Our RV Adventures

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As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, tomorrow I’ve got a Dermatologist appointment, but not at the time I thought. When I originally made the appointment last month, I had my choice of 10:50 am or 1:20 pm.

Not wanting to get up any earlier than I have to, I choose the 1:20 one. But a little later, Jan reminded me about our Alvin Opry get-together at 2 pm. So I called back about 30 minutes later to take the 10:50 one, but it was already taken. But she had one at 9:45, so I took it.

But then yesterday, when I got a text reminder about the appointment, it showed 1:20 pm, not 9:45. But when I called the office, I found that, apparently, my 9:45 appointment had never been entered into the system.

Bummer!

Normally, these appointments only take 10-15 minutes, but that assumes the Dr. is running on time, not always a safe assumption.

But hopefully we’ll make our lunch pretty much on time.

* * * * * * *

Friday’s turning into an errand day. Besides my Verizon store visit, I’m also going to get an oil change for the Jeep, and go by the Post Office to put in a hold on our mail while we’re gone. I’ve also got a bunch of Powerball and MegaMillions tickets to cash, mostly $4 and $10 ones, but enough of them to add up.

Thought For The Day:

A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing. So Is A Lot– Albert Einstein

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2008 – More Photos On Our Way To Alaska

2009 – Lost in the Fifties, Again

2014 – One Drill Rig, 3 Fracs, One Workover Rig

2018 – Eye Of The Storm

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

October 8, 2008

More Photos On Our Way To Alaska

October 8, 2009

Lost in the Fifties, again …

The morning before we left Celina, OH, we went back to “Lost in the Fiftiesâ€, a restaurant in nearby St. Mary’s

But as I mentioned, this place also has a great 50’s memorabilia museum, with a lot of stuff that you don’t expect to find in a small town.

Like…

This was Elvis’ leathers and motorcycle used in his film “Roustaboutâ€, filmed in 1964.

And…

This was one of the outfits that Elvis wore during his very last tour in June of 1977.

And here is the outfit that he wore for one of his album covers.

And this is the album cover.

And here is one of Elvis’ 3 pink Cadillacs.

According to the placard, this was the 2nd one he bought. The first one was a 1954 model. Then he bought this one in 1955. But after driving it for a while, he discovered it didn’t have air conditioning, so he traded it back to the dealer for one that did have A/C.

The 3rd one is the one that’s on display at Graceland.

The only thing I can figure out is that he bought this one in the winter and then didn’t try the A/C until spring.

Here’s one of Elvis’ Army uniforms, complete with his Army Commendation Award papers and his promotion to Sergeant paperwork.

And the museum has other celebrity outfits too.

Here’s James Dean’s jacket from “Rebel Without A Causeâ€.

And here’s an outfit worn by Dale Evans.

And they even have their own Elvis.

This is Elvis Aaron Presley, Jr. And if you check out his link, you’ll find that he has been acknowledged as the son of Elvis Presley, both in Elvis’s will and a DNA test.

He’s performed all over the country, including Vegas. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see him, though.

The museum has a number of exhibits, but I’ve just given you the highlights, but it’s a big place and very interesting to browse through.

More tomorrow…

October 8, 2010

Landon Time . . .

Today was another easy day, but kind of long.

About 10:15 am, we left the coach and headed up to the Clear Lake area, first for lunch at King Food, our favorite Chinese restaurant, and then I dropped Jan off at Brandi’s so Jan could get some Landon time and Brandi could get some rest. We also took Brandi her favorite Spicy Shredded Beef with Won Ton Soup from King Food.

After dropping Jan off, I headed back over to my client in Pearland, and then was back to pick her up about 4:30 pm. Leaving Brandi’s, we stopped by Sam’s Club and CVS before meeting Bob and Beth Young for dinner at Genghis Grill, a great local Mongolian BBQ place.

Then it was home by about 8 pm. Tomorrow we’ll meet some friends for breakfast at IHOP about 11 am, and then go over to their house so I can work on a computer problem.

Sorry for the boring day, but readers whine and moan if I don’t post something.

October 8, 2011

Cheddar’s and Oreos . . .

Today was ‘Errand’ day, which, after coffee and some of Jan’s delicious cheese toast made with three different cheeses, meant we headed out about noon toward Mansfield, OH.

Our first stop was Cheddar’s, one of our favorite restaurant chains down in Texas.

After a great lunch, we headed over to Wal-Mart. Jan and I had to pick up our prescriptions and some other things.

Then it was on down the road to Wal-Mart’s evil twin, Sam’s Club, for kitty litter and Joint Juice. I mean, you can’t let your joints get unjuicy, now can you?

The rest of the day consisted of a drive-by visit to the Ohio State Reformatory.

Built starting in 1886, and closed in 1990, it’s been used in many movies, including The Shawshank Redemption and Air Force One. Normally, you can take a tour, but it’s closed right now getting ready for their Halloween tours.

After that, we did a quick drive-through of the local fairgrounds checking on RV rally suitability. (It wasn’t) and then a final stop at DQ for a frosty treat before heading back to the park.

Getting home about 5:30, we ended up in the middle of a mass trick-or-treat mob. The park is very busy this weekend and full of kids, and this afternoon was trick-or-treat time.

Smith’s Campground does a great job of providing plenty of things to keep people entertained, both old and young, including candy bar bingo and showing the kids movies in the pavilion.

The longer we stay here, the more impressed Jan and I are with how the Smith’s run this place. Really wish all RV parks were like this.

Finishing out the evening, we all sat outside for a couple of hours, watching the sun go down and the campfires light up, and a good time was had by all.

Finally, our daughter Brandi sent over this photo of Landon and his Oreo cookie face.

Looks like he’s wearing more than he ate, but I bet he had a good time, anyway.

October 8, 2014

One Drill Rig, 3 Fracs, One Workover Rig . . .

And a partridge in a pear tree.

We were kind of expecting a real jump in vehicle count today, based on our experience with last year’s frac gate, but we ended up with only 175 compared to yesterday’s 168 count.

But I do wish they would stop ganging up on us. As I mentioned the other day, I think a bunch of trucks gather up the road someplace and then all head in at the same time. And I think that they call ahead to their friends inside and coordinate so that they all head out at the same time.

This is the only thing I figured out. Because I will sit here for 20 minutes and see nobody, and then suddenly I’ve got 8 trucks lined up trying to come in, and 6 more trying to go out. And they’re all bottlenecked right in front of me.

What I really want is one of those traffic light setups you see used during road construction where they’ve got a one-lane bridge or something, and the lights just alternate, letting a few cars through at a time. That would solve a lot of my problems.

It’s probably not going to happen, though, and for the same reason.

They did skid our rig over to the 3rd hole yesterday, and are now back drilling. Maybe that’s why they (and we) got the catered meal last night.

Which we had one of tonight and it was really good.

Dog came by to visit again today.

And unfortunately for Dog, Mister was outside with Jan. Apparently, Dog likes cats and came over to Mister to say ‘Hi’. And Mister said ‘Hi’ back with a paw full of claws to Dog’s nose.

Jan said Dog looked like his feelings were hurt more than anything else.

Well, that’s the latest schedule: a drill rig here in front of us, a workover rig on one pad in back, two fracs starting up on two other pads, and a 3rd frac starting up RSN (Real Soon Now).

Don’t know where the partridge comes in, though.

October 8, 2015

A Night on the Town . . .

It only took two hours.

It’s a small town. What can I say?

Well, we found out this morning that we’re not going to be moving to the new frack site right up the road, but they want us to stay here and work the cleanup and completion. And from what we’ve been told, that should take us close to our target leave date of the 22nd of November.

We hope. We’ll see.

One thing that’s really nice about staying is that we get to stay. We don’t have to pack up and move. And none of the 3 possible sites I checked out are as nice as where we are now.

Things have really quieted down here, with most of the frack equipment moved up the road to the new pad. We only had 72 vehicles in today, as opposed to our usual 120 – 130.

And along with everything else, we also lost our trash trailer to the new frack. But it shouldn’t be a problem, since I’ll just drop it off on my way to town for groceries. And if not, there’s always the dumpster at Whataburger.

Since everything was so slow, and really shuts down around 6 pm, Jan and I headed into Carthage for dinner. We’d already cleared it with Jamie, our GGS supervisor, and told the company guys we’d be gone for a couple of hours, so no problem.

Since we’d had such a great meal last time, we thought we’d revisit the Longhorn Grill again. And I was in luck, because as it turned out, Thursday night is Prime Rib Dinner night. Jan, however, wasn’t quite as thrilled because she doesn’t really care for Prime Rib. Her loss, and more for me.

We both ordered salads, remembering how good they were last time, probably because of their homemade dressings.

And also because there’s not a shred of iceberg lettuce in it.

While Jan went with the same 9-oz Sirloin with loaded baked potato that she got last time, I tried the Prime Rib.

And was not disappointed. As I said last time, someone here knows how to cook meat. It was charred on the outside edges, and medium-rare to rare on the inside, perfect for Prime Rib.

And it was big enough that I only ate half, so we had some to take home for steak sandwiches another time. And the reason I only ate half was that my dinner came with a slice of their delicious homemade Strawberry Cheesecake. I would have gotten a picture, but it disappeared too fast. Maybe next time.

We were back at the rig by 7:30 after a really good time. It was nice to just be able to sit and talk without any interruptions. Jan started her shift while I slept for a few hours before I relieved her at 11 pm. Back to work.

* * * * *

Jan and I are apparently Google Maps famous. If you click on this link, you will see where we were a year ago today.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.8787074,-96.1440804,91m/data=!3m1!1e3

That’s our rig parked right across from the drill rig, which you can see better if you zoom out a bit. You can see our canopy right beside the rig, and the generator/water trailer off to the right. On the far side of the little road next to us is our trash trailer. Yes, last year we had our own.

Our truck and the sewer trailer are just to the left of us and under the trees. I’m not sure whose car that is parked just to the left of the trees, but we did have a few visitors while we were there.

Ran out of time tonight, so tomorrow night I’ll get back to my adventures trying to purchase a TT Zone Pass.

Finishing up for tonight, though, check out this 50 lane traffic jam in China, as apparently everyone in the country tries to come home after a holiday weekend.

And you thought Houston traffic was bad.

October 8, 2016

Microwaves and Microswitches . . .

After putting the new site online last night, I spent this morning picking at it some more, changing a few colors here and repositioning a couple of things there.

Today I added a Favicon to the site, and then configured the Mobile version that shows up on your phone.

Favicons are those little pictures you see on the tabs in your browser.

You only have a 16 x 16 pixel area to work with, so it can be hard to get a good representation. I started out using the entire Texas Flag Sunglasses Logo,

but it was so small it was just a red, white, and blue blob. So I switched to just using the left lens and that seems to work a lot better.

Later in the afternoon, I removed the control panel from the microwave oven to take a look at the intermittent heating problem we’ve been having for the last month or so

I suspected a microswitch problem, but I didn’t see any sign of that. In fact, it looked like the problem might be due to a broken flange on the control panel itself. So I cut out a new retaining bracket from a piece of heavy plastic and used it to lock down the panel a lot tighter.

Since the problem only happens intermittently, we’ll just have to see if it recurs or not.

With the new TV season ramping up, Jan and I watched another new show a couple of nights ago, and like Timeless, the new one we watched last week, this one, called Frequency, is kind of about time travel also. Or at least time travel by radio.

A police officer finds that she can communicate with her father over his ham radio, an undercover police officer who died 20 years ago, killed under circumstances that made it look like he was on the take.

His daughter gives him info that allows him to survive and clear himself. But like in Timeless, changing the past even slightly can have unintended consequences in the present.

When I was telling a friend about the show, she said it sounded familiar. Turns out there was a movie by the same name that came out in 2000, starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel. The premise was pretty much the same, except the father was a firefighter killed in a warehouse fire. So I guess what goes around, comes around.

Tomorrow, who knows? But I imagine we’ll find something to do.

October 8, 2017

Now This Is Just Ridiculous . . .

Plus, many of you are sharing our blog with others using the “Share this:†buttons at the bottom of each blog. Again, Thanks.

Today was another of those nice never-left-the-rig days. Jan mostly read while I worked on cleaning up a client/friend’s laptop. Originally, I worked on the laptop a year or so ago when it belonged to another client/friend who gave it to this other client/friend. So now I’m cleaning it all out and getting it set up for its new owner.

A couple of days ago, we did something we’ve never done before.

We turned down a gate. And a very nice gate from the description we got.

When we contacted Todd, our SiteWatch supervisor from last/this year back in August, he said things were slow right then, but he expected things to pick up around the first of the year. So we rearranged our schedule for this winter, planning to not gate guard until after Christmas.

Plus I wanted to get my Clear Lake client back on the straight and narrow before we head out.

As it was, the gate sounded perfectly, with a steady 3 or 4 months on tap, just perfect for us. Hopefully, something like it will be available when we’re available.

Our friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt are parked right by the electrical panel that took out the power here in the ‘G’ section of the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails.

Ed passed on this info about what’s going on with it.

That panel was running on a 400 amp meter, and with all the new 50 amp rigs it just couldn’t hold up and it melted the meter. They ran a second panel which will run off a second meter, but Entergy won’t bring the new meter out until Monday morning, at which time they will inspect it. You would think that with the revenue TT brings them they could have sent a man out Saturday to plug in a new meter.

This is getting ridiculous. My Verizon data usage reset today at midnight, so I was back to full 4G speeds again, but apparently for only about 19 hours. At 18:47 this evening, I got an email from Verizon saying that I had used 13.5 GB on my 15 GB. Then at 19:06, 19 minutes later, I got another email saying I had used all of my 15 GB for this month, all in just 19 hours.

That’s 750 MB per hour!

Guess I’ll be on the phone with Verizon tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

October 8, 2018

Eye Of The Storm . . .

For everyone who’s emailed or commented on our proximity to Hurricane Michael, No, we’re not heading into the eye of the storm.

Right now, at about 7 pm Monday, the storm is just off the west coast of Cuba, and by tomorrow afternoon, when we’ll be parked at the Seasons in the Sun RV Park in Mims, FL, just north of Titusville, the storm will just be about the same latitude as Miami.

So we’ll probably get some rain on the way, and after we’re there, but it shouldn’t be a problem.

We pulled out of our site at the Escapees Park about 9, got hitched up, and were on the way by about 9:15. Rather than backtrack up SR59 to I-10, we cut out across the countryside to hook up with US90E and then on to I-10 north of Pensacola.

Then it was a 170-mile run to Quincy, FL, where we stopped for the night at Beaver Lake RV Park, a small Passport America park, for $23 a night.

It’s pretty much just a wide-open grass-covered field with full hookups. But it’s nice and level, with a lot of room between the sites, so we could maneuver without unhitching.

Plus, the Marathon station where we checked in out front has a diesel pump we can get to without unhitching. Especially nice since we stayed home tonight and finished off our leftover Lambert’s Throwed Roll’s Hamburger Steaks.

Still delicious.

Since we’ve got a 320-mile trip tomorrow, we want to get an early start, probably around 8 am. Though it’s more to be sure we’re ahead of any incoming weather, it’s also cooler.

However, as we traveled today, I noted that with the windows open and the vents fans running, we wouldn’t have been any more comfortable with the A/C’s. Hope it holds.

Landon, et al. have been really enjoying their new pool.

Chris and Linda came down from Kingsland, and Miss Piper came up from Clear Lake to also enjoy the pool this weekend.

Looks like fun.

October 8, 2020

It’s Delta’s Fault . . .

Well, Hurricane Delta’s associated rains showed up a day early, and put a damper on my under-the-rig work, so that’s on for Saturday now.

Our grandson Landon is a really good artist and was asked to submit a possible cover for this year’s yearbook with a theme of “Mission Epicâ€.

Here’s his entry:

And Yes, that’s a dachshund in the spacesuit, because Creech the Dachshund is the school mascot for Creech Elementary Comets.

I’m always amazed to look at the small details he puts into his drawings. And how good his lettering is. Hard to believe he’s only 10.

But, unfortunately, he came in 2nd in the contest, so his drawing will be on the back cover instead of the front.

The winner better be a budding Rembrandt, if he beat Landon’s drawing.

For dinner this afternoon, it was another visit to Dickinson Seafood, starting with their really good salad,

and then moving on to the Blackened Catfish with Grilled Veggies.

October 8, 2022

Huddle Up . . .

Lunch today was Texas Huddle once again, and the place was jam-packed due to the Texas vs. Oklahoma game.

Jam-packed, loud, and rowdy. Emphasis on the ‘loud.’

Jan got her usual Bunless Cheddar Mushroom Burger along with a Side Salad and a side of their Grilled Veggies.

I again got the Cowboy Burger with Bacon, Ghost Pepper Cheese, Fresh Jalapenos, and Chipotle BBQ Sauce, as well as a Side Salad.

Really, really good, and Juana, our regular server, took great care of us.

And even better, the Texas Longhorns ran all over the Oklahoma Sooners, 49-0.

Sorry, Lowell.

October 8, 2023

Good To Go . . .

It was 59° when we got up this morning, with a 56° scheduled for tonight. And the upcoming weather really bodes well for the Wings Over Houston Airshow.

Though we’re supposed to have rain Friday morning, Saturday looks be be clearand sunny, with 0% chance of rain. And even better, the high is only supposed to be 77°.

So as of right now, we’re good to go for this Saturday.

And here’s the latest info on Saturday’s upcoming Ring of Fire eclipsewith times and paths.

Lunch today was at Texas Huddle, and since Houston was playing, it was a rowdy, crowded place. But the food was as good as always.

Our next two scheduled stops, theDry Cleaners stop, and theDollar Tree one, got canceled, leaving only the one at Goodwill to drop off some bags of clothes that Jan had cleared out of our closet.

Then our last stop was at HEB for our weekly stuff, plus the stuff we didn’t get at Wal/Mart yesterday.

Next week looks to be busy with our Alvin Opry group get-together at T-Bone Tom’s over in Seabrook

Then, as I said, it’s the Wings Over Houston Airshow on Saturday.

Looking forward to everything.

October 8, 2024

Creeping Back In. . .

Looks like winter is finally creeping back in, with temps in the low-mid 80’s in the daytime and low 60’s at night.

It’s about time.

Tomorrow will be my first day back at work since before my back surgery, so we’ll see how it goes. Dr. Wang suggested I start back with just one day a week.

The only problem I see is that I’m going to actually have to put real clothes on.

Bummer!

I’ve also got my first Physical Therapy session scheduled for next Wednesday. It’s scheduled for right after I leave work on my way home.

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After taunting us a few weeks ago with day temps in the low 80’s and night temps in the low 60’s, Fall went away, leaving us with days in the 90’s and nights in the 70’s. Again.

That’s just mean.

* * * * * * *

Today was another visit to the Doggone Crazy Food Truck park. I call it a ‘park’ since they now have 3 and sometimes 4 food trucks/trailers lined up there.

Delicious as always.

* * * * * * *

This coming Thursday, I’ve got an appointment with my Dermatologist for a regular checkup after my Squamous Cell Carcinoma removal back in May. Then in the afternoon, we’ve got our monthly Alvin Opry Group get-together at Saltgrass Steakhouse once again.

On Friday, I’ve got an appointment at our local Verizon store to look at a problem I’m having with my Samsung S21 Ultra phone.

A month or so ago, I started getting this message on my phone. It seems to happen randomly, and when it does, the phone goes off-line, saying ‘Emergency Calls Only’. Then, a few seconds later, the message goes away and the phone goes back online.

Every phone, iPhone or Android, has a SIM card. It’s what identifies you to the cell phone system, so if you move your SIM card to a new phone, it suddenly becomes your phone with your phone number, etc.

At first, I thought the problem might be caused by movement, vibration, etc., but then I saw the message come up and then go away while it was just sitting on my desk.

So hopefully they can figure out what’s wrong with it.

Thought For The Day:

I do know my limits. I don’t pay attention to them, but I do know them.

Just ask Jan.

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2008 – More Memories From Hyder, AK

2011 – Warther’s Locomotives

2013 – Who knew Mister had a Fan Club

2014 – Busy, Busy, Busy

2017 – Descent Into Madness

2018 – Jan Collects Weird Things

2021 – Tora, Tora, Tora

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.â„¢

October 7, 2008

More Memories From Hyder, AK

Funny story about this bear. We were pulling into Hyder, AK, looking for our RV park. Jan said that she was afraid that we wouldn’t see any bears while we were there.

Just as I saw our RV park on the right, I pointed to the backyard of the house directly across the street and said, “There’s one right there.”

So close that she was leery about getting out of the RV when we got parked.

October 7, 2009

Where’s the PO?

Today was another cold, wet, rainy day here in northern Indiana.

We decided to try out a Mexican place we had heard about called “El Camino Real”. It turned out to be pretty good, though not as good as ‘La Carreta” in Celina.

I was disappointed that they didn’t have chicken tortilla soup. The soup at La Carreta was fantastic.

After lunch, we used our GPS to find the nearest Post Office. Unfortunately, the PO wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Apparently, the PO had moved to a newer, bigger building.

We’ll check the PO website and try again tomorrow.

After that, it was back to the park.

Elkhart Campground is nice, but very empty this time of the year. I guess that’s why it closes in less than a month, on Nov. 1st.

But Mister enjoys his usual roll in the gravel.

October 7, 2010

Not much new today . . .

Brandi sent over some new Landon photos.

Jan and I had coffee at the rig, and then about 1 pm, I headed over to Pearland to work on a client’s computers. They’re both pretty infected, and it’s taking some time to get them cleaned up.

Heading home about 4:30, I stopped off at Brandi’s to pick up a package from Amazon and get in a few minutes of Landon time.

Getting back to the rig, Jan and I headed up the road to La Brisa for some good Mexican.

Right after we sat down, we got a call from our friends Maria and Bob Sutton. After talking for a few minutes, they decided to join us, and did so about 20 minutes later. After a great meal and some great conversation, we decided to meet at IHOP on Saturday morning for breakfast, and then go over to their house so I can take a look at Maria’s computer problems.

Tomorrow after lunch, I’ll drop Jan off at Brandi’ so she can get some Landon time and Brandi can run some errands or get a nap, or both. I’ll run by a couple of clients to check out some problems.

Then tomorrow night, we’re meeting some friends, Bob and Beth Young, at Genghis Grill for dinner. We’re really looking forward to seeing them again so it will be fun.

October 7, 2011

Warther’s Locomotives . . .

Today, the first thing on our agenda was to visit The Warther Museum in Dover, OH, famous for the locomotive carvings of Ernest ‘Mooney” Warther.

Getting to the museum, we had a little while to wait for the next tour, so we were directed to a couple of buildings next door.

The first one held part of Ernest’s wife, Frieda’s button collection. On display are over 73,000 buttons of her 100,000-plus collection, some dating from the 1850’s. They are all arranged in patterns of all shapes and sizes.

Right next door was the home where Ernest and his wife lived for 63 years. Built in 1912, it was the only home they ever lived in.

Finally, our tour started and we were led into the first room. This first display case shows all of the thousands of little tiny carvings,

as illustrated in this close-up, that when put together,

end up looking like this.

And maybe the most astounding feat of carving is this.

For years, Warther had been carving small wooden pliers from one solid piece of wood. With ten quick cuts and no sanding, he had an operational pair of pliers. His record time for making one is a little over 9 seconds, start to finish.

He said one day he suddenly saw in his mind how he could make a very large, interlocking set of pliers. He had already done smaller interlocking sets, starting with the blank at the bottom of this photo and ending up with what you see below. Each one of those limbs is a tiny working set of pliers.

He told his friends that he would have 511 pliers on this one, that it would take exactly 31,000 cuts, and that it would take him 64 days. And using a solid wood blank like the one below, he did it.

He ended up with what is known as the ‘Pliers Tree’ below. Each limb is an operating set of pliers. And several times before skeptical groups of scientists, engineers, and reporters, he showed that it all folded right back into the original shape.

Next up, we saw the first train he ever carved. Done in walnut, even the wheels turn.

His next train was carved from ebony wood and ivory. In fact, all of the white parts of the locomotives are carved from ivory.

When he didn’t use ebony, his wood of choice was always walnut, due to its strength and smooth carving.

This engine, the Commodore Vanderbilt, is notable because of the ivory words on the coal tender.

Each word is carved from a solid piece of ivory and inlaid into the walnut. Ivory cannot be bent or shaped without breaking, so this was carved as a single piece.

Warther also carved entire locomotives from ivory.

The detail on these is just fantastic.

This wall hanging was carved from a single piece of wood, starting at the top and working down.

And even more amazing, he did it all in this simple shop with hand tools and carving knives of his own design.

If you’re ever in this area of Ohio, this place is a must-see. Check it out.

October 7, 2012

You heard it here first . . .

Today, as I was ordering her some new Kindle books, Jan said,

“We need to gate guard again so I can catch up on my reading.”

Words I thought I’d never hear.

Jan was feeling better today, so about 1 pm, we all headed over to Harrisburg to look around, and also to visit the Midtown Scholar Bookstore, a place that specializes in hard-to-find and rare books. And it turned out to be kind of a neat place, but you’d really have to spend some time there to be able to find your way around. Upstairs, downstairs, and even the basement are full of books, but it’s like wandering around in a maze. I’m sure the store thinks they have an organization, but it sure wasn’t obvious to us.

So, leaving MidTown, and after driving around through the neighborhoods near downtown Harrisburg, admiring the unique architecture of the area, we headed over the Susquehanna River to a nearby Barnes & Noble. At least here we can probably find our way around.

By the time we finished there, it was getting to be suppertime, so we headed toward home by way of the Grantville area to check out a BBQ place called Smackdown BBQ.

It was very well-reviewed online and turned out to be pretty good.

Finally heading home again, we made a last stop at the Wal-Mart in Palmyra to pick up some things before we head out for the Harbor View Outdoor World Resort in Colonial Beach, VA, for two weeks.

October 7, 2013

Who knew Mister had a Fan Club . . .

or Kind of A Techie Blog.

Well, we’ve had our first few pretty chilly nights here on the gate, at least chilly in comparison to our normal nighttime 70’s and 80’s.

Friday night it only went down to about 66, but we had a pretty steady 15 mph north wind all night, which gave us a nippy 55-degree wind chill factor. And since I was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt, it got cold fast, until I dug out a hooded long-sleeve sweatshirt.

Then on Saturday night, it went down to 59, not too bad, no wind, but there was a lot of moisture in the air, so you ended up damp and cold, not a good combination.

Then last night it got a bit worse, with a temp of 49 along with a little wind. But this time I was a little more prepared, with a long-sleeved denim shirt, along with the hooded sweatshirt. But I was still cold.

So tonight, Monday, I’m ready. I’ve got on a t-shirt, a long-sleeve denim shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, and a sleeveless insulated vest, as well as sweat pants under my jeans. I look like a cross between the Pillsbury Doughboy (like I didn’t already) and the Michelin Tire guy, and I’m screwed if I have to use the bathroom, but I’m finally WARM.

I realize that for you folks up in the Midwest and Northwest with the snow and ice storms, this all seems like a bunch of wussy whining, but there’s a reason Jan and I are essentially snowbirds. It’s cold up there.

Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m just sitting here, and the only exercise I’m getting is writing on the log sheets, and occasionally getting up to get the name, company, and tag number of a new vehicle. Most of the time, we recognize the regulars and already have their info, so we just need to write them in the log along with their time In or Out.

But along with the cold nights comes the upside. The Fall days here are just great, low to mid 80’s with a lot of sun. It’s actually been cool enough so that Mister pretty much spends all afternoon outside, just sleeping on the table next to me. I usually don’t even bother hooking up his leash since as long as I’m out here, here he stays.

But this has led to Mister having his own fan club. Since with the cooler weather we’re not running the fan and the misting system, he’s more visible and the workers see him as they drive by, and then stop and come over. They take pictures of him, and then I have to take pictures of them holding or petting him. There’s also a lot of pointing out the window as the trucks drive by.

But even with all his notoriety, Mister always insists that I let everyone know that at 30 pounds, he’s not fat. He’s just big-boned and fluffy.

Man, that’s a lot of ‘fluffy’.

One thing I’ve been doing with all my free time sitting out here is that I’ve been writing a program on my laptop to computerize the log system here at the gate. At first, I thought I’d write it as an Android app and use it on our Kindle Fire, but having to type in all the starting information on everyone would be a pain on the Kindle keyboard, so I decided the laptop was a better idea.

I created two databases, one containing the vehicle tag numbers, driver’s first and last names, and the company name, and the other database is the actual log information. This one is used to track the vehicle ins and outs, and contains the tag number, driver name, number of riders, whether they’re going in or out, and the date and time. I also have another date field in the format of yyyy/mm/dd, i.e., 2013/10/07. This allows me to easily sort by the date, which the 10/07/2013 format does not, at least not without a lot of extra code. And since the program will generate the date in any form, it’s easier this way.

At this point, the program lets me enter the tag/company/driver data into the vehicle database, and then search the data by tag, company, or driver. It also lets me log a vehicle in or out quickly and easily, by just typing in the first few characters of the tag, selecting the correct one (if more than one) from the screen, and then clicking In or Out. All info is then written to the log database, and it’s done. Only takes a few seconds.

Besides saving a lot of handwriting, log sheets blowing away, getting wet, etc., this takes care of a bigger problem. Sometimes workers stay on site for days, a week, or even two weeks before they leave the gate. So we may end up pawing through dozens of pages of log sheets, looking for when they came in so we can sign them out on the same line. It doesn’t help that they usually don’t remember what day they come in, either.

If a vehicle comes in that we don’t have the info for yet, it still lets us log them in using only the tag number. Then, using the edit feature, we can update the log with the correct info when we have it. It’s still a work in progress, but it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.

Well, I guess I’m actually sitting out on the street, so that one doesn’t work, and I still seem to get in trouble. So just forget what I said.

Let’s just go with, It’s Fun.

October 7, 2014

Busy, Busy, Busy . . .

Once again, another fairly busy day today with 169 vehicles through the gate, one less than yesterday. And again, a lot of the extra traffic was due to the last of the big pieces of one of our rigs leaving.

This part of the derrick was a tight squeeze, and they had a guy on each side walking it through to be sure they didn’t take out our new cattle guard.

Hopefully, we’ll now have a couple of days of less traffic before it all hits the fan on Friday. At least that’s what we’ve been told.

It’s now semi-official that they will be starting TWO fracs on Friday. That’s two at the same time on separate pads. And based on our experiences last year at a frac gate, I don’t see how all that traffic is going to fit. But we’ll see.

I talked to Coleman today about a new cover for our canopy. Turns out that they are available, and the cost is not bad. I can get a new one for $71 and change, and that includes shipping. That’s half the cost of a completely new canopy, so that’s a pretty good deal. Now I just have to figure out where to have them ship it to.

We got our first catered meal today. Trend, one of the support companies, put on a big fish and shrimp fry for the rig in front of us, and we got included. And as usual for these things, each box they brought by will feed us both. So we’ll get two meals of it. Nice!

Jan said, though, what impressed her most was that the Company Man delivered to us, making a special trip over here from the rig to drop them off. Normally, if we get anything, the caterer drops it off as he leaves.

Again, Nice!

October 7, 2015

All Done . . .

The frack, that is.

Now we just wait and see what we’re going to do. We’ve had a couple of encouraging signs that we might be moving to the new frack site just up the road, but nothing concrete so far.

And if we don’t move, we’ve been told that they will be here at this site doing completion for about a month, which also wouldn’t be bad. And would get us close to our preferred ‘Sunday before Thanksgiving heading back to Houston’ thing. And if things run long as they usually seem to, that might put us right in the money.

But we’ll see. As they say, the only thing constant is change.

Back this past June-July, while we were at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails in Arizona, I mentioned the Ready, Camp, Go card here in the blog. We’re going to be doing the East Coast next year, and since our TT membership doesn’t give us any TT parks north of New Jersey, I was looking to use the RCG card to add a number of TT and Encore parks in that area.

I talked it over with the lady at the Verde Valley TT office, and I got a list of all the new parks I would be able to access. And it all looked good. But since the pass was only good for one year, I decided to wait until this fall to purchase it, so I would have more use of it.

At the time, the RCG card was open to any RV’er. You did not have to be a TT member. But when I went to the RCG website earlier this week to purchase the card, I found something different. Where in July I found a list of the 4 different RCG membership levels, now I found a page that said it was only for ‘eligible Thousand Trails members’, and a phone number to call.

It turns out now that to be ‘eligible’ for an RCG card, you have to have an Elite or higher Thousand Trails membership, and that I could upgrade my present Alliance TT membership to Elite for only $5000.00 (well, $4995.00 to be exact). Or an Elite Connections upgrade for only $7000.00 (well, $6,9. . . you know).

When I asked her what I would get for my extra $5 to $7000, she said I could stay three weeks, and then go park to park. I said the three weeks is OK, but we can already go park to park. Then she said you can book 180 days in advance. I told her that I can already book 210 days in advance. (In August, I booked us back and forth between Lake Conroe and Colorado River until the first part of March) At this point, she started to run out of steam.

I asked if we got any more free days (we get 50 now), and she said no. She then listed all the new parks that I would get, and it wasn’t as many as I would have gotten with the original RCG card, since it included Encore parks and others.

For us, the only advantage would be the three-week stays, but not by much. The only time it would be nice would be when we are going back and forth between Lake Conroe and Colorado River during the winter, and if you crunch the numbers, it means that we would move 3 times instead of 5 during the three months. This means we would save about $100 dollars in diesel.

So in 50 years (or 70) we’d break even. I don’t think so.

So, in tomorrow’s blog, I’ll recount the saga of my trying to purchase a Northeast Zone pass to augment our East Coast trip.

It’s not pretty.

October 7, 2016

Chicken Chili and Broccoli Cheese . . .

I spent the morning finishing up the new website, but I’ll have more about that later.

About 1 pm, Jan and I went outside (Jan holds the ladder) to cut the notch for the circle clamp screw in the dryer vent hole. I had planned to use the saw blade on my Swiss Army tool, but once I saw how thick the rig wall was, I rethought my approach.

In fact, I was very surprised at how thick the wall actually was, especially based on damage to other rigs I’ve seen that revealed their wall structure. Our coach’s wall is 2″ thick with the outer fiberglass skin, 3/4″ plywood, 1″ of insulating board, and the inside wall board.

Based on this, I decided to use my Oscillating Multi-Tool and a saw blade to cut the notch.

And with this, it only took a couple of minutes to carve out the opening.

At this point, I was able to quickly remount the deflector and finish things up.

Later, about 4 pm, Jan and I drove into Conroe to have dinner at the new Jason’s Deli. When we were last here this past August, it was still under construction, so we were happy to see it ready to go now.

And although it’s been a good while since we’ve eaten at a Jason’s, we went right back with our usual favorites.

Jan had a cup of Broccoli Cheese Soup and a Quarter Ham Muffuletta.

I got a bowl of their Spicy Southwest Chicken Chili and the small Reuben Sandwich.

If that’s the small Reuben, how big is the big one? But it did give me half to take home.

After dinner, we headed over to the nearby Sam’s Club to pick up a prescription that I had called in earlier. But the first thing I did was to upgrade my membership to the Plus card.

For a number of years, we had gotten our scripts through Sam’s Club, and only used Wal-Mart when there wasn’t a Sam’s nearby. At that time, Sam’s honored Wal-Mart’s $4/$10 prescription discounts, and the Plus card itself saved us about $50 per month, so the $55 per year extra cost of the Plus Card was worth it.

But then Sam’s dropped the $4/$10 list, so it no longer made sense to keep the Plus card. So when we renewed this past May, I dropped our membership back to the standard $45 version. And as I related in the blog at the time, we actually got the renewal free because the manager kept screwing up printing out our new card, so he finally just comped the fee.

Well, with this new prescription, I found it was $105.00 at Wal-Mart, and $85 at Sam’s Club. But with the Plus card, the price was $10. Yep, $10. So it sounded like it was time to upgrade back to the Plus card.

And then things got even better. I went up to the Customer Service desk expecting them to pro-rate the $55 for about 6 months’ worth, or around $27.50. But for some reason, the pro-rated amount to upgrade was $7.38. Where they got that from, I don’t know. I did question it, but they said it was correct.

So for $7.38, I save $75 per month. It doesn’t get much better than that.

October 7, 2017

Descent Into Madness . . .

No, not me. Not yet, anyway.

Well, the somewhat-expected knock at the rig door didn’t happen this morning.

Thought the guy might come back for another shot at getting us out of ‘his’ site. But no such luck. I told Jan if it happened and the park had asked us to move, it was going to take at least three hours to get everything packed away and ready to go.

According to our friend Ed Hurlburt, after the guy left us, he pulled into a redbagged site on the other side of Ed. Since Ed’s site was redbagged, he wanted to know why Ed had power. I guess he thought there was some secret to getting power, even if the pedestal was bagged.

Ed had to explain to him that he was running on 30 amps from a nearby working pedestal at another site. The guy finally gave up and moved on, I guess.

Apparently, the cause of all this was a not-up-to code electrical panel. About 30 minutes before the power went off, Jan heard a big ‘BOOM’ outside, which was probably the transformer and panel blowing up.

Looks like they’ve replaced the meter panel and the transformer and then called it quits for the weekend. Which explains why we were told the problem wouldn’t be fixed until Monday or Tuesday.

About 5 pm, Jan and I headed out for dinner at the local Golden Corral. One of our favorite places, especially this one, which is really good, unlike a few others we have eaten at around the country. They have some of the best Fried Chicken around.

A few days ago, I talked about the bump stocks that the Las Vegas shooter used to mimic fully automatic fire. Referencing the calls to ban them, I talked about how you would also have to ban springs and rubber bands.

Well, now they’re going to have to ban fingers. Check out this video.

Bump Stock vs Fast Finger

Several people have commented on why the Las Vegas shooter’s rifles, when fitted with bump stocks, aren’t considered to be illegal fully automatic weapons. Well, that’s because of the way the Federal law is written.

“The National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. 5845(b) defines “machine gun” to include any combination of parts designed and intended for use in converting a weapon to shoot automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.

Which means it fires continuously with ONE pull of the trigger, while a bump stock just enables you to pull the trigger multiple times, really, really fast.

Still on the Las Vegas shooting theme, John Ringo is a very well-known science fiction writer, and one of my favorites. He has his own idea, from personal experience, about what drove the shooter. It’s a very interesting read, and certainly raises a lot of possibilities, especially with his girlfriend saying he would lie in bed screaming and crying for days.

Check it out.

Descent Into Madness

October 7, 2018

Jan Collects Weird Things . . .

With our last day here in the Gulf Shores area, we didn’t really have anything special planned. Just sat around, talked, read, computed, and napped.

It just doesn’t get much better.

About 1:30, Jan and I drove over to the Fish River to have lunch at Big Daddy’s Grill. We were last here in November 2012 with friends Lu and Larry Tillotson, and new friends Paul and Margery Zeller.

It was highly recommended by a friend, and he was right on target, then and now.

I started out with a cup of their Seafood Gumbo.

This is old-style gumbo, made with okra and tomatoes, as well as shrimp and crab. A great roux, and really good.

For our meal, we both got the Shrimp and Oyster Platter, mine with Blackened Shrimp and Jan’s with Grilled Shrimp.

And both with Cole Slaw and Sweet Potato Fries.

For dessert, we split a piece of their fantastic homemade Key Lime Pie.

Again, all really, really good. We shouldn’t have waited 6 years to go back.

The view from the deck where we ate was really nice too.

Like I said, the view was nice.

And besides being a nice view, she collects weird things.

This is just a smart part of her collection of flamingos, pelicans, jellyfish, and moose.

She probably has some more weird things she collects, but the one weird thing that I’m most happy about her collecting is me.

After we got home, I went out and disconnected water and sewer, and let in the awnings, pretty much everything I can do tonight for tomorrow’s trip to Quincy, FL, just west of Tallahassee, and about 204 miles away.

Then tomorrow all I’ll have to do is to stow the satellite dome, disconnect shore power, and hitch up the truck.

October 7, 2019

Brrrrr!!!

I was on the phone with Cummins Tech Support again this morning, trying to get some more info onthe oil filter adapter. The tech did send me a parts breakdown of the adapter for me to look over.

I’m still trying to nail down exactly which one I have, the one with the gasket or the one without. So either tomorrow or Thursday I’m going to check out under the bed to see if I can get a better look at things. The problem is that the filter is located pretty much directly under the ‘firewall’ area that separates the bedroom from the engine compartment, so it’s hard to get a good view of it. In fact, I may have to actually climb out on the engine to see anything.

In the meantime, if I don’t get any more definitive info, I’m going to do another cleaning oil filter seating ring, this time using a brass rotary brush that our friend Butch Williams gave me a while back.

Back before I was chasing the whole ‘gasket’ thing, Cummins thought there might be burnt oil filter gasket residue in the ring. When I took a look, I did find some and scraped it off. But I was unable to get the last bit off because I didn’t know what the filter housing was made of, aluminum or steel. And if it was aluminum, I didn’t want to scratch it. where it would seal even worse.

But now I know it’s steel, I’m to keep at it until I’ve gotten it all off. Then we’ll see how it goes on our upcoming trip up to Kingsland in mid-November.

Looks like we’ve finally got a winter cold front coming in later this week with High’s in the low-70’s and Low’s in the 50’s.

Very, Very Nice. And about time.

October 7, 2020

All In A Row . . .

Several of our readers wondered about the many different apps available to stream TV shows and movies. There are dozens of them, some completely free, some with tiers (levels) of free with commercials, some with paid levels, and different numbers of available movies.

Here’s a list of 40 streaming apps available for the Fire TV Stick, and others too.

https://www.firesticktricks.com/amazon-fire-stick-apps.html

Hoping I’ve got all my ducks in a row this time, I’ll be back under the rig tomorrow afternoon, trying to drill and tap the 4 holes in my oil filter adapter mount, and if I’m lucky, also get the Helicoils installed.

But actually, I’d settle for just getting the drilling and tapping done, and then finishing up this weekend.

But we’ll see how it goes.

October 7, 2021

Tora, Tora, Tora

Jan and I were out the door way too early this morning, about 7:15, for an early doctor’s appointment. And as usual, it was just hurry up and wait.

Then, later, we had lunch once again at Texas Huddle Grill. As usual, my go-to was the PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger, with Grape, of course.

Jan, however, tried something new, with the Hamburger Garden Salad.

Just as good as usual.

Then I stopped by the office to check on a couple of problems before we headed over to Sam’s for a few items, and then gas.

I was very unpleasantly surprised by the BIG jump in the price of gas since last week. When I filled up last Friday, it was $2.42 per gallon. But today, six days later, it was now $2.65.

Of course, on November 1st, 2020, it was $1.42 a gallon.

Yikes!

Since we left too early for coffee this morning, we just had to stop off at Cowboy Coffee for Pumpkin Spice Lattes, cold blended, of course.

Looks like the weather should be perfect for Saturday’s Wings on Houston Airshow, 85° with high clouds.

The big draws this year are the USAF Thunderbirds,

and the CAF Snowbirds.

And this year, the big ending is once again Tora, Tora, Tora, a reenactment of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Then the rest of the month of October is just as busy, with 2 get-togethers with RV and Opry friends, and then the Alvin Opry itself. But the big finale of the month is Jan’s Birthday on the 25th, and to make it really special, it’s a repeat of the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit that we saw in Paris in May 2019.

Looking to both the Van Gogh thing, and once again being Jan’s Boy Toy and her my Sexy Cougar.

October 7, 2022

Not Much . . .

Not much happened today, so just another photo of

Flamingos Hiding From Hurricane Ian In A Bathroom.

October 7, 2023

Oops! Busted!

Turns out that the National Emergency Alert Test this past Wednesday outed a number of Amish members when their cellphones startedalarming during the alert.

Amish men outed for having cell phones

An ex-Amish TikToker revealed that the national smartphone emergency alert got his friends from the religious community in trouble for having phones.

Every US smartphone, television, and radio received an alert on Wednesday at 2:18 pm ET as part of a nationwide test for an emergency alert system.

Unfortunately for three members of the Amish community, the alert also involved a powerful alarm sound that outed them for having modern devices – which go against their beliefs.

FWIW During our RV travels in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, Jan and I observed a lot of variationsin what different Amish sects allow.

Sometimes they can have phones, but they can’t be in the house, but in what is essentially a phone booth out in the front yard. And they can even have cellphones, but on a communal basis.

And even an Amish Buggy towing a boat with an outboard motor.

We’ve seen machine shops that were not allowed to be connected to the power grid, but could use a diesel generator. And shopkeepers at an Amish Farmer’s Market who could use a battery-powered calculator, but not one that plugs into the AC.

As I’ve mentioned before, when we ask Alexa something, we’re pretty good about thanking her. I mean, we want to be polite to our future robot overlords, right?

And she usually answers with something like, “Your thanks are always appreciated,” or “Just doing my job.” But she is scary sometimes.

A while back, I asked her to turn on a light, and then forgot to say, “Thank you.” And after a few seconds, she said, “Aren’t you going to Thank Me?”

I didn’t make that mistake again.

And this past Thursday, when I asked her to turn off the bedroom fan, and then thanked her, she said, “You’re Welcome. Have a nice Thursday.”

And then she said, “And oh, by the way, Happy Birthday!’

Yikes!

As far as today went, first up were haircuts for both of us at our local CostCutters, and then right across the Interstate to have lunch at Denny’s. Since they had their seasonal Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes on the menu, Jan and I decided to split one, along with our usual Ultimate Omelets. But somehow we ended up with a pancake each. Which meant we ended up taking our fruit home for later.

But really, really good.

We had originally planned to make a Wal-Mart stop after lunch, but after looking over our list, we realized that there was nothing Wal-Mart-specific that we couldn’t get at HEB tomorrow.

Tomorrow looks to be Texas Huddle, a dry cleaners drop-off, a Goodwill store drop-off, and wrapping up with our weekly HEB stop.

October 7, 2024

Day By Day . . .

Just another quiet, easy day, so not much in the way of a blog today.

Tomorrow starts the 4th week since my Lumbar Fusion surgery, and I’m still noticing small improvements that accumulate over time.

I think the most noticeable changes are the twinges as my feet start to wake up. Don’t know how much feeling I will eventually recover, but every bit is an improvement.