Our RV Adventures

Jan and I pretty much took the day off today, and did pretty much nothing. All in all, a very nice day. I didn’t even work on my AC problem.

I did make a stop by Barbara’s, the park ranger who was looking for a new refrigerator. She found one at Lowe’s and it’s being delivered tomorrow. Unfortunately Jan and I will be in Pasadena while I take care of a couple of computer clients so I won’t be able to help out, but I told her I’d check in with her on Tuesday. And I still want to take a look at a taillight problem she’s having.

For the last couple of days I noticed that our usual 3 bars of Verizon 4G had been replaced by 2 bars of 3G. But then today it all changed.

Around noon I happened to look at the signal strength graphic on my Galaxy S5 and saw that I now had 5 bars of 4G. So to check out what I suspected, I ran the SpeedTest app on my phone and WOW!

XLTE has now come to Columbus, TX, and the Colorado River Thousand Trails. At 48.51 Mbps, that’s over 5X the speed here the last time I checked. And the upload speed is about 10X before. Very Nice!

Recently whenever I tried to update programs on my Galaxy Tab 4, I would get a “Insufficient Storage Space†notice. I would go through and delete some seldom-used programs, and then finally I could get my updates. But it kept getting worse.

This was especially galling since when I looked at my memory, it showed I still had almost 750 MB of storage space. But then it was Google to the rescue.

Apparently the Android OS is a little weak on keeping a program’s cached data cleaned up. So the fix is to go through each program in the Application Manager and clear the cache.

Or, much easier, you can just download the App Cache Cleaner from the Play Store and let it take care of it for you. And even better, it’s free.

Check it out.

As we’ve traveled back and forth on I-10 just outside Katy for the last few years, we’ve always checked out the Hamilton Metals scrolling sign. 

For the last several years the sign has displayed the latest price of a barrel of oil, the latest price of a mBtu of natural gas, and the weekly rig count. And they’ve all been falling off a cliff. Among other things, Hamilton supplies drill pipe and casing to the oil industry, so they also have stake in the prices.

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I  remember a couple of years ago, the rig count was up over 2000, but the last time I saw the count it was 419.

How the mightily have fallen.

But somebody at Hamilton has a sense of humor. A sarcastic sense of humor, maybe. But a sense of humor, anyway.

When we were traveling here to Colorado River from Lake Conroe a week ago, the sign no longer listed any counts. It just said, “WE’LL START REPORTING AGAIN WHEN IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!â€

And yesterday, coming back from Brandi’s, it said, “WILL TRADE PIPE FOR FOOD!â€

Like I said, a sarcastic sense of humor.

Thought for the Day:

Have you always seen how cute baby bear cubs are, and thought you might want to have one as a pet,

and then you think about how they’ll grow up and eat your face?

Well then, check out one of these. Believe it or not, it’s a dog.

A Shepherd-Akita-Corgi Mix.

And that’s full-grown so it probably won’t eat your face.

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Now try getting that tune out of your head.

Jan and I  were up a little after 6 this morning, so we could be on our way by 7. We were meeting up at Brandi’s about 8:15 to head down to Galveston to meet up with Chris and Piper.

After a pitstop at the La Marque Buc-ee’s, we met up with Chris and Piper about 11am at the Sunflower Café on 14st in Galveston. We eaten here for breakfast a number of times and it’s always delicious. And lucky for us, this morning was no exception.

Pretty much everyone went with their favorites, with mine being their Migas, with Fried Potatoes and Refried Beans.

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Jan had her usual “Small’ Breakfast

though I’m not exactly sure why they call it “Smallâ€.

Lowell and Miss Piper had the Belgian Waffle with Fruit.

Now that looks delicious.

Brandi had a big bowl of  their Sweet Tomato Basil Soup with Rye Bread, while Landon had his Kid’s Pancakes.

Is this a handsome group, or what? Probably because I’m not in it.

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Leaving Sunflower Café around 1pm, we all drove over to check out Miss Piper’s new apartment. She’s on the 3rd floor here,  in an attic efficiency. The skylight on the roof opens to her living room/bedroom.

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And she’s got a great view of the city.

And a nice balcony to enjoy it on.

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This is her living room/bedroom. We love the way she’s decorated it.

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The apartment comes with all appliances, including this full-size washer and dryer. The refrigerator is behind me to my left.

And it has beautiful all-tile shower, really, really nice.

Piper’s place is only few blocks away from the Seawall, and only five blocks from UTMB Hospital where she works. So she’ll be able to ride her bike to work when the weather is nice.

And her father Chris is very happy her apartment is in a really good neighborhood.

After getting our good-bye hugs, Brandi, Lowell,Landon, Jan, and I headed back to Katy, and then we left for Columbus, getting home about 5

After we’d been back for a while, I went out to the truck to get something, and a gentleman walked over,  introducing himself as Jim. He said he owned the 2005 American Eagle that is parked behind the American Dream that’s right across from us. And since there’s also another Eagle  up front, we’ve got a mini-American Coach rally going on.

I think it’s the first time I seen this many American Coaches in one spot since the American Coach Rally  we attended in Gillette, WY in 2010, when there  were over 120 American Coaches clustered in one place.

We talked for a good while about our travels, and repairs and problems on the road. And then one of those “it’s A Small World After All/ Cue the Twilight Zone Theme†moments occurred.

Yesterday, I posted this on the blog concerning getting help online about my recent AC problem.

I did get some help from my posts on RV.net and the Yahoo American Coach group. One guy  said that on his friend’s 1995 Dream they found the front junction box in the same overhead cabinet as the Slide Control Panel, Tank Level Display, and Inverter Panel. He said they found a removable panel there. The problem is I don’t have a removable panel there. I may try removing a couple of the control panels to see if there’s anything behind them.

The guy also said that the one for the rear AC was located in the back of the TV alcove in the bedroom, but I’ll wait till I need that one before I look for it.

And today, as I started relating this story, Jim started chuckling. And then he said that he was the Jim S, that had posted about his friend’s 1995 Dream, and that was the Dream in question parked right across from us.

Now that’s just spooky!

For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.

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