Monthly Archives: October 2026
Coffee And Much More . . .
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Coffee And Much More . . .
Jennifer, our Office Manager and designated Karma-Sitter, sent over this Proof Of Life photo.
That’s her “WHAT? face.
* * * * * * *
Leaving the hotel about 10:30 this morning, our first stop was at the Shimoji Coffee Drive-Thru for a Sugar-Free Pumpkin Spice Latte for Jan and a Caramel Apple Latte for me. (They didn’t have the Caramel Apple in Sugar-Free.)
Then, thoroughly coffeenated, we made the 15-minute drive out in the country to Debbie’s, where we spent the afternoon catching up with her, her daughter Tana, and her granddaughter Gwen.
A great time and a great lunch, again.
* * * * * * *
Then about 3:30, Jan and I came back to the hotel to dress up a little for a wedding reception for people we weren’t sure we knew. But we did know that they were family somehow.
A really nice turnout in a very nice Event Center,
This is our part of the family that was there.
That’s Debbie on the far right, her daughter Tana next, and then her daughter-in-law Laura, and her son Jason. Missing is her other daughter, Christina, who showed up later, and I didn’t get a photo.
* * * * * * *
Last up are Jan’s Halloween Earrings of the Day.
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow it’s back down to Debbie’s with the entire family for a big weinie roast, a regular occurrence on our visits.
Can’t wait to see everyone.
Thought For The Day:
Now With More Cinnamon!
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.
October 18, 2009
Home of the Great Pumpkin!
Jan decided she wanted to eat at Das Essenhaus again, so we headed over to Middlebury, only to find out that it was closed on Sunday.
Bummer!
Our GPS showed a number of other restaurants down the road in Shipshewana, about 7 miles away, only to find that every restaurant we tried was also closed.
Double Bummer!
We saw a lot of Amish carriages along the way, so maybe that was why all the restaurants were closed.
Anyway, we ended up making a big loop out into the country. A nice drive, but we were starting to get hungry.
When I mentioned to Jan that our big loop was taking us right back by El Maguey, the Mexican restaurant we had eaten at last night.
So what was good for dinner is good for lunch, right? And it was, too!
After lunch, we headed back down a country road to get some pictures of a pumpkin patch we’d seen last week.
We also went by the American Countryside Farmers Market and found it also closed. Checked the web when we got home, and we found it’s only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We’ll go back then.
Coming home, we stopped off at Menard’s and Big K looking for some small plastic containers.
Finding those, we went next door to Martin’s, a local supermarket chain, to get some Honey Crisp apples that had been recommended.
On our way out of the store, we got Pumpkin Lattes at Starbucks. We decided we liked Starbucks ’ Pumpkin Latte better than Dunkin’ Donuts, which is good, because Starbucks is much closer.
A few minutes later, we were back home at the rig.
October 18, 2010
Fry’s ‘R’ Us . . .
After a morning of coffee and conversation, I left the rig about noon, first heading to Fry’s Electronics to pick up a new wireless router for a client, along with a new toy for myself. Fry’s is my version of Toy’s ‘R’ Us.
After spending several hours finishing up with my client, I got home about 5 pm, and then Jan and I headed right back out to Chili’s for supper. We’re really glad they brought the Caribbean Salad back, though Jan had the Margarita Chicken this time.
Tonight’s Monday TV, which is great, so that’s about it for today.
October 18, 2011
Buns and Bays . . .
Well, the rain and other miscellaneous bad weather fronts moved in right on schedule today, with more high winds gusting to 40 mph waiting in the wings for tomorrow. Oh boy!
After our coffee, I got back on the phone with Galveston Bay RV Resort. We’ve stayed there over the holidays for the last three years and really like the place. But after I called to get our site #, I realized they had put us in a site too small for our coach, so I called them back to get it straightened out. Then, while waiting to hear back from them, I spent some time on the phone with a client trying to straighten out his email problem. And as soon as I hung up with him, Galveston Bay called back with a good site for us for this winter. These photos are just one reason we like this park so much. This is the view out our windshield.
After a great lunch topped off with some delicious cinnamon buns, I got ready to head over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame to work on setting up their new computer system. Ended up having to order a new external HD case from Amazon to help straighten things out, but it’s finally starting to come together.
Leaving the museum, I stopped off for one of my semi-annual haircuts before heading home about 5. And then a little while later, we all headed out to Culver’s, a fast food chain where the food tastes much better than fast food.
All in all, a nice day, despite the weather.
And now for another installment of . . .
Things Every RV’er should have:
Today I’m going to tell you about a service, and not a gadget. It’s Amazon Prime, a special service from Amazon.com, and we find it invaluable while traveling full-time.
The bad news is that it costs $80 a year, but the good news is that if you order a lot, or want to order a lot from Amazon, it will save you money.
But in our case, we also like the time it saves us. Time, as in how long it takes to order and receive something.
And Amazon sells pretty much everything.
Need a genuine Cummins Fleetguard Fuel Filter for your diesel pusher? They’ve got it. Need a giant 50’ black spider for Halloween? Take a look. Need diabetic test strips? Just place your order.
How about a Cisco Ethernet 8-port Switch? You’re good to go. Or maybe a Valterra black tank waste valve for your RV? Well, you get the picture.
But the fact that they have all this stuff is not the main thing. The main thing is that with Amazon Prime, you get 2nd Day shipping FREE on all items shipped by Amazon. And if you want it tomorrow, it’s just $3.99.
I just checked my Amazon account, and so far this year, we have purchased 66 items from them. At only $2.00 each shipping charge, that would be over $130 for the year. And it’s pretty much impossible to get anything shipped for $2.
But, for us, it’s not only the free two-day shipping, but it’s the fact that it IS only two days. Only occasionally are we in a place long enough to receive something shipped in 3 – 5 business days, like normal shipping. And when we need something fast, there’s the overnight shipping for $3.99.
An example of how this can be useful is a story I read about a guy who lived near the coast of North Carolina during the recent hurricane. A few days before the storm was supposed to hit, he decided to buy a 4000-watt generator, and he also wanted some extra ‘D’ batteries.
But when he went shopping, he found every local store sold out of both. Then he thought about his Amazon Prime. He went online, found the generator he wanted, added in a case of ‘D’ batteries, and placed his order about 4 pm that afternoon, selecting Next Day delivery for $3.99 for each item.
At 10 am the next morning, the FEDEX truck pulls up and unloads his generator and his batteries. He said he just wished Amazon sold gasoline, too.
Lastly, Amazon recently added over 10,000 movies and TV shows that you can stream to your computer for free with Amazon Prime.
Check it out.
October 18, 2012
Boxes and BBQ . . .
Today was another nice, quiet day. You can never have too many.
The park maintenance guy came back to tell us the water was back on for a while, so we could top off our tanks if we needed to. He said the backhoe man was coming this afternoon, but didn’t know when it would be fixed.
We’ve all been using our onboard water supply since the day before yesterday, but we still had over half a tank left after one wash load and 4 showers, but topped off anyway.
I forgot to mention the other day that Janis Thomas came by Tuesday night to drop off some delicious candy before they headed Wednesday morning for North Carolina.
Thanks, Janis. You too, Lenny.
A little later, I talked to Galveston Bay RV Park to confirm that we would be arriving there one month from today, and to be sure they would have a space for us for the winter.
Next, I spent some time cleaning up after Mister’s latest box-devouring episode.
I’ve mentioned before that Mister loves cardboard boxes. He likes to cram into them, and then he starts eating them. Well, not really eating them, he just tears off chunks and then spits them out. Over a period of a week or so, he’ll eat a box down to the ground.
And of course, that leaves little pieces of cardboard everywhere. So after throwing out the remains of the box, I swept and vacuumed up all the bits and pieces, too.
Mister will just have to wait for the next Amazon order to come in.
About 4:15, we had some guests. Nancy and Bill Lee, and Sonja, Rose, and Rueben Bristow had dropped by to visit. It turns out they’re blog readers and live right down the road from our park. They gave us some great places to visit before we leave on Sunday, and we really enjoyed getting to know them. Hopefully, we’ll get to see them again the next time we’re in the area.
A little later, we all headed up the road to Willey’s BBQ to have dinner. It turned out to be pretty good, except their version of ‘hot’ BBQ would get them laughed out of Texas.
Leaving Willey’s, we drove about 10 miles north to the closest Wal-Mart up in King George. Everyone needs a Wal-Mart fix now and then.
The park guy stopped by again before we left and said the water was back on, so hopefully that’s fixed.
Tomorrow we’re going to head south about 60 miles to check Urbana, Gloucester, and the Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trails.
Hopefully, the 40% chance of rain will hold off. We’ll see..
October 18, 2014
‘You Fall Good’
Well, our vehicle count dropped again, down to 183 from yesterday’s 202. That’s always nice. The new workover rig came in this morning, but except for the rig itself, which is all on one big truck, we didn’t get a lot of traffic from it, just a few extra workers.
Early on, before our two fracks started up, someone had mentioned that there could be a problem fracking too close to a current drilling operation. At the time, we thought that might delay the fracks until the drill rig in front of us finished up and shut down.
But then both fracks began, and we didn’t think any more about it. But today someone said that they alternate. When the fracks start actually fracking, the drill rig shuts down for that period. Which explains the long periods of inaction I see regularly across the street. You learn something new, and all that.
‘You fall good’ is what Jan said when I did a face plant in the gravel this morning. When I get up in the morning, normally around 11:15 to 11:30, I fix coffee and bring it out to Jan. I’m usually just wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and Crocs. We sit out for a while and talk, and if anything comes in the gate, I get up and log them in so Jan can take a little break.
Well, this time when I got up, I didn’t realize that Mister, who came out when I did, had gotten his leash wrapped around my feet. So when I got up, I took about three steps, and SPLAT!
Now it’s been about 50 years, but between judo/jujitsu and learning to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, I guess my body hasn’t forgotten how to hit and roll. So the only damage was a small abrasion on my left knee as I rolled off to the left.
The last time this happened was a couple of years ago when we were in Lake Tahoe. We had stopped at one of the scenic pullouts along the lake, and as we were walking back to the truck, I was fooling with my camera and stepped off a high curb that I swear wasn’t there before.
Without thinking about it, I pulled the camera against my body and was apparently already rolling when I hit the pavement. Before I knew it, I had rolled over completely and come up on the other side. What’s really strange is that I don’t even remember hitting the ground. But I was stiff and sore the next day, believe me.
Today was a two-fer, or maybe a three-fer, with Ama’s frack food delivery. They actually deliver food twice a day to the frack site. Once around noon, and then again in the evening. This way, both shifts get to eat. Normally, when they drop off food for us, it’s from the noontime run. But today we got food dropped off both times.
Jan says we’ve got to eat faster because we’re running out of room in the refrigerator. And in trying to do that, we didn’t split tonight’s meal. We each had our own, and boy, was it good.
It was a grilled chicken breast, stuffed with cream cheese and HOT jalapenos, and wrapped in bacon, along with steamed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and mashed potatoes. And not to forget, banana pudding for dessert.
Man, I was really stuffed when I waddled off the bed a little later. And I still am. I guess we shouldn’t try to eat like oil rig workers.
Lowell sent over this photo of Landon’s Halloween costume.
Note the thick rubber collar around his neck. It’s to hold his space helmet.
NEAT!
October 18, 2015
When the Rig’s Away . . .
The Gate Guards Play.
Again, another day of resting up and goofing off. But on the other hand, it seems like we should be gate guarding, or something.
Pretty much the only vehicles coming through are the guys running the pumps at the frack pond that are now supplying water to the new frack site, and we don’t log them anyway.
I did get a few things done around the rig that I’ve been putting off, and tomorrow I’m probably going to bite the bullet and tear my laptop apart to replace the power jack, but we’ll see.
When I walked around to the backside of the rig the other day, I saw these on the ground.
These are some leftover Whataburger fries that just won’t die. They’ve been out here since the very first time I brought Whataburger back to the rig. We both got Combos and couldn’t eat all the fries. So we tossed them out for the birds. So far, there are no birds, and that was five weeks ago.
What are these really made of?
I mean, the birds won’t eat’em. The ants won’t eat’em. What will?
We had the herd of cows around the rig again today.
They just walk by and stare at us, and then move on. At least they’re not doing like last year when they kept tripping over the satellite wires and yanking the dish off the stand.
For the last week or so, I’ve had a pesky piece of malware in my desktop computer called ‘cnfg.toolbarservices’ lurking around in my machine. It kept popping up as being blocked from accessing the Internet by Malwarebytes, but nothing I tried could find it and kill it.
But some Googling told me about SpyHunter, a Spyware Detection and Removal Tool from Enigma Software. Since it was free to download, I thought I’d give it a try.
And it not only found ‘cnfg.toolbarservices’, but a lot of other things that Malwarebytes had also been blocking. But neither Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, or Spybot – Search and Destroy would actually find them.
But the hook here is that the free download only detects bad stuff, but it won’t remove it until you buy an Activation Key. $39.95 gets you a six-month license, including personalized help from them if you come across something really difficult to eradicate. You just email them a copy of the Support Log that the program generates, and they will send you back a customized solution to your program.
I normally don’t care for the ‘license’ type software, but since nothing else had even found the problem, much less eliminated it, I decided to spring for the Key. And 5 minutes later, I had the Key, the malware program (and the rest) had been killed off, and my computer was rebooting.
I’ll wait a few days to see if the fix holds before I give my final stamp of approval. I’ll let you know. But it can’t hurt to download the program and see what it finds.
For our second night of freedom, we headed out for dinner once again about 4:45. Although last night we just pulled the gate closed since we hadn’t let the water guys from the frack up the road know we would be locking up. But the Company Man had given us a key and told us to lock the gate when we left, so tonight we did.
I’ve seen a number of these multi-lock gates, but this is the first one like this.
Usually, they use kind of a barrel mechanism, but they all do the same thing: let several people open a gate with their own key.
Our dinner selection for tonight was The Jalapeno Tree, a Mexican place we last ate at the first week of September, when we had a couple of nights off between the frack prep work finishing up and the frack crew and equipment actually moving in.
Tonight we started things off with a White Sangria, made with Moscato wine and three or four fruit juices.
I think the last time we had an alcoholic drink was this past April in Las Vegas at the Lindo Michoacán Mexican restaurant down in Henderson. Twice in one year. I think we’re on a binge.
Jan had the Chili Rellenos, the same as last time.
A lot of places only have them with cheese, but here they also have them with beef, which is Jan’s favorite.
Last time I had a Combo Platter, but this time I went with the El Diablo Jack Combo Fajitas.
It’s Beef and Chicken, with crispy bacon pieces, sautéed mushrooms, and covered in Monterey Jack Cheese. Beef, Chicken, and Pork on the same plate. You can’t go wrong.
And I didn’t.
They were really good. And we both had plenty to bring home.
October 18, 2016
Gateward Bound . . .
This morning started out slow, but got busy fast.
After nothing from anybody SiteWatch-wise, I put in another call to Todd about 12:30, and ten minutes later, he called back. We talked for about 20 minutes, going over what the job entailed and what we could expect.
We will need FRC’s, hardhats, glasses, and steel-toed shoes. So we’ll need to buy hardhats, and Jan needs steel-toed shoes. I’ll probably just order her a pair of these Skechers from Amazon.
Hard to believe they’re steel-toed.
We’ll be working opposite 12-hour shifts at a guard shack in the Kenedy / Karnes City area, probably following a Marathon Completion crew.
The only thing out of the ordinary, at least for us, is that we have to get a DBA (Doing Business As) license (cost $11 at the courthouse) and then open a business account at a bank. We will be paid as contractors on a 1099, but for some reason, they will only pay into a business account. Strange.
Todd also said our expired security licenses shouldn’t be a problem, and that we should just be able to renew them online. Then we’ll have to transfer them from GGS Services to SiteWatch.
So the gist of all this is that we’ll head out tomorrow morning about 11 for the 3+ hour trip down to Kenedy. Todd and a couple of others on Facebook recommended the Lone Star RV Park #2, so that’s where we’re heading.
I talked to Nancy, the owner, this afternoon, and they have a short-term/long-term site available for us. Don’t know the price for sure, but I’ve heard $450-500, and that includes electric. They also have a completely free laundry, which is very unusual.
After we get the DBA/Bank Account stuff done, the next thing on the list is to attend the Marathon Orientation Course, Friday afternoon at 1 pm. So maybe we can be on a gate by Saturday, who knows?
About 1 pm, to celebrate, Jan and I drove in to have the lunch buffet at Schobel’s Restaurant. Coming home, we stopped off at the park office to let them know that we’d be leaving tomorrow morning and to put our remaining money on account.
Later in the afternoon, I went online to see about our license renewals, but I quickly found a problem. You could renew an expired license, but not if it’s been expired for more than a year. Which lets us out.
So we have to start over, but I’m not sure if that includes fingerprint cards or not. So I’ll find out tomorrow.
October 18, 2017
Now it’s Jan’s Turn . . .
Yesterday, Jan started coming down with what I’ve got, just as I’m starting to get over it.
Some people are attributing this to the Harvey Hack, an upper respiratory infection seemingly caused by all the moldy debris lying around as the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
But my symptoms don’t quite fit. I started with a nagging cough that got worse and worse over a couple of days, finally getting so bad that my chest and diaphragm were so sore that it hurt to even stand. But that, along with a slight fever, is all I had. No sneezing, no congestion, just the cough.
But this morning I felt well enough to go back down to the Clear Lake area.
I spent most of the day catching up on making labels for a bunch of products using Avery Labels Design & Print program. If you don’t have a copy of this free program, you should.
It will do all these different types of these and more.
I had tried to call Jan several times during the day, but I guess her cell phone had run out of juice, because it kept telling me her phone was offline. So coming home, I took a chance that she might be hungry, so I made a stop at the Willis Whataburger to pick up dinner.
She was asleep when I got here, but with the smell of Whataburger, she rallied enough to eat and have some of the Coffee Milkshake I also brought home. Hopefully, she’ll be better tomorrow.
The FBI just released their UCR 2016 report, breaking down Murder by State, and by Weapon.
Turns out you’re almost 5 times more likely to be killed by a knife or other bladed weapon than a rifle of any type, including any type of ‘assault weapon’. And almost twice as likely to be beaten to death with hands, feet, fists, etc., than killed with a rifle.
On the Las Vegas Shooting front, a number of ex-military riflemen and hunters have come forward to say that the fact that the shooter used a ‘bump stock’ to spray bullets around meant that a lot fewer people were killed than might have been.
Their claim is that if he had used a rifle with a good scope and taken his time, he could have killed a lot more people one at a time during the 10 minutes he was firing. And probably attracted a lot less attention. The distance was only about 500 yards, a distance that hunters regularly take down deer in the hill country. In fact, you can go online and find videos of guys shooting golf balls at 500 yards. So a person wouldn’t be a problem.
October 18, 2018
Back On The Road To Texas . . .
We’re leaving for Texas tomorrow morning, probably about sunrise at 7:30 am.
We don’t know about the availability of RV Parks on the way, so we might have to go all the way to Pensacola. So we want to get an early start.
I’ll catch up on everything tomorrow.
October 18, 2019
More of It’s Like Y2K All Over Again . . .
Back in February, I posted this article about the upcoming GPS Week Number Rollover Problem starting April 6, 2019. And then I kind of forgot about it with the prepping for our European trip.
But now there’s been a date change.
Here’s what I wrote back in February:
It’s Like Y2K All Over Again , ,
Come April 6th, 2019, be careful where you drive. Or at least be careful where your GPS tells you to drive. Turns out that in a retro-Y2K twist, the date stamp in the GPS will reset, and it suddenly won’t know where it and you are. This is because they only programmed a 10-bit register to store the week, So, every 1024 weeks, or about 20 years, the date rolls back to zero.
This, of course, is reminiscent of the whole Y2K fiasco, where to save memory space (back in the days when it was really expensive) they stored the year as two digits, i.e., 1980 was ‘80′, 1999 was ‘99’, and of course, 2000 was ‘00′.
WHOOPS!
Newer GPS implementations use a 13-bit storage area, which should last until the Sun goes red giant and engulfs the planet. Hopefully that’ll be long enough.
You can read more about it here:
Now, units produced since 2010 or so, should be using the new ICD-200/IS-GPS-200 specifications, and should be OK. I say ‘should’, because apparently some manufacturers have been somewhat lax in updating their software.
Saves a few bucks, don’t you know. So be careful out there.
But then today I got this email from Verizon.
Which says that the whole thing has been delayed until November 3rd. And now the problems extend to devices as recent as 2016.
Yikes!
As far as phones, luckily for Jan and me, only her Galaxy S5 is affected, and it’s just her phone here in the rig.
However, it looks like our Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 will also have a problem, disappointing since we often used it to display WAZE data on long trips.
You can click here to find out if your device(s) are on the GPS Naughty List.
October 18, 2020
Well, Almost, But Not Quite . . .
After coffee this morning, I was back outside about 1 pm to finally mount the oil filter adapter head.
My first job was to spread a thin coat of the Permatex Ultra Black sealer onto the gasket like this.
I did it on a sheet of wax paper so that when I lifted the gasket up, all the excess stayed on the paper. Then I mounted the gasket onto the adapter head and carefully spread a coating on the other side, the side that will seal up against the overhead flange.
Then it was back under the rig to mount the adapter. Because of the way the bolt holes are arranged, both the adapter and the gasket are keyed so they only go one way. And it only took me about 15 minutes to get it in place and tightened down. And since I installed the Helicoils, I was able to torque the bolts down to about 25# rather than the original 17#.
So now I was ready to install the oil filter itself, and that’s where things went awry. I topped off the Rotella 15W-40 oil in the oil filter I had stored away, (it’s supposed to be installed full of oil) and crawled back under the rig.
The first problem is lifting the 12 pounds or so of filter and oil over my head and then trying to screw it onto the adapter. You’re supposed to tighten it down hand-tight and then use your strap wrench to give it another 3/4 turn to tighten it down.
But the problem was that I could not get it started. It’s always taken me a few minutes to get it going because it’s slightly cocked off to one side a bit. But today it seemed to be impossible.
You would think that with those big threads it wouldn’t be a problem. But 30 minutes later, I was still at it. I even let it down to run my fingers around the threads on both the adapter and the filter, but I could feel no problem. Finally, after another 15 minutes or so, my arms were just too tired to hold it overhead any longer, so I called it a day.
Getting cleaned up, Jan and I headed over to our local Denny’s for our usual breakfast for dinner. We both had the Ultimate Omelet, with Sausage, Bacon, Ham, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Onions, and Cheese. And along with an English Muffin, and fruit instead of the hash browns, it’s really delicious.
Coming home, I thought of a way to test the fit on the oil filter. I dug out my old adapter head, installed the old screws, holding them in place with 4 leftover Helicoils so they didn’t fall out.
Then I screwed it onto the filter with absolutely no problem.
You can’t see it from this angle, but it’s screwed on the filter and tightened down.
So I guess come Tuesday, I’ll be back under the rig and try it again.
Bummer!
October 18, 2021
Upcoming . . .
Yesterday, I mentioned the two Immersive Van Gogh exhibits over the next couple of months. But that’s not all on our upcoming plates.
The first part of November, we’ve got the Nutcracker Market at the NRG Center.
Think of every Christmas Market you’ve ever been to, and then triple it. Or more.
And of course, we’ve got our Branson trip coming up the first part of December. Really looking forward to that.
But now there’s something new on the horizon.
Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs starts November 20th at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the same location where we saw the Pompeii exhibit a few months back.
Brandi’s checking to see if Landon and Sophie are interested before we book tickets.
October 18, 2022
“Silence! I keel you!”
After last night’s blog about problems filing my taxes, several readers asked why I was waiting so late.
In other words, the last minute.
Well, for several reasons.
Ex-IRS agents who are now tax advisors say the later you file, the less likely you are to be audited. And I’m not talking about getting audited because of your suspicious bank accounts in the Caymans.
There are two kinds of audits that don’t mean the IRS suspects you of anything.
The first is the Taxpayer Compliance Audit, which is used by the IRS to set the baseline for deciding when to audit other taxpayers. In other words, it sets the average limits for different deduction categories. If your deductions fall outside the normal limits for other taxpayers in your income range, the IRS will look at your return much more thoroughly. Not a good thing.
However, the real problem with the TC audit is how intrusive it is. You have to justify EVERY single entry on your return.
“You say you’re married. Could we see a marriage certificate, please?”
“You say you have 3 children. Could we see birth certificates, please?”
And on and on and on. Every entry, every receipt, every deduction.
The second is the Random Audit, where, when your number pops up, you get an audit.
Either way, it’s not a good thing.
And lastly, I don’t like to give the IRS my money any earlier than I have to.
Normally, I owe money every year due to my IT consulting income. But this year we’re getting money back due to pandemic adjustments.
Nice!
The problem I had last night trying to e-file was that as part of uploading your return, you have to enter the AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) from your last year’s return.
Not a problem, right?
Just look at last year’s return on my computer, right?
But for some reason, I had not saved off that return in PDF form.
So just load the return back into last year’s TurboTax and look at Line 11 on my 1040, right?
Unfortunately, that didn’t work. For some reason, TurboTax didn’t want to run. So I decided to just uninstall and reinstall it.
But no luck. The reinstall would just get to 9% and hang up. And even after rebooting, the reinstall would still hang.
And after going around a couple of times, it finally occurred to me to try installing TurboTax on my Hungarian laptop. And it worked.
And after moving the tax files over there, I had my AGI. And after some more rigmarole, I got the return uploaded. And about 20 minutes later, it was accepted by the IRS.
Done. For this year.
Coming home from San Antonio Sunday afternoon, we saw one of those big electronic billboards advertising an upcoming performance by Jeff Dunham, the ventriloquist here in Houston.
We’ve always enjoyed his TV performances, so we had to get tickets to this show.
And now we have two seats on the floor in Section 3, Row 19, on January 11th at the NRG Arena.
Really looking forward to it.
October 18, 2023
Kioku Supreme. . .
Spent most of the day at work trying to figure out why the drivers for my HP OfficeJet 6978 won’t install. The printer drivers installed with no problem, and it works fine. However, the scanner install keeps telling me that it can’t connect to the scanner.
So I spent tonight combing the web trying to figure out what was causing the problem, so no real blog tonight.
Tomorrow we’re heading up to Conroe once again to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt for our monthly get-together, this time at a new place, Kioku Supreme Buffet.
Supposed to be really good. It is ‘Supreme’ after all.
October 18, 2024
Almost, But Not Quite . . .
With all our medical issues going on, it’s been several months since I updated our blog’s daily viewer totals. Because the total is made up of direct visitors to the site, people who receive the blog via email, and people who come to the blog through our Facebook post, I have to manually run a script to total and post the number.
And we have a new high.
4999 visitors per day.
So almost, but not quite 5000. Maybe next month.
Thanks to everyone.
Today was a nice stay-at-home (rig?) day. I spent some time going over the possible excursions for our upcoming RCL 9 Day Western Caribbean Cruise in December.
Out of our 5 port days, I got two excursions locked in, one probable, while still looking at our Progreso and Cozumel stops. One thing I haven’t been able to figure out is if we can do more than one excursion per stop.
The details tell us how long each excursion lasts, but not the timeframe. So, on a 9-hour port call, and one excursion is only 2 hours, it would be nice to be able to possibly schedule another one.
When we did our European Viking Cruise back in 2019, we could book multiple excursions, and the app would tell us if there was a conflict. But the RCL software doesn’t seem to do that.
But I’ll keep checking.
Coming up on Oct. 23rd, we’re supposed to do Early Check-In for the cruise. Not exactly sure what this entails, but I guess I’ll see.
Anyone out there done an RCL Early Check-In and can give me some clues?
Came across this great time-lapse of SpaceX’s recent Starship #5 launch and landing.
Elon recently said, at some point during the next few Starship launches, they plan on also catching the Starship itself on the launch tower chopsticks.
Can’t wait to see that.
Lunch tomorrow looks to be Rudy’s BBQ, but you never know.
Fairhope . . .
After a light breakfast at the hotel, and getting gas, we left Pearl River, MS, a little after 11 am and headed toward Fairhope, AL, about 135 miles away.
Overall, a smooth trip, with just a little rain between Biloxi and Gulfport, we got into Fairhope about 1:45 pm, allowing us enough time for a Wal-Mart/Publix stop, along with a Wawa stop for coffee, before checking into our room at the Key West Inn by 3 pm.
After getting settled in, we checked in with long-time friend (like since we were 10 or so), Claudia, to set up a time to meet for dinner at Shanghai Cottage.
This is a place we have to eat at every time we’re here, sometimes more than once. It’s that good.
And in all our travels, SC is the only place whose Hot & Sour Soup equals our King Food back in Texas.
So while Jan and Claudia shared a bowl, I got my own.
For our entrees, we got the Florida Orange Crispy Beef,
and the Kung Pao Chicken.
Along with a big plate of their House Special Fried Rice.
And it won’t be a visit to Shanghai Cottage without some of their made-in-house Green Tea Ice Cream.
While Jan and Claudia shared a bowl of the plain version,
I went all out with the added Whipped Cream and Chocolate.
Two Big YUMS Up!
After getting our hugs, we made a date to pick Claudia up at her brother’s place, where she’s having her new house built nearby. Then it’s on over to Gulf Shores for the afternoon.
More Fun!
Crockpot Chicken And Family . . .
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Crockpot Chicken And Family . . .
After coffee and breakfast biscuits at the nearby QT this morning, we were on our way a little before 9 am.
We headed north on I-55 toward Vandalia, IL, where we will be visiting Jan’s sister, Debbie, and her family for the next four days,
Our first stop was at a Love’s just east of Sikeston, MO, about 133 miles away, as we got on I-57, which would take us pretty much all the way to Vandalia.
We exited I-57 at Salem, which took us over to US-51. But along the way, we made a Wal-Mart stop for a few things.
It’s hard for Jan to pass up a Wal-Mart without stopping.
We got checked in to the America’s Best Value Inn about 2:45, and got unloaded. This is the same motel we stayed at in 2015 when we drove over from Prescott, AZ, for a family reunion while our RV was being repaired after our Big Blowout.
Then, about 3:30, we made the 15-minute trip out to Debbie’s to spend the evening with her, her husband Jim, daughter Tana, and granddaughter Gwen.
Debbie and Tana had put together a great meal of Crockpot Chicken and Cole Slaw, and it was delicious!
Then, after getting our goodbye hugs, we headed back to the motel about 8.
A really nice day.
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow we’re getting together with more local family for a wedding reception. Fun and Food.
Thought for the Day:
Some things never change, even today. Or maybe even more so today.
Too many people spend money they earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like. – Will Rogers
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs™
October 17, 2009
Mexican times two . . .
Today we decided we needed a Mexican fix, and we got it, twice!
For lunch, we headed over to El Camino Real, a nearby place that we really like. And, as usual, it was great.
Coming home, we stopped off at an Ace Hardware to pick up some plumber’s putty to use in installing the new faucet in the bathroom.
Then, passing a Dairy Queen, we dropped in for a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard. Mmmmmm !!!
I worked on the faucet for a while, trying to get the old one out. These things are only supposed to be tightened by hand, but it always seems like they use big, honkin’ wrenches on them.
I haven’t been able to find my basin wrench, but before buying another one, I want to try my strap wrench. But it’s down in a bay somewhere, and I felt a nap coming on.
Nap time over, it was on over to El Maguey, our other favorite Mexican place here in Elkhart.
October 17, 2010
Mexican and More Mexican . . .
First off, here’s Mister really enjoying his fuzzy blankey..
Later, about 11:30 am, we met our son, Chris, his wife, Linda, & our granddaughter, Piper, at Chuy’s for lunch. Chuy’s is one of our favorite Mexican places, and it’s nice to have one so close by now.
About 1 pm, I drove over to a client’s for some computer work. While I was there, our daughter, Brandi, called and said Landon’s Baptism is set for Nov. 7th at their church in Katy. We’re really looking forward to it.
I headed back to the rig about 6:15, getting back just in time for this great sunset.
Among other great sunsets we’ve seen, is this one this past September in Elkhart, IN.
and this one in Gila Bend, AZ, less than two weeks after we first hit the road in February 2008.
I got home a little before 7, just in time to get Jan and head back out to meet our long-time friends, Bob and Maria, at La Brisa about 7:15.
As usual, we had a great time talking and didn’t leave the restaurant until about 9. I think they were getting ready to close up.
Tomorrow I’ve got a bunch of errands to run and also pick up some computer stuff at Fry’s Electronics, my favorite computer store.
October 17, 2011
Mexican and Muffins . . .
After a relaxing morning of coffee and muffins, Jan and I just enjoyed the brief burst of sunny weather we woke up to today, because tomorrow we’re back to rain and more wind. Wheeee!
After lunch, I headed back over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame to work on their computer system some more. And by the time I left about 4:30 I was finally starting to get a handle on the things that still need to be done..
After getting home, we all headed over to El Maguey for a great Mexican meal and a lot of good conversation, getting back to the rig in time for our favorite Monday night TV programs.
And now for another installment of . . .
Things Every RV’er should have:
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about testing your power connections using an AC Receptacle Tester, today’s post will tell you how to not only test your power, but protect your rig at the same time.
To do that, you need one of these, a Progressive EMS (Electrical Management System).
They have permanently mounted units like this one,
and portable, hang-on-the-pedestal models like this one.
Available in both 30 and 50 amp models, these units monitor your incoming shore power in three different ways.
First, after you plug into the pedestal and flip the breaker on, the unit cycles through a number of tests on the incoming power, including voltage, frequency, and all possible mis-connections, i.e. open ground, open neutral, etc., before it applies power to the coach.
Second, it monitors the power all the time to be sure that the voltage levels stay over 104 volts, and under 132 volts. Voltage levels outside this range can damage your rig and your appliances.
Third, it acts as a surge suppressor to protect your rig from voltage surges and nearby lightning strikes, just the surge suppressor power strips you plug your computers and other electronics into.
I bought my Progressive EMS from Daryl Lawrence of Lawrence RV Accessories at a rally in Casa Grande, AZ, a month after we started our full-timing life. And in the last four years, I’ve lost track of the times that the unit alerted me to problems with the power at the pedestal.
Once, on Cape Cod in 2009, the EMS gave its life in a shower of sparks to protect our rig from over 400 volts. And even though it was a weekend, Progressive overnighted me a new board to get my EMS going again. Now that’s service!
October 17, 2012
Mexinese, or maybe Chinican . . .
Lunch today was a combination of leftover Mexican and Chinese, kind of Mexinese, or maybe Chinican. Whatever, it was really good
After lunch, I finished up the affidavits to send off to South Dakota to get our absentee ballots sent out to us. So after printing them out and signing, I took them over to the Post Office in Colonial Beach and sent them off.
For dinner, Jan and I headed into Colonial Beach to have dinner at Fat Fred’s once again. We both enjoyed their soup and sandwiches last time and wanted to give it another shot.
Not sure what tomorrow is going to hold. We’ll just have to see.
October 17, 2013
Groundhog Gate . . .
or The Ceremonial Changing of the Hoodie
Although our days have been very nice, in the high 70’s and low 80’s, our nights are getting a bit nippy, sometimes with a vengeance. Last week, we were still having nights in the mid/high 70’s until the recent cold front came through.
A few nights ago, the Weather Channel said the overnight low was supposed to be 62 degrees, but at 4 am, it was still 77. So I’m thinking, Boy, did they screw up this forecast. But a few minutes after 4, a little north wind started up. Then the temp started falling like the bottom dropped out of the thermometer.
And by 4:30 it was 63 degrees! 14 degrees in 30 minutes. Maybe I shouldn’t have insulted their forecasting skills after all. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a drop like that.
Anyway, when Jan comes out to relieve me a little before 7 am, it’s still pretty chilly, about 60 degrees, and for some reason, we only have one hooded jacket, so every morning before I go in to go to bed, we exchange the hoodie jacket outside.
In retrospect, this story was a long way to go to get nowhere.
As far as Groundhog Gate, as usual, Jan has been counting the days until we head back to Houston, probably since before we even got here. So, a couple of weeks ago, she gleefully told me we only had six weeks until we leave the gate. But after thinking for a moment, I told her I didn’t think that was right, that it was more like 7 or 8 weeks. She said, No, she was sure that it was only six weeks, but she would go inside and check. Then, a few minutes later, I heard some VERY unladylike language emanating from the rig. She had discovered I was right.
Then the other day she was watching a TV ad that mentioned it was only three weeks ‘til Halloween, and I heard another ‘NNOOOOOOOOOO’. Turned out she forgot she was watching a DVR’d show. Oops.
I told her later that this was a Groundhog Gate, where the day never changes. Trucks come in, trucks come out. It’s hot, it’s cold, it’s rainy, it’s windy. It’s just the same day, over and over and over again.
Or at least it seems like it sometimes.
Yesterday I finally completed a mammoth 22-hour, 1.7 GB download. And it only took me two tries. The first time it got to about 20% before it froze, but it made it all the way through the second time. What I was doing was downloading the latest 2014 map update for the Garmin 1490 GPS that we use in our truck. And at 1.7 GB, it’s probably the largest file I’ve ever downloaded.
They have a program called Garmin Express that, after you plug in your GPS to the computer, tells you what updates you need and sets you up to download them. The only real problem is that the Garmin Express software does not let you pause or resume the download, or pick up where you left off if you get knocked off-line. So you just have to start it up and hope for the best. But it’s done for this year at least.
October 17, 2014
A Big Drop . . .
Today was grocery day, so I left the rig (RV and oil) a little after 10 for B/CS about 25 miles away. But before I even got to the paved road, I had to stop and take some pictures.
I think I’ve mentioned before about there being llamas along our road, but this was the first time they’d been near the fence. When I stopped the truck and got out to take a picture, a couple of them walked over to the fence, but I didn’t get any closer since I didn’t know the owner. And because they spit.
They seem to make themselves right at home among the cows. All told, there seem to be 20-30 out in the field.
Wal-Mart only took about 45 minutes since my list was pretty short, mostly because of all the Gate Food we’ve been getting from Ama’s, which, as I hoped, has been delivering to the frack site that’s going to be working for another week or so.
One thing new on my list was doggie treats. If there’s an animal nearby, Jan’s going to try and feed it. Birds, deer, squirrels, and now apparently, dogs. Old Dog and New Dog will be coming around a lot more once they realize there are treats involved.
And apparently, Old Dog now thinks we belong to him. I mentioned a few days ago how Old Dog tried to run New Dog off one morning, even though New Dog is much bigger. Well, Jan said the other morning both of them showed up together, and immediately Old Dog laid down about 3 feet in front of Jan to keep New Dog away.
I think we have a new owner.
Getting back to my Wal-Mart trip, before I left there, I stopped in the McDonald’s for Ice Caramel Mochas and some pies before heading over to the Sonic out in the parking lot for Corn Dogs (Me), a Chili Cheese Coney (Jan), and Ched’R Peppers (both) to bring back for lunch.
Due to one of our frack rigs moving out, the traffic was a lot lighter today, with 202 vehicles coming in, compared to yesterday’s 290, and 324 the day before that.
We do have a workover rig coming in there tomorrow morning, so that usually means they had a problem with the frack that they need to fix. But that shouldn’t increase our traffic too much.
Good.
October 17, 2015
A Brief Reprieve . . .
When I got up about 11 this morning, Jan was sitting in the rig watching TV.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Turns out that the company man had come by about 10, after all the equipment had rolled out, and said that we had a few days off until the workover rig comes in sometime next week. In addition, he gave us a key to lock the gate if we leave for a while.
Whoopee!
So we had a nice, quiet morning, just talking and relaxing for the first time in a good while.
Very nice!
Later, Jan and I headed out about 4:45 to have dinner once again at what’s turned out to be our favorite local place, Longhorn Grill. But first, we drove down to check out the pad after everyone had pretty much pulled out this morning after the completion of Completion. But as it turned out, everything wasn’t cleared out, I guess waiting for the arrival of the workover rig.
Heading back past the rig, we crossed paths with the landowner, Mr. A. He was just doing his evening rounds, checking out things since the pullout. Told him we were heading out for dinner. We also stopped in for a few minutes with the other gate guards to see if we could bring them anything back from town.
And as on our two previous visits, Longhorn was just as good as before. Jan had her 10oz. Sirloin, while I had my usual 14oz. Ribeye.
And of course, we both had a salad with their great homemade dressings.
Jan and I both agree that their salads are so good, they rank right up there with the ones from Outback Steakhouse, which are our other top favorite.
To wrap things up on a high note, we split a piece of their also-homemade Strawberry Cheesecake. And this time I managed to get a picture of it.
Compare the size of this normal single serving with those thin slivers you get at other places. YUM !
And even better, with the size of the steaks, we had a lot to take home with us, along with some of their homemade yeast rolls. This means steak sandwiches in a few days.
Coming home, we stopped off at the local HEB to pick up a few things, and maybe find a couple of items that the Wal-Mart here doesn’t carry. (Hint. HEB doesn’t either.)
Another good thing about not working for the next few days is that tonight, and tomorrow night, it’s supposed to be in the mid-40’s here, so it’s nice to be inside
On another note, since yesterday, there’s been 131 attempts to break into this blog. There will be nothing for an hour so, and then 15 minutes of almost constant attempts. Persistent little devils.
But they really don’t stand a chance of hacking my password. Mine is 8 characters of upper case, lower case, and numbers. This gives a combination of 62 possibilities per character, i.e 26 upper case, 26 lower case, and 10 numbers.
Multiplying this out at 62 x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62 means they have a 1 in 218,340,105,584,896 chance to guess my password. That’s 218 Trillion with a ‘T’.
That means it would take 6,931,432 years to try every combination.
Of course, they could hit the right one tomorrow, but it’s not likely.
October 17, 2016
Still Nothing Yet . . .
I waited until about 2 pm without hearing from anyone before I put in a call myself. But only got voicemail.
So if I don’t hear from anyone by noon tomorrow, I’ll start calling some of the other numbers that I talked to earlier.
Catching Up on Small Stuff
I spent most of today finishing up my taxes on TurboTax and finally submitting them on E-File at 9:42 today.
According to the USPS Priority Mail tracking, the county auditor of Lake County, South Dakota, received Jan and mine Absentee Ballot Request Forms today, so hopefully we’ll get our actual ballots back later this week, or the first part of next.
When I mentioned that the S.M.A.R.T. software on my ASUS laptop was telling me to replace the HD soon because it was failing, several readers asked me where they could get this software, since they didn’t find it listed on Amazon.
And the reason for that is that the S.M.A.R.T. software is actually built into the HD firmware and is constantly monitoring the hardware. Now it’s not perfect because catastrophic failures are still possible. An example of this was a while back when the HD in my desktop machine suddenly died. The drive motor just froze up with no symptoms or warning.
It’s kind of like a tire pressure monitoring system on your RV. It will monitor and warn you about a slow leak, but a sudden blowout probably won’t show up before it goes ‘BOOM’.
Also, be aware that since the S.M.A.R.T. operates at the DOS level, so you’ll only get a warning when booting up and shutting down.
Several readers have asked for an update on the Zero G RV and Marine Hose that I started using a while back. It’s a flexible drinking-water-safe hose that won’t kink. But though it’s flexible, it’s not expandable like the ones you see on TV. Instead, it feels like canvas, like a fire hose.
And being flexible, it’s easy to just wad it up and stow it away. And no wrestling with a stiff hose when you’re trying to pack up when it’s 40 degrees outside.
The heavy-duty cast aluminum couplings are nice too, and so far the hose shows absolutely no wear since we bought it in June.
Well recommended.
So tomorrow we’ll just keep circling in our holding pattern, waiting to hear from someone.
October 17, 2017
On The Mend, Maybe . . .
It’s been a rough couple of days for me. And for Jan too, since she has to listen to my hacking cough, and take care of me.
About this time every Fall, I get a cough. Not really bad, but just a tickle in my throat that makes me cough ever so often. So when I started coughing a little last week, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve always figured it was an allergy of some sort. Possibly ragweed, since it’s supposed to be bad this time of the year.
But the night before last, it got really bad, coughing all during the night every few minutes, not letting me get a lot of sleep. But except for the constant nagging cough, I really didn’t feel that bad.
So Jan and I headed down to Clear Lake to meet up with Chris, Linda, Brandi, and Landon at the Webster Cheddar’s for lunch. My cough did abate somewhat, during lunch, but returned with a vengeance after I got to work.
I spent most of the afternoon sitting at my desk/workbench, soldering up a bunch of connectors.
Jan spent the afternoon over at Chris’ as he worked on Landon’s Halloween costume. So I actually worked until 6 pm rather than 3:30 like I normally do. Leaving work, I stopped at the corner CVS to get some strong cough syrup
By now, I was starting to feel pretty dodgy, but still felt OK to drive home. Getting back to Conroe, we stopped at Kroger’s for a few grocery items, and gas. Nice to see that it’s dropping again, now down to $2.19.
We had planned to make Culver’s for dinner, at least for Jan. I had planned to just get a shake or Concrete Freeze. But when we got there, Jan said she thought I was running a fever, so I decided to go with the ‘feed a fever’ meme, so I ordered a small single hamburger.
By the time we got back to the rig, I was on my last legs, and after taking the cough syrup, I went straight to bed . . . at 9:30. And didn’t get up until noon the next day. Then, after Jan fixed me some oatmeal, I went back to bed until about 5 pm.
Got up feeling a little better, but very sore in my joints from the coughing.
Later, I had some soup and then went back to bed by around 10:30. But if I don’t feel any worse, I’ll go into Clear Lake tomorrow.
October 17, 2019
Choices, Choices, Choices . . .
Jan and I spent most of the day, on and off, talking about our proposed Alaskan Cruise-Tour next September. Or maybe I should call it a Tour-Cruise, since it starts in Fairbanks and ends up in Vancouver, B.C.
We have been trying to figure out how many extra days we want to spend in Fairbanks before the cruise actually starts. We kept going back and forth on whether we wanted 4, 5, or 6 extra days. So I made an executive decision that we’ll just do 7 days extra.
We had originally planned on staying at the Pike’s Landing Lodge, but since the cruise actually starts with a 1 one-night stay at Holland America hotel, The Westmark, we decided to just stay there the entire time so we wouldn’t have to move twice.
We had already planned to get an Inside room, based on our last Holland America Alaskan cruise back in 1998. We had an outside Partial Seaview room, which meant we could look out and see the feet of the people walking on the Promenade Deck and the sky behind them. Plus, we were almost never in the room during the day anyway.
But on this cruise, we’ve got our choice of two different Inside rooms, one Regular and one Large. The only difference is the size, with the Regular one at 151 sqft and the Large at 233 sqft.
And since the price increase is only $65/person, we’re going with the bigger one.
The next decision was about our meals. On our 1998 cruise, we only had two choices, Early Seating at 5:45 pm and the Late Seating at 8 pm, and a pre-assigned table.
But we really liked the Open Time/Open Seating for meals on our Viking Cruise. Of course, within a couple of days, we had met up with a great bunch of people and ended up sitting with the same people at the same table anyway. But it was our choice of friends and our choice of table.
But now we have a 3rd choice, Open Time/Open Seating, just like Viking. It’s the same menu, just in a different dining room.
So that’s what we chose.
October 17, 2020
Coiled Up, Cleaned, and Ready . . .
First off, I want to thank everyone for the many kind comments and commiserations about Landon’s yearbook cover artwork and his contest loss. They were much appreciated.
Underneath the rig this afternoon, I ran the tap through the offending bolt hole and then easily installed a new Helicoil and had no problem getting it below the flange surface. Then, after I popped the tang out, I was able to screw in a test bolt with no problem.
Next up was to use the nylon end brush in my drill to clean off any small stuck pieces of the old gasket. Then I used a piece of 400-grit emery paper to polish it up, leaving me with this.
Then, on the patio at my worktable, I did the same thing to the adapter head, leaving me with this.
Hopefully, tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be ready to apply a thin coating of Permatex Ultra Black Sealer to the gasket and the adapter and install it onto the flange over my head. Then I’ll install the oil filter and top off the oil level.
If all that goes well, it will be time to crank it up and see if anything leaks during a high-idle (1050 rpm) test, probably for about an hour. That’s assuming nothing untoward happens.
In fact, just in case, I’m going to have Jan crank it up while I’m underneath the engine on the phone with her. Who will have her hand on the key, ready to turn it off if I yell, or maybe scream.
If all goes well, then we’re planning our test drive for next weekend, probably on Sunday, heading down Hwy 6, back north of I-45, with a first stop at the Katy Buc-ee’s to check things out. If all is still OK, we’ll head on out to do a loop around at Columbus and then back to Buc-ee’s once again.
We’re going to try to schedule a stop-over there for a dinner get-together with Brandi, et. al., before heading back down I-45. We’ll do a last stop at the La Marque Buc-ee’s to top off our diesel tank and then back to our home park.
This will give us a 260-mile test drive, which should be a good enough test. At least we’ve never been able to get this far in the past without leakage.
Then it will be time to schedule our much-delayed Alabama trip, maybe around the middle of November.
October 17, 2021
Getting Immersed . . .
Jan and I decided on Gator’s for lunch this afternoon, and got to sample one of their new treats.
Margie, the owner, who we’ve known for about 30 years, has been trying to expand her already-delicious menu, concentrating especially on Keto items. So she wanted us to try this new Blueberry Muffin.
It was delicious. I told Margie that if I didn’t know it was Keto, I wouldn’t know it was Keto.
For lunch, Jan got the Keto Avocado Toast with a side salad instead of fries.
However, they still gave her fries anyway. So I took them home.
Having a sweet tooth today, I got the Stuffed French Toast with Strawberries, Sweet Whipped Cream, and Sweet Potato Fries.
Definitely not Keto, but really delicious.
Sweet tooth assuaged.
I’ve mentioned before that we’ve got two Van Gogh exhibits coming up in the next two months, the first one a week from tomorrow, on Jan’s birthday.
Called ‘Immersive Van Gogh’, it’s a traveling version of the original one we saw in Paris in May 2019. So we’re really looking forward to seeing this updated version.
But there is another.
Called Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, it’s a rival exhibit, both of them touring the US at the same time.
So, of course, we had to sign up for both of them, the second one on November 21st, with Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Sophie coming with us.
Both of them are apparently very popular, with both sold-out into December.
To find out more, you can check out this comparison article.
Houston has two competing immersive ‘Van Gogh’ exhibits but only one is worth the ticket price
October 17, 2023
Easing Into The Wings Over Houston Airshow . . .
Our Wings Over Houston Airshow visit started when we left the rig about 8 am with our first stop the Jack In The Box a little ways up Hwy 6 for 3 Supreme Croissants. 2 for us, and 1 for our golf cart driver.
Getting up to the AirShow entrance up Hwy 3, we found we had timed things perfectly, finding a parking spot in the Handicapped lot, only about 50 yards from the entrance gate.
Our first stop was to get our bags searched, with the officer asking if I had any guns, knives, or alcohol. I told him No, that I left all the fun stuff at home, and got a chuckle from him. (Actually, I left my gun and folding knife in the Jeep.) Then we got our tickets scanned from my phone, and we were in.
Since our Family Chalet viewing area was all the way down at the other end of the flightline, we were given a number to call to request a courtesy golf cart ride to the location. But getting inside the gate, we found a couple of golf carts loading up people for rides.
One driver said he’d be right back for us as soon as he dropped his group off. And a few minutes later, we were on our way. And when we got to our location, our driver, Randy, gave us his phone number and said to call him when we were ready to leave.
And when we were ready to go, he was there in about 10 minutes, taking us right to our Jeep out in the parking lot. And he said to call him next year if we come back. And we will.
Tonight I thought I’d start with my photos of the Ring of Fire Eclipse.
The quality is all over the place since I was just holding up my eclipse glasses in front of my phone camera.
Apparently, we were not in quite the right spot to see the full ring, so this is what we got at the peak occurring at 11:58 am.
For the big eclipse next April, I’m going to order a lens kit for my Galaxy S21 phone.
More AirShow stuff tomorrow.
Jan and I were talking this morning about one of our favorite BBQ places, Famous Dave’s, and where the nearest one in Texas was located. Which as I thought, was in El Paso. But . . .it turns out there’s kind of one over in Baytown right off I-10E. However, for some strange reason, they’re take-out/delivery only. Turns out you actually pick up your order at a Johnny Carino’s restaurant location.
Never heard of that before. And it looks like they don’t really carry the entire menu, but a large subset.
Wonder if you can pick up your order and then eat it at Johnny Carino’s?
I love weird, amazing, strange, etc. facts, and this one pretty much covers all 3.
In December 1899. the SS Warimoo was ferrying passengers between Canada and Australia. While at sea, Captain John Phillips realized he had the opportunity to do something extraordinary. He commanded that the ship steer for the point where the equator crossed the International Date Line. The ship arrived in time to straddle that point as the clock struck midnight on December 30, 1899. The forward part of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere and the middle of summer. The rear part of the ship was in the Northern Hemisphere and the middle of winter. Half of the ship was on 30 December 1899, while the forward half skipped a day ahead and into 1 January 1900.
The ship was not only in two different days, two different months, two different years, two different seasons, and two different hemispheres, but also in two different centuries, all simultaneously.
October 17, 2024
They Done Good . . .
Lunch today was at a long-time favorite of ours, Stomp’s Burger Joint.
And as is usual for us, we both have our favorites.
Jan gets the Outlaw Burger, with Cheddar/Jack Cheese, Diced & Grilled Jalapenos, Diced & Grilled Onions, Lettuce, Tomato, Mayo, and Picante Sauce.
Here’s Jan showing off her Halloween Shirt
I always get the Hog Wild, with Bacon ground into the Beef patty, Cheddar/Jack Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onions, Pickles, and Mayo.
And of course, an order of their Half & Half with Fries and their Hand-Battered Made-In-House Onion Rings.
Their patties are 1/2 pound of hand-formed 100% Angus Beef, and it shows in the eating.
Stuffed to the gills, we made a quick stop by the office before heading down to the Seabrook area to check in with long-time friends, Bob & Maria.
She had updated to a new printer/scanner and was having problems tracking down where things were being stored. Getting this straightened out, we spent some time catching up and setting up our next group get-together.
Leaving Bob & Maria’s, our next stop was at our local Wal-Mart for a few things that would eliminate our Saturday WM visit. But we wanted to try and take care of another problem.
A week or so ago, when we got home from WM, we discovered that one of our bags didn’t make it home with us. And unfortunately, it contained a $16 bottle of Melatonin, as well as a couple of other things.
I assume that it got left on the bag turnstile, which is why I normally spin it before I leave the checkout. But in this case, the checkout guy was already bagging the next customer before I got all my bags into my cart.
When this happened once before, and I checked with Customer Service, they actually had the bag in the back room. So I decided to try it again.
But this time, the Customer Service took my receipt and said she would have to check with the Loss Prevention Specialist. And after being gone for about 15 minutes, she came back and said that yes, that they had confirmed that I had left a bag behind and that they would issue me a refund.
Not exactly how they knew I left my bag behind. Is there a camera over every turnstile?
Not sure I really want to know, but anyway, they done good!
Cajun Fried Potatoes . . .
We were on our way this morning by about 7:45, heading for Pearl River, MS, just north of Slidell, LA, about 375 miles away. The trip was pretty smooth, except for the usual 15 -minute slowdown approaching the bridge coming into Baton Rouge.
Getting into the Slidell area, we turned north on I-59, and driving on past our hotel’s exit, we headed up to Picayune, MS, to have dinner at the Atchafalaya Seafood Co. before we checked into our hotel for the night.
The last time we were here, we made the mistake of ordering separate plates, leaving us with leftovers we couldn’t use since we were traveling. So this time we split the Seafood Platter, with each getting our own sides. Jan got the Mixed Veggies, and I got the Cajun Fried Potatoes, which are at the bottom of the photo.
We had Fried Catfish, Fried Shrimp, Fried Oysters, A Fried Soft-Shell Crab, and a bunch of Hushpuppies.
Cajun Fried Potatoes are boiled red potatoes that are then battered, fried, and served with a spicy remoulade sauce.
Just as good as it was last time.
We got checked into our Microtel room by about 4:30 and were in for the night.
Tomorrow we’ve got a short 135-mile run over to Fairhope, AL, where we’ll be for a couple of days, before heading for Florida.
