Our RV Adventures

(Sorry!)

Since I spent the evening getting the blog problems fixed. And they are, even yesterday’s blog, you just get a couple of teaser photos of our fun this afternoon at Longneck Manor.

And I’ll try to get to all your emails and comments tomorrow, too.

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Thought For The Day:

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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March 15, 2009

Rainy Day Sunday…

We’re in our 2nd day of rain.  And still more until Tuesday at least.

We don’t yet know when we’re leaving here.  Our 2nd week is up this Tuesday,  but what they didn’t tell us is that since we are parked in what is considered a premium site, we can only stay here for two weeks and then we have to be out for at least one day.  Then we can come back for another two weeks, if we want.

But this means we’ll be looking to move in the middle of Spring Break.  And the park, which has 497 spaces,  has been full on and off for the last week or so.  So we’ll see how it goes.

Saw something interesting at the restaurant we ate at last night.

You know those arcade games you find in places where the kids can use a claw to try and grab a toy and drop it in the slot?

Well now they have one for adults. It’s called “The Lobster Zone“.

It’s the same idea, except here your claw dips into a tank of salt water populated with live lobsters.  It costs $2.00 for 30 seconds and there’s a $20 bill taped to the lobster to pay for his cooking.

It seemed to be pretty popular. There was a line waiting to play.

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March 15, 2010

Wash and Wax…

Today was our last full day in Yuma. Tomorrow we will head north toward Las Vegas, NV.

We plan on boondocking in Laughlin tomorrow night and then head on to Las Vegas on Wednesday.

So today was prep day for tomorrow’s travel. We started off by dropping by Al’s RV Store to pick a Day-Night Shade restringing kit and a new frig fan.

Then we headed over to Chretin’s Mexican Restaurant for the Buffet Lunch. Just as we were finishing up with lunch, Joe and Vicki Kieva walked in. We first met Joe and Vicki several years ago at a Life on Wheels rally in Tucson, and our paths have crossed several times since.  They were seminar presenters at the rally here in Yuma as were we.

Then it was on to those obligatory prep day stops, Sam’s Club and, of course, WalMart.

We rushed to get back to the rig before 2pm since we were expecting the Road Runner RV Wash people to show up between 2 and 4pm.

And, of course, they didn’t show up until almost 5:30pm. But they swarmed over our rigs, washing and hand-waxing them.

I don’t think Beauty has looked this shiny since we bought her. But she sure sparkles now.

For $10 extra they also washed and waxed our tow vehicles.

Then after they finished up, Jan, and I drove over to Mimi’s Cafe for dinner. This was our 2nd time there, and, as before, we really enjoyed it.

We plan on heading out about 9 tomorrow morning. but before that, we’ll stop off at the fairground’s dump station to lighten our load.

Then it’s VIVA LAS VEGAS, baby!

More tomorrow from Laughlin…

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March 15, 2011

A Quiet Day At Last . . .

Today was a very quiet day.

Finally!

I slept ‘til about 10, although Jan got up earlier as usual. Coffee was the first thing on the agenda, and then it was time to catch up on some computer work.

Around 11 Jan put in a call to our friends, Al & Adrienne, to see about getting together with them while we’re here in Tucson.

I was emailing back and forth with a lady who’s looking to get rid of her Thousand Trails membership. We’ve been thinking about getting one since we’re now staying in places longer, and it would be worthwhile.

Around noon Jan heated up leftover pizza from Da Boyz in Yuma. Still delicious.

Around 1 I headed out for some errands, first stopping off at the office to find out about receiving mail and to confirm that we will be moving into a 50 amp site down the row. We’re doing OK on 30 amp, but due to our front windows heading west, the heat builds up and it’s hard for just one AC to keep up.

My next stop was Sandy’s RV Supply where I was looking for some new cabinet latches, which they had. Much better place than Camping World.

Then it was on to Home Depot to look at transition strips to go between the tile floor and the new laminate when I get it installed

I finally got home a little after 3:30 and did some puttering about the rig.

About 6 Jan and I headed into Tucson to a place we found highly recommended on the Internet called Micha’s Fine Mexican Food We found the recommendations very accurate and the food very good.

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March 15, 2012

Big Plans . . .

I had big plans for a bunch of stuff I wanted to work on today – check out the toad tail light feed from the rig, clean the rig windshield, run a separate electric cable to be able to run both AC’s on 30 amps, etc.

But what I got done was nothing. Between my inherent laziness and still having a lot of on and off pain in my foot, I pretty much vegged out all day. Jan and I caught up on 5 hours of ‘Justified’ and then worked our way down thru a lot of other programs we’d recorded during the rally and not looked at yet. I even got in a short, but nice nap during the afternoon

About 4:30 we decided to try Luckie’s Thai, a Thai – Chinese restaurant pretty close to the fairgrounds.

Checking on Urbanspoon, Luckie’s Thai had uniformly good reviews, but arriving at the restaurant made Jan and I think twice. It was just a nondescript little store in a strip mall near the Fry’s Market and only had about 10 tables.

But as Jan and I waited inside, we saw they had a bustling takeout business, always a good sign.

After we placed our orders, we were very pleasantly surprised when our food started coming out.

It was very, very good. Hot and Sour Soup, Special Fried Rice, and Garlic Chicken, all really good. We all decided right then we would be back.

After our delicious meal, Jan and I picked up some things from the Fry’s next door before heading home for the night.

Maybe I’ll be less lazy tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.

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March 15, 2013

Getting to Las Cruces-The Week in Review . . .

To recap starting this past Monday, we left Lakehills Thousand Trails about 8am, with our first stop at an HEB in Boerne about 25 miles away. After taking on about 50 gallons of diesel at $3.88 a gallon, we headed west on I-10 for Saddleback Mountain RV Park near Balmorhea about 325 miles away.

The road between Lakehills and Boerne was pretty rough so I didn’t notice any problems, but as soon as I got on the Interstate I could tell there was a problem somewhere. I was feeling a lot of vibration that I hadn’t felt on our way into Lakehills.

By then Jan had seen a Cracker Barrel billboard and decided we were stopping there for breakfast in Kerrville. When we came back out I crawled under the rig and took a look. And the first thing I noticed was a LOT more oil on the back of my rear wheel, the one that needed a new oil seal. My first thought was that it had leaked enough oil so that the bearings were going out. But luckily that wasn’t the case.

So it looked like we weren’t going much further without replacing the seal. And after a few minutes on the phone with CoachNet I had the name of a nearby repair shop, Reid Graham Trucking, and it was only about 4 miles away

After a phone call to confirm they could do the job, we unhitched the truck and made the short drive a little further down the Interstate to their location right off the next exit. They had said on the phone that they were pretty booked, but under the circumstances would get to it as soon as possible. So after getting the rig parked in the lot and dropping off the keys at the office a little before 11am, Jan and I headed out for some errands.

Jan wanted to get her hair cut so we drove over to the Wal-Mart so she could take care of that. While she was there, she got some suggestions for good places to eat and sights to check out in the area.

After she was done we headed west on SR 27 to check out some of the things the stylist had mentioned. Along the way we noticed an Elk’s Lodge with RV parking in the back so we checked it out and found they had three open sites. This was good to know since I had already figured that with 300 miles still to go to Saddleback Mountain, one way or the other, we were spending the night in Kerrville. Hopefully it would be in our rig, but we might end up in a hotel, we’d just have to wait and see.

After driving around a bit, we went back by the repair shop and were happy to see that our rig had been pulled into the shop bay and they were working on it. After raising the rear of the coach up on the levelers to make it easier for them to get the tires out of the wheel wells, we headed back out for the afternoon.

We ended up driving out along the Guadalupe River to check out the sights.

In one of those “You Never Can Tell What You’ll See In Texas” moments, passing through the small town of Ingram, we came across Stonehenge.

Huh? Stonehenge? Well, not THE Stonehenge.

It turns out to be Stonehenge II, a 3/4 size replica originally constructed in Hunt, TX in 1990. In 2010 the property was sold and the structure was moved to the grounds of the Hill Country Arts Foundation and reassembled in 2011.

And along with Stonehenge, there are also two life-sized Easter Island Moai on the grounds nearby.

Stonehenge III was also featured on the TV series “Friday Night Lights”, which told the story of a Texas high school football team.

About 1:45pm I got a call from Reid Graham that they’d gotten everything apart with no problems, but there was oil and grease everywhere and they figured it would be cheaper just to replace the oil-soaked brake pads instead of trying to clean them. I asked if there would be a problem if the pads on both sides weren’t replaced at the same time and was told that there wasn’t a lot of wear on the old one and just replacing the one shouldn’t be a problem.

About 4pm we ended up back in Kerrville and decided to have dinner at Billy Gene’s Hill Country Restaurant, one of the places recommended by Jan’s hair stylist.

And it turned out to be a really good one. Located on the banks of the Guadalupe, the food was as good as the view.

Jan had the Grilled Catfish and I had the Chicken Fried Chicken, both delicious Hill Country favorites.

After finishing our meal, we drove back over to the shop about 5:30 to find everything back together, and them trying to get the rig tilted to one side so they could add oil to the axle.

As it turns out, many commercial chassis have no access plug to add oil to the axle. You have to tilt the axle so you can add fluid in one side until it’s full and then cap it off.

The way they normally do this is drive down the road a few hundred feet and carefully back the rig down the roadside as it slopes off a bit until the coach is tilted over a bit. And we did this with no problems.

But now for the Bummer! part. As I carefully pulled the rig forward the way I backed in, and rig twisted back level, the passenger side of my split windshield cracked at the bottom right corner.

OH CRAP!

The same thing had happened on our way back from Alaska in 2008, except on the driver’s side, so I knew I was looking at a $750-1000 replacement, twice as much as the $440 repair bill for the oil seal and brake pad replacement. But what’s done is done, and after a 15 mile test drive, I headed the rig down to the Elk’s Lodge with Jan following in the truck. Getting there we found two sites still open so we pulled in and got set up.

50 amp full hookups for $15 a night. Nice!

A little later we drove back down to the Wal-Mar to buy a roll of heavy-duty transparent shipping tape to cover the many cracks to help hold things together.

I had done the same thing in Alaska in 2008 and we had driven all the way back to Houston with no problems before replacing the windshield there. Hopefully this time it will work until we get to the Apache Junction area, which will probably be the first time we’ll have a chance to get it replaced.

The next morning we left the Elk’s Lodge about 9am to make the 300 mile run to the Saddleback Mountain RV Park near Balmorhea.

About 50 miles down the road we stopped for breakfast at the McDonald’s at the Junction, TX exit. But just as I pulled off the Interstate, my TireTraker Tire Pressure Monitor went off. The inside tire on the passenger side rear duals was leaking down. But since we wanted breakfast and it was getting close to the changeover time to the lunch menu, we went inside and ate before I looked at the problem.

This was, of course, the same tires that were removed when my oil seal was replaced, and from appearances, I didn’t get my original valve extension back. This one was a different color.

And as I discovered after cranking the generator up so I could use my air compressor to pump up the tire, the threads on the valve extension were so messed up that the locking air chuck on my compressor kept popping off. But I finally got the tire aired up and we hit the road again.

We got into Saddleback Mountain RV about 3:30,  paid for three nights and got parked and set up, We did have two surprises, one when we registered and one after we parked.

The first was we were lucky to get a site because they were almost filled up. Normally they have plenty of sites when we come through but there’s now oil drilling rigs in the area and they’ve got a lot of permanents here now.

The second surprise was worst. Normally we’ve always had good Verizon cell and data service here, but this time it was almost non-existent. When I asked at the office they said it had gone out about two weeks ago and hadn’t come back.

For dinner, Jan sliced up the leftover steak from our visit to Magic Time Machine, made up some spicy seasoned mayo, put it all together with the leftover bread, and made us a delicious steak sandwich dinner.

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A Hidden Gem

Wednesday afternoon we made the 45 mile drive south through the mountains to Fort Davis to try and meet up with some blog readers who lived in the area. But because of the problems with our cell and data service we hadn’t been able to lock in a time and place to meet. So we decided to drive over there and see if we could get in touch. But as it turned out, we never were able to connect.

It took almost an hour to the trip, but Jan thought it well worth it when the first thing she saw was a gift shop. That made the trip worthwhile. After she found a pair of RV camper earrings and a few other things she couldn’t live without, we decided to find a place to eat linner (lunch/dinner). Our friends had mentioned a place, Poco Mexico, that had really good Chili Rellenos which piqued Jan’s interest, but we found that it closed at 2pm when we passed it on the way into town.

So after driving around for a while, we decided to check out the Fort Davis Drug Store, Hotel, and Restaurant. And we’re glad we did.

When we got there the place was so crowded we had a 15 minute wait to get a table, but it was worth it.

I had heard several people talking about how good their steaks were, so I decided to have the Surf and Turf, while Jan went with the Grilled Basa, which is a Vietnamese catfish.

Both our meals started out with deceptively simple, but delicious salads with romaine hearts, raw broccoli, baby carrots, and cherry tomatoes. But the real topper was their fantastic homemade poppy seed dressing.

Then our entrees came out and it was quickly apparent that the salad was not a fluke.

My steak was cooked perfectly, charred around the edges, but medium rare inside. Along with the grilled shrimp, fresh sautéed green beans, and toasted homemade bread, it was a meal you wouldn’t expect out in the middle of nowhere.

And how we found room for a scoop of Blue Bell ice cream for dessert, I’ll never know.

But we did!

Coming back to the rig we enjoyed some of the beautiful mountain scenery in the area, a real treat.

After getting back to the rig, we wanted to see if we could get a glimpse of the comet that people at the restaurant were talking about. So about sundown we put our chairs out and waited for the sun to go down. It was supposed to be low on the western horizon, kind of in line with the crescent moon. But I think the mountains on the western skyline block our view.

We did get a nice, colorful sunset and a pretty crescent moon, though.

A beautiful end to a very nice day.

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Today, Friday, started out with a quiet, slow morning, just taking it easy/ Then about 1pm we headed out for a bunch of errands and then dinner.

Our first stop was Sam’s Club for a few things before I once again started trying to find some new tire valve extensions, but with no luck. I may have to wait until we’re in Tucson and get them from Amazon.

Our next stop was the Wal-Mart right near the RV park. This one was kind of a disappointment. It’s one of those smaller ones, that although it’s a Super Wal-Mart, it just doesn’t stock as many items as the bigger ones. Items that I’ve bought at many other Wal-Marts, they didn’t even stock.

By this time it was after 4:30 so we decided to head over to Chachi’s for dinner.

Chachi’s has become our new favorite place here in Las Cruces. They have great Mexican food, but also delicious steaks and burgers.

While Jan went with a Mushroom-Cheddar burger, I took a liking to their Angus Sirloin Steak Fajitas. And boy did I make a good choice!

They were really, really good. I’ll definitely have these again.

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March 15, 2014

Loud and Annoying . . .

Lowell sent over these photos of his and Landon’s Saturday morning Starbuck’s coffee run. They usually head out early to let Mommy sleep in for a while. Of course Landon’s is Hot Chocolate, but he’s got the basics down.

When we talked to Brandi a little later, she said that he was still having fun with that loud and annoying toy. At first I thought she was talking about me, but it turns out she was talking about the walking, roaring dragon we got Landon a couple of weeks ago.

That’s a relief.

It was already misting when I got up at 10 (I went to bed at 3am, so no comments), and more was forecast for the rest of the day so I called a rain delay and will try again tomorrow.

A little before 4pm, Jan and I drove over to Lynette and Gregg McHenry’s site to pick them up for supper. And on our way out to the main highway we came across this turtle crossing the road. We actually drove over him as he was in the center of our lane. Jan wanted me to stop and help him across so he wouldn’t get run over.

But as we drove over him, I could tell this might be a problem. Because I could tell just from looking at the tail that this wasn’t a plain-jane ordinary turtle. Nope. This was an alligator snapping turtle. Able to take your finger off with ease.

Here’s the guy on the roadway.

A snapping turtle has a very thick, long tail. This shot from the internet shows it better.

They also have a bumpy shell with peaks on it.

And here’s a blowup of his mouth.

So I stopped the truck, put the flashers on, and went back to the turtle. I had planned to just kind of boot him in the bottom and urge him all the way across the road.

But he was having none of it. When I approached him from behind, he turned to face me, hissing, as his neck lunged out and that sharp beak snapped away. As I circled him, he kept rotating to face me, not letting me get behind him.

And there was no way I was going to poke at him with my shoe from the front. I’ve seen what that beak can do to a pair of boots.

So finally I went back to the truck and got a 2’ x 2’ piece of 1/2 plywood, planning to use it to just push or shove him off the road in the direction he was trying to go. But that didn’t really work either.

First off he kept biting at the board, but not holding on long enough to drag him off. So then I tried to use the board to just push him off. But that didn’t work either. The pavement surface was rough enough and his long claws sharp enough that he would just latch onto the road and I couldn’t move him.

But the next idea did the trick. I used the edge of the board to carefully flip him over on his back. Repeating this several more times got him to the edge of the road and into the grass. Mission accomplished. But he still hissed at me.

In case anyone is wondering why I didn’t just pick him up from behind, that’s very hard to do safely with a snapping turtle. They have a very long neck that can whip around far back over their shell and all the way to their back legs. And I’d like my fingers to all stay right where they are.

Back on the road, we headed over to Vernon’s Kuntry Katfish, a place suggested by Lynette and Gregg. And a great suggestion it was.

Some of the best catfish I’ve had in a long time. Even better than the Sealand Seafood place that we ate at in LaGrange last week. And Sealand was really good.

And even better, they have hand-cut fries.

Jan had the Blackened Sampler, with catfish, shrimp, and scallops. Also really good.

And to go with this, they had Fried Green Tomatoes, Hushpuppies, and Tomato Relish. YUMMM!

Tomorrow, with the weather forecast to be better, hopefully I’ll be back in the bin business.

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March 15, 2015

Planes and More Planes . . .

Thought today’s blog might be a good time to catch up with our visit to the War Eagle Air Museum a week or so ago since not a lot else happened today.

The first things you see are a Hawk missile battery, and Patriot missile launcher, along with their radar units.

Getting into the building I was happy to find that, unlike some places, the entry fee was very reasonable, $5 for adults, and $4 for seniors. Working our way through the gift shop (there’s always a gift shop) we went out on the hanger floor and found a very nice collection of vintage planes, many in flying condition.

Hint: The way you tell if one is in flying condition is to look for the oil drip pans underneath the engines. As they say, if it’s flying, it’s leaking.

First up was a very nice P-40E Warhawk.

This plane was what the famed Flying Tigers were using against the Japanese in China, operating as the 1st American Volunteer Group.

Later, flying with ‘Pappy’ Boyington of ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ fame, many other Flying Tigers veterans flew the F-4U Corsair for the US Marines.

‘Pappy’ Boyington was later awarded a Medal of Honor for his heroics.

Next up was a P-51D Mustang,

and a TBM Avenger bomber.

The next plane in the line is one of my two favorites, the Lockheed P-38L Lightning. (My other favorite is the SR-71 Blackbird)

Note that this one is also in flying condition. Known by the the Germans as the ‘Forked Tail Devil’ and the Japanese as “Two Planes, One Pilot’, it was the only American fighter to be in production from Pearl Harbor through VJ Day.

And of course, what’s a WWII display without nose art . . . well, tail art, anyway.

Wrapping up the prop planes, here’s an A-26C Invader, also flyable.

Finally getting into the early jet age, they’ve got an F-86 Sabre,

a MiG-15,

and a MiG-21.

And a little more modern, here’s a T-38B Talon trainer.

We see a lot of these around Houston because they’re what the astronauts fly to keep current, and travel back and forth to the Cape.

And here’s another favorite of mine, (OK, so I have 3 favorites) the Cessna T-37B trainer.

One reason it’s my favorite is that I actually have a couple of hours of left seat time in both the T-37 and its A-37B big brother. The A-37 is a lot more fun because it has more than twice the thrust of the T-37. This was when I was working as a DOD contractor in the late 60’s – early 70’s.

Last up was a group of H-Bomb mockups showing the amazingly small size of something that can wipe out a city.

If you like planes, the War Eagle Air Museum is a cheap, enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

Check it out.

As far as today, not much.

I worked on some projects, Jan read, and about 5:30 we headed out for dinner at the Hot Wok Asian Bistro. After all the recent problems with Luckie’s Thai, I think Hot Wok is our new favorite Asian place in Tucson.

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March 15, 2016

A New Way Home . . .

Jan and I were once again up at 7am (this is getting to be a very bad habit), and after a quick stop at the office to get the new gate code, we were on the road by about 8:45.

Despite having no AC, due to the cloud cover, the trip was nice with no real traffic along the way. And there was no problem with the engine cooling either, so we arrived at Brandi’s right on time at 10.

Then it was off to the Houston Zoo with Landon, and Lendell and Sonja, his other grandparents. But as we had already been warned might happen, we couldn’t really get anywhere near the Zoo. There was a 3 mile line of cars trying to enter at the Zoo entrance, so we went on past to check out the remote parking site a couple of miles away.

And found it no better. There was a long line of cars waiting to get into the lot, and an even longer line of people standing out in the hot sun waiting for the tram back to the Zoo. So it was a No-Go for the Zoo, and even Landon wasn’t too upset.

So since we had planned to have lunch at the Zoo, we decided instead to have lunch at the nearby Cleburne’s Cafeteria, a place where we’ve eaten many times over the years. And it’s pretty special. Owned and operated by the same Greek family since 1941, it’s well known for its great food and delicious desserts. And we had some to take home.

Landon said he wanted to go to the Mall and play in the castle so we were off to Memorial City Mall and Frolic’s Castle, a dedicated fairy playland for the kids.

Landon played with all the other kids for an hour or so, before he was ready to move on.

Later Landon decided to try on my glasses. They don’t look bad on him.

Next up on Landon’s agenda was a ride on the Mall’s beautiful double-decker carousel. It’s a real work of heart, and fun for the kids.

Due to Landon’s height (less than 36”) Jan had to ride with him, and unfortunately for her, he wanted to ride on the upper deck. Up the stairs on the upper deck.

After that, it was on to the electric Dinosaur Ride, one of Landon’s favorites. And he was quickly all saddled up and ready to ride when a problem developed.

Unlike the same ride at Katy Mills Mall, where he always rides by himself, here they said he had to have a co-rider.

And guess who got to do it? At least there were no stairs involved, right Jan?

Kinda looks like she’s having more fun than he is.

With Landon finally getting a little worn down, we all headed back to Brandi’s. We had originally planned to have dinner at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro when Brandi got home from work, but we were all still too full from Cleburne’s. And everyone including Landon, seemed to think a nap was in order, anyway.

Then about 5pm Jan and I headed back to Conroe for the night. And for the trip, we thought we’d take a new way home, the recently-opened SR99 Grand Parkway Toll Road, that runs from I-10 in Katy to The Woodlands and I-45.

And it made for a very fast trip, especially for this time of day, albeit somewhat more expensive. It was pretty much 70-75 mph the entire way, amazing for this time of day. A lot of the route is out in the countryside with very little around to cause slowdowns.

But at ~$6.50+, it’s more than twice as expensive as taking the Beltway Toll Road at $3.00. I say approximately (that’s what the ~ means) because of the weird pricing at the toll scanners. And by weird, I mean one toll was $1.03, the next one was $0.95, and then next one was $1.11. What’s up with that?

And FWIW, it’s about 5 miles further.

So for our Sunday back and forth’s between Colorado River and Lake Conroe, there’s no gain. It’s further and it costs more. And there would have been no gain if we’d used it this morning, either, since there wasn’t much traffic then.

But anytime during rush hour, it’s a good deal.

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about trying to find a more level site, and right after we got home this afternoon, Debi and Ed Hurlburt came by to offer us theirs, since they’re leaving tomorrow morning.

But we had to turn down their offer, since Jan and I are leaving out for the Clear Lake area about 8am tomorrow for the last of our of yearly medical stuff, and then lunch with the kids. Too bad too, since they have a nice site in the newly-upgraded ‘G’ area.

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March 15, 2017

We Don’t Like Mountain (Pacific) Time . . .

It was nice to sleep in a bit this morning with no upcoming travel until this coming Saturday when we’ll move over to Voyager RV Resort for the Escapade.

Around noon, long-time friends, Dick and Phyllis Schell showed up to say Hi. We sat outside for a good while at the site’s picnic table, catching up on our going-on’s.

They drove over from the SKP park right down the road. I think the last time we were together was in May 2015 while we were getting our blow-out damaged rig in Prescott, AZ. They were at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails and drove over to do some shopping, a perfect occasion for a get-together.

About 4pm Jan and I walked a couple of rows over to “The Crow’s Nest” Activity Center for a meeting of Escapees in the area. Put together by our friend’s Sharon and Don del Rosario, it was a good chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.

At 6pm we met up with some of our fellow Escapees at the 86 Café, a local Benson Mexican restaurant that came well-recommended. And for good reason, as it turned out.

Jan had the #10, two Chile Rellenos with rice and beans.

Jan said these were in the top 2 or 3 rellenos she’s ever had. High praise from her.

I had the Green Chile with Pork, with rice and beans.

Also very good, especially slathered with some of their hot sauce. Really delicious.

Starting on the left, it was Gloria King, Sharon del Rosario, my Jan, and Phyllis Schell. On the right, it was Frank King, Don del Rosario, my empty chair, and Dick Schell.

As with many RV get-togethers, we were there long enough that they started closing down the place around us, locking the doors and turning off the Open sign.

I think they were trying to tell us something.

Being back out west has reminded Jan and I how much we don’t like Mountain (Pacific) Time. I say Mountain (Pacific) because although we’re actually in the Mountain Time Zone, because most of Arizona doesn’t observe DST, effectively we’re on Pacific time.

And that really screws with the TV schedule, with prime time shows starting at 5pm, way too early for us. Unfortunately we’ll be out here for the next 4 months or so, so I guess we’ll get used to it eventually.

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March 15, 2018

The Girls Are Fine!

First off, Jan had her diagnostic mammogram this afternoon and the verdict is in:

The Girls Are Fine!

Jan got a clean bill of health for another year. Now all we have left are our two GP appointments on Monday morning, and then Jan has a final follow-up on Thursday with her oncologist to go over the mammogram findings. Then hopefully we will be done for this year.

But unlike Jan’s . . .. boo . . . er, mammogram findings, the truck died on the way to her mammogram appointment. I’d been hearing some rumbling from the truck for a couple of weeks, which I figured it was the U-joints. Turns out it was.

With a little help of a bystander we got the truck into the parking lot at the Taco Cabana just a few blocks from Jan’s appointment. Prioritizing things, I called an Uber to get Jan to her appointment where I knew she would be occupied for a few hours.

This was our first time to use Uber and it was pretty painless. I did have to change out the credit card I had on the account since it had expired since I set the account up. But once that was done I had the ride booked in just a couple of minutes, giving the address where Jan wanted to go. A couple of minutes later I got a confirmation from them giving me the driver’s name, vehicle, and tag number, with an arrival time of about 5 minutes. And he was right on time.

With Jan on the way I put a call into Brock’s Car Care, my long-time mechanic, letting them know I had a problem and that I was on the way. They wanted to know if I needed a tow and I said No, that I had it covered with my own Roadside Assistance.

I wish I had taken them up on it. But I’ll cover this more tomorrow when I have more information about what happened.

While I was waiting, I put in a call to our son Chris to see if he was in the area to give us a ride home if necessary. Turns out he was at work up in Baytown, but he offered his Chevy pickup for our use.

Thanks, Chris.

The tow truck dropped me and the truck off at Brock’s about 1:45, and as soon as I was checked in, their pickup/dropoff service dropped me off at Chris’ where I picked up the truck and headed back to where Jan was.

I hadn’t been there for more than about 15 minutes when she called to say she was ready to be picked and that everything was fine.

We had originally planned to have dinner this afternoon at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood with our friends Jan and Dale Thompson, but they begged off due to a bug going around. So we’ll catch them another time.

But Jan and I decided to go to Floyd’s anyway. As we were walking in, Jan said, “I want a Coors Light to celebrate.”

Fine by me. I had one too.

Brock’s called later in the afternoon saying I was right about it being the U-joints. In fact it seems like the driveshaft is still laying in front of the Taco Cabana since it wasn’t attached to the truck anymore. They said they’d get back to me.

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March 15, 2019

Et tu Brute?

Then Fall Caesar!

I always thought that every month’s 15th was a “ides”, but like many things I’ve thought over the years. that’s not exactly true.

Only March, May, July, and October have it on the 15th. The rest of the months it’s on the 13th.  This all comes from the Roman calendar where the ‘ides’ are the day of  the full moon each month. Other than that, it had no special meaning to them.

At least until Caesar went under the knife in 44 BC

And there’s even a lot of controversy about what, if anything, was said. Some historians of the time say he said nothing, others said he just pulled his toga over his head when he saw Brutus, and some say he said, “You too, child”, apropos since Brutus was his protégé.

Today was the first day we could buy tickets to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. You’re only allowed to purchase them two months before the visit, which for us will be May 14th, our only free day in Amsterdam after the cruise and before we take the train down to Paris. But you can’t wait until the last minute, or apparently, even the last week or month.

However I did have to go through 3 credit cards before I got the purchase to go through. I guess PayPal and Capitol One weren’t really happy with suddenly getting a $35.16 (€31.00 in Euros) from Amsterdam.

But at least now we’re good to go.

Now, on to the Sex Museum.

I did get a short-term scare this morning when I logged into our account on MyVikingJourney.com and got a pop-up saying our Visa and Travel Documents had been mailed, and giving me a couple of USPS Tracking Numbers. And when I checked it showed they had been delivered yesterday . . . to the Front Desk/Reception Desk at an address in Coral Gables, FL.

WTH

So I was quickly on the phone to Chantelle Nugent,  our travel agent, and found that the address was the headquarters of her travel company. She said Viking would only ship the documents to the home office, who would then send them to Chantelle, who will send them on to me.

So, all good.

While I had her on the phone I told her about our backup plan to spend 3 extra days in London by hoping to get bumped from our flight on Thursday by volunteering for it, and then asking for a flight on Sunday. Then we would find another hotel back in London.

She said it would work as long as we could get bumped, and that she would check the flight right now to see how sold out it was. And also keep an eye on it as time passes.

So we’ll see.

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March 15, 2020

Braving The Ravaging Horde . . .

Or Not.

While I’m waiting on the Thursday morning delivery of our new Rubbermaid Shed, I’ll try to get a plywood base set up on some concrete pavers. Otherwise the plastic flooring of the shed would probably get punctured by the gravel underneath over time.

I’ve already downloaded a copy of the Rubbermaid Roughneck Shed Assembly Manual so I’ll try to get started with assembling whatever I can before Jan gets back home.

About 1pm Jan and I headed out to lunch at our favorite Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant. Jan got her usual Pechuga Rellena, with Grilled Shrimp and Broccoli,

while I got my new fav, the Spicy Chicken Fajitas with Charro Beans.

The salad is self-made. Jan doesn’t like all the shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes that comes with her dish, so I take it, add the Pico de Gallo that comes with my meal, and then dress it with their Green Sauce. Makes a really good salad.

And with the salad and the Charro Beans to fill up on, I had more than half of the fajitas to take home.

Next up was a truck wash at the Blue Ocean Car Wash. Really like them, since they do a great job getting the grunge off the truck. Then it was right across the street to see if our local WalMart had been stripped bare yet.

And the answer was Yes and No.

We started in the Pharmacy area and found the Cold Medicine/Cough Syrup area pretty much bare, as well as the Vitamin area to a lesser extent. Then moving over to the Grocery area, the ravaging horde made themselves known.

The Orange Juice area,

and the Dairy area,

were all stripped bare.

And for some reason, although the Soft Drink area was still pretty well stocked, my favorite Lipton Green Tea area was almost bare,

leaving me only the Mixed Berry version which is not my favorite.

But what was really weird was the run on Coffee Filters. All the brown unbleached ones were completely gone, and only one pack of the white ones was left. Which I got.

As I was typing this, I was trying to figure out why the run on filters and not coffee. And then it made sense.

They’re for backup toilet paper. Makes sense to me.

Tomorrow Jan’s coming into work with me so we can leave from there to take her up to Brandi’s for her next week of Landon-watching. She’ll probably hang out at the Harris County Library for the day before we head out about 3pm.

Once we’re up there we plan on stopping off at the local Chick Fil A for some Grilled Nuggets before I drop her off at Brandi’s and then head back to the rig.

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March 15, 2021

Yikes . . .

Well, I think the blog email problem should be fixed. Jetpack, the WordPress plugin that handles the emailing of the blogs had updated itself (remember, I HATE updates) and somehow the configuration files got misconfigured.

The only problem now is that some people are getting more than one copy of the blog email.

Too many, Not enough! It’s always something. LOL

Brandi and Lowell sent over some great photos of the snow in Colorado.

That’s Pike’s Peak in the background.

And Landon seems to be making himself right at home.

When I left for work this morning I realized that I probably needed to stop for gas on the way, rather than waiting to get it on the way home at Costco like I usually do. So I pulled into the Circle K/Valero right out on Hwy 6 and filled up for $2.45 a gallon, 16¢ more than Costco. But, hey, when you need it.

However coming home this afternoon, I noticed it had jumped 10¢ a gallon since this morning.  Yikes!

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March 15, 2023

“Do You Still Love Me”?

That’s what Jan asked me when I came out from the bedroom this morning and found her sitting at the computer. Turns out that she had accidentally started downloading and installing Windows 11. But I managed to stop the download at 45% and keep it stopped for the next 7 days. Between now and then I’ll try to abort the whole thing.

I’ve managed to avoid Windows 11 installing itself on any of our machines, home and work, especially at work since we’ve got some legacy programs that I’m not sure how they’ll work under Win11.

It’s been my experience that update/upgrade are often not a good thing. So I put them off as long as I can.

Tomorrow it looks to be Twin Peaks for lunch and then WalMart to finish up. But along the way we’re going to check out a new grocery place down in League City. Called Gordon’s Food Service, it’s been around for 125 years, but just coming into the Houston area with 4 stores open now and 2 more coming soon.

Aimed at restaurant owners and foodservice professionals, the stores will also cater to home shoppers with an assortment of packaged and fresh produce and goods, much of which will be prepared on site.

Shoppers can expect to find:

• Large seasonal produce department with an assortment of market-direct items
• Fresh meats available by the piece, pound, or case
  
• Wholesale walk-in customer coolers housing cases of produce, meats, and dairy items
  
• Grab and go meal solutions with ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat items like rotisserie and fried chicken, ribs, deli sandwiches, handmade guacamole, cut fruit, and fresh squeezed juices
  
• Tortillerias that produce fresh tortillas daily
  
• 15 varieties of fresh popped popcorn
  
• Gordon Go!, a free wholesale loyalty program available to businesses and nonprofit customers to earn points that can be spent like cash or redeemed for $1,000 checks
  
• Convenient online ordering for same day in-store pick up
  
• Same day Express Van Delivery

Supposedly it’s kind of a cross between Sam’s Club and Costco, but without a membership fee.

And, Yes, I Do!

   

 

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.

---

March 14, 2013

R.I.P. El Comedor . . .

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

---

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.

---

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?