It Just Wasn’t Killen’s.
It was Spring Creek’s.
Jan had the Rib Plate with Beans and Beans.
While I got my usual Ribs and Cracked Black Pepper Sausage.
And we shared a basket of their really good Fried Okra.
Then it was on over to HEB for our weekly visit, then gas and home.
It’s been said that you can get pretty much anything worth having at a Buc-ee’s, whether it’s Beaver Nuggets or Ultra-Clean Restrooms.
So, now it’s a concert venue. In this case, it was a pop-up Keith Urban concert at the Buc-ee’s in Athens, AL.
And it looks like everyone in Athens showed up too.
The City of Athens said on social media that Buc-ee’s estimated 5,500 people came out to the concert.
Urban seemed a bit surprised about the crowd size himself. In a video posted by the City of Athens, the singer said he had actually expected only a couple hundred people at most.
Not bad for only about 6 hours notice.
A while back I posted about Logitech’s idea of a ‘forever mouse’ that would cost $150 and would require a subscription to get the regular updates. Well, with all the uproar, they quickly backtracked and said they were just kidding. Yeah, right!
But now there’s a Bassinet company that wants you to buy a monthly subscription for it to rock your baby.
Parents Rage Against New Fee to Keep Their Smart Bassinets Smart
Most new parents are looking for a way to reclaim even a hint of the sleep they used to get pre-infant. So, a smart bassinet that uses sensors to detect when a crying baby needs pacifying, simulating the sounds and rhythms of the womb, offers an irresistible promise to sleep-strapped parents: another hour or two of shut-eye.
The dream doesn’t come cheap: One of the more popular models, the Snoo retails for $1,700, although enterprising parents can score one secondhand from friends, neighbors, or relatives whose own children have outgrown it.
But last month, that hand-me-down network was dealt a blow when Happiest Baby, the company that makes Snoo, began charging for access to some of the bassinet’s premium features — features that used to be available to Snoo users indefinitely, at no extra cost. Now, access to the app needed to lock in the bassinet’s rocking level, to track the baby’s sleep and to use the so-called weaning mode, among other features, will cost parents $20 a month.
Gives Rock A Bye Baby a whole new meaning.
Thought For The Day:
Raise your hand if you have had quite enough unsolicited advice about what should be done with any lemons that life may or may not give you.
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2009 – Climbing Mt. Washington
2013 – Storm Shelters and Brake Job
2014 – Where Am I
2015 – Now To Get It On The Roof
2019 – Family Pool Time And More
2022 – A Change Of Plans
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
August 18, 2009
Climbing Mt. Washington and here a moose, there a moose…
We left Moose River Campground about 11 am and headed up US 2 toward Gorham, NH.
The road wasn’t too bad, a bit curvy, but OK, and we pulled into the Walmart about 12:30 pm and set up house.
Actually, when we Wally-dock, there’s nothing to set up. We don’t lower the jacks, or put out the slide. The only thing we do is just unhook the truck so we can drive around.
We decided to try a place called Crabby Jack’s Mexican Café for lunch, since we were hungry for Mexican.
Big Mistake! The service was bad and the food wasn’t any better.
Now we’re Crabby!
After our so-called lunch, we headed down to Gorham’s Visitor’s Information booth to check out the sign that got Jan all giddy.
It said “Moose Tours”
After signing up for the 6:30 pm tour that evening, I noticed a brochure on Mt. Washington. I knew it was in New Hampshire, but I didn’t know it was close by.
Turns out that it’s right down the road. It’s about 8 miles to the base of the mountain, and then about 8 miles to the summit, all 6288 feet of it.
We decided we had plenty of time to do the mountain before our moose tour, so we headed out.
And it is a heck of a climb. During the 8 miles, you climb over 5000 ft. And it seems like it’s straight up at times.
But, although it was a little hazy, the view was spectacular.
The Mt. Washington Auto Road gave birth to the oldest man-made tourist attraction in the US. When it was built in 1861 (Yes, 1861), it was called the Mt. Washington Carriage Road. And stagecoaches took visitors to the top.
It’s still the same road, and not much improved, it seems.
And then in 1869 they built the Cog Train. It runs on a train track with a cog track in the center that lets the train climb the steep grades like a roller coaster does…clack, clack, clack.
That little yellow dot is the train coming up the mountain. It takes about an hour to come up and an hour to go back down.
It only takes about 20 min in your car.
“I think I can, I think I can…”
This gift shop building dates from 1878. Note that it is chained down!
And here’s why!
231 MPH !!!
I think they gonna need more chains.
The new buildings are built to withstand 300 MPH winds.
And, of course, we got our official bumpersticker for our trip up.
I’ve seen these on cars before, and now I know how they got them.
About 6:30 pm we board our tour bus for our “moose tour”.
And we actually saw moose, 4 of them, to be exact. 2 sets of cows and calves. No bulls, unfortunately.
These pictures were taken about 9:30 pm at night, lit by a spotlight.
These moose were about 30 yards away at the time.
We also saw an osprey, 2 foxes, a deer, and 2 loons.
And some pretty scenery earlier in the evening.
Tomorrow morning we head out to Bangor, ME for a few days before we trek further north to Canada.
August 18, 2010
A Small Scare
Today turned out to be a lot busier and more eventful than we had planned, but it started out pretty normal though,
About 11:30 am Jan fixed sandwiches for lunch using a new Cranberry Horseradish Mayonnaise she bought the other day. Boy was it good!
Then after lunch, I went outside to take off the last four cargo bay doors to take over to Michele at Phoenix Commercial Paint.
Jan decided to go with me since she wanted to do some shopping afterward.
After leaving Michele’s we headed down toward Goshen because I also wanted to exchange something at the Tractor Supply Store down there. However about halfway there we realized that I had forgotten the bag with the stuff in it. Oh well.
And as on our last trip to Goshen, we ran into construction. This is getting ridiculous. A trip that should have taken about 30 minutes took us almost 50. It seems you just can’t go anywhere without something being rebuilt.
Noticing a Panera Bread along the way I stopped off to see if they had enough Asiago Cheese Bagels to complete my collection since I didn’t get all I wanted yesterday. And luckily they had some.
Leaving Panera, our next stop was the Sam’s Club right down the road to stock up on essential household items, and then we headed home, by a different way to avoid the construction. And, of course, we ran into more construction. Different construction, but more of it. This time it took us over 20 minutes to go about half a mile to get through it. There are only a few roads around here that head north and south and they’re all under construction. At the same time! Geeez! (Put in your own swear word here)
Finally getting back to the rig about 3:00, it was time for a nap. By the time we were up, we decided it was time to go to supper so we piled into the truck and headed back down to Goshen. Can you see where this is going? Yes, of course you can.
Even though we took a completely different route than the two this morning, guess what? More construction. This time we had to go three or four miles out of our way to get around it.
Now for the scare.
About halfway to Goshen, we got a call from our daughter Brandi. We were expecting one since Wednesday is the day she sees her obstetrician, and she always calls us with a report. But today the report was upsetting.
Instead of being on her way home, she was in the hospital. At her doctor’s office they found her blood pressure was very high, so high that they told her to go straight to the hospital.
She said she didn’t know anything else, but that they had her on an IV and were monitoring her. Jan told her to let us know when heard anything.
Hanging up the phone Jan went into a small meltdown, but quickly realized there was nothing she could do until we got more news.
We decided to continue on to our dinner destination, South Side Soda Shop and Diner
And I’m really glad we did, because the place was good enough to get Jan’s mind off the situation, at least for a few minutes.
South Side Soda Shop was featured on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” with host Guy Fieri, and it was easy to see why. The food was delicious, and they have some really unusual dishes, including PhillyChili, chili served over pasta in a large ice cream sundae glass, and Spiral Fries.
Spiral Fries are made by taking a large potato and cutting it into one long spiral string, dumping it all in a basket, and frying it up. It’s basically just one VERY long French fry. And VERY good.
I had a sandwich, and Jan had the Crab Cakes. And we both agreed how good it was. We will definitely go back. I want to try the PhillyChili.
For dessert, we had a piece of their award-winning pie. It wasn’t quite as good as we had at The Pie-O-Neer in Pie Town, NM this past June, but it was good. You can read more about our visit to Pie Town here.
Leaving the diner about 6:30 pm Jan called our son-in-law Lowell to check on things since she didn’t want to disturb Brandi. Lowell was in the room with her and said there had been no change. Her BP was still high.
With the news still unsettling, we started talking about Jan flying back to Houston tomorrow. It’s 1300 miles, a two-day trip by car, and a three-day trip by RV. And because our cargo bay doors are off being painted, that’s not really feasible, anyway. We figured I’d stay here to take care of the cats and handle the repainting stuff and Jan would fly down for a week.
As we were discussing things, we stopped by OfficeMax on our way home since Jan wanted some new pens.
We got home about 7:45, and about 8 Lowell called with some good news, Brandi’s blood pressure was down, and they were thinking about sending her home and putting her on bed rest for two or three weeks until the baby comes. We were all very relieved, but we told him Jan would be ready to fly down on short notice if needed.
Then about 8:30 our son Chris called and said things had changed and her blood pressure was back up and they were thinking about inducing labor tonight or tomorrow. So back in panic mode again. But at least, even though it’s still almost 3 weeks until her due date, the baby is already heavy enough to be full term.
Chris said they were going to decide about 10 pm what they were going to do. And a little about 10 Brandi called and said they had decided not to decide yet. They were putting her on a 24 hour monitoring program and would make a decision tomorrow night.
So we’re stuck in the holding pattern again. just waiting to hear.
I guess at this point, the old cliché holds, that no news is good news.
August 18, 2011
Sliverleaf and Tuna Noodle Casserole . . .
It was really nice to be able to sleep until after 10 this morning. Even Jan didn’t get up until almost 9:30. We just sat around with our coffee and enjoyed the view out the front windows, and life in general.
Later in the morning I called the Blanford Post Office to confirm that I could get General Delivery there, and then called Terri at My Dakota Address to send our mail out.
Later in the afternoon, I helped Jan go through some old magazines. She ended up throwing out over 30 pounds. Less weight, better fuel mileage.
For dinner Jan fixed a great tuna noodle casserole, one of our favorites.
Hey. What can I say? We’re simple folk.
Speaking of fuel mileage, I had a couple of readers ask me how I could figure it so accurately in a previous blog.
The reason is the Silverleaf VMSpc Engine Display.
The Silverleaf VMSpc plugs into the diagnostic port underneath the dashboard and connects to my laptop that sits on the center console when we travel.
In my case I run two programs on the laptop: In the bottom section, I’m running Delorme Street Atlas w/GPS. The top section is the Silverleaf display.
The really nice thing about the Silverleaf is you get to design your own panel. You can choose the instruments you want to display, where you want them on the screen, what color they are, and what they say. You can also set alarms so that if, for example, your battery voltage drops below 12 volts, an audible/visible alarm goes off on the screen.
Across the top, left to right, I first have the transmission gear indicator. The left ‘6’ shows what gear is selected on the console. The right one shows what gear the transmission is actually in.
Next, in order, are the tachometer, the turbocharger boost pressure, the instantaneous MPG, and the clock. Down the left side, the first four gauges are alarms for voltage, transmission temperature, water temperature, and oil pressure. Next are numerical gauges for the oil pressure, transmission temp, engine temp, and the total hours on the engine.
Starting from the top of the second column, CSPD shows the Cruise Control Set Speed, next is the total miles on the coach (it had 62511 miles when we bought it), the miles we’ve put on the coach, and the fuel minder. It shows the miles left on this tank, the remaining fuel in the tank, and the recent MPG.
The next column starts with a speedometer. The neat thing about this is that the Silverleaf program allows me to set a modifier on the speedometer.
The tires (295’s) presently on my coach are bigger than the original 285’s. This means my dashboard speedometer is not correct. It reads 51 mph when I’m doing 55, for instance. But by adding a modifier to the gauge, it displays the correct speed.
Next are the generator hours. This lets me track the generator fuel usage at about 1 gallon of diesel per hour.
Underneath that, the green ball means the Cruise Control is set and engaged. If the ball is yellow, it means it’s not engaged, and a red ball means it’s turned off. Just to the right are the miles since my last oil change/filter etc., service.
Next is a vertical bar graph that gives me an instant picture of my engine performance, and below are the miles we’ve traveled so far this year. We’ll probably do another 2-3000 before we get back to Houston right before Thanksgiving.
The right-hand column below the clock shows the battery voltage, the fuel rate, the engine torque, the Max Intake Manifold Temp, and the distance to the next rest area.
Lastly, across the bottom are the miles we’ve traveled so far today, and the miles we’ve traveled so far on this tank of diesel.
This last reading, coupled with the fuel used from the Fuel Minder gauge, gives me a very accurate reading of the MPG on this tank. In this case, we’ve gone 488.2 miles and used 52.5 gallons (150 – 97.5) of diesel. This gives me an average of 9.3 mph.
Driving 55 does save gas. From testing, I know that if I drive 65, my mpg drops to between 7.5 and 8 mpg. This difference in miles per gallon saves me about $1000 a year.
Just a note, the fuel usage is very accurate on the Silverleaf because the program actually counts the pulses in the fuel injectors, You can’t get any better than that.
Another neat feature of the Silverleaf is that if you ever get a Check Engine light, just use the Diagnostic drop-down menu at the top of the screen and it tells you the code AND what the code means.
It may seem like a lot of information, some of it not too useful, but it gives me an ongoing picture of my engine’s performance and lets me quickly see any changes.
I hope this all makes sense. If you have any questions or comments be sure and let me know.
August 18, 2012
Whoopeeeee!
As of 7pm this evening we’ve been told that we can stop logging at the gate. The rig is going to start moving tomorrow, and we’re free a couple of days early.
But the nice part is that we still get paid until Monday when we actually leave here.
We’re FREE!
August 18, 2013
Storm Shelters and Brake Jobs . . .
When we were driving over from Breaux Bridge, LA last Thursday, we came across this ‘Instant’ Storm Shelter. Just dig a big hole, drop in the shelter, cover it over, and you’re done.
The company, called Survive-A-Storm, makes a whole line of shelters from small panic rooms to community-sized shelters. If I was living in Tornado Alley, I’d want a shelter buried in the ground like this one. After all, it worked for Auntie Em.
Brandi sent over this photo this morning.
Apparently Landon’s just sure there’s one more birthday present at the bottom of the bag. Miss Kitty just doesn’t care.
About 1:30 Jan and I drove down to Chris and Linda’s for the afternoon. Chris had ‘volunteered’ to do a front brake job on our truck. A week or so ago, I started hearing a scraping noise from the front whenever I was braking, but since we were on the road pretty much constantly, I decided to wait until we got back to Houston to take care of it. The fact that Chris would be here to help out was strictly ‘coincidental’
Dropping off Jan, Chris and I drove over to O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to pick up some ceramic disc pads. I wanted to use ceramic because although they’re a little more expensive, they last a lot longer and won’t damage the rotors when they wear down. But all they had were the metallic brake pads so that’s what we went with.
As I had hoped, the brake job itself didn’t take too long. Jack up one side, put a jack stand under it, remove the tire and wheel, unbolt the caliper unit, retract the calipers, remove the old pads and install the new ones, and then put everything back together. Then rinse and repeat on the other side.
Easy-Peazy!
Of course, Chris was the one doing all the work, I just handed him tools and ‘supervised’. The only real problem was a balky hydraulic jack that didn’t want to lift the truck high enough to get the jack stand underneath.
I was happy to find that both rotors were still in good shape and didn’t need to be turned or replaced. I figured they would be since they were replaced during my last brake job three years ago.
After we (Chris) finished up, he got a shower, and then we entertained ourselves for a while watching P.J., their Black Lab. chase squirrels back and forth across the yard.
Finally about 5pm we headed right outside the subdivision to Barcenas Mexican Restaurant, one of our favorite places. We ended up spending a couple of hours just catching up on everything. Nice. Then by 7:30 we were on our way home for the night. It was sure nice not to hear the noisy brakes anymore.
Tomorrow morning we’re going over to Brandi’s to pick up Landon and his other grandparents, Sonja and Lendell. We’re all going to have lunch together and then take Landon to a play area at Katy Mills Mall. Should be fun.
August 18, 2014
Where Am I . . .
After coffee and muffins this morning, I made a call to Jamie at Gate Guard Services to let him know we were in the area and available for a gate the first part of next week. He said he had several things in the works and would let us know. Otherwise, call him next Monday. Sounds good.
In getting ready for our gate guarding, I ordered a couple of these Vent Fan Insulated Vent Covers to help keep the heat out of the coach when it’s 100+ degrees outside. On past gates you could feel the heat coming down from the vents, so hopefully this will help.
I haven’t found anything yet for the skylight over the shower, so I may have to put something together for that.
Our son Chris came by about 4:30 to say ‘Hi’ and show off his new Yamaha bike and trailer. He was on his way up to Inks Lake north of Austin, and just west of Burnet.
Nice ride. He and some of his fellow firemen are planning on taking a week-long bike trip out west this fall, and he’s trying to get in some riding time to get ready.
We had planned to be down in Webster tomorrow for Jan’s breast cancer follow-up checkup, but she realized this afternoon that her appointment is Wednesday afternoon, not tomorrow.
Whenever we do go down, we’ll at least be cool. Brandi and Lowell offered us the use of their truck for the trip. Really nice of them.
I came across this new app (at least it’s new to me) on an app site called Where Am I? It’s simple but kind of neat.
It shows where you are, the address, the city, the zip code. and a lot of other info.
August 18, 2015
Now To Get It On The Roof . . .
Jan and I headed out about 10:30 for a trip into Houston, with our first stop at Schobel’s Restaurant in Columbus for breakfast. They do a great omelet, and good coffee too.
We planned to have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon about 5:30, but we were doing some shopping first.
I have been noticing for a while that my front Coleman Mach V A/C was laying down on the job a bit. So I had been thinking about replacing it with a new one. I’ve been doing some research on different brands and models, and came right back around to Coleman. The two we have are original, so they’ve been going for 16 years with only a total of $30 in repairs. I had to replace the compressor start caps on both units, one in 2009, and the other in 2013. Not a bad record overall.
Being cheap, my first thought was to maybe do a little RRAN (repair and replace as necessary – a military aircraft term) on the units, probably starting with checking the Freon level.
RV rooftop A/C’s are mechanically very similar to home window units. This means they both come sealed, with no ports to access the Freon in the system. But you can use one of these to check the pressure and add Freon if necessary.
It’s a saddle tap and it’s made especially for tapping into sealed systems like window A/C’s and refrigerators. But the compressor also has a lot of miles on it, with the possibility of leaky seals, worn bearings, etc. And of course the whole thing could just die next week.
All that, plus the fact that I’d really like to upgrade the size, led me to the Coleman Mach 15 from PPL. It has 15,000 BTU, an 11% increase over our 13,500 BTU units. And according to the specs, it also has a 1/3 hp fan motor, the largest one in the RV industry, especially recommended with a ducted system like we have in our American Eagle.
I thought about also replacing the bedroom unit, but I think I’ll wait. Since it cools a much smaller area, it’s still doing a good job for now.
So we made a stop at PPL Motorhomes to pick up a new Mach 15 upper unit, along with a ducted, cooling-only, external thermostat, inside unit.
Now, how am I going to get this 110-pound unit up on the roof?
Our next stop was at the Toys R US near Katy Mills Mall to pick out Landon’s gifts for his birthday party this Saturday. We got him 4 different Lego sets, all superhero-based. He loves both, so he should be pretty happy.
I also found this other neat Lego set, but Brandi said Landon didn’t watch The Big Bang Theory and wouldn’t know who they are.
We got back to Brandi’s about 4pm, and got in a little nap before Brandi, Lowell, and Landon showed up about 5. Then it was off to have dinner at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro, one of our all-time favorite restaurants. You can’t believe how good their Shaking Beef Vermicelli is.
Finally, after getting our last Landon hugs, and everybody else hugs, we headed back toward Columbus, getting home about 7:45.
So how do I get it up on the roof?
August 18, 2016
Battlebots and Zero-G . . .
A number of you gave me gateguarding leads, and I really appreciate it. I’m going to start calling tomorrow, starting of course, with Jamie of Gate Guard Services fame.
And you never know. When I called him about this time last year, he didn’t have anything for us. But then he called us back two days later with our gate near Carthage.
Since not much happened today, I thought I’d update you on some of my recent repairs/upgrades.
Back in June, I replaced our dying/leaking water pump with this new Shurflo model I got from Amazon.
It replaced one I installed in 2008, soon after we bought our coach. And this one is quieter, more powerful, and cheaper than the old one. In fact it puts out a better shower than a lot of the park’s shore water.
Next is our new Zero-G RV and Marine Hose that we got a few months back. I’d been waiting for someone to come out with a flexible hose that was drinking water safe, and the Zero-G fills the bill.
However, unlike those ‘Pocket Hoses’ on TV, the Zero-G doesn’t expand. It just gets soft and very flexible. So much so, that you can just wad it up in a ball.
It seems very heavy-duty, with a canvas feel, almost like a fire hose. I really look forward to traveling this winter and not having to wrestle with a regular hose when it’s 40 degrees.
I’m a really lucky guy. I married a girl who likes military airshows, science fiction movies, and makes me take her to Hooters. And if that wasn’t enough, she also likes Battlebots.
We’ve really been enjoying the recent episodes on Thursday nights, amazed at some of the ideas that the contestants come up with, and enjoying seeing one of the robots coming apart in pieces and flying across the arena, or even catching fire and blowing up.
August 18, 2017
Back Home in Conroe . . .
Finally.
Since we got into Poche’s RV Park last night and pretty much just collapsed without dinner, we were hungry this morning. So after we pulled out about 9am, our first stop was about 15 minutes away at the Cracker Barrel in Lafayette.
We’ve stopped here before, so we knew they have a number of long RV spaces in back, and we left the generator running for Miss Karma so she stayed cool and comfortable while we were inside.
Jan had her usual Old Timer’s Breakfast,
while I tried their new Pecan Pancake Breakfast.
Don’t know what’s in these besides just pecans, but they’re really, really good, with a unique taste.
Our next stop was the Rest Area at the Texas border for a bathroom break, and then it was on to the Buc-ee’s in Baytown, 90 miles further along. I noticed yesterday when we stopped that they had diesel for $2.11, the cheapest I’ve seen recently, so I wanted to top off the tank. That way we won’t have to worry about it when we head over to Colorado River on the 27th.
Coming around the Sam Houston Tollway, we got on the Hardy Toll Road, missing the majority of the Houston rush hour traffic heading north and encountering only a few slowdowns.
We pulled up to the Lake Conroe TT ranger station right at 4:30 and got checked in. And found of course, the rules have changed once again. In the past I would just go ahead and pay for our days ($5/day since we’re out of our free days), and the $3/day for 50 amp, so $8/day, and then just call them with our site number after we got parked and set up.
But apparently not enough people were calling in with their site number, so they said they never knew what sites were open and which ones weren’t. So now they take and hold your driver’s license until you come back with your site number. Then they give you your license back, as well as your packet of information, which includes the site map.
So anyone coming here for the first time doesn’t get a site map showing them what sites are what, until after they’ve already found a site.
Am I missing something here?
I told the lady that we weren’t going to be going back out tonight, so since they wanted everyone’s site number quicker, did they still want me to call them with my site number like I always do?
She said, “No, just give it to us tomorrow when you come out.”
“But I thought you wanted the site numbers quicker, but you don’t want me to call you? I can just wait until tomorrow or even the next day?” She looked confused for a moment, and then said, Yes”
Am I missing something here?
Plus, as busy as the ranger station can be with 3 or 4 RV’s checking in, now they have every RV’er coming back again to the ranger station, so they’re essentially now handling twice as many people.
Am I missing something here?
I don’t think anybody thought this all the way through.
It does however look like they going to do a good job on the repaving, at least on the entrance area up to the Activity Center. They’ve taken the old asphalt up and have a hard gravel and dirt base underneath. If they don’t cheap out on the asphalt thickness and quality, it should last a long time.
But then this is ELS we’re talking about.
After getting unpacked and set up in G-37 and we rested up for a while, Jan decided that she did want to go out to get something to eat after all. So a little before 6pm we headed out for the Whataburger in Willis.
And of course, I had to stop at the ranger station to get my driver’s license back. There were 3 RV’s lined up trying to check in, and four cars parked around trying to get their licenses back, and all of us crowded shoulder to shoulder into that small building.
I don’t think anybody thought this all the way through.
August 18, 2018
Family & More . . .
I had planned to lift up the bed this morning and see if I could find an obvious oil leak high up on the side of the rig’s engine.
But we got a call to meet Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper for lunch up at the Cheddar’s in Webster. Chris and Linda are down from Kingsland this weekend for Landon’s Birthday, so it was good to get together.
Chris said they’re really enjoying the slower country life up in the Texas hill country, especially the lack of traffic. Miss Piper’s working at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center up in Houston, where Jan worked back in the late 70’s/early 80’s, so it was interesting to hear them compare parking lots, buildings, and jobs. Neat! And it was great to see everyone even though we’re all getting together again tomorrow at Brandi’s up in Katy.
Coming home we made a WalMart stop for a few things before we headed back down to Santa Fe and home.
August 18, 2019
Another Day, Another Project . . .
Our family get-together up at Brandi’s in Katy yesterday was kind of a pre-birthday party party for both Landon and Miss Piper.
Landon’s upcoming 9th birthday is on August 20th. But his birthday party is scheduled for September 7th. Which also happens to be Miss Piper’s upcoming 26th birthday. But with everyone’s busy schedules, this weekend was the best time for all of us to get together.
Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper came down Friday night, but Jan and I got there yesterday morning about 11am. And found everyone already in the pool, so Jan and I quickly joined them.
There are enough chairs, swings, and loungers scattered around for everyone to take it easy.
And our son, Chris, really had the right idea.
About 4pm Brandi’s brisket was sliced up
and we all chowed down on it along with potato salad, baked beans, Mexican corn, and Hawaiian rolls. And of course, Brandi’s famous homemade Peach Cobbler with Blue Bell Natural Bean Vanilla ice cream.
YUM!
Later we had the pre-birthday birthday cakes for Miss Piper and Landon.
Then Landon previewed his Halloween costume, going as Mr. Pug, which also happens to be his YouTube site. He’ll also be wearing red Converse sneakers for that extra splash of color.
He’s up to 36 subscribers, but he’s always on the outlook for more.
Finally, after a great day with family Jan and I headed home about 7pm. Need to do this more often.
I mentioned the other day about modifying our Mr. Coffee to add a battery backup for the internal clock/delay timer so it doesn’t lose its settings when the power goes out. But last night I had another idea.
Rather than a battery backup, why not just add a WiFi module and let Alexa control the timer, and also allow us to start it brewing when we’re on the way home.
So I found this one on Amazon and ordered it.
Then this afternoon I started ripping our Mr. Coffee open to get to the control board.
I thought I had a piece of CAT 6 Ethernet net cable to use a couple of the fine wires to solder across the switch contacts to let the WiFi Alexa module start and stop the machine, but I couldn’t find any. So I’ll bring some home from work tomorrow.
Another day, another project.
August 18, 2020
Wires and More Wires . . .
This evening, around 7:45 after it had cooled down a bit (all the way down to 91°) I went outside to make a couple of passes at degreasing the wiring harness at the rear of the coach engine compartment.
I figure I’ll have to do it a dozen or so times before it’s clean enough that I actually want to handle the wires. So maybe this weekend.
August 18, 2022
A Change Of Plans . . .
Jan and I headed into Webster about 12:30 this afternoon so I could get a haircut before our monthly Alvin Opry Group get-together, this month at Cheddars. Which was ironic since our very first one was at this Cheddars a year ago yesterday.
Jan was happy to see that they had brought back her favorite Key West Chicken and Shrimp.
While I was unhappy that they had NOT brought back my favorite Chicken Enchilada Soup. So I decided to try their Chicken Tender Platter with the Hot Honey Sauce.
Very good, but not really hot.
We had a great time seeing everyone again, and we’re all scheduled for Saltgrass Steakhouse next month. Already looking forward to it.
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that we were having Landon’s Birthday party at the Rainforest Café in nearby Katy Mills Mall. Well, there’s been a change of plans.
Now it’s going to be at Andretti’s Indoor Karting & Games, also nearby.
Turns out that this place (there are 8 of them around the country) is not a typical deal where you putt-putt around an oval, but uses high-end very powerful electric carts, sized for adults, with speeds of up to 35mph.
And when you’re sitting 6 inches off the ground, 35mph seems much faster.
And the layout is really something with a lot of twists and turns, and ups and downs.
But it’s even more impressive when you see what it actually looks like in person.
Now that looks like fun. I may have to join in.
I was afraid however that the food would be your typical ‘snack bar’ cuisine, with day-old hot dogs, chips with melted cheese poured over them, masquerading as ‘nachos, or stale popcorn. But with an on-site Chef, fresh-baked-daily bread, and everything prepared to order, Andretti’s menu is no slouch either.
Now that’s a burger!
August 18, 2023
Now They’re Just Messing With Us . . .
I was on my way up to Katy a little after noon to bring my baby back home. Getting to Brandi’s, we had to wait for a bit for the housekeeper to finish so we could lock up afterward. And then it was on over to the nearby Grimaldi’s Pizzeria at La Centerra for lunch.
We’ve been eating at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria’s since we first discovered them in 2009 while we were visiting NYC and ate at their original location over in Brooklyn.
We started off with the ‘Small’ Strawberry Spinach Salad.
I say ‘Small’ because it’s large enough for 4 people, so it gives us two servings each. And it was really good.
And then it was on to our usual pizza, The Don, with Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, and Meatballs, to which we added Ham, Bacon, and Mushrooms. And we always get the Large 18” so we can eat half and have half to bring home.
Finishing up, Jan made a quick Trader Joe’s visit since it’s right across the street. And then since this was a ‘splurge day’, we drove back down the street to check out a new place, Handel’s Ice Cream.
If you thought Baskin-Robbins was doing good with 31 flavors, Handel’s has 140 flavors, cycling through 45 at any one time.
That’s why they have all those rows of freezers.
We both had two scoops in a dish, Jan’s was Black Cherry and Coffee Chocolate Chip, while I got Caramel Pretzel Crunch and Vanilla Turtle.
What was outstanding was the amount of ‘ingredients’ in the flavors. It seems like there’s more ‘stuff’ than cream in there.
Really good.
Unfortunately, coming home, we were in prime going-home traffic, so our normal hour trip took two hours, getting us home about 5:30.
While I was at Brandi’s I got a glimpse of Landon’s 8th grade schedule for this year.
He’s taking:
Spanish
AP English
AP Social Studies
AP Science
and Algebra.
Now I didn’t start Algebra until the 9th. But the one that caught my eye was this.
Principles of Applied Engineering
????
WOW, I didn’t get something like that until college.
I’ve posted several photos from the new James Webb Telescope, and now there’s this one of new stars being formed in that bright red starburst area.
But then some people notice something down in the area within the red box. And this is what they found.
One commenter said, “The aliens know we’ve found them and now they’re just messing with us,”
