February 2024 – Page 8 – Our RV Adventures

Monthly Archives: February 2024

February 15, 2024 Uncategorized

Valentine’s Day Recap . . .

Recapping yesterday, Jan and I headed down to Galveston about 9:15 to meet long-time friends Jim & Peri Dean at Sunflower Cafe, one of our favorite breakfast places.

We first met Jim and Peri back in 2011 when we were all staying at the Thousand Trails in Las Vegas. They were blog readers, and when they found out we were there, they looked us up. And we’ve been friends ever since.

While we were eating breakfast, we asked them if they wanted to hang around and join us for our Valentine’s Day dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse that evening at 5:30.

After thinking about it, they said ‘Yes’.

But rather than hang around, we went back to Santa Fe and they went back up to the NRG area where they were staying.

Naps were calling for us all.

Heading back down to Galveston about 4:30 we were surprised to see a wreck blocking all 3 lanes of the Interstate before we even left the mainland. In fact we found the 3 lanes backed up all the way across the causeway and down into Galveston proper, about 3.5 miles. And based on the length of the backup, those vehicles had already been sitting there for a couple of hours.

And it wasn’t moving. But not our problem until we headed home.

We only had reservations for Jan and me, but we always have been seated at a table for 4, so we figured it wouldn’t matter if we showed up with 4 people.

And it didn’t.

Since you’ve seen numerous photos of our steaks at Saltgrass, I won’t post anymore.

But we had a great time, and a great meal, during which Peri and I monitored the traffic apps watching the backup blocking our leaving the Island in a timely manner.

This is what we saw –

So we hung around at the restaurant, when finally about 7:50 the red started fading to orange, then yellow, and finally changing to green about 8:15. So we all said our goodbyes until next time, and headed home with smooth sailing all the way.

Worth the wait.

Then this morning we were back on the road again, this time up to the Spring area to meet up with Debi & Ed Hurlburt once again at the El Palenque Mexican Restaurant, one of our favorite spots.

Always delicious, Jan had the Rancho Grande, with a Grilled Chicken Breast with 3 Grilled Shrimp, Charro Beans, and Veggies.

I got the Palenque Sampler with a little bit of everything.

After a great 2+ hours, talking about everything from ghosts to dinosaurs, we got our hugs and headed home, stopping only for Cowboy Coffee Lattes before getting back to the rig about 3:30, just in time for a nice nap.

Tomorrow it’s back to the office.

Finally, to note his father’s open heart surgery, Landon 3D printed this beating heart.

Neat!

Thought for the Day:

A lesson in irony…

The Food Bank Program, administered by Social Welfare Canada, is actually proud of the fact it is distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food vouchers ever.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the Canada Parks and Natural Resources, asks us to “Please Do Not Feed the Animals.”

Their stated reason for the policy is because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

February 15, 2010

Started Scratching Our Itch!

Today Jan and I started scratching our bad case of Hitch Itch. As much as we enjoyed visiting with our family and friends, we were anxious to get back on the road, since we’ve been parked on Dickinson Bayou since right before Thanksgiving.

We left Galveston Bay RV park about 10:30 and hit the road…and stopped about 5 miles away at Monterey’s Little Mexico for one last bowl of their great Chicken Tortilla Soup and chips and salsa. Couldn’t leave town without one last bowl!

But we were only going about 220 miles anyway, so it only took about 4 hours until we arrived at Lake Pointe RV Resort on Canyon Lake. We’re going to be here about 4 days visiting with our friend Gina, setting up her new computer, and installing a video camera on her back porch so she can watch the raccoons when they come to feed.

And they are well-fed. I think a couple of them are about the size of Great Danes. Prime eat’n size as we use to say back in Alabama.

We plan on heading out from here on Friday morning, stopping over one night in Fort Stockton before we get to Los Cruces, NM for a couple of nights. Then it’s on to Tucson, AZ to spend several days with some friends we met in Alaska in 2008.

We plan to end up in Yuma, AZ about the 3rd of March for a rally. And after that, we’ll see.

Since we’re back on the road, I’ll start posting every day again, if only to make a certain someone happy.

February 15, 2011

Hot Wings and Cold Rivers . . .

Another early start this morning as we left the coach about 8:45am heading to Gina’s to pick her up for her doctor’s appointment over in Wimberley. Then leaving there, we drove over to the pharmacy to drop off her prescriptions.

Next we headed over to the square to have lunch at one of our favorite places, the Cypress Creek Café. We try to eat here every time we’re in the area and it’s always great.

Jan and Gina loved their Chicken Fried Chicken and Chicken Fried Steak, and I crave their Devil’s Breath Buffalo Wings. I had them back in June and I was back for more.

As I mentioned before, the Devil’s Breath wings are made with the Naga Jolokia chilies, also known as Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost chilies. The restaurant says they have to import them from Amsterdam, Holland because they’re not available here in the US.

Although the Ghost Chilies were considered the hottest until very recently, they’ve now been upstaged by the Naga Viper, and at 1.3 million Scoville Units, it’s almost 30% hotter.

Owwie!

Just like the menu says, you have to sign a waiver before they will serve you, and for some reason, only the manager can witness it.

After a great (and hot!) lunch, we went back to the pharmacy to pick up Gina’s prescriptions, before stopping off at a local garage to have Gina’s car inspected. Then our final stop was at the local Brookshire Brother’s to pick up some groceries.

Heading back to Gina’s, we took the scenic River Road route, which of course, includes, what else, a river. . .

and a road over . . . er, thru it.

You find a number of these low-water crossings around the Hill Country, and most of the year they’ve got water over them.

And because it’s under water most of the time, the roadway is slick with algae. So slick, in fact, that if you gun your engine going up the slope, you can slide sideways right off into the river, just like this guy did a few years ago.

After getting Gina settled in at home, Jan and I headed back over to the rig. And as soon as we drove up, the deer started coming out of the trees and bushes near the rig. They knew Jan was home.

And as can be seen from these earlier photos, they will eat right out of your hands.

Tomorrow will be our last full day here in Canyon Lake and the Texas Hill Country. We always look forward to coming back to this area to visit Gina every year.

Thursday morning we’ll make a 370 mile run (long for us) to Balmorhea, TX, out in the middle of the west Texas nothingness, about halfway between Ft. Stockton and Van Horn. But they do have a nice Passport America RV park for $10 a night.

February 15, 2012

. . . to a Precious Few.

Well, Jan finished up the last of her doctor’s appointments this morning, so we’re all set to hit the road tomorrow morning, heading about 230 miles away to Canyon Lake, TX in the Hill Country.

We’ll be spending a few days visiting our friend Gina, before starting our trek out to Yuma, AZ by the 26th.

But in the meantime, today started out OK but quickly fell apart. I had just planned to wrap a couple of things up and have an easy day.

But, NNNOOOOOO! Everybody and his brother either broke something or needed something done at the last minute. So I spent most of the day falling further and further behind.

Finally though, I wrapped things up in time for Jan and I to meet our friends Bob & Beth at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood and Texas Steakhouse over in Pearland. We hadn’t been there for several years and were surprised at how busy they were. We got there a little after 7 and still had about a 40-minute wait.

But it was certainly worth it, Jan and I both had steaks, really good steaks, and of course the obligatory cup of gumbo. You can’t go to Floyd’s without having gumbo. Or at least I can’t.

After a great meal, we all got in our hugs, and then Jan and I headed toward home with a quick stop at Brandi’s to pick up a hat I’d left, and then a stop by the storeroom to drop off some last-minute stuff. Then finally we got home a little after 10, after a long, busy day.

Tomorrow, the Hill Country.

February 15, 2014

Great Steaks . . .

First off, I thought I’d pass on a couple of tips that I use to keep track of things as far as RV’ing goes.

I have a file called American Coach Numbers. Here’s a sample below.

Initial Mileage
62,511

TAG
43F T26

VIN
4VZBN8299XC032375

FIN
719NX4475530

CUMMINS
45810300

Rear Axle Type
Rockwell RS19-145

Rear Axle Inner Wheel Seal
2140-DD4-801017

SCA Test Strips
Fleetguard CC2604-A
NAPA FIL 4105
DANA/WIX Strips

AC Belt
Dayco 17475

Serpentine Belt
Dayco 5080690

Onan Generator
Fuel Filter 149-3513

FG Fuel Filters
FS 1022
FS 1242B

FG Oil Filter
LF 3000

It contains information about our coach, tag number, VIN number, FIN number, and all the different belts and filters used in the coach. And whenever I buy a new repair part, it all gets logged in.

Here’s the info on my recent Kwikee step repair.

PowerGear
Kwikee Step
28 Series
Ser. #97749
Linkage Kit #909533000

This allows me to go back and find any past repair part without having to start all over looking it up.

Next, I also have a folder on the computer called American Coach Docs. This folder contains the manuals and documentation for everything I have in the coach, from the Splendide Washer/Dryer, and the Dometic Refrigerator, to the Onan 7.5 KW generator. And everything I buy for the coach, from our new Hamilton Beach Coffee Maker, and our Tire Trakker TPMS, to our DirecTV DVR gets included too. I’ve found almost every manufacturer, no matter what, has their manuals online. But in a few cases I’ve just scanned the manual to a PDF file and in the folder it goes.

This really saves time when I need some information about something. A couple of clicks and it‘s right at my fingertips.

About 3 PM Jan and I headed into Houston to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for an early dinner. After some talking, we ended up deciding to splurge and have dinner at Taste of Texas, one of the top steakhouses in Houston.

But it would have helped if we’d decided to get there a little earlier. We got to the restaurant a little before 4 PM, but still had an hour wait. But it was worth it.

I think this is the only steak place we’ve been to that sells their steaks by the ounce! Jan got a Filet, while I got a 16oz Ribeye, one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.

We all had a great time and a great meal. As you can see, Landon had a great time too.

Tomorrow we’ll getting together with some friends for breakfast at the Sunflower Café down in Galveston. Really looking forward to it.

February 15, 2015

Two Weeks From Today . . .

Yesterday it suddenly dawned on me that we leave for Tucson, two weeks from today. That’s March 1st, TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!

YIKES! That’s a really scary thought.

My ‘To-Do List to Do Before We Leave’ seems to be getting longer, not shorter.

First up, I changed out the windshield wipers on the truck, using the same Rain-X wipers I used two years ago. Previously I replaced my wipers every year, but I’ve found that these Rain-X Latitude Wiper Blade – 21″ (Pack of 1) with the graphite-infused rubber, last a lot longer than other blades. And even this time I only replaced them ‘just because’, since they still weren’t streaking, and the rubber wasn’t ragged and worn like you would expect after two years.

The Denso blades I ordered from Amazon for the rig should be in on Tuesday, so that’s up next.

Next up I was back on the step motor problem. Using the test leads I made up last night, I put 12v directly to the motor, with the only result being a spark when I touched the terminal. So I figured I’d take it out and have a look. Pretty easy, I just removed the 4 corner nuts and it came right out.

Then I removed the 3 screws holding the motor to the gearbox and pulled it apart. This is where I was this time last year when I replaced the linkage arm, which had broken off.

Replacing a Broken Step Motor Linkage.

I thought maybe the gearbox was jammed, but without the motor attached, everything moved freely. I was happy to see, that unlike newer models that have plastic, easily stripped gears, everything in mine is all metal.

When I first tested the motor earlier and thought it was bad, I had checked online, and found replacements were anywhere from $161 to $238. Ouch!

So figuring I had nothing to lose, I checked the motor by itself.

And it worked fine! WTH!

Thinking there must be a problem somewhere, I put it all back together and tried it again.

And it still worked.

Now I was confused. Why hadn’t it worked before, or even better, why had it stopped working to begin with?

So I crawled back under the rig, and reinstalled the motor/gearbox combo.

And it still worked fine.

I’m glad it’s fixed, and I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to spend a bunch of money, but it always bothers me when I don’t know why something quit working, or why it started again. That usually means the original problem is still lurking in the background, just waiting to jump out and say “BOO”!

Jan said it was probably lonely under there, and just wanted to be held. I guess that’s as good a reason as any.

Just in case I left the step set so that it goes in and out every time we open and close the door, so I can keep an eye on it. I’d rather it fail now than when we’re back on the road.

Finally, as I was working on this, I kept thinking that the motor looked awfully familiar.

And then I remembered where I’d seen something like it. A few years ago I had to replace the power window regulator (lifting mechanism) in our 2004 Dodge Dakota, and this motor looked a lot like that motor.

So I went back online, and found that most of the motors used in Kwikee steps are Ford Taurus power window motors, and you can buy them at AutoZone for $40. The only difference is the power connector, which you just cut off the old motor.

So now I know for next time.

Although we had planned to eat in tonight, I decided we should go out and spend some of the money I just saved us, so about 4:30 we headed up to Webster to eat at King Food.

Along the way, we checked out the new RV Park that’s going up at SR 96 and Hwy 3 in League City. We’d driven past a week or so ago, but the entrance was blocked off. But today it was open, so we drove through it.

This is going to be a very nice park, with all-concrete roads and pads and looks to be more than 100 sites.

It has a mixture of both back-in and pull-thru sites, a nice pool, and it’s built around a big lake. The sites are on 3 sides of the lake but the road goes all the way around.

Everything looks ready to go, except for the clubhouse, which has plywood on the doors.

The one funny thing about the operation is that there is not a sign anywhere giving the name of the park, or when it will open. But hopefully we’ll know something before we leave the area.

Since Galveston Bay RV Park seems determined to start pricing their way out of our comfort zone, I asked Jan if she could live here, and she said, “YES”.

So we’ll see.

February 15, 2016

They Can’t Get’em All . . .

We didn’t walk this morning since we had to head down to Brandi’s about 1 pm, and that’s often about the time we finish up with our walk-breakfast-walk routine.

From last night when the park was almost full, this morning it was now half empty as everyone headed home after the long holiday weekend. Now we would have our choice of sites instead of the slim pickings we had yesterday.

As I said, we headed out for Brandi’s about 1, getting there about 2:30, so that we could pick Landon up at his school, while Brandi and Lowell could attend a Parent-Teacher conference.

We headed out for Landon’s school a little after 3 to get in line to wait for the dismissal. We drove Lowell’s truck so that we wouldn’t have to switch over Landon’s car seat, as well as the Student ID Tag that identifies the truck as being Landon’s pickup vehicle.

The way this school handles parents picking up their kids is a model of modern technology.

We lined up in the truck outside the school grounds along the street until we were waved in. As we entered, one of two ladies logged us into the computer system with an iPad, using the unique number showing on the Student ID Tag that hung from the rearview mirror, while the other lady holds up a sign directing us to the right or left lane as we queued up.

Based on our position in the line, which was tracked from the Student ID number entered earlier, the computer now knows which one of the numbered pickup stations we will stop at. At this point Landon’s teacher receives a computer message to send Landon out to, in this case, Station 6, and the teacher monitoring Station 6 also knows to expect Landon, and tracks him down if he doesn’t show up on time.

And in our case, when our line stopped, we stopped because the vehicle in front of us stopped at Station 5, so we were sitting at Station 6, and there was Landon waiting for us.

This is much safer for the kids since they’re not running hither and yon, out into the streets as cars are zipping in and out all trying to pick up their kids and get on their way. The only possible problem I can see is what if the computer system goes down? And it will, believe me.

So, do they have a backup plan without computers, or are they just going with the chaos method?

Brandi and Lowell showed up at the house about 4:30 and then we all headed out for dinner. They were introducing us to La Finca Mexican Restaurant, a place they’d eaten at several times, but a first for us.

And now we want to know why they’ve been hiding this place from us. It was delicious.

We knew we were in for a treat with the first dip of salsa. It was thick, chunky, and just full of smoky chipotle flavor. Very good.

For our meal, Jan and I split the Combo Beef and Chicken Fajitas Poblanas for Two.

Although it was more like ‘For Four’, than Two. With Beef, Chicken, poblano peppers, red peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and cheese, it was a full meal and then some. In fact we took half of it home for tomorrow.

Really, really good and we’ll go back.

Wrapping up, I thought I’d post this video of a Roadrunner/Rattlesnake Deathmatch. I had seen this a while back, but fellow gate guard JW Wilk’s reposting on Facebook made me want to pass it on to you.

Based on this video, I think the Coyote was probably lucky he never actually caught the Roadrunner. It wouldn’t have turned out well.

When we were on our very first gate back in 2012, there were roadrunners all over the place, always zipping around with a mouthful of lizard or grasshopper.

They were very curious, and seemingly not afraid of anything. One time I sitting out under the canopy on the gate, reading my Kindle, and I suddenly felt something watching me.

Looking down there was a big male roadrunner less than a foot away, just looking up at me. After we stared at each other for about 30 seconds, I guess he figured he wasn’t ‘that’ hungry, and stalked off.

Later that summer, on another gate, the landowner told my wife there were a lot of rattlesnakes in the area and wondered if we had seen any of them. Jan said we hadn’t and that there were so many roadrunners around that they were probably keeping them under control.

He looked at Jan very seriously and said, “They can’t get’em all.”

February 15, 2017

Back At Colorado River . . .

A short blog tonight.

We had an uneventful two-hour trip from the Spacious Country RV Park in Cuero, TX to the Colorado River Thousand Trails in Columbus, TX, wrapping up our latest adventures in gate guarding until sometime in the late August/ September timeframe.

Luckily we were able to get a 50 amp full-hookup site down on the river without a problem, even as full as they were.

About 3pm Jan and I headed into Katy to have dinner at our favorite Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, finally getting back to the rig about 8:30.

I’ll flesh this all out tomorrow. I still haven’t gotten back to a normal sleep schedule, so I’m dead tired and this is all you get tonight.

February 15, 2018

Git ‘Er Done . . .

Jan’s still feeling good, with no more pain. But she’s still feeling kind of washed out, with not a lot of energy. So today became a stay-at-home day, finishing up some of our leftovers and stuff we bought ahead for times like this.

About 2pm I ventured outside to take down our last window awning. Between cold weather, wet weather, and hospital visits, this is pretty much the first time I’ve had a chance to git ‘er done.

With all the practice I’ve had it only took me about 15 minutes to have it down, out of the frame and in the backseat of the truck ready to drop off.

With the awning down, I headed out about 3:15 to drop off the awning at Sundowner Canvas and then stopped off at the Friendswood WalMart to pick up one of Jan’s prescriptions that weren’t ready yesterday afternoon. We did save about $25 by not picking up one of them, since the problem that it was for hasn’t shown up., and probably won’t now.

In one of those rare occurrences, almost like a total eclipse of the sun, everyone in the family is off this coming Sunday, so we’re having a big get-together at Brandi and Lowell’s new digs up in Katy. Really looking forward to it.

I’d like to get the new awning up soon, but tomorrow I work, Saturday it’s supposed to be raining, and Sunday we’re up in Katy. But maybe between rain and traveling, I can squeeze in some time. This one, at 135 inches long, is the biggest and might be a little hard to hold up while I slide the rail and torque tube onto the fabric.

February 15, 2019

It’s Like Y2K All Over Again . . .

After talking it over with our mailing company this morning, they were able to push us up a little in the queue so that our mail-out ad cards should be hitting the addresses the week of Feb. 25th, just in time for the beginning of the March sale.

I mentioned a few weeks back about a disappearing package. My client bought a $700 machine on eBay that was shipped and then was out for delivery here in Houston by the Post Office on December 28th. And then . . . POOF!

It just disappeared. Finally after 30 days missing, the PO said the sender should apply to collect the insurance. So I contacted the seller through eBay, (the only way you can contact an eBay seller. You never get an email address) But after resending me the PO tracking info, he took a powder and I never heard from him again.

So I entered a complaint with eBay who said they’d contact the seller and get him to contact me. But that if he didn’t by the 12th of February, to contact them again and they’d get involved.

So when I still didn’t hear anything by then, I contacted eBay on the 13th and the $727.49 was back in our PayPal account on the 14th. Nice work.

I suspect that the seller cheaped out and didn’t buy the insurance on the unit, and then got stuck. But at least we were covered with their purchase guarantee.

It’s Like Y2K All Over Again.

Come April 6th, 2019, be careful where you drive. Or at least be careful where your GPS tells you to drive. Turns out that in a retro-Y2K twist, the date stamp in the GPS will reset, and it suddenly won’t know where it, and you, are. This is because they only programmed a 10bit register to store the week, So every 1024 weeks, or about 20 years, the date rolls back to zero.

This of course, is reminiscent of the whole Y2K fiasco where to save memory space (back in the days when it was really expensive) they stored the year as two digits, i.e., 1980 was ‘80’, 1999 was ’99, and of course, 2000 was ‘00’.

WHOOPS!

Newer GPS implementations use a 13bit storage area, which should last until the sun goes red giant and engulfs the planet. Hopefully that’ll be long enough.

You can read more about it here:

GPS Date Problem

Now, units produced since 2010 or so, should be using the new ICD-200/IS-GPS-200 specifications and should be OK. I say ‘should’, because apparently, some manufacturers have been somewhat lax in updating their software.

Saves a few bucks, don’t you know. So be careful out there.

February 15, 2020

Not The Way I Wanted To Remember Her . . .

After breakfast at the motel this morning we were on our way home a little after 8:30, via an overnight stay in Slidell about halfway.

But our first stop was at the Golden Rule BBQ in Birmingham once again. In fact we timed our motel departure so we would get there right at 10:30am when they opened.

Once again we both got the Jumbo Sliced Pork Sandwich, mine Outside Cut, and splitting an order of Fries.

This so we wouldn’t be as full as when we were here the other day, wanting to have room for their delicious homemade pie. Jan got her usual Double Chocolate,

while I got the Lemon Icebox version.

Our tummies full of great BBQ, 45 minutes later we were back on I-20/I-59 heading for Slidell about 320 miles away. Or ‘Slidle’ as the British lady on our GPS pronounces it.

We made a gas stop at Hattiesburg, paying $1.99/gallon, a nice improvement over the $2.21 we paid in Athens.

Since we’d had a big lunch, getting into Slidell we decided to just grab a sandwich at a Chick-fil-A right near our hotel before getting to our room.

And once again we lucked out. We had a very nice King-Size room, made even nicer because it was only $62 a night.

And with a nice computer table as a plus.

There was no blog this past Wednesday due to the storms, high winds and power outages in the Athens area. This on top of the four days of rain that they’d already had.

So a lot of big trees came down, including this 100-year-old oak tree on the Limestone County Courthouse lawn.

When it came down about 6:30 Wednesday night, it actually trapped five cars in its extended branches. Though no one was injured, three people had to be cut out of one of the cars when they were trapped inside.

I mentioned in past blogs that I had three girlfriends over the years when I lived here. And a few years ago when we were visiting here, I mentioned to Jan that I was kind of looking around wondering if I would run into any of them.

But then I realized that I was looking for them like they looked when they were 16 or so. Not in their 60’s as they would be now. And I told Jan that I had resisted looking any of them up, even Sam (Samantha) the future duchess I knew in South America, on FB or elsewhere because I didn’t want to find out something bad had happened to them.

Well, as it happened, one of my relatives, who remembered who I had dated back then, told me that one of them had died last March at the age of 68, apparently of cancer. And maybe even worse, another young lady, who was a really good friend, (a girl friend, not a girlfriend, we never dated), turns out she died in her 50’s of Early Onset Alzheimer’s after being abandoned by her husband during her illness.

As I said, not the way I wanted to remember them.

February 15, 2021

Blog Called on Account Of . . .

Rain, Sleet, Snow, Ice, and it’s cold as Hell!

The temperature went down to 21° last night, but we stayed warm and toasty.

Until the power went off at 2am. And stayed off.

And as of 10pm tonight, it’s still off.

But we held out as long as we could.

Finally about 1pm when it was 25 outside the rig, and 41 inside the rig, we gave it up.

We knew that they were going to be doing short (30-60 minutes) rolling blackouts, but we had been off for almost 12 hours. And then our daughter Brandi called from up in Katy saying she had heard on TV that if you didn’t have power now, you probably wouldn’t get it back for a couple of days.

So I was on the phone to the La Quinta over on I-45 in Texas City, booked us a room, and we were on our way over there about 45 minutes.

We were so cold that turning the heater in the Jeep was almost painful. And even more painfully was the fact that that when we got to the hotel they couldn’t check us in since their power had just gone off and the computers were off.

And though a real comedy of errors, we didn’t finally get into our room until about 8:30pm.

But more about that tomorrow.

We’re warm and toasty again.

February 15, 2022

Scenic Views . . .

We had lunch today at Twin Peaks once again, but something different this time, rather than our usual.

Jan had been wanting to try their wings, but didn’t want a whole order of 6. So she had 4 and I had 2.

In addition, she got a side salad and a cup of the Tomato Basil soup, while I got a bowl of their Green Chile Chicken soup.

Sylvia, our regular waitress, saw us come in and was already getting our drinks together when we were seated.

Since TP wasn’t really busy, we got a chance to spend a little time talking to Sylvia. A very nice young lady.

After lunch we had planned to make a WalMart/Sam’s Club stop, but when we came out it had started to rain so we called it a day.

Looks like I’m going to have to find a new storage room. We’ve had a climate-controlled 10’ x 20’ with the Extra Space Storage location over on FM517 since 2018 with no problems. They did jump the cost last year $20 from $132 to $152, the first increase in our time there.

But then a few weeks ago I got a postcard from them saying they were jumping the rent from $152 to $232 per month. WOW!

That’s a $80 bump, or more than a 53% increase!

I’m going to double-check with them tomorrow to be sure it’s not a mistake, but otherwise we’ll be moving on. There’s a Public Storage location about 1 mile or so away that looks to be much more reasonably priced.

Tomorrow it’s back to work after I was off for my doctor’s appointment yesterday.

February 14, 2024 Uncategorized

A Great Galveston Two’fer . . .

After joining us for breakfast, we asked Jim and Peri Dean to also join us for our Valentine’s Day dinner at Saltgrass. We only had reservations for Jan and me, but we always have a table for 4, so we figured it wouldn’t matter if we showed up with 4 people.

And it didn’t.

But more about today tomorrow since we got home so late this evening.

More Later.

Thought for the Day:

Common Sense isn’t a flower that grows in every garden.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine’s Day . . .

To my beautiful wife –

After the bad weather we had in Houston recently, the change is really nice. It’s been in the mid 70’s during the day, and in the low 50’s at night. Just perfect.

This morning started when we left the rig about 10:45am headed over to Gina’s to take her into New Braunfels for lunch and a dental appointment.

After talking it over we decided to eat at the Red Lobster in San Marcos, so we drove over there first. I think we really just go there for the Cheddar Bay Cheese Biscuits. Delicious!

After Gina’s dental appointment, we drove over to Naegelin’s Bakery, the oldest bakery in Texas. It’s been around since 1868, and in this location since 1870.

They had some great-looking (and tasting) pastries.

Gina bought some German Rye Bread to take home, and we all got something sweet. Jan got a Lemon Poppy Seed muffin, I got a Cinnamon Bun, and Gina got a Cinnamon Bun with pecans. And along with the goodies, we got coffee and sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

We got back to Gina’s about 4 and sat out on the back porch for a while, just enjoying the view.

Getting back to the rig about 5 Jan immediately started feeding the many deer clustered around the rear of the rig, seemingly just waiting for her to show up. And even more deer appeared as she spread out the food. Greedy little buggers.

February 14, 2013

Another Busy, Last Minute, Day . . .

After a nice, relaxing morning drinking coffee outside in the beautiful weather, I hit the ground running about 11 am trying to wrap up several clients.

After finishing up one, I headed into Webster to pick up Jan’s Valentine’s gift at the FedEx store. Looks like it got here from England just in time.

On the way I passed a local souvenir store and remembered I wanted to pick up a new NASA hat before we leave on Monday.

My old one is starting to look kind of frayed and it’s time for another one.

After picking up Jan’s gift it was back to the client countdown where I was able to knock out two more for this year.

That only leaves me two more. One I’ll finish up tomorrow, the other one may stretch into Saturday. We’ll see how it goes.

By now it was close to 4pm so I headed back home to pick up Jan for our Valentine’s date night.

Our destination was just a few miles up the road to Kemah Boardwalk.

Kemah Boardwalk is a 40 acre dining/entertainment area overlooking Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel. It has 11 restaurants and another 15 rides and amusement areas.

One of them, the Boardwalk Bullet, is one of the most compacted and twisted roller coasters ever built. It has 42 crossovers, a 92 foot drop, and hits more than 50 mph.

Our dinner was at Saltgrass Steakhouse right next door to the roller coaster, In fact you could just feel the vibrations as the coaster was running.

Our steaks were really good, with Jan having a Center Cut Filet, and I had a Ribeye with BBQ Shrimp Brochettes. The Shrimp were stuffed with Jalapenos and Cream Cheese, wrapped in bacon, and grilled with a really tangy BBQ sauce.

The steaks were delicious, the shrimp was fantastic, and the service was great. You really couldn’t ask for a better meal. Perfect for Valentine’s Day.

At the beginning of the meal, we had in mind to split a piece of their Blueberry Cheese Cake, but by the time we finished dinner, we were just too full. Darn!

After dinner we strolled around the complex as the sun went down, and then decided to check out Stingray Reef.

The last time we were here, our granddaughter Piper was 6 or 7, so it’s been a while since we visited.

Stingray Reef consists of a low-walled pond housing 20 – 30 stingrays that love to be hand-fed. If you hold out food, they will propel themselves out of the water onto the side of the wall and take the food from your hand. You can even pet them. Really neat.

They also had a number of very nice, very large, very colorful saltwater aquariums on display.

Later we also hit a few of the rides, including the Boardwalk Choo-Choo, the Ferris Wheel,

and the Boardwalk Observation Tower.

The train ride was a freebie since we got a free ticket for two with our meal.

After walking around for about an hour, we headed back to the car with a stopover at the Boardwalk Starbuck’s for a couple of Cinnamon Dolce Lattes to cap off a wonderful evening.

February 14, 2014

Catching Up . . .

Wednesday

A few weeks ago I talked about the new Striped QUEEN Sateen Sheet Set that we had recently purchased from Amazon, and how much we liked them. So earlier this week we ordered another set, this time in Burgundy.

Here’s what I posted then.

Now, on to the sheets. When we spent the night at our daughter Brandi’s on Christmas Eve, Jan fell in love with the soft sheets Brandi had on our bed and wanted to get some for us. Brandi said they were 1000 thread count sheets that she got on Groupon.

So I started researching high thread count sheets, and found that any thread count over 400-600 is kind of just advertising hype, because looms don’t hold more threads than that. What they do is twist several fibers together and use those in the count. So two fibers twisted together and then wove on on 500 thread loom becomes a 1000 thread count sheet. The biggest difference is the type of fibers used and whether the sheets are percale or sateen, with sateen being the softest.

So I got on Amazon and after some research, came up with these.

They’re listed as being 1500 thread count which probably means 3 fiber thread on a 500 thread loom. The reviews were pretty uniformly good except for some who were upset about the depth of mattress the fitted sheets will handle. And even they’re not $200, they’re not $100, or not $50. They’re $25 for a set of 1 fitted sheet, 1 flat sheet and two standard pillow cases.

So we took a shot and ordered a queen size set from Amazon, knowing we could return them if we weren’t happy. We also order a set of two king size pillow cases as well, since we have two king size pillows and two standards.

When they came Jan washed them and we put them on the bed. And they’re a big hit. We really like them. They’re very soft, but not slick, and have a kind of microfiber feel.

It looks like about a dozen of you have purchased these sheet sets from Amazon through our blog and we really appreciate it. I assume that everyone likes them as much as we do, since no one has complained.

For dinner we headed up to League City to have dinner at a long-time friend’s house. Barbara is a great cook and we always enjoy her meals. Since we last saw Barbara she’s gotten married and moved down from Pasadena. We had met her new husband last year, and we enjoyed catching up.

After a great meal, a fun time with a lot of conversation, and enough Moscato to keep us there for a while, we finally got home about midnight.

And thus, no blog post.

Thursday

Today started out great; beautiful weather, and lunch at our new favorite restaurant, Twin Peaks. Or should I say ‘breastaurant’?

And even better, It was Lingerie Week. But unfortunately, our usual waitress, Lauren, wasn’t working today.

Lauren knows about this blog and has even seen her picture here, If she had been working I would have had no problem asking to take her picture in her underwear.

But with a waitress we didn’t know, I would have felt like even more of a dirty old man than I really am by asking to take her picture. So you’ll just have to make do with the photo from their website.

It’s probably not surprising that Twin Peaks was busier than we’ve ever seen it. We got there just as they opened at 11 and there was a line waiting to get in. And when we left about noon there was a line out the door waiting for a table. We have eaten there several times at noon and never had to wait for a table. I wonder why that might be?

Leaving lunch we drove over to a client’s house to pick up a recalcitrant laptop before heading back to the Clear Lake area. After a stop at HEB for a few things, and then Buc-ee’s for coffee and Cranberry Nut muffins to go, we headed back to the rig.

About 6 PM I headed over to a client’s house to set up a new computer, and a Wi-Fi network, as well as a new Canon wireless printer. They also wanted their old computer stuff moved and reconfigured.

One thing I ran into was a problem with their HP Officejet 6500 printer/fax machine. There was a problem with the power plug socket. It was intermittent and you had to hold the power cable to one side to keep it working. After determining that it would be almost impossible to get inside the printer to fix the socket, and after talking to the client and telling him the problem, I asked if he had any Duck Tape and told him I would fix the problem. And I did it like this.

The tape holds the cable to the side and it now works fine. I did tell him
not to move it too much. But it’s better than having to buy a new printer.

But by the time I got everything up and working, it was almost midnight before I got home, so once again, no blog.

Friday

After coffee and the last of the Dunkin Donut Munchkins (donut holes), I spent some time doing Internet stuff before heading outside to enjoy the nice weather and get some actual work done. I was finally going to get a chance to repair my broken Kwikee step.

While we were gate guarding last year, our step just stopped working one day. I could still hear the motor running so I knew that was OK, but I didn’t worry about it until we got back to Houston where I would be lying on concrete rather than in caliche mud.

When I finally got a chance to look at it, I found that the linkage bar that connects the motor/gearbox combo with the step itself had sheared off right at the gearbox shaft.

It should look like this.

The repair kit gave me a new linkage as well as a new cover plate, a bushing, a clevis pin, and a cotter pin.

I started out by removing the 3 screws that hold the cover plate on. At least that’s what I thought I was doing.

As it turned out, I was removing the 3 screws that held everything together.

Including the heavy motor/gear that quickly fell down on my head. Below you can also see the shaft that remains from the broken linkage.

Removing the shaft,

I hooked the linkage back to the step mechanism and then inserted the shaft into the gearbox.

I then put the gearbox plate back on and tried to screw it all back together. Easier said than done.

I found it a little difficult to hold the heavy motor over my head and also get the screws started, but finally got it all back together and tightened down.

I next sprayed all the joints with silicone spray and gave it a successful test. Another job done.

Coming back inside and still having some time before we headed out for dinner, and wanting to cover the area around the rig pedals with carpet, I started making a paper template by cutting out sections and taping them together in the correct position.

Here’s the area I’m trying to cover.

And here’s what I ended up with.

The rug section will be split vertically from the left side of the two openings shown above, so I can fit it around the pedals.

At Home Depot I found a ribbed charcoal mat 18” x 27” for only about $3. It’s rubber-backed and very tough so it should work well. And it’s big enough for me to make two attempts if necessary (probably necessary). I’ll try cutting the template out tomorrow.

A little before 4 Jan and I headed up to Webster to have our Valentine’s Day dinner at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, one of our favorite local places, seafood or otherwise.

The Floyd in the restaurant name is Floyd Landry, one of the Landry brothers who started the Landry’s Seafood chain now all around the county, before selling it.

We’ve been eating here for more than ten years and it’s always good, and always Cajun. Jan had her favorite Chicken Fried Chicken Breast along with Sweet Potato Fries and I had a big bowl of the Seafood Gumbo along with a Blackened Boudin Link. Can’t be beat.

Tomorrow I’ll see how the template is going to work.

February 14, 2015

Valentine’s Day . . .

I spent the morning working on the Kwikee step on our rig. Jan reminded me yesterday that when we stopped at Monterey’s Little Mexico for lunch when we traveled from the Colorado River Thousand Trails down to Galveston Bay RV, the step wasn’t retracting. So I slid under the rig to take a look at it.

The first thing I discovered is that the motor is not even trying to run, so the next thing I did was to pull the pin that connects the motor drive to the step in case the step mechanism was jammed, but that didn’t help.

So I dug out my voltmeter so I could check the 12v coming into the system. I was hoping that it was something simple like a blown fuse or something, but the 12v was good.

Next up, I checked the magnetic door switch while I had Jan open and close the door while I measured the voltage, and once again it was good.

I didn’t like the way this was headed. I had now eliminated the cheap, easy-to-fix, stuff. The only things left were the not cheap, motor and the control box. But I would have to wait to test those, since I needed some heavier wires to drive the motor. I pick some up this evening.

Next on my list was a problem with my bin doors. Our rig has two different types: First are swing-up doors like this,

and the others are flip-up doors like this.

The swing-up doors are not a problem. You pull them out and up and the gas struts hold them in place with no problems. But the flip-up doors are another deal.

The plastic wedges that lock the doors in place have become worn down over the years, and sometimes on a rough road, the chassis twists and the doors pop open. Which means I have to stop and close them. And sometimes stuff falls out. Which is a pain.

I looked at replacing the wedges with new ones, but that requires drilling out rivets, and a lot of other work. So I decided to go with cheap, simple, and quick. And it looks like this.

These screen door hook & eye latches cost 98 cents, and after drilling two pilot holes, it just takes a couple of minutes to screw them in. And they can’t be seen unless you’re down on your knees close by. Like I said, cheap, simple, and quick.

Next, since I had a little more time before we had to leave for dinner, I started masking the front bumper area so I can paint it when (and if) the wind dies down.

We’ll see.

Jan wanted to have our Valentine’s Day dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse up in Webster, so we headed out about 3:45pm, hoping to beat the crowd. A forlorn hope, as it turned out.

We got there about 4:15, but didn’t get seated until almost 5pm. But it was really worth the wait.

My bone-in Outlaw Ribeye was probably the best steak I’ve had in recent memory. Or distant memory either. It was done a perfect medium-rare, without a tough bite in it.

It was charred around the edges just like I like it, and at 18oz (counting the bone, of course) it was the perfect size.

Jan said her center-cut filet was perfectly done for her, and delicious. She likes her steak kind of halfway between medium and medium-well, and apparently, that’s a hard target to hit for some cooks.

Jan and I agreed that our favorite steak places are, in order:

Longhorn
Saltgrass
Outback
Texas Roadhouse.

Unfortunately, our #1 and #2 choices aren’t as numerous around the country as 3 & 4.

After a quick stop at the Lowe’s next door for some heavy wire for the step motor test leads, we got home about 7pm, making a quick stop at the park office to pick up my Amazon packages.

Tomorrow, more projects.

February 14, 2016

Damn! A Card . . .

Jan and I were up about 7am, wanting to wrap up our pre-travel chores early. I had already done a lot yesterday afternoon, but I still needed to take care of the satellite stuff outside and stow away the TV/DVR inside before we headed out for breakfast.

With everything else done, the last thing I did right before we left was to shut down the computer. I’ve learned to do this ahead of time since often I find there’s a bunch of updates waiting to be installed, And so it was today.

Please Do Not Turn Off or Unplug Your Computer
Installing 1 of 18 Updates

But I figured it would all be finished up by the time we got back.

Jan and I headed into Columbus about 8:15 am, meeting up at Schobel’s Restaurant with Randy Lazarine and Jim and Peri Dean, where we were all looking forward to partaking of their great Sunday breakfast buffet.

And as in our past get-togethers, between the good food and the great company, we didn’t get back to the park until about 10:15. Normally by then we’d already be on the road, so we scrambled to get going, only to find things coming to a screeching halt.

The computer updates were only up to 5 of 18. And it took two hours to get there!

Having worked on several computers that had been turned off while they were updating, I was loathed to inflict this on me and mine. So since we weren’t really in any hurry to get to Lake Conroe, I decided to wait. And by 11, it had progressed all the way up to 7 of 18.

At this rate it looked like we’d still be waiting here tomorrow, so I said a prayer, bit the bullet, and turned the computer off. I’d know in a few hours how that was going to work out.

Finally we were hitched up and out on the Interstate by 11:30 heading for Conroe. But before we even made it to I-10 it was quickly evident that this was going to be a windy trip. Of course that’s pretty much the norm for this time of year in Texas. It was windy the last several times we drove into Houston in the truck, and also when we daytripped to Fredericksburg last week. So it’s not like you can wait a day for the wind to die down. It won’t.

But there was something new this trip – traffic. Normally, traveling on Sunday like we do, it’s pretty light, but today was definitely different. Starting just the other side of Brookshire, it really thickened up. Not enough to slow things down, but noticeably more.

At first I thought it might be the Houston Rodeo, but as I found out, it doesn’t start until March 1st. So I guess it was just the Two Holiday Weekend, but it seems like that Friday and Monday should be the busy days, not Sunday.

We pulled into the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails about 1:30. Kim, the head Ranger, said it had been really crazy this weekend, and last night the park was almost completely full.

And we quickly found out that tonight was probably going to be the same. Both ‘E’ and ‘G’ were entirely full, and we know that because we drove up and down every row. We finally found a spot in one of the side-by-side, shared pedestal sites in ‘F’, F-48 to be exact. Not our favorite area, but as Jan said, “Hey, it’s a site.”

And I was very happy to see my computer boot right up with seemingly no problem whatsoever, so I really lucked out. Tomorrow I’ll try to restart the updates manually to get caught up.

After we got everything set up, we both took a nap until about 5, before heading out to the Whataburger over in Willis. Normally we’d do something a little fancier on Valentine’s Day, but since we had a big breakfast, and didn’t want to fight the crowds, Jan decided a Whataburger was what she wanted.

Ok, Karma is officially a weird cat. She is crazy about potato chips, pecans, as well as saltines and Townhouse crackers. We did have a cat when we were first married that liked peanut butter and crackers, but pecans?

“Damn! A Card!”

That’s what Jan said this morning when she found the Valentine’s Day card I’d left out for her. Since she hadn’t gotten me one, she was a little ‘fake’ upset that I got her one. But if I’ve learned anything after over 48 years of marriage, it’s to never believe your wife when she tells you not to get her anything for her birthday, anniversary, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc.

But in her defense, since we’re pretty much together all the time, it is hard to buy something for one of us without the other one knowing about it.

Tomorrow about 1pm, we’ll head down to Brandi’s in Katy so we can pick Landon up from school while Lowell and Brandi are both otherwise engaged. Really looking forward to it.

February 14, 2017

Together Again . . .

Jan and I headed out about 11:30 to have one last meal at La Bella Tavola for their delicious Chicken Florentini.

With fresh spinach, fresh mushrooms, and fresh garlic in a smoky Alfredo sauce, it’s probably the best pasta dish we’ve ever eaten.

And you can’t leave out their very tasty homemade yeast rolls.

We’re looking forward to coming back here again in September.

Then it was on to Wal-Mart to check out their somewhat meager cellphone selection. The Cuero Wal-Mart is one of the old ones, with the small grocery area in the center, so their phone area is small too. So we’ll have to look further.

Then it was on to the HEB gas station to fill up. We were still at 3/4 of a tank, but since we’ll be driving into Brandi and Lowell’s tomorrow evening, we won’t have to get gas on the way back.

Getting home about 2:30, I started working through my short list of things I wanted to get done before we leave tomorrow morning. The main one was to replace the rig’s expired tags with the new ones I got back in November. I put the new ones on the truck when they came in, but put off replacing the ones on the rig. In fact I put it off so long that we drove over here last month from Kenedy to on the expired ones. But we’re legal now.

Part of me wants to take a nap since I only got about 5 hours sleep this morning. But I’m resisting the urge so I can go to bed at a decent time and get a full night’s sleep.

The park owner will be coming over tomorrow morning about 9 to settle up for our electric usage. Even though we paid for a month, we’ve only been here 25 days, but I doubt I’ll be getting a refund on that. Although we did get a refund when we left Lone Star RV Park in Kenedy 11 days early, so there’s always hope, I guess.

Speaking of money, my last shift yesterday was actually in the next pay period, but SiteWatch was nice enough to go ahead and include it in the check we will get next Monday. Very nice of them.

While we were at Wal-Mart this morning, Jan made a fantastic discovery in the candy aisle. M&M now makes COFFEE-flavored M&M’s.

Of course reading the label, they contain no actual coffee, but they taste good, and it’s the thought that counts, right?

February 14, 2018

All Done . . . Again?

We hope so.

Jan and I headed up to the Clear Lake Regional Hospital in Webster about 10:15am.

She was supposed to be there by 11 to get checked in for her 1pm Laser Lithotripsy. And it all went very smoothly. I really like that the hospital has free valet parking for patients. Makes it so much easier to park and checked in.

Getting up to the 2nd floor Jan was taken right into a Pre-Op room. Then a succession of nurses came through, each taking care of their specialty to get Jan prepped for her procedure.

They took Jan into the OR about 1pm and the procedure got started about 1:30pm. One thing nice is that I’m getting text messages from the hospital tracking everything that’s happening.

She was done by 2:30 and Dr. Hackney came out to see me about 10 minutes later to tell me everything went great, and the UV laser blew the stone to dust on the first shot.

They wanted to be sure that all the effects of the anesthesia had worn off so we didn’t leave the hospital until about 5pm. The two prescriptions they called in to WalMart weren’t ready yet so we just stopped at Jason’s Deli for soup and sandwiches for dinner and then headed home.

Jan has a checkup scheduled for two weeks from today, to see how it all went. But it looks good so far.

Although Jan had a little pain afterward, a single pill took care of that, and it never reoccurred.

So far this evening she feels good, though tired and sleepy, the results of the anesthesia. But we’ll have to see how tomorrow goes.

The Headline of the Day: Pastor caught with a naked and bound man in a parked car claims it’s not what it looks like.

February 14, 2019

Happy Valentine’s Day . . .

After a quiet morning of Valentine’s Day cards and Lindor Chocolate Truffles, Jan and I headed up to Alvin for the final ophthalmologist’s appointment from her recent cataract surgeries.

After a quick checkup, and finding no problems, her doctor did a final setting on her prescription, showing her what her vision will be when she gets her new glasses.

Then, new prescription in hand, we drove over to the Sam’s Club on I-45 and turned it in, along with the frames from the glasses that she got back in September. She hasn’t worn them since her surgeries because the prescription was now too strong, and she thought it looked funny to be wearing glasses with no glass in them. She should have her new ones in the next week or so.

One thing nice about this was, with our Sam’s Club Plus Card membership, the new lens were free, since she just got the single-vision plastic lens version. Nice.

Then it was on down the Interstate to the Saltgrass Steakhouse for our Valentine’s Day meal. And getting there at about 4:30 we thought we’d beat the holiday rush.

Wrong!

Normally if we get there by 5, even on weekends, we get seated right away. But today we had 15 minute wait at 4:30. However unlike our recent restaurant excursions, the service was great.

Our waitress, Desirea, was really good, and the food came out fast and hot. We started off with our usual fav Wedge Salad, but this time added an Amaretto Splash drink, made with Carnarena Silver Tequila, DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps, Fresh Pineapple Juice, and topped off with Disaronno Amaretto Liqueur.

A really tasty drink, and the first one in a while that actually seemed to have some liquor in it. It seems like a lot of the time they ‘forget’ to add the alcohol, and all you get is expensive fruit juice. But this one had some kick. And since we normally only have a couple of drinks a year, we wanted to make the most of it.

Next up was our steaks, Jan’s Center Cut Filet with the Green Beans,

and my Ribeye, also with the Green Beans.

After a really great meal, and while we were waiting for our dessert, I gave my Sweetheart her Valentine’s Day present.

Opal is Jan’s birthstone, and since she pretty much only wears earrings and rings, and she’s already got several Opal rings, I got her these Opal hearts.

Then a few minutes later, our dessert showed up, the Pecan Pie Bread Pudding that we always split.

And for what it’s worth, this is the least caloric dessert on the menu. The Brownie Skillet Crumble, at 2800 calories, is almost twice as high. So that means we’re still sticking to our diet, right?

Happy Valentine’s Day, Sweetheart!

February 14, 2020

Catching Up, Again . . .

On Thursday we drove back down to Birmingham to get together with long-time friends Bill and Carol Alverson. Back in the early 70’s Bill and I worked as Broadcast Engineers for WBIQ-TV, part of the Alabama Educational TV network, located in Birmingham. We also worked part-time at a local radio station as well.

After spending some time at their beautiful home, we all headed right down the road to the nearby Jim and Nick’s BBQ. Before we left the house, Bill double-checked that we still wanted BBQ since he knew from the blog that we had already had BBQ twice in the last three days. We told him ‘No problem.’ We can’t have too much BBQ.

Bill had this enormous BBQ Stuffed Baked Potato,

while Jan and Carol had Pulled Pork Sandwiches.

I went with the Double Decker, a sandwich with a double-decker bun like a McD’s Big Mac. But on this one, one layer is Beef Brisket and the other layer is Pulled Pork, the best of both worlds for me.

Delicious!

After dinner we spent some more time back at their home before we finally headed back to Athens a little before 9pm, and getting back to the motel about 11pm.

This morning, after breakfast here at the motel, we headed out to the nearby WalMart to pick up a new, larger TV for my Aunt Virginia. We were bundled up since it was 22° when we got up. And it is supposed to be 21° tomorrow morning when we head back toward Houston.

We wanted to get her a new one because her old 32” was just too small for her to see clearly since she sits all the way across the room. So I did some measuring and found that a 43” Samsung like the one we recently got would fit perfectly.

SAMSUNG 43″ Class 4K UHD 2160p LED Smart TV

At $250 this one is about $100 cheaper than ours since it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that ours does, but Virginia doesn’t need. I did go ahead and get her the 3-year Extended Warranty for $25.

And as you can see here, it makes a big difference.

And in this case, it was pretty much Plug ‘N Play. I just unplugged the old one, installed the feet on the new one, set it in place, plugged it in, and turned it on.

Later, about 1pm, Jan, Virginia, and I drove down to Decatur to have lunch at another favorite BBQ place of ours, Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ. Found on many Top Ten BBQ Places in the U.S lists., they win more awards every year.

We met up with my Aunt Lenette, whose husband Tom Calvin, the former Pittsburgh Steelers football player and Winningest High School Football Coach in Alabama History, died a little over 3 weeks ago at the age of 93.

You can read more about my Uncle Tom here.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2020/01/some-sad-news-2/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2020/01/thanks-for-your-kind-words/

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen Lenette it was good to get together with her again.

it’s hard to believe that these two beautiful ladies are both 91 years young. That’s Lenette on the left and my Aunt Virginia on the right.

Tomorrow we’ll head back toward Houston, spending the night once again in Slidell. But this time we’ll be staying at the Super-8 motel, rather than the La Quinta where we stayed on the way up here.

We got a great deal then at only $54, but when I tried to book a Saturday stay, I found their weekend rate was $84, rather than $54. But I found the nearby Super-8 for only $62, and they’re rated the same.

We will make a lunch stop in Birmingham though. While we were eating at Golden Rule BBQ last Friday on our way up here, Jan suggested that we stop once again on our way home. So we’ll leave here about 9am which will get us to Golden Rule about 10:30 when they open.

February 14, 2021

Jan Said I Have To Wear Pants . . .

Besides a card, I had these Opal Earrings for Jan’s Valentine’s Day present.

Opals are not only her favorite, but they’re also her Birthstone. So it’s two-fer.

And yes, she always tells me not to get her something, but I’ve been married long enough not to fall for that.

And here’s my Sweetie at Saltgrass this afternoon showing them off.

This morning I started my prep work for the cold weather the next two days and then again later in the week.

I started out digging out my aluminum clamp-on reflector lamp housing. I used it in our water bay along with a 100W bulb, an incandescent bulb, to keep the plumbing warm enough not to freeze. And it’s worked fine down to about 11° in the past.

But I quickly found a problem. The bulb had not survived its latest storage stint. And now you can no longer find incandescent bulbs of any size. And the LED ones don’t produce any usable heat.

And when I started checking out WalMart, Lowes, and Home Depot for Heat Lamp bulbs like this 250W one,

I found everyone out . . . except for the Batteries and Bulbs store over in Pearland, the only place in the area that had one. So about 11:30 Jan and I headed over that way to pick one up.

About 3:15 we were on our way to Webster for our 4pm reservations at Saltgrass Steakhouse. And I’m really glad we had reservations. They were already on a wait and almost every table was full and stayed that way the entire time we were there.

We both got our ‘usual’, starting off with Wedge Salads,

Then it was on to Jan’s 9oz. Center Cut Filet, with Green Beans,

and my 16oz Ribeye, again with the Green Beans.

Both just as perfectly done (Jan’s Medium Well and mine Medium Rare) and Delicious as always.

And of course it wouldn’t be a Saltgrass without finishing up by sharing their Pecan Pie Bread Pudding, topped with Blue Bell ice cream.

The perfect end to our meal.

And our server, Jennifer, took great care of us, even having the kitchen make up some creamy horseradish for us from scratch.

Really great service.

Coming home, I double-checked that our 100-gallon fresh water tank was topped off, and then disconnected us from shore water and then drained the hoses.

And after hanging one of my remote temperature sensors in the bay, I set up the heat lamp and turned it on. Checking the bay temperature about 11pm, it was 31° outside and 56 in the bay. So far, so good.

Finishing up, I wrapped the pedestal with two towels and taped it in place.

It’s supposed to go down to 21° tonight with snow starting about 5am, and then 16 tomorrow night. So I’ll check it out tomorrow to see how well it works, and if I need to do anything more.

Jan says I have to wear pants. Sweat pants!

Normally around the rig I wear shorts, a light t-shirt, and socks, summer and winter. But when it gets really cold outside, even though it’s the same temperature inside, she says I have to put on sweatpants because, as she says, “You’re making me cold!”

I’m still not quite sure how that works, where my being comfortable makes her cold. So I put on sweatpants to make her happy . . . and warm, I guess.

And this is the same reason I order my eggs Over Medium rather than Over Easy. This is because she can not stand the sight of runny yolk on my plate.

But, as they say, “Happy Wife, Happy Life.”

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is warning about rolling blackouts this week, due to the extreme cold and . . .

Winter storm could bring rotating power outages to North Texas through Tuesday

Demand is one of the issues facing the power grid, but the cold is causing other problems, too. Electric generators are vying for natural gas as people turn to that fuel for heating. Icy conditions also knocked out almost half of the state’s wind power generation capacity as wind turbines froze across the state, Goodfin added.

So the wind turbines don’t really work well when it’s really hot because there’s no wind, and they freeze up when it’s really cold. And solar panels don’t work at night, or when it’s cloudy or raining..

How’s that whole ‘renewable’ energy thing working out for you?

February 14, 2022

Happy Valentine’s Day . . .

We had my 3-month evaluation with Alexandria, my P.A., this morning and she was very happy with my progress so far. As I had hoped, I can take Advil again, and to Jan’s glee, I’m released from my 20# lifting limit. It seems she has a list of heavy-duty chores for me.

We also talked about the problems with my lower back, I.e., the lumbar region. Turns out that when/if I do something about it, I will need a lumbar fusion like I had done to my cervical area back in November due to the fact that my lumbar vertebrae are misaligned. f

If you think of the vertebrae segments as stacked on top of each other, mine kind of zig-zag, pinching the spinal cord and causing me problems. So they’ll push everything back into alignment and then use a metal/plastic/bone plate to lock everything in place.

But we decided to put this on hold until my 6 month checkup next June to see what improvement I’ve had in the meantime.

Since we’re having a Valentine’s Day dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse down in Galveston, we just came straight home after my appointment.

Then about 4:30pm we headed down to Galveston for dinner.

And as all of our previous visits, Saltgrass had our window table waiting for us and we were seated immediately.

And as with our past visits, we got all our favorites, starting with their Wedge Salads.

Then while Jan got the Maudeen’s Filet with Grilled Green Beans,

I went with my usual Ribeye, also with the Green Beans.

And of course we had to finish off the meal by sharing a piece of their delicious Carrot Cake.

And great meal, and great service from our waiter.

Of course, that may be because his name was Greg.

Just sayin’.

February 14, 2023

My Beautiful Valentine . . .

Our Valentine’s Day dinner was at Saltgrass Steakhouse once again, pretty much our go-to place for a nice dinner out. We had a reservation for 5pm, and I’m really glad we did since they were already on a wait when we got there. But we were seated immediately.

And we pretty much have our go-to menu, starting with their Wedge Salads.