Our RV Adventures

Our Bernadette Peters’ evening started with dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse down in Galveston, and our luck started early. Parking is always a problem there, and though the lot was full, there was a handicap slot right in front.

We got there a few minutes before time for our 6pm reservation where we had asked for a window seat. But when the seater took us to our table, she walked right past a window table waiting to be cleared, taking us around to the side, so we told her we’d like that window table as soon as it was cleared.

So she took us back to the hostess stand, she apologized and said she had missed the request on our reservation, and that we could have that table as soon as they finished clearing it.

Then, just before they were ready to seat us, another couple who was being led to their table on the other side, just sat down at ‘our’ table, letting the seater go on ahead before she turned around and discovered she was alone.

That was just rude.

Back at the hostess stand, the young lady profusely apologized, and I told her that I understood that she couldn’t ask the couple to get up.

She told us she had two more window tables coming open in just a couple of minutes and we would get the first one available. And a few minutes later we were seated.

And we had a great ocean view.

Our meal was as delicious as always, and even better we got a 10% discount by showing our Show tickets.

We got to The 1894 Grand Opera a little before 7:30, and were once again lucky enough to a parking space just diagonally across from the Opera building and were seated a few minutes later. Luckily we didn’t have to stand in the very long line of people trying to buy alcohol, longer than the one of people trying to get in the door.

Somehow, even though I didn’t find out about it until a couple of weeks after the tickets went on sale, I was able to get us two seats on the aisle just 5 rows from the stage. Really great seats.

And this place is just beautiful inside.

And it really does date from 1894

And this was the setup on stage with the piano player, a bass player, and a drummer.

A very famous drummer as it turned out later.

The performance was about 90 minutes with no intermission.

Pretty much all her songs were from Broadway and Movie musicals.

After watching her perform, it’s hard to believe that she’s 76 years old.

Especially after watching her climb up and down from the piano.

But the song that got the most response was Send In The Clowns, which I didn’t know was from the Broadway musical “A Little Night Music”, written by Stephen Sondheim.

And it’s the late Stephen Sondheim who is accompanying Bernadette on this version of ‘Clowns’.

One thing that was interesting was when she introduced the guys accompanying her. When she got to the drummer, she said “he might be even more famous than me. At least many of you probably heard of him before you heard of me.”

And those of you who do remember him, probably remember him like this.

Yes, her drummer is Cubby O’Brien, one of the original Mouseketeers. And since then he’s played with Lawrence Welk, The Carpenters, Spike Jones, Ann Margret, and The Carol Burnett Show.

And of course, Bernadette Peters.

Tomorrow we’ve got an early morning, with our annual physicals with our doctor, starting at 8am.

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Thought For The Day:

Never sing in the shower. Singing leads to dancing, dancing leads to slipping, and slipping leads to paramedics seeing you naked. So remember don’t sing.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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April 14, 2010

Esther’s Taco House and Hollywood Blvd

Today was our first day to make the drive into LA.

We left about 10 am to head to Placentia CA and Esther’s Taco House. Placentia is on the other side of LA from here so it’s about a 100 mile trip, but it’s pretty much Interstate the whole way so it wasn’t too bad.

Before we left the Lancaster area we stopped off at a local Post Office to drop off the taxes, then it was on to Esther’s.

We got there about noon and sat down to a great meal of Chile Rellenos and Enchiladas. We first ate here two years ago, but we’d heard about the place for years from our friends, George and Gina Ellis. And they were right. It’s great. Esther’s has been around in various locations since 1957, and although Esther died in 1994, the two locations are still in the family.

After a great lunch, we headed back toward Lancaster, but on the way we took a detour over to Hollywood.

We drove down Hollywood Blvd., past Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Walk of Fame, and then up Laurel Canyon Dr., crossing over Mulholland Dr., then down the hill to Studio City to catch the Ventura Fwy. back to I-5 and then on to the Antelope Valley Fwy and home.

But before we got on the Ventura Fwy, we stopped at the Starbucks in a Von’s Supermarket in Studio City, for a bathroom stop and a refill with two Venti Cinnamon Dolce Lattes.

Luckily we got out ahead of the going-home traffic and got home about 4 pm.

Tomorrow we’re going back to Hollywood to take the Warner Bros. Studio Tour.

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April 14, 2011

Rib-eyes and Taxes . . .

This morning started off with coffee for breakfast and then the last of the leftover Stromboli’s pizza for lunch.

I spent most of the morning getting stuff together for my taxes. I thought it was due tomorrow, but found out it’s not due until Monday the 18th, because Friday is a Washington, D. C. holiday called Compensated Emancipation Day. It’s the day President Lincoln freed the approximately 3100 slaves in Washington, D.C. by basically buying them from their owners.

Maybe if they’d offered to do that with the southern slaves there wouldn’t have been a Civil War.

Just thinking . . .

Actually, it’s even more confusing because the real holiday is April 16th, but because it’s a Saturday they moved it to Friday. Which of course moves Tax Day to Monday.

Got it now?

Ok, good. Now explain to me why a city holiday in Washington, D.C. means the entire country files their taxes 3 days later.

I know when I worked for NASA, if the city of Houston had a holiday, we didn’t get off for it.

Of course, any reason to keep my money from the government for a few extra days is fine with me.

They’re just going to spend it anyway.

About 1 pm I went down to the Thousand Trails Gate House to re-up for the next six days. We plan on leaving here on the 20th and heading over to Show Low, AZ for a while.

After I got back, I worked on the taxes for a while longer, until about 5 pm we decided to once again have dinner at the Sizzler.

After dinner, we talked about making a day trip tomorrow over to the Prescott area for a little sight-seeing.

More about that tomorrow.

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April 14, 2012

Another Day, Another . . .

I was up early this morning, just knowing that we would get a call any minute.

NOT!

So after a quiet morning, we decide to have lunch at Pepe Boudreaux’s again. Jan had the Tuna Stuffed Avocado Salad, and I had the Chicken Fried Steak. Very good.

Getting back to the rig I took care of a few more maintenance chores before a nap attack struck home. But the nap only lasted for about 45 minutes, when suddenly, about 4:15, it got quiet, very, very quiet. The power had gone off.

Jan said other people were coming out of their rig, so I figured it was not a rig problem. We opened the windows and turned the fans on, and because it was pretty overcast, the heat didn’t get too bad.

But it was cooler outside, so about 5:30 we got our camp chairs out of the truck and set up along with returning gate guards, Jim and Marcie, and Sam and Carol, and also Bob and Nancy, who had just come off a gate and are getting ready to head home. As it turned out, the power came back on a little after 6pm, but we were having so much fun, we all stayed outside and talked.

With all this gate guard knowledge available, we were eager to pick their brains. We spent several enjoyable hours talking about gate guarding, and RV’ing in general, before it finally got dark, and the wind really picked up.

One of the things they all warned about was watching out for tarantulas, scorpions, and snakes. Just what Jan wanted to hear, especially after seeing this sign at a nearby rest area.

The way things are going, I figure we’ll get the phone call for a gate tomorrow when we’re supposed to have heavy rains and high winds. The perfect time to move and set up on a new site.

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April 14, 2013

Made It Safely . . .

This beautiful young lady is Zoe Marivel Nadeau, 8# 10oz., and Landon’s new 2nd cousin. Welcome to the family.

After a nice, relaxing morning, it was time to hit the road, or at least the street. As in the street right in front of the rig.

Because we’ll be spending the next week here under a different plan, we have to move to a different site. In this case, we moved from here

to here. About 25 feet away.

And then next Sunday we’ll do it again, which will take us up to May 1st when we plan on moving up the road to Las Vegas for a couple of weeks.

I spent part of the afternoon trying to map out our travels after we leave Las Vegas. As it stands now, we plan on a couple of weeks at the Encore Park in South Lake Tahoe, and then a couple of weeks at the Thousand Trails Park in Bend, OR.

We’ve never been to the Tahoe area so something new will be nice, and we really enjoy the Bend area, so that will be nice too.

After Bend, we’ll start working our way east up to Jackson Hole/Grand Tetons, through Yellowstone, and then on to Cody, WY for a few days to see our friends Al and Adrienne.

After that, it will be Billings, MT to visit a friend, Gillette, WY for the Escapade, and then South Dakota to renew our Drivers Licenses.

After that, we’ll see.

About 4:15 Jan and I headed over Famous Dave’s BBQ once again, the 2nd time in 3 days.

You can’t have too much Famous Dave’s.

After a great meal, and then getting back home, we decided not to walk tonight because the wind that had sprung up this afternoon had stirred up a lot of dust and it was bothering Jan’s sinuses.

We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

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April 14, 2014

Down Home . . .

About 9 am Jan and I headed down to the Clear Lake area once again for meals, errands, and family, though not necessarily in that order.

Our first stop was at a hardware store down in Dickinson where I needed a few #14  3/4” sheet metal screws. The lift spring mount on one of my bay doors has worn out the holes so I’m just going to put some larger screws in it.

Then it was on down the road a little to Monterey’s Little Mexico for some Chicken Tortilla Soup and Beef Fajita Nachos. We also got to see Julia, our long-time waitress who’s been taking care of us for years. In fact pretty much the whole crew has worked there for a long time, so long that even Joey, the young man who takes care of our chips and salsa, knows we want two red salsas and no green. It’s almost like going home.

Leaving there, and taking advantage of the fact we were in the area, we made a stop at Buc-ee’s once again for a few of their delicious Cranberry Nut muffins. Then it was on back up to the Webster area for some errands. One of mine was a client stop to check in for a while.

After we were both finished up, we headed over to Chris’ for a bit. He and Linda were out shopping, so we catnapped until everyone came home. Then about 4:30, Jan and I, along with Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper headed over to Cheddar’s for dinner. It’s one place we always try to go early so we don’t have to wait for a table. The food was as good as usual, but we had the most fun just talking, especially telling Miss Piper some stories about her father and her Aunt Brandi when they were kids.

Chris also gave us a copy of this old photo of he and Miss Piper when she was 12 or so.

Always was a real Cutie!

One of the things we talked about was our Easter get-together at Brandi’s this coming Sunday. With all our family, and all of Brandi’s BBF Shawna’s family, we’ll probably have 25-30 people. Everyone is bringing something so we’ll have a real feast. Really looking forward to it.

One thing unusual about today was the weather, and the front coming through. After being really warm (it was 75 degrees at midnight) all night, It was still 72 at 9am. But by noon, it was 46 degrees!

And it’s going down to 35 degrees tonight. Where did Spring go?

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April 14, 2015

Back to the Drawing Board . . .

Today was another nice stay-at-home day, the creamy filling between the sandwich of yesterday’s Verde Canyon Railroad and tomorrow’s planned visit to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park.

A couple of days ago I did another temporary mounting of my magnetic shades to see how they would hold up in the present configuration, i.e. two pieces held in place by four magnets across the top and two down the outsides.

But it looks like it’s back to the drawing board. We’ve had a lot of gusty winds yesterday and today because of the oncoming cold front, and it looks like four magnets won’t be enough. So I now plan on putting three more magnets on each half. Luckily I bought a lot of extra magnets. And I’m also thinking about joining the two halves with a thin, flexible rod, so it all acts as one piece.

As I said before, it’s a work in progress.

About 3 I headed out on some errands, with my first stop at a locksmith to have some rig keys duplicated, then it was on to the Post Office to mail off a birthday card. Then it was a stop by Home Depot and Wal-Mart for a few things before getting back home about 4:30.

For dinner tonight Jan made up Stuffed Baked Potatoes using the last of the Rudy’s BBQ that we bought and froze before we left Houston at the beginning of March. With the BBQ along with cheese, butter, sour cream, and some Rudy’s BBQ Sauce. it was a great meal.

As I said, we’re doing the Out of Africa park tomorrow, and because of the tight scheduling, we’re going to have to get an early start. We’re taking the Unimog Adventure at 11pm, which means we’ll need to be there at 10 or before. And since we want to eat breakfast first, that means out the door at about 8:30.

We would have liked to take the 1pm Unimog ride, but then we’d miss the Tiger Splash and Tiger Feeding (we get to feed the tiger), which is one of the best parts.

The cold front coming thru is going to make tomorrow really nice with a high in the low 70’s, but plenty of sun.

Really looking forward to it.

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April 14, 2016

He’s Only FIVE !

Another nice, pretty do-nothing day, with coffee, cereal, and conversation filling the bill. I worked on website stuff, tying up some loose ends and smoothing out some rough spots.

Several readers have suggested that, along with Jan’s Favorite Recipes, I should also set up Greg’s Favorite Apps, so I’ve been going through my Galaxy S5 and Tab 4 compiling a list. Hopefully, I’ll have it ready to go in a couple of days.

I’ll let you know.

He’s FIVE !

Brandi sent over a copy of a letter today, a letter that Landon wrote to his teacher to apologize for staying outside too long after recess.

I’ve transcribed it for you below.

Dear Mrs. Leethem,

I think kindergarten should have longer reses because we should be rewarded for good bhavior. The sun gives us vidumin D, the longer we play the more lrning goes on.

From Landon Morrison

Note that even words he misspelled, he was sounding them out. And he came up with all of this by himself, including the whole ‘vidumin D’ thing.

Once again, he wrote this all by himself with no help from anyone.

Did I mention he is only FIVE!

For dinner tonight Jan tried out a new recipe, a Cheesy Beef & Potato Casserole she found on Pinterest. Really, really good, and another entry in the ‘Definitely Have Again’ file,. You can check it out at the link above.

This trip it’s been really quiet here at Lake Conroe, with still a lot of open spaces. It’ll probably stay that way until the end of next month, with Memorial Day. We’ve decided that next month we’re going to break up our routine, and after our next two weeks at Colorado River, instead of coming back here, we’ll spend two weeks at the Lake Medina Thousand Trails.

It’s been a little over 3 years since we’ve been there, and it’s apparently changed a lot. When we were there in 2013, the lake bed looked like this.

A lake bed so dry that you could drive out on it, and some people were even tent camping out there.

But now it looks like this.

We’re really looking forward to this change of scenery.

Of course, Jan is also looking forward to seeing all of her old friends.

She was so popular that the deer would see our truck coming into the park, and then follow us all the way back to our site.

Tomorrow? Probably more of the same.

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April 14, 2017

How That Happened I Have No Idea . . .

After a quiet morning at home a little before 4pm Jan and I headed up Boulder Hwy a little ways to have the dinner buffet at Boulder Station Casino, pretty much our favorite in the area.

We got there about 10 minutes til 4, which is when the dinner started. There wasn’t much of a line, so when we got up to the cashier, we told her that we wanted to pay for dinner and not lunch.

But unlike Golden Corral, who doesn’t like you to come in the last few minutes of lunch to get the more expensive dinner, Boulder Station doesn’t care, and said as long as we’re there before 4, we pay the lunch price.

So we only paid $7.99 each (including drinks) for our meal. So nice.

One thing we didn’t see this was the numerous dining scams that we’ve seen in the past.

For example, we saw an elderly man come through the center exit line on his mobility scooter, whereupon he picked up a plate and proceeded down the various food lines, putting food on his plate and eating as he scooted along. When he got to the end he turned around and made another pass.

In another case, a single male dinner got up and left, taking the card off its stand, letting the waitress know that he was finished. Within just a few seconds another man came by, looked around, sat down, put the card back on the stand, and went to get him a plate of food.

Then another time we sat next to a table of six where they rotated 12 to 17 people through 1 or 2 at a time, finally feeding 18 to 20 people for the cost of six.

Since we got our meal so cheap, Jan decided to give them another $20 in the slots. She twice ran it up to $50, but kept at it until she had given them the entire $20.

Really thoughtful of her.

Leaving the casino, I decided to drive over to the nearby Verizon store to see about upgrading my phone plan and possibly my 3 year old Samsung Galaxy S5.

As far as our plan, the guy took one look at it and started laughing. “How long have you had this plan?”

“Well, so long ago that our first cell phone, was a Motorola Bag Phone.”

Then he said that, at 1992 we were the oldest customer he’d come across.

So an hour later I walked out with a new much cheaper plan, a 4G Jetpack 7730L MiFi to replace my 3G AirCard, and a ‘to be here Friday’ when they released Samsung Galaxy S8+.

The phone won’t be released until this coming Friday, so I have to be there at 10am to get mine. I told him that we were leaving on Saturday, so I definitely had to have it then.

Getting home I used Speedtest.net to check the speed on the new 4G Jetpack, getting a download of almost 18 Mbps, and 8 Mbps up.

Really nice, and much better than 1+ Mbps on my 3G AirCard.

I was doing some maintenance on our rig’s generator this afternoon, and when I ran it out on its hydraulic slide, I found this.

Don’t know how or when it happened. We haven’t needed to use the genset for a number of months since we haven’t needed the AC’s when we’ve traveled. But with the exhaust crimped like that it wouldn’t have run very long. Kinda like getting a banana in your tailpipe.

It’s going to be impossible to straighten out the pipe so what I’ll do is to cut off the crimp and then use a coupling to join the pieces back together.

Brandi sent over this phone of Landon after he got fitted for his new hockey stick, with lessons starting next week.

His uncle Chris said, “He’s ready. He’s already missing teeth.”

I think the kids just want to do this so they can hit each other with sticks.

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April 14, 2019

Where There’s A Will . . .

I finished up my LegalZoom will this morning and then did one for Jan. And it really couldn’t have been much easier. Of course, ours wasn’t really very complicated to start with.

The LegalZoom system just leads you through filling out the information, kind of like TurboTax does, asking for more data depending oh how you answer the previous questions.

And as they advertised, it only took about 15 minutes. And Jan’s was even quicker, since the system lets you create a ‘mirror’ will that just reverses the names of the spouses, leaving everything else, beneficiaries, etc., the same.

Jan’s and my wills leave everything to each other, and then equally to our kids, with no special bequeaths. Just let them fight over it, since at that point we won’t really care.

Both of them are named as co-executors, again so they can figure out how to divide up the spoils. And since we sold the house, there’s no real property to worry about either.

My will, with digital download option, was $69, and $59 for Jan’s, with a $10 discount for two wills. If you don’t want to print them out yourself, for $9.95 they will send you ‘professionally printed’ copies for you to just sign. Not exactly sure what they mean by  ‘professionally printed’. Probably just some person taking it out of the laser printer and sticking it in an envelope.

As far as signing the documents, you can either have your signatures notarized, usually at your bank,  or witnessed by two adults who are not part of the will.

I did use their Live Chat feature to ask about residency, since Jan and I are actually South Dakota residents, but the wills will almost certainly be probated in Texas. And I was told that for simple wills like ours, it didn’t make any difference, and to just put down Texas as our ‘residence’ since we spend pretty much all our time here.

Apparently, every will is looked over by a human, since it was about 45 minutes after I paid before I got an email saying my documents were ready. And logging back in they gave me this list of 5 PDF files

to download and get signed. But actually, only two of them need to be witnessed and signed – the Self-Proving Affidavit and the Will itself.

The Self-Proving Affidavit is used to validate a will for probate to prevent the witnesses from having to show up at the Probate hearing to testify that the will is genuine.

LegalZoom did also offer to add a Durable Power of Attorney  and a Medical Power of Attorney to my package . . . for only $35 each. So $140 for both of us. That’s more than the two wills cost, and these are just add-ons.

But if you don’t want to pay that much, you can go here, PowerOfAttorney.com, and download your own valid forms . . .  for free.

Durable Power of Attorney Form
Medical Power of Attorney Form

A little Googling showed that a simple will in Texas, done by a lawyer, can cost $300 to $1000, and that’s for each of us. So $128 with LegalZoom is a real bargain.

Tomorrow it’s back to work, trying to wrap any last-minute items on my checklist, while I try to anticipate any new ones that might pop up while I’m gone.

Wish me luck.

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April 14, 2020

It’s Finally Done . . .

After getting the all-clear from Rob, our park owner, about the location of the shed, I went outside and used 2” wood screws to fasten the shed’s plastic flooring to the 3/4” plywood base, using the metal bars to reinforce the flooring.

This should hold it in place through any normal winds around here. If we do have something like another Harvey coming through, my pants and suspenders solution is to use ratchet straps over the roof tied down to additional screw-in anchors.

Now to fill it up.

Wrapping up, do you have a Nest cam at your home, and maybe wonder where all your data is going? This article talks about how Google is lowering the default video quality of your Nest cam to help reduce the load on the Internet with so many people at home.

But what surprised me was the amount of data a Nest camera uses at the highest settings. It’s a stunning 400GB a month. So they’re lowering it down to 300GB per month, though you can bump it back up if you want.

But really, 400GB a month? Yes, some data plans have a 1TB cap, but one Nest cam uses almost half of your cap. And with two cams, Yikes!

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April 14, 2021

El Palenque Get-together . . .

Though we had one night in the 50’s last week, I was thinking about taking our two big heaters over to the storage room since the nighttime temps have been in the 70’s since then.

But then I looked at the forecast and saw we’ve got 4 nights in a row in the low 50’s coming up this weekend. So I’ll hold off on that, I guess.

Tomorrow Jan and I are heading up to the Spring area to meet up with long-time friends, Debi and Ed Hurlburt, and Janice and Dave Evans, at the El Palenque restaurant up there.

Really looking forward to seeing everyone again.

I decided to do a test run of our new Sous Vide Immersion cooker this evening, not to actually cook anything, but just to see if it works, and if I can control it from the phone app.

Originally I had planned to use our slow cooker with the Sous Vide unit, but I found that the rim of the slow cooker is too thick for the large clip on the side of the immersion cooker. So for the test, I just stood the cooker up in the center of the slow cooker to check it out.

I filled the cooker with tap water and turned on the Sous Vide cooker. It showed the water temp as 73°, so I set the wanted temp to 140° and timed it.

It only took about 12 minutes to raise the temperature from 73 to 140 degrees, at which time the timer started counting down from the 11 hours that I had set it for.

The only thing I was missing were the ping pong balls.

The phone app showed me the same information as the unit itself, as well as letting me change the settings, and even receive notifications when it was done.

The Custom Preset section gives me suggested cooking times and temps for many different foods. A neat touch.

I let it run for about 30 minutes and it kept the water temp at exactly 140° the entire time with the built-in pump keeping the water circulating as well.

Since the slow cooker won’t work for actually cooking, I’ll have to check out our InstaPot pressure cooker to see how it will work, but right now it’s in the storage room so that will have to wait a bit. Otherwise, I’ll have to buy a large boiler for that purpose.

We did get some hot dogs and some sausages the other day to give our new George Foreman Grill a tryout this weekend, depending on the weather, of course.

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April 14, 2022

Mazatlán and More . . .

Jan and I were out the door a little before 11, on our way to the Spring area to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at El Palenque, one of our local favorites, for another in our monthly get-togethers. We always have a great time with them, and today was no exception.

Jan got her usual Mazatlán dinner with Chicken, Shrimp, and More.

Her favorite, and always delicious.

I got something a little different this time, the Chicken Tortilla Soup, also with a little of everything.

We had so much fun talking that suddenly we looked up and 2-1/2 hours had passed.

A great time, and we’re already scheduled to do it again next month.

And even better, we were a little ahead of the traffic coming home, and were here by 4pm.

Just in time for a nap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, once again I flip-flopped the Retro-Blogs.™, so yesterday you got today’s and today you get yesterday’s

Sorry ‘bout that.

Bernadette Peters was fantastic!

But since we got home late, I’ll bring you up to date in tomorrow’s blog.

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Thought For The Day:

So when is this “old enough to know better” stuff supposed to kick in?
I need to know.

For a Retro-Preview –

2012 – More On The Beginnings Of Our Gate-Guarding Adventures

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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April 12, 2010

Antelope Valley…

A couple of days ago I told you about eating at Peggy Sue’s 50’s Dinner in Yermo, CA while we were staying there. It was our second time there, and it’s always good.

Then that night while we were watching Tori & Dean’s Home Sweet Hollywood, a show on Oxygen channel. It, along with Gene Simmon’s Family Jewels, are the only two reality shows we watch.

Anyway, Tori (Spelling) & Dean recently did an RV road trip from Los Angeles to Atlanta,and one of the places they stopped was Peggy Sue’s. And our waitress, Barbara, was in the show. It was neat to see where we had just been, up there on TV.

Anybody seen KFC’s new Double Down? It went on sale today and I really want to try one.

It’s a chicken sandwich, made from CHICKEN. It’s two slices of thick bacon, a slice of Monterey Jack, and a slice of pepper jack cheese, with Colonel’s Sauce between two fried or grilled chicken breasts. It’s a meatwich!

Gotta have one!

We’re parked here at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds RV Park. And as fairgrounds go, it’s pretty nice. It’s basically just a big concrete parking lot.

But it’s quiet, level, and dry. I really don’t have a good track record with fairgrounds. Before now, we’ve parked in three fairgrounds, and I’ve gotten stuck in two. But in my defense, only one of those was my fault.

Anyway, we’ll be here until sometime after the 20th, and we’ll make day trips into LA, about 70 miles away.

We headed out for a late lunch/early dinner about 2:30, and on the way we stopped off at a Barnes & Noble so Jan could find a book, and then when she found it, she decided she already had it. Oh, well.

For dinner, we were heading to Famous Dave’s BBQ, probably our favorite BBQ chain, except maybe for Sonny’s BBQ in the southeast area. A great meal as usual, and we have leftovers for tomorrow.

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April 12, 2011

Burgers and Wildlife . . .

Today started off on a happy note,

Jan was feeling much better. She has been suffering from one of those serial migraines, that comes and goes over several days, but it looks like this one has finally passed

After coffee about 10, and a lunch of the leftover pizza from our visit to Stromboli’s a few days ago, we headed into Cottonwood about 2 pm to drop off some letters at the Post Office and do the Wal-Mart thing.

Then before heading home, I stopped off at Radio Shack to get a power line RF filter for the dash radio in the rig, but with no luck. Apparently, they just don’t carry things like that anymore. I’ll have to check online.

About 5 pm, Jan and I headed back into Cottonwood to have dinner once again at Bing’s Burger Station.

And once again, it was really, really good. And once again, I  had the Ribeye Steak Sandwich. Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to go back again before we leave.

Tomorrow we’re going to spend the day at the Out of Africa wildlife park right up the road.

Hopefully, we’ll have some good pics for you tomorrow.

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April 12, 2012

More Thumb Twiddling . . .

We were awakened this morning by something very unusual here . . . a heavy downpour that lasted about 30 minutes. That was it for the rain, but it did stay pretty cloudy and windy the rest of the day which kept it a little cooler. Nice.

I headed over to the office later in the morning to mail a letter, and also check in with Jamie. And he just said “Soon”.

But while I was there I got to finally meet in person Bob Lindsey, a gate guard that I’d corresponded with for a year or so. He’s currently at a gate about 15 miles south near Three Rivers, TX. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get together soon.

Back at the rig, I ordered some things from Amazon, including this canopy for our upcoming gate-guarding adventure,

It’s 10 feet x 10 feet and the sides are removable.

This is how it will be used.

Looks like a rough life, doesn’t it.

By ordering using Amazon Prime, and paying an extra $3.99 we get next-day delivery, so it will be here tomorrow. That’s pretty good for a box that weighs over 40 pounds.

I did get some more info about how the sewer trailers work. It turns out they’re essentially a portable septic tank.

The small green tank at the front of the trailer is removed and placed near your rig. This is where your rig’s sewer hose connects. It also contains the lift pump that pumps the waste up into the big green tank.

As the big tank fills up over a period of time, the solids settle to the bottom, and the liquids rise to the top. When the liquids reach the outflow outlet, they flow down into the smaller white tank. Here they are treated with a high dose of chlorine using swimming pool chlorine tabs. Then after treatment, the disinfected waste water is drained out into the field. When needed, the solids are pumped out of the big green tank. In fact I suspect that the whole trailer is just swapped out at that point and the servicing is done back at the yard.

A little after 5 Jan and I headed down I-37 to Three Rivers to have dinner at Agave Jalisco, a Mexican restaurant that our fellow gate guarder, Bob Lindsey, had recommended.

Turned out to be very good. Just good ole straight-forward Mexican food. Jan had the Chicken Fajitas and I had the Combo Fajitas with Beef, Chicken and Shrimp. Nicely done and well-seasoned.

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April 12, 2013

Rally Withdrawal . . .

After coffee, my morning started out on the phone with Thousand Trails trying to figure out what we’re going to do on Sunday. Our two weeks are up here at Countryside RV Resort. Two weeks at $3 a day is a nice deal, and it didn’t count against our 50 free days.

But (there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there) I was also told that we could extend for another two weeks under the same terms. But (there it is again) that was a fib.

Turns out that Countryside RV Resort and Golden Sun, both here in Apache Junction are ‘Swap’ parks with Verde Valley Thousand Trails up in Camp Verde, AZ. And because these are ‘Swap’ parks (never heard of Swap parks and there’s nothing on the TT website either) we have to be out a week before we come back into one of the parks here, or even before we can use the Verde Valley TT park under our regular TT membership.

We want to stay in Apache Junction until the 1st of May, so what we’re going to do is stay here at Countryside for a week at the paid rate of $140 a week and then we can go back to the $3 a day rate until the 1st.

But (there’s another one) we now parked in one of the 25 spaces allotted to Thousand Trails and we can’t stay in one of those sites during our paid week.

So now we have to move one space to the right on this Sunday, and then next Sunday we move one space back to the left.

Don’t you just love it.

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Jan and I headed out about 2pm for some shopping and dinner.

Our first stop was at the SanTan Sam’s Club for Beef Jerky and bottled water. Then it was next door for some Wal-Mart stuff. By then it was 4pm and we were getting hungry. Originally we had planned to eat at the El Pollo Loco back closer to the park, but since we were so close we decided on Grimaldi’s Pizzeria again.

But when we got there we found that they were restoking their coal-fired oven like they do every day at this time, and wouldn’t be making pizza for about 45 minutes. We thought about waiting, but lucky for us there was an alternative nearby.

At the other end of the block was Famous Dave’s BBQ, one of our favorite BBQ places. We also really like Sonny’s BBQ, but they’re mostly only located in the southeast. And of course, there’s Rudy’s BBQ, but that’s only in Texas. But Famous Dave’s are all over.

The food was as delicious as usual, and we had a great waitress. She was even an artiste.

She drew this ‘Piggy Plate’ with two different flavors of BBQ sauce.

Jan had her usual 1/2 Rack Rib Platter and I had the Rib and Meat Combo with the Hot Link Sausage. It was my first time to get the sausage and, boy was it good. And what made it even better was the mustard-based corn relish in the center of the platter. Very tangy and flavorful, and went great with the sausage.

And even better than last night, we weren’t seated in the screaming baby section.

Finally heading home Jan made a quick stop at the Ross clothing store on Signal Butte before we finally got home a little before 6.

About 6:45 we figured we needed to work off that big dinner so we did a little over a mile walk about the park. Really nice and cool as the sun was going down.

Jan and  I have decided that we’re going into ‘Rally Withdrawal’

In the past, we had a couple of rallies to go to every year. Enough to feed our habit. But not this year. And now the withdrawal pains have kicked in.

It’s kind of like ‘hitch itch’, with the added benefit of a burning rash. But then again, maybe that’s really a problem I need to discuss with my doctor.

Anyway, it now looks like we’re going to try to make the Escapade coming up in Gillette, WY the last part of June. We were there in 2010 for the American Coach Rally and it’s a really nice complex with over 1200 Full Hookup Sites.

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April 12, 2014

Just When We Thought It Was Over . . .

Well, It was nice while it lasted.

Spring, I mean.

There’s another cold front coming through, really cold, at least for Spring in Texas. And by Monday night, we’re looking at night temps in the 30’s and day temps in the 60’s.

Actually pretty nice.

Later in the afternoon, Jan started making one of her Famous Pound Cakes. Tomorrow we’re driving over to Livingston to visit Chris and Charles Yust of C and C RV Insurance at the Escapees Park there. Jan wanted to bring a dessert, so her pound cake, along with fresh sliced strawberries and whipped cream should fill the bill.

For anyone that wants to try it, I’ve posted this recipe under the Jan’s Favorite Recipe tab.

While Jan was pound caking, I finally got back to installing the replacement lift motor on our bathroom Fantastic Vent fan. Actually, the lift motor is what started my recent Fantastic Fan adventures.

The lift motor died on the bathroom fan, the second one in 4 years, and so I ordered a new one. But before the lift motor came in, the fan motor in the kitchen just up and died out of the clear blue. So I ordered a replacement fan/motor combo.

And when the new fan motor came in and I got it installed, I liked it so much that I ordered one for the rear unit too. So I waited to install the new lift motor until I got the fan motor in and installed. I could still lift the lid manually so I could wait it out.

I got the new fan motor installed a few days ago, and then today I finally got around to installing the lift motor. No problem, except for one thing.

The motor is connected to the fan using Insulated Quick Disconnects like these.

But for some reason the ones that come on the new lift motor are slightly larger than the standard 1/4” size. So before I could install it, I had to replace the connectors with new standard ones. But after that, it went pretty smooth, and finished up, it looked like this.

I really like the new clear blades.

For dinner, we fixed salads with lettuce, spring greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded cheese, and Chinese crispy noodles. Jan also adds sliced avocados to hers. For the dressing, Jan uses Balsamic Vinaigrette, and I like a homemade BBQ Bacon Ranch, made from Hidden Valley Bacon Ranch mixed with Rudy’s BBQ Sauce. Really good.

For dessert, we finished off the last of the Strawberry 7-UP cake that she made recently. You can also find that recipe on Jan’s Favorite Recipes. Also really good.

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April 12, 2015

The City in the Sky . . .

When we had breakfast at the park Homestyle Grill the other morning, I bought something to go along with my BBQ Larvets worm larva snacks.

A Strawberry Scorpion Sucker is the perfect thing to compliment BBQ’d baby worms, isn’t it.

Jan and I headed out for Jerome about 1:30, but our first stop was the park Activity Center. I was surprised to see how busy the place was, with what looked like a pool tournament going on.

The distance to Jerome is only about 15 miles, but it takes about 30 minutes since you have to gain over 2000 feet along the way.

After driving the main loop around town, we luckily found a parking spot right at the base of the hill.

And even better, the first store we came to was the Jerome Ghost Pepper Co.

Linda, the storekeeper, give us a number of samples of her hot wares. Then I went back to the truck and let her sample some of my hot stuff. Based on her reaction to one of my bottles,

I won.

As it turns out, Linda is a former RV’er, so we had a good time talking about traveling, and she and Jan really hit it off.

She set us up with a new batch of hot sauces to take with us, including a larger bottle of the Belizean Heat, second from the left. Jan bought a small bottle of this from the iBurn store back in Houston, and was happy to find a refill.

Making our way up the steep hill, we came across the famous ‘Sliding Jail’. Jerome’s first jail was originally built up on the hill right below the upper line of cars.

But during the early years of the town, when the now present road wasn’t there, the constant blasting caused the jail to slowly slide down the hill,

finally ending up about 100 yards below its original location.

As we made our way up the steep hills, I noticed a number of stores had this emblem above their doorways.

This means that these establishments have an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) there. Just the thing for when tourists start dropping to the sidewalk from the steep climbs. Hope I don’t need one.

After Jan hit a couple of gift shops we made our way over to the Mile High Grill for an early dinner. Several friends had recommended the place so we gave it a try.

We both started out with a cup of soup. Jan had the Soup of the Day, Carrot Ginger,

and I had the Rio Verde Chili Pork Stew.

Both delicious. The last time we had Carrot Ginger Soup was in 2010 at the fabled Pie-O-Neer restaurant in Pie Town, NM.

Since today is National Grilled Cheese Day, Jan went with their off-the-menu Grill Cheese Sandwich, and, staying with the Cheese theme, for her side, she had the Nacho Mama’s Mac and Cheese.

I went with the Diablo Burger and the Buffalo Chips

Normally the avocado goes on the burger, but since I don’t like it, I got it on the side for Jan. The green stuff was a delicious spicy chimichurri sauce.

Wrapping up, for dessert, we shared an order of their much-recommended Warm Croissant Bread Pudding. Again, very, very good.

Finally finishing up a great meal, we headed back to the truck for the drive home. Luckily, as full as we were, it was all downhill.

Otherwise, we might have really needed the AED.

Tomorrow we’re taking the Verde Canyon Railroad train ride, lasting from 1 to 4pm. We’ve heard a lot about it, and we’re really looking forward to it.

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April 12, 2016

Bearteeth and Pizza . . .

After our coffee and cereal this morning, it was back to the ole grind, as in reading and watching TV for Jan, and playing on the Internet for me. Isn’t retirement great?

Later in the afternoon Jan took all my shirts out of the closet and got me to go through them, throwing out ones I didn’t want anymore. Of course, I know it was all just an artful ruse to give her more room in the closet at my expense.

For dinner tonight Jan fixed chips and onion dip, and DiGiorno Pizza. This is the first time we’ve tried the cheese-in-the-crust version, and it was really good. Of course, Jan spices it up by adding sliced mushrooms for some extra oomph.

A few days ago someone posted a photo of the snowed-in Beartooth Highway.

The article said that they’ve finally started clearing the snowpack from the Beartooth.

We drove the Beartooth with our friends Al and Adrienne Cox in July of 2011. But in the summer it’s a little greener.

And if you look very carefully, you can pick out the name-sake peak in the distance.

And zooming in, gives you a better look. Looks like a beartooth to me.

You can read more about our day’s adventure here. The Last Time I Was At 11,000 Feet, I Was In A Plane

We even visited Red Lodge and checked out a bank where on September 18, 1897, the Sundance Kid, Kid Curry, and others of the Wild Bunch attempted “to make an unauthorized withdrawal from the Carbon County Bank.”

Check it out.

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April 12, 2017

The Magic Elixir . . .

Due to not having our front Fantastic Vent fan working this morning we finally had to turn on the front AC to keep things cool in the coach.

We closed the door to the bathroom and left the back of the coach with the windows open and the fan running.

About 1pm I got the ladder out of the back of the truck and got ready to climb up on the roof to take a look at my vent fan problem. Whenever I’m on the roof Jan sits outside with her phone to keep an eye on me. When I asked if she’s going to try and catch me if I fall off, she says no, but she will call the EMT’s on her phone.

What a sweetheart!

Climbing up the ladder, I had a cloth bag with my voltmeter, screwdrivers, pliers, and a can of magic elixir with me. First off I had to get the cover off by removing the four nuts and washers,

With the cover off I could finally get to my first suspect that might be causing the problem, the plunger switch that keeps the fan from starting until the lid is open. Since the fan motor quit while it was running, I wasn’t expecting this to be the problem. The switch normally sticks when the lid is closed and then the fan won’t start when the lid opens.

But one of the rules of troubleshooting is to always start checking the easiest things first, and that’s the switch. I had left the fan turned on low before I came up on the roof so I reached under the lid and pressed down on the plunger.

It was too bright on the roof for me to take photos so I got this one from the Net.

It took only a few pushes on the plunger before the fan started running. So strangely enough, it was the switch. Glad I checked it first. So now I got out my spray can of magic elixir, Strike Hold and sprayed several squirts into the plunger switch, pushing it down a few times to work it in.

I discovered Strike Hold at an FMCA rally in Goshen, IN in 2014 and I’ve used it ever since. I’ve used it to resurrect Kindles, phones, and a number of other devices.

The first time I bought Strike Hold I got the pump spray bottle, but I found that it seemed to evaporate pretty quickly, so the next time I got the spray can, which has been great.

About 4pm Jan and I headed out to try a Chinese place down in Paradise Valley that had been recommended. I noticed that the good Chinese buffet next door to the Buffalo Wild Wings where we ate yesterday was out of business. So that’s when we found out about Golden Flower Chinese Restaurant. And getting there we found a bright and cheery place located at one corner of a strip mall, staffed by very friendly people.

We started off with our usual Hot & Soup, something that we use to grade every new Chinese place. And Golden Flower got an ‘A’.

Jan got an order of Sesame Chicken,

while I got the Spicy Kung Pao Chicken.

We also got a plate of their House Special Fried Rice, with Chicken, Beef, Shrimp, and Pork.

Jan said the Fried Rice was the best she’s ever had, and the Sesame Chicken was fantastic. My Kung Pao was great, but not very spicy to me. But that’s just me.

All we can say is it was all delicious, probably in the top 3 or 4 of our favorite Chinese places in the country. We will definitely go back before we leave.

Well recommended!

Coming home we stopped at the nearby Sam’s Club to drop off a prescription and get gas. At $2.46/gal it was the cheapest place around, with most other places at $2.60 to $2.80.

Then we made a PO stop to finally get my Arizona CCW application in the mail. They say 6 to 8 weeks, but some people say they got theirs quicker.

Here’s hoping.

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April 12, 2018

Shrimp, Shrimp, and, of course, Shrimp . . .

After a quiet morning, me doing website stuff and Jan reading, I went out about 2pm to add air to the rig’s tires.

I used my Sears 150 psi Air Compressor to quickly air up all my tires, the front ones to 105# and the rear duals to 100#. All of the tires were in the 90# range when I started, not because they had leaked down in the last 5 months, but because when I last topped them off the temperature was in the high 90’s, while today it was in the low 70’s.

I’ve had this compressor since January 2011 and it’s never had a problem. It can air up the big RV tires to 120# plus without breathing hard. The one I have came from Sears but they no longer sell it. (Do they still sell anything?) But you can get the same one under the Porter-Cable brand from Amazon, probably who made it for Sears.

Porter-Cable 150psi Air Compressor

I did add this Power Tank TIG-8170 Digital Inflator with a locking chuck to make it easier to air up the tires without bending over the entire time. Just lock the chuck on the tire valve and go to it.

The only other thing I’ve done to it in the last 7 years was to replace the compressor’s air hose with a longer one.

I also planned to add water to the rig’s house batteries, but discovered that I was out of distilled water. So it got put on the WalMart list for tonight.

About 4:15 Jan and I headed up to Webster to meet up with Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper at the East Star Chinese Buffet for dinner.

We’ve never eaten here, but a number of our friends have recommended it, and it turns out Chris and Linda have eaten here too.

How did we get left out?

I ended up getting the shrimp, the shrimp, and, of course, the shrimp. And some veggies too.

Cold Boiled Shrimp, Hot Pepper Shrimp, and Shrimp with Veggies.

The Trifecta.

Everything was really good, although Jan didn’t like the Hot & Sour Soup as much as I did.

But we’ll go back.

Coming home we made a WalMart stop for a few things before getting home about 8.

Tomorrow, more work, and probably more machine repairs.

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April 12, 2021

Now All I Need Are Ping Pong Balls . . .

I’ve been looking over online recipes to combine several of our new toys, our FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer, our Inkbird Sous Vide Immersion Cooker, and our George Foreman Grill.

And I think our first meal is going to be Sous Vide BBQ Pork Ribs.

I’ve looked over a lot of different recipes online, and this one seems to cover everything.

The Food Lab’s Complete Guide to Sous Vide Barbecue Pork Ribs

Depending on how you want to do it, you can cook them either low and slow – 145° for 36 hours, or hotter and faster – 165° for 8-12 hours, or even somewhere in between. It all depends on how you like your ribs.

But no matter how you like them, they all start with the vacuum sealer and end with the grill.

You first coat the ribs in your favorite rub or sauce, add a couple of drops of Wright’s Liquid Smoke, vacuum seal them, and then pop them in the water bath with the Sous Vide cooker. And that’s where the ping pong balls come in.

With some of the cooking times running as long as 36 hours there’s always a danger of the immersion cooker’s water reservoir running dry while you’re at work or just out and about. So you float the ping pong balls on top of the water bath to slow down the evaporation of the water.

And after the ribs are finished in the Sous Vide cooker, then you remove them from the bags, and put them on the grill for 30 minutes or so, after covering them in your favorite rub or sauce.

Tomorrow I’m going to take a first run at my computer-controlled hibiscus watering system, to see how long the pump has to run to provide sufficient water each day.

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April 12, 2022

I Think She’ll Know . . .

Jan had a doctor’s follow-up visit this afternoon, after which we drove over to Texas Huddle for lunch. Although it’s been a while since we’ve been here, it’s one of our favorites, especially mine. And that’s due to the fact that they have a PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger on the menu.

Yes, that means Peanut Butter & Jelly.

We both started with a Side Salad instead of the included fries,

and then Jan got her usual Mushroom Swiss Bacon Burger.

And of course, I got my reason for being here, the PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger.

With Grape jelly, of course.

Really, really, really good. As usual.

Then it was on back down to the League City area and our local WalMart for a few things, before getting back to the rig about 4:30.

We’ve noticed that our park owner, Rob, has been working in the yard across from us, using his small front loader to pile up and haul off the large amount of junk that’s been across the fence from us since we moved here. Things like a couple of junk trucks, a rotting 5th wheel, rusting barrels, and just mounds of generic trash. At first, we thought that he was just helping out the people who live in a trailer toward the front of the lot.

But today Rob re-fenced the cleared area and it became obvious.

He’s putting in some more RV sites, maybe 5 or 6 added to the 17 he already has. At least the view in front of our rig is a lot nicer now that all that junk is gone.

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Sometimes you’ve just gotta wonder what some people are thinking.

This is the 24 can pack of Coke Zero.

Note the handy-dandy push-in handle to make it much easier to carry.

So when you’re designing this packaging, which was just redone about a year ago when they changed the color scheme, where would be the most logical place to put the bar code?

Why, on the bottom, of course.

And yes, I know that it’s down there so it can be slid over the scanner at check-out, but no one does it that way.

The customers don’t want to lift it up onto the conveyor belt and then back into the cart, and the cashiers tell you to leave in the basket to scan because they don’t want to have to pick it up either.

But why not put a barcode on top too? In fact Jan’s 30 bottle pack of Joint Juice, which is also heavy, does just that.

So now after you put it in the basket you have to turn it over to scan, and then turn it back over to carry it.

Think, people. Think.

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I forgot to ask Jan if she heard mutterings from her Mushroom Swiss Burger, but according to these guys, it’s very possible.

When Lewis Carrol wrote Alice in Wonderland, he told us about talking mushrooms. Who knew how right he was.

New Study Shows Mushrooms Communicate With Each Other Using A Vocabulary Of 50 Words

Scientists found that mushrooms “talk” using electrical impulses that spike when fungi come into contact with food sources or potential dangers.

“Assuming that spikes of electrical activity are used by fungi to communicate, we demonstrate that distributions of fungal word lengths match that of human languages,” he said. “We found that the size of fungal vocabulary can be up to 50 words, however, the core vocabulary of most frequently used words does not exceed 15 to 20 words.”

I would think that ‘Please don’t eat us’ would be part of their vocabulary.

Of course, they could just sing, “Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know.”

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And if talking mushrooms weren’t scary enough, there’s this nightmare.

And as the caption says, it’s real.

Remind me to stay away from deep-sea geothermal vents.

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April 12, 2023

Still On Windows 11 . . .

Since I’m still happy with Windows 11 I let the 10-day window expire during which I could have rolled back to Win10. Can’t really tell any difference operationally, just a different look.

As I’ve mentioned, I never know exactly what I’m going to be working on at my IT consulting job. And today was no different.

My client had ordered a new seat trim panel for his ‘95 T-Bird. But he wasn’t able to get it installed correctly.

So it was my turn.

The problem was that the trim panel was kind of generic and made to fit a number of different models and accessary levels.

It had mounting screw holes with no corresponding screw holes in the seat frame, and vice versa. It also had control mounting holes for other devices that had to be plugged. But by drilling new holes in the seat frame and trimming some excess plastic from the panel, I finally got it mounted and screwed down in place.

Who knows what’s next?

Since a number of you have been having problems seeing the latest blog post here, I thought I’d pass on this article on how to do it on pretty much every computer or phone.

How to Force Refresh in Your Internet Browser

Let me know if you’re still having problems.

Tomorrow we’re getting together with our Alvin Opry group once again. This time at the Gringos down in Texas City. Then it’s on back up the feeder to our local WalMart for our weekly stuff.

And here’s Miss Fabulous!