Category Archives: Beer

Beale Street

After writing my post yesterday, I set up my Cycle Pro Mechanic bike stand and worked on Donna’s bike. Donna has been complaining about erratic shifter operation and the chain jumping gears on the few rides she’s been on since her crash. With her bike suspended on the stand, I could turn the crank and shift gears to see what was going on. I went through the rear derailleur set-up, adjusting it until it shifted properly. Without the bike stand, that job would have been impossible.

By the time I had it done, she was ready to go for a ride. She rode south and made a 26-mile loop. Part of her ride was on the Mississippi River Trail which stretches 85 miles from West Memphis to Helena. It was hot and humid out and that was the longest ride she’d done in months. Although she had plenty of water while she rode, she needed nutrition and hydration when she returned.

While Donna was out, I took care of a few chores. We made plans to head over to Beale Street in downtown Memphis. Nowadays, Beale Street is a major tourist attraction in Memphis. Beale Street has a long tradition of being a place where you can hear blues music. In 1909, W.C. Handy wrote Memphis Blues and later wrote Beale Street Blues. The list of blues musicians that performed on Beale Street is long and includes such famous names as Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Albert King and of course BB King.

The Marines sent me to school in Millington, north of Memphis in 1975. I came down to Beale Street with a couple of buddies to check out the blues bars. It was a different scene back then, not the tourist attraction it is today. Very few white people came to the blues clubs. The street was filled with thieves and con men. We stuck together and treaded carefully. Back then, we would usually go to Overton Square on Cooper Street where the rock and roll clubs were. The city adopted a plan for gentrification of Beale Street back in 1973, but it didn’t gain traction until the 1980s.

Today Beale Street is closed to vehicular traffic from 2nd Street to 4th Street. There are street entertainers and musicians everywhere. Handy Park has outdoor concerts and the clubs lining both sides of the street have live music. Donna and I took an Uber cab from the RV park and were dropped off at the corner of 2nd and Beale.

2nd and Beale – BB King’s club on the right, Blues City Cafe on the left

Our first stop was the Blues City Cafe. We both ordered the half rack of hickory-smoked pork ribs. It was seasoned just right and the meat literally fell off the bones. I would rate it as the best barbeque ribs I’ve ever tasted. It came with small sides of baked beans and cole slaw and a large side of steak fries plus Texas toast. I paired it with locally brewed IPA from Ghost River Brewing.

On Beale Street, some laws don’t apply. Every bar and restaurant serves adult beverages in plastic cups to go. You can walk out the door, drink in hand, and make your way down the street to your next stop.

Beale Street

As we walked down the street, we could hear a band jamming incredibly loud. The music was coming from Handy Park. I haven’t heard a band play that loud since the ’80s.

Jamming loud music

We watched them perform a couple of songs, but it was too loud for Donna, so we moved on. After we crossed the street, we heard another band. The gal singing could’ve been an American Idol winner, she was that good.

She could belt it

A corner open air bar had a pair of guitarists playing. Their arrangements were well thought out and they covered songs expertly. The guy on the right could sing – he sang Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ perfectly.

The guy on the right can sing

The talent and musicianship were amazing. There were great musicians everywhere. It was early – we arrived at 5:30pm and none of the clubs had cover charges until later in the evening. We continued to hop from bar to bar and check out the music. At our next stop, the band did a brilliant cover of Bob Dylan’s Positively 4th Street.

You’ve got a lotta nerve…

We found a club with a table on a patio next to the Blues City Cafe and sat for a while. There was a group of youngsters performing acrobatic gymnastic feats on the street for tips. We people-watched for a while there. Along the way, I found another local IPA from Wiseacre Brewing. This was top shelf IPA, the best I’ve had in a while.

Donna at a street side table

After people-watching for a while, we moved again when we heard a band playing in the courtyard next to the club. The guitarist was from Australia and he knew how to play blues.

Australian bluesman

I ordered one last beer while we watched the band.

Beale beer

Around 8pm, it was starting to get dark. We’d had our fill and it was time to go home. Beale Street is definitely a great time if you like live music. We requested a ride from Lyft and the driver arrived in about 10 minutes.

Beale Street at sunset

On the way home, a thunderstorm rolled in. It was pouring rain by the time we got to our coach. Wind had knocked limbs off trees in the park and the power was out. I switched the inverter on and we were able to watch an episode of Homeland before we went to bed.

This morning it’s overcast but calm. Power was restored in the night. Today will be hot – near 90 degrees with a 20% chance of a thundershower this afternoon.

Great Day in College Station

We saw a few sights in College Station, Texas on Tuesday. Donna and I rode the scooter down through the Texas A&M University campus to the George Bush Library and Museum. This was the first visit to a presidential library for both of us. It’s well worth the $9 admission.

Donna at the fountain in front of the George Bush Library and Museum

The library chronicles the life and times of our 41st president, George H. W. Bush. It goes back into his childhood and takes you into the new millennium. Donna was inspired to write a post here on her organizing blog after hearing something in his inaugural address from 1989. The library is not all about Bush – it also highlights newsworthy events from World War II to end of his political career and beyond. If you go, be sure to allow an hour and a half or more to see the exhibits.

Donna looking presidential in the re-creation of the oval office

Me, not so presidential

After touring the Bush Library, we rode the scooter to the Blackwater Draw Brewing Company just a couple of miles away from the library.

We sat at a table and a waiter brought us menus and ice water. Donna realized she didn’t have her glasses. She wasn’t sure if she had them at the museum and set them down at some point or maybe left them at home. She was racking her brain, then came up with the idea of looking at the photo on my phone (posted above) and sure enough, she had her glasses on when we arrived there.

We told the waiter we had to go back for her glasses. We rode back to the library and Donna went to the ticket desk. She asked if anyone had turned in any lost glasses. The girl at the counter asked Donna to describe them. The girl said, “You must be living right” and handed Donna her glasses. She was pretty relieved as these are her glasses for reading, driving and also double as her sunglasses thanks to transition lenses.

We rode back to the Blackwater Draw Brewing Company and sat at the same table we were at before. The waiter brought us water and menus again. They had five of their beers on tap, plus a selection of other Texas craft beers in bottles. I went for the RIP Smash IPA. Donna tried a Kolsch but wasn’t impressed, so she decided to stick with water. We both ordered the daily special which was oxtail tacos with a sweet and spicy pineapple-mango salsa that was very tasty.

Beer board at Blackwater Draw Brewing Co

The IPA was okay, but just okay. I haven’t been impressed with Texas IPA – it just doesn’t measure up to the west coast IPAs found in California and Oregon. I also tried the Contract Killer coffee porter. This was a winner. I’d gladly have another glass of this brew.

We rode back to the RV park via old downtown Bryan. It was pretty sleepy. We saw no need to stop.

On Wednesday morning, Donna did her exercise routine while I prepared for the road. We lit the fires and pulled out of the RV park at 9:45am. I had a couple of challenges getting out of the residential neighborhood. I had to make a couple of loops before I found intersections with streets wide enough to make the turns we needed to make to get to the highway.

We headed out of town on TX6 to Benchley, then hit TX-OSA (Old San Antonio Road). This was the worst stretch of road we’ve been on since the time we drove up US89 in northern Arizona. The road had bumps and dips that worked the suspension overtime. It also had uneven lane surfaces that had the coach rolling from side to side. Our air suspension actively adjusts to maintain ride height, but it can’t react quick enough to sudden surface irregularities like these. The first hour of driving was exhausting. The lane was narrow with no shoulder and I had to maintain concentration to keep from drifting off the road due to the poor surface.

The road eventually improved. Our route took us through Tyler then Linden, Texas which is birthplace of the great blues guitarist, T-Bone Walker (Stormy Monday). Almost all of the rivers and lakes we saw along the way were flooded. There’s no drought in this part of Texas.

I know I said in my last post that we’d be heading to Shreveport, Louisiana. As always, plans have a way of changing. Since Memphis was our next goal, we decided to take a more direct route through Arkansas. Earlier, I was worried about the possibility of tornadoes, but the weather forecast was looking favorable.

We’re doing something different going down the road that I think we only did one time before. The temperature and humidity were so unbearable when we left Rockport and again when we left Bryan that we’re driving down the road with the generator running and the front roof air conditioner on. It’s so much more comfortable.

We crossed the stateline at Texarkana and decided to park for the night at a Walmart in Texarkana, Arkansas. Today we’ll drive to Memphis and check in at the Tom Sawyer RV Resort on the Mississippi River.

Jumbo Shrimp

Yesterday’s early morning thunderstorm dropped a little over a third of an inch of rain, bringing the month-to-date total to over 7 inches. Once the storm passed, the skies cleared and the wind settled down to about 10 mph.

Donna went to the community pool and swam a mile again around noon. I spent a lot of time sitting at my laptop trying to decide on a route out of here. Originally I thought we would follow the coast toward Galveston and skirt around the east side of Houston. With so much flooding in the area I changed my thinking. Now I think the best bet is to head north to College Station. We might spend a couple of days there, then move on to Shreveport, Louisiana before we settle in for a week in Memphis, Tennessee.

We rode the scooter south of town and stopped in at Paradise Key Dockside Bar and Grill for happy hour. I thought they had live music on Friday afternoon, but the entertainment doesn’t start until 6pm. We sat on the deck in back and watched boaters come and go while we sipped a couple of beers and snacked on their homemade tortilla chips and queso. Their queso dip is outstanding – it’s spiced with finely chopped tomato and jalapeno.

On the way home, we stopped at Flowers Shrimp Market. Donna wanted to buy shrimp for dinner and she had read reviews saying that they had the best shrimp. While we’re here on the gulf coast, we’ve been taking advantage of the fresh seafood. Flowers Shrimp Market is a tiny place with coolers of seafood on ice on a counter top. The fresh shrimp were still in the shell with the heads removed and the jumbo shrimp were huge – about 11-13 per pound.

Donna spiced the shrimp with garlic, crushed red pepper and olive oil and skewered them.

Spiced and skewered jumbo shrimp

I grilled them over medium-high heat. Three minutes on one side, then two minutes on the other and they were done.

Skewered shrimp hot off the grill

Donna served them with a side salad of black rice, mango and blackeye peas – another new recipe. We’re already looking forward to the leftovers.

Grilled shrimp with black rice, mango and blackeye pea salad

The weather guessers are calling for thundershowers to move into the area this afternoon. Rain is expected to continue on Sunday. I’ll pack the wheel covers and front window covers before it rains. I think I’ll organize the trailer and pack the scooter too. If it’s raining tomorrow, we won’t be using the scooter. With that done, we’ll be ready to hit the road first thing Monday morning.

Key Allegro Island

A guy posted a question yesterday on one of the RV forums I visit. He said his coach was in storage for five months. When he took it out of storage and hooked up at an RV park, he dumped his gray water holding tank. He said the discharge was dark, more like black water and had black flakes of solid material. He suspected black water sewage had somehow infiltrated his gray water tank.

There were several responses to his post with lots of theories on how black water could have ended up in the gray water holding tank. My take on the situation is this – he doesn’t have black water in his gray water tank. His gray water turned dark because he left untreated gray water in the tank with organic matter in it for five months.

The gray tank holds the water coming down the drains of the kitchen sink and shower. If you cook and wash dishes in the sink, a certain amount of organic matter (bits of food) will drain into the tank. Some soaps contain fats and oils which are also organic. Leave this stuff in a tank of water for an extended period of time and it will become a science project gone wild. Bacteria and molds will thrive.

Some people think the gray water tank is benign and doesn’t create a sanitation challenge. I disagree. The gray water tank needs attention, just like the black water tank. Gray water tanks can create foul odors if left untreated. That’s why I use TankTechs RX in my gray tank. I wrote about it in this post. I’ll get off my soapbox now.

The run of nicer weather continued yesterday. We had a high temperature of 86 degrees with partly cloudy skies. It wasn’t as windy as it’s been. Most of the time we’ve been here, we’ve had steady winds of 15 -20 mph. Yesterday it calmed down to about 10 mph.

I ran a couple of errands on the scooter and while I was out I explored Key Allegro Island. Key Allegro is a small island community in Rockport. Riding north on Broadway, I could see the island looking east across Little Bay. I made a right and crossed the bridge to the island where Broadway becomes Fulton Beach Road.

View of Key Allegro across Little Bay

The entire island is developed with very few unoccupied lots. The beach areas are private. Most of the properties back up to canals that criss-cross the island. It’s a boater’s paradise.

View from one of the few undeveloped lots

One of the Key Allegro canals

When I returned, I told Donna about Key Allegro. She was going out on a grocery shopping run on the scooter. I suggested heading out to the Grog Bar and Grill on Key Allegro for happy hour when she returned from shopping.

The Grog Bar and Grill is located at the Key Allegro Marina. We took a look around the marina – it was filled with sportfishing boats and luxury yachts. We found a table at the back of this large, beautiful bar overlooking the marina. We were the only people there!

View from the Grog Bar and Grill

We sipped a couple of beers and watched the antics of sea birds in the bay. I had an IPA brewed in Houston by Saint Arnold Brewery. It wasn’t anything special – it can’t compete with San Diego’s IPAs. We were there for close to an hour and no other patrons showed up. I took Donna for a scooter tour of Key Allegro before we headed back home.

After we returned home, I grilled herbed chicken thighs. Donna served it with sauteed haricots verts (French green beans) with cherry tomatoes and kalamata olives. Donna duped me into trying anchovy vinaigrette dressing by not telling that what was on the green beans. I’m not a fan of anchovies. The vinaigrette was a little salty for my taste but the flavor was good.

Grilled boneless chicken thighs with green beans, tomatoes and kalamata olives

Grilled boneless chicken thighs with sauteed green beans, tomatoes and kalamata olives

We finished the evening with two episodes of Homeland from season two.

Our run of nice weather ended abruptly at 5am this morning. Donna and I were both jolted awake when a bolt of lightning struck nearby followed by a loud crack of thunder. Wind was rocking the coach as torrential rain fell. I got up and closed the living room slide as a precaution against wind or water damage. I looked at my weather radar app and once again we were in the thick of it.

We are the blue spot in the center of the storm cell

I went back to bed and listened to the thunder and rain and drifted off to sleep again. When I woke up at 8am, it was still raining but not as hard. The wind had died down. By 9:15am, the rain showers quit and sun came out. The forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with no rain until early Sunday.

I think I’ll remove the tire covers and windshield covers once they dry out. We’ll pull out of here Monday morning and I don’t want to pack wet tire and window covers.

Texas Ironman

Although there was a threat of thundershowers in the afternoon, I unloaded the scooter yesterday. Donna and I took our chances and rode up to The Woodlands to watch the Ironman competition. Our friend Allen Hutchinson was competing in the triathlon.

We rode west to the IH-45 service road and stayed on it all the way up to The Woodlands Parkway. In Texas cities, most interstate freeways have frontage roads that parallel the freeway. These frontage roads are generally one-way roads on each side of the interstate. On-ramps and off-ramps to and from the freeway are found at intervals along the frontage. The speed limit on IH-45 is 45mph, but Texas drivers don’t pay much attention to that. We were blasting along at 60mph+ at times to keep from being run over by speeding traffic.

As you can imagine, traffic was heavy at The Woodlands. We made our way to Lake Robbins Drive and parked the scooter near the finish line of the race. The scooter is handy for these situations – we can easily find parking where cars cannot fit.

We walked past the finish area on a bridge overlooking the canal. There were some spectators setting up along the canal. Later, this area would be crowded with spectators.

View from the bridge – only a few spectators along the canal

We walked down to the canal and followed it west past the pavilion to the transition area. We expected Allen to ride into the transition area soon and wanted to see him. On the east end of the transition area, we saw red plastic bags lined up. Each bag was identified with a racer’s number. The bag contained the items they would need to transition from a bicyclist to a runner. They had running shoes and whatnot in their bags.

Running gear in bags at the west end of the transition area

Running gear in bags at the east end of the transition area

As we walked along the transition area, we saw competitors coming in. They would hand off their bikes to a race staff member who would take their bikes to the assigned bike rack for them. Having left their cycling shoes clipped into the pedals of their bikes, the racers would jog barefoot across the muddy grass and retrieve their bag of running gear. I hope the bags contained something to clean their feet – the area was very muddy.

We found a spot to stand where the racers were required to stop and dismount from their bikes. At that point, they had to walk their bikes to the hand-off area. After 112 miles of hard riding some of the competitors struggled to get off their bikes. We saw several people suffering from leg cramps as they tried to dismount. A few riders nearly crashed.

When Allen arrived, he was so focused on stopping and getting off his bike, I don’t think he saw or heard us even though we were only a few feet away from him. He was moving so quickly, I could only snap a quick shot of the back of his head.

Allen getting off his bike

We retraced our steps past the transition area and found Allen’s wife Crystal and his sister Aleshia. We tried to figure out how long it would be before Allen would run by. We decided to cross the canal on a walking bridge and wait for him on the south side of the canal. As we crossed, a guy gave us cow bells to ring as we encouraged competitors coming by.

We found a small grassy area where we could see up the course. The runners would approach our spot where they had to round a curve past us. We learned that this was the five-mile mark of the run. The temperature was 86 degrees and the humidity was unbearable. We were soaked in perspiration just standing there. The competitors had to be suffering and probably would have welcomed rain. We had a couple of false sightings before we saw the real Allen running toward us.

Allen at the five-mile point of the 26.2 mile run

After Allen passed our position, we walked back over the bridge and started following the canal back to the east. The competitors ran east on the north side of the canal before crossing over and coming back west on the south side of the canal. By heading east, we would see Allen coming toward us again sooner than if we held our spot.

We stopped at the Marriott hotel and went inside for a restroom break and to sit for a few minutes in the air-conditioned lobby. We went back outside and found the course was quite crowded with spectators. We found a place to sit on a low block wall and cheered on the runners. Allen came past and slapped hands with us. He was looking good.

We went up the street by the finish line and had lunch at the Baker Street Pub and Grill. I forgot to mention that Allen generously bought our lunch the day before at The Olive Garden. I reciprocated by buying lunch for Crystal and Aleshia. A cold Guinness with the meal was just what I needed – Donna enjoyed one too.

After lunch, we saw Allen go by on the other side of the canal. We knew it would be a while before he came by our position, so we retreated to the Marriott again to cool off. I had another cold one at the bar. The bar area was hopping with spectators who had the same idea.

I mentioned in my last post how The Woodlands is an upscale neighborhood. We saw several interesting cars on the roads – Porsches, Ferraris and such. Outside the Marriott, I snapped a photo of an Aston Martin convertible in the valet parking area. Apparently the owner wasn’t too worried about a thundershower – he left the top down.

Aston Martin at the Marriott

This being Texas, I think more people were impressed by the big four-wheel drive pickup truck next to it. As it turned out, we only had a few stray rain drops all day, so the Aston Martin interior was safe.

We returned to the course to find the sidewalk along the canal filled with people. At times, the competitors had to thread their way through the crowd as they ran past. We saw Allen come by on his last lap of the canal. We figured it would be about 80 minutes before he would get to the finish line.

After another pit stop at the Marriott, we went to the finish line. We watched the competitors come down Waterway Avenue where they had to make a 180-degree turn and run back up Waterway Avenue to the finish line. The first stretch on Waterway was slightly downhill with a tail wind. After the turnaround, the last 200 yards was slightly uphill into the wind. It seemed like a cruel way to finish a 140.6-mile race.

Some of the competitors were clearly struggling to make the finish line. Others were smiling and jumping for joy. We saw a few make an all-out sprint to the finish. After waiting about 40 minutes, we saw Allen come by. He hit the red carpet and the finish line with a total race time of just under 12 hours.

Allen checking his watch 100 yards from the finish

He hits the red carpet and finishes under 12 hours

Allen’s first words to me when I found him after the finish was, “Man, it’s hot out there.” After congratulating Allen and saying our goodbyes, we hopped on the scooter and got out of town. It was nearly 7pm by then and had been a long day. I was feeling tired and sore from spectating – imagine how the competitors must have felt.

We stopped at HEB on the way back and picked up a few things including a pizza for dinner. Today, we have rain in the forecast again. We want to do a little fishing in the lake. Then, I plan to kick back and watch the Moto GP race from Le Mans, France. Tomorrow we’ll relocate about 200 miles away to Rockport on the gulf coast.

Stormin’ in Texas

Man I’m standin’ out in the rain
Yeah flood water keep a rollin’
Man it’s about to drive poor me insane

My last post said we were determined to see Austin, Texas. We had hoped to see some sights, like the Texas Museum and the capitol building, then check out some of the restaurants and clubs. The music scene is obviously very active in Austin.

Mother Nature dashed our plans. On Wednesday morning, we started receiving weather alerts. There were warnings of severe thunderstorms with winds up to 50mph. A tornado watch was in effect (a tornado warning means a funnel cloud has been spotted and you should take cover, a tornado watch is a lower level alert).

By 11:30am, rain was falling, the wind was picking up and I was making plans to deal with severe weather. Our thoughts of heading downtown evaporated. It seemed prudent to stay put and deal with whatever weather challenges were ahead of us. Not to mention that it wasn’t exactly good weather for sightseeing.

It became very dark outside. It seemed like it was dusk after sunset at noon. The wind was whipping the trees and I was concerned about branches or even trees blowing down. I closed the bedroom slide on the passenger side – this was the windward side of the coach – to prevent water ingress. After a couple of hours with no catastrophic events, the rain lessened. Eventually we had periods of drizzle mixed with sudden thundershowers and downpours. Austin, Texas averages about four and half inches of rain during the month of May. This year, they had their four and half inches by May 12th. Maybe this is good news for the drought that’s been affecting the southwest.

Although we gave up on the idea of going downtown and seeing the sites, Donna and I took advantage of a lull in the rain and walked to HEB – a local grocery/pharmacy store – just under a mile from the RV park. We picked up a few items, including a beer resupply, and walked back before the next thundershower hit us.

The day was spent mostly indoors, reading. The rain kept falling and I could see the sites around us flooding. I snapped a picture of our neighbor’s site through the window. It doesn’t really capture how much standing water was on the ground. An Airstream trailer across from us had several inches of water in its site but I couldn’t capture a photo through the wet windshield. We ordered a pizza, watched TV in the evening and called it a night.

Sites flooding

Under different circumstances, we probably would have stayed another day in Austin. But we had committed to being in North Houston by the 14th to see our friend Allen Hutchinson compete in the Ironman Triathlon in The Woodlands. Austin seemed like a good stopping point – the drive from Buchanan Lake to Houston would’ve been a long day on the road.

Anyway, on Thursday morning, I wanted to get going while we had a window of fairly clear weather. The forecast called for more thunderstorms in the early afternoon. We had about 170 miles ahead of us to North Houston. I wanted to get to the North Lake RV Resort and set up before the storms hit us.

While I was preparing for travel, Donna walked back to HEB for a few more groceries. I had some unexpected challenges getting us ready to roll. First up, I started to flush and drain the black water tank. I connected a hose to a faucet at our site and started the flush, then I pulled the black water drain blade valve. I saw the waste water begin to drain, then it seemed like it slowed and stopped draining. I couldn’t understand what was happening. The wastewater in the clear elbow at the drain valve wasn’t moving. I closed the valve and the water was still not draining. I quickly shut off the faucet for the flushing system – I was adding more water than was coming out. I lifted the hose in the hope that gravity was the issue – maybe the sewer hook up was higher than it seemed and was causing a loss of flow. Or maybe the black water tank had a vent problem causing a vacuum and stoppage of flow.

After a few minutes I was able to get the hose to drain. I opened the gray water valve to flush the hose and had the same issue. It started draining fine, then the flow stopped. I closed the gray water drain valve. It wasn’t an issue with the black water tank. The issue was in the park’s sewer system. Austin Lone Star Carefree RV Resort has two sewer hook ups in each site. I thought maybe there was something wrong with the sewer drain I was hooked up to. I started to open the other sewer drain at our site and water began to flow out of it. Oh no! About then a park worker rolled up in a golf cart and asked if I was having trouble with the sewer. I told him it was backed up. He said he thought our neighbor had caused a blockage – everyone upstream from his site had a problem. I left the sewer hose and began disconnecting the power and fresh water.

I hit another snag with the fresh water. I discovered our plastic dual filter canisters were trapped under the coach. When we set up, I connected the water hoses and filters and pushed the filter canisters underneath the coach. After I had everything hooked up, I ran the auto level on the HWH leveling system. This lowered the coach and unbeknownst to me, it was resting on top of the filter assemblies! I needed to raise the coach to get the filters out, and hoped they would not be damaged.

I decided to retract the slides while the coach was still level, then raise the coach on the jacks. I pulled the bedrooms slides in with no problem but the living room slide didn’t come in right. I could see the bottom of the slide was in while the top wasn’t properly seated. I immediately opened the slide about six inches. I knew what happened. There was too much water on the slide topper causing it to sag. With the topper sagging, the metal shield was caught between the slide and the side of the coach, binding the slide. I went outside to check for damage and thankfully it all looked okay. The water ran off the topper and I retracted again. It worked fine. Lesson learned – when there’s a lot of water on the slide toppers, partially retract and let the water run off before fully retracting. Then I raised the driver’s side of the coach with the hydraulic jacks and retrieved the water filters – they were undamaged.

By then, the only thing I had left to do was the stow the sewer hose. It still wasn’t completely empty. The RV park workers were at the back of our site trying to clear the sewer line. They told me to just run the gray water out of my hose on the grass and move on. With so much back up in the system running out, a couple of gallons or so from my hose wasn’t going to make a difference.

We were on the road by 10:30am. The drive on I-35 through Austin is no fun. Traffic is terrible. Drivers don’t seem to understand how to merge. Merging traffic from on-ramps or junctions caused stoppages time and again. What I saw was people in the right lane closing up on a vehicle ahead to prevent merging traffic from coming in front of them. People coming onto the Interstate from on-ramps don’t accelerate sufficiently to merge causing drivers in the right lane to brake as the merging traffic enters at insufficient speed. It’s what I call low-performance driving.

Nally, our GPS directed us onto US290. This became confusing. There are two US 290s heading east. One is a toll road and the other is a frontage road. The frontage road had stop lights every mile or so, so I took the toll road. However, there weren’t any toll booths, just signs to pay the toll by mail or with a TxTag pass. I guess I’ll have to wait and see if I get a bill since I don’t have a TxTag pass and don’t know how to pay by mail.

We rolled all the way to Houston without stopping. The traffic on the Sam Houston Tollway (where they have a toll booth) was harrowing at times but we managed to make it to the Flying J station at Richey Road and took on 72 gallons of diesel fuel. This worked out to be 7.6 miles per gallon – not bad when you consider the amount of generator run time we had at Buchanan Dam. Our diesel generator runs off the same tank as our engine. From there, it was only a few miles to the North Lake RV Resort where we’ll stay until next Monday. This is an upscale park and we have an excellent site where we’re parked nose in, looking at the lake.

Donna’s herb garden on our picnic table

Getting into our site was a little tougher than I anticipated. We dropped the trailer and had a few false attempts before we could line up the coach properly. Once we were situated, I completed the dumping and flushing of our holding tanks while I got us set up. Meanwhile, Donna did her exercise challenges and power walked a couple of laps around the park. I’m looking forward to some catch-and-release fishing in the lake and attending the Ironman event over the weekend.

Trailer on the right and tree on the left made tight quarters

Trailer on the right and tree on the left made for tricky parking

Donna pan fried cumin-cayenne crusted tilapia with sauteed peppers and onions with zucchini and cherry tomatoes for dinner. She found fresh tilapia sourced from Mexico at HEB and it was delicious.

Cumin- cayenne crusted tilapia dinner plate

Sunset out our windshield

The weather forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. We plan to ride the scooter to The Woodlands to meet Allen and Crystal Hutchinson for lunch.

Stormy Night

We pulled out of Fort Stockton RV Park shortly before their 11am checkout time yesterday. We drove back east on I-10 five miles to the Flying J travel center and topped up our tank with 44 gallons of diesel fuel at the truck fueling pumps. Our route for the day took us westbound on I-10 to US67 through the towns of McCamey and Big Lake. It’s about 140 miles to San Angelo from Fort Stockton.

We stopped at a roadside picnic table west of Big Lake. Donna made a salad for herself and I had a 6″ Subway sandwich that Donna had bought for me at the Flying J travel center. The weather was nice with the temperature in the morning in the lower 70s and steadily climbing as we traveled. US67 is a two-lane highway without much traffic. We had a tailwind and it was an easy drive to San Angelo State Park.

There are more than 60 RV sites in the park. We’re in a long pull-through site with great separation between us and our neighbors. The site has 50 amp service and fresh water but no sewer hook-up.

San Angelo State Park site 2

Their website advertises the site for $20/night. That seems fair enough but you have add a $4 park entrance fee. When we got here, we were informed the $4 fee is per person, so make that $8 for a total cost of $28/night.

It was getting hot out when we arrived here – over 90 degrees. I connected to the 50 amp pedestal and we had both air conditioners running in no time. The sites are fairly level, so getting set up was quick and painless. I rewarded myself with a Left Coast Brewing VooDoo American Stout.

VooDoo American stout

This is a tasty beer. Dark roasted malt gives hints of coffee and chocolate at 8% alcohol by volume.

Donna was outside and told me she saw bison northeast of our site. I walked out through a field (being mindful of the prickly pear cactus) and shot a photo. Later, Donna went for a walk and got closer – close enough to see they were fake silhouettes. How disappointing. There are supposed to be real bison and longhorn cattle in the park. Hans Kohl (Metamorphosis Road) told me there are also javelina here.

Bison silhouettes in the center

I grilled a rack of lamb for dinner. Donna spiced the lamb with fresh herbs and garlic.

Rack of lamb on the grill

Donna served it with a spinach and sweet potato hash.

Lamb with sweet potato spinach hash

It was so good!

My friend, Dave Glynn offered to have us park on his vacation property at Buchanan Dam. I looked at the property on Google Earth and was confused about how to enter the property and park. I phoned Dave while I was looking at the image. After talking with him again, I have a clear idea of what to do now. We’ll move about 160 miles southeast and stay there for a couple of nights.

We kept an eye on the weather all day yesterday. I saw a few thunderheads around us, but we seemed to be in the right spot. There were reports of severe weather to the northeast of us. All was fine when we went to bed.

I woke up at 2am as rain was pelting the roof and the coach was shaking from the wind. The topper over the living room slide was flapping violently. I got up and pulled the living room slide in. Donna and I sat in the front seats and watched the storm. I don’t remember ever seeing lightning like that. It was continuous, flickering light for half an hour. I looked at my cell phone weather radar app and saw we were in the middle of a storm cell. Twenty-five minutes later, I could see that the storm was moving to the east. Here’s a screen shot of the radar I took at 2:25 a.m.

Screenshot from my weather radar app – we’re the blue dot

The heavy rain turned to hail when we went back to bed. The hail drummed on the roof for several minutes, then it was rain again. I finally dozed off around 3am and slept fitfully.

Our original plan was to hang around, do some hiking and get a good look at the park. They have a 2pm check out time. Looking at the forecast, we’ve changed our plan. More severe weather is supposed to move into the area this afternoon. I want to be hunkered down, not out on the road if that happens. So we’re packing up and moving to Dave’s property this morning.

Hawaiian Festival

I spent most of Saturday recovering from Friday’s beach house graduation party. Donna went out for a bike ride, but it was well past noon before I ventured out.

There’s always something going on at Mission Bay Park on the weekends. Last weekend was no exception. After lunch, we walked to the grassy park at De Anza Cove just outside of the RV park and found the San Diego Hawaiian Festival, a two-day event held every year on the first weekend of May. There’s a fairly large and active Pacific Islander community in San Diego. Although the festival was called Hawaiian, it really catered to Hawaiians, Samoans, Filipinos and other Polynesian islanders.

There were dozens of vendors set up in tents or under canopies. One area was set up as a food court. They also had continuous live entertainment with two stages in the park — one large stage on the north side with musicians and dancers and a smaller stage next to the cove.

Traditional dance in front of the large stage

Island music by the cove

We wandered around looking at the vendor offerings and listening to the music. By the bay, we saw a large outrigger canoe. Polynesian sailors historically used these vessels to navigate between the islands.

Outrigger canoe

Kicking back and enjoying the festival

We had visitors on Sunday – my three daughters and granddaughter Gabi rode beach bikes six miles from the beach house where they were staying to the RV park. Everyone was hungry, so we walked over to the Hawaiian Festival and bought lunch from a vendor and sat at a picnic table by the bay, enjoying Hawaiian fare – chicken and kalbi (beef) teriyaki bowls and several different salads.

Gabi had Hawaiian shaved ice for dessert

We walked through the vendor area again. It seemed like every other vendor was selling T-shirts. I was tempted to buy, but held off. Donna bought a visor for playing pickleball. Mostly we were just looky-loos.

Festival vendor

After we returned to our place, I rode the scooter over to the Liquor Locker on Morena Boulevard to buy a few specialty craft beers. I brought back Stone Chai Spiced Russian Stout, Belching Beaver Horchata Stout, Peanut Butter Stout and Alesmith IPA. I split the 22-ounce bottles four ways and sampled each with my daughters. Tasty stuff, way out of the ordinary.

Belching Beaver Horchata Stout

Donna prepared Italian-herbed boneless chicken thighs and Mediterranean quinoa salad. While she was preparing the dishes, we had appetizers — jicama fresh fries that we dipped in homemade guacamole and also veggies and tortilla chips with Donna’s homemade sun-dried tomato and basil hummus. The girls also brought some Bitchin’ Sauce that they bought at the farmer’s market in Little Italy the day before.

Donna’s sister, Sheila, and her nephew, Connor, joined us for dinner and brought Bandit, their puppy. While I was grilling the chicken, Gabi and Connor put Donna’s hula hoops to good use.

Gabi hooping

Shauna’s roommate, Cat, (also a magna cum laude Cal Western graduate) joined us and we all enjoyed a great meal at the table outside of our coach.

Dining al fresco with family and friends

It was a fine finish to the weekend. Gabi stayed behind after everyone left and spent the night with us in the coach. She really likes staying in the RV. After the last time she stayed with us in Washington, she told her mother (my oldest daughter Alana) that they could live the RV lifestyle once her older sister, Lainey graduates from high school.

The skies are overcast this morning. The weather guessers are calling for a high temperature in the upper 60s and there’s a high surf advisory at the beaches. Waves up to 12 feet tall are predicted. I’ll get a start on organizing the trailer today. I want to have everything buttoned up so I only have to load the scooter tomorrow afternoon. Tuesday is Cinco de Mayo, which happens to be our wedding anniversary. We plan to go out to dinner on Harbor Island, then we’ll head out of San Diego Wednesday morning.

Minimalist RV Meet Up

We started off with a rain shower Saturday morning. The day remained overcast and blustery all day. After lunch, I scootered Donna to her sister’s house in Point Loma. Donna’s sister, Sheila is a physical therapist. Donna’s elbow is bothering her, she has tennis elbow, triggered by playing pickleball. While Sheila treated Donna’s elbow, I dropped off packages at the UPS store and the post office.

It looked like the skies were clearing over San Diego Bay to the south but when we rode back to Mission Bay, it was still cool and cloudy. The wind was blowing with strong gusts and occasional rain drops when I tried to grill chicken for dinner. I say tried because the gusty wind blew out the flame on our grill. I’ve never had that happen with the Weber Q before. Donna had to bake the chicken in the convection oven.

On Saturday evening, I enjoyed the Detroit Red Wings playoff game in Tampa Bay. Detroit won 4-0 to take a 3-2 game lead. I’m looking forward to game six tonight.

We had clear blue skies and warmer weather yesterday for a meeting that Donna had organized. She invited members of a San Diego minimalist group to come and learn more about the full-time RV lifestyle. Unfortunately, the group leader Bruce had a family emergency and had to go out of town at the last minute. Another group member, Debbie, agreed to take the lead and shuttle in members. We ended up with five for the session, which we hosted at our site.

Donna started off by talking about downsizing and organizing and how we came to be full-time RVers. I led a more technical discussion about the different types of RVs and different approaches to the RV lifestyle. After a 40-minute discussion, Donna gave the group a tour of our coach.

From there, we walked the group through the RV park, beginning with a look at our neighbor’s fifth-wheel trailer set-up and his truck which tows it. I explained how the fifth wheel is coupled to the truck and how maneuverable it is. Then we walked to our friend Bob Schmitt’s site. I showed them how Bob’s coach is set up to haul his Harley and tow his GMC Jimmy.

We looked at the tiny MyPod trailer that I posted about previously. As we walked through the park, we identified different classes of motor homes and looked at fifth-wheel and tow-behind travel trailers.

We stopped to admire an Airstream trailer. The owners were sitting outside and we struck up a conversation. They invited the group to take a look inside. The owners were a young couple living full time in their Airstream and working in San Diego. He is a brew master at Modern Times Brewery in Point Loma.

We continued our tour with a look at another smaller travel trailer – a Casita. Again, the owner invited the group to take a look inside. I think by this time, the group was beginning to understand our statements about the sense of community among those embracing the RV lifestyle. The Casita was in the site next to Martha’s Airstream. Martha is the 77-year-old full-timer I wrote about in this post. Martha gave a tour of her rig and then we continued down the lane.

We made another stop at Karen’s 2013 Big Country fifth-wheel trailer. This is a large rig. Karen invited the group to have a look inside and see the layout. By this time, everyone had a chance to see rigs of various sizes and construction. We came back to our site and continued the discussion. We originally thought the discussion and tour would take about an hour, but we were two hours into it! The group was very enthusiastic and inspired by the tour. I think we may have inspired a couple of them to take the plunge into the RV lifestyle.

Minimalist group - Barbara, Donna, Erin, Hal, Jeanne and Debbie

Minimalist group – Barbara, Donna, Erin, Al, Jeanne and Debbie

Later, I rode the scooter to my old neighborhood. I had sent a message to Christine Brutschy Becker asking if it would be okay for me to stop by to say “hi” to her and her mother. She told me to come on over. They had a birthday party for her granddaughter, Annika, in progress and the extended family was there.

It’s been such a long time since I last saw Donna Brutschy, neither one of us could remember when it was. Chris’s son, Matthew, was a kid the last time I saw him – he’s in his mid-forties now. Chris’s daughter was a teen the last time I saw her – now she’s a beautiful mom. I also met Chris’s niece, Danielle, another beautiful mother that was just a child the last time I saw her. I met their husbands, whom I never met before and their children.

I have a lot of memories from the Brutschy’s house. When I was a teen, I spent a lot of time there and was generally treated like part of the family. One of my first memories of their place came after Howard Brutschy and I rode dirt bikes out to Rose Canyon and spent the night camped out. In the morning, we rode back to his house. His mother Donna prepared breakfast for us. She asked me if I liked my scrambled eggs wet or dry. I didn’t know how to answer – no one had ever asked me that before. I just said, “However you prepare them will be fine.”

I don’t know how the eggs were prepared. I was mesmerized over breakfast by the beauty of Howard’s younger sister, Vicki. I was 15 years old and totally infatuated. That’s just one of many memories of my teenage years at the Brutschy residence.

Matthew Becker, Donna Brutschy and me

Sheila picked us up at the RV park at 6pm. We went to Sushi Ota to celebrate her son Connor’s 11th birthday with his favorite dinner – sushi. Connor’s friend, Sam, came along. We ordered a platter of sushi and hand rolls.

Sam, Connor, Sheila and Donna

Yummy sushi platter

The sushi was excellent as usual. Sushi Ota has a well-deserved reputation for the quality of their sushi. Sheila brought a German chocolate cake for dessert. Although I don’t usually follow a meal of sushi with cake, the top-hat shaped cake was delicious as well.

Happy birthday to Connor

I finished off a very full day with a bottle of Alesmith IPA. They are one of my favorite San Diego breweries.

Great beer

Today we are back to clear skies and warm, sunny weather. I’m thinking I might break out the ladder and clean the coach. The Red Wings playoff game comes on at 4pm, then we have dinner plans with my daughter, Shauna.

Guests for a Month?

When I started blogging, I had no idea of the number of spammers that post comments on blog sites. I have software (Akismet) to block spam and it’s pretty effective most of the time. Every once in a while though, a clever spammer will get a comment through.

The Akismet program has identified and blocked nearly 50,000 spam comments (49,591 to be precise) since I installed it. It has also blocked nearly 5,000 malicious log in attempts. These are cases where someone is trying to take control of the site by logging in as an administrator.

When someone is clever enough to get their comment past the spam software, the comment is held in limbo for moderation. If the person posting the comment has never had a comment approved before, I have to approve the comment before it’s published.

I’ve been hoodwinked a few times and approved comments that turned out to be spam. When I realize I’ve been had, I go back and remove the comments. I think this is important for the integrity of the site and to protect readers from being redirected to unwanted sites.

Yesterday one got by me. I believed the comment was a legitimate request. I posted the comment on a Facebook RV group and had a number of responses that led me to believe it was a spammer. The request did seem a little over the top, but believeable. Here’s the comment with the link removed:

We are producing a web series project that features Full Time RVers in the US. We are looking for those with RVs that would be willing to host a couple on your travels for one month for USD$1,000.00 plus fuel costs. During that month, we will be documenting your experiences as a Full Time RVer. If you are interested, or know of someone that would be, please email us at…

The first clue is the reference to USD$. Maybe this is coming from a foreigner looking for a cheap, monthlong tour of the states. I don’t know what the angle is, but in hindsight, it doesn’t seem legitimate.

On another note, I mentioned in my last post how Donna and I enjoyed good food and happy hour at Sardina’s Italian Restaurant. I’ve said before that Donna is the queen of networking. Well she proved it again at Sardina’s. While we were dining, Donna noticed two women drinking wine at a table near us. She asked me if I thought one of them was a woman we met at Sardina’s when were came here in the fall of 2013. I couldn’t tell if it was or not. Donna seemed sure it was the same woman we talked with at the bar over a year ago.

As we were preparing to leave, I made a quick pit stop in the men’s room. Donna went to the other table and introduced herself to the two women. It turns out she wasn’t the woman Donna was thinking of. We had one thing in common though. She was a Clairemont High School alumni, class of ’73 – one year before I graduated. Her name is Dianne Brittingham (nee Zinser). She is the president of the Pacific Beach Woman’s Club. By the time we left, Donna had an invitation to speak at the woman’s club the next time we’re in town.

Yesterday was another day of rest and recuperation for Donna. Her idea of rest and recuperation was to do a thorough deep cleaning of the coach while I was out playing pickleball. Later, she had dinner with her sister, Sheila, in Point Loma.

I went over to Dan Diego’s European Bistro to sample a couple of beers and a bowl of their Irish stew. I had a beer brewed by Stift Engelszell – a brewery at a Trappist monastery in Austria. There’s only one Trappist monastery in Austria. There are two in the Netherlands, six in Belgium and one in the United States. Trappist beers are strong with complex flavor. The Engelszell I had is called Gregorius. It’s a quadruppel style beer with 9.7% ABV. Unlike most quadruppels, it isn’t brewed with candy sugar. The ABV is pumped up by adding honey to the wort instead. It’s a great brew with a rum raisin flavor.

Gregorius

While I was there, Bob Schmitt joined me for a beer. He had a Latitude 33 IPA. Lattitude 33 is a San Diego County brewery. Their IPA is easy to drink despite it’s 7.3% ABV. Bob’s wife Sini is away for the next 10 days, so Bob is living the bachelor life at Mission Bay RV Resort a few sites away from us. I’ve mentioned Bob’s vehicle before and I need to correct myself. I called it a vintage Chevy Blazer – well, it’s actually a GMC Jimmy – nearly identical, but I wanted point out the error.

We had a rain shower again this morning. There’s a 20% chance of another shower at mid-day and the high will only reach the mid-60s. The weather guessers are calling for continued cool temperatures through the weekend. Then we’ll see upper 70s next week.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Beer

Beale Street

Great Day in College Station

Jumbo Shrimp

Key Allegro Island

Texas Ironman

Stormin’ in Texas

Stormy Night

Hawaiian Festival

Minimalist RV Meet Up

Guests for a Month?

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