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Well, after trying on and off over the last few years, we finally made it to the Killen’s BBQ over in Pearland this afternoon.
Found on most Top Five BBQ Restaurants lists, Killen’s BBQ has a great local reputation too. So much so that they’re the only BBQ place that I’ve ever heard of that takes reservations, and you can wait an hour in line to get in on weekends.
We both had Two Meat Plates with Ribs and Brisket, Jan’s with Broccoli-Cheese Casserole and Cole Slaw,
and mine with Collard Greens and Creamed Corn.
I tried their Creamed Corn, since it’s one of my favorites at Rudy’s BBQ, but I found it a little sweet. And both Killen’s and Rudy’s could use a handful of crispy bacon, crumbled in it like my grandmother did when she made it.
And one of their sauces was kind of interesting, so much so that we both tried some.
Coffee BBQ sauce sounded very intriguing to both of us, but turned out to be kind of disappointing. Neither of us got any taste of coffee. And the ‘Tangy’ sauce wasn’t nearly as ‘Tangy’ or Spicy as Rudy’s Regular BBQ, much less Rudy’s Sissy Sauce. We didn’t notice until we were leaving that they also had a ‘Sweet’ sauce which I would have like to tried.
At $25 for a Two-Meat Plate vs $21 for a Two-Meat Plate at Spring Creek BBQ, there’s not a big difference. But we both agreed that, though it was really good, it wasn’t ‘drive 45 minutes and pay $4 more’ good.
As far as overall BBQ, I really prefer Golden Rule BBQ in Birmingham, AL
Of course, this is sliced pork, and not Brisket.
And for ribs, we both prefer Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous, located off a back alley in downtown Memphis.
Rendezvous is known for their ribs, and one taste shows why.
These ribs are different. They’re grilled over charcoal, not wood, and not slow-smoked, or anything like that. They’re grilled 30 minutes on a side about 18 inches above a blazing charcoal fire.
This produces a delicious crust on the ribs that is then mopped with a mixture of vinegar, water, salt, and barbecue spices. Then, before serving, the ribs are sprinkled with the secret Rendezvous seasoning.
I’m not normally a fan of the dry rub ribs. They always seem too dry to me, but these were fantastic! They apparently put the ribs under the broiler before they serve them, so there is a crispy crust on them that makes them crunchy and delicious.
Finishing up, as I’ve said before, I prefer Rudy’s BBQ and Jan prefers Spring Creek BBQ, so we comprised and go to Spring Creek.
* * * * * * *
Amazon has started offering a new nighttime delivery option. Previously, if it was offered on the product you ordered, you could get a 5 pm – 10 pm or 4 am – 8 am delivery time. But when I ordered something today, I was able to get an 8 pm – 11 pm time slot.
Thought For The Day:
Pre- means before, and post- means after.
Using both at the same time would be preposterous.
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2008– Photos From Skagway
2009– Visiting Quebec
2012– Weberding’s And A Ceramic Moose
2014– It Was The Cow’s Fault
2016– What Happened To Fall?
2020– Family Memories
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.â„¢
September 18, 2008
Photos from Skagway, AK, this month in 2008.
September 18, 2009
Quebec
Today was our day to see the city of Quebec.
We started out with breakfast at our new favorite breakfast/lunch place, Cora. Hopefully, these will show up in the US soon.
We drove around Quebec, finally ending up in Vieux Quebec, or Old Quebec where we found a Tourist Information Center.
We found that there was going to be a 2 hour bus tour at 2:30 pm and signed up for it. Luckily for us, today was the last day for this tour, and, even luckier, it was all in English.
We’ve noticed a lot of touristy things are starting to shut down or reduce their hours, due to winter coming on, and the tourist trade is dropping off.
We had some time to kill before the tour started, so we drove to a Glass Shop on St. Jean Street that Jan wanted to visit.
Finally, we headed back to rendezvous with our tour bus. Our driver, a Quebec City native named Francois, spoke very good English, luckily for us. But Jan said he sounded like Inspector Clouseau of Pink Panther fame.
Our tour gave us a look at the major sites in Quebec, in both the old and new sections.
Here is the Simons fountain in front of the Provincial Capitol of Quebec.
Here is the view from the Plains of Abraham battlefield site overlooking the St. Lawrence River.
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec, took place during the French and Indian War in September 1759, and the British victory over the French led to France relinquishing all claims to Canada.
Here’s Jan with another view from the battlefield.
And here is the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, one of the most magnificent sites in Quebec. Built in 1893, the Frontenac is one of the premier hotels in North America.
Here’s one of the many pedestrian-only streets in Vieux (Old) Quebec.
This church, the L’Eglise Notre Dame Des Victoires (The Church of Our Lady of Victories), is the oldest stone church in North America.
Another view.
And this building, built in 1675, is the oldest one in Quebec City.
After our tour was over, we drove over to Tomas Tam’s, a Chinese buffet restaurant we’d seen advertised. And it was very good.
On our way back to the rig, we drove past everyone’s favorite chicken place, PFK.
PFK
PFK???
Leave it to Quebec to put their own stamp on things.
PFK in French stands for ‘Poulet Frit Kentucky’, or Kentucky Fried Chicken to us.
Getting back to the rig, we got ready to head out early tomorrow on a long travel day.
September 18, 2010
“Lupper” or “Linner”
Today started off with a cool, rainy, overcast morning, and some great pecan praline coffee. We just sat around and enjoyed the view out the front window, watching this heron trying to dry his wings, even while it was raining.
And even Emma sought refuge from the dreary day in a warm, fuzzy blanket.
About 1:30, we left for Brandi’s. Lowell and Brandi were going out for their own private celebration of Brandi’s birthday, while Jan and I Landon sat. But since we weren’t supposed to be there until 3 pm, we first stopped off at our favorite Chinese restaurant, King Food, for “Linner” or ‘Lupper’, take your pick. (Hey, if you can have Brunch, we can have Lupper.) We’ve been eating there for over 30 years and are on our 4th owner.
We both had the same thing. Hot & Sour Soup, and Chicken with Hot Garlic Sauce. Of course, that’s not hot enough for us, so I add a big spoonful of the roasted chili flakes to my soup, and we both order the Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce, Extra, Extra, Extra, Extra Spicy, and then add Jalapenos. Hey, this is Texas. We put Jalapenos in everything. And what we don’t put Jalapenos in, we add some Habanero peppers to it.
The way I tell if it’s hot enough is that if my bald head starts sweating and my nose starts running, then it’s just about perfect.
Leaving King Food, we still had some time left, so we stopped off at Half Price Books, a great chain of used bookstores. Most of their locations are in Texas, but they have stores in 15 other states as far west as California and Washington, and as far east as Pennsylvania.
Getting to Brandi’s, she and Lowell headed out for their date, and Jan and I Landon sat. Or, at least, Jan Landon sat and I napped. Once she has Landon in her arms, she doesn’t like to give him up.
About 5 pm, I drove over to Fry’s Electronics to look for a 1.5 TB backup drive they had on sale, but I was too late, and they were sold out. So I came home with a new LED keychain flashlight instead. Bummer!
Getting home a little after 7 pm, I made some coffee, and we settled in to watch some TV.
September 18, 2011
Blueberry Muffins and Chinese Food . . .
Our day started a little later than a normal travel day, so, since we didn’t plan on leaving until around 11, Jan and I didn’t get up until about 8 am. I fixed coffee, and Jan heated up some of the delicious bread and blueberry muffins we got a couple of nights ago.
SinceI wanted to top off with propane,I pulled outabout 10:45. It took me a little longer than normal because the guy had problems getting the hose hooked up to my tank so it wouldn’t leak as he filled the tank.
He finally got it to work, and I ended up taking on 18 gallons. The tank holds 32, so my gauge was pretty accurate, saying I had between 1/2 and 1/4 tank of LP. Not bad for two years of use.
After going back tothe site and hitching up the toad, we pulled out about 11:30 on our way to Celina.
We arrived at the Mercer County Fairgrounds a little after 2:30, and after unhitching the toad and driving around, I found our site, and got parked and set up.
About 5:15, we headed over to China Wok Buffet, which very possibly may be the best Chinese buffet we’ve had.
September 18, 2012
Loose Meat and a Ceramic Moose . . .
Despite the overcast, spitting rain, weather today was another day trip day. We headed out at about 11 am, first over to Batesville to check out Weberding’s Carving Shop.
Celebrating their 70th anniversary, they’re one of the largest suppliers of custom church furniture in the US. They even have a display of miniature versions of some of their offerings.
Need a finely detailed camel? This one is only $6500.00!
They even have a line of all-wood furniture made with a tree limb frame.
Our next stop was a few miles up the road at Metamora, IN. Metamora is the home of one of the last visible sections of the Whitewater Canal. Built between 1836 and 1847, the seventy-six-mile canal ran between Lawrenceburg, IN, on the Ohio River and Hagerstown, IN.
Developed after the opening and immediate financial success of the Erie Canal, the State of Indiana financed the building of the Whitewater. But the steep route, twice as steep as the Erie Canal, required 56 locks, seven dams, and even 4 aqueducts to carry it over other rivers.
The high cost of this route, plus the damages caused by heavy rains, delayed construction several times, and even led to the State of Indiana going bankrupt in 1839.
The canal was only open along its entire length for a few months before severe flooding took parts out of commission. It was never completely open after 1847.
The Benjamin Franklin III is a replica of the boats that actually plied the canal, and you can take a ride on it today.
This grist mill opened in 1845 and is still in operation, grinding corn and wheat.
This 12-foot waterwheel powers the mill through an underground shaft.
After getting to Metamora, we found that most of the many shops were closed on Monday and Tuesdays, but the Canal House was open.
Home to over 2600 cookie jars and a thousand salt and pepper shakers, the jars range from Darth Vader and Batman to Hopalong Cassidy and Dilbert.
But now they have one less cookie jar since I brought home this moose jar for Jan.
Leaving Metamora, we headed up the road about 50 miles to Greenville, OH, home of the KitchenAid appliance company, where Jan was looking for a new hand mixer.
And while we were there, we saw this KitchenAid mixer that used to belong to Julia Child.
It’s late and I’m tired, so I’ll finish up our trip tomorrow.
September 18, 2014
It’s The Cow’s Fault . . .
Yesterday, (Wednesday) was grocery shopping/prescription day, so about 11 am, I headed over to the Bryan/College Station area, about 30 miles away. My first stop was the Home Depot to pick up a few things. I’m going to replace the lavatory faucet in the next few days, and I needed a can of plumber’s putty for the base. I had some, but found it had dried out.
The handle broke on the old faucet, and although I tried to repair it, the fix just wouldn’t hold. So a new one it is. I picked one up last week so I’ll try and get it done in the next couple of days. Right now, the handle is a pair of Vice Grips.
Whatever works.
My next stop was the Sam’s Club to pick up the prescriptions that didn’t go through last week. When we filled some prescriptions at the Sam’s in Mishawaka, IN, this past June, for some reason, after filling them, they canceled them. So the pharmacist here had to get things straightened out. Turns out that nobody at the Mishawaka store had any idea what had happened. They said it was probably a ‘computer error.’
Yeah, right. Somebody had to press that key. The computer didn’t do it by itself.
One thing at Sam’s took me by surprise, though.
This is just ridiculous. They actually have Halloween stuff, Thanksgiving stuff, and Christmas stuff all there together. And there’s probably some New Year’s hats and horns in there somewhere.
After stopping at Wal-Mart for groceries and to return the ‘Octopus’ shower hose from last week, I headed over by Texas A&M to pick up lunch.
Yelp had really good things to say about Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, so we thought we’d give it a try. Turns out it’s right across the street from the A&M campus, and it’s a pretty big place.
With a very small menu.
Chicken Fingers. That’s pretty much it.
They have a 3-piece box, a 4-piece box, a 6-piece family box, and a Chicken Finger Sandwich. That’s it, except for Tailgater boxes of 50 or 100 pieces.
For drinks, they’ve got the usual soft drinks, sweet tea, unsweet tea, and their fresh-squeezed lemonade.
Their sweet and unsweet teas are in those dispensers with the big, clear domes on top. One of them is labeled ‘UnSweet Tea’, one of them is labeled ‘Sweet Tea’, and the 3rd one is labeled ‘Sweetness’. ‘Sweetness’ was a light brown liquid that looked like very weak tea, and after a few seconds, I realized what it was.
Real sweet tea is not sweetened with sugar, but with simple syrup. Simple syrup is made by boiling one part water and one part sugar until it’s clear and then letting it cool.
You might not think that tea sweetened with simple syrup would taste different from tea sweetened directly with sugar, but it does. It probably has something to do with the slight caramelization that occurs with the boiling. Or maybe not. But it does taste different. And better.
So what was in the ‘Sweetness’ dispenser was tea-flavored simple syrup, for those who like a little extra ‘sugar rush’ with their sweet tea.
Looking over the menu, I ordered two of the Caniac Combo’s, the 6-piece dinners, since we always like to have leftovers for another meal. And for our drinks that were included, I got their fresh-squeezed lemonade for both of us.
Getting back to the gate, we found the chicken fingers and sides really, really good. But for what it’s worth, the pieces we got weren’t quite as big as the ones in the picture, but they were delicious. And 3 pieces were plenty, leaving us another meal for later.
Back to today. When I got up this morning about 11:30, I noticed DirecTV was down, saying it had lost the signal. But it was raining a little, and the radar showed a lot of thunderstorms to our south, so I figured that was the problem.
But later in the afternoon, after I was outside and Jan had gone in, it still wasn’t working. So I went around the front of the rig to check out our Winegard dome, and the first thing I saw was the empty stand that the dome sits on.
“Crap, somebody stole my dome,” was my first thought. But getting closer, this is what I found.
Now I knew it hadn’t been windy enough to do this, but what the heck? And then getting closer, explained it all.
The power and signal cables were all dragged back toward the rig, pulling the dome with it. Looking at the prints in the mud told me a cow had walked through on his way to the small pond behind us and had gotten tangled in the wires lying on the ground.
I was a little worried about the dome still working after all that, but apparently it’s pretty tough. I put it back on the stand, rebooted it, and a few minutes later, we had pictures again.
Later, Jan said that a cow had come around the front of the rig earlier in the morning, stopped, and then, looking at Jan, mooed and walked off. I guess the moo meant “I think I just broke something.”
Tomorrow, it looks like more rain is in the forecast. Oh Boy!
September 18, 2015
A Tale of Two Packages . . .
Last Tuesday, the 15th, I mailed off two packages via the USPS Priority Mail. One of them went to Jan’s sister, Debbie, up in Illinois. The other one went to my daughter-in-law Linda, who’s down south of Houston, in Friendswood, TX. Both of them were supposed to arrive yesterday, Thursday.
But only one of them did, the one to Debbie. The tracking on both showed them leaving Carthage for Shreveport, LA, Tuesday night, but after that, the paths differ. Debbie’s package went on to Chicago, and then on to Vandalia, and the tracking showed all that, including what time it was delivered today.
However, Linda’s package went to Shreveport and then disappeared, at least according to the tracking. According to that, it’s still sitting in Shreveport. So if it doesn’t show up by Monday, I’ll have to call them.
Nothing’s ever easy. But then if it were, life would be really boring.
Today was grocery day/errand day, so I headed into Carthage about 11 am. And after my Wal-Mart stop and before my Chicken Express stop, I stopped in at Tractor Supply. I wanted to pick up a couple of electric fence posts to mount my Mighty Mule Driveway Monitor transmitters on.
The higher I can get the transmitter, the further away I can receive the signal. And these 4 ft. plastic electric fence posts are perfect.
The Mighty Mule works by sensing large pieces of metal moving by, i.e., cars and trucks. This means it’s not affected by wind, light, pets, etc., just metal. But this also means that it doesn’t like any metal nearby, because it reduces the sensitivity of the system. So these plastic ones are perfect for that.
I think I mentioned that I was going to order another Mighty Mule to cover trucks leaving the pad, so I was happy to see that Tractor Supply had one in stock, and I probably would have gotten it, but the box had been opened, as well as the fact that it was $10 more than on Amazon, so I took a pass on it.
Used and more expensive is a bad combination.
Coming home, I made a stop at our new favorite place, Chicken Express. And this time, I was in and out pretty quickly since I didn’t let anyone in line ahead of me who ordered 250 chicken tenders.
I only fall for that once.
Well, maybe twice if she was cute.
September 18, 2016
What Happened to Fall?
It was right there, just over the horizon, all those nice temps in the low 80’s and high 60’s, right there on the forecast, just a week off. And then they all went away. Just ‘POOF!, and they were gone, leaving us with both temps and humidity in the 90’s.
Right now, at almost midnight, it’s still 80 degrees and 90% humidity. This is not what I signed up for in the middle of September. I don’t like this.
Fix it!
A few days ago, I put out a request on the Facebook Gate Guard Blogs for a relief guard for Sept. 28th, for about 10 hours, with no luck so far, so I thought I’d try here.
This September 28th will be our 49th Wedding Anniversary, and in the last 4 years of gate guarding, we’ve always had it off, either with a relief guard, or been just lucky and the rig was moving, so we had the day off.
But so far this year, nothing. I asked Jamie, our Gate Guard Services supervisor, if he knew of anyone, and he said No. In fact, he said that right now Jan and I are the ‘lone survivors’ here in east Texas, the only gate he has.
So I’m still looking and hoping.
I’ve got a couple of Amazon orders coming in tomorrow, so hopefully the whole address thing will still work with our PO carrier. She said she’d be on the lookout for orders with our name and address, so we’ll see.
I’ve also got a couple of more Amazon orders coming on Tuesday, but with a better address. Originally, when I set up the address for here on Amazon, I tried to use:
Greg White
19413 Street Name
c/o RV at Drill Site
Hearne, TX 77859
But Amazon wouldn’t let me do it. It would take the street address, but if I put anything else, even a period in the 2nd address line, it would flag the 1st line as ‘Bad Address’. And if I tried to change the name from Greg White to Greg White – RV at Drill Site, it would also flag the 1st address line as bad. In fact, if I just tried to change the name to Gregory White, it would flag the 1st address line as bad.
I even tried deleting the address completely, and then logging out of Amazon and back in, again with no luck. But if I put the same street address in BOTH address lines, it liked that just fine.
WTH?
I had already sent in the first order with just the single street address, but decided to try again before I sent in the second one. So this time I ended up in an online chat with ‘Roshni’ at Amazon, who was able to enter the correct address for me with no problem. When I asked her if she knew why she could enter it and I couldn’t, she said I must have been doing it wrong.
WELL! I guess she told me.
I never had any trouble entering the OTHER 76 addresses in my Amazon account, just this one. But it’s my fault.
One of the things in this first order is a second remote for our new Samsung TV, so that Jan has one on her side at the sofa, and I have one at my computer desk. Normally, the only thing the TV remote gets used for is to change the source from HDMI-1, the DirecTV DVR, to HDMI-2, which is the feed from the desktop computer. That way, we can both see things on the computer on the TV screen when I want to show Jan a cute moose video.
In addition to my peevishness about the small size of the new remote, I’m not really happy with the volume level that the TV puts out. It maxes out at 100, as shown on the screen, and 100 is where we have to set it for comfortable hearing. But we find a lot of variation in the volume level of shows we DVR and playback, and sometimes we would have to crank the volume up to hear them comfortably. And our old RCA TV had plenty of extra volume to do this. The Samsung, not so much.
It may be that I have to add a sound bar, or the like, to boost the volume. We’ll see.
Today was a little busier than yesterday’s 23 vehicles, with 34 coming through the gate. Still not bad. But strangely enough, you don’t want it too slow. Or at least I don’t.
There were a couple of times on last year’s gate up by Carthage, TX, when, although there were crew working at the rig, nobody came or left during a shift, and this was a day shift. Makes you feel kind of useless that you sat outside all day for nothing. Then you start wanting someone to come through the gate just to break the boredom.
Of course, then you think back to two years ago when we were doing 500 vehicles a day, and a little boredom sounds awfully nice.
Today for dinner, we had leftover Blue Moon BBQ, still delicious, and because I had gotten us a 1/4 wedge of Cowboy Country Cornbread to add to today’s leftovers,
after I was done, I still had two slices of pork loin and two slices of brisket leftover for a nice thick sandwich tomorrow.
So leftover leftovers. YUMMM!
September 18, 2017
Sunday/Monday Redux . . .
After the long day yesterday and then doing the blog last night/this morning, I slept in until almost noon.
About 1:30, I went down to the Ranger Station to check out of the park and then right back in. As I recounted before, the TT system would not let me extend our stay here, adding 3 days for a total of 14 days, a regular stay.
And even the main office couldn’t fix it. So the solution was to just check me out and then right back in again for another 3 days. I suspect that the problem has something to do with the fact that, between Hurricane Harvey and the Colorado River TT not reopening until something in October, we will have been here 34 straight days by the time we leave here on Wednesday.
Then, leaving the office, I made a short trip over to Kroger’s for a few things before heading back home.
A little later in the afternoon, our long-time friends Chris and Charles Yust showed up for a stay here at the park. Then, about 6 pm, we all headed back down to El Bosque Mexican Restaurant.
Chris said she’s been jonsing for good Mexican since they just got back from a months-long trip to Alaska, and then a quick dash down to Fort Myers, FL, to rescue their Class A right ahead of Irma.
And as usual, El Bosque came through with a delicious meal for all four of us.
Good food and great company!
One of our blog commenters recently asked why my photo never shows up on our blog. Well, beyond the obvious, not wanting to scare off our readers, I’m usually the one taking the photos.
So be careful what you wish for. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you’re smart, you’ll cover the left side of the screen and check out the beautiful blonde on the right.
Now on to today, Monday:
Our friend Chris Yust came over this morning to bring Jan a gift of 4 pairs of Alaska/Moose socks that she got on her and Charles’ recent trip up to the Land of the Northern Lights. And more great conversation.
I was able to finish up my porch light remote control setup. It’s now all wired up and working, but I still need to put it all back together inside the pedestal at the entryway. But checking it out, I did notice that the rear porch light is not working, neither with the remote nor the manual switch. So I’ll have to get up on the ladder and check out the light itself.
As usual, I have two more projects in the pipeline. First up is to rewire the toad light connection between the RV and our truck. The 4-pin connector has started to come apart, and I’ve now got it patched with Gorilla Tape.
Actually, I have two connectors for the toad, a 4-pin one for the lights and another, smaller one for the charge wire to keep the toad battery charged while we’re on the road. But looking for a replacement 4-pin connector at Wal-Mart, I found this one, a similar, but 5-pin one.
This will allow me to eliminate the extra connector. Nice.
Next up is to restring 3 of our rig’s Day/Night shades, using this kit from Amazon.
I did repair them about 5 years ago by just restringing them. But this kit will allow me to replace the cord bushing, springs, and cord retainers if I need to.
Both of these projects will probably get done after we move over to the Hillcrest RV Park in Punkin, TX, this coming Wednesday. We’ll be there for 11 days before coming back to the Lake Conroe TT on October 1st.
We had a lot of rain today, actually heavy rain with a lot of thunder and lightning, our first since all the Harvey-related stuff, and it did cool things off a little. It was a pleasant change with the sound of the rain on the rig roof.
Tomorrow and Thursday, I’ll be back down in Clear Lake doing more client stuff. Then, coming back home tomorrow, I’ll be meeting Jan, Chris, and Charles down at the Rudy’s BBQ in the Spring area.
Really looking forward to it.
September 18, 2018
Dry As A Bone . . .
With our upcoming test drive this morning, Jan and I were up a little after 7 am, and pulling out of our site about 9:30.
Since we still don’t have our generator working, I had switched the fridge over to propane, and was happy to see that the gas level was still showing full, so we hadn’t leaked any since we filled it up back in June.
Heading east on FM 646, we got on I-45S and then got back off 3 miles south on Exit 17 for our diesel top-off at the La Marque Buc-ee’s.
We got about 93 gallons at $2.799. We did about 805 miles since our last fill-up, for an average of 8.6 MPG. Not bad.
I did learn something about using a credit card to get a large amount of diesel. Like many places, Buc-ee’s pumps shut off at $100. But unlike some places, Buc-ee’s doesn’t let you go inside and have them turn the pumps on. They have no control over them.
The problem is that when you’re doing this, you can normally only run a credit card through twice before it’s refused. Normally, I just use another card for the 3rd (or 4th) time. But this time I tried something different just to see if it would work, and it did.
The first two times I ran it through, I did it as a debit card. Then the next time, when it asked if this was a debit or credit card, I selected credit, and it went through. Nice to know.
Finishing up at Buc-ee’s, we drove right next door to the Tanger Outlets so Jan could check out the Vera Bradley factory store, looking for a shoulder bag she had her eye on. Turns out they didn’t stock that one, but she found another one she liked even better.
Actually, she found 3 bags and two lanyards. Yikes!
But it turned out to be not as bad as I feared. Everything in the store was 50% off, with most things another 20% off. Very Nice!
So the 3 bags and 2 lanyards totaled more than $10 LESS than the retail price of the one bag.
I can live with that. And even better, it made Jan happy.
When we came out of the Outlet Mall, I checked under the rig for any sign of my recent engine oil leak. And it was dry as a bone. Not a drop.
We completed our test drive by continuing on down I-45 and then coming back up on Hwy 6, and back to the park.
Everything else also worked fine on the test drive, so we’re good to go on our upcoming Florida trip in a couple of weeks.
September 18, 2020
Family Memories . . .
Well, it doesn’t look like the new gaskets and bolts for my oil filter adapter will come in until Monday, but I’m thinking that I might go ahead and install the Helicoils this weekend, and then finish up later in the week when the other stuff comes in.
I will need to pick up a spray can of cutting oil tomorrow for drilling out the old threads and cutting the new ones.
Jan has been going through some old photos and came across this photo taken at my parents’ wedding May 20, 1946.
Really brought back a lot of memories.
And she also found this newspaper clipping from 1966 concerning my nomination to the US Air Force Academy.
I was accepted, but my mother’s handwriting relates how I turned it down because my eyes would not let me fly. But then, 3 years later, I was working for a DOD contractor on military aircraft.
And as usual, they added an extra ‘G’ to my name. ‘Gregg’ is just that, but ‘Greg’ is short for ‘Gregory’, which is actually my name.
September 18, 2021
Wayward Flamingos . . .
The weather was nice this morning, so after our coffee, we were outside working. While I replaced all of Jan’s wayward flamingos in the garden, Jan cleaned up some of the debris and limbs left over from the storm last week.
Later, a little after 1 pm, Jan and I drove up to Clear Lake to have lunch again at The Cookshack. I was hoping that the owner would be there this time so I could try two levels hotter than AMF Chicken Tenders that he told me about on our first visit.
He was surprised that I was able to handle the standard AMF version, but when we went back for our 2nd visit, he wasn’t there, and no one knew anything about a hotter version of AMF. However, he was there today, but I still didn’t get the two-levels hotter version, just 1 level hotter.
I think I may have called his bluff, because when I asked him for the two-level version, he said he only had the one-level available, since it took him a MONTH to make up the even hotter stuff.
So what, he mixes it up in a big cauldron during the full moon, with eye of newt, puppy dog tails, lizard tongues, etc.
Yeah, right!
I’m not sure I could tell that today’s version was any hotter than the original one, but it was hot. However, I told Jan I probably won’t order it again, since it was just the challenge more than anything.
So I got the 5 Chicken Tenders, one AMF+1, and the other 4 Texas Hot, the next level down, with Texas Caviar,
while Jan got the CookShack Salad and a side Tender.
After lunch, I went by the office for a bit, while Jan read in the car, and then it was home by about 4 pm.
A very nice day!
September 18, 2022
On So Many Levels . . .
Today was Texas Huddle once again, with Jan getting her bun-less Cheddar Mushroom Bacon Burger with a Side Salad and their Grilled Veggies.
while I spiced up my burger with fresh jalapenos, along with a Side Salad.
Then it was on down to HEB for a few things before heading home for the day.
When I upgraded my old phone to the Galaxy S21 Ultra about 18 months ago, Jan inherited my workhorse Galaxy S8+ that I had been using since 2017, when I got it in Las Vegas the first day it was available. But about a year later, it died.
Or at least the screen died, though I could tell the phone was still working. So I downgraded her to my old Galaxy S5 that I got in 2014.
But she’s not been a happy camper. The S5 is smaller, and she says it’s running slower and slower. So I found a brand-new S8+ still in a sealed box on eBay for a VERY good price, and it should be here tomorrow.
Shouldn’t take me too long to switch everything over to the new phone.
When I saw this T-Shirt I had just I just had to order it for Jan.
She loves Halloween, and she can drive a stick shift. In fact, we were married more than 3 years before we got a car with an automatic.
And as I told her, it works on so many levels.
September 18, 2023
1894 Grand . . .
Tomorrow afternoon, we’re getting together with our Alvin Opry group, this time at Jimmy Changes Mexican Grille. Always good.
Got an email this morning from the Grand 1894 Opera House down inGalveston announcing a new addition to their 2024 schedule.
Bernadette Peters.
We’ve seen a lot of stars here over the years, like Bob Newhart, The Smothers Brothers, Yaakov Smirnoff, and all the Tuna Texas shows. But this was the first show for next year that caught our eye. And I really lucked up on the tickets, too.
This is what I saw when I went to the seating chart.
I can only assume that there were a lot of presales to special sponsors, donors, etc., since I was online just about 15 minutes after it was announced. But somehow everyone had missed those two seats on the aisle on row E that I highlighted in Red. So I quickly snapped them up.
So now I know where we’ll be on Saturday, April 13, 2024, at 8 pm.
Already looking forward to it.
September 18, 2024
Almost, But Not Quite . . .
It seems I’m not as full of Pee as they want me to be.
We were scheduled to go home this afternoon, but they wanted to be sure my kidneys and bladder are working correctly.
I had until 9 pm this evening, but Jan and I decided that we didn’t want to go home and unload and unpack in the dark.
So we’re spending a 2nd night here, which is what we were originally scheduled for anyway.
More tomorrow.
