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R.I.P. Aunt Lenette . . .
My Cousin-in-Law, (the wife of my first cousin), texted me this morning that my Aunt Lenette Calvin had died this morning. She was 97, soon to be 98 in August.
Lenette was no slouch in the sports world. She’s well-known gymnastics coach who’s worked with world-famous coach Béla Károlyi at his Houston facility, and taken teams to several Olympics herself.
Her husband, my Uncle Tom is probably the only person I know, and certainly the only family member I know, that has his own Wikipedia page here at Tom Calvin, and is also listed on several other pages like here – Oldest Living Pro Football Players, and here – Alabama Football Coaches
Tom was a star fullback for the University of Alabama from 1948 – 1950. and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the ‘51 NFL draft. He turned them down because he didn’t like the contract he was offered, and so he took over the Head Coach position at a south Alabama high school, taking them to their first winning season in years.
Here he is at Alabama in 1949.
He even had his own football card.
Months later, he received a personal call from Art Rooney, famous owner of the Steelers, offering him a better contract. This led to him playing 4 years for the Steelers, from ‘52 to ‘55, as a star fullback and kick returner.
Finally, after 4 years of hating the bitter cold Pittsburgh winters he returned to Alabama and began a 33 year high school coaching career ending with a 201-130-11 record, making him the winningest high school coach in Alabama history. During that time, he took 3 losing school football programs to Championship status.
Tom died back in 2020, after they had been married for 70 years.
This only leaves Helen and her family, the last of my relatives still with us.
* * * * * * *
They’re Just Jealous.
Buc-ee’s manager salary sparks debate over wages and college degrees
Buc-ee’s, known for its giant gas stations around the United States, is currently the subject of online debate due to its high management salaries, with general managers earning between $200,000 – $275,000 or more and assistant general managers starting at $125,000.
The salaries significantly surpass the average earnings for Americans with bachelor’s degrees, which top out at $81,535 for computer science, and are considerably higher than the average starting teacher salary in Texas, which is around $47,195.
The substantial pay disparity has led to widespread frustration on social media, with users expressing dismay that jobs not requiring a degree at Buc-ee’s pay more than many professional roles requiring extensive education.
Apparently the Internet is outraged that a Buc-ee’s manager can make that much without a college degree. But it’s not just managers.
I think they’re just jealous that their Gender Studies degree doesn’t pay as well. Or at all.
* * * * * * *
So far this year, our highest temp here has been about 95°, while back in 2016 at this time, we were having temps in
high 90’s and into the 100’s.
And here was what I blogged for yesterday back in 2014.
The weather, it is a changin’.
You’ve probably heard about the Polar Vortex sweeping through the Mid-West over the next few days. The temps here are going from the mid-80’s to the high 60’s in the daytime, and into the low 50’s at night.
And in other news, Brisbane, Australia, just recorded their lowest temperature in 103 years. And in the Antarctic, they’ve just recorded the most ice ever seen there.
Isn’t Global Warming wonderful?
It’s called weather, people. It’s always changing.
Chill Out!
Thought For The Day:
There is no tyranny that cannot be justified by imbeciles. – C.S. Lewis
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2009 – Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and More Trains
2011 – Cat Tails, Tigers, and Good Pizza
2013 – What The Heck is a Dell, Anyway?
2015 – The Toy & Action Figure Museum, and More Trains
2023 – Big Boy
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
July 14, 2009
Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and more trains…
Continued from yesterday…
The indoor part of the Railroad Museum resembles a large railroad station, with multiple tracks full of trains.
This is the John Bull. It’s a replica of the first locomotive to run on a railroad in America.
In 1831, the first railroad was built between Philadelphia and New York, and the John Bull was the engine. It’s hard to think now of how this revolutionized travel in the US.
It cut the travel time from Philadelphia to New York from 2 days by coach to 5 HOURS!. It’s hard to do that by car now.
I saw this same locomotive last week in the Smithsonian, but wasn’t able to get close enough to read the display due to the crowds. I was surprised to learn here that the one I had seen in the Smithsonian was the REAL John Bull, from 1831.
It ran a regular route until 1866, then traveled around the US on exhibitions until it was donated to the Smithsonian in 1884.
This beautiful example of a 2-6-0 Mogul locomotive carried silver ore on the Virginian & Truckee railroad in Nevada from 1875 to 1944.
2-6-0 Mogul
The ‘2-6-0’ type of nomenclature describes the layout of a locomotive’s wheels, and only applies to steam-type locomotives.
The Mogul above has 2 small wheels up front, 6 drive wheels in the middle, and no small wheels in the rear. Thus, it is a 2-6-0.
This locomotive #7002 dates from 1902 and was the first one in regular service to exceed 100 mph.
Note that this one is a 4-4-2, although you can just barely see the 2 wheels under the tender at the far right of the photo.
Arguably, the largest locomotive ever built was the ‘Big Boy’ built for the Union Pacific to pull large coal trains up and down the Rockies out West.
Big Boy 4-8-8-4
Note that this one is a 4-8-8-4. That’s a lot of wheels.
Below is a type of locomotive I’d never heard of.
This one is unusual in that it doesn’t have a boiler or generate its own steam. It’s basically just a big thermos bottle. It’s filled up with live steam from a stationary boiler and then operated, usually in the rail yard, until it needed to be refilled.
Outside was even better.
It was a rail yard full of more trains. And it had a real operating turntable, used to move locomotives in and out of the yard.
Even more locomotives…
And a rail crane used to lift derailed engines and cars back on the track.
I’ve always been fascinated by the big steam engines, and this was a great chance to see them up close.
Today was our last full day in Pennsylvania, so we headed into Philadelphia to see some sights.
We started off with another duck tour with Ride The Ducks. Here we are hitting the Delaware River on our trip.
We saw Betsy Ross’ house, the site where William Penn first landed in Pennsylvania, and more.
After our tour, we had a Philly Cheesesteak from a street vendor before visiting Independence Hall,
And the Liberty Bell.
Finally, we headed home, stopping by Wal-Mart on the way.
For dinner, we did the smorgasbord at Miller’s again.
And then home to get ready to leave for NY tomorrow.
July 14, 2010
Birmingham Bound…
Our day started out with breakfast at IHOP before coming back to the rig to get ready to leave Capital City RV Park here in Montgomery. It’s really a very nice park, and, except for our late-night over-voltage problems, it was a great stay.
We pulled out of the park right at noon and headed about a mile down the road to fuel up at a nice station that I hadn’t seen before called ENTEC. Diesel was $2.78, and I put in about 105 gallons. Hopefully, that’ll take us all the way to Elkhart, IN, about 915 miles away. Since we’ll be staying there for a month, we’ll fill up right before we park, because sitting with a partially full tank is an open invitation for condensation and algae growth in your fuel. Which can be a real problem with diesel engines.
Leaving the station, we hitched up the toad on the wide shoulder in front of the station and set out on our short 100-mile run to the Cherokee Beach Campground in Helena, AL, just south of Birmingham. We got a site back in the trees, but I was still able to get a satellite sight, so it’s all good.
After setting up and resting up, we left at 5 pm heading up to Trussville, about 30 miles away, to catch up on old times with Bill and Carol Alverson.
The traffic getting from the park back to the Interstate was a lot heavier than when we came in. It took us over 20 minutes to make the 6-mile trip because of all the going-home traffic.
Bill and I worked together at the Alabama Educational Television Network here in Birmingham from July 1972 to December 1974. So we had a lot to catch up on.
We spent about an hour talking and being shown around their beautiful home. And in one of those strange coincidences, their home floor plan is almost identical to the home my mother used to own here in the Birmingham area. And it was about 20 miles from here. Weird!
About 7, we headed out to dinner at Jim and Nick’s BBQ, a nearby restaurant that had really good Alabama BBQ. And their HOT and SPICY BBQ sauce was GREAT!
Bill and Carol
Coming back to their home, we talked for another half hour or so, until it was time to head back to the rig before Jan started nodding off.
We really enjoyed getting to know Carol. Although we had corresponded with Christmas cards and such for years, this was our first time to meet in person. She’s a really neat lady, and must have a lot of patience, since she’s put up with Bill all these years.
We made a date to get together next year on our way through this area, and will certainly follow through.
We got home about 10 pm and were in for the night.
Tomorrow we’re going to drive around Birmingham, looking up old memories and places.
July 14, 2011
Cat Tails and Good Pizza . . .
After coffee this morning, I got back to work finishing up my transfer switch bypass. Last night, after I got the new receptacles, I made up this harness so I’d be ready to go today.
After going outside and disconnecting shore power just to be safe, all I had to do was connect the splices to the loose ends of the generator output wires and then tape them up. And for once, things went smoothly, and I was done in about 15 minutes.
Finishing up, Jan and I left about 12:15 to head into Spokane for the rest of the day.
Our first stop was Shakey’s Pizza for their lunch buffet. We really like their food and always stop by when there’s one in the area. The last time we ate at one was in Lancaster, CA, last year.
And there’s another reason we really like them. Jan and I went there on our first date in Orlando, FL, in July of 1967, about 43 years ago. So a lot of good things come from Shakey’s.
Shakey’s has a great buffet, consisting of pizza, spaghetti, fried chicken, battered, fried potato slices, salad bar, and dessert pizza. Really, really good.
Leaving Shakey’s, we drove up the road about 5 miles to the Cat Tails Zoological Park. We had noticed the place when we came through town this past Monday and wanted to check it out.
Turns out that Cat Tails is a Big Cat rescue zoo that began in 1991, starting with 4 cats, and has been growing ever since.
They have a number of beautiful Royal White Bengal Tigers.
They also have a number of these signs around. So we have a choice: Run and LOOK like food, or stand still and BE food.
Not much of a choice, if you ask me.
This is a mountain lion, a puma, a panther, a catamount, or a cougar. Take your pick.
These are Serval cats. A little bigger than a domestic house cat, they can run 45 mph and jump 12 feet in the air, and catch birds in mid-air.
I never knew that leopards had green eyes. The info sign says a leopard can jump 20 feet straight up and 35 feet straight out from a sitting position. WOW!
They have a number of both male and female lions, but I could only get a good photo of this female.
They also have two tigers and a lioness that have been raised together since they were cubs, and all three are in the same cage.
And of course, a lot of tigers.
This is 14-month-old Amura, being taken for a walk and moved to a new cage.
Still a youngster who likes to play with her ball, she also likes to splash in her pond,
and even take a bath.
Being raised as a single cub, the zoo decided that Amura needed a companion. So they got Sage, a 4-month-old Great Pyrenees, from the local Humane Society.
They were kept together for almost a year until Amura got too big, and the zoo was worried that Amura might not know her own strength.
But they regularly put them together in adjacent cages so they could play. It was easy to see how excited they got when they saw each other.
We really enjoyed Cat Tails and thought it was a great bargain. At only $8.00, it’s much cheaper than some other similar attractions, and we really had a great time.
Well recommended if you’re in the area.
Leaving the zoo, we headed into downtown Spokane as Jan wanted to drive through the South Hill District and check out some of the old homes in the area.
After that, we headed back north for a few stops before heading home. First up was a Bed, Bath & Beyond for Jan to get some soaps.
Next was Lowe’s to take back the wrong receptacles from my switch bypass project, and also buy some heavier cutters. I had trouble cutting the #8-gauge wire from
Then it was back to Wal-Mart for more ‘stuff’. Apparently we left some ‘stuff’ there the other day, so Jan wanted to go back and get it all.
We got back home about 6:30, to find that, unlike last night, when we got back to find a note on our RV saying the park water would be off until this morning, but found it was working fine, tonight we got back to find no note, but the water was off anyway.
No problem, as we have plenty in our tank.
We’ll leave here tomorrow about 8 am, heading for Columbia Falls, MT, and Glacier National Park. It’ll be about 225 miles, and since we’ll also lose an hour moving into Mountain Daylight Time, we want to get an early start.
We also want to top off our diesel before we leave Newport, and that also takes a while.
July 14, 2013
What The Heck is a Dell, Anyway?
After a nice night at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds, we left Albert Lea, MN, about 9:30 and got back on I-90E heading for the K & L Campground about 15 miles northeast of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
Although our 210-mile trip was pretty smooth, it was really just one big single-lane construction zone, just miles and miles of pylons. But since the speed limit was only cut back to 55mph from 70, it didn’t really bother us much.
At the 90-mile mark, Jan took over driving for a while, and I got in a nice nap. By the 140-mile mark, when we stopped at a rest area, she was ready to take a break. She said it was the most nerve-wracking drive she’d done in the rig.
What started the problem was that as we left Minnesota and entered Wisconsin, the terrain changed radically. From the mostly straight roads with gently rolling hills of Minnesota, Jan was into steep hills and sharp curves, enough so that the PacBrake got a real workout.
And of course, the icing on the cake was the ‘miles and miles of pylons’ of the single-lane road construction mixed in with all the hills and curves. So at the 50-mile point, she was ready for a break.
We pulled into the K & L Campground a little before 2 pm and got set up.
K & L is primarily a resort campground with a lot of permanent trailers and campers parked on seasonal lots. They’re also a Passport America park with a 30-amp FHU site for only $16 a day. Very nice.
But there are two problems. One is that you can only stay here at the PPA rate Sunday through Thursday. Since we only wanted to stay until Thursday, not a problem.
The second problem was the 30-amp part. The temps here are going to be in the high 80’s / low 90’s for the next 5 days, and on 30amps we can’t run both A/C’s. So it was time to break out my A/C bypass.
A couple of years ago, I broke out the power feed to my front A/C and installed a plug/receptacle combo that lets me plug that AC into the separate 20-amp receptacle on the power pedestal. So now we have both A/C’s running, the coach is cool, and all’s right with the world.
Or at least our small part of it.
About 4, we headed into Wisconsin Dells to have dinner at Paul Bunyan’s Cook Shanty
The meals here are served family style, all you can eat. We had Fried Chicken, Beef Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Carrots and Peas, and really good homemade bread. Oh, and a dessert of Torte Cake, too.
Everything was really good, so good that we may come back for breakfast one morning.
Tomorrow we may just goof off. We’ll see.
July 14, 2014
Making Some RV Converts . . .
For our breakfast this morning, we had some great homemade bread. Buttered, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and toasted until the edges are crunchy, it just can’t be beat.
Both yesterday and today, I had to make support calls to GoDaddy concerning the new blog. And on both days, when the support techs (a young lady yesterday, a young man today) looked at the blog, and then asked if this was us, and if this was, what we did.
My tech support problem only took a couple of minutes to resolve, and then they spent the next 20-30 minutes quizzing me about RV’ing. I guess these guys aren’t rated on the time they spend with each caller like some companies do.
A little before 6 pm, we got a call from Orlyn, one of our fellow gate guards from last year. He and his wife were gate guarding at a railroad crossing on the same ranch we were at for 3 months. He called to check in and tell me that they just left their gate, and that the couple that relieved them only stayed a few hours before they left. They were upset at how busy the gate was.
Based on what Orlyn said, they did about 200 sheets during the month, which, depending on which sheets they were using, would be about 5000 vehicles, or about 165 vehicles per day.
We’ve heard of much busier gates, but that’s still pretty busy. Hopefully, whatever we get in August won’t be quite that busy.
My three more sets of the LED strips should be in tomorrow, so I can finish replacing the other fluorescents.
We had a lot of storms move through today, but most of the heavy rain passed us by. All of this is getting us ready for the front coming through tomorrow, with a high in the low 70’s and lows in the low 50’s, and this should last for several days.
Nice.
July 14, 2015
One More Thing . . .
Today was a partial goof-off day for us, at least up until we headed out about 2 pm. Sonja had to work today, so we weren’t meeting up until 4 pm for dinner.
Our first stop was a place in downtown Pauls Valley that we’ve passed a number of times and were curious about, The Toy & Action Figure Museum. Located in a fairly plain storefront, I’m not sure what we were expecting to find inside, but it certainly wasn’t what we found.
Entering the lobby was a pleasant surprise, bright and cheerful, with a nice layout of souvenirs for sale.
But after paying our $8 (for both of us) admission, we walked through the arch, and it became one of those OMG moments
It was almost more than we could take in. Everywhere you look, there were toys and more toys, lining the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and standing against the walls.
The first diorama details an imaginary adult toy collector’s bedroom.
According to the description, he must live with his parents to be able to afford all this.
Kevin Stark, the museum’s owner, says that they tear down this exhibit once a year, rearranging things as they add new items and remove others. It takes about a week.
Two more neat displays detail all the DC and Marvel characters ever published. It’s hard to believe there are so many.
Another neat display is this one of superhero underwear.
My first thought was that Sheldon would be really jealous, but then I figured he probably already has the entire set. They used to be sold at Target, but now they’re collector’s items and worth some money. Don’t know if that’s for used or new ones.
They have displays of pretty much every genre doll and action figure around, even the Simpson’s
And of course, where would you find the Batman display, but in the BatCave. The displays are arranged in a timeline starting with the Adam West TV version and progressing through the several movie incarnations.
They also have a number of large dioramas with the action figure’s action figure, G.I. Joe.
But one of the kids’ favorite areas is this playroom with plenty of toys, and even better, superhero costumes of all sizes that they can dress up in and have their picture taken.
Really neat.
We ended up spending more than an hour here, making the circuit through the place three times, and each time I saw stuff I hadn’t seen before. And for everything I’ve shown here, there’s probably 10 times more to see.
But finally, tearing myself away, our next stop was the AT&SF (Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe depot, and old 1951.
Built in 1907 by Baldwin, this 2-8-0 locomotive made its first run on the Santa Fe less than one month after Oklahoma became a state, traveling over 1.2 million miles, finally being retired in 1954 after 47 years in service, losing out to old age and diesels.
The AT&SF depot, the 2nd one in town, was built in 1905 after the 1st one was outgrown.
It was refurbished in the 1990’s and now houses a museum full of both train and Pauls Valley memorabilia.
The lady who showed me around the depot said she’d had two buses of young kids this morning, and it showed. I think she was just looking for some adult conversation, because when I mentioned that I had left Jan in the truck and needed to go, she kept showing me more stuff, always preceding it with “Just one more thing.”
But I finally got away in time for us to meet Sonja and Lendel at Punkin’s BBQ and Catfish, another local favorite.
While Jan ordered the Catfish,
I figured with a place called Punkin’s BBQ AND Catfish, I had to try some of both, and they had just the Combo for it.
But I didn’t quite expect it to be this extensive. It was all really delicious, and big enough so I had plenty to take home. Both really good.
Tomorrow we leave here and move about 250 miles to the Springhill COE park south of Fort Smith, AR, where we’ll stay for several days.
July 14, 2016
Better This Time . . .
About 12:15, Jan and I drove up to Ellinger to have the regular lunch buffet at Peter’s BBQ. This was the first time we’ve done this one, since we usually do the one on Friday night with catfish.
I mentioned on our last visit that I was disappointed with the increase in price and the reduction in offerings. Last year, the price was $8.95 and included BBQ as well as the catfish, but not now.
It’s now $10.95 and just catfish. And the drink is extra. And it’s plus tax. I think the total for the two of us is about $28.
But the weekday buffet is a real improvement. Today’s offerings were Hamburger Steak with onion in gravy, Fried Chicken, and BBQ Brisket, as well as all the usual veggies and desserts. And the Hamburger Steak was really delicious.
Even better, the cost was only $10, and that included a drink and the tax too. So a total of $20.
A much better deal than the Friday night version. Nice.
Coming back to the rig, we stopped off at the park office to sign up for Saturday night’s Potluck. Jan’s going to be doing her delicious Sopapilla Cheesecake.
Since I was caught up on all my web stuff, later in the afternoon, a nap sounded like a good idea. And when I got up, we had company.
Lily, of the Tom and Lily Christians, had shown up to visit. We first met them when they were parked next to us here at Colorado River back in December 2014.
Turns out they’ve just come off an 18-month-long gate down in the Cotulla area, and are taking a break for a while before going back to it.
That’s Tom Christian on the left, then the shy one is his wife Lily, next is long-time friend’s Donna Huffer and Bob Parker, Jan, of course, and lastly, our new friends, Judy and Ken Bennett.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to get together with them soon.
Tomorrow we’re making a trip down to Pearland to meet up with long-time friend Bonnie Horner and take her to lunch. Her husband Richard died recently, and though we saw her right after, we wanted a chance to get together again.
July 14, 2017
Didn’t Go Anywhere, Didn’t Do Anything . . .
We never left the rig. Didn’t even open the door. I did put some last-minute touches on the website while I’m waiting to hear back from the client on a couple of final things.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to go live within the next week. I did start the process of transferring their original domain name from their old site over to GoDaddy. Since a registrar transfer can take 7 to 10 days, I want to be sure we’re ready to go when the time comes.
My problem is that I can’t leave the site alone. I find myself going back through every page, tweaking this, changing the color on that, moving this over there, and that over there. And then an hour later, I’m doing it again.
As they say, “Perfect is the enemy of good enough.”
For dinner tonight, we had the rest of our leftover Spicy Beef with Orange Peel from yesterday’s visit to China Delight with our friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt. And to flesh it out a little, Jan made up a pot of steamed rice.
Then, for dessert, we finished up with a couple of the Magic Cookie Bars from the other day. They get better after being in the fridge.
Made with Graham Cracker Crumbs, Melted Butter, Sweetened Condensed Milk, Girl Scout Thin Mints, Shredded Coconut, and Chopped Pecans, they’re crispy, crunchy, delicious, and very easy to make.
Tomorrow it’s probably more of the same, but Sunday we’re meeting up at Brandi’s in Katy and then on to Landon’s hockey practice down in the Sugarland area.
Really looking forward to it.
July 14, 2018
It Wasn’t The Belt . . .
Once the heavy rain let up this afternoon, I went outside to disconnect the washer/dryer vent so I could pull the unit out and check out the drive belt situation.
I also brought in the dolly/frame that I built up a while back to facilitate the removal and installation of our Splendide unit. Since it’s in two pieces, it’s small enough that I can carry it in one of our storage bays.
Using it makes it really simple to pull the unit out of its hole and then roll it out into the kitchen to work on it.
But at least to start with, I was only going to pull it partway out and turn it around to access the back panel. That way, I could leave the water and drain connections hooked up while I was working on it.
Since I used a jigsaw to widen the opening the last time I worked on the unit, it now just takes a couple of minutes to pull the unit out. And then it was a couple of screws to remove the back panel to let me at the belt to get the part number to order a new one.
And the belt was fine. Not broken, or even off the pulley, and by turning the pulley/drum by hand, not slipping either. So why was I hearing the motor running without the drum moving?
So I dug out an extension cord, plugged in the unit, and reached over to the front to turn on the dryer. And it worked perfectly, with no problems. I even started and stopped it a couple of times. Still worked.
So I decided to slide it back in the cabinet and run a small wash load. I didn’t bother to hook up the dryer vent, since I just wanted to be sure the motor/belt/drum combo was actually working.
So, throwing in a couple of towels, I started a wash cycle. And after hearing the water entering the drum, suddenly, water started pouring out from underneath the unit.
Bummer!
I hit the OFF button, and the water flow quickly stopped. And since the water did stop, that meant that the leak was internal to the washer. If the leak had been with the hoses coming in, the leak wouldn’t have stopped when the washer stopped.
At this point, I was done for the day. Tomorrow I’ll have to pull it completely out and take a closer look at the hoses. Hopefully, I just pulled something loose when I was fooling with it before. We’ll see.
Thought I’d show you how well the Wyze cameras that I set up at the house work in the dark. Here is how it looks with the Infrared (IR) LEDs turned off.
Not much to see.
But when I put it in night mode, here’s what it looks like.
A big improvement.
Readers will remember the problems with my phone hotspot turning off due to a power outage and shutting down my Wyze cameras at the house while we were on our recent trip.
One of our readers, Arthur, suggested that I solve the problem by using an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to keep the cameras running while the power is off. And if I had it to do over, I would.
But now that we’re back and by the house every day or so, I’ll just reset the system by hand for now. But thanks for the suggestion, Arthur.
July 14, 2020
A Three’fer and a Repeat . . .
This morning, I called Mike’s Auto Repair in Santa Fe to make an appointment to drop off the truck tomorrow after work to get my A/C fixed, and also an oil/filter change while it’s there.
Then I went online to the Enterprise Rental website to reserve a car that we will pick up tomorrow afternoon on our way to drop off the truck.
Then, about 1 pm, Jan and I headed out, first for lunch and then for some grocery shopping. And since we enjoyed Salata so much this past Saturday, we decided to try it again. And it was just as good as the last time.
I added some more fruit, some more veggies, and dropped the Chipotle Chicken, and it was delicious. And the Chipotle White Bean Soup was as good as last time, also. Then it was off, first to Wal-Mart and then HEB.
July 14, 2021
Always Have A Plan C . . .
Jan and I have tickets for the 1894 Opera down in Galveston this Saturday to see Yakov Smirnoff. The show starts at 5 pm, so we’ve got reservations at the Saltgrass Steakhouse for dinner afterwards.
This will be our second time seeing Yakov, but it’s been a while, about 12 years in fact. The first time was in November 2009 after we had come back from doing the East Coast, from Key West all the way up and out to Newfoundland. Then back across Canada, coming back to the U.S. near Niagara Falls.
So, how we ended up in Branson, I’m not sure. 2009 was our second year on the road, and we tended to wander around a good bit.
You can read about that here.
And the day before, we saw another favorite, Jim Stafford’s show. Also really good.
Spiders and Snakes…that’s not what it takes…
About 1 pm, Jan and I had lunch at Dickinson Seafood. We hadn’t been for a while, but it was just as good as always.
We both had the Blackened Catfish and Shrimp with Grilled Veggies, which also comes with a salad.
Then it was on up the Interstate to get our hair cut at the CostCutters on FM646. Jan went first, but before she was done, and it was time for me, my client called and said that the Shipping Computer had lost its Internet connection sometime this afternoon. And since the other computers were having no problems, it had to be the machine itself.
And after having them reboot and then trying to connect, the machine couldn’t see any WiFi signals at all.
So after Jan was done, we headed up to Webster to see what the problem was. Turns out it was apparently a problem with the WiFi adapter, which the computer didn’t seem to see at all. Since the adapter was internal, I plugged in an external USB model and rebooted. Still nothing.
So next I pulled the side of the computer and replaced the internal one with a spare, but again, no luck with Plan B.
Moving on to Plan C, I dug out the 50 ft. Ethernet cable that I keep tucked away just for times like this; I spooled it out down the hall from the router in the utility room to the computer in the Shipping area. And presto, chango, we had Internet, and the shipping could commence
Always have a Plan C.
Normally, I would have been at work today, but this week I’m working Monday, Thursday, and Friday, instead of my normal Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So I’ll tear into it tomorrow and see what the problem is.
It’s always something.
July 14, 2022
Good Comfort Food . . .
Since we had a 90-minute drive up to Willis to meet up with our ‘RV’ friends for lunch at The Fish Pond restaurant, we were out the door about 10:15 am. I put ‘RV’ in quotes because none of us are actually RV’ing anymore. In fact, the Hurlburt’s and Evan’s have both made the transition to sticks and bricks living.
We made a pit stop at the Flying J in north Houston before getting to the restaurant a little before noon, pretty much right on time.
The Fish Pond is one of those places out in the country, off the main drag, that only locals seem to know about.
And the food is home-cooking at its best, just great comfort food.
Jan had the Grilled Seafood Platter, with 3 Shrimp, 3 Oysters, 3 Catfish Filets, a Stuffed Crab, and Hushpuppies.
While I got the same thing, but Fried, of course.
Jan said that her Green Beans were delicious, as was my Fried Okra side.
Both Ed and Janice had the Liver and Onions, Dave had the Fried Seafood Platter like mine, and Debi had the Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes.
Like I said, just good comfort food.
As often happens, I forgot to get a photo of our group, so I thought I’d just reuse this one from the last time we were all together at the Golden Corral up in Conroe.
From left to right: Ed Hurlburt, Debi Hurlburt, special guest Jeannie Sparks, Jan, Janice Evans, Dave Evans, and the other special guest, Eldy Tompkins.
A fun group.
And we’ll do it again next month.
Though we had a pretty smooth trip going up, coming home was a different story, with bumper-to-bumper traffic coming into downtown Houston, where we lost about 45 minutes.
Getting back down to our area, we made a Kroger stop for a few things, and finally a Cowboy Coffee stop for Cold Blended Sugar-Free Hazelnut Lattes made with Almond Milk.
Delicious as usual.
July 14, 2023
Big Boy . . .
Regular readers of our blog know what a train aficionado I am. Big trains, little trains, it doesn’t matter
In fact, there’s a lot of train stuff in both yesterday’s and today’s Retro-Blogs.™
And when it’s a locomotive, the bigger the better.
And there’s not much bigger than the Big Boy line of 4-8-8-4 locomotives, built starting in the 1940’s. At 132 feet long and 1.2 million pounds, and sporting 7000hp, it was the heaviest locomotive ever built. When the last one retired in 1961, it seemed the end of an age.
But after languishing in a railroad museum for over half a century, Union Pacific bought #4014 back in 2013, and after a 6-year refurbishing, returned it to service in 2019, just in time to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Originally coal-fired, it was converted to oil during the refurbishing and now roams the country doing promotional tours and excursion rides.
But recently, it had to come to the rescue of one of those new-fangled diesels that had replaced it so many years ago. It seems a freight train trying to climb Blair Hill in Nebraska had stalled out and was stuck blocking the main line.
So #4014, being in the area, offered to help out. And after coupling up and getting up a full head of steam, it easily pushed the long freight up over the hill, while still pulling its own string of cars. Now that’s power.
BTW, the diesel you see a few cars behind #4014 is not used for motive power but for extra braking and what’s known as Positive Train Control (PTC).
July 14, 2024
Pizza Delayed, But Not Denied . . .
After some frantic packing, Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Sophie were off on their vacation around 11:30, leaving Jan and me dog-sitting with
Max and Jack,
And Baxter.
About 100 pounds each.
And they’re always on patrol, including checking out things during the night.
It’s probably been at least a year since I slept here, so I asked Jan why she left the bedroom door open at night. She said it’s so the dogs can come in. When I asked her why she wants the dogs to come in, she said that if the door is closed, they bump against it and whine and bark.
What she didn’t tell me is that when the dogs do come in, they stick their cold noses into any exposed body areas, and then sometimes all 3 will jump into bed with us.
That’s 300 pounds of dogs, plus Jan and me, all in a double bed. Makes me appreciate Karma a lot more.
Missing out on pizza yesterday due to a change in plans, today we headed over to Grimaldi’s Pizzeria about 2 pm. They shut down their coal-fired brick ovens at 2:45 to clean out the ashes and restoke them. So you either want to get there before 2:30 or after 3:30, otherwise, you wait.
We started off with the small Apple Walnut Salad with chunks of Bleu Cheese,
and then moved on to the 18″³ Don, adding Bacon, Ham, and Mushrooms. This way, we always have half to bring home for the next day.
Just as good as the first time we ate at the Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn in 2009.
Then it was on over to the nearby HEB for a few things to bolster Jan’s food supply for the next week.
Looks like I’m heading back to work tomorrow, with a quick stop at the rig to drop off some foodstuffs and bring in some Amazon packages that got delivered early.
Then after work, I’ll pick up Karma from Jennifer’s, where she’s been lounging this past week.
I’ll come back up on Saturday to pick up Jan.
July 14, 2025
A New Park Hazard . . .
I mentioned a few weeks ago that Amazon had upgraded our Amazon Alexa to Alexa+, the new AI-powered version. And it really makes a difference.
One thing is how she responds to queries. Before she got Plused, she couldn’t answer a lot of informational questions like Google can, but now she can.
And as I’ve mentioned, we have a number of devices, lights, fans, etc., that can be controlled from our phones, or from Alexa. In Jan’s case, she has a light over her sofa, called Sofa Light, and a fan, called Couch Fan. And every now and then Jan says, “Alexa, Sofa Light On”, instead of “Couch Fan On”.
So after Jan corrected herself a couple of times, Alexa+ will now turn on the fan whether Jan says Couch or Sofa. Smart.
And kind of scary, too.
* * * * * * *
With all the new RV’s filling up the new spaces here at the park, for the first time, we’ve got a bunch of kiddos living here. And zooming up and down the driveway on their bikes, so we now have to be more careful backing out of our site.
* * * * * * *
As I said yesterday, tomorrow is going to be Hot Dog Thursday on Tuesday, since we’re going to be up in The Woodlands this Thursday. Then on the way home, Jan and I are getting our haircuts at CostCutters.
