Our RV Adventures

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Catching Up on Catching Up.

Jan and I headed out yesterday afternoon a little before 3pm to meet everyone over at our son Chris’ in Heritage Park. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon were coming down from Katy and we were all going out for dinner at the Birraporetti’s over in Friendswood. And even better Miss Piper and her boyfriend Connor were meeting us there.

But on our way we made a detour by the Taco Cabana to see if I could perhaps recover my lost driveshaft. Since my mechanic was having to order me a new one, I thought I would check around to see if I could find the old one and maybe reuse it, hopefully saving me some money. But no luck. I guess some found it and threw it in the trash. Oh well.

We all spent a couple of hours just talking and laughing. We even got to FaceTime with Jan’s sister Debbie and her family up in Illinois. We talked about our upcoming family reunion there the end of June, and also about some furniture that we’re taking up there when we go.

We left for Birraporetti’s a little after 5:30 for our 6pm reservation. And we were glad we had one because the place was jam-packed. Literally wall-to-wall, so much that it was hard to get to the restrooms in the rear of the place.

This was our first time to meet Connor, seated at the other end of the table. Jan later told Piper that he was a ‘hunk’. Seems like a really nice guy.

It was so noisy that I had no idea what anyone else had, but Jan had the Chicken Alfredo with Mushrooms Sandwich with a Side Salad.

She had asked for Pesto instead of Alfredo sauce. But they forgot it and had to bring the Pesto out separately. But she said it was delicious.

I had a really good bowl of Tuscan Bean Soup with pasta.

The soup already had cut up Italian Sausage in it, but I got the two extra pieces from Miss Piper who didn’t want the serving that came with her meal.

With everyone’s varying schedules it’s always good when we can get the entire family together now and then, and we really had a great time.

Today:

The only thing significant that happened today is that I finally got to install the last window awning of our new set. Jan came outside and supervised while I went up and down the ladder.

I asked her if she was going to catch me if I fell off and she said, ‘NOâ€. But she would call 911 for me.

That’s my Sweetie!

Tomorrow starting at 8am, Jan and I have our yearly GP checkups and prescription renewals. Then that finishes me up, though Jan has one last appointment with her oncologist for a followup on her mammogram last week. But since that came back clean, there should be no problems with that either.

Then we’re done until next year. YAY!

Thought for the Day: 

If I’m ever on Life Support, unplug me, and then plug me back in. See if that works.

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Friday afternoon as I was coming home from work I got a another call from Brock’s Car Care about the truck.

Turns out a while back the truck’s transfer case cracked. Dennis at Brock’s said he knew it wasn’t recently because the dirt buildup around the crack where oil was seeping out. Apparently this threw the case out of alignment and begin to stress the U-joints. I knew from the rumble that I needed to have them looked at but I was trying to wait until all our upcoming doctor’s appointments were done with.

Unfortunately that didn’t work out too well.

Dennis wasn’t too encouraging about repairing it but I told him to take a shot and see what he could do using used parts where ever possible.

So he called yesterday with the ‘bad’ news. But not really as ‘bad’ as I had anticipated. By utilizing a used transfer case he could fix it for S2126.00 Ouch, Ouch.

However he said he would have to order a new driveshaft since he couldn’t find a used one. Wonder if a lot of Dakota’s have lost their driveshafts, so there’s a shortage?

Of course there’s always the math about putting $2100 into a 14 year old truck with about 274,000 miles on it, a truck worth maybe $5000 per Kelly Blue Book. But there’s a couple of other considerations.

Overall it’s in good shape. It still looks good and runs good, and it’s towable with just the push of a button. AND it has a $1500 Blue Ox baseplate installed on it. A baseplate that probably can’t be installed on many other vehicles, although I do have a call into Blue Ox to check.

So if I replaced it with something else, I would have to find something that was towable, and buy a new pricey baseplate. So I decided to roll the dice and take a chance.

We’ll see how it goes.

Dennis said it should be ready to go toward the end of the week. Luckily Chris and Linda are going up to Kingsland for a few days and won’t be back until Thursday night, so using his truck until then shouldn’t be a problem.

Last night we got together with long-time friend’s Barbara and Tom.

I’ve known Barb since the early 2000’s when I did IT support for the company where she worked. We always try to get together a couple times every year while we’re in the area.

Sometimes we meet at a restaurant and then go back to their home in the South Shore Harbor area. But if we’re really lucky, Barbara cooks!

Last night’s menu was Lasagna, Green Beans with Bacon, Carrots and Chopped Kale Salad. But Barbara’s gift is that every dish gets her special touch.

For instance, after cooking these carrots, she coated them with butter, Amaretto Liqueur and Orange Liqueur. Probably the best carrots we’ve ever had, and Jan’s new favorite.

Between eating, talking, and looking at a couple of computer problems she was having, we didn’t get home until 1am.

I’ll catch up with tonight’s family antics on tomorrow’s blog.

Thought for the Day: 

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