Our RV Adventures

Jan’s rapidly getting back to normal (no comments). She was very hoarse yesterday due to the anesthesia and intubation (the tube down her throat that supplies oxygen during the operation). She also couldn’t talk much above a loud whisper, but that’s better today too.

Lunch today was originally supposed to be at Texas Huddle since they reopened last week with our long-time server Juana. She was working the 10am-2pm shift, and we had planned to get there about 1pm. But she texted us a little after noon saying that it was slow so she got sent home early.

So our fallback was Los Rameriz Mexican. And it was just as delicious as always. Jan got her usual Pechuga Rellena and I got my usual Beef Fajita Taco Salad, so our waiter just had to confirm that we wanted our ‘usuals’.

Finishing up we made our ‘usual’ Sunday shopping stop at HEB. Don’t know if everyone was watching the Olympics or what, but they weren’t as busy as they normally are.

Although it doesn’t hurt or itch anymore, my left hand is still fairly swollen from my most recent yellowjacket sting.

But on the plus side, it does erase a lot of wrinkles.

One thing I did as soon as I got stung was to take my wedding ring off. Glad I did, since I couldn’t get it back on today.

Coming up this week, we’ll be heading up to Conroe for our monthly get-together with Debi and Ed Hurlburt, this time at Vernon’s Kuntry Katfish, a long-time favorite of ours.

When we were discussing eating here, I went online to be sure they had reopened after they were flooded out back the first part of June.

And it seems this is not the first time they’ve been flooded out.

Thought For The Day:

If everywhere you go there’s a problem, guess what?

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2015 – Partying In Costa Rica

2016 – Throw’d Rolls

2022 – A New Chromebook

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™

August 4, 2010

Rainy Day Monda…eh…Tues…eh, Wednesday, too…

Well, this morning got off to an exciting start!

Jan got up about 8, but I was awakened about 9:30 by heavy rain, high winds, thunder, and a very loud roaring sound. Coming out of a sound sleep, my first thought was “tornado”.

Turns out it wasn’t a tornado, but merely the high winds making the awnings rumble like a base drum. I put on some shorts and ran out in the rain to put the awnings up so they wouldn’t be damaged. I saw that the wind had also sent the satellite dish on a nosedive.

For the next couple of hours, we rode out a lot of rain and lightning. But by 11:30 it had slacked off enough for us to head out for lunch.

We went to Bob Evans for lunch. Jan had a soup and sandwich platter, and I had breakfast. Bob Evans is a chain that we always really enjoyed.

Coming home, we dropped some clothes off at the Goodwill store and got back to the rig just in time for the sun to come out. At least for a while.

I put out the awnings and set the satellite dish back up. Just in time for it to start sprinkling again. Oh well.

On a completely different rant, I finally got a chance to find out about the toll roads around here, and in the Northeast, in general.

In Texas, we have toll roads, but they’re built as toll roads and are not Interstates. But up here some Interstates ARE toll roads. For example, I-70 / I-80 which runs across upper Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois is a toll road.

So I know that the Interstate system was built using Federal funds from US taxpayers, so why are some states now charging us to drive on roads we’ve already paid for? But it turns out to be fairly simple, and not the ripoff I had thought. Or at least, less of a ripoff.

The thing is, the toll roads were here first. They were already in existence when they started building the Interstate System in the late 50’s. So if they built the new Interstates alongside the toll roads, then no one would use the toll roads and the bondholders would go broke. If they used the Interstate Highway funds to buy out the toll roads to make them free, then that left less money to build the rest of the Interstate System. So they just decided to leave things as they were.

So now, about 2900 of the 46,000+ miles in the Interstate are toll roads. For more info, check Toll Road History.

After more rain during the afternoon, about 6 we drove over to the Lakeshore Grill on Simonton Lake. They have good food and a great view of the lake.

We got back to the rig a little after 7, just in time for more rain. But tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny. We’ll see.

Tomorrow we’re going to take a day trip down to Logansport, IN, about 90 miles away. Jan lived there when she was about 8 years old, and she wants to check the place out.

August 4, 2011

Far to go to Fargo . . .

Because we had almost 300 miles to go this morning, and also because we would lose an hour crossing into the Central Time Zone, we got an earlier than usual start at 8 am (9 CDT).

We were parked in a long pull-thru site, so I hooked up the toad last night and then all we had to do was unhook the power, raise the levelers, and go.

It was cool enough and cloudy enough on the trip that we didn’t have to start the generator for the A/C’s until about 45 minutes before we got to Fargo.

The only RV park we could find in the area was at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds, but they don’t take reservations, so about 30 minutes out I called and was told they probably would have room.

We pulled into the fairgrounds a little before 3 and spent about 15 minutes getting parked and set up.

This is one of those weird parks where the RV’s park butt to butt, but even then it’s hard to tell which side to get your utilities from. We decided to only hook up power, but at least it was 50 amp.

We didn’t even try to hook up the water and sewer, because with the water faucet at the very front of the site, and the sewer connection at the very back, I just didn’t have enough hose. And on top of that, I had to pull the power cord under the rig to reach the nearest electrical box anyway.

But it’s cheap at $20 a night and it’s level, so no harm, no foul.

About 4:30 we headed out to have dinner at Famous Dave’s BBQ. We haven’t eaten there since Las Vegas in May, so we were really ready for our Famous Dave’s fix. And it was so good that for the first time, we had no leftovers.

But we did get a Bread Pudding to split later at home.  YUMMM!

Tomorrow we’re heading out for the Minneapolis – St. Paul area. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find a site at the Mapleton Moose Lodge. I’ll call tomorrow morning to find out.

August 4, 2014

Back with Family . . .

After a nice quiet night at the Singing Hills RV Park near Mammoth Cave, KY, we headed out a little before 10 on our way to Athens, AL about 190 miles away. On our way out of the park, we stopped to tell the owner how much we liked this hidden gem of a park.

Getting back on I-65S we passed something that had given us a start as we turned the corner leaving the Interstate as we arrived yesterday. Not really something you expect to see turning a corner off the Interstate.

Turns out it was an advertisement for Dinosaur World right down the road. I’ll bet Landon would really love this place.

Heck, I’d really love it!

Heading south, we passed along the east side of Bowling Green before making a pit stop about an hour later at the Tennessee border.

The most direct route on I-65S takes you through downtown Nashville and usually isn’t a problem but I checked my new favorite app, Sigalert to be sure.

Available for both Android and iPhone, Sigalert lets you see traffic conditions in any city big enough to have a traffic camera system. I’ve had the separate one for Houston for several years, but Sigalert allows you to have one app and just select what city you want to look at.

The little camera icons let you look at the live traffic camera in that location. They also have a web-based version at www.Sigalert.com. Check it out.

So seeing all green in Nashville, we took the shortest route through downtown. The only disconcerting problem was the fact that they seemed to have renumbered their exits since the last time we were through here. My Delorme Street Atlas was telling me to take exit 83AB to stay on I-65, but the signs were calling it exit 50A. Same exit, just a different number now.

After a really smooth day, we pulled into Northgate RV Park here in Athens, AL about 1:30, greeted my nephew Wes, and then got parked and set up. It’s nice to have an RV park in the family.

Jan has been suffering from sinus/allergy problems the last couple of days, so she slept most of the trip today, and then took a nap later in the afternoon. By 5 or so she was feeling better so we headed for dinner at one of our favorite local places, Catfish Cabin.

We come here at least once whenever we’re in town and it’s always great. Jan got the Cabin Dinner with a whole fried catfish, 3 fried shrimp, and 3 fried oysters. I got my usual Combination Platter that looked like this.

And besides the great seafood, they make their own coleslaw, hushpuppies, tartar sauce, and cocktail sauce from scratch. Really good, especially the hushpuppies.

And for extra service, when we asked for a small take-home container for the 4 hushpuppies we had left, our waitress Michele brought us a larger take-home container and another dozen hushpuppies to go with it. Now that’s Southern hospitality!

Coming back to the park we stopped off at my Aunt and Uncle’s house to say ‘HI’, but I’ll save all of that for tomorrow.

August 4, 2015

All He Wants For . . .

I spent some time this morning looking at my water heater problem some more. We have an Attwood 10-gallon LP/Electric model that has never given us any problems, except for a leaky T&P valve, in the 8 years we owned the coach. I flush it out every winter and it just works.

We’ve used it on LP maybe a dozen times since we bought the rig, usually one night a at time when we’re boondocking, which we don’t do very often. But because of the bad power at our last park, we used it for almost two weeks straight, again with no problems. But when we tried to switch back to electric when we got here on Sunday, zip, zero, nada hot water. So we’re back on LP while I track down the problem.

One thing we noticed is that when the water heater is running on LP, the water is MUCH hotter than when it’s on electric. So the possibility I’m looking at is that maybe the extremely hot water popped the ECO (Energy Cut Off) on the electric side. The ECO is essentially an Over Temp switch that opens like a circuit breaker when the water gets too hot.

It is resettable, but it’s located on the back side of the water heater. To get to it, I’ll have to open up the panel underneath the wardrobe in the bathroom. That’s also where the AC power comes in so I can check that too.

* * * * *

A little after 2pm Jan and I drove over to Huntsville for lunch at Rosie’s Cantina, our favorite area Mexican place. It’s just about as good as any place in Texas, and well worth a stop.

Jan got the Chile Relleno, which to her delight, was stuffed with ground beef, rather than the normal cheese.

Said it was one of the best she’s had.

I went with the Mexican Flag Enchiladas, which were also really good.

It was made up of a Beef Enchilada covered in Ranchero Sauce, a Chicken Enchilada covered in Tomatillo Sauce, and a Cheese Enchilada topped with Sour Cream. Very, very tasty.

If you’re in the Huntsville, AL area, Rosie’s is well worth your taste buds to stop.

* * * * *

Brandi and Lowell are in Costa Rica this week. Brandi’s BFF, Shawna, and her husband Jason, wanted to renew their wedding vows on their 20th anniversary. So she rented a big house in Costa Rica for the week, and flew a large group of family and friends down there to help celebrate.

These are views from the house.

And apparently the place comes with built-in pets.

Landon stayed at home with Lowell’s parents and his Aunt Sherry.

Sonja, Landon’s grandmother, texted me yesterday saying that she and Landon were playing Angry Birds on his iPad, and he told her he didn’t want to play with her anymore because she wasn’t as good at it as his PaPa with the truck house. (That[‘s his name for our RV.)

That’s my boy!

Then this evening we got this photo.

Looks like he lost his first two teeth.

I guess we now know what Landon wants for Christmas.

August 4, 2016

I Think I Just Sold My First Born Child . . .

Yesterday’s light rains became all-night and all-morning thunderboomers, enough to occasionally shake the entire coach.

And it looks like there’s more on the way tomorrow. In fact, The Weather Channel says we’re looking at Scattered Thunderstorms for the rest of our time here.

But it did keep it cooler

About 2:30 we headed into Foley to have ‘lupper’ at one of our all-time favorites, Lambert’s Throw’d Rolls. We’ve eaten here for years, even before we started RV’ing in 2008, and it’s always worth the wait. And there’s always a wait.

Sometimes it’s only 10 minutes, while today was about 30. But we have waited as long as two hours when we were here with the whole family. There are not many places we’d wait this long, Lulu’s here in Gulf Shores, Salt Lick BBQ, near Austin, and maybe a couple of others.

While we were waiting, I checked my Galaxy Tab 4 for a Wi-Fi signal and found an open signal at the Ford dealership right next door. And like many open signals from businesses, there’s a disclaimer agreement you have to acknowledge before they will let you online. But I’ve never seen one like this.

It’s a page and a half of dense legalese, pretty much unreadable. But of course, I accepted it and went online. But I’m not sure if we still have our firstborn son.  Or maybe I don’t have a soul anymore.

Getting seated, Jeff, our waiter showed up, and before he could ask what we wanted to drink, I told him, “Two unsweet iced teas”. He blinked a couple of times and said, “This is not how this works. I ask you what you want to drink, and THEN you tell me, not the other way around.”

Jan and I both laughed, and Jan said, “OK, you start.”

“Hi, welcome to Lambert’s. My name is Jeff, and I’ll be your waiter today. What can I get you to drink?” And after I told him again. he smiled and said, “See how much better that works.”

Jan always gets the Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes,

while this time I went with the BBQ Pork Steak with Turnip Greens, White Beans and Ham, and Green Beans.

And of course the PassArounds, like Fried Okra,

Fried Potatoes and Onions, Black-eyed Peas, and 3 or 4 more choices. If you don’t know about PassArounds, servers walk around with big bowls full of food and ladle out as much as you want. This, all in addition to the sides that come with your meal. As usual, everything was really delicious.

And because of the PassArounds, we ended up bringing home more leftovers than we ate to start with.

And it’s a great deal too. My big pork steak with 3 sides was only $13. And Jan’s All White Meat Chicken with two big pieces and two sides was only $14. Nice. Especially since we’ll get a whole ‘nuther meal out of it.

And of course, there are the rolls. And yes, they do throw them.

The size of softballs, they come arcing across the dining room, 20 or 30 feet sometimes. And if you miss, another one is right behind it. But you’ll probably want to drop it quick, because they’re always hot out of the oven.

There is a place north of Houston called the Potatoe Patch that advertises ‘throw’d’ rolls, but when we ate there this past January, we found that they were more like ‘tossed’. Usually only a couple of feet.

When I mentioned this in the blog, one of our readers, Joan, said she used to be the Insurance Underwriter for Lambert’s and that they had seen a fair share of lawsuits from their ‘throwed rolls’. It’s really hard to believe that someone could be injured by a soft, fluffy yeast roll.

A few years back, I think it was the Sikeston, MO Lambert’s location, I saw a roll come arcing overhead, right through the hands of the father, and hit a young boy in a highchair right in the face with a soft ‘plop’. The kid who also had his hands up trying to catch it, just laughed and picked up the roll from his tray and started eating it.

I think some people just want to sue.

August 4, 2017

I Tried To Tell Her . . .

We pulled out of the Northgate RV Travel Park here in Athens, AL about 10am this morning on our way to Meridian MS, about 240 miles away.

But our first stop was about 3 miles down US31S to the Marathon station to fill up for the trip home.

Coming up from Houston, we did 940 miles and used 110 gallons, giving us a little over 8.5 mpg. Very good considering all the hills starting south of Birmingham and continuing on up this way. Of course, this doesn’t count the generator usage.

The whole time we’ve been here, the Marathon diesel price has been $2.299/gallon, the same as all the other stations in the area. But then yesterday it suddenly jumped up to $2.399, with everyone else staying at $2.299.

Bummer.

But even at 10 cents more a gallon, it’s right on the way to I-65, has separate diesel pumps off to the side for easy in and out, and plenty of room to hook up the toad when we’re done, so it’s hard to resist.

These are the old mechanical kind of pumps, but they look in good shape, having just been inspected this past May. But I noticed as the little wheels were flying around that something didn’t add up. It looked like it was undercharging me, but the pump was so fast that the totals were kind of a blur.

And when I got finished, here’s what I had.

I had gone inside before I pumped to give her my credit card and have her turn the pump on. And when I went back inside I told her it didn’t seem like it was charging me the correct amount. But she said it was all done by computer and had to be correct. I again told her that it seemed to be undercharging me. A little snippy this time, she said, “Oh no. It’s correct”. So I dropped it.

And the amount she charged me, $305.87, matched what I had on the pump so I didn’t go any further with it.

But later this evening when we got settled in here at the park in Meridian, I took another look at the receipt, and I was right.

According to the receipt I paid $305.87 for 133.045 gallons at $2.299 a gallon, NOT $305.87 for 129.5 gallons at  $2.399 a gallon like the pump said.

I figure that with these pumps being mechanical, someone adjusted the price at the pump, but not in the computer. So actually I got a little over 3.5 gallons free.

Nice.

And I did try to tell her.

It’s been a long day, what with 25 miles of bumper-to-bumper and 2 miles an hour construction on I-20/59 in MS, so I’ll finish up tomorrow.

August 4, 2018

An Oldie, But A Goodie . . .

and No, not me.

A nice, quiet morning with my Sweetie, my first one in a while. And tomorrow will be our last one for a week. Brandi, Lowell,  and Landon are coming back down tomorrow to pick up Jan for another week of Landon-sitting. So it’ll be just Karma and me again.

This was Jan’s first time to try the Café Du Monde coffee. Well, at least since New Orleans. I combined it by using two scoops of our Crème Brûlée flavor to one scoop of the Café Du Monde. This did work to cut some of the ‘bite’ from the Du Monde. But it lost some of the great flavor. So tomorrow I’ll try 1-1/2 scoops and 1-1/2 scoops and see how that works.

We spent some more time talking about our European River Cruise plans. We’ve got some excellent advice from several of our readers that’s helped a lot. And my Sweetie came up with a great idea.

Right now the cruise we’re looking at runs from Budapest, Hungary to Amsterdam, The Netherlands along the Danube River. It covers 15 days, 4 countries, and includes 12 guided tours.

Jan suggested we then take the train from Amsterdam to Paris rather than fly. It’s only about a 4-hour trip, but we could see more of the countryside. Then after three or four days in Paris, seeing Versailles, and as much of the Louvre as we can see in a day or so, we take the Chunnel train to London, again about a 4-hour trip, and spend our last 4 days or so there before flying home. So we’re probably looking at about 3+ weeks in total.

I doubt seriously we’ll make another trip over there, so we at least want to hit some of the highlights.

Later in the morning, I put in a call to our storage room place to see about getting another 5’ x 5’ unit, hopefully close to our other one, but no one ever answered the phone. I’ll try again later.

We headed out about 1pm, first for breakfast/lunch at the Victory Lakes Denny’s once again. One of our favorites. Then it was on up I-45 to make a return at Lowe’s. Last week I bought a multi-conductor cable to connect up my new Digital Voltage/Amp Meter.

As I mentioned before, I’m going to hook up two of them on the output of our transfer switch so I can monitor the power coming into the coach. But what I had picked out just was not going to work. So back it went.

Our next stop was at the house to leave a set of keys for the buyer. I hid them out front and then called him to let him know where to find them. Guess he wants to get his contractor in again to start making some more detailed plans.

Then it was a stop at Wal-Mart for a few things, and also to make a return. A couple of weeks ago I bought a can of Killz spray paint to cover up an old water stain on the ceiling of the house. The leak had been repaired long ago but I wanted to cover up the stain. But the guy bought the house before I could take care of it. So I wanted to return the can.

I didn’t take time to dig out the receipt since if you have your cellphone and you use the WalMart Savings Catcher system, every receipt is detailed in your online account. Or if you know what credit card you used to buy an item, they also have everything you’ve ever purchased from them in their system.

Nice, convenient . . . and kind of scary.

Tonight I was ordering some stuff from Amazon and I decided to scroll down through my Wish List to see if anything caught my eye from the past.

And something did. An oldie, but a goodie.

It was all 4 seasons of Airwolf on DVD – for only $19.42. One of our favorite shows back in the 80’s.

As one reviewer said, “2 great seasons, 1 good season, and 1 awful season.”  But well worth $20.

Just only watch the first 3 seasons.

August 4, 2019

Bringing My Baby Back Home . . .

First up, my Baby is back home. I got to Brandi’s about 1pm, with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon getting from the flight about 2, all with great tans.

And after getting our hugs, Jan and I  headed for home, with a couple of stops along the way. The first being the Saltgrass Steakhouse in Webster.

We had our usual great meal of Wedge Salads, Steaks, and Green Beans. Always delicious, especially the Wedge Salad, which is actually why we come here instead of Longhorn Steakhouse.

Then we made an HEB stop at the FM646 location so Jan could stock up for her lunches for the next couple of days, and after that, it was finally home.

Next a project update:

The Splendide dryer is still drying. Hopefully, the replacement heater blower motor will work for another 20 years like the first one did. Otherwise, I’ll have to kludge something like I did when the water pump went out and no replacements were available.

If you want to check out the long-running saga on the washer water pump kludge, you can find it here:

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/02/18/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/02/20/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/02/21/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/02/22/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/02/27/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/02/29/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/03/02/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/03/03/

The shower leak repair is still not leaking, so that’s good. One of our blog readers mentioned using a water leak detector and another reader wanted to know what kind it was.

Since I’ve only had two leaks in the rig in 12 years, I haven’t thought about it. So far my leak detector had been the squishy wet carpet at the bottom of the bed. But we’ll see how it goes.

I also completed the install and setup of my new OTA antenna for all the local channels. It’s amazing some of the old shows that can be found there. Shows like Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Jr., Jim Bowie, and many others, all shows from the 1950’s.

And also later shows like Coach, Wings, Kojak, and Ironsides.

Now I just need to go through the channel list on the TV guide and eliminate all the ones we don’t want, and that just clutter up the listings.

August 4, 2021

Just Replace ‘Em All . . .

This morning as I was going into work, about 10 minutes after I left the rig, my Jeep started idling rough, and then stumbled as I pulled away from a traffic light.

And it was quickly evident that this was a reoccurrence of the same problem that I had about a month ago. So after I limped into work, I checked the Error Codes using the Torque Lite app on my phone. And this time I was getting the same P0304 and P0305 I had last time, as well as a new one, P0303.

Now last time I swapped out #3 and #5 with no change,  and the problem turned out to be #4. Now, these engines are known for ‘ghosting’ between cylinders on the error codes, so it looks like it’s doing it again.

The cylinders are arranged like this,

So this time I’m just going to replace all 6 of the ignitor coils, including the one that was just replaced a month ago. That way I’ll have a matched set. So on the way home I stopped off at the O’Reilly’s here in Santa Fe to pick up the ones that I had called in and ordered this morning.

Tomorrow morning I’ll replace #’s 1, 3, 5 and see what that does. Hopefully, that will fix the immediate problem. If it does I’ll wait until this weekend to do #2, 4, 6 since those are harder to get to, which is the same reason I didn’t check them last time. A bunch of stuff like air cleaner, air intake, radiator fluid reservoir, etc., have to be removed to get to the even side coils.

August 4, 2022

Close Enough . . .

Well Jan is now the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go, or at least she will be as soon as it’s delivered tomorrow.

This is actually the same one that my client’s wife has, but minus the LTE phone connection. Instead it just has a WiFi 6 connection, which saved us anywhere from $130 to $220 extra, depending on whether you want an AT&T or a Verizon hookup. And of course, you’ve still got the monthly cellphone bill.

I’m not sure what the big price jump is all about, since the phone is only a single chip that costs about $20-25.

I also ordered a 64GB microSD card for some added memory in it.

And of course, she also needs a neat new bag to carry it in.

Originally we had ordered this one for her.

But after we ordered it, we found that this particular one is not available in a 14” width, so we canceled that order and we ended up with this one, kind of a take-off on Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms, but supposedly it’s Apricot Blossoms.

Close enough.

And it will all be here in time for Jan to take with her up to Brandi’s on Sunday. She’s going to be doing a week of Landon-sitting from this Sunday to next Friday. Then I’ll pick her up and we’ll come back down to Alvin for this month’s Alvin Opry performance.

Brandi has to be in the office next week, and Landon doesn’t start back to school until week after next, on the 17th.

We had planned to have lunch at Twin Peaks this afternoon, but when we texted Sylvia, our regular server, she said she wasn’t working today. So we told her we’d catch her next time.

So we were off to Yummy Yummy’s instead.

Always good.

Leaving Yummy’s we came back up FM1764 to Joe’s Country Store to look at some big Wind Spinners that they had on display out front. They weren’t here a couple of weeks ago when we came by, and we’ve been looking for one for a while.

Ended up with one like this 24” one, but with a different paint scheme.

I wasn’t able to get it installed this afternoon because we’ve been so long without rain I couldn’t get the pole stuck in the ground. So on to my next idea.

Then it was on up the Interstate to our local WalMart for a few things before heading for the day.

August 4, 2023

Tomorrow . . .

Tomorrow we’re heading up to the Sam’s Club to pick up our new glasses, and then it’s on over to Stomp’s Burger Joint for burgers. We’ve eaten at Stomp’s for a long time, but never at this Bay Area Blvd. location. But it’s always good.

Then on the way home, we’ll make an HEB stop so Jan can stock up for her upcoming Landon/Doggie-Sitting gig starting on Sunday.

Then Karma and I will be batching it until next Thursday when I’ll pick her up.

FWIW this white dot is the International Space Station as Jan and watched it pass over us here at the park.

In our case, it was at an elevation of 39°, traveling from NW to SE. The most obvious way to be sure you’re not looking at a plane going over, is that the ISS doesn’t flash or blink.

First off Jan wants to thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes. They are much appreciated.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s short blog, Jan did great with no problems during the operation. They did have a pathologist check the parathyroid to be sure the tumor growing on it was benign, and it was.

The reason they wanted to stay overnight was that they wanted to run some blood testing a few hours apart to confirm that her calcium level and parathyroid levels were dropping. So they ended up doing one blood draw last night and then another one this morning.

Both came back really good so she was good to go home.

But it seemed to take forever. There was so much paperwork to be gone over and signed. Then you wait and more paperwork appears. And some of it was done virtually with a nurse on the TV. But we were finally on our way about 2:45.

Coming home we made a Kroger’s stop for a few groceries and a prescription that the hospital had called in.

Then it was finally home a little after 5pm.

Great shot of the Galveston Seawall sometime in the 1940’s.

Looks like the biggest difference is that now parking along the Seawall is parallel.

He/She/It Got Me Again. But now I know where he/she/it lives.

Coming into the rig this afternoon, I got hit by another (the same one?) yellowjacket. The wasp was coming out the bottom of the arm of our large foldout awning.

This time I was stung on the heel of my left hand. Guess I wasn’t hit as badly as last time, since my hand didn’t swell as much and I didn’t get dizzy or sick to my stomach.

Die, Bug. Die.

Thought For The Day:

‘Anybody who truly believes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach obviously flunked geography.’

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2011 – Prairie Dogs and Dinosaurs

2016 – Gulf Shores Memories And The World’s Tiniest Hooters

2017 – Family Memories In Athens AL

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™

August 3, 2009

Provincetown Bound…

Today we drove the 60-odd miles out to the tip of Massachusetts’ boot called Provincetown.

Provincetown is a really beautiful area that reflects its long history.  It is where the Pilgrims originally landed in 1620 and signed the Mayflower Compact, though they later decided to settle across the bay at Plymouth.

A little-known fact is that the Pilgrims were originally headed for the Virginia area, but stopped in Provincetown and didn’t want to go any further because they had run out of an essential provision…beer!

The tower, called The Pilgrim Tower, is not a lighthouse as I first thought, but is a 252-foot tall brick monument erected in the early 1900’s to commemorate the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620.

2009 – Provincetown Bound

We also visited the nearby Cape Cod National Seashore area looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

and the Old Town Lifesaving Station that dates from the 1800’s.  From here the rescue boats were dispatched to save crewmen on boats that had run aground nearby.

The area is covered in Queen Anne’s Lace and Rosehips.

I did not realize that Queen Anne’s Lace is actually the Wild Carrot and has an edible root.  But it also looks very similar to the Water Hemlock, which is deadly.  So be careful if you’re snacking.

Rosehips are also edible and a good source of Vitamin C and were used by sailors to prevent scurvy.

Heading home, we again passed by our rental house from 1972.

The house was divided into 3 apartments. We lived on the ground floor, someone else lived in the basement, and the owner lived on the 2nd floor.

And here’s a picture of the Mcdonald’s where Jan worked while we were here.

It’s amazing these places are still here after almost 40 years.

We’re still looking for the efficiency apartment we lived in first.

Tomorrow we’re taking the ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard.

August 3, 2010

Rainy Day Monda…eh..Tuesday…

We woke up this morning to rain outside and a headache for Jan, so it was a good morning to lay around the rig.

About 12:30 we drove over to our favorite Chinese buffet here in Elkhart, North Garden Buffet. Another of our top 5 Chinese restaurants.  It was really good.

Leaving the restaurant we headed into downtown Elkhart to drop off some letters at the Post Office and then drove back to the rig

Later in the afternoon, we talked to Michelle from Phoenix Commercial Paint about doing some repainting on our coach. She’s going to come by tomorrow to take a close look at what we want done.

We got this group wedding picture from our son-in-law Lowell. From left to right: Me, Jan, Brandi, Lowell, Lowell’s mother, Sonja, and Lowell’s father, Lendel.

Thought I’d give you this repeat link from our stay in Celina, OH last year. They have a great 50’s style restaurant in nearby St. Mary’s that also houses a really good Elvis museum.

Check it out. Lost in the Fifties, again

August 3, 2011

Prairie Dogs and Dinosaurs . . .

After checking local reviews, we decided to try Country Kitchen, a national chain. They have locations in 22 states, but we’d never heard of them. But luckily for us, the reviews were right. I had a double cheeseburger and Jan had a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Both very good.

As far as the movies go, we didn’t have a lot of choices – Cowboys and Aliens, Captain America, and The Smurfs 3D.

But two out of three weren’t bad. We saw Cowboys and Aliens last night and decided to see Captain America tonight. And we did.

We both really enjoyed C & A. Good story, with a lot of twists, great effects, and anyway, any movie with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and big, nasty aliens, has got to be good.

This morning was a tourist day, so we started it off with breakfast at Country Kitchen. After all, if it was good for dinner . . .

And after a great breakfast, our first stop was Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND, about 35 miles west of here on I-94.

After getting our National Park Passports stamped at the Ranger Station, and checking out Teddy’s Maltese Cross cabin on the grounds, we headed out on the 36-mile scenic loop around the park.

And of course, the first thing that caught Jan’s eye were the prairie dogs. Lots and lots of prairie dogs.

Whole towns of prairie dogs, as a matter of fact.

It’s like they have their own personalities.

Here, the wife is giving her husband a smooch before he goes off to a hard day of finding seeds, leaves, grasses, and roots, and also dodging hawks. Life can be rough on the prairie.

These three neighbors had a spat over who went down the wrong burrow, and now they’re not speaking.

The guy on the right just discovered he’s on camera.

These two are getting ready to race. and the other is doing the “Ready, Set, GO!”

And we did see some really beautiful scenery. This park is part of the Dakota Badlands and it shows.

There are several herds of wild horses in the park, and we saw quite a few.

And toward the end of our drive, we also saw this female deer high up on a ridge grabbing a snack.

Leaving the park we headed back east on I-94 a few miles and stopped off at Painted Canyon, which is really just a continuation of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

It’s easy to see why they call it Painted Canyon.

Again heading back toward Dickinson, but still within the park boundaries, we saw one of the several large bison herds in the park.

Passing through Dickinson, and going about 10 miles out the other side, we turned south on the Enchanted Highway. Following up we saw some more of the really neat, very large, metal sculptures along the way.

This grasshopper was huge, but I kept looking for the giant seagulls.

A pheasant family, complete with chicks.

And Jan got this great shot of a field of sunflowers.

Again coming back into Dickinson we checked out the Dakota Dinosaur Museum.

Although not as extensive as the one we saw in Thermopolis, WY last week, they did have some interesting stuff like this cast of a T-Rex skull, found just 200 miles from here in Montana.

And this very nice display area.

This is a REAL Triceratops skull, weighing about 1500 pounds. The weight of these fossils is why most of the assembled skeletons you see in museums are fiberglass casts. They would weigh 10’s of tons and would be very difficult to suspend safely. It’s not really purple, it just looks that way under the light.

And Jan and I both really liked their large collection of beautiful rock specimens.

By the time we left the Dino Museum, it was almost 5 pm, so we decided to check out a place others had recommended, although they couldn’t remember the name of the place they were trying to recommend.

It turned out to be the Dakota Diner, and once again the recommendations were spot on. The place was jam-packed and really, really good.

After dinner, we came back to the rig for a while and then headed out to see Captain America at the movies.

The movie, subtitled “The First Avenger”, was very well-done, and held very close to the original comic book origins. I hated it when they take a known character and then just completely change the storyline.

This Captain America movie is the final one that will unite Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, along with other superheroes in next summer’s “The Avengers” movie.

Tomorrow . . . Fargo.  The city, not the movie.

August 3, 2012

An Unexpected Day Off . . .

First off, a price update on the Diesel Kleen fuel additive I mentioned a few days ago. One of our readers, Rod Ivers, alerted me to the fact that Wal-Mart carries it, and much cheaper. I paid $14 for it on Amazon, but Wal-Mart has it for $7.57.

Nice difference.

The rig skid went off pretty much on schedule, but we weren’t here to see it.

WE GOT THE DAY OFF!

Our Company Man decided to treat the rig ‘skid’ like a rig move, so no logging. Then about noon on Wednesday, he told us to not start logging again until 8am Thursday morning.

YAY!

Talk about a nice surprise. After we sat around for a while, stunned that we were both inside the rig at the same time, we got cleaned up and headed into San Antonio.

After some shopping, we ended up at one of our favorite places in San Antonio, the Magic Time Machine for dinner about 5:30. Our waitress this time, Tinkerbell, (in the past, we’ve had Wonder Woman, The Joker, and The Mad Hatter) asked if we’d ever eaten there before. I told her we’d been eating there since the early 80’s, probably before she was born. She said that then maybe her mother had waited on us since she worked there back then. Small world.

And talk about making us feel old.

We got home about 8pm to find the rig skid had gone off with no problems, but they were still trying to get all the surrounding structures back in place. I did get some shots of the two big cranes coming out through the gate. They just barely fit.

So, after a night of actually being able to sleep in the same bed together, we were back on the gate at 8am, or at least Jan was, since that’s her shift.

Oh well. Back to work.

The last few nights on the gate I’ve been checking out the thousands of free movies and TV shows on our Kindle Fire. Well, free if you have Amazon Prime, which to me is a must-have for any RV’er.

The free movies include everything from recent ones like “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, to classics with John Wayne, and some of my favorites like 1956’s “Forbidden Planet”, and 1960’s “The Time Machine”.

As far as TV shows, they’ve got everything from “The West Wing”, BBC’s “The Tudors”, “The X-Files”, “Mythbusters”, “Sons of Anarchy”, and “The Deadliest Catch”, to oldies like “Alf”, “The Greatest American Hero”, and “Fawlty Towers”. And in many cases, it’s every episode from every season.

Check it out.

That’s about it for the latest episode of Life on the Gate.

August 3, 2013

Last Day in Elkhart . . .

I’m not exactly sure what this family is trying to convey, and I’m not sure I want to know.

Since we travel tomorrow I had a few chores to take care of this morning. First up I got my Craftsman 150 PSI Air Compressor out of the back of the truck and spent about 15 minutes to top off a few of my rig and truck tires.

This compressor is great. It’s not very big, but has no problem airing up rig tires to 110+ without straining.

Next up I wanted to scrub the carpeted mat that’s under my pilot chair, so I took it out to the picnic table, sprayed it down with Awesome, and then let it soak for a while. Later I came back and scrubbed it with a big brush and then hosed it down. After it dried in the sun, it was spiffy clean and dry.

While we were coming down from the Soo Locks I noticed we were out of washer fluid in the rig so while we were at Wal-Mart the other day I picked up a gallon of the RainX washer fluid. I’ve had this in both vehicles for a couple of years now and it really makes the rain bead up and roll off. The gallon jug just topped off both the rig and the truck so now I’m good to go.

Later, about 1:15 Jan and I headed out to see RED 2 at the Elkhart theater. We had really enjoyed RED when it came out in 2010 and RED 2 didn’t disappoint either. With Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Anthony Hopkins, you can’t go wrong.

And unlike R.I.P.D. yesterday, RED 2 made you snicker, chuckle, and laugh out loud all the way through. In fact the R.I.P.D. people should have gotten Jon and Erich Hoeber, the writers of RED, to punch up their script. This was a FUNNY movie. John Malkovich can make you laugh just by how he moves his eyes.

Even better I read that they’ve started working on RED 3. We’re really looking forward to it.

Coming home, we made a quick stop at CVS before getting back to the park and meeting up with blog readers, Marvin and Joan McClain. They just got in last night and we had planned to have dinner with them at El Maguey.

We had met them previously at a rally, but this is the first time we’ve had a chance to really get to know them. And we had a great time talking with them and trading stories. In fact we didn’t leave until 2 1/2 hours later. Hopefully, we’ll get to meet up with them again soon.

Getting back to the park I checked in with Gita at the park office.

Tomorrow we’ve got a 330 mile trip down to Vandalia, IL to spend a few days with Jan’s sister Debbie and her family. Since we’ve got a long day, and we need to get diesel as we leave here, we’re heading out about 8pm. It will help that we’ll pick up an hour going back into Central Daylight Time.

August 3, 2014

Our Old Kentucky Hom . . . er, RV Park

We got hooked up and pulled out about 10:15. We took I-71 in toward Cincinnati, and then headed south on I-275. Normally we would have just stayed on I-71 until it hooked up with I-75 and we crossed the river into Kentucky.

But we had noticed the other day that part of I-71 was closed for construction for the next few days, so we avoided it by taking the long way around via I-275. About 130 miles down the road, we stopped off at the Pilot near Pendleton, KY.

This was the perfect fuel stop. When you pull into the Auto/RV entrance, the RV pumps are directly in front of you. So no twisting around trying to get lined up. My RV PLUS card worked perfectly, and I got about 50 gallons at $3.72 per gallon. They also had a long-handled scrubber/squeegee there so my windshield got sparkly clean too.

And it about 15 minutes we were ready to go. But before we hit the road again, we closed the windows and turned off the fans. The temperature in the rig was up to about 78° so we cranked up the generator and turned on the A/C’s. We’re far enough south again that we’ll probably be doing this every trip day until we’re back in Houston.

My Silverleaf computer display said we’d gone about 400 miles and used a little over 50 gallons, so that’s about 8 miles per gallon. Lower than normal for us, but we’ve been in all this hilly country and it does take its toll.

About 25 miles before we reached our stop for the night, we passed back into the Central Time Zone where we’ll be for the rest of the year.

We pulled into the Singing Hills RV Park about 2:30 and got checked in and set up.

Singing Hills is on the road leading to Mammoth Cave National Park, but you have to know it’s here to get here. There are no signs out on the Interstate, or even along the road leading to the park. The only reason I found it was that it’s a Passport America Park and showed on a Delorme Street Atlas map overlay. At $18 for a Full Hookup site, it looked good, but we’ve been fooled before, so it was off to RVParkReviews.com to check it out. And it still looked good, so we had our stop. And since it was summertime, and the Mammoth Cave area is tourist bait, I called and made a reservation this past Monday.

Turns out the place is a 44-site family-run park with all pull-thrus, perfect since we planned on eating in the rig tonight and not unhooking the toad.

Tomorrow we’ll make a 190-mile trip to Athens, AL to spend 5 days catching up with all my relatives there,  before heading down to spend a week in Gulf Shores, AL, where I grew up.

Really looking forward to seeing all the family.

August 3, 2015

Home in Alabama . . .

Several readers pointed out a problem with the Northgate RV Travel Park link I posted in yesterday’s blog. It’s fixed now.

As a disclaimer, I must point out that Northgate is owned by my relatives, but it’s still a very nice little park. Nothing fancy, no bathroom/showers, and no laundry.  Just level, gravel FHU sites, with good 50/30 amp power, great water pressure, and Wi-Fi.

It’s the perfect basecamp to explore the Huntsville/NASA/North Alabama/Southern Tennessee area.

I spent part of the morning troubleshooting a problem with the electric side of our water heater. We’ve been using the LP side for the last two weeks, due to the power situation at Cherokee Landing TT. But when we tried to switch back to the electric side yesterday, it didn’t work.

Found a 15 amp fuse for the 12V side and it was fine. Couldn’t find a 120V circuit breaker for it anywhere, so I called American Coach for some help. They said if it wasn’t in the panel under the bed, it would be at the bottom of the drawer cabinet where the inside access to the water heater is.

So that’s my next place to check tomorrow. But since the LP side still works, I’m not in any big hurry. I do have an idea what’s actually wrong with it, but I want to do some more research.

A little after 4pm Jan and I headed out to have dinner at the Chili’s about halfway between here and Huntsville. It’s been a while since we’ve been to a Chili’s, but we were surprised to see how many new items were now on the menu. In fact we both went with something new.]

Jan went with their new Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Avocado.

Served with Citrus-Chile rice and black beans, Jan said it was all delicious, maybe the best shrimp tacos ever.

As for me, the Smothered Prime Rib Burrito caught my eye.

Stuffed with large chunks of prime rib, black bean salsa, three cheeses, and Citrus-Chile rice, and covered with two different sauces, it was really good, and very filling. By the time we finished, neither of us even thought about dessert, even splitting one as we often do.

Don’t know if it’s just this location, but besides the menu, Chili’s has really upgraded their interiors. Very nice inside.

Tomorrow we plan on heading over to Huntsville for some shopping and eating.

August 3, 2016

Gulf Shores Memories . . .

Our first day in Paradise (well, we like it a lot) started off with a morning of thunder, lightning, and rain. But it did really help to keep things cool.

In fact I don’t think it got much hotter than the mid-80’s, so that was really nice. Jan caught up on a couple of loads of laundry that had built up since we left Colorado River. But after the rainy start, the afternoon cleared up with some sun, but still stayed cool. Very nice for our first full day here.

Around 3 we started talking ‘linner’, and even though we usually concentrate on seafood while we’re here. we have one other favorite – Hooter’s. But not just any Hooters. It’s the World’s Tiniest Hooters.

It even says so on their sign.

It’s located right across the road from the beach, just east of the main beach intersection. And the reason it’s the tiniest is that it’s actually a doublewide trailer, still on the wheels. So supposedly it can be towed away in case of an approaching hurricane, but I’m not sure how practical that would be.

We were lucky to get the last table, and a line started soon after. Like I said it’s a small place. And busy as they were, it took a while to get our food. But it wasn’t like we were in any hurry, just happy to be back on the road.

Jan got the Chicken Strip Cheese Sandwich on Texas Toast with Curly Fries, while I got my usual 10 wings, naked (no breading), all drums, with 911 sauce, which Jan also got on her sandwich strips.

Now 911 used to be their hottest sauce, which is why we ordered it. Well, except for the secret, off-menu ‘Elvis’ sauce that only some stores had. But after turning in our order, I was looking over the menu and discovered they’d added a new sauce, “Triple Dog Dare”. Wish I’d known that before I ordered.

Guess it gives me something to look forward to next time.

Finishing up, we drove around for a while, checking out all the new places that have sprung up since we were here a year ago. And for me, I remember long stretches of open beach that are now covered with wall-to-wall condos as far as the eye can see. But yet I still see places that were that were here more than 60 years ago when I grew up here.

Everything changes and yet stays the same.

August 3, 2017

Heading Back Home . . .

After goofing off the morning, Jan and I headed out about 1pm to meet up with my cousins Anna Jean and Marjorie, and Marjorie’s husband Walter.

We had a great time talking about the past, and gossiping about other family members who weren’t there. That’ll teach ‘em.

Anna Jean, Marjorie, and my mother were first cousins, all about the same age, and grew up together. So they always have new stories about my mother.

And sometimes new photos too.

This one was taken in mid-1942 when my mother was an Army nurse stationed at Fort Benning, GA. This was before she was transferred to West Point.

This is another one from that time period.

We spent over four hours together and the time really flew by.

Anna Jean, Jan, Marjorie and Walter

We finally said our goodbyes to everyone and headed out. Jan was getting pretty hungry and thinking about chicken, so we decided to try the nearby Zaxby’s. We had tried one years ago, but neither of us remembered whether we liked it or not. So we took a chance.

And lucked out. Very good Chicken Strips and dipping sauce. Much like Raisin’ Cane’s.

Finishing up, we stopped off at my Aunt Virginia’s to say goodbye, before we headed by to the RV Park. Or at least to my Aunt and Uncle’s right next door.

I wanted to install LibreOffice on my Aunt’s laptop so she won’t have to buy MS Word, and also say our goodbyes here too.

Tomorrow we’ve got a 237-mile run down to the Benchmark RV Park in Meridian, MS, a very nice Passport America park.

August 3, 2018

Sold?

Well, as of about 1:45 this afternoon, we’ve probably sold the house, or at least I signed the contract and sent it back through DocuSign.

I say ‘probably’ since I won’t really consider it SOLD until the check is in our hands. Or it’s not really SOLD until the check clears the bank.

As it stands now we will close on or before August 24th. Come on ‘before’. We just want to be done with this.

Brandi and Lowell also got some good house-related news today. After the 54-page report from the inspectors on Tuesday, the owner has agreed to make the required repairs, so they’re still a go for an August 31st close. Though theirs may also be a few days earlier. So we’ll all see, I guess.

I left the rig about 2:45 and headed up to Katy to pick up my lovely bride for the weekend. Unfortunately, I have to give her back to Brandi and Lowell Sunday afternoon and won’t get her back again until next Friday. But she’s having a good time with Landon so it all works out.

I got up to Brandi’s a little after 4, before Jan, Landon, Lowell, and I headed back out a little before 5 to meet Brandi at La Finca, our favorite local Mexican restaurant.

Also meeting us there were friends Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox.

And of course, the kids, Maddox and Landon, couldn’t be bothered to look up from their tablets.

I had my usual Marcos Taco Salad with Beef Fajita meat, and that’s a lot of meat in there.

Chantelle is a travel agent and we spent a good bit of time talking about our upcoming European River Cruise, probably next spring sometime. Right now we’re looking at one of the 15-day cruises along the Danube, running from Budapest to Amsterdam, or vice versa.

Plus as I said before, Jan wants to see London, Paris, and Versailles either before or after the cruise. But we’ll see how it all plans out. This will almost certainly be our one and only trip to Europe so we might as well make the most of it.

And on that note, we want to get by the Post Office this week to renew our passports. Don’t want to wait until the last minute and pay extra.

Tomorrow I’ve got to drop off a key for the house buyer and then we’ll probably have to rent another storeroom for a couple of months (yeah, right) so we can go ahead and get everything out of the house and then sort through it later.

We’ve still got a lot of family photos, scrapbooks, and other stuff that we need to look at. Hopefully we can get another 5×5 unit close to our other one.

August 3, 2021

And A Hobo, too . . .

Well, with the cooler temperatures, came a lot of rain, about 4” worth according to my rain gauge. And it was still raining this morning, so no coffee out on the patio. But on the plus side, we didn’t have to water anything.

We had planned to take Branson Scenic Railway train ride while we were there, but after a little checking, we decided to skip it.

It seems that during December they only do the nighttime Polar Express Christmas train at 4:45pm and 6:30pm. So we would be trapped on a train full of kids wearing pajamas (and some parents too), hopped on free Hot Chocolate and Cookies, and on the way to pick up Santa Claus and bring him back from the North Pole.

Oh, and there will be Christmas Carolers and a Hobo, too.

As Jan said, “Oh Hell, NO!

So we can cross that off.

With the rain letting up, we headed out about 1pm to first have lunch at Los Ramirez once again. Pechuga Rellena and Beef Fajita Taco Salad.

Delicious!

Then it was on up the road to the big HEB on League City Pkwy for some things that our local HEB was out of. After that it was a stop by the office to pick up a couple of Amazon orders that came in, or were coming in. Since we got there and just waited in the parking lot, tracking the delivery on my phone, before the Prime van pulled in.

Next up before heading home was a quick stop at Kroger’s for a couple of prescriptions, for me this time. And once again Kroger’s Pharmacy Plan came through. The two prescriptions, that would have been $24 at WalMart/Sam’s, were a total of $6 at Kroger. One of them was on their ‘Free’ list, and the other one was only $6.

Nice!

August 3, 2022

A Long Day . . .

Or at least it seemed that way.

Jennifer, our office manager, came into my room and said she knew I was getting ready to leave in a few minutes, but wondered if I could take a look at a UPS update message on the Shipping computer before I left.

Confused, I looked at my watch and said, “But it’s only 10 till 3.”

She said, “No”. And when I looked at my phone, I saw it was 3:27pm, and I leave at 3:30.

Don’t know what happened with my watch, but now I know why the day seemed to be dragging.

But I did get the UPS update taken care of before I left.

Came across this fantastic Lego project that might interest Landon.

It’s a clockwork version of our solar system made from Legos.

And even more amazing, it’s 99.8% accurate. Check it out below.

I mentioned after our Immersive Monet exhibition that we were told that Immersive King Tut would be coming this fall.

And now we’re starting to see Facebook ads for it.

Looking forward to it.

Our daughter Brandi has been a lady of leisure this week. At least, kind of.

After working out her two-week notice at her old job, she was originally supposed to start at her new position as an Assistant Vice President on July 31st. But her new company suggested that she take a week off to relax a bit and start on August 7th.

But not one to actually take it easy during her time off, Brandi spent the time reconfiguring her office to facilitate her working from home full-time.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, lunch today was at our Webster Twin Peaks, but it turned out to be sans Sylvia, our usual server. When I texted her this morning to be sure she was going to be there, she said she was off today. But she confirmed that her best friend and designated backup server Victoria was working.

We both started with salads, and they do one of the best house salads around.

Then Jan tried something a little different with their Keto Avocado Smash Burger,

Keto because it was sans Bun.

I got a past favorite, the Lunch Special Soup and Half-Sandwich, with the Green Chile Chicken and a BLT.

All delicious as always.

When we decided to have lunch at TP today, we didn’t know that today was the last day of Bikini Week.

Miss Victoria

Jan was happy to see that they were all wearing wraps around their waists. She says that sometimes it’s just too ‘cheeky’ around there.

I didn’t get a vote.

And while we were there they were putting up a new banner showing that next week was Back To School Costume Week. Which I’m pretty sure will translate to Naughty Schoolgirls.

And we’re (I’m) getting to eat at Twin Peaks again next week.

Yay!

Coming home, we made a quick stop at Marina’s Bakery so Jan could get some Keto stuff to take with her up to Brandi’s on Sunday. As far as the reason she’s going up to Brandi’s is that she’s going to be Landon/Doggie Sitting for a few days while Brandi’s going through orientation for her new position. Then I’ll pick her up on Thursday on our way up to meet Debi and Ed at The Woodlands Twin Peaks for our monthly get-together.

We got a text this afternoon from the Sam’s Club Optical Department saying that our new glasses had come in. Quick service, as it just took a week. We’ll go up Saturday morning to pick them up.