Our RV Adventures

Once again we were out the door and on our way back down to the Clear Lake area, getting to the Monterey’s Little Mexico in Dickinson, our lunch stop before Jan’s oncologist appointment at 1:45.

We’ve been eating here for about 20 years, with many of the same people working here for more than 10 years, which really tells you about how a place is run.

Julie, our favorite waitress has been here for almost 15 years,

way before we started  RV’ing in 2008.

We both ordered our usual bowls of the delicious Chicken Tortilla Soup to start off.

And when they say ‘Chicken’ they mean it. This soup is chock full of big chunks of chicken, not just a few shreds.

And unlike a recent bowl at Los Cabos here in Columbus, Monterey’s version DOES NOT have any veggies in it, like the zucchini and carrots in Los Cabos’ version.

Next up we split an order of Beef Fajita Nachos, which didn’t last long enough for a photo

But here is where it would be.

Finishing up and heading north we made a quick detour to the Bucee’s on 96 to pick up a few of our favorite Cranberry Walnut muffins for breakfast on the road. Then it was on back up to Webster and Jan’s doctor’s appointment.

Normally her oncologist’s visits go pretty quickly, but this time the doctor was running late so Jan was in there for a little over 2 hours. No problems, just a slow doctor.

Then it was back on the road heading home to Columbus, and hoping to stay ahead of the going-home traffic, which we mostly did.

We did make a quick stop at the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts in Columbus so I could pick up a new blower motor speed control module for the truck.

The old one has cracked and we presently only have one blower speed for the AC, so this should fix the problem.

Hopefully.

And guess what? Tomorrow morning we get to make the same trip back down to the Clear Lake area once again, this time for our GP appointments. Oh Boy!

Blog reader Tom Cheshire asked about how we keep our diesel tank filled on the road, and any problems we’ve had.

First off, we’ve got a 150 gallon diesel tank so we can go about 1000 miles without topping off, still leaving ourselves a 250 mile ‘cushion’. And we only occasionally fill up on the road during our travels.

Normally when we’re parked somewhere for a few days and want to fill up, we’ll scout out places as we’re driving around, looking for a place we can get in and out of with no problems. It may be a Wal-Mart or a Sam’s Club, or even a convenience store with diesel and easy access.

And if it looks like it will be easier, Jan will just follow me in the truck to the station, and then we’ll hitch up afterwards.

If we do need to fill up on the road, we usually just stop at a Pilot/Flying J/Love’s/TA etc. Many of them have separate pumps for RV’s with both diesel and gas, so you can stay out of the truck lanes.

Hope this makes sense. If anyone has any more questions, let me know.

“Adventures are never fun while you’re having them.†― C.S. Lewis

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Once again this morning we were out the door and heading for Clear Lake and our family get-together at the Webster Cheddar’s, getting there about 15 minutes before our 11:30 meeting time.

Since we had a party of 8, getting there early helped, and we were seated immediately as soon as everyone showed up. Well, everyone but Miss Piper, who couldn’t make it.

As is usual for our visits to Cheddar’s, everything was delicious. Jan, Linda, and I all started out with salads, which come with one of their tasty croissants.

Everyone got something different, with Jan going with her favorite Chicken and Shrimp, now coming with their Bourbon Glaze Sauce. So good that Jan wanted to know if she could buy a gallon of it.

I got my usual Chicken Tenders with Fresh Broccoli and Green Beans, my favorite partly because they give you enough to have plenty of leftovers.

We spent most of the meal going over plans for our big upcoming family reunion the end of June. Jan’s sister and her family are all coming down from Illinois so it’ll be a large group.

Getting our goodbye hugs Jan and I made a bank stop before segueing to the nearby Wal-Mart for a few things, and then it was back on the road up to the Katy area where we make a gas fill-up and Starbuck’s stop. After our usual Cinnamon Dolce Lattes, (still no Smoked Butterscotch) we finally got home about 4:30.

Brandi and Lowell brought my latest Amazon order with them, a 2TB WD External Hard Drive. I’ve been wanting a drive large enough to let me do one or more  system images of my desktop computer, which requires a little over 600GB. So this new drive will hold 3 system images.

This new drive is also USB 3.0, which means it’s about 10X faster than one with a USB 2..0 interface, important when you’re saving 600+ GB files.

Holding this 2TB drive, the size of a deck of cards, in my hand, make me think of my first hard drive, circa 1990. It cost me $995 and significantly larger than a shoebox, it weighed about 15 pounds. And it was a whole 10MB, yes 10MB!

Which means that this drive has 200,000X the capacity of my first drive. a big change in less than 30 years.

Can you imagine what’s coming up in the next 30 years?

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