Jan was still under the weather today so I went out about 1:30 to get our weekly HEB stuff, including stocking up on cough drops and cough syrup. And as it turns out, it seems that Jan and I aren’t the only ones having a problem.
There was a physical traffic jam in the cold/flu aisle and the shelves were very picked over. But I did get a bag of our favorite Honee’s Cough Drops and a bottle of DayQuil Cough Syrup, so we should be good to go.
Then coming home, I stopped off for Popeye’s once again.
It was good yesterday. It was good today.
We had originally hoped to have dinner at BoomerJack’s last night or tonight so we could see Sylvia since she’s the nighttime bartender there now, having migrated over from Twin Peaks next door. But now we’ll have to wait until next week when Jan’s feeling better.
Several of our readers asked about the ibises that seemed to have moved into our neighborhood and how I know they’re not egrets or herons.
The giveaway is the beak.
Egrets and Herons have straight beaks, while Ibis beaks are always curved.
And Ibises don’t just come in white. They are black ones, red ones, brown ones, pretty much every color.
Tomorrow it’s back to work.
Thought For The Day:
Your Retro-Preview Highlights – A Lot Going On Today
2010 – Yosemite
2011 – The Grand Canyon
2012 – Miss Piper and Gate-Guarding
2013 – Tortilla Flat And Superstition Mountain
2015 – Las Vegas And Area 51
2017 – Missing Peak Poppy And Pie
2019 – Our 1st Day In Budapest
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
April 28, 2010
Sitting out the bad weather…
It was supposed to be cold and rainy today so we decided to wait until tomorrow before visiting Yosemite National Park, and although we saw one burst of sunlight, the forecast turned out to be pretty accurate.
So about 12:30 we headed out to get some lunch and some groceries afterwards.
I stopped by the office on the way out to find out how many RV’ers had used the Park discount coupons that were given out at the Yuma Rally back in March.
As we were leaving the park we saw a squirrel standing sentry on a rock right outside the gate. We tried to get a picture but he spooked before we could get the camera out.
Maybe when we come back.
We ended up going back to El Cid because we liked it so much last night. I wanted to have another bowl of their albondigas, Mexican meatball soup. We had some last night as an appetizer to our combo platters, but it was so good I decided to have just a bowl of it for lunch. And we got some more cactus pictures while we were there.
We also saw a pair of woodpeckers that, at first glance, I thought were red-headed woodpeckers. But after looking closer at the pictures, I realized they were something I hadn’t seen before. It turns out they are Acorn Woodpeckers.
Heading back home we stopped off at Von’s to pick up some groceries.
Coming back into the park, we found our squirrel standing guard on his rock again.
Although it looks kind of brown in this picture, it’s a Western Gray Squirrel.
Tomorrow we’re going to drive up into Yosemite National Park. If we make the entire loop, it will be about a 200-mile trip.
April 28, 2011
Grand Canyon–Part 1 . . .
Our Grand Canyon day started early. Jan was up about 6:30, said she was too excited to sleep. I was up by 7:30, and we left the rig about 8:15 to make the 5 minute trip to the Grand Canyon Railway Station.
After we picked up our tickets, Jan checked out the gift shop while I checked out the steam engine that they used on the Grand Canyon trip until recently.
We boarded our car about 9:15, and the train pulled out about 9:30 to make the 65 mile trip in about 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Our seats were in a First Class car, with an observation dome on top.
Along the way we came across this herd of horses on the move. Don’t know if they were startled by the train, or just running for the fun of it, but they paced the train for a few minutes.
Certainly makes you feel you’re out West.
The train snakes its way up to the canyon, so from our car, third from the end, we were often able to see the front of the train.
After our train arrived and we walked to the canyon rim at the Bright Angel area, our first view of the Grand Canyon was just spectacular.
Everywhere you look you see colors and patterns as far as the eye can see.
This photo shows the multi-mile hiking trail that takes you further out into the canyon.
I’ll let these next pictures speak for themselves.
Looking over the edge of the canyon we saw this squirrel looking up at us. As soon as he saw us, he started climbing up the outside wall, heading our way.
It was obvious that he expected to be fed,
and despite the sign below, he was going to follow us until he was.
And when we refused to put out, he headed down the wall looking for someone else.
The building at the left in this photo is the Lookout Studio, built by Fred Harvey to give a close-up view of the canyon.
While I was out on one of the lookout points here, Jan stayed up top sitting on one of the low walls.
Suddenly another squirrel appeared, climbing up over the wall, and going directly to the trashcan. After pulling out several empty wrappers, he saw Jan sitting there and headed for her. He climbed right up on her lap, sat on her fanny pack, and put his little paws up to her.
Everyone around her marveled at this, but no one took a DARN photo.
That’s about it for today. I’ll have Part Two tomorrow.
April 28, 2012
Yea, Piper!
Or Up Close and Personal!
First up, congratulations to our granddaughter Piper who graduates from high school next month. Our son Chris called yesterday to let us know that Piper had been awarded a merit four-year full scholarship to the University of Houston, one of only four given out every year.
Separately, she earlier had received a $2000 a year grant.
Way to go, Piper!
Well, after 12 days of gate-guarding in the wilderness, we’re back in civilization.
Kind of.
The one main problem with where our gate was, was the fact that we had no cell phone or Internet service. But after days of trying, I finally found a solution.
I bought a Wilson DB 65 Pro amplifier and antenna, and then put the antenna on top of a 30 foot pole mounted to the ladder on our RV. And lo and behold, we had cell and Internet service.
Ten minutes later we got our first call from the outside world. It was the Gate Guard Services office telling us to get packed up because we were moving to a new gate.
So now we had to take everything down and get packed up.
Finally, we pulled out about 2:50 for the 8 mile trip on the dirt road from Hell. This road is so bad we can only do about 5 mph in the rig. So it only took us about an hour and ten minutes to go the 8 miles. But once on the highway, we made good time.
We pulled into our new location a little after 6 pm and got set up. Or rather I set up and Jan was already running the gate.
And unlike our other gate where the drilling rig was 3 miles away, here we’re up close and personal.
And boy is it windy here. But we do have cell and Internet, so that’s a plus.
I’ll have more later with pictures from our old gate and our new one.
Thanks to everyone for your comments and concerns when we kind of disappeared for a while. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post more regularly now.
April 28, 2013
Flat, Not Flats . . .
I spent a little while this morning putting up Reflectix across the full front windshield and it quickly made a difference in the heat coming in. It was supposed to make it to 99 today, 100 tomorrow, and 98 on Wednesday, so our AC’s are going to need all the help they can get.
About 1:30 we were off on our trip up into the Superstition Mountains along the Apache Trail and all the way out to Tortilla Flat. And yes, according to their website, it’s Tortilla Flat, not Flats.
Leaving our RV park, we headed northeast on SR88 for about 6 miles and stopped off at Goldfield Ghost Town, an old 1890’s mining town turned into a tourist attraction.
But the first thing you notice here is the great view of Superstition Mountain, a really imposing piece of rock.
The town is built up the side of a hill, and reminded Jan and I of Calico Ghost Town over in California, near Barstow.
And like Calico, they have hourly gunfights in the streets.
What started out as an argument over a money strongbox, progressed through a shootout, complete with a stick of dynamite, and ended up with a lot of bodies in the street, finished off by a shotgun-toting bordello madam.
Down a side street, we did come across this old, rusty Linotype machine, used in making up lines of type from molten metal, which are then assembled into printing plates for printing.
Heading out again another 6 miles down the road we stopped at the overlook for
Canyon Lake, one of four lakes up in this area. You don’t think about lakes like this in this part of Arizona, but there’s a lot of boating going on up here.
A few more miles down the road brought us to Tortilla Flat.
And after you’re there, you find out that Tortilla Flat consists of 3 buildings, 6 stores, and has a population of 6.
But there is a lot of pretty scenery in the area.
After checking out the stores and gift shops, we had some ice cream, and then watched the other visitors come and go.
Getting back to Apache Junction, we tried to decide on a place for dinner. And after a lot of back and forth, and “I don’t know. Where do you want to go?”, we ended up trying out the Black Angus Steakhouse, a first time for Jan and me. They have 44 restaurants in 6 western states, including Alaska, but neither Jan and I had ever heard of them.
And as it turned out, it was pretty good. Jan and I both had steaks. My steak had those slightly-charred edges that I like so much, so I was happy.
And after all, that’s what matters now, isn’t it?
Tomorrow starts our last two days here in Apache Junction, so I need to finish up a couple of things on our coaches
Busy, busy, busy.
April 28, 2014
High Road to China . . .
As we’ve done for the last several days, Jan and I sat outside this morning with our coffee and muffins, but not for very long. The last several mornings have either been partly cloudy or even overcast, but there was not a cloud in the sky today, and the sun was hot. In fact today was our high for the year with 92 degrees.
Time to head north.
On another front, my great nieces, Darby
and Stahlie Calvin
are going to be traveling to China in the next few weeks. These two beautiful young ladies are going to be volunteering at an American-run Special Needs Orphanage outside of Bejing for the summer, and then spend some time touring the country.
Our part in this comes about because the Chinese Consulate here in Houston is where you go to get your visas, so Jan and I are going to expedite things by handling it on this end.
Darby is overnighting the paperwork that should be here tomorrow. Then on Wednesday, Jan and I will take it down to the Consulate. If we get it in before 11:30, then we should be able to pick it up before 3pm.
One of my chores today was to install an additional support on the rig’s tailpipe. I noticed recently that the tailpipe that comes out of the muffler was loose at the joint. So I got some pipe hanging strap and ran a loop from the chassis down around the pipe and back up. I then put a bolt through the strapping to tighten it down around the pipe.
The pipe is now solid and doesn’t move anymore, so this should take care of the problem.
Tomorrow we’re going down to the Clear Lake area to take care of some errands and get together with Chris, Linda, and Piper for a last dinner before we hit the road on Friday. Jan and Piper are also going to get mani/pedi’s.
April 28, 2015
Off To See The Aliens . . .
Or it’s A Small World After All.
We did pretty much nothing this morning, until we headed out for the afternoon. As we were leaving about 3pm, we started talking to the couple in 5’ver on our driver’s side. Turns out we knew each other. They were parked next to us at the Colorado River Thousand Trails when we were there this past January. It definitely is a small world, at least the RV part of it.
We first drove west on Flamingo over to the High Roller Observation Wheel to pick up our tickets for tomorrow night. They have to be picked up at least one hour before our 8pm ride, and we didn’t want to have to rush our dinner at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville beforehand.
Leaving there we were heading east on Tropicana and overhead we saw an Alien Airlines flight coming in to land at the Las Vegas airport.
I didn’t have time to get my camera up so I got this photo off the Web. Officially called a JANET flight, it’s nicknamed Alien Airlines because it’s these planes that shuttle about a thousand workers back and forth to Area 51 every day. Notice there is no name on the plane, just the red stripe. (Cue the Twilight Zone theme)
Leaving there we stopped off at the Sam’s Club over on Pecos Blvd. to pick up our prescriptions and a few other things. I also got a new set of frames for my eyeglasses. All I needed was a new earpiece, but they don’t sell them separately anymore, but I was able to buy a complete new frame for only $47, and the optometrist transferred my lenses to the new frames for me.
Then we headed back over to the Boulder Station Casino near the RV park for a visit to the buffet. Unfortunately, we were running about 30 minutes later than we had planned, so we had a 40 minute wait in line before we got seated. But as usual, both the meal and the service were really good.
Finishing up our meal, and on our way out. we stopped off to put $20 in the Megabuck’s Progressive Slot. That’s our normal gambling limit when we’re here in Vegas, but usually, we try out the regular slots. But we figured that if we’re going to blow $20, why not have a chance at megabucks, instead of a few thousand?
In fact, two weeks ago, someone won over $10 million on one of these Megabucks slots here in Las Vegas So why not us?
But unfortunately, it was not to be.
But there’s always next time.
April 28, 2016
FireCrackers . . .
Jan fixed a new appetizer/snack a couple of days ago and they’re so good I thought I’d pass on the recipe in Jan’s Favorite Recipes.
They’re called Alabama Fire Crackers, and you ought to give them a try.
About 1pm I put in a call to the Colorado River TT to see what their schedule is for reopening. Ideally, we would like to move back there this coming Sunday, a week earlier than we had originally planned. That way we can split up the 300 mile trip back to Conroe on May 8th. Even if we can’t go back to Colorado River this weekend, we’ll try to go back at least a day or so early on the trip back to Lake Conroe.
I mentioned last week that I had found one of my old GPS modules for my Delorme Street Atlas program. Karma the Cat had chewed the USB connector off the one I had been using, and I was going to try to repair it, but then I found my old one.
But when I used it this past Sunday on our trip over here from Lake Conroe, I quickly found out why I had retired it. It takes between 3 to 5 minutes to lock up on the satellites, while the cat-chewed one only takes 15 to 30 seconds.
Maybe I’ll rethink repairing that one.
About 4pm Jan and I drove into downtown Lakehills (downtown is 3 stores and a gas station) to pick up a few things We stopped off at Dave and Lynn Cross’ to see if they needed anything before they leave tomorrow, but they were good.
Although not a lot larger than a regular convenience store, it is a full grocery store, and very well stocked, including produce and meats. Jan got some salad stuff and a loaf of wheat bread and a couple of French bread sticks, as well as a couple of potatoes and some carrots, to flesh out the last of the other day’s Beef Stew. And they were giving away free Lemon Pepper Beef Jerky. What’s not to like?
These last couple of trips I’ve started dumping our tanks at a different time. Previously I have always dumped both tanks right before we left. We have no problem going 14 days between black tank dumps so that’s not a problem
But now I dump a scoop of cheap laundry powder in the toilet right before we leave, and let it slosh around on the trip. Then when we arrive and set up, I then dump the tanks, and use our rig’s built-in tank flush system to clean it all out.
Between the detergent and the flush, it really seems to clean things out.
Finishing up, now that our son-in-law Lowell has started up his own freight company at LowellsLogistics.com, it looks like Landon has decided to also get into the transportation business and start his own Uber company.
April 28, 2017
Missing Peak Poppy . . .
After three straight days on the road down to LA, it was time to slow down a little and just stay in the area today.
We left the rig about 10:45 to have the lunch Buffet at the Shakey’s Pizza up in Palmdale. The last time we ate here was 7 years ago when we were here just about this time of the year. But Shakey’s goes pretty far back for Jan and me, and even further back for me.
Jan and I ate at the Shakey’s in Orlando several times back in 1967 when we were dating in Titusville, FL, and then later, after we were married and living in Birmingham, we used to eat at the one in the Roebuck area all the time.
But further back, when my family took a vacation out west in the summer of 1964, we ate at a Shakey’s in the LA area for the first time. In fact it was our very first time to actually eat at a PIZZA place. Before that, if we ever had pizza it was an Italian restaurant in our area.
As a matter of fact Shakey’s was the very first franchise pizza chain, starting in 1954, peaking at 500 stores by 1974. But through a series of clumsy buyouts, the number of stores declined to 221 by 1989. And now there are only 51 left in the US.
But, at the same time, starting in 1975, a Philippine conglomerate began building Shakey’s there, where there are now over 500 locations in the Pacific Rim area.
Leaving Shakey’s, we drove up to Lancaster and then out west of town to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. When we were here 7 years the hills around here were alive with poppies. You can read more about it here.
Last time as we drove out into the gentle hills we could see the flowers from miles away.
You can see even more photos at the link above.
But this time though, not so much. This year all we saw were scattered patches left around, and not many of those.
Turns out we just missed Peak Poppy about 10 days ago during the Poppy Festival on April 22nd and 23rd when it looked like this.
What a difference a week and a half can make.
Heading back into Lancaster, we decided to soothe our poppy disappointment with pie.
Marie Callender’s pie.
Jan, of course, went with her favorite pumpkin, while I once again got their Double Cream Blueberry, and coffee as well.
And even better we got duplicate pies to take home to have for our dinner later tonight.
Really, really good.
And as well as pie, we also got see to see flowers, roses this time, as part of the restaurant’s landscaping.
Tomorrow we’re making a 345 mile trip to Flag City RV Park near Lodi. A long day, but at least it’s Interstate all the way.
April 28, 2018
Drying Again . . .
After a nice, quiet morning it was time to get back on the dryer repair that I had started on Thursday.
Since all the prep work had been done, all I had to do was to put my dolly in place, grab the pull straps I had install,ed and start dragging it out of the cabinet.
I built up this dolly a few years ago, making it the perfect height to pull the washer out, keep it level, and be able to roll it out into the kitchen if necessary.
The straps are something else I came up with a few years ago.
There is so little clearance between the dryer and the cabinet edges that it’s very difficult to get a grip on it. So I installed these straps that are fastened to the rear of the cabinet and extend out to the front from underneath.
It only took me about 20 minutes to have the Splendide out of the cabinet and the top off. And a few seconds with my meter confirmed that the the over-temp thermostat was bad.
After I replaced it I cleaned and sprayed Strike Hold on a couple of other connections that looked like they might have been running a little warm. The last step before I buttoned it up was to turn it on and be sure that it was heating up.
Then came the hard part – getting the unit back in the cabinet. This is always a problem since the cabinet edge is only about a 1/16 inch larger than the dryer. I don’t know why they didn’t leave more clearance. In fact it’s so tight that it’s hard to slide a 2 x 5 file card in between.
So after I struggled with it for over an hour, I finally did what I’ve been threatening to do for a good while. I pulled the Splendide all the way out, dug out my jigsaw, and cut off a 3/8” strip from the top and both sides of the opening. And I wish I had done this a long time ago.
It now only took me about 15 minutes to have the unit sliding into place. Then with everything hooked up, I ran a load of laundry to check the repair and it worked fine.
I’ve still got to install the retaining board and the doors to finish up, but I’ll do that later.
Later in the evening, I did finish up my most recent project that I’ll save until tomorrow. But it started out like this.
Tomorrow evening we’re getting together with Chris, Linda, Piper, and Connor for dinner at East Star Buffet once again. Looking forward to it.
April 28, 2019
I Made A Boo-Boo . . .
In preparing for our European trip, I’ve been making checklists for months, I.e. what we’re going to take, what we need to buy, what we need to do in the rig right before we leave, etc. And even checklists for what gets packed in carry-on and what gets packed in our checked bags.
However, what I didn’t do was have an item on one of my many checklists that would remind me to grab up my computer bag, containing my laptop, tablet, and Kindle Fire, and my Panasonic Lumix camera that I was just going to carry with me.
So they’re still sitting on the passenger seat in the rig, right where I can see them on one of the 3 Wyze security cams that I set up in the rig. And which is why this is the first blog I’ve posted since we left.
This morning after a fantastic (and free) breakfast at the hotel, we took a taxi over to the Mammut Mall. Mammut means ‘Mammoth’, and it is. And it even has one out front.
It’s made up of two LARGE buildings on opposite sides of the street, and connected by a glass walkway on the 2nd level. And there are about six levels, including the large SPAR grocery store in the basement.
Besides wanting to see the place that everyone was talking about, one of the guys at the Viking Concierge Desk said that Notebook.hu was a good place to buy a laptop, and it was, and it’s what I’m typing on now.
I got a good deal on an ASUS model, and the deal got even better when I mentioned that the Viking guy had sent me.
Afterward, we spent a couple of hours walking around, checking the many shops and stores. And it seems KFC and BK translate into any language.
While Jan got a Strawberry gelato, made with fresh strawberries, I got a Caramel Coffee at Starbucks right next door.
And over here it seems if you’re not getting your coffee to go, it comes in a nice porcelain mug. Much more elegant.
So I’ll spend the next couple of days catching up on the blog on how we got to this point.
When the bellhop got us a taxi at the hotel, we knew we would be OK, since they were vetted by the hotel and know if they gouge the hotel’s guests, they won’t be allowed to pick up passengers there any longer. But at the Mall, you’re on your own, and apparently, it’s really easy to get screwed on the fare, even to the point of being physically threatened if you don’t pay up.
The taxi service in Hungary has been referred to as ‘Mafia-lite’ and has even managed to have ride services like Uber and Lyft completely banned throughout the entire country.
So, coming back to the hotel, we decide to try the bus system. And with Google’s help, we had no real problems, and even got to ride for free, since apparently most people use passes. The website says it costs 450 HUF (about $1.56) for a single ride without a transfer. But when Jan and I held out our 500 HUF notes he just waved us in. Probably didn’t want to fool with making change.
The bus dropped us off right in front of Matthias Church,
and across from the Fisherman’s Bastion,
which is just half a block from our hotel.
Hungary’s money takes a little getting used to. It’s called the Forint, as in Hungarian Forint, or HUF. And the exchange is kind of interesting.
1000 HUF is about $3.46, so you end with some very large numbers in prices. According to the placard in our room. it cost 160,000 HUF a night. And if we wanted a view of the Danube, it would be 180,000 a night. And that’s $553 and $622 respectively. Though I doubt Viking is paying that much a night.
But for your $500+ a night you do get a great room,
and a fantastic breakfast. And this is not some typical hotel fare of do-it-yourself waffles and stale cereal in little boxes. No, this is pretty much everything you can think of for breakfast, and even more. But I’ll have more on this tomorrow as I catch up.
This evening Jan and I again had dinner at the LANG Bistro & Grill, the hotel’s main restaurant. And not only is the décor very elegant,
but the closeup view of the Fisherman’s Bastion out our window
was very picturesque as well.
For dinner, Jan had the same Paprika Chicken that I had last night,
which is a rolled Chicken Breast in a delicious sauce, on top of gnocchi noodles, all covered in sour cream. It also came with a Cold Pickled Cucumber Salad made with very thinly sliced cucumbers, topped with, what else, Paprika, which seems to the National Spice of Hungary, since it’s in pretty much everything,
I figured that since I was in Hungary I should try a bowl of Hungarian Goulash.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was pretty much just Beef Stew, with tender chunks of beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, and, I think, parsnips, in a spicy (paprika?) sauce. But very, very good anyway.
For dessert, we had coffee and split a delicious Crème Brule. We felt as much as we had walked today, we deserved it.
Wrapping up, early tomorrow afternoon we’ll board the Skirnir, but we won’t actually sail until Tuesday night, after a day of excursions here. Then our next stop is Vienna, Austria.
Keep Checking Back.
April 28, 2021
Make A Wish!
We’re 0 for 2 with Wish.
Recently, on April 8th, Jan ordered a pair of flamingo coffee mugs from a company called Wish on Facebook, mugs like this.
She had planned to keep one and give the other one to Brandi. But it didn’t work out that way.
They showed up today, and I knew immediately there was a problem because the package ‘rattled’.
The package was thickly wrapped in bubble-wrap, but it wasn’t quite enough. Although the photo above shows the mug securely padded in its box, the reality was a bit different.
Quite a bit different.
One of them looked like this.
Maybe I could try to glue the handle back on, but there would be some cracks.
However, there’s not much hope for the other one.
There was absolutely no padding of any kind inside the boxes. It looks like, rather than being drop-shipped from China, it was dropped-kicked.
So now we’ll see how good Wish is at refunds.
I don’t know if it had anything to do with our big freeze a while back, but we’ve noticed that all the magnolia trees in this area are just blooming like crazy. with even the smaller trees just covered in blossoms.
Tomorrow’s another lunch/errand day with maybe a little patio time later in the afternoon.
April 28, 2022
Black Bears and Opry Friends . . .
First off, some of our readers are reporting problems viewing our site from different areas around the country, but it doesn’t seem to be consistent. I’ve got Godaddy looking at the problem, so stay tuned.
Today was our monthly get-together with our Alvin Opry friends, this time at the Black Bear Diner down near us.
Jan and I have been eating at Black Bear Diners since 2011 when we discovered them out west. So we were really happy when they started to show up in Texas.
And as with our past visits, everything was delicious.
Jan and I both got the Bacon Cheeseburger Salad,
with their really good, homemade, Bacon Ranch.
Then after getting our hugs and saying our goodbyes, Jan and I headed across the Interstate to pick up a few things at WalMart.
But of course, before we split up, we scheduled our get-together for next month.
April 28, 2023
Another Day, Another Scrub . . .
Going into work this morning I encountered 3 of what I assume are the latest incarnation of Amazon’s home delivery vans.
Be interesting to see how soon we see these showing up at our rig door.
Well, the Falcon Heavy launch made it down to 59 seconds this evening before they scrubbed the launch and pushed it back again till tomorrow night, starting at 7:26pm CDT.
They didn’t say what the problem was, though it didn’t seem to be weather-related, like the previous two nights.
Yesterday, as we were leaving Monterey’s after our get-together with old friends Bob and Maria, Jan saw a placard with a saying on it that she really liked, so I bought her the shirt.
You know what they say, “If the shirt fits . . .”
