Our RV Adventures

As I had hoped, we got on the road exactly at 7am, due to the fact that the SpaceX Starship launch got pushed back to 7:30.

Our first stop was the Buc-ee’s in Katy on I-10 for Kolaches and Coffee for breakfast. Always good. Next up, about 90 minutes later was the Buc-ee’s in Luling for a bathroom break, And we weren’t the only ones, since Jan and I saw 3 different groups of people that we’d seen at the Katy.

While we were there, we got a look at new, much larger Buc-ee’s that’s being built right next door to this one.

When it opened in 2003, the Luling location was the first of the mega-stores. But at only 35,000 sq.ft., it became the smallest one over the years. But the new one, at 75,000 sq.ft., and 120 gas pumps, will return the crown to Luling

Apparently they decided it would be easier to just build a completely new building, rather than add on to this one. I don’t know, but I assume they’ll tear this one down and make more parking.

Our next stop, about another 90 minutes along, was at a Love’s at the Comfort, TX exit. (do we have this mapped out, or what.) Then it was only another 20 minutes to Fredericksburg, and our lunch stop.

Der Lindenbaum, our very favorite German restaurant.

Seeing that people were standing outside waiting on tables, I dropped Jan off to get us in line while I found a place to park. Which didn’t go well.

Fredericksburg was more crowded than I had ever seen. I circled several blocks several times, before ending up about 4 blocks away. 4 very long blocks.

Jan got seated at a 2 top, and they were pressing her to order since they were so busy. But since we always get the same thing, this wasn’t a problem.

Jan got her usual Jägerschnitzel, with Red Cabbage and German Potato Salad,

while I got the Bürgermeister Plate.

Their Red Cabbage is fantastic!

Driving around afterword, we scored a parking spot right in front of Rustlin’ Rob’s, also known as The Tasting Place.

It’s called this because they have 100’s, maybe even 1000’s of dips, butters, sauces, pickled stuff, and much, much more. And it’s all available to taste test.

And this is just one small area.

There are open jars everywhere with cracker thins for spreading stuff on.

This is my favorite, the Peanut Butter area, with over 40 different flavors of PB. I think I spent too much time here.

And Rustlin’ Rob’s is also where we got Jan’s Moose Footstool, which sits in front of our RV couch to this day. And we bought it here in 2007.

But this is the first time we’ve seen another one here since then.

Finally, a little before 4pm, we got checked into our room at the Sunday House Inn, where we’ve stayed before. Though the last time, it snowed.

Of course, that was in Jan 2022.

Nice Room.

Later in the evening, Jennifer sent over this proof-of-life photo of Karma.

Looks like she’s doing OK.

Tomorrow it’s the Wildseed Farms, the Longneck Manor Giraffe/Rhino tour, and then on over to Chris’ in Kingsland. Then when Brandi/Lowell/Landon get there about 6 or so, we’re all going out for BBQ.

Can’t Wait!

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Thought For The Day:

In the 1940’s, Dr. William Sewell built an artificial heart using parts from an Erector Set.

While I thought I was doing pretty good to build that 3 foot tall Ferris Wheel.

But in my defense, I was only 8.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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March 14, 2009

Rain, rain, go away…

Well, the rainy weather finally caught up with us for the first time since we left Dickinson Bayou on March 1st.

With apparently more to come for the next 4 or 5 days.  Oh, well.  Paradise needs rain too.

And now for the rest of the story…
(Read yesterday’s post first and this will make more sense)

Fanny Flag has had a long and varied career in the limelight.

She started out as a writer and then co-host with Allen Funt on ‘Candid Camera’ in the 1960’s.

She’s appeared in a large number of well-known movies, such as ‘Five Easy Pieces’ with Jack Nicholson and Karen Black,  ‘Grease‘, with John Travolta, and ‘Stay Hungry’ with Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

She was a regular as Dick Van Dyke’s sister on “The New Dick Van Dyke Show” and recorded two very funny and very successful comedy albums.

One little-known fact is that she was first runner-up to Miss Alabama in the Miss America pageant.

More recently she is known as a writer of best-selling novels. Although her most famous book is “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café“, she has written 5 other novels, starting with “Coming Attractions” in 1981.  “Coming Attractions” was later reissued as “Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man”.

“Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café“,  of course, became the hit movie “Fried Green Tomatoes“, for which Fanny received an Oscar nomination for writing the screenplay.

“Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man“, although it was set on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, was based on her family’s amusement park here in Gulf Shores.  She also named many of her characters after people who actually lived here in Gulf Shores, including myself.  I was a bratty little kid in the book.  Jan said it was typecasting!

I had not seen Fanny since I was about 7 or 8 years old, but my parents had kept in touch with her parents, Bill and Marion, when both families were living in Birmingham, AL during the 70’s and 80’s.  My mother and younger sister went to see Fanny several times when she came to Birmingham with Broadway touring companies, and were always welcomed backstage after the performance.

In 2004, I saw that Fanny was coming to Houston for a book signing promoting her latest book “Standing in the Rainbow”, so Jan and I, and Jan’s mother, Trudy, went down to see Fanny.

We bought two books to have her sign, and stood in a long line.  When finally our turn came, I handed her the first copy and asked her to make it out to my mother, Frances White.

I could see her hesitate a second and then she started writing.  As she was signing her name, I said “You know, we kind of know each other. But the last time I saw you, you were my babysitter and I called you Patsy.”

With a squeal that turned heads and brought the store manager running, Fanny, putting this together with my mother’s name, yelled out “Greg!” and pulled me across the table in a big hug.

We spent about 10 minutes talking over old times, while other customers waited somewhat impatiently.  Finally we said goodbye and let her get back to her book signing.

So that’s my brush with celebrity. Well, one of them.

Maybe next time, I can tell you about meeting Eleanor Roosevelt,  Col. Sanders, and getting drunk with Sean Connery.

Not at the same time, of course. That would be weird.

And to answer your probably unasked question, Fanny has never told anyone how or why she came up with the name “Fanny Flagg”.

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March 14, 2010

Jellin’ in Yuma…

Sorry about the recent ‘Technical Difficulties”.  For some unknown reason the blog sometimes just won’t let me log in. Still trying to track down the problem.

We’re still in Yuma, just resting up. As usual our plans on where to go next are written in Jell-O.

The biggest change is Big News.

Our daughter Brandi is engaged. She sent us this picture to tell us the good news.

They have scheduled the wedding for June 21st and we are going to be back in Texas for the wedding.

They’re going to be married at a small wedding chapel in the Texas Hill Country near Austin.

The place is called Chapel Dulcinea and it really looks beautiful.

So we will not be spending as much time as we had originally planned out west, but we’ll head back toward Texas around the middle of June and then maybe over to Gulf Shores before heading up to Louisville, KY for a big rally, i.e. The Rally around the 3rd week in July.

This is probably the biggest RV rally in the country, and it has top of the line entertainment.  This year two of the acts scheduled are Bob Newhart and Tanya Tucker.

After that we plan on heading up to Elkhart, IN for a rally around the end of August. We want to get there early since we want to see about having some body work and painting done on the coach.

But we’ll see. Our plans are written in Jell-O after all.

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March 14, 2011

Carnitas and Burritos . . .

Another early morning starting at 7:30am on this ‘maybe’ travel day, but after a bit our 10am ETD was a go.

And right on time, we pulled out of the Yuma County Fairgrounds at 10am, heading for our first stop in Gila Bend. By 1pm we were parked in the lot at Holt’s Shell RV Park.

Later we drove over to Sofia’s Mexican Food, our favorite place to eat in Gila Bend.

Jan had the Shrimp Burrito that she loves,

I of course, had my usual Carnitas Dinner.

It only took about 45 minutes and then we were back on our way to Tucson.

The last leg of our trip was pretty uneventful, except for going through Tucson at rush hour, but it really wasn’t too bad.

We go into the Pima County Fairgrounds about 5pm, and got checked in and set up. Since we had eaten lunch kind of late, we decided to just make a DQ run a little later.

And about 7:30 we did.

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March 14, 2012

The Blog is Back–Redux . . .

As I said, our blog suddenly reappeared about 11am this morning. Never heard anything from WordPress about what I had supposedly done, or what the problem was.

I figure someone just pushed the wrong button.

Anyway, about 12:30 I went to work on my Splendide Washer/Dryer. The dryer part had quit working a while back, but because of traveling and then the Yuma rally, I hadn’t had a chance until now to take a look at it.

It only took about 30 minutes to get the washer out and the top open.

I had found the Splendide Service Manual a while back so I started going over the schematic tracing out the circuit. After confirming the master fusible link was good, I checked the wires going in and out of the dryer timer switch. and everything looked good there.

My next step was to move upstream and check out how the power feeds into the timer. At this point, I put in a call to Westland Sales up in Oregon to double-check my reading of the circuit. And as it turns out, it was the door switch as I thought.

Darrell, the tech at Westland, said he had seen switches with the wires burnt off. And he was right.

After I pulled the switch out of the edge of the door, I found the bottom connector on the switch melted and the wire connector had fallen off.

Problem found.

I got back on the phone to Westland and got the new switch on the way to us here in Tucson. Darrell did say it was lucky we needed a part he had in stock. He said they don’t make the parts anymore, and he’s completely out of many of them, like the main control board and the water pump. So at some point we’ll no longer be able to repair these units economically.

After finishing up, the rest of the afternoon Jan and I just read and napped, and took it easy.

Then about 5:30 it was off to Golden Corral for their buffet. After a good meal and conversation, we headed back to the rig about 7:30 to round out the day.

On another note, we’ve had nice weather since we’ve been here in Tucson, that’s going to change in the next few days.

So far, it’s been in the low 80’s in the daytime, and mid 40’s a night, but starting Sunday we’ll move into mid 50’s and mid 30’s.

Quite a change.

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March 14, 2013

R.I.P. El Comedor . . .

Tomorrow I’ll recap the last few days and catch you up on everything.

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We couldn’t take another day of bad cell service and no Internet service, so we pulled out of Saddleback Mountain RV Park a day early and a little after 10am, stopping at the office/convenience store to get a couple of coffee/cappuccinos for the road, and also to weasel a refund for the one day early that we were leaving.

Hey! $20 is $20.

At our first rest stop about 70 miles down the road, Jan took over the driving for about a hundred miles or so. Although there was a little wind, it wasn’t enough to bother her and she said she really enjoyed it. The drive, not the wind. But she didn’t feel up to driving through El Paso so I took over at a rest area about 20 miles out.

A little after that point we passed into the Mountain Time Zone and it was suddenly an hour earlier. Nice!

Going through El Paso was pretty smooth with a couple of short slowdowns to 45, but most of it was 55/60 the rest of the way.

So after a really smooth trip, we pulled into the Coachlight RV Park, found our spot and got set up.

About 4:30 we headed out to have supper at La Posta de Mesilla, one of our favorite local eateries. The restaurant itself has been here since 1939, but the building has been here since the 1840’s, In that time it’s been everything from an important stop on Butterfield Stagecoach Line to The Corn Exchange Hotel, one of the finest in the Southwest. And people such as Kit Carson, Billy the Kid, and Pancho Villa, have visited here. Some real history.

I first ate here in the early 1980’s when I was working for NASA at the Shuttle Backup Landing Site on White Sands Missile Range, and I’ve been enjoying it ever since.

And tonight was no exception. We both had the La Posta Combination Plate, a combination of folded taco, Chile Relleno, and green Chile enchilada with ground beef served with beans and rice.

Pretty much the same thing we have every time. It’s that good.

Heading home, we found that one of our other favorite local places, El Comedor, is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet its maker! It’s bereft of life. It’s boarded up and closed down. Darn!

Coming back the the park, we stopped off at a couple of truck stops so I could see if they carried the 7” Dual Tire Valve Extensions for my inside dual tires.

It looks like that when the repair shop took my rear tires off on the passenger side to replace my oil seal this past Monday, I didn’t get my original extension back. This one is a different color, the threads are messed up, and it seems to be leaking. So a new one is in order.

But neither truck stop had any so I’ll have to look elsewhere tomorrow.

On a final note, I’m sure glad to be back in an area with 5 bars of 4G.

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March 14, 2014

Back to the Bins . . .

Today was another day of toiling in the bins, but I did make a lot more headway in that I’ve cleared all the bins and bags out of the rig and into the outside bins. So much so, that it looks kind of empty in here.

I’ve still got six more outside bins to go through. and then the stuff in the back of the truck. All of these bins have already been gone through, throwing stuff away, so it should go pretty fast sorting stuff into their respective categories.

I have discovered though, that I’m going to reassess my bin category bin sizes.

Lubes / Adhesives / Paints
Plumbing / Hoses
Electrical
Tools
Computers / Satellite / Cables
Electronics
Books
Towing Stuff
Air Tools
Lawn / Holiday Decorations
Coach Spares / Tools
Cleaning / Waxing Supplies
Airplanes / Helicopters / Toys

It looks like I may end up with 2 or maybe even 3 bins of tools, and I’ll be able to combine several others, like Towing Stuff, Air Tools, and Plumbing. So I’ll see how it turns out.

A little later Lynette and Gregg McHenry dropped by to say ‘Hi’ and set up a time for a dinner get-together tomorrow afternoon. We’re looking forward to it.

Pretty soon after Lyn and Gregg left, the skies started to darken and it got a lot cooler. So since there was rain forecast, I spent about 15 minutes buttoning everything up. And of course, it never rained. But I called it a day anyway.

A little before 4, I drove down to the convenience store to pick up some MegaMillions tickets for tonight’s $300+ Million Dollar drawing. You can’t win if you don’t play.

For dinner Jan fixed a quick but delicious meal of small elbow macaroni, cooked ground beef, Pepper Jack Cheese, Velveeta Jalapeno Cheese, and a can of Bush’s Chili Beans. Very tasty. But we both thought it will be even better next time with a can of Rotel Habanero Diced Tomatoes.

Tomorrow’s bin work depends on the weather, so we’ll see what happens.

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March 14, 2015

Simple, But Delicious . . .

Our 480 mile road trip started out about 7am, with our first stop 2 exits down I-10 for a couple of breakfast sandwiches from Jack in the Box. Then it was back on I-10 heading for Yuma 240 miles away. We were driving over to visit Chris and Charles Yust, and also take in the big Flea Market there.

Our next stop was Bowlin’s Picacho Peak Plaza for a potty break, and some earring shopping at the gift shop. Jan loves their selection, and always finds something she likes, as she did this time with two new pair.

For my part I found a snack for the road.

The back of the box says they taste ‘like chicken’. I’ll be the judge of that. But back on the road, I forgot about them, so I’ll have to try them later.

Later, passing through Gila Bend, we checked out the RV park at Holt’s Shell station. I was curious about how full they were, but found 3 or 4 sites open. A Passport America park  at $12 a night, we’ve stayed here a number of times with no problems.

I did see this unusual fuel price sign there.

Not often you see diesel and unleaded for the same price.

Our last stop along the way was Dateland, for our favorite Date Shakes, and another trip through the gift shop for Jan. And another couple of pairs of earrings for her too.

Finally, about 11:30, we pulled into Chris and Charles’ RV lot in the Foothills section of Yuma, and spent the next hour or so just catching up. Much needed since we didn’t get to really see them during the Escapade Rally. Then it was off to Famous Dave’s BBQ for a good lunch and more talking.

Jan had the Smoked Brisket Sandwich, while I went with the Burnt Ends Sandwich. Both really good, as is usual from Famous Dave’s.

Next up, it was off to the Arizona Marketplace Flea Market for the rest of the afternoon. Jan had a list of stuff she was looking for, and found a good bit of it. In fact I think all of us found something we needed.

After saying our goodbyes, we were back on the road about 4pm, with our first stop the Fry’s right down the road for gas. Nice to see I’m still getting my always $0.10 a gallon discount with my magic Fred Meyer’s card.

Our next stop was the Elk’s Lodge in Gila Bend. My membership expires next month, and since we were passing through, I thought I’d take care of it in person, but I forgot to bring my card with me, and there was a problem with my account, so I’ll have to do it by mail anyway. Oh well.

Then it was Jan’s favorite stop, a place we’ve been eating at since 2008. Who would believe that the best Shrimp Burrito Jan has ever had was to be found in the middle of the Arizona desert. But Sofia’s Mexican Food really does it right. Just simple, but delicious food, well-prepared and well-seasoned.

Jan had her usual Shrimp Burrito, but added a Cheese Chile Relleno for a little change of pace.

She said later that the Relleno was just as good as the Burrito. And by adding the Chile Relleno, she had half of her Burrito to bring home. One thing different about Sofia’s Shrimp Burrito, is that it’s not filled with those little tiny imported shrimp, but it’s stuffed with shrimp the size of a 50 cent piece, along with rice and Pico de Gallo. Really tasty.

As for me, I had my usual Carnitas Plate with a big mound of refried shredded pork.

There’s a reason I get this over and over here.

We finally got home a little after 9pm, a long, but very fun day.

I had planned to try and finally paint the repaired rig bumper tomorrow, but the forecast says 20 mph winds, gusting to 30. So unless I want to paint my neighbor’s rig too, I’ll probably hold off on that.

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March 14, 2016

Another Day, Another Problem . . .

We didn’t walk this morning, but just sat around and enjoyed our coffee. We’ll get our walk in later at Wal-Mart. I did some computer stuff for clients and then sent off some emails and answered some comments from the blog.

About 2pm I headed out to drive around the park and try to find a more level spot than what we have now. I was hoping some campers had left this morning, but no luck. The park is still pretty full. I did find a couple, but they were only 30 amp. And the empty 50 amp sites were even more off-kilter than mine. And right now my rig’s right front tire is about six inches off the ground and we’re still not level. So I’ll keep looking over the next few days.

While I was driving around, I found that my radiator fan noise was back. A week or so ago I noticed that my radiator fan was making a kind of clacking noise, like it was rubbing against something. And in fact when I reached down and pressed in on the grille part of the shroud, the noise disappeared.

So last week before we left Colorado River I used tie-wraps to tie down any movement of the grille, and that seemed to have fixed the problem, at least until this morning.

So when I started driving around, I found that the clattering noise was back. And definitely associated with the fan speed, since the noise didn’t change with engine speed. Also as before, there was a slight burning plastic smell, which at the time I attributed to the fact that the plastic fan blades were rubbing against the plastic grille.

Getting back to the rig, I tried to look at the problem, but it was just too hot under the hood. So I left it up to come back out later to take a look. But when I did come back out, I once again couldn’t find anything loose or wiggling. So I cranked up the engine, and as before, the noise was gone.

Around 4pm Jan and I  headed out for dinner and Wal-Mart. And the noise was still gone, but a coup;le of more problems had appeared.

The AC was no longer working and I now had a Check Engine light.  So using my phone, I started up the Torque app and checked for the code. The app said the code was P0480, and then clicking on that code, was told that the problem was with the Cooling Fan Relay 1 Control Circuit..

The Torque app connects through the Bluetooth on my phone and the Bluetooth on a module that plugs into my truck’s diagnostic port.

Bluetooth Scan Tool

The free Torque app not only lets you read and reset fault codes from your phone or tablet, it also lets you configure a personalized virtual dashboard with your own choice of instruments.

Check it out.

Filing this away for later use, we drove into Conroe with our first stop at the local Culver’s. We both love their Butterburgers. While we were there I spent some time online searching the P0480 problem. I found a lot of stuff online about the problem, and a bunch of things to check later.

Then it was on to the nearby Wal-Mart and our walk today. As before I started up the Runkeeper app on my phone as we left the car, and then turn it off when we got back. And this is what we got.

So we did 1.66 miles doing our shopping there. Apparently we did nothing in a straight line either. And at 299 calories, I doubt we walked off our Butterburgers.

Finishing up, we drove down the Interstate about 12 miles and then back to check out the cooling on the truck. Tomorrow morning we’re heading down to our daughter Brandi’s house. to meet up with Landon’s other grandparents so we can all take him to the Houston Zoo. And then Wednesday we’re driving down to the Clear Lake area for our final doctor get-together.

So I wanted to be sure that we wouldn’t have any overheating problems on the way. But the engine stayed cool the whole test run so hopefully we’ll be OK. Especially since the thunderstorms are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, it might be Saturday until I can get back to the problem.

And after a stop for gas, we were back home a little after 7pm.

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March 14, 2017

Benson Bound . . .

Since we would gain another hour when we crossed into Arizona (they don’t observe DST) we didn’t pull out of the Coachlight RV Park until about 10:15 New Mexico time with our first stop Kranberry’s Restaurant in Lordsburg, NM two hours later.

We’ve stopped here every time we’ve passed through this way, going and coming, including our first time through in our rental Class C in March 2007. Besides the good food, the other attraction is the fact that they have RV parking in the rear.

Jan had a Tuna Melt with Bacon, while I had a 1/3 pound Bacon Cheeseburger with Hatch Green Chilies.

Really delicious, especially with the green chilies. They had kind of a ‘smoky’ taste that I haven’t had before.

Leaving Kranberry’s we saw this sign.

Probably more true than most people would admit.

Back on the road we had another two hours to Benson, AZ and the Cochise Terrace RV Park where we were booked for 4 days until we move over to the Voyager RV Resort on the 18th.

One thing nice about today’s travels was we had a lot less wind than we’ve encountered before, and no real problems with the roads either. So a smooth trip.

We got to the RV park about 2:30 and were led to our site. While I was checking in, Sharon Del Rosario greeted me, and at first I didn’t recognize her. I guess, because I wasn’t expecting to see anyone I knew here at this park. And also when I checked in, we got a bonus – a free meal.

They served a meal here every evening and tonight was Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Baked Beans, Chips, Dessert, and a Drink. Normally these meals are $5, but we got a ‘freebie’ our first night here.

Later, Sharon came by and talked to Jan, letting her know that there’s an Escapees get-together tomorrow afternoon.

So after getting all set up, we headed over to ‘The Barn’ about 5pm for our meal. Very good, and better than the leftovers we had planned.

Finishing up, the Escapees has just released an app for the upcoming 57th Escapade, It shows all the seminars, all the exhibitors, and all the events, and lets you set your own schedule of events. Just search for Escapade57 on your app service.

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March 14, 2018

Sprung Forward . . . Again!

For some reason our bedroom projection clock decided to spring forward AGAIN last night, making it an hour fast.  So when Jan got up at her usual 7:15 or so, she was surprised to find it was really 6:15. Not sure what happened to it, but I’ll check it tomorrow.

Yesterday Jan and I headed up into Webster to first have lunch at King Food once again. It was so good on this past Saturday that we did it again today. This time we remembered to ask for the Fried Noodle Crunchies for our Hot & Sour Soup.

Next up I stopped by work for a couple of minutes to pick up my Sealand Toilet Seals that came in via Amazon, but also to double-check one of my other client’s website. One of our blog readers said that when he went to that site he got a NOT SECURE warning.

I didn’t see a problem here at the rig, but I wanted to check with other computers on another network. And just like here, I saw no problem. Later I called a friend to see if he saw any problems and he didn’t either.

I emailed the guy back asking if he maybe had his browser locked down so that it sees any website as not secure that doesn’t have an SSL certificate for https:.

Later today he emailed that he wasn’t seeing the problem anymore. So who knows?

Our next stop was the Salvation Army location in Nassau Bay. Supposedly open until 4pm, we found it closed already at 3:55. Guess Happy Hour starts early on Mondays.

Moving on, we detoured over to FM2094 in Kemah to check out a new under-construction RV park called Brickhouse RV Park.

The name probably comes from the fact that it is owned by, and located right next door to Jackie’s Brickhouse, a popular sports bar in the area.

Looks to be about 115 sites laid out in 4 long rows. No idea when it’s supposed to open.

Finishing up in the Kemah area, we stopped off at Sundowner Canvas to pick up our last awning, the one that goes on the slide. Installation is on the schedule for this weekend.

Then after stopping for gas at the Kroger’s on League City Parkway, it was off to the WalMart in Victory Lakes for more stuff. Seems we never have enough ‘stuff’. Else why are we always buying more?

Our last stop on the way home was at the convenience store at FM517 to get some lottery tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings. The MM is at $318 Million and the PB is at $420 Million.

As usual I got the Annual Payment option, rather than the Cash Value. I think I may be the only one in the state who does this because it seems that many clerks don’t even what it is, or how to punch it up on the machine.

And if I get tickets from one of the self-service machines, they don’t even offer the Annual Payments option.

The reason I do this is because I hate to give away millions of $$$. Take the $420 million PB jackpot. If you take the Cash Value, you’ll get about $248 million upfront, giving up about $172 MILLION! That’s a lot of bucks!

But if you take it as 30 annual payments, that’s about $14 million a year. Now I can’t think of anything I might do with $248 million that I can’t do with $14 million a year.

Tomorrow we start our week’s worth of yearly doctor checkups. Jan had two appointments tomorrow with her oncologist and to get a mammogram, and then Monday we both have our GP checkups. Wrapping up, next Thursday Jan has a wrap-up with her oncologist again. Fingers Crossed.

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March 14, 2019

Feeling Better . . .

I Guess This Too Shall Pass.

Both Jan and I felt MUCH better this morning, maybe not 100%, but at least 90-95%. Which actually is pretty much every morning now that I think about it. But it looks like we’ve pretty much recovered from our second (and last) Shingrix Shingles Vaccination.

Some of you have commented on problems accessing the blog the last couple of days. It seems to have been caused by my adding an SSL certificate to the blog, but I think the problem is fixed now. Hopefully.

We headed out about 1pm for the Cheddar’s up on I-45 for lunch. This late we avoid the lunch rush, but unfortunately too early for any Early Bird Specials.

Then it was on to the other side of the Interstate to visit the local Goodwill store looking for two things, a small, cheap pet carrier to transport Karma to the vet and then to the lady that’s going to keep her while we’re gone.

We’ve got one of those collapsible nylon ones that we took her to the vet with went we had her fixed back in May 2016. But I’m afraid now that she’d try to claw her way out, and with her hypodermic needle claws, she might just make it.

The other thing we were looking for was a small chest or bookcase of some kind that will fit between my computer chair and the dining room table. But after checking out both Goodwill and the Salvation Army stores, we came up empty.

We’ve got a busy two weeks coming up. This weekend, probably Sunday, it’s back under the rig to hopefully install the new oil filter and then run it at high idle for an hour or so.

Then next week starts off with our Puddles Pity Party concert up in Stafford on Monday.

Really looking forward to that.

Then it’s medical stuff for the rest of the week. Tuesday is Jan’s Boob X-Ray, with both our yearly checkups on Thursday morning. Luckily we both use the same GP so our appointments are scheduled right after each other.

Next weekend we plan on doing an hour or so rig test drive out on the Interstate. Then on Thursday, Jan has her yearly Oncologist appointment to evaluate her mammogram results.

After that, on Friday, we’re heading up to Kingsland, TX for the weekend to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Miss Piper at Chris and Linda’s place.

Another thing to look forward to.

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March 14, 2020

Rethinking The Shed . . .

About noon I went out to check out my AC fan problem. First up, I pulled the fuse and found it fine. So next I disconnected the fan blower motor and checked for voltage coming to the motor and found it was dead. But to double check I went ahead and pulled the blower motor and connected it across the truck battery. And it whirled away.

So that told me that the problem was probably with the resistor pak/harness, so I dropped the resistor pak harness and pulled the resistor pak. And Bingo!

And certainly looks like it was the problem. And the harness end looked just as bad

Going online I found that the problem was fairly common and AutoZone, and others, sell complete replacement kits.

So since I knew what I needed now, Jan and I headed out for lunch at Yummy Yummy’s, thumbing our noses at the WuFlu once again. Then on the way home we made an AutoZone stop for the new harness.

Back at the rig I replaced the old harness with the new one. I noticed that the new wires and the plug were much heavier than the original. So hopefully it will last another 16 years like the old one.

Of course, before I reinstalled the blower motor and the harness, I held the blower up and turned on the truck fan. And it whirred away.

I got it all mounted and the wires tucked away, cranked up the truck, and tried the AC. And it worked great. In fact the air was blowing harder than it had been recently. So I guess it’s been dying for a while.

When we were having lunch at King Food last Sunday with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, Lowell mentioned that he was going to get a small plastic shed for their backyard to store lawn tools, etc. This got me to thinking about our shed problem.

And a little Amazoning led me to this one.

A Rubbermaid Roughneck Slide-Roof Storage Shed

When I actually started thinking about the things we wanted to store in it, I realized we did not need something as big as the 6’ x 8’ metal one we had been looking at.

This one is 5’ x 6.5’ and comes complete with a floor. It’s all plastic, so no rust, and has a 12 year warranty. But the best feature is that it can be snapped together in just a few hours, as opposed to the 12+ hours of the metal one.

I also like the Slide-Roof feature, making it easier to take stuff in and out.

The only real drawback is that at $480., it’s about $200 more than the metal one. But I think the features make up for the extra cost.

Plus, being a large ticket item, Amazon lets me break it down into 5 monthly payments with no additional charge or interest. Nice!

It’s set to be delivered right here to the site next Thursday morning, between 9am and Noon.

Tomorrow we plan on lunch at Los Ramirez Mexican and then a HEB/Walmart stop so Jan can get some things to take up to Brandi’s with her.

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March 14, 2021

The Last Three Hours . . . Not Fun

Brandi, Lowell, and Landon ended up driving straight through to Castle Rock, CO yesterday, getting there about 5am this morning. an 18 hour trip.

Brandi said the last three hours were NOT FUN!

But they made it safely, and hopefully things will have calmed down by this next weekend when they head back to Houston.

Had dinner with long-time friends Barb & Tom tonight, and while we were catching up, I set up Tom’s new Dell All-In-One desktop computer for him.

Great meal, great friends. It doesn’t get any better.

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March 14, 2022

After 40 Years, They’re Back . . .

Here A Scam, There A Scam.

Maybe it’s because Spring in the air, but the Scams are in Bloom. I’ve gotten 3 in the last two weeks.

The latest one is pretty simple, I guess talking about my ‘long-lost cousin’ from Denmark.

I need you to be the beneficiary to the account of late Craig White, who died last year March in car crash here in Copenhagen.
I was his banker.

Anders Jensen

There’s no link to click, so I guess I’m supposed to reply and tell him where to send my inheritance.

Next up was a email from Navy Federal Credit Union, where I DON’T have an account, telling me that my account has been locked

And then there’s this one from Chase, where I DO have an account.

Of course all of the links and the return email addresses go somewhere other than where they’re supposed to

After 40 Years, They’re Back . . .

Landon, et. al., started out Spring Break with breakfast at IHOP yesterday, playing with his Rubik’s Cube. He also had it last weekend when we met them at Pho Barr up in Katy. It’s the first time I’ve seen one in years, but apparently they’re back in style.

They were all the rage back in the early 80’s when I was at NASA-JSC, and I had 2 or 3, including one of the tiny ones that was only about 1” square. It took me about two weeks to learn one of the algorithms to solve a cube from any starting position. In fact, once you know the procedure, you can do any cube blindfolded.

We came across this photo of my Cutie, one that she doesn’t remember ever seeing before.

She looks about 18 months old, so it was probably taken in Kentucky.

Just as cute as ever.

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So It’s Mr. Moose’s Fault?