Our RV Adventures

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

Nice and Easy.

* * * * *

Suicide By Cruise?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ouch!

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

Could be, I guess.

Thought for the Day:

”True Love Is Being Stupid Together.”

Words That Jan and I Have Taken To Heart.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

October 27, 2009

Better than yesterday…

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

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

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

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

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

October 27, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

We don’t know, and we don’t care.

He’s home safe!

Brandi sent over these latest Landon pics.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 27, 2011

Not Much Happened Today . . .

and it was really nice!

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

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

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

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

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

But who knows, our schedule can always change.

October 27, 2012

Forts, Chapels, and Churches . . .

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

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

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

and this single-family home was the last one.

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

along with the many old homes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We’ll go back.

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

Tomorrow it’s on to Fort Pulaski.

October 27, 2014

Never Bite a Bee . . .

He might bite back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’ll teach him.

October 27, 2015

Fried is Fried . . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s Grilled, not Fried.

October 27, 2016

Closed Down . . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But soon.

October 27, 2017

Renaissance Man . . .

and Woman.

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

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

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

I’ll let you know.

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

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

Under the heading of “I Warned You.”

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

One Chip Challenge

A Person Gotta Know Their Limitations.

Blog reader Brenda Brown passed this on about Sears.

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

Drip, Drip, Drip.

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

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

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

October 27, 2018

It’s Push and Release . . .

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

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

Jan tried the Avocado Toast with a side of Greens,

while I got my usual Two Egg Breakfast.

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

can eat like this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it lights up, too.

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

If you don’t push in the right spot, or don’t release it quick enough, it won’t open. Live and Learn.

October 27, 2019

Sunday Mish-Mash . . .

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

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

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

YIKES!

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

NICE!

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

and even scarier at night.

BOO!

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

Looks like Jack and Baxter are already breaking her in.

October 27, 2020

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

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

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

while I got the Veggie Plate.

along with a House Salad.

Delicious as always.

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

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

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

Today we’re starting our 4th year here.

Who knew!

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

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

October 27, 2022

Missed It By One Day . . .

Today was another Twin Peaks day for lunch.

Jan got her usual Chipotle Chicken with double broccoli,

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

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

Both really good.

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

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

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

Nice Day.

October 27, 2023

Printer Swirls . . .

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

Looks to be nice!

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

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

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

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

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

Nice for a change.

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

Lunch today was at our local Yummy Yummy Chinese Buffet once again. One of the best buffets around.

Finishing up, Jan was looking over her Wal-Mart shopping list, and made an executive decision. She said that there was nothing Wal-Mart specific on the list that we can’t get at HEB tomorrow, so we just headed home after lunch.

Nice.

* * * * *

We’ve been getting a lot of offers recently from Royal Caribbean wanting us to upgrade our room selection.

This is Room 8604, our booked room on the Jewel Of The Seas.

If we want to upgrade, we can get this Grand Suite for only $490 per person.

We could also get a Junior Suite for $210 per person, or a 2 Bedroom/2 Bath Ocean View Suite with no balcony for $350 per person.

The only one that we might do would be this one for $70 per person.

With this one, you get either a larger room or a larger balcony. But neither of us sees any real advantage to this.

We don’t plan to spend a lot of time in the room anyway. And like Jan said, what do we need with a bigger balcony?

So for right now, we’re staying with what we already have.

* * * * *

Finishing up, today marks the start of our 8th year here at Petticoat Junction RV Park.

Seven years later, and it’s still one of our favorite parks.

Thought For The Day:

I really do try to see the best in people. But seriously, some of you make it so damn hard.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

October 26, 2009

Tilting at windmills…

Today started with Jan and I taking our coach down to M & M Fabricators to have our new shocks installed.

We got unhooked and headed out about 8:45 to drop the rig off.  Jan followed in the toad.  Leaving the rig there,  we drove back to the park, stopping off at McDonald’s for a breakfast sandwich.

Back at the park, Jan headed out to run some other errands.

About 2 pm, M & M called and said our coach was ready so Jan and I drove over to pick it up. Driving it back to the park it was easy to tell the new shocks made a difference.

We got it finished up and then went to Bob Evans Restaurant for a really great meal about 8:30 pm. Arriving back at the coach an early bedtime was in order.

It was a long day…

October 26, 2010

Mister is Missing . . .

When we left the rig this afternoon about 12:45 pm, it looks like the door did not lock correctly. When we got home about 6 pm the outside door was partially open and our cat Mister was missing.

He’s a big guy, about 25 pounds, and very friendly. He has a name tag with his name and our phone number on it.

We spent about an hour walking around the park calling for him. One lady thought she had seen him about 30 minutes before she saw us. We looked all around that area, which is close to where we parked for the last two years, with no luck.

We ask both Ken and Tony, who are parked on either side of our old spot, to be on the lookout for him.

I’m hoping he walked up to someone and they took him in.

I went back out after dark with a big spotlight, but still with no luck.

We’ll head back out early tomorrow, and hopefully, we’ll have better luck.

More then…

October 26, 2012

Bombs Away!

Today started about 11am when we headed down to Pooler, GA to tour the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum.

We started out by going through a ‘full immersion’ show of a typical 8th Air Force bombing mission.

We began our flight by sitting in Quonset hut and listening to the flight briefing given through a combination of video and a live presentation from an actual 8th Air Force crew member. Then it was on to an excellent movie about the flight line and preparing the B-17’s for the bombing raid.

The final presentation was multi-media presentation simulating a bombing run over Germany, complete with loud flak explosions, bright flashing lights, and even rushing wind as the bomb bay doors open.

A really moving presentation.

The 8th Air Force Museum is located in Savannah because that’s where it was born. It was activated on January 2th, 1942 at Savannah Air Base, Savannah, GA, less than one month after Pearl Harbor.

During its 3 year operational history, over 350,000 men cycled through the unit. And of that number, there were 26,000 deaths and 28,000 casualties, with the loss of over 4000 planes.

Toward the end of the war, the 8th Air Force was sending out raids with over 2000 planes and 1000 fighters on a single mission to multiple targets.

It is said that by early 1945 there was nothing left to bomb in Germany. Every target of strategic or military value had been destroyed.

Leaving the presentation we walked through the many exhibits. They even had a couple of fantastic dioramas. This one depicted a raid on a German refinery. Very realistic.

And this one shows the 8th Air Force field at East Anglia, England.

They also have a number of planes on display, including this B-17, “The City of Savannah”,

which was the 5000th plane processed through Hunter Field in Savannah in 1944.

Here’s the P-51 Mustang, the most successful long ranger fighter of WWII. Its introduction allowed, for the first time, fighters to escort the bombers all the way into Germany and back out on even the longest missions.

And here’s one of the P-51’s adversaries, the German bf 109.

They also had a few more modern planes outside. Here’s an F-4C Phantom like I once worked on for the DOD.

A MiG 17A.

And finally, a Boeing B-47 Stratojet, our first swept-wing all-jet bomber.

We both really enjoyed the 8th Air Force Museum, especially Jan, who was an Air Force Brat.

This is a must-see when you visit Savannah.

Leaving the museum, we made a couple of Post Office and bank stops before spending some time just driving around old Savannah taking in all the old homes. Then we made a couple of trips down along the waterfront checking all the neat shops and restaurants.

By this time it was after 4pm, and with everyone hungry, we headed back to Jalapeno’s Mexican Restaurant, where we ate a couple of days ago.

It was that good. So good that everyone ordered exactly the same thing we got last time.

Heading back toward home, we made a Wal-Mart stop along the way. We also made a few more passes up and down some more of Savannah’s streets.

Getting back to our rig, we put away our groceries.

The perfect end to a great day.

October 26, 2013

They Broke Our Well . . .

Or at least it seems like it. They’ve been in Production here for a couple of weeks now which means they’re getting crude out, and there’s been a steady stream of tankers in and out ever since. At least until a few days ago, then things slowed down.

Now it turns out they have a problem and are going to have to redo the ‘coiled tubing’ phase again. Don’t know yet if there’s debris in the hole, or a clog of some sort. But the good thing for us is that it makes it more and more likely we’ll be able to stay at this site until we leave on the 23rd of November. Here’s hoping.

Also hopefully we’ll get a little rain (emphasis on little) in the next few days because the dust is getting really bad. Last year they had water trucks that would go through every few days and wet down the roads, but I’ve only seen that happen once, early on right after we got here.

You may have noticed a couple of new tabs at the top of the page: Jan’s Favorite Recipes, and What Were They Thinking?. We get a lot of requests for her recipes I mention here on the blog so now I have a place to put them.

I’m going to start out with some of what she calls her “Gate Recipes”, simple, quick, and very good, and then we’ll add more as we go along.

First up, Strawberry 7-Up Cake, Pineapple Angel Food Cake, and her famous Crockpot King Ranch Chicken. Enjoy.

As far as my What Were They Thinking?, it might also be titled How Dumb Can Someone Be?, and will be my spot to illustrate some of the rampant stupidity at large in the world today. For some strange reason, there’ll be a lot of government stuff on there. Who knew?

Under the heading of Where’s Landon, he’s now firmly of the opinion he doesn’t like his picture taken. So much so that he goes out of his way to avoid the camera.

See if you can pick him out in this photo.

Hint: He’s the one in the middle with his back to the camera. He stayed that way the whole time.

But Brandi finally got a shot when he ran up to her.

Had something a little strange happen at the Wal-Mart in Pleasanton yesterday (Friday). I was there getting groceries and also picking up Jan’s 4 prescriptions. Told the young lady that I would just pay for them when I checked out with my groceries, so she clipped one of those anti-theft thingies you see on clothes, to the bag and off I went. When I got to the checkout, the lady removed the thingie and scanned the prescriptions in. The register beeped and said “Already Scanned In”. In my mind I figured it was because the pharmacy had already started scanning them when I told them I’d pay up front. So the cashier hits a couple of keys and then scans them again. Everything went through fine and off I went.

Later in the evening, after I went to bed, I got a voicemail from the pharmacy asking me to call them. When I did this morning they asked ‘politely’ if I had paid for the prescriptions. Told them as far as I knew I had. Said the cashier had taken the thingie off and scanned them through. I did mention about the “Already Scanned In” problem. She asked if I still had my receipt and could I check it. I said I’d dig it up and call her back.

And as it turns out I almost got $82.84 worth of free prescriptions. On the receipt, it showed they were scanned in, but then immediately voided. I never noticed the price change because I had looked at the running total after they were first scanned in and the amount seemed right. I didn’t look at the final total since I would have had to take my glasses off to see it on the small screen.

I told the pharmacist that I wouldn’t be back over there until next Thursday, and did she want me to just give her a credit card number over the phone? She said no problem, just take care of it when I come in next week.

And I almost got away with it.

October 26, 2014

We Miss Our Tree . . .

Well, we’re still settling in at our new gate, trying to get things configured like we like. Unfortunately, some things we’re just going to have to not like, but put up with.

Right across the entrance way from us is a set of production tanks to store the crude coming out of the wells until a tanker comes to pick it up. Don’t know if they plan on putting a pipeline in yet. There are almost 15 wells back in here, with more on the way, so it would seem to make sense.

We’re parked parallel to the entrance to the pad so our rig faces south, and with no trees for shade, our rig A/C’s are once again having to earn their keep. Not sure yet if I’ll put up the Reflectix radiant barrier in the rig windshield. Today didn’t seem too bad so I’ll give it a few days and see.

The other problem is that due to the way we’re parked here, our canopy and seating area is about 30 feet back from the road, so it’s a short hike out to the road to log people in. But the extra exercise is not the real problem. The real problem is going to be when it’s pouring down rain.

The entrance road coming from the highway is just to the left of the generator trailer.

At our old gate, the canopy was close enough to the road so that if it was raining we could stay under the edge and still check people in without getting things wet. And by ‘things’, I’m not talking about us, but the log sheets. We’ve found no workable way to keep the log sheets dry while logging in people in the rain, Jan often uses a pocket voice recorder, but this won’t work if we’re busy. It takes too long to transcribe login info when you’ve got six more trucks coming in. But we’ll work something out. We always do.

The FRC clothing has turned out to be pretty comfortable. We got the FRC T-Shirts, which although they’re long sleeve, are not too hot.

And finally, on the Landon front, here’s this.

October 26, 2015

Monday Morning Coming Down . . .

And it just keeps on coming down.

Even later this afternoon, when the radar showed clear skies in the area for miles around, it was still drizzling here. It just doesn’t seem to want to let go. But it’s supposed to be just ‘Cloudy’ tomorrow, and ‘Sunny’ and 80 degrees on Wednesday.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how ‘Wet’ the ‘Cloudy’ is going to be.

But since we’ve been able to stay inside pretty much all the time, it hasn’t been a problem. All our stuff under the canopy has been staying dry, and I’ve got all the electrical connections wrapped and taped, so we haven’t had any problems with the genset’s GFCI popping.

And since our GGS service guy Todd replaced the bad sewer pump macerator last Friday,

that’s not popping the GFCI anymore, either.

We’re still waiting for our Flowback crew to show up. As it was we only had the two frack water guys come through as usual. Oh, and one guy who was lost, looking for the other frack.

He came in, said he was here to repair a pump, and headed down to the pad, which was totally black with no lights. There are light towers down there so I figured he was just going to crank one up and get his work done. But as it turned out he was just lost.

I do sometimes wonder though how some of these guys find their way around. He showed me his directions and they were correct. He just didn’t follow them. They said to turn off the main highway, go 1 mile and turn left at the ‘T’.

But he went 1 mile,  turned right at the ‘T’, went another half mile, and then turned left onto our road.

Ya just gotta wonder.

October 26, 2016

Jan’s All Giddy Again . . .

She got the day off.

And it looks like we’ll both have the day off tomorrow. And we’ve been told that it will probably be a couple of days before we’re reassigned to another gate.

Todd texted me this morning that I was to come in, but Jan had the day off because he had a couple of other guards he wanted to run through her gate for training. Then about 6pm he texted me that this gate was shutting down as of 6am tomorrow morning, i.e. the end of my shift. He said he hopes to have us another gate ASAP.

We already knew they were rigging down from flowback here, but there was some talk that the gate guards would stay until the completion crew came in because of all the equipment still here. But it seems that’s not going to happen.

Well, it was a nice gate while it lasted. On to the next one.

It has only taken me a few days to figure out that the person(s) who wrote this eWatch Gate Guard Logging program have never worked a gate with it. If they had it wouldn’t be written this way.

In some cases, it’s just small things. Like when you have a vehicle come in, you click on the Entry box and the Entry screen comes up. So we tap the Tag# box and the keyboard comes up. But it comes up in Alpha mode and not numeric mode. So it’s another click to get there. And with the 100’s of  vehicles I’ve entered in the last four days, not one of them had an Alpha character in the last four digits of the tag number.

And it’s just a single command string in the Open Keyboard code to make it work correctly.

Yeah, it’s a small thing, but when you’re entering dozens (or hundreds) of vehicles a day, and the drivers are wishing you’d hurry the hell up, it’s annoying.

And it seems to sometimes lose track of people. For example, earlier this evening I had a truck come in with Antonio driving and Sergio as a passenger. Then about 10 minutes later, the truck leaves, but now Sergio is the driver and he’s left Antonio behind.

And the log shows this correctly.

But then a couple of hours later, Jorge, Jose, and Brian leave in another company truck, the same one they all entered in earlier, and now they take Antonio out with them. So on the Exit page, I add Antonio as a passenger and then Exit the whole bunch.

And the log shows that Jorge, the driver, and Jose, Brian, and Antonio, passengers, all left in that vehicle. But when I now look at the Personnel log that shows everyone supposedly still onsite, Antonio is still here. And I can’t find any way to manually get rid of him.

Then about 9:30 all 12 of one company’s trucks left in a convoy, one after the other. And there is absolutely no way to handle this on the iPad.

To Exit a vehicle, you first have to wake up the iPad (it goes to sleep automagically after a minute or so of non-use), then slide the graphic on the screen to unlock it, and then click the Exit box.

Next, from the list of everyone on site, you click on that truck, the data of which is then populated into the form. And this point you can now click Submit, the system asks “Are You Sure? You click Yes and they’re gone.

But now you’re back at the opening menu screen. And it starts all over again. Of course, by this time 8 of the 12 trucks are already through the gate and off down the road. The only logical way to do this is with a pad and a pencil, and then enter it into the iPad.

But we’re told to do everything on the iPad.

Right!

October 26, 2017

Who Doesn’t Have Bananas For Oatmeal?

For our move down to Santa Fe, we were up about 7:30 to start packing stuff away for the trip.

We were pretty much done by 9, so we headed out to the Conroe Cracker Barrel for our traditional travel day breakfast.

Jan had her usual eggs, bacon, and hash browns,

while I had their Oatmeal.

I really wanted bananas rather than the other fruity stuff, but Cracker Barrel doesn’t have bananas. I’m sorry but it’s not really oatmeal without bananas.

Back at the rig by 10:30, after saying our goodbyes to Dave and Janice Evans, we were hitched up and on the way by 11:30. and we weren’t out of our site for 5 minutes, when someone almost immediately grabbed our site while we still hitching up.

Even through downtown Houston, our trip was pretty smooth with no problems at all. Our first stop was the La Marque Buc-ee’s about 1:15 to top off our rig’s diesel tank at $2.27 a gallon, the cheapest I’ve seen recently.

After traipsing through Santa Fe neighborhoods, we pulled into the Petticoat Junction RV Park about 1:45. Finding no one around, I put in a call to the park owners and was told to take site #7. Since it was right behind us I unhitched the truck and then backed us right in.

After resting for about an hour, we drove up to Clear Lake, first to my client’s to pick up Jan’s other birthday present. This:

Instant Pot 8 Qt., 6 in 1, Pressure Cooker.

So Jan’s the proud owner of an Instant Pot. Now to learn how to use it.

Then our next stop was Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, one of our long-time favorite places. We’ve been coming here since the mid-90’s when the place first opened as Thibodeaux’s. When it closed under mysterious circumstances, Floyd Landry, who had been a silent partner, and furnished all the recipes, took it over

Jan, as usual, got her favorite Chicken Fried Chicken, with Fries.

while I went with the Seafood Gumbo and a side of Floyd’s Potatoes.

Every time I’ve been to Floyd’s recently I’ve been alternating back and forth between the Seafood Gumbo,l which had Shrimp and Crab Meat, and the Shrimp Gumbo, which has, well, Shrimp. I think I like the plain Shrimp Gumbo better. Actually I wish they offered Oysters with the Seafood Gumbo, but they don’t.

Years ago I tried to talk Floyd into making it that way, and he said it would make the gumbo too expensive. Told him he should just offer it as an extra cost option, then we could order it if we wanted to. But never could convince him.

Tomorrow it’s back to work, but with a much shorter drive. Nice.

October 26, 2018

A New Project . . .

I heard back from Snider Transmission with so-so news about our Dodge Dakota. There’s nothing externally wrong with the transmission, so the next step is to take a look inside. And that will cost me $300.

That’s the charge for removing it, disassembling it, and diagnosing the problem. If at that point I do decide to repair it, the $300 will apply to the bill.

But that doesn’t include putting it back together afterward if I decide not to get it repaired. And in fact due to all the O-rings and gaskets that would have to be replaced even without actually repairing, it wouldn’t be cost-effective anyway.

But I decided to roll the dice and hope I don’t Crap out.

For a while now I’ve been trying to get my client to take a look at how they do shipping. Numerically, our order totals are pretty much equally divided between USPS and UPS. We do ship a few orders via FedEx, but they’re mostly international shipments. But money-wise, the $ totals are about 3 to 1 for UPS.

But there can be a lot of differences in shipping costs between the various methods. For example, if we ship a 10# package to New York City, NY with USPS, check out the possible differences in cost.

Via standard Priority Mail (weight-based) it would be $28.45.

Via a Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box, it would $11.60.

And via a Priority Mail Regional Rate Box A, it would be only $9.70

That’s a big range!

To make things more confusing, there’s actually a fourth shipping method called Priority Mail Cubic, that’s only based on the size of the box.

And that’s not even bringing UPS into the mix.

The problem turns out to be how to quickly and easily figure out the cheapest way to ship a package. Your variables are package weight, shipping distance (Postal Zone), and package size. And the same weight package will ship cheaper either of 4 different ways, depending on how far away it’s going.

So what we need is a program that will take the weight and the destination zip code and tell you which way is the cheapest. There are a couple of online sites that purport to do this, but mostly seem to try and get you to ship through them.

So my new project is to write a program that will take the shipping weight and the destination zip and tell you the cheapest way to ship it.

I’ll probably just do the first version in Liberty BASIC since it’s quicker for prototyping, and then once the logic flow is nailed  down, I may move it into something like C+. But it may work just fine in Compiled BASIC. I’ll just have to see.

But at a quick glance, the first problem I see is that the USPS charts I need, like the Domestic Zone Chart that translates Zip Codes into Postal Zones, doesn’t seem be available in computer form, just printouts. But I’ll keep looking.

Tomorrow we’re meeting up with Miss Piper for breakfast at The Egg and I, then she and Jan are going to get Mani-Pedi’s. Well, just a Pedi for Jan.

Then Sunday we’re going up to Brandi’s in Katy and lounge around their pool while Lowell grills something.

Really looking forward to it.

October 26, 2019

A Big, Shiny New One . . .

Several of our readers suggested that I just chuck the old filter adapter and buy a new one. And after looking at it closer this morning, I agreed and put my order in with DieselPartsDirect this afternoon.

Hopefully it will be here by the end of next week so I can wrap this up.

I mentioned yesterday that I had noticed pitting in the gasket area which I thought was strange on a piece of steel like this. But then it sat outside last night and got rained on, and then this morning I noticed the white rust corrosion spotted over it.

So it wasn’t steel like I was told, but aluminum, which explains better the pitting on the surface.  And since some of the pits are along the gasket edges, I don’t want to take any chances with any leakage under pressure.

So a shiny, new one it is.

Coming from Jan’s Birthday dinner last evening, we stopped and got gas at Costco, and the price dropped again, from $2.08 two weeks ago, $2.04 last week, to $1.98 yesterday.

Nice!

Also forgot to post this of the Birthday Girl yesterday.

Jan and I had dinner this afternoon at our favorite Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant. Then we made a stop by our storeroom to pick up our two electric heaters. It’s been going down in the low 50’s the last few nights, and we’re looking at the 40’s next week. Of course knowing Texas weather, we’ll have some 90’s mixed back in there again.

Finishing up, Brandi sent over this photo of Landon’s 1st Prize Halloween costume.

Readers will remember this as his Mr. Pug persona from his Facebook page.

Great going, Landon!

October 26, 2021

More Gogh . . .

First off Jan wants to thank everyone for all the many Birthday Greetings she received.

I also got some emails about yesterday’s blog title, My Cougar Is Back. It refers to the fact that with Jan’s Birthday, we’re back to our usual Sexy Cougar/BoyToy situation, since she’s now a year older than me once again.

Here’s a couple of more photos of the Immersion Van Gogh exhibit from yesterday.

Even the videos I posted yesterday don’t convey how impressive this all is.

This one is done by the same guy who did the one we saw in Paris in 2019. So we were happy to find that it was not just the same performance, but completely different.

And we’ve still got another one next month, this time with Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Sophie. Really looking forward to it.

Afterward, our next stop was at the Trader Joe’s out in Katy for a few things she’d seen on sale. Next, we had planned to head back down to Webster to have Jan’s Birthday Dinner at our favorite Saltgrass Steakhouse, but we decided we didn’t want to wait that long, so drove over to Mason Rd. to that Saltgrass.

Our steaks were as delicious as always, but the highlight of the meal for Jan was her own piece of Pumpkin Cheesecake. No splitting with me this time.

Jan declared it a very nice birthday.

October 26, 2022

Starting Year 6 . . .

Jan wanted me to thank all of you for the many emails, blog comments, and Facebook posts wishing her a Happy Birthday!

Today marks the beginning of our 6th year here at Petticoat Junction. We both agree that it really doesn’t seem that long.

Sure seems like home now.

Tomorrow looks to be Twin Peaks and Costco once again.

Somehow in doing yesterday’s blog, I neglected to post a photo of the Birthday Girl herself.

October 26, 2023

The Smell Of The Day . . .

Today was easy and delicious.

The ‘delicious’ part was lunch at King Food Chinese for our usual Chicken with Hot Garlic Sauce, Extra Spicy with added Jalapenos. And of course, Hot & Sour Soup to start.

In thinking about it, Jan and I realized we’ve been eating here for almost 45 years, since December 1978 when we moved out here from Montgomery, Alabama. When I started work at NASA-JSC, it was the first place where we all went to lunch. And then a couple of nights later I took the family there for dinner. And the present owner is the fourth one since we started eating there.

Chris was 10 and Brandi was 5, and they didn’t want ‘anything from China’. Chris’ words. So we had to stop and get them Happy Meals on the way. But it wasn’t too many visits later until Chris decided that “Shredded Spicy Beef’ looked really good, and if he was going to eat it, Brandi was going to eat it too.

So from then on, we had to share.

For the easy part, it was on over to Kroger’s for some Kroger-specific stuff that Jan likes, before getting home about 3pm.

For Jan’s Birthday, I got her one of these 3D PopUp Musical Birthday Cards.

When you open it, it flashes different colors and plays ‘Happy Birthday’.

And if you blow on the candle, you hear cheering and applause.

She loved it.

She also loved the box of Autumn Spice Essential Oils I got her for her diffuser.

With Cinnamon, Apple Cider, Vanilla, and Pumpkin, it pretty much covers Autumn, I guess.

So now it’s the Smell Of The Day.

However, I do wonder about some of the names they give these oils. What is Fall Leaf or Harvest Spice supposed to smell like?

Or Hocus Pocus from one of her Halloween collections.

I mean, what does a 350-year-old witch supposed to smell like?

Maybe I don’t want to know.

I guess it’s kind of like those made-up paint color names.

So what color is ‘Carolina’ or ‘Heirloom Quilt’ anyway?

I’ve just about got my new computer at work set up like I want it. Just some small stuff I call ‘fiddly bits’ left to do, mostly configuration-type stuff.

Finishing up, 6 years ago today, in 2017, we moved down here to Santa Fe to the Petticoat Junction RV Park where we’ve been ever since. A really nice place to live.