Our RV Adventures

That’s Cinco de Mayo plus Uno.

When we got to BoomerJack’s yesterday we realized that we have forgotten that it was Cinco de Mayo. And they were really busy. Sylvia said they had put extra bartenders on duty to handle the load.

One thing kind of funny is that Cinco de Mayo really isn’t much of a holiday in Mexico. It’s pretty much only celebrated in the city of Puebla, where in 1862 the Battle of Puebla took place. That’s when Mexico defeated the French Army on they way to finally pushing the French out of the country once and for all.

The only places Cinco de Mayo is really celebrated down there are places that have a lot of American tourists around – Cozumel, Puerta Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, etc.

Jan and I spent the evening checking out the Dining Room Menus online – Dining Room Menus

as well as how the Buffet Dining is set up – Windjammer Buffet

We’ve also watched a lot of Cruise Videos on YouTube, specifically ones relating to Royal Caribbean cruises, especially ones about what to do and what not to do on our cruise. A lot of these we already knew from our European Viking cruise back in 2019, but there were some that were specific to Royal Caribbean that were really helpful.

This is the Centrum area on our Jewel Of The Seas.

Tomorrow first up is lunch at Los Ramirez Mexican, a storeroom stop to drop off our heaters and other winter paraphernalia.

Then finishing up we’re going to get a pre-trip Car Wash and Vacuum.

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Thought For The Day:

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2015 – Hurry Up And Wait: Our Big Blowout Repair

2019 – When Snow White Needs A New Grumpy

2020 – Shelley And The ‘Law’

2023 – Sam Is Deeply Saddened

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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May 6, 2009

More Lazy, Hazy Days…

Another quiet, lazy day today in Fort Myers, FL.

Had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes again and then picked up some more parts for the solar screens I’m trying to put together.

That’s about it for today

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May 6, 2010

Rut Roh!

We pulled out of Park of the Sierras about 9:30 am, a little later than we had planned, but no problem.

Heading south on SR 41, we cut across to Madera and up through Merced and Modesto, then west through Livermore to Oakland.

The one problem along the way was that both cats got car sick. Our cats had never gotten sick until we took the scenic route from Yuma, AZ to Laughlin, NV on our way to Las Vegas.

Heading north along the east side of San Francisco Bay, we could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance off to the left.

We took the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge across the upper end of the Bay, passing by San Quentin off to our left as we came off the bridge.

We did have a little trouble getting across the bridge, though. Well, not really getting across it, but getting through the toll booth. I had used the last of our cash, $40, paying the tire guy for his repair work yesterday. CoachNet covered the $100 service call charge, but I had to pay for the actual repair, and he didn’t take credit cards. Normally my GPS program alerts me when it routes me over a toll bridge, but for some reason, this time it didn’t.

So we pulled into the bridge toll booth and tried to pay the $8.25 toll with a credit card.

Rut Roh!

They don’t take credit cards, either. We have traveled all over the US and Canada, using toll roads and toll bridges and this is the first time we’ve found one that didn’t take credit cards. So Jan and I were digging through our pockets and purses, still coming up short. Then she remembered her laundry quarters. And after handing the toll lady a large handful of quarters, we were good to go. Leaving the bridge we joined US 101 and headed north.

Note to self: Visit an ATM soon!

We got to Wine Country RV Park in Rohnert Park, CA about 2:15 pm and things went downhill.  I had called the park on Monday and made a reservation for a week starting Wednesday. Then when we had tire trouble yesterday, I called them and told them we would not be there until today. We didn’t have a real good connection, but he seemed to understand with no problems. But, to be sure I emailed him later in the afternoon, confirming that we were coming in today.

However, when we pulled into the park, and getting in wasn’t easy, I found that we had no site waiting for us. He apparently thought we weren’t coming and was now full. And, when I asked about my email, he said he only checked his email every few days.

Bummer!

I could think of other words, but I’d better stick with Bummer!

And getting out wasn’t easy either. It’s a very tight park with some hard turns getting out.

But finally, out, we parked right down the street and hit the Internet looking for a new park. We found a KOA park not too far away, but at $425 for a week, it was way too pricey for a park where we would spend very little time, since we’ll be spending most of our time down in the San Francisco area.

But a little more checking showed that the Sonoma-Marin County Fairgrounds was about 10 miles back down the road in Petaluma, and a quick phone call told us that they had an open site, so off we went.

The fairground’s RV park, although OK, is a big step down from our site in the Park of the Sierras we were in for the last nine days.

After getting set up, we headed out to get some supper. Driving around, we came across Pepper’s Restaurant and decided to give it a try. And it was really good.

Getting back to the rig, I got the satellite dish set up and we settled in for the night.

Tomorrow we’ll take care of some shopping before heading down to San Francisco on Saturday.

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May 6, 2011

Casinos and Vineyards . . .

I got up about 11 am, finally feeling pretty much normal again, enough so that I got back on some little jobs around the coach that I had been putting off. Then, about 2:30 we all headed out to run some errands.

We also checked out the Elk’s Lodge in the area that we had heard had RV parking. It did have hookups, but probably was not a place you’d want to spend much time.

Next we headed down I-15 to check out a couple of high-end RV Parks.

But in the middle of that, Jan discovered a nearby World Market that she just had to check out, coming out with large bags of stuff.

We finally got back to the Thousand Trails RV Resort about 5:30, staying just long enough to drop off our shopping results, and then heading back out to the Boulder Station Casino right down the road to have their buffet for dinner.

It was really good, as usual, but the real problem afterwards when Jan turned a $20 buffet dinner into a $40 dinner after she dropped $20 in the slots.

But it was fun, anyway.

We finally got home about 8 after a busy day.

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May 6, 2013

Look, there’s one . . .

Today brought us something we haven’t seen in months – Rain!

It’s actually the first rain we’ve seen since we left the Houston area back in February. It started around 11:30 and went on for a couple of hours, in fact, heavy enough that it knocked the satellite TV out for about 30 minutes. I think over the course of the day we got about an inch of rain.

But with the rain came cooler weather, with it only making it to 73 today, and staying in the 70’s for the next couple of days. And apparently, we may still have some more rain coming up.

And on the subject of weather, I was checking the weather in South Lake Tahoe, CA, where we’ll be in a little over a week, and the high today was 46 degrees with 35 tonight. And by the time we get there in 10 days we’re looking at temps in the 60’s and 40’s. Perfect weather for us.

About 4pm Jan and I headed out for dinner and a drive around town. Our first stop was the Macayo’s Mexican Kitchen on E. Tropicana, a place recommended by one of our blog readers, who wanted to know how it compares with Lindo Michoacan where we ate a few days ago.

And, although Macayo’s is good, unfortunately, it’s not quite up to Lindo. But as a trade-off, It’s closer to the park and cheaper too. In fact Lindo is about 50% more expensive, but probably worth it.

Jan had the Poblano Chile Relleno along with a beef taco, and I had the Pork Carnitas, one of my favorite dishes.

My Carnitas was good, better than what I had in Apache Junction, but not as good as the Carnitas a la Coca-Cola from Lindo Michoacan the other night.

Leaving Macayo’s we headed down to the bottom of Las Vegas Blvd, aka “The Strip”. I wanted to check out the Camping World there for those Bulldog cabinet latches that I’m looking for, but we got there a few minutes after they had closed at 6pm. The main reason we were late was that I didn’t realize how far down “The Strip” the Camping World was.

But in fact it was so far away that “The Strip” was now a two-lane road pretty much out in the desert. So since we didn’t make it to the Camping World in time, we used it as an excuse to drive all the way back up “The Strip”, taking in the sights and doing some people-watching. Always fun in a place like Las Vegas.

In fact, we sometimes make a game out of it.

It’s called “Find the Hooker”.

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May 6, 2014

Made In The Shade . . .

Today was one of those very nice, do-nothing days that it seems like we don’t have enough of. Jan and I still laugh about how we had all these hobbies we were going to start once we retired and hit the road.

And we’ve done none of them. We’re just too busy being retired and on the road.

It was really nice outside and Mister spent most of the afternoon laying out in the shade.

It’s funny to watch him move around. Sometimes he’ll lay in the sun, and then move into the shade. Which kind of makes sense.

But sometimes he lay in the shade for an hour or so, and then move 3 feet away, still in the shade, and lay there for another hour or so.

Picky, picky, picky.

Other than making a run to the convenience store for some ice cream for tonight’s dessert, we never left the rig today.

Jan read on her Kindle Paperwhite and napped, while I did Internet stuff. Normally I would be working on my Escapade Gate Guarding Seminar, but that will have to wait until next year’s Escapade in Tucson.

For dinner we just had salads, and of course the before-mentioned ice cream.

Tomorrow will be another busy day. First up we have to stop off at the Chinese Consulate and hopefully pick up my niece’s visas. Then maybe we’ll have lunch at Katz’s Deli once again.

Then I’ve got a client visit out in Algoa, and another couple back in the Webster area, before we finish up with dinner with Chris, Linda, and Piper.

Friday we’ve got Jan’s Oncologist appointment, probably a few more stops, and then dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon.

As it stands now we will probably leave here and head north on Sunday.

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May 6, 2015

Hurry Up and Wait . . . Still

Waiting for our Blowout Repair at Affinity RV in Prescott, AZ.

Still haven’t heard anything from anybody, so we just wait. But at least we’re very comfortable here, with 50 amps and water.

The only problem is the lack of a sewer connection, which is to be expected, I guess, since we’re basically in a parking lot. But it looked like today I was going to have to do something about emptying our grey tank. As I mentioned before, we can normally go two weeks on our 40 gallon black tank, but the grey is another story.

I had dumped our tanks on Saturday in Las Vegas before we left so we already had a couple of days on the grey before we even got here. So I thought I’d go ahead and dump my grey tank using the Blue Boy tank here at Affinity.

But I quickly discovered that this type of tote, even at only 15 gallons (almost 125#) is very hard to move. Using the handle it’s very hard to pull it without it catching on your heels.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t one like this which would be much easier to move.

After dragging the tote around to the dump station at the front of the lot the first time, I borrowed one of those metal utility wagons that they use around here. Even with the wagon, I still had to pick up the tote (125#) and put it in the wagon. Otherwise, it was up too high for the wastewater to flow into it. But it was a lot easier to move, so that helped.

One thing I discovered is that apparently my grey tank is bigger than I though. It’s listed as being 60 gallons, (with a 40 gallon black tank) in all my manuals. But I dumped 5 full totes of wastewater, (for a total of 75 gallons), and still had a little left in the rig tank. So I guess I have a 75-gallon grey tank. Who knew?

Besides the beautiful scenery, one thing nice about the Prescott area is the price of gas here. Yesterday, as Jan and I were heading out to have dinner at the Golden Corral, we stopped off at Fry’s Supermarket right across the street to fill up the truck.

I was very happy to find that Unleaded was only $2.69 vs. the $3.31 I saw in Las Vegas last week. And with the 40 cents a gallon discount from my magic Fred Meyer’s Loyalty Card, it was $2.29. Very nice.

And the Golden Corral was really good.

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May 6, 2016

Power Problems?

Sunday afternoon, a little while after we got here, Jan was fixing supper in the microwave, and when the a/c came on, the shore power went off. But in about 30 seconds, it popped back on. Then a few minutes later, it did it again. So I turned off the a/c for a few minutes until Jan had finishing fixing dinner.

Now, since I knew the pedestal breaker didn’t pop and reset itself, my first thought was a problem with my Progressive EMS (Electrical Management System). If it senses a problem it will shut down and reset itself, but when it does, it will display an error code.

But no code when I checked.

So since we were on 50 amps, and this shouldn’t have happened, what was causing the problem? Maybe it was the park power itself? But when I checked with the people in the rig two sites over, they said no problem. And since the problem didn’t reappear, I left it at that.

But the real kicker is that this same problem occurred two months ago when we were here, and on the same inner circle of ‘A’ section.

Two weeks, after the first time, when we returned to Colorado River, we were parked across the street, on the outside of one of the ‘A’ ring circles. And unlike the previous visit, we had no problem at all there.

Yesterday, in the middle of cooking Jan’s Cupboard Casserole in the convection oven, we had the same problem again. Twice, in fact. So now we’ve got the same problem, only in one park, and only in the same small section.

So this afternoon, I called the park office and they sent the electric guy out. My thought was this – since the pedestal breaker wasn’t the problem, and Progressive EMS wasn’t the problem, the problem must be external.

And the only thing that makes sense with that is that there are auto-reset breakers upstream from the pedestal. I’ve seen this at other parks, and I suspect it might be the case here.

But when I mentioned this possibility to the electrical guy, he said they didn’t have any auto-reset breakers here at Colorado River. But then he stopped and thought for a minute, and then said, “Well, this inside circle was upgraded to 50 amps about 6 months ago so we could put cottages here, and they installed an entirely new panel. And he didn’t have any idea what was in it.

And then the kicker. I wasn’t the first person to report a problem here in the inner circle.

I told the guy that I suspected that one side of the auto-reset breaker was weak and pops at too low an amperage. But I think it’s only one side of the breaker, since it doesn’t pop when both a/c’s are running. But that’s split across both breakers.

And according to my nifty-keen Kill-A-Watt meter, the a/c draws more than the convection oven.

Kill-A-Watt

So I think that one side of the breaker is popping and of course taking the other side with it, since they’re ganged together. But since we are leaving here Sunday, hopefully we won’t have any more problems.

About 4:30 Jan and I headed up to Ellinger to have the Friday night buffet at Peter’s BBQ. We do this at least once while we’re here and it’s always delicious.

I posted yesterday’s Cupboard Casserole in the Jan’s Favorite Recipes area, so check it out, and add your own ideas.

Tomorrow we’re heading into Katy about 1pm so I can Landon-sit. Lowell has a trucking show to go to, and Brandi and Jan are going to get mani-pedi’s. So this will leave Landon and I to get into trouble all on our own.

Really looking forward to it.

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May 6, 2017

Clam or Chicken . . .

It was down to 34° last night, with a high of only 47 today, but it was sunny and pretty nice.

Tonight however is probably another story. No snow, but depending on who you listen to, it’s either going down to 27 or 25°.  Either way, I’m disconnecting shore water this evening before the freeze.

So for that reason, I went outside and topped off our fresh water tank this morning to get ready for tonight. I also unloaded the backseat of the truck before we headed out for lunch

As I said yesterday, blog reader Mary Burge had recommended The Sparrow Bakery up in Bend, so we had invited our neighbor Dina Pickens to ride along with us.

Dina was the RV’er that I thought was trying to poach the site I was trying to move into yesterday, and she thought I was trying to snipe hers. So we ended up parked next to each other.

We picked her up about noon and made our way into Bend and the bakery. For some reason, it looks like an old western jail.

It’s a small place and was pretty busy, but we were lucky enough to find a table immediately.

Jan started off with a cup of their Clam Chowder,

or maybe not. She was pretty sure she actually got their other Soup of the Day, Creamy Chicken. But she said it was good, anyway.

Dina and Jan both got the Chicken Waldorf Sandwich with grapes, apples, blue cheeses, walnuts, celery, green onion, tarragon, & greens served on a made-in- house croissant.

I started out with a large Cardamom Latte, the first latte I’ve ever gotten with the leaf pattern. And really good.

I got their Bacon Breakfast Sandwich with a poached egg, bacon, avocado, arugula aioli, Havarti cheese, and served on a made-in- house croissant..

As Mary had said, the food was delicious, and we had a great time getting to know Dina (pronounced like Dinah).

She’s a solo RV’er who drives a 36ft Gulfstream Crescendo FRED (FRont End Diesel) and tows a car and has been RV’ing for over 20 years.

What was really funny was all the same TT parks we had both been to, and all the same people we both know at Colorado River and Lake Conroe in the Houston area.

Finally coming home, we stopped off to get gas for the truck, enjoying the $2.55 price over California. And forgetting I was in Oregon, I started to get out to fill up.

Oregon, along with New Jersey, are the two states that do not allow you to fill your own tank, for gas at least. Diesel RV’s are a different story.

About 9 this evening I went outside to disconnect shore water. At that time it was already 33°.

For dinner tonight we had mugs of last night’s delayed Bean with Bacon Soup.

It was delicious and worth the wait.

This afternoon I took down our Sony rear camera monitor to find out why it rattles when we’re on the road.

Shaking it or wiggling it didn’t make a sound, nor does shaking the monitor itself. So I’m going to shockproof everything with rubber washers to see if that helps. I’ve kind of been waiting for it to die so I could replace it with a LCD monitor, but it just keeps rocking along. Now if I can just make it quieter.

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May 6, 2018

Oh, The Huge Manatee . . .

About 1:15 Jan and I drove over to the Victory Lakes area to have breakfast at a new place that we just noticed called First Watch. They’re one of those Breakfast / Brunch / Lunch places that closes at 2:30pm.

Jan got the Tri-Athlete with an egg white omelet with house-roasted Crimini mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and green chilies, along with house-made Pico de Gallo, whole grain artisan toast, all-natural house preserves and fresh fruit.

I got the Traditional Breakfast with two fresh cage-free eggs over easy, smoked ham, whole grain artisan toast, all-natural house preserves and fresh, and fresh fruit.

So why would you keep your eggs in a cage, anyway?

In addition, we had to split an order of their Million Dollar Bacon, It’s baked with brown sugar, black pepper, cayenne, and a maple syrup drizzle.

Really good. The right-hand strip is for Jan who likes her bacon burnt.

But as good as it was, we probably won’t go back. It was just a little too ‘fru-fru’ for us. A lot of quinoa and kale, and the like. For a good old American breakfast, it’s IHOP or Cracker Barrel. And if we want to upscale a bit, it’s The Egg and I.

After breakfast, we drove next door to the Home Depot to look for something I couldn’t find at the Lowe’s across the street. And while I was there I thought I’d go ahead and pick up the duplex box and wall plate that I’m going to use for my Remote Dump Valve project figuring they would have the same one that I got from Lowe’s for my 50 amp tester.

But they didn’t. The only one they had didn’t come with any of the blank plugs that are used to cover up the unused holes. So it was on over to the Lowe’s anyway.

And there I found an even better box with only one hole that I’ll use to bring in the 12VDC power to the remote control modules. Perfect.

Then it was on to the WalMart next door for a few things. And as we were checking out we ran into some old friends, Sharon and Richard Arnhart. We’ve known them since our early days going to the Alvin Opry, probably in the late 90’s.

Of course, we just saw them this past Friday night at the Alvin Opry Reunion show at Billy’s Event Hall up in Pearland. But it was nice to catch up without trying to talk over the music.

Richard and Sharon spend most of the their time traveling the country performing their Gospel-Country Music Ministry at churches in a number of states. You can check out their schedule here at the TheArnharts.com.

And as it turns out we know another family with a traveling ministry.

Back in 2014, when we were staying at the Wilmington OH Thousand Trails, we met up with the Boggs Family, Davy, Kelly, and their daughter, Odie, of the Boggs Family Ministries. We got together at a good Mexican restaurant in Lebanon, OH and had a really fun time getting to know one another.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/07/two-sets-of-new-friends/

The Boggs travel around the country in their beautiful Prevost Bus holding revivals at local churches. They even have their own tent if need be.

And this is Davy, Kelly, and Odie.

Davy                              Kelly                                  Odie

Then in January 2016, we met up again when they were in Livingston, TX, and had a great time catching up on the last couple of years, but finally, we had to part company a little after 5pm so they could get ready for that night’s service. Then on Sunday they’re heading down to Sweeney, TX for another revival there.

Really nice people doing great things. Hopefully, our paths will cross again soon

After WalMart we got gas and then headed home for the night. Another nice day.

Finishing up for today, RV Mobile Lube called me late this afternoon to ask if they could push my appointment back from 3pm to 5:30, so I told them no problem. They’re really booked up this time of year. In fact they’ve brought over their two techs from Austin and San Antonio to help catch up.

Today In History

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May 6, 2019

When Snow White Needs A New Grumpy . . .

Nuremberg    5/6/2019

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog on our visit to Regensburg how when we came out of the town museum that it had turned cold and rainy.

Well, today wasn’t better. In fact it was worse, with 30° at 4:30 this morning, and only up to 32 by 8:30. So everyone was scrambling, including us, for some warm coats/jackets. Everyone had looked at the average temps this time of the year and packed their clothes accordingly, not planning for daytime temps in the 30’s.

In fact the ship sold out of their fleece jackets like the ones we got (on the left)

and had to get the much more expensive ones on the right.

Our Nuremberg walking tour was in the afternoon, so we had lunch up on the Aquavit Terrace which is kind of a light buffet, with both hot and cold dishes. One of which was listed as “Meatloaf”.

Well, it was meat, and it is in a loaf, I guess. But it AIN’T Meatloaf. It’s more like one of those Hormel canned hams. But I guess that some mushrooms and a little gravy makes it all good. Or not.

Today the Skirnir was docked right in town so we were able to step right off the ship and onto our tour buses.

Looking back at the ship we saw that the Sundeck was still configured for the upcoming low bridges.

Not only does the wheelhouse retract into the deck when necessary, but so does the ‘BBQ Grill’ on the left side. There’s also one on the right side that’s retracted now.

I call them ‘BBQ Grills’ because that’s what they call them, because that’s what they look like. I thought that maybe the cooks use them for BBQ’ing, but actually, they’re Auxiliary Control Panels.

The Skirnir has thrusters that can actually move the ship sideways. So they just pull up besides the dock and then move sideways until they’re perfectly positioned. And the Auxiliary Panels let them keep a close eye on the dockside as they’re moving.

Neat!

Our tour started out by passing by a number of the Nazi stadiums, rally grounds, and buildings, including the Federal Building where the Nuremberg Trials were held in Rm. 600. And trials are still held there today.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos because of the darkened and curved glass windows on the bus, so just use your imagination.

After our bus tour, we began our walking tour of the old city, including the medieval Nuremberg Castle.

I will have to admit that the Castle tour almost finished Jan and I off. The walk up to the Castle was a very steep climb, with the largest cobblestones we encountered the entire trip. They were humped up about 4”, very rough, and hard to walk on. And they were wet, due to the on-and-off cold drizzles we were having.

By the time we were to the top, our ankles were screaming for Advil, and we were both hobbling the rest of the day. And we probably wouldn’t have made it to the top without some assist from our friends.

But once we were at the top, the view out over the city was great.

Next up was a couple of very old churches, St Sebaldus, which dates from the early 1200’s.

and the Frauenkirche (Our Lady’s Church), which was consecrated in the mid-1300’s.

The clock in the tower has been ticking away since 1509.

Did I mention that everything over here is just OLD?

As we walked through town we passed the Albrecht-Dürer house.

Built in 1420, it was the home of Dürer, a noted Renaissance artist.

We also noticed that a number of houses had these intricate statues mounted on the corners. Not sure what the significance is, though.

We ended our guided tour at the Main Market in the center of town next to the City Hall. Our rendezvous point to meet up later to head back to the buses was the Schöner Brunnen.

A 60+ foot high Gothic spire, the fountain dates from the late-1400’s, and depicts 40 different colorful figures, ranging from leaders of the Holy Roman Empire, Church Fathers, Moses, and seven of the Apostles.

Since we were getting a little hungry, we decided to try the nearby Behringer’s Bratwursthausle, listed as the home of the original Nuremberg Bratwurst. But we didn’t know at the time how ‘original’ it was. Founded in 1313, the European Union has designated it as the ‘First Sausage in Europe’.

Now I’m not sure how the Old Sausage Kitchen in Regensburg feels about this, since they’ve been around since 900 A.D. Our guide told us that’s there’s a big rivalry between the two cities over their sausages. I guess now we know why.

Our guide told us that Nurembergers are known for being especially grumpy. In fact she said that if Snow White needed a new Grumpy, she’d come to Nuremberg. And we found this out for ourselves.

We ordered sausages with kraut and bread, and this is what we got.

Note: No kraut.

And though we asked repeatedly, in both English and my halting German, we never got it. And in fact, the more we ask, the grumpier he got.

And before you ask, no, it wasn’t just us. Others from our cruise were having the same problem. And when we tried to get our check, it got even worse. He had them all mixed up, with different tables lumped together. And the more we tried to correct him, the grumpier he got.

But finally settling up, we headed over to the other side of the market square to buy some of the famous Nuremberg gingerbread. But what we got was kind of disappointing. Turns out that Nuremberg gingerbread has no ginger in it.

Or cinnamon or cloves.

In fact, it pretty much tasted like a moist oatmeal cookie. But it was tasty, anyway.

But how can gingerbread not have any ginger in it? Isn’t that just ‘bread’?

Back at the ship, we took the obligatory nap, gobbled down some more Advil, and met up for dinner.

Jan and I both repeated our Appetizers and Entrees, with the only new dishes, our desserts.

Jan had a delicious Mango sorbet, so good she almost ordered seconds.

And I had the Blueberry Crumble, also delicious.

Tomorrow: Bamberg

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May 6, 2020

Shelley and ‘the law’ . . .

A long-time friend questioned my support of Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was sentenced to jail and fined $7000 for opening her salon because she was having trouble feeding her children.

Greg, I’d have to disagree with you on funding Shelley Luther after she broke the law. What if everyone took this attitude and disobeyed the law? The virus would spread, hospitals would get overloaded — a real mess because people, like Shelley, disobeyed the law. It’s your right to send her money, if that’s your desire. But I think it sends the wrong message that it’s OK to disobey the law, which it isn’t.

There should be a penalty for breaking the law, and she should pay it. If she doesn’t like the laws in the U.S., let her move to another country.

Jim,

Civil Disobedience goes back to the beginnings of our country, I.e. the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s Ride, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, to more modern events, Rosa Parks, Lunch Counter Sit-ins, Freedom Marches, etc.

All of these were against the ‘law’. But all changed our history, and our laws.

Don’t know if you actually listened to her statement to the judge. She’s having trouble feeding her family, and the same goes for her stylists. She’s not yet received any money from the government. How long would you let your family suffer before you ‘broke the law’?

I take it you haven’t seen the photos online of lines of cars, miles long, stacked up to get food trying to feed their families, over 10,000 at once. Google “Food lines in Texas” if you don’t believe me. These are people who 2 months ago had jobs and no problem feeding their families.

Now, as far as ‘breaking the law’. Legal scholars all over the Internet are debating the validity of these ‘laws’. Mostly because a law by definition has been passed by a legislature and signed by an executive. These are executive ‘orders’ and there are definitely limitations to them. Note how many of President Trump’s Executive Orders have been challenged in court, some successfully and some unsuccessfully. They are not absolute.

This is why there have been over 150 lawsuits filed, both on Federal and State levels, challenging the validity of these EO’s, some from the governor’s own state legislatures.

Even a Supreme Court Justice and Attorney General Barr have questioned some of these declarations. For her part, the governor of Michigan answered mass protests against her edicts by threatening to crack down even harder and keep the state locked down even longer.

Now both the Governor of Texas and the Attorney General of Texas have criticized the Judge’s ruling and said she should be released ASAP. Plus the Lt. Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, has paid her fine and has offered to take her place in jail.

Also note that Shelley Luther was not convicted of any ‘crime’, or breaking any ‘law’, maybe because the judge is aware it might not hold up. Instead, she was jailed and fined for ‘Contempt Of Court’ because she refused to apologize to the judge for ‘her selfishness’ as in trying to feed her family.

This in a county that’s released 100’s of actual criminals to protect them from the virus, but yet it’s OK to throw her in jail for not apologizing?

And apparently, Shelley Luther’s plight has caught the attention of the Internet, since as of 10pm, her GoFundMe account is at about $475,000 with around 13,000 donors, for an average of $40 per donation.

Recently the DOJ had to intervene in several states and localities concerning the complete shutdown of religious services. Even ones where people were parked in the church parking lot listening to the sermon on their radios with their windows up. These people were given $500 tickets from police officers, not wearing masks, who demanded the people roll down their windows to receive the tickets.

See a problem here?

The other thing that is coming up is what are the governor’s limitations in all this. A number of states, Michigan and Mississippi are just two, have 30 day limitations on a governor’s State of Emergency declarations. But these are being ignored. Which is why, as I mentioned above, the governor of Michigan is being sued by her own legislature for overstepping her bounds.

In fact a number of cities and counties around the country have said that they will no longer enforce these ‘laws’ that they no longer think are valid.

Plus some governors have threatened to keep their state in lockdown until there’s a vaccine. So, since some leading epidemiologists say we may never have a real effective vaccine, how is this going to play out? We don’t have a vaccine for the common cold, we don’t have a vaccine for HIV, and even the seasonal flu vaccines are sometimes only 25 to 35% effective.

So what’s to be done about a governor who refuses to reopen their state when the other states around them are opening. An example of this is going on right now in Bristol TN/Bristol VA.

The state line between Tennessee and Virginia runs right down the center of Main St., with stores open for business on the TN side, and locked down tight on the VA side. So restaurant owners on the VA side are going broke while right across the street business is booming.

I guess the virus knows to stop at the state line, right?

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May 6, 2021

Why Take A Chance?

We had lunch at Twin Peaks once again. Yes, that’s twice in one week, and yes, this was completely Jan’s idea. Originally we were going to have lunch at Snooze, but it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, right?

Am I a lucky guy, or what?

Afterwards, we went by the Kroger’s Pharmacy on El Camino to pick up our first 3 month set of prescriptions under their Rx Saving Club, and there were no surprises.

The total was $36, the same as I had figured on. And much less than the $134 for the same ones under Sam’s Plus Card, and the $160 for the same ones at WalMart.

So in one three month order of our prescriptions, I saved more money than the $72 that the Kroger plan cost me for the entire year. In fact it covered that amount and left me $26 over. And once I cancel my Sam’s Club Plus membership, I’ll save another $55.

A really great deal.

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May 6, 2022

Bringing My Baby Back Home . . .

I got up to Brandi’s in Katy a little after 4pm, and about an hour later Lowell got home from work, so Jan and I were heading back toward home by about 5pm.

We were wondering where to stop for dinner, but burgers sounded good. So we stopped off at the Red Robin down in Webster. It’s been a long time since we have eaten at one, but it was as good as we remembered.

Jan got the Black and Bleu Burger with the Steak Fries.

With Sautéed Portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, creamy cheese sauce, Bleu cheese crumbles, shredded romaine and roasted garlic aioli on a toasted brioche bun, Jan said it was delicious.

I had the Scorpion Gourmet Burger,

which has a fire-grilled beef burger topped with melted Pepper-Jack cheese, ultra-spicy Scorpion Pepper Sauce, fried jalapeño coins, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, roasted garlic aioli, and red onions and jalapeños roasted in Scorpion sauce on a sesame seed bun

Getting home a little after 7pm, even Karma was happy to see Jan again, immediately climbing up into her lap, something she doesn’t do very often.

Tomorrow I’ll catch you up on the recent Toilet Wars.

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May 6, 2023

Sam Is Deeply Saddened . . .

Wherever she is.

After getting fully caffeinating this morning, I went outside to install my new LED headlight bulbs in the Jeep. And as I had hoped, it didn’t take long at all, mainly because the bulb sockets weren’t hard to access. The ones in our Dakota were much more difficult.

And 10 minutes later I had this.

And in another 10 minutes, I was done.

I’ve got a kit to clean the headlight lens,

but it takes about an hour per lens so I’ll wait until after we get back from our upcoming trip.

And speaking about our upcoming trip, next Saturday, a week from today, we’re heading out on a two-week trip back to Alabama to see relatives and friends, some of whom Jan and I have known since the early 70’s, and some I’ve known since the very early 60’s. Really looking forward to it, and all the great BBQ places we plan on eating at.

Lunch today was at Pho Barr, the first time in a while, and it was just as good as always.

As always we started off with an order of their Grilled Pork Spring Rolls, with Peanut Sauce.

Jan got her usual Grilled Chicken Vermicelli Bowl,

while I got my usual, the Pho Ga with Chicken.

But we actually started out with a drink that Jan saw another customer order, a Watermelon-Lemon Fruit Juice Slushie.

Made with fresh fruit, it was delicious.

Finishing up, we drove over to the nearby CostCutters to get our hair cut.

Jan more than me, of course.

And that was it for today.

Tomorrow we’ll heading up to Katy to get together with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for lunch at a new Mexican restaurant in their area.

Looking forward to it.

And now back to Sam.

Regular readers will probably remember me talking about the time when my family lived in Colombia, South America. I made friends with a young girl who lived in the same residence hotel as we did in Barranquilla. I was going on 14 and Sam (Samantha) was a little over 14. She was British and said her father worked for the British government.

We had been hanging out together for a couple of months when she showed up one morning all dressed up and said that her mother wanted to have me to Afternoon Tea. And to be there at 4pm, and DON’T BE LATE!

When I asked her what her room number was, (I had never been to her apartment and she had never been to mine) she said, “6th Floor”. And when I asked what room number, she just smiled and said, “You’ll figure it out.”

And when I got off at the 6th floor (the top floor in the hotel) it was obvious that her family had the entire floor. And I quickly found out why.

After pulling the bell rope, the door was opened by a British butler who greeted me with “Master Gregory”, and then said,

“The Duchess and Lady Samantha are waiting in the library.”

Wait. What?

So, trying to get to the point here, it turns out that yes, Sam was a future duchess, and was in fact Royalty. Or at least Royalty-Adjacent, maybe. Her mother, the Duchess,  was actually Queen Elizabeth’s second cousin, or something, and was somewhere around 12th in line for the throne, this in the early 60’s. And Sam was somewhere around 50th in line. Sam and her mother were both at Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation in 1953, and Sam regularly hung around with the Royal and Royal-Adjacent kids, including Prince Charles.

And it seems that Prince Charles was roundly hated by pretty much everyone, especially the girls. It seems he like to jump out of the bushes, or corner them in a hallway and try to kiss them, and other things, and when they refused, he would threaten them by telling them he would be King someday and that they would be sorry.

So she had a vehement hatred for Charles, and really, really hoped he would never be King. And she almost got her wish.

Until today, about 60 years later.

I don’t know if Sam is still alive or not, as she would be 75 now, and despite Jan’s urging, I have refused to look her up to see. I prefer to remember her as the red-haired, green eyed, 15 year old young girl as she was the last time I saw her.

But wherever she is, I know she’s deeply saddened today.