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First up, I want to thank our many readers for the get-wells and best wishes for my recent medical procedure. I’m doing fine and will be getting the stitches out next Thursday.
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Our Tower of London Guardsman Duck made it from across the pond.
and will soon take a place of honor on our Jeep’s dashboard.
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I finally got our new shower rack put together this morning, and as usual, I ignored the directions and put it together in a different way, but one that works better for us.
But it looks nicer than our old one.
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Once we got the correct-sized tips forthem, Jan really likes her new JBL Earbuds.
And so far, we haven’t had to recharge the storage case.
Check’em out.
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Tomorrow looks to be fairly busy for us with haircuts at 11 am, followed up by some tests at one of Jan’s doctors, ending up over in Bacliff at Doggone Crazy for lunch.
Thought For The Day:
Our grandparents and great-grandparents basically won WWII in less than 5 years from almost a dead start with a USA population of only 140 million people.
Between 1940 and 1945, they built around 310,000 airplanes, 124,000 military ships, 100,000 tanks and armored vehicles, 2,400,000 Cars, Jeeps, and trucks and 41,000 large guns and howitzers. Plus 2,700 Liberty Ships for hauling cargo.
In 1930-1931, they built the Empire State Building in only 410 days.
But we have now been informed that it will take 5 years to replace Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.
And it only took 4-1/2 years to build it originally.
What’s up with that?
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2010 – On To Draper, UT
2014 – NASA-JSC Reunion
2017 – Onan Generator Starter Repair
2018 – Printheads And Soundbars
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
June 4, 2009
Mojitos & Rainbows…
We left Titusville this morning about 10:45 am, heading north for St. John’s RV Park in St. Augustine, FL.
Since we were traveling up US 1 instead of taking I-95, I figured that the 105-mile trip would take 3-4 hours since we were going to be driving through traffic. But the trip was only about 2 1/2 hours. It was 4 lanes all the way and the traffic was much lighter than I had expected.
St. John’s is a nice little park with concrete pads and long sites. And again, since it’s Passport America we’re only paying $15.00 a night.
St. John’s RV Park
After we got settled in and hooked up, we headed out for a late lunch at a place that some friends had recommended called Columbia Restaurant.
It’s located in the Old Town historic district and opened in 1905. It serves Spanish / Cuban food, and it was really good. Jan had a breaded chicken breast dish, and I had a marinated sliced pork loin. Both delicious!
I also decided to try another mojito. I had one at a Cuban restaurant in Downtown Disney and was not impressed. Mainly because I don’t think it had any alcohol in it. A mojito is supposed to be made with rum, lime juice, soda, mint, and sugar.
I think mine had everything but the rum. I mean, no buzz, no tingle, no nuthin’.
But this one today was good. It definitely had rum in it and it made it taste better.
After a big lunch (and the mojito), a nap seemed indicated when we got back to the coach.
We had a really heavy thunderstorm while we were asleep, and when we woke up, we found this.
Full Double Rainbow
I had never seen one like this. It was a full, double rainbow. You can see the 2nd, fainter one, right above the brighter one. And they both went from horizon to horizon.
It took me two pictures to show it all, so I had to paste them together.
All and all, a great day with a beautiful ending…
June 4, 2010
Draper UT…
Today we left the Rock Springs WY KOA about 9:45 heading about 190 miles south to Draper UT, which is a southern suburb of Salt Lake City.
This KOA, like other parks in the western states, is just a big gravel parking lot, and we had a great view of some petroleum storage tanks. At least they weren’t BP tanks. No telling what could happen.
And, of course, every RV needs trees, so here they are. These are the only trees in the park, or anywhere around.
But at least the view in the other direction was pretty good.
As we moved down I-80 the scenery just got better and better.
A little further down the road, we started to see more and more of the snow-covered Rockies off to our left. Luckily, we didn’t have to go over them, though we did crest out at over 7000 feet again.
It’s hard to see here, but there’s a big American flag flying on the top of this hill.
The view as we came down into this valley was just breathtaking.
Somewhere along here, Mister decided he liked the view better the other way.
Then, as we got closer to Salt Lake City, the scenery started to change a little, more rolling green hills, less jagged rocks.
We got into Mountain Shadows RV Park in Draper UT about 2 pm and got set up. It’s a nice park, a little tight, but it does have the perfect amount of trees. Just enough to look nice and provide some shade, but not enough to block the satellite.
And the view isn’t too shabby, either.
About 5 pm we drove over to Guadalahonkys restaurant to meet Pat and Judy Benson, our friends we first met in Fairbanks AK two years ago.
Guadalahonky’s turned out to be really good. Of course, it may be because we’re just getting closer to Mexico.
We’ll be here until Monday, visiting, sightseeing, getting prescriptions, working on the coach, etc.
Then we’ll be heading further south toward Show Low AZ.
June 4, 2011
Weed and Grass . . .
Our son-in-law Lowell, sent these pics of Landon trying out his new backyard pool. Looks like he’s all ready for summer.
On the other hand, we woke up this morning to what every RV’er loves on a travel day.
Rain!
Luckily, it was only a light on-and-off drizzle, and even better, I had already done everything outside last night except for the satellite, and unhooking power and water.
After Jan set out Cinnamon Crunch Muffins for breakfast, we got to work stowing things away and getting ready to roll.
We pulled out of the site and around to the dump station about 9:30. Since there was no one else in line, Jan pulled the toad in behind the coach, and while we were dumping, I got the toad hooked up and the lights checked, and we were ready to roll
We were out of the park a little before 10, and about 15 minutes later we were on I-5N and heading for Weed, CA about 220 miles away.
It was amazing the way the scenery changed in just a few hours. We started out at about sea level with nothing but flat countryside around us, and ended in very mountainous terrain at over 4000 feet. What a change!
We pulled into the Friendly RV Park here in Weed about 2:45 and got parked and set up. This park is really nice with level, paved sites, surrounded by lots of grass, so Mister is a happy kitty.
The only real problem are the trees, lots of trees, lots of tall trees.
And since it was also rainy, I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to get the satellite to work. I’m pretty sure tomorrow I can find a spot between the trees to get a signal, but for right now, I just hooked up to their cable system here. And surprisingly, it’s very good, with a strong signal and 58 channels. Not bad!
Around 4:30 Jan and I drove over to Dos Amigos Mexican Restaurant, which turned out to be only a couple of blocks from the entrance to the park.
And it also turned out to be very good. Jan had the Shrimp Enchiladas, which were just filled with shrimp the size of your thumb, and I had Tacos al Pastor, with grilled pork chunks in soft corn tortillas, garnished with onions and cilantro. We’ll almost certainly go back. And speaking of going back, we’ll be able to because we’re going to stay here longer than we had originally planned
We first thought we’d be here for 3 nights and leave June 7th, but we decided to stay longer, so we pushed our Bend/Sunriver TT week from the 7th to the 11th of June.
That way, we’ll only stay 3 nights at Newberry RV Park in La Pine instead of 7.
I love it when a plan comes together!
June 4, 2013
What A Racket !!!
I tried a couple of other things on my water pressure problem this morning, including switching out the hose from the faucet, all with no luck.
BTW I’m sure everyone’s seen those TV commercials for the ‘Pocket Hose’ and other brands of expandable/collapsible hoses. Does anyone know if you can get one that can be used for drinking water for the rig?
Jan and I headed out about 2:15pm for dinner and a movie, with a stop by the park to pick up a package (one of the ones lost on the way to South Lake Tahoe finally showed up) and also sign up for the Honey Wagon. Besides low water pressure?, the only other problem with this Thousand Trails park is that it has no sewer hookups at all.
If Jan doesn’t do too many laundry loads, we can normally go a week on the grey tank, and two weeks on the black tank. So after picking up my mail at the office, I stopped off at the County Store to sign up for a Thursday Honey Wagon run.
And it was $25 !!! WTH!
I think it was about $5 last year. And the last two places where we’ve needed a honey wagon, it didn’t cost anything.
The movie we were going to see was the latest in the Star Trek series, “Star Trek Into Darknessâ€. Into Darkness is the second movie from J.J. Abrams of TV’s Fringe and Person of Interest fame. His 2009 “Star Trek†rebooted the story with all-new actors playing all your favorite characters, and not only new actors, but a new timeframe
Events in the 2009 movie changed the timeline of many of the events from the TV series and earlier movies. Spock’s accidental creation of a black hole threw him back in time and changed a lot of things we’re familiar with from the TV series.
Jan and I both really enjoyed this latest movie. I mean, it even had Tribbles.
By the time the movie was over, it was after 5:30 so we headed over to Black Bear Diner for dinner. We’ve eaten at a number of Black Bear’s over the years, including the first two in Weed, CA, and Mt. Shasta, CA. and it’s always really good. And it was no different this time. We finished up by sharing a Blueberry Cobbler Pie with Ice Cream. A great finish. Then after a quick stop at a Rite-Aid and a longer one at Wal-Mart, we finally got home a little after 8pm.
Tomorrow it’s probably more water stuff, with my pressure problems and getting back on my drinking faucet/water filter replacement.
June 4, 2014
Green Beans and Pretzels . . .
Officially, it made it to 65° here in Elkhart today with a low of 50 expected tonight. Which would have been great, except for the rain that came with it. Which meant no walking, and no coffee and muffins outside.
But it was a great morning for reading and computering, so that worked out well.
About 1pm I drove Jan down to get her hair trimmed, something I do with great dread every time. Because since she’s usually at a different place each time, with a different stylist, sometimes she’s not really happy with her cut.
And who’s the closest at hand to vent to?
That would be me.
But today was my lucky day, (and Jan’s too, I guess) because she really liked her trim. So I dodged a bullet for another few weeks.
Life is Good!
Our great-niece Gwen, graduated from 5th grade today, with a lot of awards. She got a top 5 in art, a top 2 in writing, and straight A’s in Science, Reading, and Language Arts.
Way to Go, Gwen!
But smile next time.
A little before 5pm Jan and I drove over to have dinner at the nearby Applebee’s. And as has been our recent experiences, it was really good.
Jan had the Margarita Queso Grilled Chicken and Shrimp. I, however, had the Grilled Vidalia Onion Sirloin that they’ve been advertising on TV recently. It also came with smashed red potatoes (that’s how they describe them) and fresh steamed garlicy spinach. The 9oz. sirloin was perfectly medium rare, just slightly charred on the edges, and very flavorful.
And we also had our favorite appetizer there, the Green Bean Crispers. These are lightly breaded and fried 6†long fresh green beans, served with both a BBQ Bacon Ranch dip and Zesty Horseradish dip.
They also have the Dessert Shooters, those little shot glass desserts, that are the perfect way to wrap things up, but we were too full this time.
Don’t know if anyone else is watching the Fargo miniseries on FX Tuesday nights, but Jan and I have really enjoyed it. They’re down to the last 2 of the 10 episodes, and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Done by the same people who did the Fargo movie back in 1996, the TV show has no direct connection, except the Minnesota location and a really quirky story.
If you haven’t seen it, hopefully, they will rerun it at some point. It’s worth seeing from the beginning.
June 4, 2015
Well, Now I’m Confused . . .
Well, we didn’t hear anything new today, or at all, for that matter.
I take that back. One guy asked me to move the truck from out in front of the rig so he could back a new rig in beside us. But the truck hasn’t moved in two days, and we’ve probably had 6-8 rigs in there in that time without a problem. So I think the guy just wasn’t very good at backing a 5’ver in there. So I moved the truck into the parking area right across from us.
But when we first got here and I parked across from us, I was told to park in front of our rig to leave the spaces across from us open to park rigs. I will say that they sell a lot of rigs here, because they’re constantly shuttling rigs around, prepping them for delivery.
While I was taking the outside grab bar apart to check the bulb, I noticed that the engraved writing on the clear plastic handle was losing its embedded paint.
So I used a Sharpie permanent marker to fill in the letters. There was a lot of reflection in the photo, but to the eye, it looks perfectly black.
Jan and I headed out a little after 3 pm for some errands and dinner. But first, I walked out to the RV Store to see if they had the #895 bulb for the grab bar, which they did.
Then it was off to Sam’s to pick up our prescriptions. We tried on Tuesday, but they didn’t have 3 of the 6 so we’re back today to try again. And this is where I got confused. Four of our prescriptions are normally under their $4 / $10 pricing. At least until now.
As they were totaling up our order, I noticed that prescriptions that were previously $10, were now $17, or $23, or even $46. When I questioned this, I was told that the $4 / $10 prescription deal was no longer in effect, and hadn’t been for a couple of months But they now would match prices.
First I’d heard of this.
Figuring I’d look into it later, we decided to have dinner once again at our new favorite Chinese place, Beijing Garden. So favorite in fact, that we both had the same thing we had last time – Orange Peel Spicy Crispy Chicken Dinner.
Just as good as last time, and this time we had room to split a serving of their Green Tea Ice Cream.
Wow, this is good. Almost like a sherbet, but still creamy. And the green tea flavor really comes through. We definitely want a repeat on this.
While we were having dinner, I used my Galaxy Tab to check out the supposed $4 prescription discontinuation. And I found nothing. Both the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club website still advertised the deal, and googling further, I found no mention at all about any discontinuation. Hmmmm!
After finishing dinner, our next stop was the nearby Wal-Mart, where I took a minute to ask the pharmacy there about it. And as it turns out, they didn’t know anything about it either. Hmmmm!
Getting back to the rig, I sat down to determine how much I had been overcharged. And got even more confused.
Prescriptions that had cost me only $40 total last time, now cost me $111.22. An increase of over $71. A big difference!
But when I checked the other two prescriptions that are not on the $4 deal, i.e., Jan’s Anastrozole, her breast cancer medicine, and Sumatriptan, her migraine medicine, the confusion just got worse.
The Anastrozole cost us $49.86 last time, and just $12 this time. And her Sumatriptan was $89.35 last time, but $37.66 this time, for a total savings of almost $90.
So actually I really SAVED almost $20.
So I’m still confused, but not quite as out of pocket as I thought. But I’m still going to follow up on this.
June 4, 2016
When Did We All Get So Old . . .
Jan and I were on the road for the 2-hour trip down to Seabrook, TX by 10am to meet up at T-Bone Tom’s for a reunion of Taft Broadcasting’s NASA group employees.
Our last reunion was in 2007 at the Outpost in Webster (that doesn’t even exist anymore), so it’s been a while since most of us had gotten together. And before that, it had been 20 years since some of us had seen each other. So it was good to see so many friends again. We had almost 20 people there, so it was a good turnout.
And what was even better was how quickly we seemed to pick right back up, regaling each other with almost-forgotten tales of wild times out at White Sands, and stories about people and things at JSC here in Houston.
But the biggest thing was the fact that we all got OLD! I mean I had just turned 30 when I started at JSC in December of 1978, and now I’ll be 68 in October. And when we moved here, our son Chris was 10, but he just turned 48 a couple of weeks ago.
After a really great time, and the great food at T-Bone Tom’s, the party started breaking up around 3:30. For some reason, we just can’t party all night like we used to.
I want to give a big shout-out to Perry and Molly (Quintero) Kuhns for putting all this together again. Thanks guys.
Don’t wait too long to do another one. There might not be too many of us left.
Finally heading home, we made a Buc-ee’s stop for gas and Cranberry Walnut muffins, before our next stop at our son Chris’ to pick up the new Captain’s Chair armrests he had made up for us.
The old ones on the left were made from OSB board and they started coming apart as the glue broke down and the screws wobbled out. Another case of old age taking its toll.
So Chris made up these new ones out of 2 x 4’s and plywood. I’ll take the metal pivot arm off the old ones and install it on the new wood. Then I’ll put the foam back on with the leather cover. And they’ll be good for another 17 years. Or more.
Getting back home about 6, I packed up Barbara Spade’s laptop and took it over to her rig. After de-gunking the computer, I increased the memory from 2GB to 4GB, which will speed things up considerably.
I had left the MemTest86 running for over 36 hours to be sure she wouldn’t have any problems. And nothing showed up.
But when you run a long-term test like this, you have to be aware that you may get an occasional random error caused by cosmic rays
An article by Berke Durak calculates that your probability of having at least one-bit error in 4 gigabytes of memory at sea level on planet Earth in 72 hours is over 95%.
Of course, that assumes you are using non-error-correcting memory (non-ECC). With ECC, he figured, you can wait 2.7 million years before you get an uncorrectable bit error at a probability of 96%.
And since Barbara’s Toshiba laptop uses non-ECC RAM, I guess it’s lucky no errors showed up.
June 4, 2017
What a Difference a Week Makes . . .
This time last week, we had days in the 50-60’s and nights in the 30’s, really nice. But now we’re seeing days in the high 80’s and nights in the 60’s. Summer is here.
I called the park office this morning to extend our stay here until Saturday the 10th of June. Then I went through our schedule and updated it, pushing everything back 4 days, which still leaves us a few days of padding before we have to be back at the Colorado River TT on the 25th of June.
Later in the early afternoon, I went outside to begin the change-out of the starter solenoid of our rig’s generator. When I started working on this problem, I was surprised to find that Cummins/Onan does not make the diesel engines in the generator. They’re actually 3 cylinder diesel engines made by Kubota.
Since all I had to do to swap out the solenoid was to remove the two nuts and pull it off after removing the 3 wires, and then install the new one in its place. I figured it would be easy peazy.
Wrong!
Yeah, the removal went just fine, and only took a couple of minutes.
But before I installed the new one, I wanted to check out the position of the yoke inside the starter, the part that the solenoid hooks into.
Here’s the yoke in the new starter.
And here’s the pin on the end of the solenoid that fits into the yoke.
The solenoid pin is easier to fit into the yoke if it’s pulled forward, so I used my phone to take a photo of the yoke, and here’s what I found.
I’m not sure why, but the left fork of the yoke was blackened and a little melted. So after thinking for a few minutes, my solenoid replacement had morphed into a full starter/solenoid change-out.
Still easy peazy, right? I mean, it’s two bolts and off it comes, right?
Nope!
The top bolt was no problem, so after loosening it I started on the bottom one. And there things came to a halt. I could just barely feel the bottom bolt head with my fingers, and when I tried to fit my ratchet into place, the handle was too long to allow it to ratchet due to hitting the frame rail.
So I tried my 12mm box end, which was short enough to move, but with the time it took me to get the box end wrench seated back on the bolt head, and the small amount I could move it, I needed a better way.
So, checking Lowes.com, I found that the local store stocked a stubby 3/8 inch ratchet.
And since it was now almost 4pm, we were off to the Lowes in RC for a wrench and then on to HuHot Mongolian Grill for an early dinner.
Back at the rig, I was able to get the starter off without a lot more work and was now ready to install the new starter. I left the solenoid off because it looked like it would be a little easier to get the bolts started that hold the starter in place. And it was.
But unfortunately, it also meant that I didn’t have enough clearance to get the pin on the solenoid seated in the slot of the yoke. So now the starter was going to come back out, the solenoid installed, and the starter put back on.
But since the sun was going down, that’s a chore for tomorrow.
June 4, 2018
Printheads and New Toys . . .
I hit the ground running this morning at work, pretty normal for a Monday, catching up on a lot of catalog and website updates.
Then it was on to a repair job. On my way into work, I got a text saying that my new printhead had been delivered. It was for our LP2844 thermal printer that we used to print out the shipping labels for our UPS and USPS packages.
Recently, our printer started skipping lines and missing characters, so much so that both UPS and USPS were complaining about having problems reading the barcodes. My client was just going to buy a new one for $200-$300 or so. But I said, let’s try a new printhead first. And it was only $41.
The black strip in the middle is actually the thermal printhead.
The replacement was pretty easy, and it helped that there was a YouTube video, but it wasn’t as much help as I had hoped. Mainly because the hardest part, actually getting the printhead loose, was pictured like this.
A lot of help that was.
I finally figured out that not only was the view obscured, but he left out a step in the audio too, that a retaining screw had to also be removed.
The replacement would have been a lot easier if they had given a little more slack in the two data cables.
There was no reason they couldn’t have. There was plenty of room for the extra length. But finally, I got it back together and hooked up.
At first, I thought I had another problem because when I tested it, it was just spitting out labels willy-nilly. But at least they looked good with no missing lines. But after I ran the ‘re-gap’ setup, so it would know where the label started and stopped, it was fine.
At this point, my client showed me another LP2844 that he said had the same problem. When it happened that time, he just bought a new one. So I got another printhead on order so now we’ll have a spare printer.
Now on to our new toy.
We’ve always had a problem with the volume levels when we play back TV shows recorded on our DirecTV DVR. Some levels are fine, but others are too low. And it can be different between two shows recorded right after each other, and on the same network.
I know it’s not our TV because it did it on our previous one too. DirecTV says they don’t know what the problem is, but did offer to replace our DVR. But then we’d lose all the shows and movies we have stored on it.
So I decided to order us a Soundbar like this.
It’s 25†long, perfect to fit underneath the TV and puts out 40 watts. It has 3 inputs, Audio, Optical, and Bluetooth, and comes with a remote. It had great reviews and was a really good deal at only $75.
I could have hooked it optically directly to the DVR, but instead decided to connect it to the Optical Output on our 40†Samsung. That way it will work not only on the DVR, but also when we are using the TV with the computer.
And it works great. Now we have more than enough volume, no matter how low the source level is.
Tomorrow, it’s back to sorting through stuff to go to the storage room.
Slowly but surely.
June 4, 2019
I Should Have Played More Computer Games . . .
After I spent the morning working on the website, Jan and I headed up to Webster about 1 pm for lunch at our favorite East Star Chinese Buffet. Great as always.
Then I made a stop by my client’s to get a file off the old website server that I can’t access remotely, and also pick up an Amazon order that came in this morning.
Then it was on over to my long-time barber’s to get my hair cut. It’s been about six weeks, before we left on our trip, so I was getting a little bushy.
We had heard on the radio that we have a lot of rain coming in tomorrow, but when we came out of our next stop, Kroger’s, it was already starting to sprinkle. And by the time we got over to Kemah, so Jan could pick up some of her favorite essential oils at Bodhi’s, it was coming down hard.
With the rain coming in, 4-6â€, we may put off our scheduled trip up to Conroe to get together with our friends Chris and Charles Yust for dinner. So we’ll have to see what the weather does.
Although I have been working with computers pretty much since the home computer business took off, (actually before, since I started out programming in Fortran II on an IBM 360) I’ve never been really into games. The only one I had much to do with was Doom, which came out in 1993, and was one of the first of the First Person Shooter games to also utilize 3D Graphics.
But maybe I should have stuck with it.
According to this Hollywood Reporter article, Top Gamers Can Make $15,000 An Hour. And over $10 million a year. They make this kind of money for the same reason that professional ballplayers make $10 of millions a year.
People pay to watch them play computer games streaming online, just like people pay to watch the NFL on TV. The players also get endorsements from the same companies that are attached to pro sports.
And, by 2022, the computer gaming industry is expected to surpass the audience of Major League Baseball.
Now that’s big.
June 4, 2020
It’s Not Cut and Dried . . .
I mentioned the other day that, rather than all the DirecTV DNS stations going away, only ABC and CW disappeared. Turns out that DirecTV was able to make some sort of side deal with everyone but those two.
But as it turns out, it’s not that cut and dried. Many people around the country are reporting a lot of different things. Some people have no more DNS, some just have FOX or CBS, or some other combination. But DirecTV won’t explain why this is happening, because, they say, their contracts with the different networks prevent it. You can read more about it here.
Guess we’re lucky we only lost the two stations.
June 4, 2021
Murdoch and More . . .
After another day of pretty much all-day rain, things are getting pretty soggy around here. But not too soggy to keep Jan from going into work with me so she could get her toesies done, and then do some shopping, getting stuff for our trip.
And it looks to rain all weekend too. In fact our fav Gator’s Bar & Grill was supposed to have its Grand Opening this weekend, but they’ve put it off until next weekend, assuming it’s not still raining, of course.
But we still plan on eating there for lunch tomorrow anyway.
But it’s forecast to slack off Monday morning when we’re supposed to head out of town. We hope.
For all you Murdoch Mysteries fans, Jan and I just finished up streaming the 11 episodes of this year’s aborted season 14, so we were very happy to hear that they’ve just started filming a super-size Season 15 with a whopping 24 episodes.
Really looking forward to that.
A Change of Plans:
After getting a lot of input, both direct and online, I’ve decided to make a detour around Memphis, or at least enough of a detour so we don’t have to go over the I-55 bridge to Arkansas.
Everything I’m finding says 2-1/2 to 3 hours to get across the bridge during the day. So based on some other recommendations, I’ve plotted a route around Memphis and up US-51 until it intersects I-155 which takes us back over to I-55.
And it’s actually only about 24 miles further than the route across the bridge.
When it absolutely, positively has to be there in 40 minutes.
The U.S. Space Force is talking to SpaceX about using their rockets to deliver important cargo anywhere in the world in less than an hour. Called Rocket Cargo, the program hopes to send 30 to 100 tons of supplies, and later, maybe, troops to a potential ‘hotspot’ on the other side of the planet in minutes. And if it’s too rough or dangerous to land, then the cargo would be air-dropped into the area.
And strangely enough, the government has been talking about doing something like this as far back as 1963 with this concept.
Nothing new under the sun, I guess.
June 4, 2022
Almost Paradise . . .
We were loaded up and on our way, leaving the Sleep Inn in Montgomery, AL by about 8:30 this morning, with our ultimate destination our Condo down on Fort Morgan Rd that the family had rented for the week. But our first stop was about 20 miles south near the town of Hope Hull to visit the Alabama Safari Park.
But it’s almost 11pm and I’m dead tired after a long day of driving, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for this.
So I’ll just leave you with this photo taken from our condo balcony right about sundown.
June 4, 2023
Strut Ball Studs . . .
Lunch today was at Dickinson Seafood over in . . . well, Dickinson.
This is one of those places where Jan and I both get exactly the same thing, starting with the Side Salad,
and then moving on to the Blackened Catfish and Shrimp, with Double Veggies and No Rice.
Being Sunday they were really busy, but the service was as good as always.
Delicious.
Then it was on over to the nearby HEB for our weekly stuff and gas. Then home by about 2:30.
It looks like the replacement strut ball studs are probably going to work.
I’ll just have to drill out the old plastic plug, and then maybe enlarge it a little.
I’ll try to finish it up on Tuesday. I’m going to go ahead and replace both struts while I’m there.
We usually have a pretty good breeze, so it was nice to see the flag really waving in the wind.
Seems like Chris is always doing something around his Kingsland homestead.
He recently laid out a pad and installed an above-ground pool,
and now he’s redoing the steps leading down to the firepit.
Like I said, he’s always doing something.
June 4, 2024
Old Faithful To The Rescue . . .
Well, it turned out that our Jeep’s A/C problem wasn’t low Freon, but something else. When I hooked my gauges up, it showed too much pressure, not too little. So I put in a call to my mechanic, Joe, and was told to bring it on down.
First up was to be sure that our 2004 Dodge Dakota truck, with 314,000 miles on it, was good to go. It’s been months since we used it, but I keep Stabil in the gas tank and a float trickle charger on the battery.
And as before, Old Faithful, started right up and was ready to travel. And the A/C works great too.
Of course, it does smoke a lot, but that just helps keep down the mosquitos in the area.
So with Jan driving the Jeep and me following in the truck, we dropped the Jeep off at Joe’s Hwy 6 Automotive, and then headed back over to Big Horn BBQ for a late lunch.
We first ate here back on May 8th, the first day they were open, and really liked it.
Jan got her usual Pulled Pork Sandwich with Fries,
while I got the Brisket Plate with Fries and Charro Beans.
All really good, though overall I like Spring Creek or Rudy’s brisket better, since they allow you to get it marbled with outside crust or bark on it, and Big Horn doesn’t. But it’s still good. The Charro Beans, especially.
One thing neat about Big Horn is that they bake all their own breads, including buns.
It looks like the late, twice-lamented Texas Huddle is coming back. It was first closed down early last year for nonpayment of rent, but then reopened a couple of months later. Only to be shut down months later by the State of Texas for nonpayment of taxes.
Well, now it’s supposed to reopen mid-July under a new owner. Hope they’re still going to have my PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger.
Finishing up, NASA is scheduled to try again to launch the Boeing Starliner to the ISS. It’s scheduled to go off at 9:52am CDT.
And SpaceX now has received an FAA license to launch the next Starship starting June 6th. So two in two days?
