Monthly Archives: June 2025

There’s An Ode And A Bridge In Here Somewhere . . .

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At 9:52 am this morning, it got very, very quiet.

As in the power went off.

When it didn’t come back on in a few minutes, I went online with my phone to check the CenterPoint Outage Map to see what was going on.

Turns out it was a planned outage, local to our area, with about 75 homes without power, and they expected the power was expected to be back on by 12:45 pm, which later was updated to 1 pm and then 1:15.

But to our relief, it came back on at 11:50.

I had noticed that they were replacing a power pole on Avenue M when I went into work yesterday, and they were just finishing up when I came home. So maybe they were working somewhere else in our area.

Luckily, it was kind of overcast, so the temps in the rig never got above 82, still pretty comfortable. But we were happy to have the A/C back on when it did.

* * * * * * *

When we ate at Black Bear Diner this past Sunday, Jan and I were talking about eating at the original, original Black Bear Diner.

And by ‘original, original’ one, I mean this one.

The Hi-Lo Cafe in Weed, CA. Note the beautiful shot of Mt. Shasta in the background.

The Hi-Lo Cafe, and motel, and RV park, has been around since the early 1950’s. But somewhere around 1995, there was a divorce/family split-off that went about 15 mi down the road to Mt. Shasta, (the town, not the mountain) and started up Black Bear Diner.

And except for the name, they’re pretty much identical, both using the same newspaper/newsprint menus, right down to identical menu items. They pretty much just add the bears.

Even at the counter.

After the initial location in Mt. Shasta, (the town, not the mountain), the next two were located in Redding, CA, and Yreka, CA, right up and down the road. And we’ve managed to eat at both of them along the way.

Plus a lot of others along the way.

Always great. Except for the biscuits, of course.


Thought For The Day:

If you don’t know what introspection is, you need to take a long, hard look at yourself.


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2010 – Poison Spiders and a GPS Glitch

2012 – Landon At The Zoo and Piper Graduates

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


June 3, 2009

Last Day in Titusville…

Today was our last full day in Titusville.

Tomorrow morning we’ll head about 100 miles north to St. Augustine, spending 3-4 days there.  Then it’s on to Savannah, GA.

Today we went to lunch at the New Peking Buffet with our new friends, Allen and Jan.  After that, Allen and I worked on my engine’s AC belt problem.

I’m going to try leaving the engine A/C off on the trip to St. Augustine tomorrow to see if the belt stays on when it is not powering the AC.  I may do this for the trip to Savannah, too.

We will still have A/C on the trip.  I’ll just start up the diesel generator before we leave and run the two rooftop A/Cs just like we were plugged in.  The generator only uses about a gallon an hour, so it’s not a big additional cost.

Luckily, the fix I did to the rear rooftop A/C a couple of days ago is still working fine.

Well, I almost washed Mister again in the clothes washer. I don’t know what he sees in it, but every time I turn my back with the washer door open, in he goes.

Mister in Washer...Again

Mister in the Washer…Again

We’ve been getting a number of comments about our Roller Coaster picture being spread across the Internet, as I mentioned yesterday. I guess this is our 15 minutes of fame.

More from St. Augustine tomorrow…


June 3, 2010

Poison Spiders and a Broken Record…

Well, today started out less than spectacularly, but it got better fairly soon.

We left Fort Caspar Campground in Casper, WY, a little before 9 am, heading for Rock Springs, WY, about 230 miles away.  And then it went downhill very quickly.

We should have known something was wrong when we ended up on Poison Spider Rd.

No, really.

Due to a map glitch, Margaret, our GPS system, could not route us on SR 220 as she should have. Instead, she routed us on CR 201 and then on CR 319 which is also known as the Oregon Trail Rd.

And, yes, CR 201 is also called Poison Spider Rd as it leaves town. And it runs right by Poison Spider High School. Whose motto, according to the sign out front, is ”Caught in a Web of Learning”.

You can’t make this stuff up!

After starting out OK,  CR 201 became a gravel road.  But before we could get too worried, it became pavement again, and all was well with the world.

Until it skipped gravel this time and went straight to dirt.

But I rationalized that in only two miles we would be turning onto CR 319, which just HAD to be a better road, right?

I mean, it’s also called Oregon Trail Rd.  It’s got two names,  it’s got to be a good road, right?

Of course, when we got there, that’s not what we found. What we found was an even narrower, even rougher dirt road.

I think it was called the Oregon Trail because it was the original one, complete with wagon ruts.

No way was I going any further. I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out what went wrong. Turns out that the GPS program wouldn’t route me on the right road, SR 220, because it couldn’t. No matter what I did, the program would not allow any route on SR 220.

I ran into this once before, when coming back from Memphis to north Alabama on  US 72.  No matter what I did, the program would not let us on US 72.

Once I figured out what was wrong, the solution was simple. Turn around and go back to Casper and then back out on SR 220.

Easier said than done, however. I needed to turn around, but there was no room. And I couldn’t back up because, unlike towing a trailer, you can’t back up while towing a vehicle with a tow bar, at least very far.

So, I had to break my perfect record. I had to unhitch the truck so I could turn the rig around in the opposite direction. It’s been a point of pride that I’ve never been in a situation where I had to unhitch to get out of it.

Until today.

After unhitching, it took about 30 seconds to get turned around. After hitching back up, we drove back into Casper and out of town on 220. Then, once I was past the dead spot on the map, everything went smoothly.

Leaving Casper, we started climbing up into the beginning of the Rockies, finally peaking out above 7300 feet. We crossed the Continental Divide 4 times today and saw some spectacular scenery.

We’ve seen a lot of these open fences along the roads in Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. They’re snow fences, set up to keep the blowing snow drifts off the highways as much as possible.

SnowFence 1

SnowFence 2

We also see these crossing gates with no train tracks around. They’re set up to keep cars off the highways after they close the roads for bad weather, usually snow or ice, or both. They’re normally near exits, so you have a place to go to get off the road, but I did see one out in the middle of nowhere.

SnowGate

About noon, we stopped in Rawlins, WY, to have lunch. We had planned to eat at another Sanford’s Grub and Pub like we did in Casper. And we even found a parking place right downtown, only a block away from the restaurant.

Rawlins 1

But when we got to Sanford’s, it was closed.  We asked a trio of Wyoming Highway Patrol officers, who also found the place closed, where they suggested, and they said Square Shooters Eating House, right up the street. So that’s where we went.

Rawlins 3

The place is decorated in Western Dead Animal motif, and the salad bar is a chuck wagon, so we weren’t sure what to expect. But it turned out to be very good.

Rawlins 2

Jan had the Roast Turkey and Dressing with Mashed Potatoes, and I had the Chicken Fried Chicken with Fries, and we both had the homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. All of it, really good.

Leaving town, we came across another one of the painted mascots that we’ve seen in other towns, a Pronghorn Antelope.

Rawlins Antelope

We have seen a lot of others, like bears, moose, pelicans, and mermaids.

Bear 5

Pelican 1

Moose1

P1010203a

We got into the KOA in Rock Springs, WY, about 3:30 pm and got set up. About 4:30, we headed out to get some supper and pick up some fuses. We ended up at Village Inn, a family restaurant chain we’ve eaten at several times before.  Their Wisconsin Cheese soup is delicious.

Tomorrow we’re headed for Draper, UT, to visit some friends.

More then…

BTW, our GPS system is called Margaret after the little girl in the Dennis the Menace comics. Whenever you take a turn she doesn’t like, she just nags and nags, and won’t shut up.


June 3, 2011

Lumberjacking . . .

We’re leaving here tomorrow, heading about 236 miles north along I-5 to Weed, CA. We’ll be there for 3 nights, checking out the Mt. Shasta area, and getting into worse weather.

We’ll start to run into colder, wetter weather as we head north. The Crater Lake, OR area where we’ll be later next week is still having temps in the 20’s and 30’s so we’ll have to break out the winter clothes.

The Thousand Trails park here at Lake Minden is scenic with lots of trees and grass, which makes Mister happy. But unfortunately, no sewer hookups, which makes me unhappy. It also had a lot of rabbits and squirrels, which makes Jan happy. So it’s easy to see who loses here.

Lake Minden 1

Lake Minden 2

Oh yeah, there’s a lake too.

Lake Minden 3

Jan and I had talked about going to a movie this afternoon, but that lost out to a nap. What started out as a nice sunny day gradually clouded over and started threatening rain, so a nap was well in order.

Finally, about 4:30 we drove into Yuba City for dinner and a Wal-Mart run. But I did take a quick detour to look at the shortest route my mapping program found to get me to I-5 tomorrow. I’m glad I did.

Because of a couple of climbing turns over a high dike separating the rice fields, and a narrow paved road that suddenly degenerated into an even narrower gravel one, I decided to drive an extra 14 miles of better road.

Since it was about 5 pm when we got into Yuba City, we decided to go ahead and eat dinner at, where else, but Lumberjack’s Restaurant, the same place we had eaten last night, and the same place we’ve eaten 3 of the last 4 nights here. And we had the same Chicken Fried Steak we had before.

What can I say? It’s really good.

After dinner, we headed over to the Wal-Mart Supercenter a couple of miles away.  Jan had a small list of things she hadn’t been able to find during our last two Wal-Mart visits because they weren’t Supercenters.

Coming home and getting near the park, we again saw these strange-looking trees we had wondered about. I thought that maybe they were grafted, and at the park guard house, I found out I was right.

It turns out the trees are English Walnuts, but the lower trunks are Black Walnuts. The English Walnut has a milder taste and is more popular, but the Black Walnut has a stronger root system. So they graft English Walnuts on Black Walnuts for the best of both. So now we know.

Walnut Trees

Walnut Tree Orchard

We’ll probably pull out of our site tomorrow morning about 9:30, dump and hook up, and try to be on the road by 10. We’ll see.


June 3, 2012

A lot of fun, but not very relaxing . . .

Well, trip day started off with a bang, or maybe just a ssssss!  When the sun came up Wednesday morning, I found I had a flat tire on our truck. Bummer! It had been fine when I drove to the rig at midnight to turn in the logs, and my tire pressure alarm had never gone off, but flat it was. So after Jan came on duty at 7am, I got it changed before getting a few hours of sleep before we left.

Our replacement gate guard, Kay Runyon, showed up right on time at 2pm, and after getting her briefed, Jan and I headed for Houston at about 2:45 pm. We were going back to our old home for a couple of days for our granddaughter Piper’s High School Graduation on Thursday night.

Since we knew we wouldn’t be eating supper until about 8 pm, we stopped off at the McDonald’s in Pleasanton for a quick bite, and then it was back on the road. Our first bathroom break was at the Buc-ee’s at the Luling exit on I-10, one of our favorite stops. This place just keeps getting bigger. To give you some idea of how big, they’re installing ANOTHER 40 gas pumps to keep up with demand. And this Buc-ee’s is not the biggest one.

We got into Webster, TX, about 8 pm, just in time to meet Chris, Linda, Piper, and Linda’s sister, Ingrid, for dinner at Mario’s Flying Pizza. It was really good to see everyone again, and after a good meal and great company, Jan and I headed down the road a few blocks to check into our room at the Comfort Suites Hotel. Our son-in-law Lowell’s mother, Sonja, works for Choice Hotels in Oklahoma and was nice enough to get us a Friends and Family Discount there. Thanks, Sonja.

Jan and I were up early the next morning for another busy day. I dropped off my flat tire at a nearby Discount Tires, and then Brandi picked us up at 9 am for Landon’s first trip to the Houston Zoo.

He’s all ready to go.

Houston Zoo 1

He really liked the giraffes.

Houston Zoo 2

So much so, he tried to ride this one.

Houston Zoo 3

And of course, what’s a day at the zoo without ice cream?

Houston Zoo 4

After a fun, but exhausting time for all concerned, and right before the rain started, we headed back down to the Clear Lake area for a late lunch at one of our favorite places, Monterey’s Little Mexico, for some of their great Chicken Tortilla Soup.

It was pouring down rain when we left the restaurant, which didn’t bode well for tonight’s graduation ceremony, which was supposed to be outside in the football stadium. Hopefully, it will work out.

Getting back to our room, Jan and I both had showers, and then luckily, had time for a nap, before meeting everyone at Clear Springs High School to catch a shuttle bus to Clear Creek High School for Piper’s graduation. And Clear Creek High is where Piper’s father, Chris, graduated from, too.

Luckily, the weather had cleared up and the graduation went off outside as scheduled.

Piper Graduation 1

Piper swore later she wasn’t crying, but there seemed to be an awful lot of tearing up, like here,

Piper Graduation 2

and here.

Piper Graduation 3

Finally the big moment.

Piper Graduation 4

And then it’s over.

Piper Graduation 5

The proud graduate.

Piper Graduation 6

Piper Graduation 7

After hugs all around, Piper headed out to party with some friends, and the rest of us headed out to Denny’s for a late supper.

Finally, it was back to the hotel before another early morning the next day. I dropped the truck off at Discount Tires to get the repaired tire mounted while we met everyone for breakfast at the Egg and I, one of our favorite breakfast places. They have a great hazelnut coffee.

Here’s Landon clowning around with Uncle Chris.

Egg and I 1

And whatever’s going on here between Landon and Jan, Landon’s not having any part of it.

Egg and I 2

And it was good to see that Miss Piper hadn’t partied so hardy that she wasn’t bright-eyed and ready to go the next morning.

Egg and I 3

And after a great breakfast together, we said our goodbyes and got in our last hugs, Jan and I got ready to head back to gate guarding. We had a few errands, and then a couple of stops for food to take back with us. BBQ from Rudy’s and Chinese food from King Food, and then it was back on the road.

We got back to our gate about 5:30, and after giving our thanks to Kay, got back into the routine, with Jan taking her usual 6-11 pm shift, while I went to bed for a few hours before coming on from 11 pm to 7 am.

We had a great time, but in a way, it was good to be back here just to get some rest. We were certainly on the go there.


June 3, 2013

It’s Always Something . . .

I had planned to work on my water filter/drinking fountain replacement project today, but another project came to the forefront.

When I was getting us ready for our trip from Likely, CA to Bend, OR, last Friday, I noticed a problem. After I had disconnected the shore water and turned on the water pump. I noticed the pump was pulsing on and off, and water was running back out of the shore water inlet connector. Turning off the pump stopped the water from running out, so I put it on my mental list to look at later.

Getting into Bend and getting set up, I turned on the water pump again before I hooked up the shore water, and this time the pump did not run, and no water ran out. So I finished setting up with no other problems.

But later that night, when I took my shower, the water pressure was really sucky. So the next morning I took a look at the problem. Although the pressure coming out of the faucet didn’t seem too bad, it did seem better at the neighboring sites.

I then called the park ranger and asked him to send someone out to take a look at the problem. A maintenance guy showed up a little while later and found that the underground valve wasn’t turned on all the way. So I was hoping that this would fix the problem. But my late-night shower told me differently. So I was thinking I had a coach problem, but I would have to wait until today to call American Coach.

Calling them this morning, the support guy confirmed what I had wondered about, the check valve on the water input. If it’s not working right, it can let water leak back out, and restrict the water coming in. He told me the check valve is actually part of the inlet connector itself, and is easily replaced.

It only took me about 5 minutes to get the old valve out, but before I worried about replacing it, I wanted to be sure it was the problem. So I headed down to the local hardware store and got an adapter that would let me hook up the water back into the coach. Here’s what I got.

Water Inlet Check Valve

The one on the left is the test adapter without a check valve, and the one on the right is the old one.

I quickly installed the new one and went back inside to check the shower flow, and bask in the glory of a job well done.

Oops!

Although the shower flow might be marginally better, it’s still not as good as when I’m using the pump, and in fact, even when using shore water, turning on the pump makes it better.

So it’s back to square one. I had good water pressure in Likely, so whatever happened, happened in between here and there. Tomorrow it’s back on the phone to American Coach.

Also, tomorrow, a movie and dinner are on the horizon. We’ll see.


June 3, 2015

The Rest Of The Story . . .

as Paul Harvey would say.

After being told by the service manager yesterday that the insurance company was dragging its feet in approving the last couple of items on our repair, I found out that wasn’t the case. As it turns out, everything had already been approved. But apparently it just hadn’t filtered down to the people that needed to know here.

So it looks like we’re on track with the repairs, and just waiting for the airbag and windshield to come in. The only problem that might come up is if they want to start working on it Friday. We’ve already been told that they will have to pull our rig into the shop to replace the windshield and the airbag. I figure the service department doesn’t work on the weekends, and we’ve spent enough time in motel rooms lately without adding a couple of extra days. So hopefully they’ll wait to start on Monday.

They said it would take a couple of days to replace the windshield, and that’s about what it took to replace one last year in Elkhart. But then I remember when I had one replaced in 2009 after we got back from Alaska. The guy came out to our RV site, and with two helpers, had the old one out and the new one installed in about 20 minutes.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that after they had repaired the shredded wiring while we were gone to Illinois, that the grab bar didn’t light up. Although it was working before we left Las Vegas, I figured it was probably a bad bulb.

But when I tried to check it out, I found the top screw on the bracket was stuck and when I tried to remove it, it just wallowed out the slot. So I picked up a screw extractor at True Value and got it out.

And I found that the bulb was bad. But so was the socket. When I hooked up my voltmeter to the connector, I got no voltage reading as I toggled the switch. So today I took the panel off and found the problem.

Grab Bar Switch Problem

There was only a wire going to the center switch. So it’s not going to work very well. I then used my ohmmeter function to determine that the remaining wire ran from the switch to the center contact on the bulb socket. So I’ll have to get the repair place to take a look at it.

For dinner tonight, we had Tomato and Sweet Basil Bisque and Grilled Cheese. For the bisque, we tried a couple of cans of this Campbell’s Slow Kettle soups.

Campbell Slow Kettle Soup

When we were at Sam’s Club the other day we came across a 4 pack of these and for $3.91, decided to give them a try.

And they were really, really good. As good as anything I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Well worth the 98 cents each. We’ll pick up more when we go back to pick up our prescriptions tomorrow.


June 3, 2016

It’s Always Something . . . Again

For us at least, the weather has really been nice here for the last two days. With temps in the high 70’s/low 80’s, and night temps in the high 60’s, it’s been almost perfect.

Once again, the morning and early afternoon were consumed by website work, this time by two different sites, trying to iron out some small fiddly bits, and one bigger one.

I had mentioned before about setting up a MySQL database on one website, and that I was having trouble getting it to work. Well, after talking with GoDaddy today, I confirmed what I was beginning to think.

I can’t get it to work, because it won’t work that way, Or at least the way I’ve always done it before. Godaddy handles PHP code differently from what I’m used to, so I’ll have to come at the problem from a different direction.

Later in the afternoon, our Sharp Convection Oven – Microwave developed a problem. The door won’t open. When you push the button, it feels like it’s not connected to anything, and nothing happens.

Our 17-year-old Sharp has been a workhorse, and this is the first problem we’ve ever had with it. Apparently, this is a somewhat common problem, and repair parts to fix it are only about $18, but first I’ll have to figure out how to get the door open. Hopefully, I’ll find something online to help out. But it’ll have to wait until we’re back at Lake Conroe on Sunday. It’s always something.

About 3 pm, we decided to drive into our daughter Brandi’s in Katy to pick up our Amazon packages. We were going to pick them up tomorrow on our way back from Clear Lake, but one of the packages was the new memory for Barbara Spade’s laptop, and I wanted to be able to run MemTest86 on the new memory before I give it back to Barbara Saturday evening.

So we combined the trip with meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for dinner at Little V Vietnamese Bistro, one of our all-time favorite places.

Their Shaking Beef with Vermicelli Bowl can’t be beat.

Little V's Shaking Beef Vermicelli_thumb[1]

After a great get-together, we got back home about 7pm and I got the new memory installed in Barbara’s laptop and set it up to run MemTest86 all night. I’m not expecting any problems with the new memory, but it helps to be sure.

One of the things that came in today was my new Shurflo RV Water Pump. Another job for Lake Conroe.

Shurflo RV Water Pump_thumb[1]

Shurflo 3.0 GPM  RV Water Pump

Tomorrow is something Jan and I have been looking forward to for a while, especially since we decided not to travel as much this year, meaning we would be here for this.

Jan and I are driving down to Seabrook to attend a NASA/Taft Broadcasting Employee Reunion at T-Bone Tom’s. Taft was the NASA contractor that I worked for on the Shuttle program at Johnson Space Center from 1978 to 1987.

The last time Jan and I met up with a lot of these people was another reunion in 2007, before we started RV’ing. And a few of them I’ve bumped into in the last couple of years. But some of them I haven’t seen since 1987. So it will be interesting to see how old they’ve all gotten.


June 3, 2017

Pancakes and Soup . . .

This morning seemed to be a good time for breakfast, so we headed into RC about 11:30.

Based on a recommendation of blog reader Jeannine Sheridan, we decided on Cambell Street Café. And yes, that’s the way it’s really spelled. And that’s how the street name is spelled.

Cambell Street Cafe

But when you try to Google the place, it changes your spelling to ‘Campbell’, and every review spells it ‘Campbell’ also.

But however it is spelled, it was really, really good, with giant portions. And as a bonus, good coffee, and great service.

Cambell Street Cafe 1

Jan had two eggs, scrambled dry, with extra crispy bacon, hash browns, and a biscuit.

Cambell Street Cafe Jan

I went with their pancakes, eggs, and Polish sausage.

Cambell Street Cafe Greg

Jan and I both ate on the pancakes and didn’t come close to finishing them.

As we were leaving we mentioned to the owner? and our waitress that we were RV’ers and another RV’er had recommended the place. We said that they were having their RV worked on for a month or so,  and had eaten here a number of times.

Both said they remembered them, and our waitress said she had waited on them a lot. So I guess Jeanine and her family made a good impression.

Coming home, we made a Wal-Mart stop before getting back to the rig about 2 pm. At this point, I guess I was still a little washed out from my headache yesterday, so, putting off working on the generator solenoid, I took a nap.

But later I did pull the new solenoid off the new starter to be ready to tackle it tomorrow.

New Solenoid

In a follow-up to my travails with my Verizon MiFi and the data speed throttling, I recently mentioned that after my MiFi had throttled back at 10GB, I had switched over to hotspotting my S8+. And that while I had used up the 10 GB on the MiFi in just seven days, it took me almost three weeks to get to the 10GB limit on my S8+.

And now I’m at almost 20GB on my phone, but I’m still not being throttled. And my MiFi is still throttled, and I guess it will be until June 8th when my account resets.

We’ve been recording the Torchwood marathon on BBCA since 4 am Friday morning, and it finally finished up at 6 pm this evening, so now we’ve got all 37+ hours of the series. Looking forward to binge-watching it in the near future.

But right now we’ve been catching up on a couple of series that we had recorded and saved, Motive and Murder in the First. Somewhere along the line, we had missed one or more of the last few episodes of both series, So we’ve streamed the missing episodes from the Internet, filling in the blanks, and then watched the ones we still have recorded. We’ve finished with Murder in the First, so now we’re working on Motive.

Jan slow-cooked a big batch of her Chicken Vegetable Soup, so that’s what we had for dinner. Really good, as usual.

Jan's Chicken Vegetable Soup 3

Tomorrow, back on the solenoid?


June 3, 2022

A Busy Three Days . . .

It’s been a busy three days.

Wednesday, we were in Birmingham getting together with old friends, Bill and Carol Alverson.

Bill and I worked as Broadcast Engineers at several radio and TV stations here in Birmingham back in the mid-70’s, and we always get together when we’re back in the area. And it’s always fun.

Then yesterday, we moved down to Montgomery and got together with Fred and Susan Springall

About 6 pm, we headed over to the home of our long-time friends Fred and Susan Springall. Fred and I worked together in the mid-70’s when we were both with Storer Cable here in Montgomery, which later became TCI, which later became 3 or 4 other companies along the way.

Susan prepared a delicious Lasagna dinner with salad and garlic bread, one of our favorites. And we spent the rest of the evening talking about anything and everything.

Fun!

Then today we met one of Jan’s former co-workers, Kathy Wilkes, also from when we lived here in Montgomery, until we moved out to Houston in December 1978.

And as in the past, we met at the Longhorn Steakhouse up in Prattville, near where Kathy lives.

As I just reminded Jan the other day, it’s been almost 44 years since we moved out to Houston, and we’re still getting together with friends from back in the day.

Tomorrow we head down to Gulf Shores to meet up with the rest of the family, Jan’s sister’s group coming down from Illinois, and our group coming over from Texas.

Really looking forward to it.

I’ve got some more things to post that went on the last few days, but it’s getting late, so I’ll catch up later.


June 3, 2023

Guess They Ran Out Of Ducks . . .

Today was a quiet, easy one. Just lunch at Walk-Ons once again, and then home.

And it seems we’ve both already picked out our go-to dishes after only 3 visits here.

Jan got her usual Tuscan Chicken with a Side Salad,

while I got a cup of the Chicken & Sausage Gumbo

and the Avery Island Salad.

With Blackened Jumbo Shrimp, Granny Smith Apples, Candied Pecans, Bacon, Bleu Cheese Crumbles, and a Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette, it’s probably the best salad I’ve ever had.

Last time we were here, the gumbo was Duck & Sausage, but I guess they ran out of ducks, because now it’s just plain Chicken. Though, as I said, I couldn’t really taste the Duck.

And I’m not sure I would know what duck tastes like anyway.

Finishing up, we were back home by 2:30.

The,n while Jan watered her plants and swept the patio, I planted the Flag Spotlight and plugged it in using one of my computer-controlled switches like this.

Not only can I control the light from Alexa and a phone app, but I can also set a schedule so that the spotlight comes on at 8 pm, a little before sundown, and goes off at 6:30, a little after sunrise.

Later, after it was good and dark, I went outside and aimed the light a little better.

And this is what it looks like.


June 3, 2024

It Was The 3rd Of June . . .

Another Sleepy, Dusty, Delta Day.

My right leg was really bothering me, so I didn’t go into work this morning. I would have only been there a couple of hours before I had to leave for my dermatologist appointment.

I think my problem is a result of all the getting up and down stuff I did while I was fixing our toilet, but it will pass.

Since we wanted to get some groceries today, Jan went with me to my appointment, and after about 3 dozen squirts of liquid nitrogen on my head, I was done and we we on our way.

We hadn’t been there in a while, but our lunch decision was Cookshack for Chicken Tenders.

Jan got the 3 Tenders version and I got the 5 Tenders, both with Fries.

I told Jan that, though it’s been about 18 months since we’ve been here, it sure seems that the tenders are a lot smaller now. And when I got home and checked, I was right. This is what 5 Tenders looked like back in late 2022.

Shrinkflation much?

I got my Tenders Texas Hot, which is the hottest standard heat. They do have AMF, which stands for Adios M…. F…. and requires you to sign a waiver saying you won’t sue if you die.

I’ve had both AMF 1 and 2, and they are HOT. Though I’m not sure I could tell the difference between the two

Finishing up, we made a HEB stop for some things. I’m always impressed when there are more than a couple of people in each line at the checkouts, a manager will jump in and open another register.  And they always have a lot more registers open than the Wal-Mart across the road.

I checked this morning, and I do have a can of Freon. In fact I have two, so I’m good to go for hopefully fixing the Jeep’s A/C tomorrow.

Found this on FB recently.

But it seems in London, they have a different idea for Back To School Student Discounts.

Saw this at a drug store when we were over there in 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

More Chores . . .

Remember, to access our blog links,
Right-Click on The Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’

Finally finishing reairing a machine I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks, first waiting to hear back from the owner, and then waiting on parts. Glad to have it off the bench.

Now on to the next one.

Tomorrow’s going to be a stay-at-home, chore day, and it looks like the weather will hold this time, unlike last week.

But the whole chore thing started this afternoon when I brought home 4 bags of ice to use while we defrost our fridge. And be about 8 pm, it was done.

Now just waiting for the temp to pull down, and we’ll restock.

But because we didn’t want to dig through the ice chests for dinner, I internetted an order to our local Santa Fe Sonic and picked Chili Cheese Dogs, Corn Dogs, and Ched ‘R’ Peppers.

YUM!


Thought For The Day:

Some days I’m really happy that my horoscope says: “Please don’t kill anyone today”.


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2009 – Our Blog’s Gone Viral

2013 – Replumbing and Baldy’s BBQ in Bend, OR

2017 – Solenoids and Hojos . . .

2020 – Getting Plucked . . .

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


June 2, 2009

Our Blog has gone viral!…

A friend of ours told us last week that her son’s teacher was showing the class some funny photos online, and before showing one, said that this one was her favorite…

And it was us!!!!

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Someone had posted it here…

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/?p=1402

on May 8th.  We don’t know who posted it, but we love the comments down below.  Be sure and scroll down to read them.

I had originally posted it to our blog here…

https://ourrvadventures.com/2009/04/13/

on April 13th.

Our friend’s son Spencer said everyone was really laughing at the picture, and then he said, “I think I know those people”, and everyone laughed even harder.

We might not have ever known about it being posted except for Spencer seeing it in his class.

Now that’s really a coincidence

And now for something completely different…

Today turned out to be a rainy, hang-around-the-coach day.  Then, about 5 pm, we headed over to the coach of some new friends we made here, Al and Jan, to go out to dinner at El Leoncito Mexican/Cuban Restaurant here in Titusville.


June 2, 2010

Casper WY…

We left Gillette about 9:45, heading for Casper, WY about 185 miles away. All of the 3 other remaining coaches were leaving also.

The trip was smooth and pretty uneventful, which is good. We did see a lot of pronghorn antelope along the way, along with a lot of great scenery.

WyomingMtns 1

WyomingMtns 2

We arrived at Fort Caspar (Yes, that’s the way it was originally spelled) Campground and got set up.

Fort Casper 1

Fort Casper 2

Although it’s pretty plain, it is a Passport America park, so it’s cheap. It’s also level, with good power and water pressure. All things considered, you can’t really ask for much more when you’re only staying one night.

The funny thing is that there are 3 other American coaches here from the rally we just left, including the one right next to us.

About 3 pm, we headed out for a late lunch at Sanford’s Grub and Pub, just like Humphrey’s that we ate at the the other day in Gillette. They’re a small chain of about 9 restaurants here in WY, ND, and CO.

And they are really good. There’s another one in Rawlins, WY where we’ll be about lunchtime tomorrow, but it’s downtown, so we’ll have to see if we can find a parking space.

Tomorrow we’ll head out for Rock Springs, WY about 230 miles away, where we’ll stay for one night at the Rock Springs KOA.


June 2, 2011

Pools and Taillights . . .

Our son-in-law Lowell sent pics of Landon’s new swimming pool in the backyard.

Landon Pool

Looks like Landon is all ready for the summer.

I was up about 10:30, and after coffee and a Cinnamon Crunch muffin from Sam’s Club, I caught up on Internet stuff for a while.

Later, we headed up to Yuba City about 2 pm so I could pick a new tail light converter. The local U-Haul dealer said on the phone they had one, but I wasn’t sure they understood what I was talking about as far as ‘powered’ vs. ‘unpowered’.

On the 25-mile trip north, we also scouted out possible cappuccino locations later. Since we didn’t get cappuccinos yesterday, we really needed the warm solace of that rich confection to soothe our fragile bodies. Well, bodies, anyway.

On the way to the U-Haul I saw an O’Reilly Auto Parts so I decided to check there also. They didn’t have a powered converter, but they did have something else I was looking for

Tail light Tester

A tail light tester. This goes inline with your hookup and shows you if the lights are working coming from the coach.

Getting the tester, we next stopped at the U-Haul place right down the road. And, as it turns out, they did have the powered converter I wanted.

U-Haul Tail light Converter

In case you’re wondering, (or even if you’re not), a powered converter has a separate 12v line feeding into the box that supplies the power to the lights in the vehicle being towed. An unpowered converter uses the rig’s lighting system to also power the toad’s lights. This can overload the coach lights, possibly burn out the turn signal flasher, and cause all the lights to be dimmer than they should be.

Leaving the U-Haul, we stopped by the Post Office and then headed back over to the Lumberjack’s Restaurant that we ate at on Tuesday after we got here.

This time, both Jan and I had the Chicken Fried Steak. And it was just as good as last time. This is a great restaurant.

When we went in to eat, I took the instruction sheet for the converter in with me. And discovered that I now didn’t need the tester I got at O’Reilly because this powered converter had one built in. So after dinner, we went back by there to return it and get my money back.

Hey, $8.49 is $8.49!

Coming home, we stopped at a Chevron station and rewarded ourselves with the craved cappuccinos since we’d had such a rough day.

Later, back at the rig, I installed and tested the new converter box while Jan supervised.

Well, watched, anyway. And held tools.

Jan is good at holding tools, too.

As I mentioned above, we’ll be leaving on Saturday to head up to the Mt. Shasta area, and then on to Crater Lake for a couple of weeks. Looking forward to it.


June 2, 2013

If you didn’t know better, you’d think they were brand new . . .

After coffee this morning, Jan read her Kindle, and I tried to figure out how I wanted to hook up the replacement drinking fountain that I bought back in Reno, NV, a couple of weeks ago.

Home Depot Drinking Faucet

I had put it off because I also had a Filtrete Under-Sink Advanced Water Filter, and I figured if I had to pull everything out from under the sink and then crawl under there, I’d rather only do it once.

3M Filtrete 3US-PS01

But I wanted to figure out the best way to hook it in place of the old Omnipure in-line filter that I was replacing. After thinking about it over coffee, I figured that if I just got some adapters that would go from the 3/8” tubing of the new filter to the quick-connect fittings on the old filter, that would do it.

Water Filter Connector

If I could find an adapter like that, I could just plug the new filter’s tubing into the old quick-connect sockets and be done with it.

So I’ll make a stop at Lowe’s this afternoon and see if I can come up with something that will work.

Later in the morning, Jan talked to both of our kids. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon are getting settled into their new house, and Chris, Linda, and Piper are in the process of moving into our house. Hopefully, we’ll be able to Skype with Master Landon next weekend.

About 2:30, Jan and I headed into Bend for some shopping and dinner. Our first stop was up north of Bend at the local Lowe’s to see if I could find the adapter that I needed. And after a little sniffing around the plumbing section, I found exactly what I wanted.

Water Filter Adapter

The tubing from the new filter slips into one end and locks, just like one of those old Chinese finger traps. Then the quick-connect adapter snaps into the other end.

Easy Peazy.

Or at least it seems that way right now. How it goes tomorrow might be a whole ‘nother story.

Leaving Lowe’s, we headed over to a place that we’ve been anticipating since we got here.

Baldy’s BBQ

Baldy

You’ve just got to love a guy with a hairline like that.

Although it’s a BBQ place, I know from past experience that their steaks are fantastic. So I went with the 16oz Ribeye with fries, beans, Cole Slaw, and honey-jalapeno cornbread.

Baldys Ribeye

Just as delicious as last time.

Jan went old-school with a full rack of their great ribs. Along with the beans and Cole Slaw, she got the chipotle potato salad. Notice when they say a ‘full rack’, they mean it. When means Jan has plenty of leftovers to take home.

Jan's Baldy's Combo

We also had a good time talking to our waitress, Kalani, whose in-laws are RV’ers, and are presently at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails park in Cottonwood, AZ, one of our favorite areas too.

Completely stuffed, we headed home with a stop at Fred Meyer’s (that’s Kroger’s out here on the West Coast) for a few things before getting back to the park about 6:30. We stopped off at the produce stand, but they were out of the fresh cherries Jan wanted, so we’ll have to try again later.

As we came further into the park, we came across a flatbed trailer behind a semi that had these two beautifully-restored old trucks. Ironically, I had seen this truck coming south on US97 as we were heading north into Bend this afternoon. So it was really great to be able to get a closer look.

This is a Ford C500 COE (cab over engine), Based on my internet research, I think it’s about a 1955 model.

Ford C500 Truck

This one says Hall-Scott on the side, but I think it might actually be a Kenworth, with a Hall-Scott engine. Hall-Scott was mainly an engine manufacturer, though they started out building self-powered rail cars in 1910.

Hall-Scott Truck

I wish I had been able to get a look inside, but anyway, these are really neat.

Tomorrow I’ll see how the filter/faucet install goes.


June 2, 2014

Bad Knees and Lost Watches . . .

My knee seems to be pretty much back to normal, so we walked this morning but kept it to half a mile to see how my knee was going to do.

Getting back to the rig, we sat outside and had our coffee and finished off the last of the cheesy bread we had leftover from Mancino’s Pizza.

A little later we were joined by Phyllis and Dick Schell, blog readers and friends we first met years ago at a rally. We sat out there talking and laughing until almost 1:30 when a rain shower chased us inside.

But we did make a dinner date for El Maguey tonight.

I never did make it down to the Verizon store today, and I still haven’t restored my contact list. But that’s probably because I didn’t even try to fool with it. One reason is that I’m still thinking about just going ahead and upgrading to a Galaxy S5. I’ve had my Samsung Charge since August 2011, so it’s probably about time. We’ll see how it plays out.

During our walk this morning, we found a watch along the roadway that I turned into Gita at the park office. It was in good shape and still running, and had a blue woven band. It looks like the pin on the band just came loose, and it fell off.

Later in the afternoon, we got some heavy rain, with more to come. It’s part of the cold front coming through, giving us highs in the 70’s tomorrow and the 60’s on Wednesday.

It’s June. Where’s summer?

About 4:30 we teamed up with Phyllis and Dick Schell, and we all headed over to El Maguey for dinner. And like usual, when you get a bunch of RV’ers together, we did as much talking as eating. A good thing.

Tomorrow, the Verizon store. Maybe.


June 2, 2015

We Have Neighbors . . .

After a morning of doing totally nothing (very nice), we headed out about 3pm for an afternoon of shopping and dining. Well, more like Sam’s/Wal-Mart and Chinese.

As we were getting in the truck to leave, the Service Manager stopped by to let us know that everything was waiting on the insurance end before they could proceed. Hopefully, that will get resolved quickly.

Our first stop was at the local Sam’s Club, mostly for prescriptions, which turned out to be kind of a bust, since they only had 3 of the 6 ready. So we’ll have to come back tomorrow. Figure I’ll also fill up when we come back since Sam’s is pretty much the cheapest gas around. In fact we plan on filling up with diesel there on our way out of town, whenever that is.

Then it was back over this way to have dinner at Beijing Garden, one of only a few Chinese places in the area, and the one with the best ratings on Yelp.

Like many places, Beijing Garden’s ratings seem to range from 1 star to 4 or 5 stars, with not a lot in between.

Beijing Garden is in a nondescript location in a Safeway shopping center, but we weren’t discouraged since some of our favorite places are in locations like this.

Beijing Garden 3

The inside, however, is light and airy, and nicely decorated. Someone has a real sense of style.

Beijing Garden 1

After looking over the menu, we both decided on the same dish, the Orange Peel Spicy Crispy Chicken Dinner.

Beijing Garden 2

With the meal, we got Hot and Sour Soup, an Egg Roll, 2 Crab Puffs, and Hot Tea. A great deal for only $11.95 each. And it was all really good. And such a large portion that we didn’t even have room to split a Green Tea Ice Cream as we had planned.

One thing we noticed is how many regulars came in while we were there. The hostess seems to know them all by name, always a good sign.

A great place. We’ll go back.

Then it was right next door to Wal-Mart for some supplies. After all, it’s not a complete week if we don’t go to Wal-Mart. Finally coming back to the rig, we made a quick stop at the Fry’s across the street for a couple of things we didn’t find at Wal-Mart.

We apparently now have neighbors here at the Affinity RV Park. They have a 2015 Jayco Precept, a small Class A. I was at the service desk while they were checking in and heard the wife say that “Nothing worked.” They’re parked at the other end of the row from us, so maybe we’ll stop off and introduce ourselves tomorrow.


June 2, 2016

Doing Our Part . . .

For those of you trying to avoid having Windows 10 crammed down your throat . . . er computer, there’s a new scam going around from Microsoft. And unless you know how to respond, you’ll get Windows 10 no matter what you do.

I even saw this Tuesday night when I was cleaning out Barbara’s laptop. After running CCleaner and rebooting, I got an MS pop-up telling me I could install Win10 right now or put it off until tonight. No option to turn it down. Just the two choices, now or later.

Of course, there is that little ‘X’ in the upper right corner. That’ll kill it, right?

Well, No!

Clicking the ‘X’ does make the window go away, of course, but it also does the same thing as clicking the “Install Later” button. So if you leave your computer on tonight, or tomorrow morning when you wake up, you’ll be running Win10 whether you want to or not.

After you see the pop-up, you only have two options, both of which I’ve mentioned before.

First, you can let it install and then click “I Don’t Agree” at the Terms & Conditions prompt. This will cause Windows 10 to uninstall itself back to Win7, 8, or 8.1, wherever you started from. Then download and run Never10 so it won’t happen again. Because if you don’t, it will.

Or second, you can tell the pop-up to install Win10 later tonight, and then immediately run Never10.

I again spent the morning and afternoon working on client website stuff, actually on two different sites at the same time. But hey, it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.

Well, maybe just off the streets.

About 4:30, Jan and I drove into Columbus to have dinner at Whataburger, our first visit since we were here at Lake Conroe the last time. And that’s way too long.

And even better, they got the order exactly right. Regular readers will remember my trials and tribulations with the Whataburger in Carthage, TX, while we were gate guarding last year. But this time, I got the young lady to start with a plain #6 with cheese, and then had her add the things we wanted.

What they normally try to do is to subtract mentally what you don’t want from their standard condiments, and then add back the other stuff you do want. So you just know something’s going to go wrong. And it usually does.

But tonight it was perfect. And delicious.

Before heading home, we drove across the street to pick up a few things at the HEB, and then made a fuel stop on our way back to the rig.

Wrapping for the night, I came across an article recently that talk about what seniors regretted the most in their life. Turns out to be not traveling enough.

Biggest Regrets For Seniors

All I can say is that Jan and I are doing our part.  How about you?


June 2, 2017

Solenoids and Hojos . . .

First off, the photo problem with yesterday’s blog has been fixed. I didn’t have time to fix it this morning before we left the rig. Still don’t know what caused the problem, but the link to the photos was messed up in the blog, and the photo itself didn’t get uploaded to the blog like it should have. I did check the blog after I posted it, but didn’t go down far enough to notice the missing photos in the middle. Sorry about that.

Once again, we were out the door a little before 9am, heading for Gillette, WY, about 125 miles away. But our first stop was the Mobil station right before we got on I-90.

We needed gas for the trip, and also wanted to check the place out to get diesel for the rig when we leave here . . . well, whenever we leave here.

We’re booked here until Tuesday the 6th, but we may stay until the following Saturday. We’ll see. But it does look like the Mobil station would be an easy in/easy out for the rig, and plenty of room to hitch up the toad.

Our road trip to Gillette was two-fold, or maybe three-fold. I wanted to pick up a specially-ordered part for our rig’s Onan generator, we wanted to eat at Humphrey’s, a favorite restaurant of ours, and on the way home, take a detour out to Devil’s Tower on the way home.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

We were picking up a new starter/solenoid for our generator. A couple of months ago we tried to use our generator and it wouldn’t start. In fact , it wouldn’t even crank. Normally, the start switch on the dashboard flashes as the generator cranks, but nothing this time.

My first check was the big 300-amp fuse in the battery bay that feeds the 12 volts to the generator.

Generator 300 Amp fuse

But it was fine, so while I was there, I took it apart and cleaned and wire-brushed the contacts.

Then it was on to the connections to the generator itself, and for that, I had to crawl under the rig. After checking that I had 12 volts there I disconnected the 300 amp fuse. Then I cleaned and wire-brushed those connections too.

Generator 12 volt  Connections 1

Generator 12 volt  Connections

After hooking everything back up, I stayed underneath with my voltmeter and had Jan try to crank the generator while I checked the voltage at the connections. Starting with 13.2 volts, it dropped to about 12 volts when she tried to crank it. So something was doing something.

I had noticed that when I was trying to crank it from the generator itself, the light in the switch was flashing, and I could hear the slight clicking for a few seconds as the fuel pump pressurized the system.

After I finally tracked down the full-service manual for the unit, I used that to translate the error code that the button light was flashing. And that code indicated “Low Cranking Speed.”

Well, duh!

How about NO cranking speed?

But one thing I noticed was that I never heard anything from the starter, OR the solenoid.

Now every solenoid I’ve ever fooled with makes a click or clunk of some kind when it’s engaged. So I put my hand on the solenoid while I tried to crank it and didn’t feel anything either.

And since I had power to the contacts on the solenoid, I was going with a bad solenoid.

But I quickly found out that Cummins/Onan no longer sells the solenoid separately, but only with the starter as a complete unit. And it was $140 and a special order. Hence, our trip to Gillette.

Then, after picking up our starter, we headed into downtown Gillette to have lunch at Humphrey’s Bar & Grill, a really good place where we’ve eaten a number of times.

Humphrey's

Humphrey’s has one of those eclectic themes with a little bit of everything on the walls and hanging from the ceiling.

Humphrey's 1

Jan had the Easy Cheesy Burger, a 1/2 pound sirloin burger with sautéed onions and mushrooms, covered in nacho cheese sauce, along with fries.

Humphrey's Jan

For me, I went with the 1/2 pound sirloin burger with crispy bacon and cheese, along with Hojo potatoes. Hojos start with a whole potato, which is then sliced into 4 or so thick pieces, and then battered and deep-fried to order, and served with sour cream.

Humphrey's Greg

Really good, and very crispy-crunchy on the outside with a soft center.

After a great meal, we got back on the road toward home about 12:30. As I said before, we had planned on doing Devil’s Tower along the way, but as we left Cummins and headed toward Humphrey’s, I started getting a headache that just kept getting worse.

So with that, and the fact that it poured down rain a good part of the way home, we decided to postpone our visit to another day. We had visited here in 2008, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

After taking some Advil as we left Humphrey’s, and a two-hour nap after we got home, I was on the mend. My version of Jan’s migraines, I guess.

Tomorrow I’ll start working on getting the solenoid replaced.

Onan New Starter


June 2, 2018

Penny Doesn’t Work There Anymore. . .

She’s in Pharmaceutical Sales now.

Jan and I spent part of the morning going over all the things we need to get done before we leave on our trip on the 21st.  We’ve got almost three weeks, but it will go fast.

Jan and I  headed up to our son Chris’ house about 3:30. We were also meeting up with Brandi and Lowell who were bringing down a bunch of furniture in their Tundra.

Chris had gone up to Katy this morning to bring Landon back down so they could spend the day hanging out together. Then we were all meeting up for dinner.

Chris and Landon spent the day building the Eiffel Tower from a Lego kit like this.

Landon Lego Effiel Tower Box

with this as the result.

Landon Lego Effiel Tower

Of course, Landon, never the one to do things the easy way, then made this drawing,

Landon Effiel Tower Drawing

and then constructed his own model from cardboard.

Landon Effiel Tower

The kid’s got some talents.

While we were there, we looked over the furniture that both Chris and Brandi want to give to Jan’s sister Debbie, who we’ll be visiting on our trip later this month. We’re going to take as much as we can of it with us in the RV and the truck, so I wanted to get some idea of how much we were talking about.

Finally, about 4:30 we all headed down to the Baybrook Mall area to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The last time Jan and I ate here was in 2013, so it was good to be back.

It was just Brandi, Lowell, Landon, Chris, and Jan and I, since Linda had to work and Miss Piper was in Florida with her boyfriend.

Jan and I both had the Tuscan Chicken, with Grilled Chicken Breast, Tomatoes, Artichokes, Capers, Fresh Basil with Balsamic Vinaigrette, and served over fresh vegetables.

Cheesecake Factory Tuscan Chicken

Really, really good.

Brandi and Chris had steak, Lowell had the Orange Chicken, and Master Landon had the spaghetti.

Then Chris, Lowell and Brandi got cheesecake to go, but Jan and I were just too full to even think about it.

Saying our goodbyes, we made Sam’s Club and WalMart before getting home about 8pm.

Another very nice day.


June 2, 2019

Well, I Tried . . .

I spent the morning and early afternoon trying to get the new website configured and set up for my client. Without a lot of luck.

I have a working version of it over on my Godaddy account, so my idea was to just migrate it over to my client’s cPanel account using GoDaddy’s Import function.

Easy Peazy, Right?

But, no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get it to work.

I kept getting errors that didn’t really make any sense. Like “Not enough disk space to create 1MB file.” But this was shown on the source area, not on the destination area, where you would think that it would be creating files.

And besides, both areas have over 1GB of disk space. so what’s the problem? So after trying different things, and getting different error messages, none of which made any sense either, I put in a call to Godaddy Tech Support.

And after going round and round, with Richard, the tech guy, talking to a number of higher-level techs, it turns out no one even knows where that function came from.

Or when it came.

And looking at the way it was supposed to work, they said there was no way it could. And that it must have been left over from some previous software version, and not been deleted when it should have been.

Oh well. I knew it was too easy.

So now it looks like I’ll have to set it up from scratch, install the SQL databases, and then configure it. Something I was trying to avoid, if possible.

Well, I tried.

Around 4, we drove over to the Victory Lakes area to have breakfast/dinner at Denny’s, our first time since we got back last Sunday. Great as always. Coming home, we made a stop at the Sam’s Club and the WalMart in Texas City, trying to find Joint Juice for Jan. But just like yesterday’s Sam’s Club/WalMart up in Webster, no one had it in stock.

As we were leaving, I noticed the line of cars wrapped around the Murphy/WalMart gas station, and then quickly saw why. They were selling unleaded at $1.99/gal.

Now, just yesterday, I paid $2.27 at the Sam’s Club in Webster, and thought I was getting a good deal, since everywhere else had it for $2.39 – $2.49. So I don’t know if it’s a gas war down there, or what.

But since I just filled up yesterday, I couldn’t take advantage of it. Darn!

After it had cooled a little, I went outside about 7pm to take a look at my radiator problem. But as I was adding water to the radiator, it suddenly dawned on me that the truck had been sitting there for a month without being started, and might not start now.

And it didn’t. And when I put the charger on it, it said the battery was at 6.9 volts. So it’s probably toast long term.

But finally, just as the sun was going down, I got it to start. So I’ll take a look at it tomorrow.

Well, I tried.


June 2, 2020

It’s Back . . .

My BPPV had almost faded away yesterday, so I expected it to be completely gone this morning, as it has done in the past. But when I got up this morning, it was back in spades, actually worse than it was when it started Sunday morning. But by late this afternoon, it had disappeared completely.

Well, it looks like DirecTV’s DNS (Distant Network Service) service hasn’t gone away, at least completely. So far, we’ve only lost ABC east and west, and CW east and west.

According to this, DirecTV made some sort of side deal with CBS, NBC, and Fox. Apparently, they got so many complaints, cancellations, and threatened cancellations, that they’re trying to keep it working. Because it’s not just RV’ers that use the DNS. It’s also long-haul truckers, isolated ranchers, and even full-time boaters.

But Jan and I are still looking for a DirecTV alternative. And so far the one that keeps bubbling to the top of the list is the YouTube TV streaming service.

It has over 70 channels, including all the local networks, and all the other channels we normally watch, except for History and WGN. But those two are not very heavy on our watch/record list. And we can stream them online on other free services.

It also gives you 6 accounts that you can share with family members, 3 simultaneous streams, and the best part, unlimited cloud DVR space. Well, actually, the real best part is that it’s only $49.99 per month, about a third of what we pay for DirecTV. And it has a 2-week free trial.

The 3 simultaneous streams thing means that though you can have 6 accounts, only 3 can actually be used at one time, so not a problem for us. And though you have unlimited DVR space, it will only let you keep recordings for 9 months. Again, not a problem, since if we haven’t watched something we recorded 9 months ago, we probably shouldn’t have recorded it anyway.

But strangely, you can’t actually delete a DVR recording anyway. They all just hang around for 9 months until they go away.

Of course, not having DirecTV would be a problem if we were still traveling full-time, since most parks aren’t like this one, and are able to support streaming. But we can put our DirecTV on suspension for up to 6 months at a time, so that’s what we’ll probably do rather than just cancel it outright.

That will take care of us 2 or 3 times a year when we travel now. We’ll just turn it back on for a month and then suspend it again.

I mentioned that last Thursday we had tried to go to Pluckers for wings, but the wait was too long before Jan had her pedi-appointment. So we went across the Interstate to get wings at Hooter’s. So today we took another shot at Pluckers. And boy was the difference obvious.

And it wasn’t just the fact that they checked our temps before we were allowed in. The big difference was the size of the wings, or drums, in my case.

Hooter's Wings

This is a 10-drum order from Hooters. I even mentioned to Jan how small they looked, only about 2-1/2 inches long.

And this is a 10 drum order from Pluckers.

Plucker's Wings 2

Looks like the Hooters chickens have been on a diet. The Pluckers drums were over an inch longer. And I really liked the Maple Chipotle sauce.

Sweet and Hot. Just like my Jan.


June 2, 2021

SwitchBot Bot . . .

Today at work was mostly trying to think of things that I need to do before we leave on Monday, making sure plenty of product labels are printed up, cables made up, etc.

I also installed another Switchbot Bot Switch on the AC back in the shipping department. It’s high up on the wall, and the remote is kind of funky.

Switchbot Bot

But the real reason is so that we can automate the On/Off schedule, so that it comes on earlier in the morning before anyone comes into work. As the days are getting hotter here in Texas, it helps if the AC can get a head start on the day.

A few weeks ago, I installed one on the A/C in the lobby and it’s been working great. It turns the AC on at 8:45 am and off at 4:45pm each weekday, and on at 11am and off at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday.

So it was quick and easy to program the one back in the shipping area for the same times.

We’ve had one on our coffee pot for a couple of years now, for the same reason.

Coffee Pot Bot

It starts coffee at 7:40am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when I get up early for work, and 9:40am on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday when I get up later.

Yes, the coffee pot has a delayed start function on it, but it can’t handle the different times on different days thing, plus we have enough momentary power glitches here that clear the clock function on the Mr. Coffee.

In case it’s not really clear, the Switchbot Bot is a computer-controlled button pusher. When it’s activated, a little lever comes out for a few seconds and then retracts.

You can get a better idea from this video.

Switchbot Bot Switch

A really neat, versatile product.

Tomorrow we’ll try to start wrapping up all the things we need to do before we leave on Monday. But at least it will get off to a good start with lunch at the Texas Huddle Grill and one of their great PB&J Bacon Ghost Pepper Cheese Burgers.

Texas Huddle Grille PB&J Burger 20210422

YUM!


June 2, 2023

I Even Have A Backup Coffee Pot . . .

Our regular readers know that I’m big on Backups. On pretty much everything.

Computers, tools, you name it. I’ve probably got a spare tucked away somewhere.

And now coffee pots.

The other night, as I was filling our coffee pot at the faucet, I accidentally bumped it into the sink, breaking it into a lot of glass shards. So it looked like no coffee for us in the morning.

Oh, the horror!

But then I remembered that a while back, when our old Mr. Coffee had died, I had wrapped up the pot in an old towel and tucked it away in the back of a bathroom cabinet. It took me a few minutes to dig it out, but we didn’t go without coffee the next morning, and I saved the $20+ to buy a new one on Amazon.

After I put out our flag for Memorial Day, I liked the look of it so much, especially when the wind was blowing, that I decided to keep it up.

But, of course, leaving it up all the time, day or night, rain or shine, I needed to light it at night.

So I found this LED spotlight on Amazon.

Flag Spotlight

I’ll put it on a computer-controlled timer so it only turns on at night.

I got the strut balls in today

and it looks like the ball end is the perfect size. However, I think the threaded end may be too large. I can enlarge the hole on the bracket, but I’m afraid that won’t leave enough metal to hold it firmly.

I’ll check it out tomorrow and let you know.


June 2, 2024

If It’s Not One Thing . . .

It’s Another.

I was on my way up to Katy about noon today, to retrieve my wife. She’s been gone for the last week while I fought (and won) the Toilet War. But the thrill of victory was short-lived as I was attacked on a different front.

I had noticed this past Sunday that the Jeep’s A/C seemed to be running kind of weak. And then today, just as I got on the Tollway, the A/C coolness just faded away. Since it was a gradual loss, I’m hoping it’s just low Freon. I’ve got hoses, and I think I’ve got a can of Freon in the back of the Jeep, so I’ll look at it Tuesday morning before we head out.

Should only take about 15 minutes. If that’s what the problem is. Here’s hoping.

Getting to Brandi’s, Landon challenged me to a game of chess. Jan said that he’s been playing people at school, and he’s pretty good. And she was right.

Now the last time I really played much chess was 60+ years ago when I was about Landon’s age. So ‘rusty’ doesn’t really describe it.

However, I gave him a good run, and held my own for a good while, but he finally wore me down, piece by piece.

I also got a chance to check out Brandi’s new office chair (I really like it) and couldn’t help but notice her monitor setup.

She works remotely from home, and says she has a different program running on each one.

Tipping my King over, Jan and I headed up to La Centerra to have lunch at Grimaldi’s Pizza once again, and it was nice that Meg, our server, remembered us.

I guess that means we’re memorable. Though I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.

We started off a little differently this time, with the Apple Walnut Salad, rather than the House version.

Really good.

Next was our 18” The Don Pizza, with Meatballs, Italian Sausage, and Pepperoni, to which we added Bacon, Ham, and Mushrooms.

Delicious!

We always get the large one, so we can eat half and have half to take home. Finally got home about 4:30.

So glad to have my Jan back home.

Last Friday, I posted these photos of the flooding we had here in the park.

And here’s what our mini-retention pond looks like today.

And here’s what our ‘crick’ looked like then,

And here’s what it looks like today.

But everything’s really green now, anyway.

Tomorrow I’ve got my 2024 Dermatology appointment, a yearly procedure since my Squamous Cell Skin Cancer scare back in 2014. I’ve still got the divot in my head to show for it.

Dr. Joe uses a nitrogen squirt gun to freeze off anything that looks suspicious, or even one that might be suspicious someday. So far, no recurrence.