Our RV Adventures

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Tomorrow we’re picking up Claudia about 1 pm and then heading down to Gulf Shores for lunch at DeSoto’s Seafood, and then some perusing of the many gift shops in the area.

Fun will be had, and money will be spent!

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Thought for the Day:

You ever get the feeling that the music is slowing down and you can’t find a chair?

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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October 28, 2009

Culver’s and Storm 2…

About 12:30, we headed out for lunch at Culver’s, a chain restaurant we hadn’t tried before. It’s kind of a cross between a Dairy Queen, a McDonald’s, and a Denny’s. It’s counter service, but besides ice cream and hamburgers, they also have dinners like fried chicken, pot roast, and sandwiches. It was good, and we’ll go back.

Coming home, we found a new neighbor a few sites over from us who are also full-timing. They’re from up in Michigan, but are heading down to Florida, then down to the Texas Rio Grande Valley, and then on to Yuma, AZ, for the rest of the winter. We hope to see them at a rally in Yuma in March.

Later, Jan and I headed out to a local Verizon store so I could upgrade my Palm Treo to a new BlackBerry Storm 2. I’ve been waiting for the new Storm 2 to come out since my Palm was on its last legs.

After getting my upgrade, I dropped Jan off at Walmart to get her hair cut while I ran an errand.

Coming back to the rig about 5:30 pm, we decided to stay in for the evening.

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October 28, 2010

Direct TV and Hooter’s . . .

Not much went on today.

About 11:30, I called DirecTV to see about getting a new DVR/Receiver. The recent winds blew my dish off target, and when I went to the Setup screen, the audio feedback did not work. Without the beeping that tells me when I’m pointing correctly, it will be very hard to set up the dish.

Supposedly, a technician will be out tomorrow morning between 8 and noon. We’ll see.

A little after 1 pm, I went into Webster to check up on some clients.

Then, getting back to the rig about 3:30, Jan and I headed up to Kemah to the Hooter’s there for some hot wings. We got them 3 Mile Island hot, but I don’t know if our taste buds have been deadened, or if they’ve reduced the heat, but these weren’t really hot. I guess next time we’ll have to bump them up to 911 or Elvis.

Jan loves Hooter’s, and when her late mother lived with us, she really loved Hooter’s too.

So I used to tell everyone that my wife and mother-in-law made me take them to Hooter’s once a week. So “Was I a lucky guy, or what?”

That’s about it for today.

Tomorrow night we’ll be taking in the Halloween Show at the Alvin Opry. We’re really looking forward to it, since their Halloween Show is always great.

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October 28, 2011

and then the Boredom set in . . .

Well, winter is setting in here, with 34 degrees last night, and an anticipated 30 degrees tonight. But it’s sunny and 50 degrees during the daytime, so it’s not all bad.

When I bought my Droid Charge last week, I saw this Droid Clock Dock on display. It looked neat, but they didn’t have any in stock, so I put it off.

But yesterday I found it on Amazon and ordered it. I picked it up at the office here at the park about 1 pm and quickly checked it out. And it was even better than the specs online.

When you plug the Droid into the dock, it not only starts charging the Droid, but it automatically becomes a desk clock. And you can plug in speakers and play your music through it, too. It also has a recess to plug in and recharge a spare battery.

But what the specs didn’t say is that it comes with a spare battery too.

Neat.

Today was Halloween at Brandi and Lowell’s church, so Landon had his first Trick or Treating experience.

Here he is getting into his costume. (It’s a giraffe, by the way.)

Landon and Mommy.

Trick or Treating for the first time.

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October 28, 2012

Almost Wrapping Up Savannah . . .

As our visit to Savannah winds down, we headed out about noon back down toward Tybee Island to visit Fort Pulaski.

Fort Pulaski, named for Kazimierz Pulaski, a Polish military commander who fought in the American Revolution with George Washington, was built between 1829 and 1847 utilizing over 25,000,000 bricks.

But it stood unused until it was seized by the state of Georgia as a prelude to the state seceding from the Union and joining the Confederate States of America.

During April 10-11, 1862, Union forces laid siege to the fort in an attempt to recapture it. After a 30-hour bombardment with the new rifled cannons, the previously thought unassailable walls had been assailed.

Knowing that with the collapse of the wall, the 40,000 pounds of gunpowder stored in the magazine were now vulnerable, and would destroy the fort and everyone in it if it was detonated, Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, commander of the Confederate garrison, surrendered to the Union troops.

Within six weeks of the surrender, Union forces repaired the Fort and began the blockade of the port of Savannah, which continued through the end of the Civil War.

Later in the war, the fort was used as a prison for captured Confederate officers.

Later, a Park Ranger dressed in Confederate grey, demonstrated the loading and firing of a British-made Enfield rifle, used by both sides during the war.

Leaving Fort Pulaski, we drove out to the end of Tybee Island to check out the local beach.

With the passing of Hurricane Sandy, we expected to see higher waves here, but it was actually pretty tame.

One thing about Tybee Island is that you can’t park anywhere without paying for it. Even the parking spots at the local Arby’s had parking meters on them, so you get to pay for parking and your roast beef sandwich.

About 4:30, we headed back toward Savannah to have dinner at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House.

“Uncle Bubba” is Paula Deen’s brother, whose nickname is Bubba, and in fact, Paula Deen is a partner in Uncle Bubba’s.

Everyone enjoyed their meal, with my Low Country Boil, consisting of Boiled Shrimp, Smoked Sausage, Boiled New Potatoes, and Corn on the Cob, being definitely better than the same meal I had a few days ago at The Crab Shack.

Don’t get me wrong, the Crab Shack was really good. But Bubba’s version was just better. And Jan said her oysters were fantastic!

On the subject of oysters, I found this shirt on sale at Uncle Bubba’s, which explains why I love oysters so much (and Jan, too.)

On the way back to the park, we drove by the Mercer-Williams House. Besides being a beautiful example of Civil War architecture, the house is most famous for being the location of the shooting described in the book and the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”

Since it was almost dark by the time we got there, here’s a photo from the Web.

And in addition to the “Midnight” death, two more deaths occurred here. In 1913, a previous owner fell over a 2nd-floor banister and died a few days later. And in 1964, a boy chasing pigeons on the roof, fell off and impaled himself on the wrought iron fence.

Ouch!

On that happy note, we headed back to the park for the night. Tomorrow will be a goof-off day before we wrap up our visit to Savannah on Tuesday.

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October 28, 2014

Same Old, Same Old . . .

Trucks come in. Trucks go out.

The frack equipment continues to move in, but so far, it seems at a slower pace than our other fracks. But that may be just the calm before the storm, so to speak. We’ll see. At least we probably won’t have two fracks going on at the same time like before.

Maybe.

One of our RV friends has been having a problem with small floor heaters in their rig burning out after a few days. So she asked me for help, and although I haven’t heard back from her yet, I thought I’d pass on my ideas.

The RV is on shore power plugged into their garage, and everything else is fine. But so far, 3 of these small Lasko-type floor heaters have burned out within a few days when plugged into the rig, after working fine in the house.

After thinking about it a bit, my thought is that even though she’s plugged into shore power, that outlet, or all of them, must be coming off the inverter. I guess it depends on how your transfer switch is wired up.

On our rig, if we’re on shore power, the inverter is not in use, even if turned on. The order seems to be: Generator, Shore Power, Inverter. But I’m wondering if her rig might have a different order.

I suggested she check to see if her inverter is on, and if so, turn it off. Then check to see if that outlet still has power. Now she knows she’s really on shore power. And I suspect that she won’t have any more heater problems.

The reason I think her inverter is involved is that a lot of electronic equipment does not like the modified sine wave power put out by most RV inverters. This graphic from the Xantrex company shows the difference.

The red line is what the power coming out of your wall outlet at home looks like. The blue line is what the power coming out of most RV inverters looks like. A big difference. And a difference that a lot of electronics don’t like. It just depends on how it’s designed.

In our case, a few years ago, it happened to us. We have a heated mattress pad on our bed, and it has dual electronic pushbutton controls. One day, while we were traveling, and had the inverter on, one of the controllers fell off the end table and turned on when it hit the floor. This immediately killed it. Luckily, I was able to order a new one. And now we unplug the mattress pad when we travel.

Most computers will work OK, and most devices that use ‘wall wart’ power supplies, or inline power supplies like laptops, will also work OK. Usually, if it has a transformer in the power supply, it will work.

But it seems like any device that involves a large current draw, heaters, coffee makers, etc., and has a digital readout/controller, is going to have problems with modified sine wave power. I won’t go into why this is circuit-wise, and the fact that the circuit could easily be designed not to have this problem, but it would cost an extra dollar or so. Of course, if you’re making a million heaters a year, this adds up, so there is that view of things.

There are several things you can do here. First, check the literature that came with the device. In many cases, it will say, “Not For Use In An RV”. Second, call the manufacturer or check their website.

Finally, if all else fails, buy something cheap. Get a heater that just has a knob that says, “OFF, HI, MED, LO”. It will work fine. Same goes for a coffee maker like that.

Or you could just replace your rig’s inverter with a $2000 Full Sine-wave model. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

That’s probably about enough on the tech stuff. Many of you are dozing off already. Jan says you can ask me what time it is, and I’ll start with the history of the sundial and come forward from there.

She’s probably right.

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October 28, 2015

They’re Hereeee!

Finally!

About 20 minutes till 6 this morning the bell rang, and I stuck my head out the door expecting to greet one of the frack water guys who usually come in around 6 am. But instead, I found the point man for the Flowback team that was about an hour behind him.

And about 6:30 here, they came. As it turned out, they weren’t really the Flowback crew yet, but more like the Flowback and ‘Anchor Down’ prep crew. So now it was back to our old routine.

I got dressed and went outside about 6:15 to get set up since we had stored away a lot of stuff under the canopy during our downtime, and also because of the four days of rain we just had. In fact, as it turns out, the heavy rains may have been why everything Flowback was delayed since last week.

By 7 am, when I went inside to go to bed, 8 vehicles had come in, and by a little after 5 pm, we’d had a total of 56, a big jump from the None we’ve had for the last week or so. They were mostly bringing in equipment and tools

When we’ve got a new crew coming in like this, I always let Jan find out the particulars of what’s going on. The guys are always happy to chat up a pretty blonde who’s asking questions. Me, I usually just get ‘grunts’.

We were hoping that this might be a 12-hour job. But no, this is still a 24-hour gate. But the good news is that this Flowback will go at least a month before the Workover Rig comes in. Since we plan to leave in a little over three weeks to head back to the Houston area on November 22nd, this works out perfectly for us.

Yesterday, Jan and I had talked about going out to dinner tonight, figuring it might be our last chance for a while. I mean, the Flowback’s gotta finally start sometime, right? But I guess we just went a day too far.

But not really, as it turns out. A little before 5:15, two trucks left that were the first two trucks in this morning. Since normally “First In, Last Out” means ‘Bosses’, I checked over the log and found everyone had left for the day, except for one truck. And since it was pretty overcast, there should have been lights on at the pad if anyone was still working there, but it was dark down that way.

It’s not unusual for the crew to leave a vehicle or two onsite, so I stuck my head in the rig to tell Jan we might still be able to go out, but found her almost ready to bring out our dinner.

Bummer!

After we finished dinner, delicious leftovers from our Jalapeno Tree visit for Jan’s Birthday this past Sunday- I drove down to the pad to check things out.

And as I figured, the one missing truck was there, but no one else. Our window of opportunity had slammed shut.

But maybe tomorrow? We’ll see.

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October 28, 2016

DKIM . . .

Jan and I are beginning to wonder if Miss Karma needs glasses.

Since we’ve had her, she’s always had a propensity to run into things. She’s much more careful about where she steps or how she jumps down from something than any of our other cats.

This afternoon, she jumped down from one of the chairs and ran right into my leg. She sometimes runs from the front of the rig back to the bedroom and runs into the bed. I did look in her eyes to see if she might have cataracts, but saw no signs of them.

So, how do you give an eye test to a cat?

Heading out a little before 1 pm, our first stop was at the Lone Star Real Estate office to pick up an Amazon package that came in this morning. The lady who owns this office also owns our RV Park, and kindly lets us receive mail and packages there.

Thanks, Nancy.

Our next stop was at Barth’s Restaurant for a 3rd shot at their great lunch buffet, and today was no exception.

We’re gradually working our way through the week, having already had the Friday Mexican fare, and Sunday’s Turkey & Dressing/Fried Chicken offering. All great.

And today’s Chicken Fried Steak Fingers and Fried Catfish continued in the same theme of really deliciousness. And from what Jan says, we’re going back for more Turkey & Dressing on Sunday.

After lunch, we had planned to check out the local HEB, but as we were entering the restaurant earlier, I discovered that I had left my cellphone back in the rig. And not wanting to miss a possible Todd text about another gate, we decided to loop back home to pick it up. But as happens, once we got back home, we decided to stay and do HEB another day, maybe tomorrow.

A reader, Richard, left a comment wanting to know more about the voltmeters I use to monitor our rig’s battery voltages. Actually, I have three voltmeters that I’ve installed in our rig – two 12-volt meters to monitor both engine batteries and house batteries, and one that monitors our AC house voltage, whether shore power or generator power.

Early on, I discovered that 12V power that feeds the overhead spot lights, map lights, and the power plugs at the dashboard comes from the engine batteries. And the 12V power in the rest of the coach comes from the house batteries.

So that means I should be monitoring both if I want to know what’s going on. One reason is to be sure that the engine batteries are being charged. On our American Eagle, the engine batteries are only topped off when the house batteries are fully charged, and the battery isolator switches over to charge the engine batteries.

So I have one 12V meter underneath the overhead cabinets at the dashboard. This one monitors the engine batteries.

And I have another one over the sofa that monitors the house batteries.

Both of these are visible from my computer chair, so I can always keep an eye on things.

I also have another one for 120VAC that resides right over my driver’s chair. I put it in that position so I can monitor the generator output while we’re on the road.

And when we’re parked, I can keep an eye on the shore power, especially important when the park voltage starts dipping in the Texas summertime with everyone running their A/C’s full bore.

Here is the 12v version from Amazon. At $7, they’re an inexpensive addition.

And here’s the 120V AC version, also from Amazon.

And this one’s only $8.

As far as hooking them up, it was really pretty simple. I was able to tap into 12v sources in the cabinets. In both cases, I hooked up the 12v meters like this.

I wired them across a couple of lights that we never use, just hooking up the red wire (+) to one side of the switch and the black wire (-) to the other side. And yes, the meter will go dead if you close the switch, but it won’t hurt it.

One of these is a rope accent light over the sofa, and the other is a high-power halogen light over the dash, so they were perfect to use.

As far as the 120vac meter, it was even simpler. There is a 120vac socket in the cabinet overhead, so I just wired a two-prong plug on the meter leads (polarity doesn’t matter) and plugged it in. Easy Peazy.

Now on to DKIM.

I may be taking my life in my hands, but I’m going to dip a toe into the election mess, but on a technical level.

I’m sure pretty much everyone has heard about the emails, WikiLeaks, and otherwise. Depending on your point of view, some of the information contained within either depressed you or encouraged you.

And a couple of the people referenced in them, after writing things they probably wished hadn’t been made public, have said the emails were tampered with, changed, or modified to make them look bad.

But that didn’t happen, and it’s easy to tell it didn’t. Even you could do it if you wanted to. You just use a DKIM verification program.

DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail, a combination of two different pieces of email verification software.

Pretty much every piece of server software that you would use to set up an email server contains the DKIM routine. In some cases, it’s already set up, and in other cases, it must be manually configured.

Depending on whether your email is stored on your home computer, or on the email server, all the emails, all attachments, etc., all the emails are stored in a single large file, either a .pst file, or an .ost file.

These found, stolen, leaked, emails are not copied off one by one, like you would make a copy on one on your personal computer, but the entire .pst or .ost file is stolen, leaked, or copied.

Think of the DKIM software as being similar to the https: secure login for credit card purchases online. An encrypted handshake takes place between your computer and Amazon’s (for example), guaranteeing that you are really talking to Amazon, and not some spoof site, giving away your credit card data.

The same thing takes place in an email from a DKIM server. It guarantees that the email is coming from or going to the specified email server, AND no changes have been made to any of the text in the emails.

So you can download DKIM verification software and check this out for yourself.

And now you know.

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October 28, 2017

Texas Renfest . . .

Jan and I were up at 6:45 am, and out the door by 7:30, to make the hour-plus trip up to Brandi’s in Katy.

Then it was on up to Magnolia and the Texas Renaissance Festival.

Did some figuring and came up with the fact that we’ve been coming to the RenFest since 1979, five years after it started in 1974. What I didn’t realize is that the location is actually an old strip mine site, mining what I don’t know.

We paid the extra $10 for Preferred Parking, which turned out to be well worth it. Because it comes with a shuttle that picks you up right at your car and takes you to the main entrance, and then back when you leave. Very nice. Especially when you’re really tired when you’re leaving.

And of course, after entering the Faire, it was time to eat. Jan got a Sesame Chicken On A Stick, and I got a Sausage On A Stick, and a Piña Colada. Very Good.

This weekend is Halloween at Renfest, so we saw a lot of other costumes around, like Harry Potter, Wonder Woman, Alice and the Mad Hatter, and even a T-Rex.

One thing we always do here is to attend the Falconry Show.

Vulture

A Great Horned Owl

Another Species of Great Horned Owl.

Hawk

Falcon

South American King Vulture

Coming home, we stopped off at the Friendswood Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription and a couple of grocery items. Then, before leaving the parking lot, we got a couple of Coffee Milkshakes from the Whataburger to take home for supper. Our favorite.

Oh, by the way, I found Waldo(s)

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October 28, 2018

Pool Party Fun . . .

Looking forward to pool time, we were on our way up to Brandi’s by 11:30 with a quick stop for gas at the nearby Valero for gas now that I knew how to get the gas cap cover open.

We got there a little before 1 and headed directly out to the pool. Lowell was already out there, as well as Miss Piper, who had combined two favorite relaxation activities, coloring and getting some sun poolside.

Brandi and Landon were off on their bikes on a neighborhood playdate, and showed up an hour or so later.

Eventually, everyone was in the pool this time, even Miss Jan.

Later on, Brandi went inside and put the steaks on. Well, she put them underwater, anyway.

The kitchen utensils are just being used to weigh the bags down and keep them under the water.

She has one of these Sous Vide Cookers from Amazon.

It’s controlled by the cell phone app, and the app even notifies you when your food is done.

Sous Vide is a method of cooking by placing the food in plastic bags and immersing it in water heated to an exact temperature. In fact, if you got a steak at a restaurant recently, there’s a good chance it was cooked via Sous Vide and then thrown on the grill for a last-minute sear.

You can learn more about Sous Vide here.

Later, our travel agent, Chantelle Nugent, and her family came over for some pool time before we all sat done for steak.

Almost everyone likes their steak at least Medium Rare, so this was perfect. Miss Jan, however, is more of a Medium person, so Brandi put hers under the broiler for a few minutes.

All delicious!

Finally, about 6:15 pm, and after a great afternoon, we headed back to Santa Fe, looking forward to another week of fun and frolic.

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October 28, 2020

Back To Basics . . .

As I mentioned the other day, I’m regrouping and rethinking my oil leak problem with the rig. And I think I’m going back to basics and taking one final shot at a fix.

I’m going to pull the oil filter once again, take out the 4 bolts, and remove the adapter head. Then, after I clean all the Permatex Ultra Black Sealer off both surfaces, I’m going to use a pick tool to remove the one so-so Heli-coil, retap the hole, and then install a new Heli-coil.

Next up, I’m going to put it all back together without using any sealer. After all, it worked for 18 years without any sealer on the joint, without leaking. However, I will use two gaskets this time, and the Blue Threadlocker on the bolts.

Then we’ll see.

If this doesn’t work, then I think it’s time to take it up to Channelview to the repair shop. I would like to be able to at least drive it up to the shop rather than have it towed, though.

Still waiting on our South Dakota Absentee Ballots to arrive in Sioux Falls.

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October 28, 2021

Meet Sylvia . . .

After my Dr. appointment this afternoon, we were off to lunch at one of Jan’s favorite spots, Twin Peaks. She loves the food as do I, in addition to the scenery, of course.

Jan always gets the Spicy Chipotle Chicken with a cup of their Tomato Basil Soup.

And as usual, I got the Soup and 1/2 Sandwich Special, with the Green Chicken Chile and a 1/2 BLT.

And this is our new favorite server, Sylvia. She waited on us a week ago, last Tuesday, so we asked for her again today. And she pretty much remembered our order from back then.

They’re usually not dressed quite so ‘scantily’, but this is all for Halloween.

Lucky me.

Lowell sent over Landon’s 6th Grade photo the other day. Hard to believe he’s in Middle School already.

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October 28, 2022

Tomb Raider . . .

Despite all the rain today, it still looks good for us to attend the Wings Over Houston Airshow tomorrow. Though it poured down most of the day, tomorrow looks to be pretty good, with a high of 71° and partly cloudy. A lot nicer than last year’s 90+.

As I posted earlier, we’ll be in the Family Chalet area with tables and chairs, and free food.

There’s even a covered area if we need it.

Really looking forward to it.

In yesterday’s blog, I mentioned how our favorite Twin Peaks server is going to be Lara Croft – Tomb Raider during TW’s Halloween Days that started today. So this morning she texted me a photo of her outfit.

Looks pretty good, but I told her that she really needs a gun strapped to both legs.

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October 28, 2023

Wetting Your Whistle . . .

Since we wanted to look for Halloween-decorated houses this evening, we reversed our usual order of things, doing Wal-Mart first at about 5 pm, then supper at Gator’s.

And due to a mismarked exit on I-45, we ended up down in Galveston instead of Hitchcock, where we were originally heading. But it turned out pretty good.

But since we didn’t get home until after 9, I’ll just wet your whistle with this one photo and do the rest tomorrow.

And tomorrow looks to be another quiet one, with just Denny’s for lunch, HEB for groceries, and then a P.O. stop.

Nice.

The Smell of The Day is: Pumpkin

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Old Friends and Annoying Cats . . .

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Tomorrow we’re making the ~3-hour drive down to Fairhope, AL, where we’ll spend the next 4 nights before heading back to Santa Fe on Saturday.

But about 20 miles down the road, near Hope Hull, we’ll make an hour or so stopover at the drive-through Alabama Safari Park. We last visited here in 2022, so it’s about time to do it again.

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Thought for the Day:

“True Love Is Being Stupid Together.”

Words That Jan and I Have Taken To Heart.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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October 27, 2009

Better than yesterday…

Bob Evans was so good last night, we decided to have breakfast there this morning. Of course, sleeping in meant it was lunchtime by the time we got there, but we had breakfast anyway.

After breakfast, we stopped off at Menard’s to pick up some stuff and then headed back to the park.

Later, we went out for pizza at a great place called Mancino’s. Really good pizza and bread!

Then after dinner, we drove over to a nearby Staples for a few things.

Getting back to the rig, we turned in for the night.

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October 27, 2010

Mister’s Big Adventure, Landon, RED, and RunPee.com . . .

Our Prodigal Cat, Mister, was waiting for us when Jan opened the door this morning. She looked out and called his name, and he immediately came out from under the rig and bounded up the stairs.

I had left the outside door open all evening, along with leaving the light on. Before I went to bed about 12:30 am, I went outside and called him with no luck, so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t under the rig then.

He didn’t seem especially hungry and had not eaten the canned cat food I left out for him.

We’re thinking maybe he was inside with somebody last night, and they didn’t see the phone number on his tag.

We don’t know, and we don’t care.

He’s home safe!

Brandi sent over these latest Landon pics.

In this one, Landon was playing on the floor and then apparently suffered a severe nap attack.

And here, he’s just bored, bored, bored.

This afternoon, Jan and I went to the Star Cinema Grill up in Webster to see the movie ‘RED’. Bruce Willis has been a favorite of ours since we first saw him in a Miami Vice episode in 1984. and then a year later, co-starring in ‘Moonlighting’ with Cybil Shepherd. And, of course, after that, the ‘Die Hard’ series, and much, much more.

‘RED’ was hilarious. It was so good that we’re probably going to see it again next week, and that’s not something we do very often.

I think my favorite line was from Morgan Freeman’s character. . . “We’re getting the band back together”

As far as the Star Cinema Grill, it’s one of our favorite places to see a movie. About 5 years ago, someone took a six-screen movie theater that had closed because an 18-screen theater had opened about a mile away, and a 30-screen one had opened about 8 miles away, and turned it into a movie/restaurant. Not just a bigger snack bar, but a full-scale restaurant on the order of an Applebee’s, or a Chili’s.

And even better, the restaurant is in the theaters themselves. They took out every other row of seats and installed small tables, complete with call buttons and menus. The waiters are dressed in black so as not to distract during the movie.

We always try to get there about 30 minutes before the movie starts to get our orders in. That way, we get our meal before the movie starts.

Jan had their 1/4 pound all beef hot dog with Texas Toothpicks. Texas Toothpicks are slivers of jalapenos and onions battered and fried. They’re really good. And I had the Southwest Salad with chicken fajita meat. Also really good.

Also, if you’re so inclined, they have a full bar available. And, if later in the movie, you decide you want some popcorn, just press your call button and a waiter/waitress shows up to take your order.

Then, about 15 minutes before the movie’s end, your waiter/waitress drops off your check.

This place is really great. The food is good, and there’s no rushing at the restaurant, so you can make the movie start.

And as usual, before we left home, I checked with RunPee.com to find out the best times during the movie to . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . run pee. This is a great website. Just click on the movie you’re going to see, and it will give you several places during the movie, the time you have, and what’s actually happening while you’re gone. Jan loves it.

Tomorrow, I’ve got some clients to look in on, and after that, we’ll see.

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October 27, 2011

Not Much Happened Today . . .

And it was really nice!

All in all, a nice, quiet day. Quiet, cold, and rainy. A perfect day for just staying in the rig, and enjoying hot coffee and each other’s company.

As it is, we probably won’t leave the park until Saturday when we make the drive into Cincinnati for shopping and dinner.

Leaving Elkhart yesterday started our three-week journey back to Houston for the holidays. But leaving Elkhart is like leaving home just to go to another home. We were introduced to Elkhart two years ago, and Bobby and Gita at the Elkhart Campground have always made us feel right at home. Well worth a stay over if you’re in the area.

Jan and I spent a large part of the day just reading and catching up on some of the programs we’d DVR’d.

As it stands right now, we’ll leave here on the 7th, then it’s on to Vandalia, IL, to visit Jan’s sister. Then, after stopping off to visit relatives in north Alabama, we hope to spend about a week in Gulf Shores, AL, where I grew up. We plan on being back in the Houston area the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and stay for a couple of months before we head back out for the year.

But who knows, our schedule can always change.

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October 27, 2012

Forts, Chapels, and Churches . . .

After Hazelnut coffee and the last slices of some delicious Pumpkin Cinnamon Bread, we headed out about noon to visit Beaufort, SC, home of the Marine Corps Parris Island, and also their Marine Corps Air Station.

Jan and I lived here in Beaufort from late 1969 to late 1970, when I was working as a DOD contractor at MCAS on F-4’s, A-4’s and A-7’s.

We were able to find the two different houses we lived in while we were here. This duplex was the first one,

and this single-family home was the last one.

After checking out our ex-homes, we spent some time driving around Beaufort, checking out the large, beautiful trees,

along with the many old homes.

Next, we took the bridge over the Beaufort River that leads out of downtown Beaufort and headed over to Ladies Island.

Then, after a short snack stop at McDonald’s, we drove on down St. Helena Island. Our main destination was Fort Fremont, the remains of a Spanish-American War-era fort.

The original fort covered over 170 acres, but these concrete gun emplacements and the attached hospital building are all that remain.

The other buildings, made of wood, have been destroyed or torn down since the fort was deactivated in 1921.

Driving back toward Beaufort, we stopped off at these church ruins that we had passed on the way to the fort.

We discovered it was called the Chapel of Ease. It was built around 1740 as part of St. Helena’s Church for planters who had problems traveling to the main church parish in Beaufort.

It became a separate church after the Revolutionary War, and was burned out in a forest fire in 1886.

There is also a partially-destroyed mausoleum on the grounds, which may have led to the stories of strange lights and ghosts in the area.

Next, we headed back through Beaufort and up the road about 25-mile to the Yemassee, SC area to visit the remains of another church.

Built between 1745-55, the Church of Prince William’s Parish, also known as Sheldon, apparently was a magnet for destructive military attention.

It was first burned by the British Army in 1779. Then, after being rebuilt in 1826, it was burned again by the Union Army in 1865. Sometimes you just can’t catch a break.

We didn’t want to get any closer to the building because there was a wedding ceremony going on at the time.

Leaving the church, we drove on into Yemassee to check out a nearby Mid-Atlantic/Encore/PassPort America park called The Oaks at South Point. Turned out to be a nice park, but with all the tall trees, it would be sheer luck if you could get a satellite signal.

Finally, it was time to head back to the park and dinner. We had decided to check out The Pink Pig.

Serving BBQ and seafood, they’ve been mentioned on the Food Network and written up in Southern Living magazine. And we really enjoyed it.

For their BBQ, they have both tomato-based sauces and the mustard-based sauces, typical to Georgia and South Carolina, including a hot Gullah sauce.

I had a shrimp and rib combo platter, and the ribs were really good. meaty and moist.

We’ll go back.

Since The Pink Pig was only about a mile from the park, it was a short trip. Which was a good thing, since we were all so full.

Tomorrow it’s on to Fort Pulaski.

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October 27, 2014

Never Bite a Bee . . .

He might bite back.

After a fairly quiet weekend, things picked up today, with a little over 200 vehicles coming in. They’re bringing in the equipment to start fracking at the next pad about 200 yards down the road, which should bump up the vehicle count even more. But hopefully less than the 325+ we had during our double-frack period last month at the other gate.

About noon, I headed into North Zulch to drop a letter in the mail and also to pick up some chicken from the gas station there for lunch. Strange as it may seem, gas stations in oil rig country have some of the best food.

And they do a booming business. The one here is open from 5 am to 10 pm, seven days a week, and has a menu bigger than most restaurants.

Unfortunately, the one thing they don’t have that we enjoyed last year was the seasoned potato wedges. So along with our chicken strips, I got Jan an order of tater tots, and I got red beans and rice. All good. And I got enough chicken, so we have leftovers.

After being at this new gate for a couple of days, it seems the prevailing wind is mostly from the south, or behind us, so last night/this morning I reconfigured the canopy so we have a windbreak behind us, and it also cuts down on the afternoon sun.

I got some idea of how much it helped when, later, I went back in the rig to get something to drink, and found out how cold it really was out in the wind. Makes a big difference.

We have a light tower here for our use, and it really helps.

In fact, Jan is now a fully certified light tower operator, i.e., she started it up and shut it down twice while I watched.

If you forget to turn the lights off before you shut the generator off, you can burn it out. Who knew? Now she starts it up at night and shuts it down in the morning after she relieves me at 7 am.

Forgot to mention yesterday that Scotty, our GGS support tech, brought us a couple of pieces of Pecan Cheesecake for Jan’s birthday. Really nice of him.

As far as biting into the bee, it was the bee’s fault. He shouldn’t have been in my bottle of Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea. I got busy after lunch, and when I finally got to sit down again, I took a big swig and bit down on something crunchy that suddenly burned like HELL, and I quickly spit it out.

I don’t think he stung me. I think I just bit into his poison sac. I ended up with a big lump on the inside of my bottom lip that hurt for a few minutes before fading away. But 12 hours later, the bump is still there.

That’ll teach him.

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October 27, 2015

Fried is Fried . . .

Well, the rain finally let up overnight, but the heavy cloud cover stayed around until later in the afternoon, before the blue sky and sun finally began to show through.

The frack up the hill finished up this afternoon, and the water guys left for the night, saying they’d be back tomorrow morning. Don’t know what comes next for them. It seems like every frack is different, at least in how they wrap things up.

We’re still waiting for our Flowback crew, and every day Jan’s certain they’ll be here tomorrow. But it just seems to always be ‘tomorrow’. Which is fine with me.

I mean, we’re spending our days reading, watching TV, and playing on the computer. We’ve got full hookups, and we eat out pretty regularly. In fact, we’re probably going to eat out tomorrow again.

So how is this different from being parked in an RV park somewhere?

Oh, yeah. There is one difference. We’re making $150 a day. And that’s a really nice difference.

I got an email this morning from the Escapade Seminar Coordinator asking if Jan and I want to do our Gate Guarding for Fun? & Profit seminar at the 56th Escapade being held in Essex Junction, VT next July. We had a lot of positive responses from the one we did in Tucson this past March, so we’ll probably do it again.

We’re really looking forward to doing the East Coast again next year since we haven’t been back there since 2009, when we went all the way out to Newfoundland. Probably won’t do that again, but there’s still a lot we didn’t see last time.

A little after 11 am, I headed into Carthage to pick up lunch at Chicken Express. And of course, what did I get at CE? Why, the Fried Catfish Fillets, of course. And the Fried Okra. You can’t forget the Fried Okra.

A few weeks ago, I made a comment about someone liking the Chicken Fajita Tacos at Whataburger. I said that you should always go to a restaurant’s strength.

You don’t order steak at a Red Lobster, you don’t order seafood at Texas Roadhouse (though I might give you a pass for Steak & Lobster. I said ‘might’), and you don’t order Chicken Fajita Tacos at Whataburger.

Then one of our blog readers pointed out my ‘hypocrisy’ in going to ‘Chicken’ Express and ordering ‘Fish’. But I pointed out that ‘chicken’ wasn’t the operative food here. It was ‘Fried’. As in ‘Fried’ chicken, ‘Fried’ catfish, and ‘Fried’ Okra.

Their strength is ‘Fried’ stuff. I wouldn’t order the Chicken Fajita Tacos from there either.

It’s Grilled, not Fried.

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October 27, 2016

Closed Down . . .

Todd, our SiteWatch supervisor, and JM, the SiteWatch maintenance guy, showed up about 5:15 this morning to close down our gate and tow the shack and the generator trailer away.

I still wonder about all the equipment left on the pad. There is no physical gate to close along the way, so I guess they’re hoping the pad’s isolation will protect all their stuff.

But it meant that I was back home at the rig about 5:45 am, 30 minutes or so earlier than normal. Nice.

Jan was already up, but I went right to bed, trying to stay on our night sleep schedule. I don’t know what our next gate will be, but I think Jan’s even coming around to liking night shift. Day shift sounds nice until you consider that a 5:30a to 5:30p shift, means getting up around 4 in the morning. Even she’s not crazy about that.

I forgot to mention in last night’s blog that about 6:30 last night, Cole, of the father/son duo that owns SiteWatch, showed up at the gate. He wanted to drop by to introduce himself since we’d only talked by phone. He said we should have another gate ASAP.

While he was there, he also went in to talk to the Marathon Company Man, I guess hoping to drum up some more business.

I was up about noon, and soon after we were off for lunch and shopping. Our lunch stop was another visit to RJ’s Burgers, a local place with great burgers. Unfortunately, it’s only open for weekday lunch. So we get it while we can.

And as is usual with us, we find something we like and stick with it. So Jan got her Cheddar Mushroom Burger, this time adding Grilled Onions, as well as an order of their great homemade onion rings.

I stuck with the Grilled Ribeye Sandwich with an order of their hand-cut fries. Love their grilled buns.

While we were finishing our burgers, I looked up, and there was Cole again. He’d been having lunch with a Marathon guy, and came over to say Hello, so now Jan got to meet him as well as me. He again said they hoped to get us on another gate very quickly. I gather that SiteWatch was surprised that the gate closed so abruptly.

Like us, they had been led to believe that the guards would stay until the next crew moved in.

Our next stop, of course, was the local Wal-Mart for some supplies. Jan also wanted to see if they carried the steel-toed sneakers like the Wal-Mart in Huntsville, TX, that we saw a couple of years ago. But they didn’t stock them, and neither did the Tractor Supply that we also checked on the way home.

There’s a big place here in Kenedy called Cadillac Jack Boot City that looks like they might be a possibility, so we’ll check them out soon. Of course, we’ve still got the Sketchers we can get from Amazon, but Jan would like to try them on first.

So we’ll keep looking. Of course, it all depends on whether she actually ends up needing any to start with.

We kept waiting to see if we’d get a text from Todd about another gate, but nothing so far.

But soon.

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October 27, 2017

Renaissance Man . . .

and Woman.

This morning’s ~30-minute drive into work was really nice, almost over before I knew it.

And because I cut two hours off my round trip, I was able to spend a little extra time wrapping up some projects.

While I was at work, my new LaCrosse Remote Weather Station came in. Several readers already received theirs, and so far, the reviews are very favorable.

I’ll let you know.

Getting home about 4:45, we turned right back around and headed over to Victory Lakes to have dinner at Whataburger. Delicious as usual.

Then it was a stop by the next-door Chase Bank for some cash before hitting the across-the-street Wal-Mart to get rid of some of it.

Under the heading of “I Warned You.”

Check out this Denver TV Anchor take the Carolina Reaper One Chip Challenge and then proceed to throw up on-air.

One Chip Challenge

A Person Gotta Know Their Limitations.

Blog reader Brenda Brown passed this on about Sears.

Sears just went into bankruptcy in Canada last week. They are having their liquidation sales for the next 12 to 14 weeks, and then they are gone. Over 15,000 employees are out of work, and many of them that have worked there for over 30 years have lost their pensions.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

Coming next year, the GPS in your new smartphone will be much more accurate, from over 16 feet down to 1 foot. Plus, it will work better in the city canyons and use only half the power.

Super Accurate GPS

Earlier in the month, when we didn’t know we were going to be moving south, I went online to get us tickets to the Texas Renaissance Festival near here in Magnolia. Of course, now that we’re down here, it’s time to go.

So tomorrow we’re going to be at Brandi’s by 9 am, and then we’re all going up there. Really looking forward to it.

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October 27, 2018

It’s Push and Release . . .

First off, Jan wants to thank everyone for all the many Happy Birthday wishes. It meant a lot to her.

We were out the door a little before 10:30, heading up to Webster to meet Miss Piper at one of our favorite breakfast places, The Egg and I.

Jan tried the Avocado Toast with a side of Greens,

while I got my usual Two-Egg Breakfast.

But what I want to know is how someone this slender,

can eat like this.

Piper’s working at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where her Nana worked back in the early 80’s, right after we moved out here from Alabama, and I went to work for NASA.

She’s close to finishing up her B.A. in Psychology, and then she’s going right into an MBA in Medical Administration, all while working full-time. Pretty much like her Nana and PaPa did about 45 years ago.

While Jan and Piper went out to do the Mani-Pedi thing, I went by her apartment to pick up her bike and take it down to the Bike Barn to have a rear flat tire repaired. While I was there, I told them to go ahead and do a Basic Tune-up while they’ve got it.

We all met up back at her apartment and got introduced to her new dog. Violet. Then Jan and I headed off to Sam’s for a prescription pickup and then Wal-Mart for stuff. A lot of stuff, since we hadn’t really shopped since before we left for Florida on the 3rd of this month.

Finally heading home, we made a stop at the new Costco to fill up our Malibu. At $2.29/gal, it’s the cheapest place around. But I ran into a problem. I couldn’t get the gas door open.

I first tried to push on one of the edges to ‘rock’ it open. No luck. Then I searched all over inside for a remote release, checking in all the usual places, like beside the driver’s seat, inside the glove box, etc. Then I checked all the dash panels and hidden locations. Still no luck.

Then I double-checked the key fob. Also no.

Finally, and reluctantly, it was RTFM time. And . . . there was not one in the vehicle. So finally giving up, we headed on down to Dickinson for a storage room stop, before heading home for the night.

Tomorrow we’re going up to Brandi’s in Katy for an afternoon pool party/cookout. Miss Piper is coming up too, but separately, since she’ll probably have to come home earlier.

Really looking forward to some pool time, especially since Lowell is heating it up just for the occasion.

Brandi sent over a photo of Landon’s prize-winning Halloween costume.

And it lights up, too.

Later, a little Googling told me the secret of the Malibu’s gas door. You have to push in on the left edge in just the right place and then immediately release it. And then that edge pops open.

If you don’t push in the right spot, or don’t release it quickly enough, it won’t open.

Live and Learn.

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October 27, 2019

Sunday Mish-Mash . . .

I mentioned the other day that, based on a blog reader’s suggestion, we might consider doing a Mississippi River Cruise after our Alaskan Cruise next year, and our possible Yucatan Mayan Ruins tour the year after.

But when I checked them out, I was surprised how expensive they were, especially compared to our Viking River Cruise and Holland America Alaska Cruises.

A 22-day Complete Mississippi River Cruise, 7 days longer than our Grand European Viking cruise, is $13,600 PER PERSON, over $17,000 more than our Viking cruise. That’s almost $2500 per day extra.

YIKES!

As I mentioned the other day, we’ve booked a Larger Inside Room on our Alaska cruise, but the size is relative, I guess. Because at 233 sqft, it’s 28 sqft LARGER than the largest room on our Viking cruise ship.

NICE!

As usual, Brandi’s family goes all out on Halloween decorating in their yard. It looks really good in the daylight,

and even scarier at night.

BOO!

Jan and I will be puppy-sitting at Brandi’s while they’re out of town for Thanksgiving with friends up in Cleburne, TX. So when we were up at Brandi’s last weekend, Jan started getting in some practice.

Looks like Jack and Baxter are already breaking her in.

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October 27, 2020

It’s About That Time Of The Year . . .

About 2 pm, Jan and I headed up to the Webster area, first for lunch at Cheddar’s, and then on to the office to pick up an Amazon order that came in earlier this morning, and then finishing up at the HEB down in League City, before getting home a little before 5 pm.

Jan got her new favorite, the Grilled Catfish with Veggies,

while I got the Veggie Plate.

along with a House Salad.

Delicious as always.

I’ve been checking the Voter Information Portal on the South Dakota website, looking to see if our Absentee Ballots have shown up, but no luck so far.

As far as our rig’s oil leak problems, I’m taking a break right now while I think about how to approach things again.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, talking about us moving down to the Petticoat Junction RV Park in Santa Fe, TX, and saying we’d probably be here for a couple of months at least.

Today, we’re starting our 4th year here.

Who knew!

It looks like the time has come for me to stop off at our storage room and pick up our two electric heaters. This past weekend, when I checked the upcoming temps for the next week or so, I was seeing lows in the low 70’s and highs in the high 70’s to mid 80’s.

But then, when I checked today, there was a radical change coming. Tomorrow night’s low is supposed to be 43, and then Thursday night it’s 48. And then lows in the 50’s, out for the next week.

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October 27, 2022

Missed It By One Day . . .

Today was another Twin Peaks day for lunch.

Jan got her usual Chipotle Chicken with double broccoli,

while I tried a little old and a little new, with the old, my favorite Brisket Chili,

and the new, an order of the Crispy Mini Tacos.

Both really good.

What I missed by one day was that tomorrow through Oct 31st, the Twin Peaks’ ladies will be dressed in Halloween costumes. In the case of Sylvia, our favorite server, she’ll be dressed like Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.

Then, after a great lunch, we looped around on the Interstate to make a Costco stop for a couple of things Jan wanted. Next up was a quick Wal-Mart stop for a few more things.

Finishing up, it was Sugar-Free Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Cowboy Coffee before getting home about 3:30.

Nice Day.

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October 27, 2023

Printer Swirls . . .

Looks like Winter is coming back over the weekend. Though Saturday’s temps are 84 and 73, Sunday’s look to be 84 and 54. And then it’s 60’s and 40’s as far out as The Weather Channel can prognosticate.

Looks to be nice!

Spent most of today doing paperwork. We have to have a number of State and Federal Medical Device Licenses, and they all require pages and pages of forms to be filled out. And they all ask pretty much the same questions over and over again, just in a different order. Sure would be nice if they would standardize a form for this.

But then it is the Government we’re talking about, isn’t it?

When I was blogging the other day about Landon’s new 3D printer, I forgot to post this photo.

As I mentioned, his printer is capable of printing in 4 different colors, and when switching between colors, the printer has to clean out the previous color out of the print head before it can start printing with the new one. And these ‘swirls’ are the result of changing colors.

Next week looks to be a quiet one. For the first time in a while, we have absolutely nothing scheduled.

Nice for a change.

Tomorrow evening, we’re going to have a late dinner and then drive around checking out some areas that are supposed to have good Halloween-decorated houses/streets.

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October 27, 2024

Suicide By Cruise?

As I prophesized in yesterday’s blog, lunch today was Ultimate Omelets at Denny’s, HEB stuff and gas at HEB, and then home.

Nice and Easy.

* * * * * * *

Suicide By Cruise?

66-year-old woman falls overboard from Royal Caribbean cruise ship off The Bahamas

66-year-old woman fell overboard from a Taylor Swift-themed Royal Caribbean cruise ship off The Bahamas on Tuesday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard said Wednesday afternoon it was suspending its search.

And it seems like it’s a thing on RCL ships.

Last year, a passenger on Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas went overboard while the cruise ship was heading to Singapore, officials said at the time. In another incident earlier last year, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship passenger went overboard on a trip from to Hawaii from Australia, a company spokesperson told CBS News.

But actually, it’s not just RCL. According to another article, there are 20-30 overboard deaths each year on American-ported cruise ships. And due to the fact that, with the 5’+ railings, it’s almost impossible to accidentally ‘fall’ overboard.

In fact, because of all the cameras around the ship, there are videos of people deliberately climbing over the railing and jumping. And only 15-20% of jumpers survive.

What usually happens is that the jumper gets pulled under due to the ship’s wake and then Cuisinarted by the props.

Ouch!

Someone said that maybe the 66-year-old jumped off when she found herself on a Taylor Swift-themed cruise.

Could be, I guess.

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Hot Caramel and Mini-Samplers . . .