Chicken was all I got.

And it turns out that we just missed fellow gate guard, JW Wilks, who apparently arrived about 5 minutes after we left. We’ll try to meet up next time.

Then it was on up to Wal-Mart for some baking stuff for Jan’s Christmas Cookie Bake-off. We also picked up a boy’s toy and a girl’s toy that we dropped off at the Toys for Tots booth outside the exit.

Coming home, we just goofed off and napped during the afternoon.

I did get a text from Todd, our SiteWatch supervisor, changing my work schedule tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 5:30pm – 5:30am to 5:00pm – 5:00am. Not a problem for me.

Seen Around the Web:

I’ve talked several times before about the future of 3D printing. And it’s amazing what they’re doing with them. Whether it’s astronauts printing repair parts on the International Space Station, Jay Leno printing new parts for his collection of antique cars, doctors printing new body parts, or even builders constructing entire houses, there’s always something new coming out.

Now it’s 3D Printing in Molten Glass.

3D Molten Glass Chihuly-Chandelier

3D Molten Glass Vase

Now they can make things from glass that can’t be made any other way.

Ever wonder about those expensive vehicle inspections that a lot of you go through every year? Wonder if they really do any good?

Well according to this GAO (Government Accounting Office) report no one really knows, but probably not. And the 15 states, including Texas, that still have the inspections, spend $100’s of millions a year for what seems to be no discernable benefit. Apparently that’s why a number of states over the last few years have dropped their inspections, and now Texas is thinking about it.

Tomorrow, it’s back to work.


December 11, 2018

How do they do that?

Jan and I headed out about 12:45 with our first stop The Egg and I up in Webster for lunch. As is normal, Jan got her Avocado Toast with a side of greens. and I got my eggs, over medium, crispy bacon, English Muffin, with a side of fruit.

But unlike our usual visits, this one was kind of a near-miss in several cases.

Jan’s side of greens was really just a side of ‘green’, as in it was only made from spinach. Of course the green shortage isn’t really their fault, and it’s better than getting E. coli, I guess.

And I still don’t understand the Hazelnut coffee situation. They bring an insulated pot of it to your table, and then pour your first cup for you. But this time, rather than the scalding hot version I usually get, it was just lukewarm.

So, for my second cup I asked for another, hotter, pot of coffee. And so when the waitress poured a cup from the new pot, it was nice to see the steam coming off the cup. But somehow it was still only lukewarm. How does that work?

And how do they cook one side of a couple of eggs different from the other side?

Egg and I Split Cook Eggs

As I said before I always get two eggs, over medium. But somehow today they managed to cook one egg over hard, as in solid hard yolk, and the other egg, just an inch away, was cooked over easy. But maybe they were just going for the average. You know, half over hard and half over easy averages to over medium.

How do they do that?

Next, it was on over to WallyMart for a few things, before a stop by my client’s to install a new sound card, well, actually a sound USB plug, on the office manager’s computer. She likes to listen to music during the day and last week the sound card up and died.

But, unfortunately, the sound card in this system is built in on the motherboard, so no plug-in card to just switch out. I could, of course, just install a card, but then I found this on Amazon.

USB Sound Card

USB Sound Adapter

It wasn’t supposed to be here until tomorrow, but I got an email saying it had been delivered, so I thought I’d go by and get it installed.

And just like the instructions, I just plugged it into a front panel USB port, plugged in the speaker system, and it worked.

No separate drivers, nothing else. Nice!

Then it was a couple of gift shops looking for Christmas gifts, Bodhi’s in Kemah for some of Jan’s Neuropathy Essential Oils,  some Coffee ice cream from Marble Slab, the PO to put the Christmas cards in the mail.

And then home. Whew!

The rest of the week is pretty busy too, first with dinner tomorrow night in Alvin with long-time friends Janice and Dave Evans. Then it’s my next 16 minute 40 second trip through the Devil’s Easy Bake Oven on Thursday

PDT Extra Crispy 468

and Jan’s next appointment with her eye surgeon on Friday.

Wasn’t there supposed to be something ‘restful’ about retirement? I mean, it’s been 11 years now since we retired and hit the road full-time in our RV, and it’s not slowing down.

Instead it seems to be speeding up.


December 11, 2019

It’s God’s Way of Telling Me . . .

There’s the old saw about how having a heart attack is God’s way of telling you to slow down.

Now, don’t get excited. I’m just fine.

But I think this was God’s way of telling me that we need a new TV.

When Jan and I came back from supper last Tuesday night, right before we left for New York, we found our 40” Samsung TV on the floor of the RV, and Miss Karma trying to look innocent.

She said it was the dog. But we don’t have a dog.

Anyway, when I set it back up, this is what I found when I turned it on.

Broken TV

BUMMER!

Strangely enough, last weekend when Jan and I were shopping at Walmart, I checked out a 43” Samsung that they had on sale.

The big problem with the size of the TV we can have is whether or not it will fit below our cabinets at the front of the rig. And it looked like it would.

So tomorrow we’ll go TV shopping, I guess. But in looking things over online, I think I may upgrade to the newer 2019 model that’s more expensive, but has a better picture, and is also Alexa compatible.

This morning I took the 22” TV we have in the bedroom and set it up on the end of the sofa so Jan could have TV until we get the new one. So she’s happy with that for a while.

I’m still going through all the New York photos that I took. When that’s done I’ll start recapping our trip on the blog.

Stay Tuned.


December 11, 2021

A Wonderful, Magical, Delightful, Fantastic Weekend

is how Jan described the last week, and I certainly agree.

We saw:

Yakov Smirnoff

Yakov

The Titanic Exhibit

Titanic

Legends

Legends - Blues Brothers

SIX

SIX

Beach Boys Tribute

Branson Beach Boys Review 1

Showboat Branson Belle

Steamboat Branson Belle Stage

The Platters

Platters 1

The Aquarium Exhibit

Branson Aquarium Octopus By Day

Jesus

Jesus

The Haygood’s

Haygood's

Neil Diamond Tribute

Neil Diamond

Pierce Arrow

Pierce Arrow

Lights of Joy Drive

Lights Of Joy Trail

We ate at:

Famous Dave’s BBQ

Famous Dave's BBQ Branson

Billy Bob’s Dairyland

Billy Bob's Dairyland

Showboat Branson Belle

Steamboat Branson Belle Stage

Starvin’ Marvin’s

Starvin' Marvin's

Billy Gail’s

Billy Gail's

and Famous Dave’s again.

Famous Dave's BBQ Branson 2

In the next few days I’ll start catching up on all this.


December 11, 2022

*Crickets*

or 59 Years Ago Today.

The rain that held off for yesterday’s Christmas Market made itself known last night and into this morning with a lot of thunder along for the ride. Glad it didn’t spoil it for everyone.

*Crickets* is what I’ve heard back from Cracker Barrel since I submitted my complaint to them last Monday evening. Here’s what I sent them.

I’m writing this because I don’t dare let my wife near the keyboard.

On November 11, I ordered online the large Heat N Serve Thanksgiving Dinner to be picked up at your League City, TX location.

We picked it up as scheduled on Sunday the 20th about 12 noon on our way to our daughter’s house in Katy, TX, about 60 miles away.

When we got there and unpacked the large box, we found the two turkey breasts, a large pan, six smaller pans, 2 labeled ‘SP’, 2 labeled ‘GB’, and two labeled ‘MP’, all tightly sealed with foil.

As well as two quarts of Turkey Gravy, a quart of chicken broth for the dressing, along with Rolls and Cranberry Sauce.

So we packed everything away in the refrigerator and waited for all our guests to show up on Thursday.

Then, with our guests there, including friends from Canada, experiencing their first American Thanksgiving, and my wife raving over how great Cracker Barrel’s Cornbread Dressing is, and that it’s her favorite part of the meal, it all came crashing down when she discovered that we had NO dressing at all.

Just a large pan of Sweet Potato Casserole, to go with the two smaller pans of Sweet Potato Casserole.

At this point my wife was actually in tears. And using words I very seldom hear her say.

Hoping to fix this, I immediately got on the phone to the League City CB trying to see what could be done about the problem. I was thinking maybe they could call our local Katy CB to give us a pan of dressing.

But either the phone stayed busy (off-the-hook) or it would ring and then you could tell that someone picked up the handset and put it right back down.

I then tried calling the Katy location directly (they answered) and told them my problem, asking if I could just come by (about 10 minutes away) and buy a pan of dressing.

However they said I would need to have ordered the dressing ahead of time to be able to pick it then. So that was no help either.

Giving up for the day, my wife tearfully served friends and family a ‘dressingless’ Thanksgiving Dinner, I.e. Turkey & ????.

The next day (Friday) around 10:45 I called the League City location once again and spoke to a female manager, who, after I told her what had happened, told me to call back after 2pm. And when I did I was told that the manager was busy and that she would call me back later. And she never did.

And since that time, for the last week+, I have called a couple of times a day, always being told someone will call me back. And no one ever has.

And, ironically, this is not the first time we’ve had a ‘dressing’ problem at Cracker Barrel.

In 2014 we stopped off at the Conroe, TX location to pick a to-go Thanksgiving Dinner for my wife to have later in the week. And once again, no dressing.

Turkey, Ham, Veggies, and Pumpkin Streusel Pie, yes. But no Dressing.

So my wife was devastated, embarrassed, and in tears over this. And for her part she feels we should get the entire $162.36 that we paid for the dinner refunded.

So I’ll leave it up to you.

FWIW the many readers of my daily blog are also waiting to hear your response.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Greg White

Still thinking about what my next move might be.

For Jan’s part, she says she never wants to eat at CB again, and she love’s CB.

Jan and I were on the way out this afternoon around 12:30 with our first stop at the Dollar General along FM646 for some Christmas stuff. Then it was on up to Webster to have lunch at Texas Huddle again. And they were probably busier than we’ve ever seen them, probably due to the fact that there was a Houston Texans-Dallas Cowboys game going on, as well as a couple of playoff games that actually counted.

And we got to watch the 1-10-1 Texans blow a 23-20 lead to the 9-3 Cowboys in the last minute of the game, going to 1-11-1 for the season.

But we got to eat some really good Wings and Tenders, along with salads, fries, and fried okra, so it more than made up for it. But we did stay for an extra 20 minutes or so to watch the Texans lose.

Then it was on down to our HEB for this week’s stuff, before getting home a little after 4pm.

Tomorrow morning I’ve got my lumbar MRI/X-Rays to see if there’s been any further deterioration in that area since last October. What I find out from this will give me some idea on how to proceed.

59 Years Ago Today –

It was Christmas time, 1963, I had just turned 15 a couple of months before, and I had somehow been roped into narrating the Christmas Story play at our church in Athens, AL, I think because I was the only teenager whose voice wasn’t still squeaking.

As I told the story, of the Manger, the Three Wise Men, the Angels, and the Shepherds, a bunch of young kids were acting out the story in front of me. One of the Shepherds even had a live sheep on a leash, who immediately crapped on the floor.

The Sheep, not the Shepherd.

Anyway, I had asked the Minister if I could also perform a couple of hymns afterward. He just asked if I needed the organist and I said no.

At the end of the pageant, I pulled out my trusty Sears Silvertone acoustic guitar from under the podium, and after a shaky start, (my $24.99 guitar never was very good at holding tune for very long. If fact the A/C coming on would cause it to lose tune. ) I first played and sang Stille Nacht in the original German, and then again as Silent Night in English. I was taking German in the 10th grade and we had to learn it for class.

Silent Night was originally written in German and first played in an Austrian church for Christmas Eve midnight mass on December 24th, 1818. It was written for the guitar because the church’s organ had been damaged by a recent flood.

So it made sense to do it on guitar in a church again.

I finished up with one of my two favorite hymns, ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ (the other one is ‘In The Garden’), kind of covering from the beginning of the Christmas Story to the very end.

I got a lot of compliments afterward, from parishioners who didn’t know I could play and sing, and especially from my surprised parents, who knew I could sing, but didn’t know I could play the guitar, since I had practiced in secret.

And it all worked out great, since I ended up getting a new Fender Stratocaster Sunburst for Christmas.

Fender Stratocaster Sunburst Guitar

I really wish I had kept it, because though I thought it was expensive at the time (about $300 if I remember correctly), it would be worth $35,000+ by now. Yikes!

I later played guitar and keyboards in two college bands, as well as trumpet, French horn, and baritone in school bands.

 

Leaving Cuero . . .

I figured out the blog posting problem and I fixed the last two days worth of blogs.

Friday, December 8, 2023

and

Saturday, December 9, 2023

I’ll catch up with our Cuero visit over the next few days.


As far as today, after a nice breakfast at our Fairbridge Inn hotel, we headed back into Cuero to gas up for the trip home, and get a couple of Caramel Mochas at the nearby McDonald’s.

We’ve really enjoyed them yesterday, and since it was 40° outside with a 10° wind chill, a hot drink for the road seemed like a good idea. And these are really good.

Coming through Hallettsville, we saw this store.

Not sure why they’re doing this, though Family Dollar has been owned by Dollar Tree since 2015 or so.

But really, why?

Coming into Eagle Lake, we passed an Exotic Ranch with a number of animals on display.

First up is a White Emu, which according to the Internet, are kind of rare.

And speaking of ‘rare’, how about a herd of White Buffalo? Or maybe Blonde, or at least, Blonde-ish Buffalos.

And I think these are a type of African Antelope.

After a quick stop at Brandi’s, and a somewhat longer stop at our HEB, we were home by about 3pm.

We had a great weekend, and have actually talked about doing it again next years.

More details to come.


December 10, 2010

HPB and Buc-ee’s . . .

This morning started with a cup of Pecan Praline coffee and the beautiful out the front window, while Jan and I talked about what we’re getting everyone for Christmas, and what still needs to be ordered.

When I got up Jan said our friend Gina had called with a printer problem with an Excel spreadsheet. She couldn’t get it to print in Landscape Mode, but by trying a few things on my machine I was able to tell her how to fix her problem.

Then about 2 pm we headed out to Dickinson Seafood again for lunch. After that we headed into Webster to the PO to mail off a package and the first batch of Christmas. Also picked up enough more stamps for the rest of the cards. Then it was on to Half-Price Books to sell some books back to them, and look for some more.

Then we stopped off at a local Hallmark store so Jan could get a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament for Landon.

Heading home we stopped at Buc-ee’s for gas and a newspaper and Dollar General for some Christmas wrappings and bags.

We got home about 5 pm and I started working on a laptop for a friend of ours. It had gotten a bad update and wouldn’t boot up. It just kept rebooting over and over again. It took a couple of hours but I finally got it cleaned up and working.

That’s about it for today.


December 10, 2011

Lights, Landon, Action . . .

For some reason I woke up with a bad headache this morning. Must have something to do with sleeping in an otherwise empty bed.

But I was feeling better after taking some Advil, so about 11:30 I headed up to Brandi’s to meet up with Jan and Landon.

On the way I stopped off at Wal-Mart to pick up some birdseed for Jan, and then Starbuck’s for coffee and Jack in the Box for Supreme Croissants for breakfast. I also stopped off at the storage room and picked up the furniture dolly for my upcoming washer repair.

I got to the house about 1pm, just in time to help Jan bathe Landon and get him ready for his nap. Then it was time for Jan’s nap. She’d been up since 5 am and needed one.

After Landon got up he played and watched Barney the Purple Dinosaur until about 4, when we headed out for an early dinner.

We drove up to I-45 and Fuqua to eat at Golden Corral. Although the wrong direction for what we had planned for later, we wanted to see if Helen, our favorite waitress, had ended up here.

We first met Helen years ago at the Ryan’s on Bay Area Blvd in Webster. When that Ryan’s closed, she moved down to the Ryan’s in Texas City, and we followed. But this year when we visited there a couple of weeks ago, she no longer worked there. In fact we were told she had moved back to Louisiana. We thought we were out of luck.

But when we ate at Barcenas Mexican Restaurant last week, we met another waiter we’ve known for a long time, and who also knew Helen. He said she was up at the Golden Corral.

And as if turns out, a number of her customers had also found her there too.

She said she had been trying to find our card so she could call us, so it all worked out.

Leaving Golden Corral, we drove down to Dickinson to visit their Festival of Lights. We parked at a nearby church where a shuttle bus took us to the park.

Landon Lights Bus

We had to wake Landon up after we parked, so he wasn’t too sure what was going on with the bus ride over there.

Landon Lights 1

They really do a great job with the several acres of lights they put up. And it’s free.

Landon Lights 2

Landon Lights 3

Landon’s head kept swiveling around so much I was afraid it was going to fall off.

Landon Lights 4

Landon Lights 5

Landon Lights 6

Landon Lights 7

Not sure what he was looking at it, but he apparently found it highly disturbing.

Landon Lights 8

We got back to the house a few minutes before 8pm, with Landon amazingly still awake. But once Jan got him in his jammies and gave him his medicine he was ready for bed.

Time for Jan to catch her breath.

Once Landon and Jan were settled in, I headed back down to the rig for the night.

Tomorrow I’ll go over earlier so we can have breakfast at The Egg and I, before driving over to Bass Pro Shop to visit their Santa’s Wonderland with Landon.

Should be another busy day.


December 10, 2012

Printing in the Cloud . . .

Leaving Jan at the rig, I headed out about 8:30 to meet my son Chris up at Lowe’s to pick up the lumber for our trim project.

After getting our 1 x 6 x 10 Pressure-Treated boards we headed over to the house to decide how to proceed. What we want to do was install a horizontal trim board along the ends of the house, and also around the entrance way courtyard.

We decided to measure and cut the planks to fit, but leave the square end a couple of inches too long to allow us to cut it to fit as we installed the boards. But before we nail them in place, I want to paint them first. Then we’ll just have to touch them up a bit later.

Our next step was to set up my 12” compound miter saw so we could easily make the 45 degree angle bevels on the boards to make nice smooth joint between the individual boards. But our first cut showed a problem, The blade was shot and would hardly cut through one board.

My first thought was to head back over to Lowe’s and get a new blade. But on second thought, remembering that a new one is at least $50 and probably closer to $75, we decided to head over to our storeroom and pick up Chris’ saw.

While we were there we grabbed some other tools that would come in handy – a 4 foot fiberglass level and my heavy-duty air-driven nail gun. This will make it a lot easier to fasten the trim in place. But the flaw in this plan was we couldn’t find any extra nails to go with the gun, so we ended up heading back to Lowe’s anyway. But a $10 box of nails was a lot cheaper than a $75 blade.

By the time we left Lowe’s it was getting to be lunch time so we headed over to King Food which was nearby. Getting back to the house, it only took us about an hour to make all the cuts now that we had a good saw.

At this point we decided to call it a day because our next step was to paint the boards, and I hadn’t bought the paint yet. I didn’t figure we would  get that far today, and I planned to pick up the paint on the way back to the rig anyway.

But before picking up the paint and heading home, I stopped off at a client’s office to finish installing Google Cloud Print on one of their machines.

Cloud Print is another neat free program from Google, that once installed, allows you to print to an attached printer from any other machine, anywhere on the Internet. This will allow me to print online orders directly to their office printer instead of having to fax them over, thus saving me a lot of time.

Installation on the printer end is very simple. Just install the Google Chrome browser. It does not have to replace your normal browser, i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc., It doesn’t even have to be running. It just has to be on the machine. Then start Chrome, go to the Settings, and then the Advanced Settings, scroll down, and turn on Cloud Print. The only other thing you’ll need is a Google Gmail account. If you don’t have one, you can create one from here. And like Google Chrome, you never have to use the Gmail account again if you don’t want to.

Now if you want to be able to print from your Android phone, just download the Android Cloud Print app from the App Store (there’s also one for the iPhone too). The app will lead you through the setup using the login name and password of your Gmail account, and then you’re ready to go.

You can print anything from your phone that has a Share command, or you can choose a file from within the Cloud Print app.

As far as the PC, I’m using a free program called Paperless Printer. Once you install it and give it your Gmail info, Paperless Printer will now appear as a printer selection with your normal Print command. Just select Paperless Printer, click the Print button, and your document or picture is sent to the remote printer, anywhere on the Internet.

It’s magic!


December 10, 2013

Are You Talking to a Robot . . .

and don’t know it?

This story on the Internet about Samantha, the friendly robot voice, is interesting. Apparently it sounds exactly like a human and converses naturally, at least until you start asking her off-the-wall questions.

So the the next time you get a call from a telemarketer, ask them “Are you a buttercup?” and see what they say.

“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do”  (Now we’ll see who gets this one)


We saw that big orange ball in the sky today, for the first time in about a week. But it really didn’t get much warmer, with the temp never getting out of the 40’s. And it’s supposed to go down to the low 30’s again tonight.

And it looks likely to stay that way for the next week or so. It looks like that Florida is the only place in the country that’s halfway warm.

They’re hogging all the warm. Damn them.


I spent part of the afternoon looking for a leak. Every now and then our shower starts leaking a little under the wall separating the shower stall from the bedroom.

I first took off the access plate at the base of the shower to see if there was any moisture showing under there. Of course, if there’s an open hole, Mister has to check it out.

He just knows there’s a mouse in there somewhere.

Mister and the Shower

Luckily for me, I found no sign of moisture under the base, which is a very good thing. I don’t even want to think about pulling the shower out to fix a leak in the base or drain.

My next thought was a leak up on the wall in the faucet/nozzle area, i.e., was it leaking down the back of the shower from the faucet. It only leaks when the shower is in use, but it could be leaking from the faucet itself when it’s turned on.

To eliminate this, I took our shower nozzle down and laid it on the floor next to the drain. Then I turned the shower on and let it run for about 15 minutes. And, once again, no leak.

So now I’m left with a leak between the glass/sidewalls and the base. The only problem with this idea is the fact that I have already gotten in there on my knees and gone over every inch of the seams and recaulked everything.

So I guess I’ll check it out all over again.

Too bad I can’t get Mister to help out. He is closer to it down there, after all.

But I’m not sure both of us will fit in the shower at the same time.


December 10, 2014

65,000 . . .

After an easy-going morning, Jan and I left the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails a little after 11:15, heading for the Colorado River Thousand Trails in Columbus, about 120 miles away. Turns out the trip was just as easy-going as the morning, and we pulled into the park about 1:30 and checked in.

We were getting set up when Donna Huffer walked across the circle to say Hi. We were already scheduled to go out to dinner with her and Bob tonight, so she and Jan set up the time while I finished getting us hooked up.

We’re parked in our favorite site at the top of the hill looking out over the field below, with deer all over the place. sometimes coming right up to the patio

Colorado River A Circle 1

We did hit a milestone on today’s trip, passing 65,000 miles on our coach since we picked it up Jan. 6, 2008. With the 62,511 miles on the coach then, that gives us a total of 127, 529 by the end of today. Our Cummins 350 ISC is just getting broken in.

Hopefully we’ll hear from the Galveston Bay RV Resort in the next few days, otherwise we’ll be heading back over to the Lake Conroe TT on Christmas Eve.

We met Donna and Bob for dinner at Schobel’s Restaurant in Columbus a little after 4pm. Jan and I have eaten breakfast there a couple of times, but this was our first time for dinner.

And it turns out that they have a pretty good selection of German dishes on their menu. In fact we all ended up ordering something German. Jan got her favorite Jaeger Schnitzel, Donna got the Wiener Schnitzel, I got the Tex-Mex version of Jalapeno Schnitzel, and Bob went with their German Plate with sausage and sauerkraut. And with a salad from the salad bar filling us up, we all ended up with take-home leftovers.

Tomorrow may be a stay-at-home day with me doing some chores around the rig. Or then again, it may not be. We never know.


December 10, 2015

Like Butter . . .

Wanting to get an early start, I was up about  8:30 (for me, that’s early)and off to the hardware store in Columbus soon after.

In fact I was back by 9:30 with everything I needed to finish up the faucet install; two flexible supply lines and and two 1/2” barrels.

New Faucet Lines

I pre-installed the supply lines to the new Moen faucet after wrapping the threads with Teflon tape, figuring it would be easier to do it now rather than reaching under the sink.

New Faucet with lines

I was glad to see that this faucet uses an all-metal clamping system to hold it to the countertop, rather than the plastic nut that I had so much trouble getting off on the old one.

And this clamping system let me just insert everything from the top, and then reach under with a 7/16” box wrench to snug it all down. A couple of more minutes to connect the coach supply lines to the new faucet flexible lines, and I was done.

Turning the water pump back on, I gave it a quick test, letting both hot and cold run for a few minutes while checking underneath for any leaks. And with everything showing high and dry, I was done with Job #2.

New Faucet Installed

So now it was time for coffee and an English muffin, and to check in with Jan who had spent the night at Brandi’s.

And now came the part I’d been kind of dreading; cutting large holes in the bedroom wall. I measured the height of the shower faucet and then drew a 10” x 6” outline on the bedroom wall.

Outline for Cutout

A while back I had bought this Harbor Freight “Multi-Function Oscillating Tool” just for this,

Multifunction Tool

so I was anxious to see how it was going to work. I was only going to be cutting 1/8” wood paneling, but at least I would have an idea.

And since several readers had asked me about these tools, I recorded a video to show you how it did it. And I can tell you it cut through the paneling like butter. And when I made a small test cut into one of the 2×4 cross braces, it went very buttery as well.

One thing to note here is that I was trying not to cut too deep in case a water line was right against the back of the paneling. Otherwise it would have been much quicker and easier.

After making my three cuts and removing the cutout piece, I found this.

Shower Access Hole

Absolutely no sign of any leak.

Bummer!

You’d think at least ONE of these three plumbing jobs could have been easy.

So now I’ve got to make another cut at the bottom. But before I did that, I wanted to check in with American Coach to see how it was hooked up down there. But it was their lunch hour in Decatur, IN, so I grabbed a sandwich too while I was waiting the 45 minutes until I could call back.

When I finally got through to American, I found out that the water supply first comes in by the toilet, then feeds the lavatory sink, and deadends at the shower. Which means I should just have the two lines, hot and cold, coming down that way.

I did my second cutout about six inches above the floor, right over where I could feel a horizontal brace.

Second Shower Cutout

Well, now I was seeing some signs of moisture, but more cobwebs than anything else. The wiring feeds one of those inset floor lights right underneath, and on the piece of paneling I cut out next.

Bottom Wall Cutout

Well, now I’m seeing signs of moisture and mold, but still no actual water. In fact, since I been off shore water and using the pump for the last several days, the carpet has not been near as wet as normal, I think due to the lower water pressure,

So I think my next step is to go back on shore water and then just wait a couple of days to see what happens. But that will have to wait until Jan and I are back at the rig tomorrow night.

Right now it was time for me to get ready and head into Katy to meet up with Jan, Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for dinner, and then Jan and I will spend the night there.

The original reason we were here was so that Jan and I could take Landon to school tomorrow morning while Lowell took Brandi in for her day surgery. But today they moved her appointment back to 1pm, so Lowell will take him in as usual.

But since we’re meeting friends tomorrow night in Pasadena for dinner, and then a visit to the Pasadena Opry for the Christmas show, we’ll just stay here tonight and shorten our trip.

For dinner tonight we tried a new place called Slim Chickens. It’s a small chain, with about 25 locations in 9 states, starting in Arkansas about 10 years ago.

Turned out to be really good, with breaded to order chicken tenders, chicken wings, chicken and waffles (the waffle is shaped like the state of Texas), grilled chicken salads, and grilled chicken wraps.

I’m detecting a pattern here.

It looks like they’re building one up in The Woodlands area, so I’m sure we’ll give them a try again.


December 10, 2016

Hep C and Big Pharma . . .

Well, it looks like our cold snap is over for a few days, but there’s another one following on behind in another week or so.

Luckily for us it never got quite as cold as they forecasted. But there’s always next time I guess.

Todd texted us this afternoon with another 3 days of gate work, this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and even better, it’s night shift from 17:30 to 05:30. Nice!

And lucky for me, the night temps are supposed to only be in the low 60’s for then.

There’s probably a rule somewhere that you’re not allowed to have Turkey & Dressing twice in one week. But officially tomorrow is the start of a new week, so tomorrow it’s back to Barth’s Restaurant for their Sunday lunch buffet. And then probably a Wal-Mart/HEB run.

I posted yesterday’s Cranberry Orange Nut Bread under the Jan’s Favorite Recipes tab.

Jan's Cranberry Orange Nut Bread Sliced

Check it out if you didn’t get it yesterday. Really delicious.

For dinner tonight we finished up the last of Jan’s Chicken Vegetable Soup that she made up a couple of days ago in our slow cooker.

Jan's Chicken Vegetable Soup2

Just wish we had a larger slow cooker so she could make more at one time. But unfortunately a larger model is too high and won’t fit in our cabinet.

On a completely different subject, I am sure we’ve all been seeing the commercials for Harvoni, the new Hep C cure. I saw a mention on another blog on how expensive it was. So curious, I checked on GoodRx site to see what kind of expensive we were talking about. And all I can say is WOW!

Depending on what different strain of HEP C you have, and how chronic the infection is, you will need treatments ranging from 8 to 12 weeks, so 2 to 3 months. And according to GoodRx,, a one month treatment costs in the neighborhood of $32,000. That’s a very expensive neighborhood.

So now this is where we all yell and scream about Big Pharma and the high cost of prescription drugs. But wait, there’s more.

1. Presently it takes ~12 years for a new drug to be approved for marketing after it is patented.

2. According to Forbes, the average cost of getting a new drug to market is ~$5 billion.

3. Only 5 in 5,000 drugs that enter preclinical testing progress to human testing. One of these 5 drugs that are tested in people is approved. So that means that only 1 drug in 5000 actually make money for the company. Not very good odds.

4. But the real kicker is our patent system. Presently the Patent Office allows a time period of 20 years from patenting to expiration for a new drug. So this means that the drug company only has about 8 years to make back their $5 billion cost of developing the drug.

Then they have to make enough money to cover the partial development and testing of the other 4999 drugs that didn’t make it through the approval process.

So now they’ve covered their costs, but there’s still something missing – Profit.. Profit to keep the company in business, profit for the shareholders, etc.

So it looks like to me that the first (and very easy thing) to do to cut the cost of prescription drugs would be to make the 20 year patent time only start when the drug gets final approval and can go on sale. This would more than double the time for the drug development cost to be amortized, and reduce the price they need to charge for each dose.

Makes sense to me.


December 10, 2017

Bundle Up. We’re going to the Beach!

Last night after we got home I got a call from our friends, Bob and Maria, who we had just had lunch with earlier in the afternoon.

When they got home, they found that their refrigerator had lost power. So I led them through pulling the fridge out from the wall and checking the outlet, which was dead.

At this point I told them to find an extension cord to power the fridge for the night and that I would come over this afternoon.

So this afternoon Jan and I drove over to their house in League City to check things out. What I found was a funky breaker that had blown and was very hard to reset. But after I got it unstuck, it moved just fine and power was back on the outlet.

I told them to keep an eye on the breaker and if it acts up again it may have to be replaced.

Bob also has an older model Kindle with the keyboard that won’t charge. It feels like the connector inside the Kindle has come loose and fallen back inside the case, so I bought it home to take it apart and see if I can do anything for it.

Leaving Bob and Maria’s we headed down to Galveston for our meetup with our friend. But we were going to get there about an hour early so we decided to drive the Seawall for a half hour down and a half hour back.

The first thing we noticed was all the people on the beach. The second thing we noticed was that since it was 53° everyone was bundled up in heavy coats and sweat pants. You’ve got to really want to do the beach thing to be sitting out in the sand at the water’s edge swaddled like an Eskimo.

We drove all the way down to the Galveston Island State Park before we turned around and headed back. I guess I was expecting to see some Harvey damage but everything looked fine.

We got back to The Original Mexican Café, about 10 minutes before 4pm and got seated, just as our friend Linda showed up.

Original Mexican Cafe Linda and Jan

Jan and Linda started working together back in 2001, and then a few years later she up and moved to Billings, MT. So when we started RV’ing in 2008 we stopped by every time we were in the area. Then a few years ago she moved back to Galveston where she still owned a home.

Normally the food here is always great, but Jan got a Pollo ala Parrilla with a chicken breast that died of old age . . . in the Stone Age. It was thin, tough, chewy, and even hard to slice. She almost sent it back, but had enough other food to make up for it.

After finally saying our goodbyes about 6:30, we headed back home, on the way passing by the Houston Magical Lights that I’ve mentioned in the past.

Magical Lights 1

Really looks great, and hopefully we’ll get to take Landon there soon.


December 10, 2018

More Mocha . . .

I spent pretty much all day at work trying to resurrect a used machine that my client had purchased on eBay.

It’s always bad news when a unit rattles when you unpack it. And taking it apart I found a number of indications that someone had opened the unit and seemingly tried their own repair. But in the process, they broke off several of the circuit board mounting standoffs as well as the solder joints for a power transistor to the board.

So it looks like I’ll have to take this unit completely apart, remove all four circuit boards, replace the standoffs, resolder the power transistor, and put it all back together. THEN I’ll finally be able to try to get it working again.

Not exactly coffee ‘purist’, Jan and I are always experimenting with our favorite coffee flavors. Right now our favorite seems to be two scoops of Lola Savannah’s Texas Pecan and one scoop of WalMart’s Mocha.

As I mentioned before, Lola Savannah is a local coffee roaster that produces a number of different coffee flavors. But our favorite is their Texas Pecan with real chunks of pecan.

HEB Lola Savannah Texas Pecan Coffee

And we really like the chocolate ‘mocha’ flavor addition as well, But we were looking a little more. So recently I’ve been adding a scoop of unsweetened cocoa powder to the filter basket for an extra chocolate ‘oomph’ And it really works. But I have to be careful how much I add, or where I put it in the filter because the powder is so fine that it can clog the filter and not let the water through. But it is really good.

Not much else happened today, and not a lot scheduled for tomorrow either.

Nice!


December 10, 2019

Our Last Day In NYC

We were down at our hotel breakfast by about 8:15, making the most of our last few hours here in NYC.

NYC 201912010 Hotel Riu Breakfast

Delicious as all our meals here at the hotel, breakfast and dinner.

And by 9:30 we were over in Times Square checking out more of the high-end shops, and, of course, one last Times Square selfie.

NYC 201912010 Last Times Square Selfie

Walking around, we came across a police horse, complete with a smiling policeman, who let Jan get in some petting time with his horse.

NYC 201912010 Police Horse

By noon we were back at Junior’s for our last meal, fitting since it was also our first meal when we got here.

NYC 201912010 Last Junior's Visit

For Jan’s part, she got what she said was the best Grilled Cheese sandwich she’s ever had, as well as her favorite Steak Fries.

NYC 201912010 Last Junior's Visit Grilled Cheese

I went old-school with a Sesame Bagel with Cream Cheese. You can’t get much more NYC than that.

And the only reason I didn’t get the obligatory lox with it was that their delivery was running late that morning.

NYC 201912010 Last Junior's Visit Bagel

Of course, you can’t have a meal at Junior’s without Cheesecake.

Jan got the simple, but delicious, Strawberry Cheesecake,

NYC 201912010 Last Junior's Visit Cheesecake

while I got my usual  Carrot Cake Cheesecake,

Junior's Carrot Cake Cheesecake

which I think is the only cheesecake I’ve ever gotten here, including our visits in 2009.

And we had to finish up with a cup of their wonderful cappuccino, complete with the rock candy stirrer.

NYC 201912010 Last Junior's Visit Cappachino

Wrapping up our time here, we were on our way out to La Guardia by 2 to make our 4:45 flight back to Houston, finally getting back to the rig about 10:30.

Safe and sound, tired but happy.

We had a blast!


December 10, 2021

Wrapping Up In Branson . . .

We’ve had a great time here in Branson this week. We’ve seen some fantastic shows and had a lot of fun.

But tomorrow we head back to the real world, overnighting in Texarkana before getting back home Sunday afternoon.

Then next week I’ll start catching you up on all the fun we had.

Keep checking back.

Branson Aquarium Octopus By Night


December 10, 2022

Three Acres and More . . .

Catching up with last night’s Alvin Opry visit, we started off as usual with dinner at the Alvin Monterey’s.

Jan, as before, got her new fav, the Stuffed Avocado with Fajita Beef and Charro Beans.

Monterey Stuffed Avocado wtih Beef

I got the same bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup that I’ve been getting for 30 or so years.

Monterey's Dickinson Chicken Tortilla Soup 20220806

Then it was on over the Opry, which is held at the local American Legion Hall.

One thing Jan and I have really enjoyed recently is that they’ve started bringing back a lot of our favorites from the old, original Alvin Opry that we started attending in 1997.

Called the Alvin Opry Alumni, we’ve seen Margie La Blanc,

Alvin Opry Margie LaBlanc

Pat Varley,

Alvin Opry 20221111 Pat Varley

and then tonight, Mary Dooley.

Alvin Opry Mary Dooley

And we also enjoyed the other new-to-us singers, like Kelly Hartsfield,

Alvin Opry Kelly Hartsfield

Pete Edwards,

Alvin Opry Pete Edwards

Stevin Marsh,

Alvin Opry Stevin Marsh

and the headliner of the night, Randy C. Moore.

Alvin Opry Randy C Moore

This show, sprinkled with a number of Christmas songs, was one of the best in a long time. There wasn’t a dud in the bunch, and they left everyone wanting more when things wrapped up about 10pm.

A really great show!

Moving on to today, we were worried about the possibility of rain taking out our attending the Three Acre Food Truck Park’s Country Christmas Market, but it held off, and it turned out to be a really nice day.

Three Acres Food Truck Park 1

And a lot of other people thought so too. The parking lot was packed.

Three Acre Christmas Market 1

And there were a lot of booths, more than we saw at the Fall Market back in October.

Three Acre Christmas Market 2

Three Acre Christmas Market 3

We decided to check out KC Dawgs, with a lot of different versions of hot dogs, all using 100% Beef dogs. Jan got the Chili Cheese Dog,

Three Acre Christmas Market KC Dawgs Chili Cheese

She said the Chili was delicious and wondered if it was their own recipe.

I got the Big Boy Brisket Dog, with Grilled Onions and Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce.

Three Acre Christmas Market KC Dawgs Brisket Dog

Jan found a couple of things she just had to have, and a couple of more for Christmas presents for others.

Wrapping things up at the Market, Jan got her hair cut at our local CostCutters, and then heading back toward home, we dropped the last of the Christmas cards into the mail.

Already looking forward to the next Market day.

Tomorrow looks to be lunch at Texas Huddle once again, with HEB and Dollar General stops, and then home.

But of course, things can change.