What Did You Do Today?

Before we starting full-time RVing, our youngest daughter Laura, and oldest grandson Gage, lived with us. We would have the conversations around the dinner table in the evening that started with the question, “Gage, what did you do today?”. Gage would answer then ask someone else the same question. It made for interesting table conversation and it certainly was a good relationship builder.

While we no longer have these dinner table conversations, I can still have an imaginary conversation with Gage. G’Mee is Gage’s grandmother, my wife – Carol.

January 13, 2013

Gage: “What did you do today, Papa?”

Me: “Well Gage, I broke the washing machine!”

Gage: “Broke it?, What happened?”

Me: “Sometimes the computer in the washing machine gets stuck and it does not work correctly. When that happens, it makes this clicking sounds. I tried to reset it with the direction G’Mee told me. I thought it was OK so I tried to open the front door. When I did, the handle broke off.”

Gage: “WOW, Papa! That’s not good. G’Mee is going to be mad!”

Me: “Yes, I know. But I can fix it.”

Gage: “Before she gets home?”

Me: “No. I will have to order the part. Then I can fix it.”

Gage: “G’Mee is going to put you in time out.”

Me: “I hope not. I am sure everything will be OK as long as I can fix it.”

Gage: “OK, let me know what happens.”

January 27, 2015

Gage: “Papa, what did you do today?”

Me: “Remember when I told you I broke the washing machine and that I could fix it after order the part?”

Gage: “Yeah, did you get the part?”

Me: “Yes I did and I fixed the washing machine. See!”

Gage: “WOW, that’s pretty cool Papa! I bet G’Mee is going to be happy now.”

Me: “She is. In fact she is washing clothes now.”

Gage: “Cool! Papa, how much did the part cost?”

Me: “Fifty-two dollars.

Gage: “What? It must be made of gold or something.”

Me: “Nope, just plastic.”

Gage: “Oh Papa, G’Mee is going to be mad at you for spending all that money on something made of plastic!”

Me: “I don’t think so. Remember, I fixed the washing machine. That will make her happy.”

Gage: “I’m glad you fixed it Papa. I love you, man!”

Me: “I love you too.”

Thanks for the conversation, Gage. I miss you, man!

By the way, the manufacture included this label with the new handle. I wonder if I should put it on the washing machine?

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.

TGIM

TGIM? Yep, TGIM. Thank God It’s Monday. Wage slaves are going to think I am crazy with that. A few days ago, I got confused on what day it was. Saturday, I thought it was Monday. I remember telling Carol that once we get settled in for the night, we could watch Castle. Now today is Monday for sure. So TGIM.

I read on another forum that our friends Pete and Jane from Arizona had a blowout on the Cedar Creek in El Paso as they were headed back to Arizona. Thankfully, they were able to get their trailer off the road and tire replaced safely. Their trailer suffered minor damage. Reading about that, plus avoiding the stranded chair on the freeway yesterday got me thinking a bit about safety. For the past few days, we have noticed a shimmy in the front end of the truck. The shimmy only appeared between 40 and 50 mph. To me that sounded like a tire out of balance but I am not the expert. We decided to get it checked out this morning before hitching up the trailer. I googled Discount Tires because that is where I had purchased the rear tires on the truck. There was only one Discount Tire in Macon. It was fairly close to where we were so off we went. We were prepared to spend some time there so we brought our tech gear. Neal met us as we drove up. I explained what the problem was and he said they would be able to get to the truck right away and should know something in a few minutes. They found the two front tires were indeed out of balance. They fixed that and sent us on our way. Total time? Less then 30 minutes. Cost? Nothing. When I reminded Neal we did not purchase the tires that were balanced from them, he said there was no charge because we are Discount Tire customers. WOW. Thanks Discount Tires.

Our journey today was a short 120 miles from Macon, GA to Augusta, GA. We headed North East on GA 49 to Milledgeville, then GA 22 to Sparta, GA 16 to Warrenton, and finally GA 80 to I-20. From there it was a short drive to Heritage Mobile Home and RV Park on the West side of Augusta.

I can assure you I had both hands on the steering wheel when I took these photos. The drive reminded me of driving through the Piney Woods of East Texas.

We got settled into our site, rested for a bit then went forging for food. We found a place called The Chop House which is located in the Augusta Mall just down the street from us. I opted for the Chop House Chops and Carol went for the Petite Pork Chops. I did not get a photo of hers but here is my plate.

Carol gave me her Parmesan Creamed Spinach (YUM). The small cup next to the baked sweet potato was a dipping sauce for the chop made from apple, mustard, and orange zest. It may sound weird but it sure was tasty. I do not normally order pork chop because most of the time the chops are dry. My chop was juicy and tasty. Carol’s was OK. Service was quick and good. I would recommend this place to others.

After dinner, Carol went for a mani in the mall while I went for jeans at Tractor Supply and diesel for the truck. Paid $3.99 tonight. Seems like the further we get from Texas the more the fuel cost.

Tomorrow we have to be out of here early so to avoid mingling with the morning traffic, we will pull trailer into the shopping mall parking lot down the street and walk to Starbucks for a heart healthy bowl of oatmeal. Tomorrow destination is Florence South Carolina.

Thanks for stopping by.

MacRib Attack

WHOA! Let’s back this horse up a bit. I’ll tell you about the ribs later. Breakfast comes before dinner so I’ll start there. We decided to get a hearty breakfast this morning so we could skip lunch and arrive in Montgomery, AL a little earlier. While we certainly could have gone back to the Foley Coffee Shop, we wanted to try a new place. Darrell/Judy from Wandering America suggested Mom and Pop’s in Silverhills just up the road a bit. They had not been there so they could only say they heard it was good.
   
We took off for Silverhills and easily found Mom & Pop’s. The first indication that we made a good choice was the parking was almost full. We walked in and found a country motif that certainly fit the area. They even had a rather large stuffed alligator mounted on one of the walls. The folks seated at the table were talking to each other as if they knew everyone. I imagine they did. We got seated and looked at the menu. My eye focused on my breakfast – a Peanut Butter Waffle.
   
That’s right, a waffle (4 squares) slathered with peanut butter. This is how I like my waffles sometimes so that was my choice. And the verdict? Breakfast was great. Carol had scrambled eggs and grits. That also was a good choice. We now have another spot to visit the next time we are at the Plantation. Thank you Darrell/Judy.

After breakfast, we headed back to the Plantation to hitch up the trailer. We got everything closed up, hitched up, and paid up. A special thanks to Fred and Delores for allowing us to park on their side yard for a couple of nights. We look forward to a return visit. We pulled out of the Plantation about 10:30AM with clear skies and high 40’s. Drove east on County Road 28, then turned north on AL 59 aiming for I-65 to Montgomery.
   
Yes, I had both hands on the steering wheel when I took that photo. Carol was napping and I did not want to bother her. We arrived at Montgomery South RV Park about 2:00PM. The is a small park a few miles south of Montgomery. They have friendly staff and very clean facility. We are in site #1. No special “IT” factor. I-65 is nearby so the highway noise can be a factor if you want a real quiet park.
   
After getting set up and dogs walked, we decided to head to town for dinner. We were told the best place in town was Dreamland BBQ. Their specialty? Ribs! Now coming from Texas, I have my doubts about good BBQ outside of Texas. I know the Food Channel talks about all the great BBQ in places outside of Texas.
   
The ribs were very good, not the best but still good. The ribs are served on a dish cut into individual ribs which makes for easy eating. Some of the ribs were a bit dry, not as moist as I would prefer. The sauce had just the right amount of kick. We finished off diner with a very good banana pudding that had a good mix of ingredients. When we got back to RV, we let the dogs run a bit then settled in for the evening.
  
By the time I finished the blog, Qianna was in doggy dream land.
   
Thanks for stopping by.

Dodged a Bullet

Today we dodged a bullet, or should I say a storm. When were in Giddings, TX last week, we decided that we spend an extra day at the Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL. Today is that extra day. Today is the day we would have been on the road at the time a major storm would make it’s way across the Southeastern states. We would have been in the middle of a storm system that brought heavy rain, strong winds and tornado warnings to the region. Here is the storm report from the weather channel.  Fortunate for us, God’s providence kept us safe today. Instead of traveling, we took a day of R and R. On recommendation from Darrell/Judy from Wandering America , we went to breakfast at the Foley Coffee Shop.

Stepping into the front door is like stepping back in time. The small cafe has an open kitchen with bar style counter on the left, one row of tables in the center, and a row of booths on the right. Folks are friendly, food is great and service will assure satisfaction. Next we headed to Walgreen’s to refill a prescription. They said to check back in about 1 hour. Let’s see, I think we will go to Walmart. Bought a lock that we needed, forgot the long extension power strip we really needed. Then fueled up at $3.89 at Dodge’s. They sell fuel and Fried Chicken – must be a southern thing. While fueling, a fella there said the folks up on I-10 were getting hit pretty hard from the storm. Made me thankful for our day of R and R. Got back to Walgreen’s and waited a few more minutes before meds were ready. Drove through some light sprinkles as we headed back to the Plantation. We walked Cody & Qianna. Then waited a few minutes for Darrell and Judy to come by. We originally planned a breakfast with them. They had errands to run first so we agreed on lunch instead. They would drive us to Fairhope, AL. Lunch would be at Panini Pete’s, one of those Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives places. Panini Pete’s is located in the French Quarter area of downtown Fairhope.
  
I had their Junkyard Dog Chicago Style hotdog with a site of Frites while Carol had a bowl of Cream of Cauliflower soup with a side of home made chips. Food was very good.
  
Joining us for lunch were Mike and Peggy who blog at Maineiacsinmotion. We enjoyed a great meal with our new friends. That is Mike and Peggy on the left. Judy and Darrell are across the table.
  
After we got back to the Plantation, we stopped by Darrell and Judy’s home to meet, Alex and Katie. They were not sure of us humans intruding on their space but they soon got over that. Carol and Judy chatted about Judy’s quilting and crafting corner while Darrel and I chatted about the tech stuff. Then we walked over to our home so they could meet our fur babies and get the grand tour of our home. It was an enjoyable afternoon meeting new friends putting real faces on bloggers we read.

We decided we needed to get the laundry done before we leave on Saturday. We do have a small washer/dryer in our home but sometimes it is just quicker to sit for a couple of hours in a laundromat. OOPS, where are our quarters. While Carol got the wash started with the quarters we had in our pockets, I walked over to the Plantation office to get change. Carol read and I worked on this posting. The dryer has stopped and Carol said it was time for me to fold. I’ll be right back.

Clothes are folded and put away. Carol and I have a hunger for Pizza. We could do something safe like Pizza Hut but that is not our style. Time to find a local pizzeria and hope for success. We found Papa’s Pizza. OK, they area a chain pizzeria. They have a few stores. They were new to us so they qualified as “a place we have not been to before”. Our Rocky Marciano pizza was very good. The kind of good that produces a WOW when you get that first bite. Take a look. If you have a monitor with smell-o-vision, you will understand.
  
We are finally back home now, rested from a busy day. Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow we head for Montgomery, AL. Who knows what will find there.

2010 -> 2011

Once again New Year’s eve is upon us. 2010 has been an exciting year. We are getting closer and closer to retirement. The reality of this will occur at the end of this week when my DW retires. Before I get into that, I want to tell you about a trip we took on Monday 12/27.

The internet is a great place to find information quickly. As I was researching about a group called NOMADS, I came across another RV traveler – Jim and Kit Bertelsen. I enjoyed reading about their NOMADS experience so I continued reading their blog. Their current gig is guarding the gate leading to a drilling operation near the town of Crystal City. I said to myself, “Self, we need to go visit the Bertelsens.” So I emailed them to ask if they would be available to receive visitors on 12/27. They said sure so we took off for their location. The blue line in the map below shows our route. From our house to theirs was 198 miles – one way.

All I will say about the road trip is that Texas FM 624 from Orange Grove to Cotulla is 103 miles of nothing but miles. Lots of ranches and a few farms along that route. We did see several gate guarding RVers along the route. Because of the large number of drilling operations along this route, we also encountered many 18-wheelers hauling drilling stuff in and out of the sites. This explains why this is such a rough stretch or highway. No chance of sleeping at the wheel here since the road did a good job of tossing us around a bit.

We arrived at the Bertelsen’s location shortly after 2 and stayed for a couple of hours. From the first handshake and hug to our departure, we never felt like strangers. Jim and Kit shared their experiences as RVers. The information we gleaned was well worth the travel time and bumpy route. Plus we got to meet another RV couple we can now call family. Say hello to Jim and Kit (That’s DW and Gage our grandson to the left of the Bertelsens.)

We said “see ya later”, and hit the road back to Corpus Christi.

Tuesday began the final week at work for DW. Carol has faithfully worked for many years in a variety of jobs in different fields. She is a people person who has had many opportunities to minister to people God has placed in her path. Beginning next year she begins working for free. We all know that retirement does not mean “not working”, it means focusing on different objectives. In 2011, DW will begin the daunting task of downsizing our household. This is not just for her, but for us. We still have a lot of stuff that will not fit in our future home. So begins the process of getting rid of stuff, deciding what stays or goes; deciding to give it away or hold a garage sale. While I will continue working, I too will be working along side her.

Carol will finally have an opportunity to participate in some of the ladies activities at the Summit Church in Corpus Christi. She will have an opportunity to work on some craft projects that have been put on hold. And she will have an opportunity to spend some quality time with our grandson Gage.