Our RV Adventures

I mentioned back on August 1st that with NASA/Boeing’s Starliner docked at the ISS there’s nowhere to dock anything else.

The US part of the ISS only has two docking ports available, and there’s already a SpaceX Crew Dragon parked next to the Starliner. But now there’s another SpaceX Crew Dragon scheduled to launch for the ISS on August 18th.

And now there’s this.

Shock Revelation: Starliner Can’t Undock From Space Station Safely

It seems that Boeing left out the software that would let the Starliner undock without a crew onboard. But they don’t want to do this since they don’t trust the thrusters to let them do this safely with a crew onboard.

So now they’re stuck. So far all they’ve done so far is to delay the August 18th launch until sometime in September.

This problem doesn’t keep them from receiving supplies. In fact a Northrop Grumman’s robotic Cygnus freighter, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9, reached ISS this morning with 4 tons of supplies.

But it doesn’t dock, but instead is grabbed by the robot arm.

Stay tuned.

In other SpaceX news, they just revealed the latest iteration of their Raptor engine series, the Raptor 3.

It has over 50% more thrust while being more than 30% lighter.

But the real difference is the reduction in complexity. And less complexity means less cost.

I posted about this in the Retro-Blogs™. Today, August 6th, is a very important date in my life for two reasons.

The first is the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima today in 1945.

As I’ve mentioned before, my mother was a Captain (later Major) in the Army Nurse Corps and Chief of Nursing at West Point. Most of her nurses were on a train for New Orleans from West Point to get on a troop ship to the Pacific to participate in the invasion of the Japanese homeland. My mother and a few other of her nurses were a couple of days behind due to recovering from the flu.

And with Japan’s propensity for attacking hospital ships, there’s a very good chance she might not have made it home. After all, it was forecast that there would be over a million American casualties during a possible invasion.

And the second reason is that on this date 29 years ago Tim Berners-Lee. of the CERN Institute in Switzerland put up the very first website on what would become the World Wide Web.

“Vague but exciting”.

This is what Mike Sendall, Tim Berners-Lee’s boss at CERN in Switzerland wrote on Lee’s proposal giving him permission to develop what we know today as the World Wide Web.

So, yes, one guy invented the Web, and, no, it wasn’t Al Gore.

It was Tim Berners-Lee.

“He wrote the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which outlined how information would travel between computers, and HyperText Markup Language (HTML), which was used to create the first web pages. “

And today, August 6th, is the 25th anniversary of when the very first website went live.

And you can still see the page here at its original address.

http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

And here’s the very first web server sitting on Lee’s desk,

It was a NeXT computer that had a note taped to the front that said: “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN”.

And it was almost a year later when the very first picture was published on the Web.

It’s a photo of a parody rock band made up of CERN employees.

I figure the 2nd photo was probably porn.

I got in this early enough that I remember when there were only about a dozen websites in the entire world, all of them at universities and research facilities. And I visited all of them.

One thing to remember is that the Internet and the Web are not the same thing. The Web runs on the Internet.

The Internet came first, with the first commercial ISP’s coming online in the late 80’s, and consisted of Email, Newsgroups, and IRC Chat.

Of course, direct dial-up services like CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, etc., had been around since the late 60’s, but there was little or no connectivity between them.

Email was pretty much what it is today, while Newsgroups were gathering areas for people to trade info on pretty much every hobby, interest, and perversion you can imagine. IRC Chat was the early version of today’s Instant Messaging.

There’s more info here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/08/06/the-worlds-first-website-went-online-25-years-ago-today/

So if it wasn’t for what happened 25 years ago, you wouldn’t be reading this.

Thought For The Day:

A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent. Wm. Blake

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2009 – We Found It!

2010 – Madonnas On The Trail And Our Illinois Family

2011 – Guess Who’s Walking

2013 – What Does Economy Mode Do?

2014 – Mail Order Russian Brides

2022 – Mexican Corn

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™

August 6, 2009

We Found It!

We spent our last day on Cape Cod driving around looking for the efficiency motel unit we stayed in here in 1971-72.

And we found it.

But the first time we had to do this morning was move. We only had our other site for 4 days and then someone else had it reserved.  So we had to pack up and move down the road apiece from site 266 to site 2.

Actually this is a better site for us, because it’s a pull-thru and has room behind it for us to hook up the toad (truck) before we pull out tomorrow.

After getting hooked up, we headed out on our quest.  And first, we found the motel, or what’s left of it, that we stayed in for a few days when we first got here. Apparently it’s no longer a going concern.

Next we moved into an efficiency motel unit that had two bedrooms.  We knew it was on the water, so we just kept checking likely areas, and there it was.

We didn’t remember the name, but now it’s called the Cape Wind Resort. The place has expanded and the cranberry bog behind it is gone, but the playground area out in front where Chris played is still here.  Chris turned four while we were here, so he probably wouldn’t remember the place.

We only stayed here a month or so, because the rent would go from $100 a month in the winter to $400 a month once the tourist season started after Memorial Day.  That’s when we moved into the house we found a few days ago.

It’s kind of amazing that all these places are still here after almost 40 years, but then they’ve got houses around here that were built in 1675, so I guess it’s not that amazing.

Coming home we ate dinner at a pretty decent Mexican place called Sam Diego’s. Not bad.

And tomorrow it’s off to Woonsocket…

August 6, 2010

Much Ado About Nothing…

Nothing…because that’s pretty much what we did today.

Nothing.

Having stayed up until about 3 am this morning, I slept in ‘til about 11.

Jan fixed sandwiches for lunch, and then after lunch, we again did nothing.

But nothing this time also included a nap.

About 6 pm we drove over to Ryan’s for supper. Jan and I both love their fried chicken, and this time was as good as usual.

We got back to the rig about 7 and continued doing pretty much nothing.

And that was about it for the day.

Nothing.

Getting back to our recent visit to Vandalia, IL.

Vandalia is another town that is home to a Madonna of the Trail. The Madonnas are a series of twelve 18 ft. tall statues erected in 1928-29 by the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution), The statues were placed along the National Old Trails Road from Bethesda, Maryland to Upland, California, mostly along what is now US 40. The statues were not carved but were cast from a mixture of crushed marble, Missouri granite, stone, cement, and lead ore in identical molds.

We saw another Madonna in Springerville, AZ when we were visiting in Show Low, AZ back in June. We’ll try to catch some others as we travel around.

Our real purpose for being in Vandalia was to visit Jan’s sister Debbie and her family. We all got together at The Depot, a local restaurant, and had a great meal.

Here’s the whole group.

From left to right: Jason, Laura, Ella, Avery Jane, Debbie, Jim, Gwen, Christina, Tana, Jan, and Me.

Now for the relationships. Jason is Debbie and Jim’s son, Laura is his wife, Ella and Avery Jane are their children. Debbie is Jan’s sister, and Jim, in the center, is her husband.

Next is Debbie and Jim’s daughters, Christina and Tana. Christina is holding Gwen, who is Tana’s daughter. And of course, Jan and I.

Hope you keep all this straight. There will be a short quiz at the end of this blog post.

And this cutie is our grand-niece, Gwen, Tana’s daughter.

Here’s Laura and Jason.

And this beautiful young lady is Miss Avery Jane, Laura and Jason’s daughter.

And this young lady is Ella, Jason and Laura’s other daughter.

And this is my cutie, Jan, with Gwen.

This is Christina, and Tana, our nieces, with Avery Jane and Gwen.

And here’s one final shot of the entire group.

We had our usual great time visiting with Jim and Debbie and family, and we’ll try to stop off for dinner on our way back to Texas the first part of September.

Leaving Vandalia on Sunday, and heading for Cincinnati, we passed by this two-hundred-foot cross just outside of Effingham, IL The Effingham Cross is located at the junction of I-57 and I-70 and is seen by about 50,000 travelers a day.

And now for your quiz. Who is Avery Jane, and what is her relationship to Jan and I?

And remember, this quiz will be 30% of your final grade.

August 6, 2011

Guess Who’s Walking?

Yep! Master Landon has started standing up on his own and walking. Brandi called us just a few minutes after we hit the road this morning.

She said he first stood up with a toy in each hand and took a couple of steps, then it was 4-5 steps. No pictures yet.

Watch out, World. He’s on the move!

We pulled out of the St. Paul East RV Park about 9:15, heading for the Pine Grove Campground just outside Shawano, WI, about 210 miles away.

Ten minutes later we were in Wisconsin for the first time. For the first 60 miles or so we were on I-94 but then turned off onto SR29. Seeing as this was a State Road I didn’t really know what to expect, but it turns out that SR29 is an Interstate in everything but name.

The next 150 miles were all four-lane, limited access, and no traffic lights, so we made good time.

I was thinking to myself that for some reason the countryside reminded me of Pennsylvania, the gently rolling hills, the neat and tidy farmhouses, and then I saw this and the image was complete.

Didn’t realize there were a lot of Amish in Wisconsin, but I guess so.

I saw yesterday that we passed 6200 miles for the year so far. I figure we’ll be between 10 and 11 thousand by the time we get back to Houston right before Thanksgiving. Since we hit the road in February 2008, we’ve put almost 43,000 miles on our coach.

And loved every mile of it.

We arrived at the Pine Grove Campground about 1:30 and got set up in a really beautiful site right on a lake. 50 amp full hookups too.

Jan immediately started doing laundry.

The only downside is no satellite reception. I put the Winegard about 60 feet away in the most open area I could find, but no luck. I’ll try again
tomorrow.

About 4:30 we headed to Shawano to have dinner. On the way, we passed this neat local institution.

The Indoor-Outdoor Movie Theater.

It has 4 screens inside and two outside, back to back. For some reason, drive-ins seemed to have survived up here. We’ve seen several still in business between here and North Dakota.

I know I certainly had a lot of fun at drive-ins growing up.

We ended up at Flamingo’s Family Restaurant for dinner, with Jan having the Roast Turkey and Dressing and I had the BBQ Pork Short Ribs. Both very good. It was easy to see why the place was so busy.

Still not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow. Our real reason for coming up this way is because we wanted to visit the DeYoung Family Zoo in Wallace, MI, right across the state line from Wisconsin. They’ve had a TV show on Nat Geo Wild for a couple of years, and we wanted to check the place out.

We had originally planned to go tomorrow, but there’s a 50% chance of thunderstorms, while it’s supposed to be clear on Monday. So we may extend a day here and go then, but then that will mean longer driving days getting to southern Illinois by Wednesday.

So we’ll see tomorrow. BTW it’s pouring down rain right now.

August 6, 2013

Something Different . . .

In the last couple of days I’ve come across two familiar topics on some of the online RV forums and just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to weigh in.

The first one concerns the Economy Mode button found on most Diesel Pusher transmissions, and how it works and what it does. According to Spartan Chassis’ and Allison Transmissions, it doesn’t really do much.

It seems the most mistaken idea is that it’s an overdrive gear. It’s not.

Actually the only thing it does is to change the computer so that it delays the downshift point when you start up a hill and hurries the upshift point at the top.

So if you’re driving on the straight and level, staying in 6th and never downshifting, it does absolutely nothing. Zip, Zero, Nada.

And if you’re in hilly country, constantly downshifting and upshifting one or more gears, again it will make no real difference.

The only time it will make a difference is on gently rolling hills just the right height so that Economy Mode would keep you in 6th gear, rather than having to downshift without Economy Mode. And since this is very hard to anticipate, the only way to be sure is to just leave it on all the time. And of course, you have to remember to turn it on again every time you crank up. Just don’t expect it to make a lot of difference.

The second topic is a perennial favorite: Black Tank Treatments. The packets, the tablets, the powder. The blue stuff, the green stuff, the clear stuff. Take your pick. It seems like everyone has their personal favorite. Some, like me, even mix their own.

After reading a lot of ideas and suggestions over the years, I came up with my own formula a while back that seems to keep the level sensors clean and eliminates any smells. And it’s simple and cheap, and can all be found at Wal-Mart

I buy a box of the cheapest powder laundry detergent I can find. In most cases, it’s a brand called Fab. Next up is a bottle of Calgon Water Softener and a box of RID-X Septic Tank Treatment.

Pretty much every time after I dump the black tank, I put in a scoop of detergent, a capful of Calgon, and a tablespoon of RID-X in the tank. The detergent cleans the tank, the Calgon acts as a surfactant cutting the film that blocks the level sensors, and the RID-X introduces enzymes and bacteria that help to break down and emulsify the waste, reducing the chance of a clog while draining the tank.

I’ve also seen posts saying the RID-X doesn’t do any good because we don’t have septic tanks. But at least in our case we do, in a way. We normally only dump our black tank every two weeks so the RID-X has plenty of time to do its thing. I guess if you dump every day or something, it might not work as well.

All I can say is that it works for me.

August 6, 2014

Mail Order Russian Brides

Beside the obvious Amazon ads on this blog, I also have Google ads, two within the blog text, and one large one on the right side. The content of these ads can vary, and are usually different for each reader. I can block ‘questionable’ ads, and I already have blocked some, like Mail Order Russian Brides, Filipino Girlfriends, and Online Gambling.

So if you see any ads that you find objectionable, please let me know and I will block them. Thanks.

On the other hand, if you ARE looking for a Russian Bride or a Filipino girlfriend, let me know and I’ll send you a link.

As I had figured, this morning’s dueling breads was satisfied with a tie. We each had a piece of my Aunt Virginia’s Banana Nut bread with our coffee for breakfast.

Later I went back out in the heat, 92° today, to take another look at my truck A/C problem My first test was to use my ohmmeter to check the coil of the compressor clutch, and as I suspected, the coil was open. So that’s the problem. Now what to do about it?

I can replace, and have replaced, the AC clutch on other cars. It’s not really that hard. But I would need some tools I don’t have with me. The advantage is that I wouldn’t have to pull the compressor and replace the Freon.

But, do I want to spend ~ $100 for a new clutch to put on a 10-year-old compressor, when for ~ $200 I can get a whole new compressor and clutch? Of course, then I would have to pump out the Freon, replace the compressor, then pull a vacuum on the system, and put Freon back in.

And it’s possible that if the compressor was already starting to fail and seize up, it could have caused the coil to burn out anyway.

Either way it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to do anything about it until we’re back in Houston in a week or so.

Saw a mention today that a female gate guard was run over by a big truck a couple of days ago. Looks like stitches in her head and a broken arm are the lucky (for her) result. Apparently, after talking to the driver, she walked back around the front of the truck and stopped to get his tag number without telling the driver. They can’t see you down there over those big hoods.

I normally get the tag info on the way out to talk to the driver, and then coming back, hold the clipboard up over my head until I’m clear.

Glad to hear she wasn’t more seriously injured.

Came across an interesting website the other day.

Ever hear a voice on a commercial and you know it’s someone famous, but you just can’t place it?

Well, check out www.adwhois.com. And they probably know.

.A couple of days ago, I heard a new ad for Gold Peak Ice Tea. I knew the voice was familiar, but I just couldn’t place it.

And it turned out to be Opie Taylor, I.e. Rod Howard.

Check it out.

August 6, 2015

Gulfward Bound . . .

We pulled out of Northgate RV Travel Park about 8:15, just as it started to pour down rain, and it continued until we were almost into Montgomery. And it also didn’t help the drive that we had very strong, gusty winds all the way down to Gulf Shores.

It was interesting to note the way unleaded gas prices dropped the further south we went, at least until we got off of I-65 about 50 miles from the Gulf.

North of Birmingham we were seeing prices around $2.25, then a little further south it was $2.17. By the time we got south of Montgomery, it was $2.10. Finally we saw a $2.07. Looks like under $2 is coming soon.

As far as diesel, we paid $2.28 a gallon at the Pilot just south of Montgomery, using my GS RV Plus Card, which gave me a 7-cent gallon discount off the $2.35 cash price.

Jan took over driving as we left the Pilot, and drove for about an hour and a half. She did have a really ‘FUN’ time fighting the gusty winds, so she didn’t drive for as long as she normally would.

We checked in to the Gulf State Park at Gulf Shores about 4:30 and got set up.

We weren’t able to get a site on the water this time, but it is a nice large site, with no close neighbors.

By the time we were finished setting up, it was time for some good seafood. So we headed out to have dinner at Desoto’s Kitchen, a great local place with fresh seafood.

We both had our usual Fried Seafood Platter, with Flounder, Oysters, Shrimp, and Crab Claws.

And we both always get the same two sides: Sweet Potato Casserole and Fried
Green Tomatoes. And the sides, as well as their seafood, are all prepared fresh in-house. No frozen, or pre-prepared stuff there.

We really timed our arrival perfectly. I dropped off Jan at the door while I went to park. At that point there was nobody waiting outside, but by the time I got inside there was a wait line of about 10 people Luckily we got seated immediately at the last open table.

But by the time we left about about 6:30, there must have been 50 or 60 people milling around outside waiting for a table.

It’s that good.

August 6, 2016

“Vague but exciting”

Another nice, quiet day here at Gulf Shores. We had a respite from the thunderstorms today, but they’re coming back with a vengeance the next few days, including 100% chance of Heavy Thunderstorms on Tuesday when we are supposed to leave for north Alabama.

They have Wi-Fi here at Gulf State Park, and it appears to cover the entire area using repeater relays. In fact we have a repeater pole right outside our rig.

Too bad it doesn’t work.

And it didn’t work last year either. When I asked them about the problem, I was only told they have Wi-Fi at the Activity Center. Well, to start with, I’m not parked at the Activity Center.

But what’s strange is that they’ve got the hard part done. I have 4 bars of signal here, and my systems will connect and then try to get an IP address. Which is where it all fails. It hangs there until it gives up and times out.

Which pretty much means that the system is not connected to the internet. So I don’t know if they put the system in and then decided that it was too expensive to pay for sufficient bandwidth to cover the park or what. Since we’re talking about the State Government running things, who knows?

About 2pm Jan and I did our yearly Pensacola run, mainly for two things. Sonny’s BBQ and Artesana Imports.

Sonny’s is one of our three favorite BBQ places – Rudy’s BBQ, Famous Dave’s BBQ, and Sonny’s BBQ. Between the 3, we’ve got most of the US covered for good BBQ.

Rudy’s covers Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, and we’ve eaten at a number of locations in Texas, and as far west as Phoenix. Good Texas BBQ, Brisket, and Ribs.

Famous Dave’s covers much of the US, with locations in 36 states, as far west as California, as far north as North Dakota, Montana, and Illinois, and as far east as New York. Good Ribs, Brisket, and Hot Links. We first ate at a Famous Dave’s in Billings, MT with Mike and Janna Clark, and have eaten at a number of them around the country since then.

Sonny’s covers a large part of the south and the southeast, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and we’ve been eating at various locations since the 70’s.

We always tried to eat at the Sonny’s in Pensacola when we’re in the area, so today was our chance.

The first thing we noticed was that since we were here two years ago, they’ve done a major remodeling, inside and out, really updating the look.

But the BBQ is as good as ever. Jan got her usual Sliced Pork Sandwich with Fries and BBQ Beans, and I got my usual Pork 3 Ways Platter.

With Ribs, Sliced Pork, and Pulled Pork, it covers all the bases. I got the BBQ Beans, and the Corn on the Cob. One thing I like about their Corn on the Cob is that it’s cooked in foil, and not boiled and then left in hot water so that it gets soggy.

Besides the great BBQ, another thing I like about Sonny’s is no wimpy iced tea glasses.

No, these are big, double-handed 32oz glasses, so I’m not constantly having them refilled.

After our great meal, we drove on in toward downtown Pensacola to visit Artesana Imports, a gift shop that we’ve been visiting since the 70’s. Jan always finds something she likes, and today’s find was a new seashell-based dish towel.

Always a great place to visit.

“Vague but exciting”.

This is what Mike Sendall, Tim Berners-Lee’s boss at CERN in Switzerland wrote on Lee’s proposal giving him permission to develop what we know today as the World Wide Web.

So, yes, one guy invented the Web, and, no, it wasn’t Al Gore.

It was Tim Berners-Lee.

“He wrote the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which outlined how information would travel between computers, and HyperText Markup Language (HTML), which was used to create the first web pages. “

And today, August 6th, is the 25th anniversary of when the very first website went live.

And you can still see the page here at its original address.

http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

And here’s the very first web server sitting on Lee’s desk,

It was a NeXT computer that had a note taped to the front that said: “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN”.

And it was almost a year later when the very first picture was published on the Web.

It’s a photo of a parody rock band made up of CERN employees.

I figure the 2nd photo was probably porn.

I got in this early enough that I remember when there were only about a dozen websites in the entire world, all of them at universities and research facilities.

One thing to remember is that the Internet and the Web are not the same thing. The Web runs on the Internet.

The Internet came first, with the first commercial ISP’s coming online in the late 80’s, and consisted of Email, Newsgroups, and IRC Chat.

Of course, direct dial-up services like CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, etc., had been around since the late 60’s, but there was little or no connectivity between them.

Email was pretty much what it is today, while Newsgroups were gathering areas for people to trade info on pretty much every hobby, interest, and perversion you can imagine. IRC Chat was the early version of today’s Instant Messaging.

There’s more info here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/08/06/the-worlds-first-website-went-online-25-years-ago-today/

So if it wasn’t for what happened 25 years ago, you wouldn’t be reading this.

August 6, 2017

It’s Dead, Jim . . .

Or at least it’s broke real good.

Jan and I were up and out the door by 8am this morning, first to the Cracker Barrel right next door for breakfast, and coffee. Definitely coffee.

Then we drove into Covington for more AW-32 hydraulic fluid and some gasket material. So far this trip I’ve bought over $250 of AW-32 at $14 a gallon. Yikes!

So my idea was to use the gasket material to try and make a seal between the motor and the bracket, at least well enough to get me home using a few more gallons of AW-32.

But it didn’t work.

Apparently the seal between the fan shaft and the motor has ruptured, letting the fluid just squirt out around the shaft. So the motor will have to be replaced. Not something I, or my son Chris and I, could do. At least not parked in a mall parking lot.

So at this point, we were not going anywhere today. At least not in the rig. So to make things easier on Jan, I called my daughter Brandi to see if she and Lowell could meet us halfway in Lake Charles and take Jan off my hands. At least temporarily. LOL.

So that round-trip ate up six hours of the afternoon. About all I got done today.

Tomorrow I’ll call Cummins about the problem, and then call the Cummins repair shop in Baton Rouge to get their take on things. And if it looks like they can handle the problem in a timely manner, I’ll call Good Sam ERS to get a tow scheduled, which could be tomorrow or the next day, since this is not an emergency situation.

And so it goes.

August 6, 2018

Theme For A Day . . .

Nothing much new at work today. I’m trying to find a new Zen Cart/WordPress theme that I like, to use on the company website when I move the whole thing up to Godaddy and off our in-house server.

The old theme is no longer being supported and I never really liked it anyway. But so far I’ve looked at a bunch with no luck. Either I don’t like the way they look, or they don’t have the features I want, or even worse, they have ‘features’ I don’t want that I can’t turn off.

Got a call from our buyer this morning telling me he was going to have a couple of guys at the house this morning and knew I had the Wyze cameras set up to monitor things. Guess he didn’t want me calling the police on them.

I was finally able to get in touch with our storage location and set up to get a 2nd storage room, hopefully right next door to our old one. I’ll go by there tomorrow and settle up and then maybe bring some stuff down from the house. Don’t want to wait until the last minute if they want to close earlier than the 24th..

Last week I was having trouble with the volume on my Galaxy S8+. The speakerphone worked fine, but the earphone was just barely audible. So the first thing I did was to reboot the phone.

When in Doubt, Reboot. Right?

When that didn’t work, I tried cleaning the earpiece out by pressing a piece of very sticky tape (I used Gorilla Tape) over it a few times and peeling it off. This helps pull any dirt or dust out of the tiny holes in the grill. Again, no luck.

So next up I tried booting up in Safe Mode. Knew your computer had a Safe Mode, but didn’t know your phone had one? Well, it does, both iPhones and Androids. And it’s easy to get to.

On an Android, just hold down the power button until you get the 3-button screen with Power Off, Restart, and Emergency Mode on it. Then hold down the Power Off button until you see the Safe Mode button.

Your phone will reboot and come back up in Safe Mode. This means any and all apps that you’ve downloaded are now disabled. Your phone will still work as a phone though. To get out of Safe Mode, just restart your phone again. This is handy when you think that a rogue app might be causing mischief with your phone. But that wasn’t my problem, either.

Finally I tried one last thing. I powered off my phone and left it off for about 10 minutes. And when I turned it back on, it was now working fine. So why did powering it off work and restarting it didn’t?

Well, restarting doesn’t clear everything. It just reinitializes the system and then reboots. So it’s possible to still have data of some sort buried in some wayward memory location. And it sometimes can take a bit for all the memory to run out of juice. 5 minutes would have probably been fine, but actually I got busy on something else and forgot about it.

Jan of course, is still up in Katy Landon-sitting, so tomorrow I’ll run a bunch of errands and check out the storage room.

Love You Sweetie!

August 6, 2019

Cummins and Goings . . .

Spent some time on the phone with Cummins’ Tech Support asking about my rig’s oil leak problem. And this time I got a new insight on the problem.

Especially based on the age of the rig, (20 years) he thinks it’s very probably the gasket between the oil filter flange and the oil filter head adapter where the filter screws in.

And even better it looks like something I can replace myself. Just remove the oil filter, and the two screws and the gasket comes off.

So I’ll order a new gasket tomorrow. Hopefully, this will fix the problem once and for all.

I also asked about changing out my green coolant for the red version. I was told that all I have to do is drain the green, replace the coolant filter, and add the red stuff. So I don’t need to do any type of flushing. Nice.

Pretty simple, but the oil leak comes first, and then our Onan generator not running, before I worry about the coolant.

About 1pm Jan and I headed out with a first stop at Lowe’s to return some leftover parts from my recent water leak repair. Then it was on up the Cheddar’s in Clear Lake for lunch. Delicious as always, especially the croissants.

Then after a quick stop at the office, it was on off to WalMart for some things.

Finally coming home, we stopped off at our storage room to drop off the small suitcase that Jan took up to Brandi’s.

Coming down I-45 we checked out the location of the new Black Bear Diner that’s coming to our area. Having eaten at BBD’s all over the west, and the one now up in Katy, we’re really looking forward to it.

A great place to eat, especially for breakfast.

I’ve got some clamps and grounding wire coming in from Amazon tomorrow. I want to ground our new antenna pole since it’s right up against the side of the rig, in case lightning takes an interest.

Safety First.

August 6, 2020

Bombs Away . . .

Today, August 6th, is a very important date in my life for two reasons.

The first is the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima today in 1945.

As I’ve mentioned before, my mother was a Captain (later Major) in the Army Nurse Corps and she and her nurses were on a train for New Orleans from West Point to get on a troop ship to the Pacific to participate in the invasion of the Japanese homeland.

And with Japan’s propensity for attacking hospital ships, there’s a very good chance she might not have made it home. After all, it was forecast that there would be over a million American casualties during a possible invasion.

And the second reason is that on this date 29 years ago Tim Berners-Lee. of the CERN Institute in Switzerland put up the very first website on what would become the World Wide Web.

You can read more about it further down the blog.

August 6, 2021

Fully Stacked . . .

Today, SpaceX did the first full stack of their Starship/Falcon Heavy combination. At 390 feet it’s 27 feet taller than the fabled Saturn V, and at 17,000,000 pounds of thrust, the Starship is more than twice as powerful.

But it was only temporary, just for today, so that they could check the alignment and operation of the crane system. But they hope to do a test launch to orbit in the next few months.

Elon Musk says this combo will take us to the Moon and then Mars.

Regular readers know that Jan and I are both big Van Gogh fans, and we were really looking forward to the two immersive performances, one of which is the same one that we saw in Paris in May of 2019.

You can get some idea of what these are like here.

And here.

We were supposed to see that one on Sep. 28, next month on our 54th Anniversary, but it’s now been delayed to a later, but unknown date.

And it looks like the other one, the one we were supposed to see on Nov. 21 with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, has also been pushed back.

Both of them say it’s production difficulties, so it doesn’t look like it’s a WuFlu problem.

We were able to sit outside with our coffee this morning, enjoying the cooler weather and the blooms on Jan’s hibiscus tree. And with all the buds popping out, it looks like there’s more to come.

But it looks like the rain and the heat are coming back so who knows about tomorrow.

August 6, 2022

Mexican Corn . . .

Jan and I headed over to Dickinson to have lunch at Monterey’s Little Mexico, our first visit back there in a good while. Long enough that they’ve made some big changes to their menu.

Jan’s favorite, Chicken Ixtapa, is no more.

So she ended up ordering their new Pollo Feliz.

She thought it was OK, but kind of disappointing.

Lucky for me, they still have my favorite Chicken Tortilla Soup.

And even better, they now have a new favorite of mine, Mexican Street Corn.

Still great food, even with the changes.

Then it was on up the feeder to the HEB shopping center so Jan could get her hair cut at the CostCutters there. While she was doing that I drove over to the nearby Lowes to get some brackets so I can mount our new Wind Spinner.

Coming back to the HEB, I stopped off and got gas before picking Jan up. Then it was right next door to pick up some stuff at HEB, before finally heading home.

After almost two dry weeks, we finally got some rain last night and this morning. Fairly heavy in some cases.

And I don’t which was the cause and which was the effect, but we also have a nice cold front along with the rain. The low last night was 74°, a big drop from the normal low 80’s we have.

And the high today stayed in the 80’s, and never got near 90°.

Very nice.

And strangely enough, we had another cold front just like this last year at just about this time.

Tomorrow we’re meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon up at King Food up in Webster for lunch. Then she’s going back with them up to Katy for a week of Landon-sitting. I’ll pick her up Friday afternoon so we can make the Alvin Opry performance.

August 6, 2023

The Very First One . . .

Jan and I were on our way up to Brandi’s in Katy by about 11:30, first to drop off Jan’s stuff for her Landon/Doggie-Sitting stay, and check out Brandi and Landon’s new computer areas.

Landon has a new desk, one that goes up and down, so he can either sit or stand at it,

while Brandi, getting ready for her new WFH position that starts tomorrow, went the minimalist route.

Then after I got Jan’s laptop set up, we all headed up Mason Rd. to have lunch at Ray’s Mexican Restaurant once again. We were last here back in February, and it was so good we had to try it again.

Like last time I got the Tampiqueña, a Beef Fajita Steak with a Cheese Enchilada,

with Lowell getting the same thing. Really good.

Brandi got the Fajita Beef Enchiladas,

with plenty leftover to take home.

Jan got the La Gratinada, with a combo of Beef and Chicken,

also with take-home leftovers.

Finally, after getting hugs from the kids and kisses from my Sweetie, I was on my way back home, getting to the rig by about 3pm.

Since Brandi will be going through orientation for her new job Monday through Wednesday, Jan will be Landon/Doggie-sitting until I pick her up Thursday morning on our way up to The Woodlands to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt for our monthly lunch get-together.

Looking forward to it all.

Today, in 1991, the very first website went online, and then about a year later, the very first picture was posted.

It was a photo of a parody rock group made of CERN employees.

I figure the second photo posted was probably porn.

Jan’s just about back to normal. She’ll see the doctor again in two weeks when he’ll remove the bandage. Don’t know if he’ll have to also remove any stitches, or if they’re the dissolvable kind.

It seems that Logitech wants you to rent your mouse, or at least buy a subscription to it. That way you can keep it ‘forever’.

Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription

Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber recently discussed the possibility of one day selling a mouse that customers can use “forever.” The executive said such a mouse isn’t “necessarily super far away” and will rely on software updates, likely delivered through a subscription model.

Speaking with Faber, Decoder host and Verge Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel suggested that a “forever mouse” could cost $200. While that would be expensive compared to the typical mouse, such a product wouldn’t be the first software-heavy, three-figure-price computer mouse. Still, a price tag of around $200 would limit the audience to professionals or enthusiasts.

Faber also said the average price of a mouse or keyboard is $26, though she didn’t cite her source. Logitech is seeking growth by appealing to the many people who don’t own both a mouse and keyboard and by selling more expensive devices. A “forever mouse” could fall under the latter. Alternatively, the price of the mouse’s hardware could be subsidized by subscription payments.

Now I have no idea why a mouse would need ‘software updates’. I normally keep a mouse or a keyboard until it breaks. Then I buy another one for $20 or less. So I could buy 20 mouses for the price of one ‘forever’ mouse.

A mouse normally lasts me for a couple of years or so, which means I’ve got about 40 years of mouse life left.

Doubt I’ll be able to use it for that long.

Tomorrow’s another of our nice stay-at-home days with nothing scheduled.

Thought for the Day:

Jan is 90% of the reason I get up every morning. The other 10% is because I have to pee.

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2009 – There Be Whales Here

2010 – Jan Goes Home Again

2016 – Flying Squirrels and Embalming Fluid

2018 – Too Much Mouse

2021 – A Blue Streak

2023 – Stomp’s And More

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™

August 5, 2009

There be Whales here…

Today we took a whale-watching tour boat out of Barnstable Harbor and unlike our whale-watching tour in San Diego in February 2008, this time we actually saw whales… lots of whales… humpback whales everywhere.

We headed out to sea about 2:30 pm on the Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruises boat ‘Whale Watcher’.

Aptly named.

It’s a 130-foot jet boat that can carry almost 400 people.

It was specially built for whale watching, and the fact that it’s a jet boat means two things. It gets out to the whale area, the Stellwagen Banks, a lot faster,  and once there, the fact that it has jet nozzles and not propellers, means that it can get in closer to the whales without worrying about them getting hit with the props.

And we did get close,  like right alongside.

Stellwagen Banks is a National Marine Sanctuary about 40 miles off Barnstable, MA harbor.  It covers about 800 square miles and is basically an underwater mountain ridge that comes to about 120 feet of the surface.

The surrounding seabed is almost 400 feet deep. This means that ocean currents upwell along the steep sides of the ridge, bringing with them nutrients and minerals from the bottom, feeding the local ecosystem and attracting larger animals to the area.

On our way out to the banks, we passed by Sandy Neck, an isolated but picturesque vacation area.  And by isolated, I mean it can only be reached by boat or ATV and has absolutely no utilities. I guess if you really want to get away from it all, this is the place for you.

The lighthouse dates from 1852 and is still in use, but now it’s solar-powered.

It took us about an hour to get out to the whales, but when we got there, they were everywhere.

At first, we just saw tails…

and fins !!

Everyone crowded to the sides of the boat trying to get the best view.

And then there they were…

And then they were all around us…

We saw several different pods, or groups of whales, and about 15 or 16 individuals.

The whales are identified by their tail markings and the naturalist on board said they have a catalog that lists over 1000 whales that have been spotted in this area since 1972 when they started counting.

Jan and I had a great time as you can see from the smiles on our faces in this pic.

Jan And Greg Go A Whaling

It was almost 7 pm by the time we got back to the dock with more scenic views of the small fishing village.

On our way back to the rig, we stopped for supper at a really good Chinese buffet place called Cape Cod Super Buffet. By the time we got home was almost 9pm and time to call it a day.  A great day!

Tomorrow is our last full day here on Cape Cod.  Friday we will head out for Woonsocket, RI.

August 5, 2010

You can go home again…kind of…

We left for Logansport IN about 10 am, first stopping by McDonald’s for a chicken biscuit breakfast for Jan.

We made the 90 mile trip in about two hours and started driving around town. Our quest was to find the house where Jan lived in 1956 when she was 8. Her father was stationed at Bunker Hill AFB for about two years, after about a year there in Logansport, they moved to Peru, IN to be closer to the base.

Jan remembered her house was a block or so from the Eel River, and several blocks from Riverside Park, and its carousel. After 15 minutes or so we found her house, still at 75 18th St. The only real change besides the new siding was that when Jan lived there the front porch was screened in.

It still had the same barn-shaped garage in the backyard opening on the alley behind the house.

And across the street, what was just a vacant field when she lived there, is now a city park.

Next we headed about 3 blocks away to Riverside Park, where Jan, her sister Debbie, and their friends, would walk to ride the carousel there in the park.

And the carousel was still there too. But now it’s inside.

This carousel had a long and rich history. It was built around 1885 by Gustav Dentzel. Dentzel’s family had been building carousels in Germany since the early 1800’s. Gustav came to America with a carousel and set it up in Pennsylvania, PA in 1861, possibly the first carousel in the Western Hemisphere. And the Dentzel family still builds carousels today, with more than 30 carousels in places like Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, San Francisco Zoo, and Dollywood.

This carousel is one of the most complete Dentzel carousels in the world.

This ride still allows you to try and grab the brass ring from this arm. If you grab a ring, you get a free ride.

In 1919 the carousel was moved from Fort Wayne, IN and placed in Spencer Park in Logansport. Then in 1949 it was moved to Riverside Park and placed in this building, where it was when Jan was riding it in 1956.

In 1987 the carousel was declared a National Historical Landmark and was moved inside a beautiful new building in 1995, where it resides today.

Jan also used to ride a train around the park, and it still runs today on this same track. The locomotive and two cars are stored in the small green building in the right rear of this photo. When the train is running the buildings doubles as a ‘tunnel’.

We also found that Logansport has its own set of city mascots, and, of course, theirs is a carousel horse.

After a so-so lunch at Broadway Café in downtown Logansport, we headed back to Elkhart about 2 pm. We got back about 4, but stopped off at the new Martin’s Supermarket near the park. Very nice store.

Tomorrow we’ll do some more chores around the rig, and just enjoy the nice cool weather. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 80 and the low tomorrow night 57. Just great!

August 5, 2011

On Wisconsin . . .

We pulled out of our site at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds a little after 9, and then pulled into a large parking lot next door to get hitched up, and by 9:25 am, we were back on I-94 east heading to St. Paul, MN area.

After checking out the area, I finally decided to get us a reservation at St. Paul East RV Park. They had a 50 amp and water site, and it was the last one.

The trip was easy. the roads were mostly good, and we made good time, at least until we stopped for diesel in the community of Rogers, about 25 miles west of Minneapolis.

The area was very busy with stores and shopping malls, and we spent about 15 minutes just driving around, trying to get into a station. There was a TA in the area, but we were never able to get to it. We ended up at a Holiday Oil and got fueled up very quickly.

And then it took another 15 minutes or so to get back on the Interstate because the signs leading us there took us around thru neighborhoods, and then up hill and down dale. But finally we were back on I-94 heading through downtown Minneapolis.

My Silverleaf computer interface said we had driven 948.2 miles since we left Cody, WY, and used 98.9 gallons of diesel for an average of 9.6 miles per gallon.

See, driving 55 really works.

We pulled into the St. Paul East RV Park about 3:30 and got set up.

We were given a nice pull-thru site with 50 amp and water. Of course, it is kind of intimidating being parked next to this beautiful 45’ Marathon Coach

Of course, maybe not as intimidating as on our first RV trip in a rental Class C in Las Cruces, NM.

About 4:30 we headed out to have dinner at an Applebee’s right down the road. They’ve got some really good items on their new menu.

After leaving the restaurant we stopped off at a nearby Gander Mtn. and then it was back to the park.

As usual, I have no idea where we’ll be staying tomorrow night. We’re heading to the Wallace, MI and there are not a lot of RV parks in the area.

We’ll see how it goes.

August 5, 2013

The Circus is in Town . . .

We had hoped to leave Elkhart at 9am, but we did a little better, pulling out about 8:45. Our first stop was about 3 miles down I-90W at the BP Travel Plaza to top off our diesel tank. $345.00, 87 gallons of diesel, and 2 Starbuck’s Cinnamon Dolce Lattes later, we were back on the road by 9:40am. Of course, it was 8:40 Central Time where we were headed, Vandalia, IL, about 330 miles away, so we were actually a little ahead of schedule for a change.

The rest of the day was two toll roads, and four Interstates; I-90, I-80, I-57, and finally I-70. Once we got on I-57S Jan took over for about 130 miles. I think she’s driven more this year than in the past 5 years together.

Just north of Effingham, and about 50 miles from our destination, I took back over for the last section. We pulled into Timber Trails Campground in Mulberry Grove about 3:30 and went directly to our site. We’ve stayed here a number of times while we visited Jan’s sister, Debbie, and had talked to the campground early in the day today, so we just went straight to our site and parked.

After getting set up, we headed over to Debbie’s about 4:15, to meet up with everyone except Jason’s wife Laura, who was working. But we got to see all the rest, Debbie, her husband, Jim, son Jason, daughters Tana and Christina, and the kids, Gwen, Avery Jane, Ella, and Annisten. And of course, the dogs, Murphy, Nacho, and Phoenix.

Yes, it was a circus.

Debbie had put together a great meal of Beef Stroganoff and Green Beans from their garden, along with hot buttered rolls to round out the feast.

Tomorrow, we’re meeting everyone at Denny’s for breakfast at 9am. Oh boy! Another morning to get up early.

August 5, 2014

Dueling Breads . . .

I was up about 10am with a problem to work on. My kind of day.

So after coffee and cinnamon toast made from homemade bread, I was outside ready to go to work.

But, dang it‘s hot out here. It’s only a little after 10:30 and it’s already 87 here. I want my Polar Vortex back. I like the 70 degree days and the 50 degree nights. And because of the temps, I really need to fix my problem. When we went to supper last night, the A/C in the truck was dead. Nothing but hot air.

I had noticed the last couple of months that it seemed to take a little longer to cool down than usual. So I was hoping it just needed some Freon. But after some checking, I’m not sure. When you turn the A/C on, the compressor isn’t kicking in. I should hear a loud clunk and the center of the compressor pulley should rotate. That’s not happening. So it could be a problem with the electric clutch.

There are several reasons for the clutch not pulling in. The first one is no power. The second one is that the clutch is defective.

The No Power problem can have several causes: blown fuses, bad relay, or the low-pressure switch. So I checked the fuses, and swapped the relay out with an identical one on another circuit. No luck.

As far as the low-pressure switch, it opens and shuts the compressor off if the Freon level gets so low that the compressor can be damaged if it runs. But the gauge that comes with the Freon can shows pressure on the system, enough pressure to not be a problem.

So to double-check all this, I disconnected the power connector coming to the compressor clutch and found 13.6 volts. This eliminates all of the above problems.

And at this point I ran out of time. The next thing I was going to check would be to use my ohmmeter to check the resistance of the clutch coil. If the coil reads open then that’s the problem. And on most compressors you can replace the clutch without replacing the compressor. Much cheaper

But this will have to wait until tomorrow because I had to get ready so Jan and I could go pick up my Aunt Virginia. We’re going with her over to Huntsville to visit my Uncle Theo who’s in the Veteran’s Home there. Luckily we are going in her Lexus so we’ll be cool.

We spent about an hour with Theo before we said our goodbye’s and headed out.  Our next stop was Rosie’s Mexican Cantina, our favorite local Mexican place. We always try to eat here on every visit.

After a great meal and a lot of catching-up conversation, we came back to Athens to my Aunt Virginia’s house for a while so I could check out her computer for any problems. And the only real problem is that she’s still running Windows XP. But it works for her and there’s no need for her to change now.

As we were leaving Virginia’s, she gave us a loaf of her delicious homemade Banana Nut bread.

YUMM!

August 5, 2015

The Rest of The Story . . .

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that Landon had lost two front teeth.

At the time, we assumed he had lost them naturally, though Jan thought he was kind of young to start losing his baby teeth. Turns out she was right.

The real story is that Landon and Kitty were roughhousing and Landon managed to smash his mouth into Kitty’s hard head. Kitty, being their 125# Black Lab, his head won and Landon knocked out his two teeth.

Amid all the bleeding and crying, there was some thought to saving the teeth to see if they could be replanted by the dentist. But Kitty took care of that problem.

Kitty regards anything on the floor as hers, so when one of the teeth fell on the floor, Kitty immediately ate it. Landon grabbed the other one to save it, but it being kind of slippery, he dropped the tooth, and Kitty immediately gobbled that one down too.

No one seemed to want to search through Kitty’s poop over the next few days to try and find the two errant incisors, and I’m not sure Landon would want them back anyway.

Once he got over the shock, Landon’s first worry was the Tooth Fairy, i.e. No teeth, no Fairy. But thinking quickly, his Grammie Sonja said they would just write the Tooth Fairy a note explaining the situation and leave that under Landon’s pillow.

And it apparently worked.

Awww! Our little hillbilly.

Sonja asked if he wanted to stay home from school, but Landon insisted he wanted to go. When he got to school, it was like he was a Rock Star. All the girls were fawning over him, and the guys all wanted to look in his mouth.

* * * * *

About 1:30 pm Jan and I headed over to my Aunt Virginia’s house to take her to lunch. It was our first time to see her since her husband, my Uncle Theo, died May 13, 2015.

Unfortunately that was the time period when we were stuck in Prescott, AZ waiting on rig repairs after our blowout on May 3rd coming back from Las Vegas.

Here’s my blog post from that day.

R.I.P. To A Real American Hero

After talking for a while, we drove to a nearby small restaurant called Suzanne’s. Kind of like a tea room, they had really great sandwiches, and desserts as it turns out.

After a good lunch, we drove over to the nearby cemetery to visit my Uncle’s grave. Sure wish I could have been here for the funeral.

Going back to Virginia’s, Jan and I spent a couple of hours going over some of the pharmacy bills from my Uncle’s last few months. There seemed to be overcharges, double charges, and applying copays to the wrong area. I hope we were able to straighten things out enough so she knows what questions to ask now.

Coming home we spent an hour or so visiting with my Uncle Ed and Aunt Janis who own the Northgate RV Travel Park where we’re staying. Had a really good time catching up.

Tomorrow’s a long day, a 375-mile run down to Gulf Shores, AL where we’ll spend a week at the Gulf Shores State Park, before heading back to Houston next Friday. Really looking forward to it.

August 5, 2016

Flying Squirrels and Embalming Fluid . . .

I was looking over our rig’s Silverleaf computer interface readings from our trip from the Colorado River TT to the Gulf State Park here in Gulf Shores.

Turns out we used 72.6 gallons of diesel, out of 150 gallons, and we traveled 610.9 miles, giving us an average of a little over 8.4 mpg. Not bad at all.

Especially since due to the fact that I bumped my normal 55mph up to 61- 62 due to not wanting to slow down surrounding traffic too much. The traffic is so heavy on I-10 east of Houston that even on a 4 lane traffic builds up behind us. I wouldn’t mind pulling off occasionally, but then it’s almost impossible to get back on the road – due to all the traffic. So I try to pick it up a bit.

Of course, we actually used more diesel than that, since we ran the generator for the A/C’s the entire way.

A couple of things I forgot to mention yesterday.

In talking with Jeff, our Lambert’s waiter, it turns out I knew his grandparents. They owned the Kastrup’s Motel just a mile or so south of Lambert’s. It’s no longer there, but they also had a restaurant there called the Koffee Kup. They had great food, and we always stopped there for Sunday dinner coming back from church in Foley.

Years later, when my mother, Jan and I came down from Birmingham one time, we stayed there.

And later, driving around Foley, we drove past my grandmother’s house on Rose Ave. Although it looks small, it actually had 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.

She lived here from around 1957 to 1960 until she had a stroke while up on a ladder painting her ceiling. We ended up moving up there from our house on the Bon Secour River to take care of her. Unfortunately after about another year, her health deteriorated to the point she had to be put in a nursing home.

But two unusual things stand out for me while we lived there. One was that I had a pet flying squirrel who live on that screened-in front porch. His name was . . . wait for it . . . Rocky!

I got him as a baby, and whenever he would see me, he would come flying over and land on my shoulder, and I would feed him pecans and peanuts.

The other unusual thing was that on the other side of the alley behind the house was a home where a girl my age (12) lived. And we used to pal around a lot. But the unusual part was that her home was a funeral home. And when we went in and out the back door, we walked right through the embalming room . . . with the bodies laid out on the tables. But since she wasn’t grossed out by them, neither was I.

No way a 12-year-old boy would let himself be grossed out by something that didn’t bother a GIRL.

And after a while, I didn’t pay any attention to them anymore.

Or at least until one day, I walked by a table that held someone I knew.

Around 6pm it started raining pretty heavily and went for almost half an hour, all the while the sun was still shining brightly. Strange.

For dinner tonight, Jan heated up our Lambert’s leftovers, and like I said in yesterday’s blog we had more food tonight than we ate last night. A very good meal. Again.

August 5, 2017

Broke Down in Covington . . .

We didn’t make it to Poche’s Fish N Camp in Breaux Bridge tonight as scheduled.

Instead we’re Academydocking in the Covington, LA Academy parking lot just off I-12.

The hydraulic fan motor has started leaking again. I thought I had it fixed this morning when we left Meridian, and it was – for about a hundred miles. This time it’s not loose, but it’s still leaking around the base of the motor.

I’m going to wait until tomorrow morning when I don’t have hot hydraulic fluid dripping in my face to look at it again.

Hopefully, I can fix it enough to get us home. As it is right now, it pumps hydraulic fluid out about as fast as I can pour it in.

Wish me luck.

August 5, 2018

Rhine vs. Danube . . .

Our last morning together until next Saturday, Jan and I spent most of it talking about our European River Cruise trip.

One thing I wanted to check out was which river, the Rhine or the Danube. They have cruises on both rivers, and both end in Amsterdam. A little Googling told me that they’re both about equal in beautiful castles and neat old cities, but the consensus seems to be that, overall, the Danube is more scenic along the way due to the heavy industrialization along the Rhine. So that’s settled, I guess.

Maybe that’s why they wrote a waltz about the Danube and not the Rhine. I guess The Blue Rhine Waltz just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

I did get this from one of the cruise emails we got. Words to live by, I think.

10 Things Not to Do on a Cruise Ship Balcony

A couple of them are kind of obvious but might be highly entertaining for the neighbors. As long as you don’t fall overboard.

For some reason, Fry’s Electronics does not like my PayPal Debit Card. It works everywhere else, but this is the 2nd visit to Fry’s that it’s been declined. On my side it just says ‘DECLINED’, but on the cashier’s side it says “Incorrect PIN’. But I know the PIN is correct.

In fact when I pulled out the PayPal card and stuck in my Chase card (they both have the same PIN) it immediately went through without my having to reenter the PIN. It took the number from the just Declined PayPal entry.

The reason we stopped at Fry’s on the way to meet Brandi, et al. at King Food was that Jan decided to take our laptop with her so she wouldn’t have to go all week without getting online. But I couldn’t find the mouse that went with it, and Jan doesn’t like to use the Touchpad/Keys that are built in. Of course, I found the missing mouse as soon as I got back to the rig.

But before I even got to the credit card problem, I had a very difficult time finding a mouse to buy. Or at least one I wanted to buy.

Fry’s had two long shelves of mice . . . mouses?. . . meese, whatever. The first shelf I found was the gaming mice. Did you know you can pay $260 for a mouse? And it has more buttons, dials, lights, and sliders than you can imagine. Even the cheapest ‘gaming’ mouse started at $49.95.

And then for some reason, they hid the regular mouse shelf three rows over from the gaming ones. So now I’m looking at a 25ft row of mice, with every possible color and decoration, and ones with graphics for pretty much every TV show and Internet meme you can imagine.

Want a pink Hello Kitty mouse? They’ve got it. How about a Simpson’s mouse? That too. Captain America? Got it, etc. But the big problem was that they were all wireless’.

Now I hate wireless mice and keyboards with a passion. I have been burned so many times over the years. And it’s not just dead batteries at the most inopportune time. That would be too easy.

No, it’s things like a worker’s keyboard and mouse randomly locking up or putting garbage on the screen multiple times during the day. Usually while they’re trying to finish up the Annual Report late on a Friday afternoon. And this was even after swapping out the keyboard, the mouse, and Bluetooth dongle.

I even temporarily swapped out the computer. All with no luck.

Finally, I discovered that the cheap microwave on the other side of the wall in the break room was putting out so much RF interference that it was blanking out nearby Bluetooth signals. Even people a couple of cubicles over realized that the occasional weird garbage on the screen and momentarily freezing of their cursor they were seeing was from the same cause.

So obviously I wanted a wired mouse. But it took me almost 15 minutes to find one. Out of the 25ft row, and probably at least 100 different mice, they had two wired versions, a Logitech for $9.95 and a Microsoft version for $14.95. And since Bill Gates doesn’t need any more of my money, I grabbed the Logitech one.

After our usual great meal at King Food, I sent my Sweetie on her way with Brandi and her family, and then I’ll pick her up on Friday afternoon.

Love you, Sweetie.

August 5, 2019

Oil Leak Redux . . .

Spend most of the day at work designing new labels and printing up a lot of other labels using Avery’s free Design&Print program. We have a number of products we buy in bulk and then bottle ourselves, or buy bottled, but unlabeled.

Here’s a sample

When I got home this evening I realized I had left my phone at work. My client had stopped me on the way out the door and asked me to take a look at something, and apparently, I laid it down.

So, though we had planned to eat at home, this seemed like a good excuse to go back up to Clear Lake to retrieve it, and of course, stop off at Yummy Yummy Chinese Buffet along the way for dinner.

I need to get back on my continuing rig oil filter leak saga, so tomorrow I’m going to put in a call to Cummins to get some more info.

Back this past March, I pulled the old oil filter off the engine and did my best to clean the area where the rubber gasket seats. I was able to clean the mount except for what looked like some discoloration on the bottom of the seat. I’m calling it ‘discoloration’ but I could feel it.

However, I was afraid to do any real scrapping on it since I wasn’t sure what the flange was made of, aluminum or steel.

So I put the new filter on after soaking the gasket in oil as recommended. And a 15-minute high-idle test showed no leaks.

Then the next day Jan and I took the rig out for a test drive. We did a little over 50 miles, at both Interstate speeds and side roads. Getting back home and taking a look, I found no oil spray on the rear of the rig, and none around the filter underneath the rig.

So we were good to go, right?

The next Friday morning we headed up to Kingsland for our family get-together at Chris’. Along the way we made a stop at the Buc-ee’s up in Katy, about 70 miles away.

And found oil on the truck and on the rear of the coach.

WTH!

So either the filter suddenly started leaking between 50 miles and 70 miles, OR the extra load from towing the truck, (the only real difference from our test drive) caused the filter to leak.

Which is the one I’m going to talk about with the Cummins’ Tech.

And while I’ve got him on the line I also want to talk about flushing the green coolant out of the engine and replacing it with red. It’s getting harder and harder to find the green now, so I want to know the flush procedure.

You’re not supposed to mix them, but I’m not sure how much ‘flushing’ I actually have to do. Can I just drain the green and replace it with red, or do I need to flush it out with water first, or what?

I guess I’ll see tomorrow.

August 5, 2021

A Blue Streak . . .

I was out about 10:45 this morning under very overcast skies, hoping the rain would hold off until I finished changing out the Ignition Coils in the Jeep. But enjoying the low 80’s temps in the meantime.

I was hoping this would be all the tools I would need, and it was,

except for a 10mm box wrench that I would need to remove the radiator reservoir tank from the firewall.

I did buy the top-of-the-line Blue Streak coils which run about $33 each. The cheap ones are about $18. Hopefully I’ll never have to do this again.

Thought I would start with the easy ones first, the ones on the driver’s side. Which starting here,

took me only 10 minutes to get here.

The changeout of the coils is actually pretty quick and easy. Just remove the 10mm nut, unplug the electrical connector, and then just pull the coil up and out. And then just reverse the process.

So quick and easy, in fact, that those 3 coils only took me 10 minutes start to finish.

Now the other 3 were a different story.

Even with the air cleaner hose and the radiator reservoir out of the way, only 1 coil is really visible.

And due to the access problems, the last 3 took me an hour, with most of that time coming from trying to get the electrical connectors unplugged.

You have to press down on the little plastic tab on the top of the coil, and then pull and wiggle the connector until it comes off. Which sounds simple, and is, if you have enough room. But in a tight area, it can be very difficult to press down, wiggle, and pull.

But finally, an hour and 10 minutes later, I was done.

And cranking up, it was fine. But I couldn’t really depend on this, since unlike the last igniter problem back in July, this time the problem doesn’t start until the engine warms up.

So it would have to wait until our trip up to the Almeda area to once again have lunch at our new favorite seafood place, The Catch. And it was Two’fer.

The Jeep ran fine the whole trip up there and back, and our lunch was as delicious as before.

Blackened Catfish, Shrimp, and Green Beans, with Rice and Hushpuppies. And today’s free margarita flavor was Watermelon-Strawberry.

Really good, and worth the trip.

Coming home we made a quick WalMart stop, and then getting back to the Santa Fe area, we made a detour over to the Tractor Supply Store on FM1764.

And yes, they had the Apple-Flavored Ivermectin in stock. And they had plenty of it for only $6.49 a tube. And now I’m looking at a new business opportunity.

A couple of weeks ago Amazon had the Ivermectin for $11.31 a tube. Then a few days later it was listed as ‘Currently Unavailable’. But today it’s back in stock.

At $19.99 a tube!

So let’s see. Buy it for $6.49 at Tractor Supply and then resell it on Amazon for $18.99.

Sounds like a plan to me.

August 5, 2022

It‘s Here . . .

Jan’s new Chromebook came in today and I spent the evening getting it all set up for her to take with her on Sunday when she goes up to Brandi’s for a week of Landon-sitting.

Still got a few more things to finish up tomorrow.

August 5, 2023

Stomp’s And More . . .

Picking up our new glasses at Sam’s Optical only took a few minutes at noon.

Jan’s fit perfectly, but since she’s gone back to transitionless bifocals, they’ll take a little getting used to. But she’s really happy to get rid of her reading glasses now.

Mine were fine too, except for needing the earpieces tightened down a little.

Then we were on over to the Stomp’s Burger Joint nearby on Bay Area Blvd. Though we’ve never eaten at this location, we’ve lost count of the times we’ve eaten at their original location over on SH146.

And though the original location is pretty rustic, outside,

and inside,

this location had a more upscale industrial look.

But the food is just as delicious as always.

And, something new for us here, we started with a salad.

And something else that was new was that when we asked for Bleu Cheese dressing, we were offered a choice of dressing or crumbles. Or both.

We both got both.

YUMM!

But for our burgers we were back to our usuals.

Jan got the Outlaw Burger, with an 8 oz, hand-formed 100% Angus Beef patty, with a cheddar/jack blend, picante sauce, diced & grilled jalapeños, diced & grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.

While I got their Hog Wild, which has Bacon ground in with the Beef.

Early on when we first started eating here years ago, and before I realized that these were 8 oz. patties, I made the mistake of ordering the double meat version.
BIG mistake. Took home more than I was able to eat.

Finally, stuffed to the gills, we headed back down to our area, making an HEB before getting home about 2:30.

And then checking my Amazon app, I found my orders were only 7 stops away. Which would normally mean 15-20 minutes until they showed up. But it was more than two hours before they dropped off our orders.

Watching the little Amazon icon on the map it sat in one spot for almost an hour before it finally moved. I wondered to Jan if the driver had stopped for a quickie. Or maybe lunch.

Or maybe lunch and a quickie.

But Jan nailed it when she said, “Maybe it’s one of those new electric vans and they’re stopping to recharge.”

And even then it would move and then stop for a while. Move and then stop for a while,

And when our orders finally showed up, it was one of the electric vehicles.

This doesn’t bode well.

While we were eating at Stomp’s I got an email from Capital One about a charge on my VISA card. My Capital One VISA is the only true Credit card I have. I prefer to keep everything on a pretty much cash basis by using debit cards. And I only have one credit card for things like renting a car, which more and more needs a credit card rather than a debit card.

But I do like to put a charge on it once a month just to keep it active, though I pay it off every month. And I used it this past Thursday for our lunch at Twin Peaks. And as I always do at places we visit regularly, and we know the server, I tip well. And in this case, it was a $12 tip on a $36 tab. So a 33% tip.

Well, it seems that Capital One questioned a tip of this size, but all I had to do was not answer the email and they would let it go through. Though maybe if they’d met Victoria they wouldn’t have questioned the size of the tip. Or maybe I should have just sent them a photo.