Category Archives: Restaurants

Secret Caverns

On Friday morning, Donna and I rode the scooter down Caverns Road, aptly named as Secret Caverns and Howes Caverns are located along this road. This area of upstate New York, north of the Catskills Mountains, has a number of caves. Intrepid spelunkers can explore on their own, but beginners are best advised to tour one of the commercial caverns.

Howe Caverns is located on a large, well-developed property with a motel, gift shop and outdoor activities. It has an elevator that drops you 156 feet into the earth and the tour includes a boat ride on an underground river. It’s the second most visited attraction in New York State after Niagara Falls. In 1928, another cavern was found nearby. Roger Mallery was working as an engineer developing Howes Cavern at the time. He purchased the newly found cavern up the road and called it Secret Caverns and began to develop it.

Secret Caverns is doesn’t have the huge manicured lawns and buildings found at Howes. It’s a little off-beat and funky. We opted to visit Secret Caverns. Donna had been to Howes before, but this was her first trip to Secret Caverns.

Secret Caverns is still owned by the Mallery family. Being privately owned, they set the rules and the rules are pretty loose. You take the tour with a guide. The guide tells corny jokes and also gives interesting facts. The guide also operates the lighting – turning lights on as you make your way down and turning lights off behind the group.

The first part of the descent into the earth is on steps either cut into the rock or cast from concrete. Water drips from the ceiling in many areas and the steps are mostly wet – along with the hand rail. You’re allowed to touch the walls and take all the pictures you want on this tour.

At the bottom of the 103 steps, the cavern floor becomes a narrow trail that slowly descends. The overhead clearance is low at times, I’m only 5′ 9″ and I had to duck to get through some sections. It’s also narrow enough in places to make your shoulders hunch. The temperature inside the cavern is a constant 50 degrees year ’round.

I won’t try to explain all of the pictures – hopefully they capture some of the feeling in the cave.

Entrance

Cave entry

Calcite flowstone

Narrow passage

100-foot waterfall at the bottom

At the bottom of the cave, there’s a 100-foot waterfall. A subterranean stream empties into the cave. It’s warmer by the waterfall as the water hasn’t cooled as much as the water that seeps through the stone. It’s also very humid by the falls. The waterfall forms a shallow pool before it seeps into the Cobleskill and Schoharie creeks.

On the way back up, the guide stopped us about halfway and turned out the lights. It’s total darkness without artificial light. You can’t see your hand in front of your face! The last part of the tour was climbing up 103 wet steps to exit. It was fun and I recommend the tour.

Afterwards, Donna and I rode through the Howes Cavern property but didn’t stop. It was crowded – it’s a popular place. From there we rode to the Caverns Palace Restaurant and met up with Donna’s parents for lunch. The food was good and it was a great opportunity to visit with Duke and Lorraine before we pulled out of the area.

I spent most of the afternoon packing the trailer and stowing the windshield covers and tire covers. I also checked tire pressures. I drained the water from our fresh water tank. I had filled it at Addison Oaks in Michigan where the water is hard and had lots of iron along with other minerals. I had filtered the water, but the naturally soft water here is so much better. I refilled the tank with 100 gallons of fresh water.

Some people don’t travel with a full fresh water tank – they don’t want the weight. I prefer to have the tank full and the holding tanks empty. You never know what might come up on the road. If you’re stranded or stuck somewhere, plenty of fresh water, holding tank capacity and diesel fuel all come in handy.

I grilled wild salmon on the Traeger wood pellet fired grill for dinner along with sliced red onions wrapped in aluminum foil. Donna served the caramelized onions over the salmon. I’m still learning how to use this grill and unfortunately I overcooked the salmon.

Caramelized red onions on grilled salmon

On Saturday morning, after a brief thundershower, we pulled out of our site and hit the dump station. We made our way up to Amsterdam, New York and headed east on NY29. We drove through back country roads and found a Walmart that allows overnight parking in Queensbury.

Today we’ll make the 20-mile drive to the Lake George Escape campground and meet up with Donna’s sister Linda and her husband Tommy.

On Familiar Grounds

We were up early yesterday and didn’t waste any time preparing to leave St. Ignace. I dumped and flushed our holding tanks even though it had only been a few days since I last did that. I wanted the tanks empty because we won’t be hooked up to a sewer line for at least a week. The black tank won’t be an issue, but we have to be careful with our gray water. We’re so used to full hook-ups that we don’t think much about our water use. Though we never run water while brushing our teeth, we do like to luxuriate in long, hot showers. And Donna does a load of laundry most days. But we’re in water conservation mode now.

We pulled out of Lakeside RV Park around 9am and made a stop just two miles later at Jerry’s Pasty Shop. We bought three pasties (pronounced PAST-eez) and some smoked whitefish along with a whitefish sausage. These are staples of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Pasties are a baked pastry that originated in Cornwall – the southernmost county of England. They’re made by placing uncooked meat and vegetables in a circular shortcrust pastry, folding in half, and then crimping the edges to seal the filling inside. Once baked, the result is much like a pot pie with a turnover shape. They were a favorite of Cornish miners who spread the dish around the world. Whitefish is a prime commercial species from the Great Lakes and it’s delicious smoked.

A few miles later, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge and entered the Michigan mitten – if you look at a map of the lower mainland of Michigan, it resembles a mitten. The toll for RVs crossing the bridge is five dollars per axle. With our cargo trailer in tow, we are a three-axle vehicle so it cost us $15 to cross. The last time we crossed this bridge was on our motorcycles back in 2010 when we did a 2,400-mile tour that included the U.P.

Right lane closed – there seems to always be construction work on the bridge

Donna’s view of Lake Michigan to west from from the Mackinac Bridge

Once across the bridge in Mackinaw City, the sky darkened and the windshield became wet with mist. The wipers swept the windshield intermittently and visibility was reduced by the foggy mist. As we drove south on I-75, we hit brief thundershowers with heavy rain at times. There were a few dry patches but it was mostly rain or mist with a gloomy overcast. Around noon, I fired up the generator and Donna put a pasty in the convection oven. We stopped at a Pilot/Flying J travel center near Saginaw. I filled our fuel tank and we parked to eat lunch. The pasty was filled with chicken, potato, carrots and peas. It was tasty and very filling.

Ozark seemed content in her crate. It was our third day in a row on the road and it seems she has accepted travel in her crate. She spent the whole six hours mostly sleeping, often soundly, and didn’t complain.

We took the I-475 loop in Flint and hit I-69 eastbound. I thought it was odd. The interstate numbering system has odd numbers on north-south routes and even numbers on east-west routes. I-69 is east-west from Lansing all the way to Port Huron. From Lansing it turns south to Fort Wayne, Indiana and points beyond, but I think it’s strange to designate the interstate from Lansing to Port Huron I-69.

We were on familiar ground. We found our way to Addison Oaks County Park in Oakland County, Michigan. We lived near here from 2009 until I retired and we hit the road in July 2013. Check-in was easy – we had reserved and prepaid for our week-long stay. Dropping the trailer wasn’t so quick and easy. The narrow gravel road curves past our site. Getting the trailer into position took a few attempts before I got it right.

Our spacious back-in site with the trailer in our parking space.

This was the first time I had to drop the trailer since we were in Texas two months ago.

We were hooked up and settled in quickly with everything done by 4:15pm. A little past 5pm, our friend Nancy picked us up in her van. We drove to Lake Orion where we picked up her husband Tom and headed over to Kruse and Muer Roadhouse in Lake Orion for dinner.

We had a great meal with lots of conversation and laughs for the next couple of hours. Coincidentally, one of Tom’s water ski buddies sat at the table next to us. We recruited him as the photographer for our group photo.

Tom, Nancy, Donna and me

They dropped us off around 8pm and we gave Tom a quick tour of the coach. The coach and trailer are badly in need of a wash after driving all day on wet roads. That’s my chore for today.

Donna’s bicycling buddy, Bill Frahm, is coming over at 11am. They’ll probably take their bikes to Stony Creek Metropark near our old house to ride.

Senior Olympics Experience

I scootered Donna to Enterprise rental car in Shakopee on Tuesday. We met back at the Dakotah Meadows RV Park and had lunch before we headed out to the Minneapolis Convention Center. The gal at Enterprise gave Donna a free upgrade on the car – we got a VW Passat and it had South Dakota plates matching our coach and scooter plates!

VW Passat with South Dakota plates

We found parking across the street from the convention center and made our way to the hall where check-in for the Senior Olympic Games was taking place. Donna picked up her packet and we had a look around. Pickleball is a Senior Olympic sport. We found a vendor near the pickleball area selling high-end paddles made by RiverStyx here in Minnesota. They were very lightweight and reported to be extra durable, but at $166 each, we passed.

Donna at the check-in

From the convention center, we drove out to the fairgrounds to preview the bicycle race course. We saw several racers riding the course for practice. The course was laid out entirely within the fairgrounds complex. It was a criterium-style course with lots of tight turns and little elevation change. The length of the course was just over three miles – the race would cover eight laps. Donna hadn’t raced on this style of course before – she’s always been on longer road courses with fewer turns.

Donna said the race started at 9am for all competitors. She had e-mails dating back for months stating this. I found it hard to believe. For one thing, men and women rarely start together. Add in the fact that 300 riders were expected. Three hundred riders of all age groups, genders and abilities on a tight criterium race course at once would be a recipe for disaster. She was nervous and I was nervous for her.

On the way home, we made another stop to visit with Donna’s friend, Shannon. We took a tour of her house and chatted for about 40 minutes before we were back on the road. By then, we were hitting rush hour traffic and it was brutal. One of the things I don’t miss at all is the requirement to commute in rush-hour traffic. I don’t have to do it, so I avoid it whenever possible.

On Tuesday night, I was looking for additional race information on the Internet. I stumbled upon a document that showed all cycling participants by group with different start times for each group. One group would begin their race starting at 8am. Donna’s race would start at 9:30am. This document wasn’t provided in the race packet nor was any reference made to it in any communication Donna received from the organization. We were glad I found it, but not too impressed with the way we accidentally learned the schedule.

We were up early on Wednesday morning. Well, Donna was up early, she didn’t wake me until 6:40am. I was planning on leaving here by 7am. That didn’t happen – it was 7:15 by the time we left. I had mapped a different route from the traffic-ensnarled route we took the day before. Our new route took us east, then we hit I-35E north. This worked so much better. That’s always the challenge when we’re in new locations – we don’t know the traffic patterns and best alternate routes. Google maps help, but there’s nothing like local knowledge.

We made the drive in less than an hour. We found the check-in table despite the lack of any signage directing racers where to check-in or what was expected. We talked to several people who all thought the race started at 9am. The men’s races didn’t begin until 11am with some of the age groups starting at 1pm and 3pm. A lot of guys were unhappy about getting up early and fighting traffic to be there for a 9am start that wasn’t happening. The race director really needs to figure out how to communicate the schedule. I wonder if anyone missed the 8am race, thinking their event started at 9am.

We found Donna’s Aunt Kathy and her cousin Ginny at the start/finish area. Donna warmed up and staged shortly before the 9:30am start. As I suspected, the race pace was very fast. The leaders were experienced racers who powered through the turns on this flat course. Donna started off fast but says she got dropped in the first quarter mile. The pace at that point was 27.2 mph! Her goal was not to crash and to average 17-18mph with some drafting. Riding alone, she made it to the finish with a 16.7mph average pace. She was feeling her lack of training these last months due to a combination of heavy rain, unsafe roads, and too-hilly routes along our route. So while she didn’t do as well as she expected, she’s happy to have had the experience of making it to the National Senior Games.

Donna on the course

Catch the draft

After the race, we followed Ginny and Kathy to a popular restaurant called Muffuletta’s in the Como Park neighborhood. Of course, Donna and I ordered the muffaletta sandwich. I had sweet potato fries on the side with mine – Donna had a salad. Donna’s Aunt Kathy used to work nearby and says this restaurant gets packed for lunch and dinner. The service and the food was excellent and we enjoyed eating outdoors on the patio.

Donna, Ginny and Kathy after the race

We backtracked our route down I-35E and made a stop at Costco. We wanted to stock up on a few things while we had a car. I ended up making an impulse buy that I’ll describe in my next post.

Today we expect mostly sunny skies with the temperature reaching 80 degrees. Later this afternoon, Donna will drive to downtown St. Paul for a book signing at Subtext Books.

Cat Call

We rode the scooter back to the College of the Ozarks yesterday – I wrote about our visit there last weekend in this post. We wanted to see some things that weren’t open on the weekend.

First, we stopped at the tractor museum. The College of the Ozarks has an agriculture program, so a museum with farm tractors and other implements is fitting. The displays are housed in an air-conditioned building with three rooms. They have farm tractors from the early 1900s up to a tractor that was used by the school in the 1990s.

The first successful farm tractor in the U.S. was built by Charles W. Hart and Charles H. Parr in Charles City, Iowa. I don’t know if the name of the city has anything to do with their given names. In 1903, they built 15 farm tractors with two-cylinder gasoline engines.

The early tractors had steel wheels with cleats for traction. Around 1930, lugged rubber pneumatic tires for tractors were developed and retro-fitted on some tractors. These tires proved to be better – they offered better traction and fuel savings. They didn’t ruin pavement where the steel cleats would punch holes. And they could be used to cultivate around trees without damaging the roots. By 1932, tractors were coming from the factory with rubber tires. Instead of giving a blow-by-blow account of the museum, I’ll post pictures.

1929 Hart Parr

1930 Rumely

1919 Wallis

Farmall

John Deere

Oliver Row Crop 77

1954 Chevrolet truck used by the college

After I had enough of the tractor display, we went to the Edwards Mill building. This is a working old-fashioned mill that stone-grinds grains.

Donna by the water wheel that powers the mill

Mill stones that were used for 100 years

Click to enlarge

The main floor of the Edwards Mill is a store. They sell a variety of stone ground flour, sausage, jerky and jellies made on campus. They also have books and a few other items. Upstairs, they have a weaving room with looms of all sizes.

Two of the looms in the weaving room

Our next stop was the Dobyns restaurant at the Keeter Center on campus. We didn’t have reservations and the wait would be 30 minutes or more. We were hungry, so we took a quick look around the beautiful Adirondack-style building and left.

We had lunch at the Brunch Club by the Harter House store on the way home. I ordered their Chinese lunch special – General’s chicken. It was a mistake. Donna enjoyed her catfish, but we were left wishing we would have waited at Dobyns. Donna bought groceries at Harter House, including two bacon-wrapped filet mignons for dinner.

When I was grilling chicken the other night, a cat appeared under our coach. The cat was very skittish and wary. It was also skinny. When I approached, it ran off and hid under our neighbor’s coach. I broke off a couple of chunks of grilled chicken and tossed them in the grass near the cat. It waited until I was back inside our coach before it came out to eat the chicken.

Last night, as I was grilling the filets, the cat appeared again. This time I knelt down and clicked my tongue softly. The cat approached me and let me pet it. I came inside and had Donna open a can of tuna. She put about half the can of tuna on a paper plate. I went back outside and the cat approached me again. I put the plate down and the cat scarfed the tuna quickly.

Cat visitor dining on tuna

While I grilled the filets, Donna gave the cat a little milk for dessert. The filets came out great. I also grilled fresh corn on the cob to go with the steak. I like to soak the corn in the husk for about 20 minutes before I put it on the grill. Some people say this isn’t necessary, but I do it to keep the husk from burning and it also steams the corn inside the husk. The bacon-wrapped filets and fresh corn on the cob were outstanding.

Bacon-wrapped filet mignon hot off the grill

While we ate, our new feline friend hung around. She rubbed up against our legs as we dined and then laid next to the table to take a snooze.

After dinner – nap time

We’ll head back over to the College of the Ozarks for the farmers’ market this morning. Hopefully we’ll beat the rain in the forecast. Thunderstorms are a certainty by this afternoon according to the weather guessers.

The Texas Mosey

The weather on Friday was a mixed bag, but we didn’t have any of the heavy rains that we had the night before. The precipitation was mostly a light mist drizzling down. Every once in a while, the sun would break through for a few minutes. Of course, every time I stepped outside, raindrops would start falling.

The water level in Turkey Creek receded throughout the day, although the woods along the bank here at Turkey Creek RV Village remain flooded. The ground is so saturated that I’ve had to re-level the coach a few times. Even though I put 12″ square pads under the foot of the jacks on the left side of the coach where it’s low, the pads are sinking into the ground.

Donna did her usual power walk on Friday. I spent a lot of time on Friday dealing with a vendor that shipped new air conditioner shrouds for our rooftop air conditioners. When I tracked the packages, it showed delivery was refused and the packages were going back to the shipper. It’s a long story that I will tell you about later.

On Saturday morning, Donna and I rode the scooter to Branson for the weekly farmers’ market. I rode to the intersection at Pacific Street and Business 65 where the market was supposed to be. No sign of an open air farmers’ market. We asked a delivery guy on the street about the market – he said it hasn’t been there for months. I guess they need to update their web page.

Since we were out and about, we decided to ride back through Hollister and head west to the College of the Ozarks. The College of the Ozarks is located on a beautiful, 16-acre campus at Point Lookout. We scootered through the campus and saw a few buildings that we want to return to. One of them is a tractor and farm implement museum. Since it was Saturday, the museum was closed. I’m a gearhead, but it isn’t just racing machinery that fascinates me. I like old tractors, trucks and trains too.

The College of the Ozarks is a Christian liberal arts school. It charges no tuition for full-time students. Instead, it has a work program for students which requires 15 hours of work at on-campus work stations per week plus two 40-hour work weeks during breaks. Approximately 1,500 students attend the college which is staffed by a faculty of about 90. It awards Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. It was originally called the School of the Ozarks. In 1973, the Wall Street Journal dubbed it “Hard Work U” and the nickname stuck. In 1990, the name was changed to College of the Ozarks.

We rode around the campus trying to find the Point Lookout view. The signage was confusing, but a student gave us directions. We parked the scooter at the Williams Memorial Chapel on campus and walked out to the viewpoint.

Williams Memorial Chapel

We followed the walkway behind the chapel. The viewpoint was a rocky outcropping with a metal railing. Parts of it were wet and slippery from runoff. The rocky point had natural steps as well as carved steps leading down and away from the sidewalk. The last step down is a long one – we had to sit on the step and hop down. Getting back up wasn’t too hard – we grabbed the rail and pulled ourselves up the giant step.

Lake Taneycomo east of Point Lookout

Home and boat docks directly below Point Lookout

Homes and boat docks directly below Point Lookout

Lake Taneycomo west of Point Lookout

It was getting hot out – humid and nearly 90 degrees. We were working up a sweat just walking. When we were in Texas, we noticed most of the locals tended to walk very slowly. We also saw that in Memphis and again around here. We came to the conclusion that when it’s this hot and humid, you don’t perspire as much if you move slowly. We adopted the Texas mosey and walked slowly back to the chapel.

We went inside the chapel and checked out the beautiful stained glass before we continued on the scooter. We rode south, then turned west on MO165. This road winds its way to Table Rock State Park and the dam at Table Rock Lake. On the way, we stopped at a roadside viewpoint and saw the dam. The spillways were releasing a surprising amount of water. With that much water flowing out of Table Rock Lake, it’s a wonder that the flood waters downstream are receding.

We rode across the dam, then turned back and stopped at the visitor center.

Table Rock Lake viewed from the visitor center

Donna talked to the park ranger about hiking in the area and picked up some maps. We’ll return on a weekday and hike along the lake. We also want to visit the fish hatchery.

On the way back, we stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called El Patio. We were curious about the quality of Mexican cuisine in this area. We know that when we get to the upper midwest, it’s hard to find good Mexican restaurants. Donna commented that she hadn’t seen any people of Mexican descent in the area. They were all at El Patio! We took that as a good sign.

I ordered a chicken taquito and enchilada plate from the lunch menu. Donna had two fish tacos. My plate was a little bland, but Donna said the fish tacos were great. The fish filet was fried then chopped into small pieces and blended with pico de gallo. Different than most fish tacos, but tasty. As we were leaving, Donna noticed a sign at the reception desk – El Patio was voted “Best Mexican restaurant” in 2014 and has a 5-star rating on TripAdvisor.

Later we rode over to the Bass Pro Shops store at Branson Landing. I wanted to find new flip flops. My current flip flops are great. They’re anatomically shaped with super arch support and are really comfortable. But I’ve worn them almost every day for the past year and I want to have a backup pair.

I didn’t find the flip flops I wanted but I did find shorts on sale for $18. I bought two pairs and will retire an old pair. Donna found new sports sunglasses that she liked and I bought them as well.

We also stopped at Macadoodles. I was surprised to find a gal at a table in the store serving whiskey samples. In most states, this wouldn’t be legal, but Missouri has loose alcohol laws. She was serving Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey and Jack Daniels Tennessee Fire. I sampled both. The Tennessee Honey had a maple-like flavor and I wasn’t too keen on it. The Tennessee Fire was cinnamon-infused bourbon and it was great! Much smoother than Fireball whiskey. I bought a bottle to add to the liquor cabinet.

Tennessee Fire

Today I have a project to attend to. I’ll get up on the roof and clear the debris that’s been shedding off the mimosa tree. Then I’ll replace the air conditioner shrouds. Once that task is done, I’ll watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix from Austria.

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.

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.

Birds and Birthdays

The weather has improved considerably over the last few days. We’ve had lots of sunshine and a lot less humidity. On Tuesday, we had a few sprinkles of rain, nothing measurable. Donna went to the community pool and swam laps on Tuesday morning. I puttered around at the RV park. I ventured out at one point to pick up a few things at the store.

My daughter Jamie and Francisco came up from Robstown a little after 3pm. We drove to the south side of Rockport to hit happy hour at Paradise Key Dockside Bar and Grill. The bar and grill used to be located on Key Allegro, which is an island on the north end of Rockport – it was called Paradise Key Island Grill at that time. The new location with the name changed is on a cove off Aransas Bay.

I can hear Jimmy Buffet

The coastal bend area of Texas is home to the Great Texas Birding Trail. At any time of the year, over 100 species of birds can be found here. In the winter, it’s home to the endangered whooping crane. Whooping cranes are the tallest North American bird. By 1941, unregulated hunting and loss of habitat had the whooping crane on the brink of extinction. There were just 21 wild birds and two in captivity at that time. Today, more than 200 whooping cranes winter in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge from November to April. Then they migrate north to their breeding grounds in Canada. Sandhill cranes, which are almost as large as whooping cranes, are also found here.

At the Paradise Key Dockside Bar and Grill, there is a bird watching platform at the end of the parking lot. It’s one of many bird viewing areas we’ve seen around here, but the first we’ve visited.

Bird watching platform

We stood on the platform for a few minutes and saw egrets, herons, gulls and pelicans. The pelicans we saw were smaller brown pelicans. The pelicans along the California coast are a larger sub-species. White pelicans can also be found along the Texas coastal bend, but we didn’t see any.

Brown pelican soaring past the platform

We watched the birds soaring on the wind currents, hunting for fish before we made our way inside. We sat out back on the deck. The deck overlooks a slough off the cove. There’s a marina in the distance. Boats cruised to the dock below and the occupants tied up there while they came in for a drink or bite to eat. On the weekends, there is live music on the deck.

View from the deck

We enjoyed a platter of tortilla chips with artichoke-crab dip and a couple of drinks while we took in the view and talked. Jamie and Francisco wanted to treat us to dinner. We thought about ordering dinner there, but decided to try another place that Donna’s friend, Dina Martin, another full-time RVer had suggested. She and her husband are from The Woodlands, Texas and spent a lot of time in Rockport.

We drove back into town and went to The Boiling Pot near Fulton. This is a funky, casual Cajun-style place. Once you’re seated, they cover your table with butcher paper and tie a plastic bib around your neck. Most of the items on the menu, such as crab, crawfish or sausage is served (dumped) on the butcher paper without a plate! Their signature entree is a combination plate featuring blue crab – but they were out of blue crab. We weren’t very hungry after the chips and dip, so three of us settled for gumbo and Jamie ordered red beans and rice with half a pound of boudin sausage. The food was good and the gumbo was enough for Donna and me. I don’t know if Francisco had enough to eat, but he didn’t complain.

We came back to our place and talked into the night. Jamie had brought two bottles of Tavel she found in Corpus Christi. Donna opened one. Jamie also picked up four large chocolate truffles that we enjoyed for dessert.

Wednesday was Donna’s birthday. She went to the community pool and swam a mile to celebrate her birthday. She hung out for a while at the pool afterward. She met a woman there and they sat in the sun and talked. Donna’s sporting a bit of sunburn today.

We went out for her birthday dinner. Donna chose Latitude 28°-02′. This is an upscale restaurant in Rockport. It’s also an art gallery. During the day, half of the building houses the art gallery. In the evening, the art gallery is used for dining. There’s another dining area that’s not part of the gallery. They serve seafood and steaks.

We both went for the seafood. Donna had blackened grouper with chipotle crawfish cream sauce. I had fish oscar which was made with the catch of the day – fresh red snapper – with crab meat, asparagus and hollandaise sauce on top. Both dishes were served with green beans and orzo on the side. My snapper was slightly overcooked, but otherwise delicious. The portions were larger than they appeared – Donna brought half of her fish home.

Happy birthday, Donna!

After dinner, we came home and watched a couple of episodes of Homeland. We enjoy the series although I have trouble sometimes with the unrealistic premise of the plot. That’s TV though – sometimes you have to overlook things since most shows can be picked apart.

Yesterday was also my youngest daughter Shauna’s birthday. She couldn’t enjoy her birthday much last year as it was her first day working as an intern at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington D.C. This year finds her back in D.C. studying for her bar exam. Happy birthday, Shauna.

Aransas Pass

Flexibility is a good trait when you live in an RV. Right now, our daily plans change from hour to hour depending on the weather. I don’t particularly like planning my activities around thunderstorms, but that’s the lot we drew when we booked time here in Rockport, Texas.

I expected more thunderstorms in the afternoon yesterday. We wanted to get out and explore the area. At 11am, we rode the scooter into the historic downtown Rockport neighborhood. One of the things we had in mind was a visit to the aquarium. Admission is free, but we found out that the museum hours are 1pm to 4pm daily except for Tuesday and Wednesday when they’re closed.

We kicked around downtown and shopped at a health food store. It was housed in half of a duplex, I’m assuming the proprietors live in the other half. There are a few funky little shops along six blocks or so of Austin Street. We took a look around the marina which had just about every type of boat imaginable docked there.

Then we decided to blast down the TX35 business route to Aransas Pass, about 12 miles south of Rockport. I thought Aransas Pass was a larger town than Rockport, but it really isn’t. Aransas Pass has about 500 fewer people than the population of 8,700 in Rockport. There wasn’t anything too exciting to see in Aransas Pass. We did find a couple of fish mongers with fresh seafood from the gulf. We stopped for lunch at the Bakery Cafe on the recommendation of a woman at one fish market.

The Bakery Cafe is a historic diner. It first opened in 1929. A short video of this small-town Texas diner can be found here. Donna and I both ordered the fried whitefish. I had mine with fries making it a fish and chips plate while Donna had a baked potato and salad with hers. The batter was fried to a nice crispy outer coating with moist, tender fish inside. It was a good choice for lunch.

After dining, we headed back to Rockport. We needed to do a little grocery shopping at HEB and I wanted to be back at the RV park by 2pm. The weather forecast called for thundershowers around that time. On the way back, we stopped at a little community on Aransas Bay on the east side of the highway south of Rockport. This community reminded me of Florida. The houses next to the bay are elevated on stilts. The rows of houses on roads perpendicular to the waterfront are separated by canals. Each home has its own boat dock in back on the canal. Some of the homes are large and obviously very expensive.

Aransas Bay near Estes Cove

House on stilts next to the bay

Canals separate the streets

It was an interesting neighborhood. I think some of the houses are seasonal second homes while others are occupied year-round.

We made it back to the park around 2pm. I covered the scooter and by 2:30pm we had raindrops. It wasn’t anything too big, just a passing shower. By 5pm, the skies were only partly cloudy, but we knew a big storm was coming. We originally planned to grill a pork tenderloin, but with the iffy weather, Donna put it in the slow cooker with salsa earlier in the day and made a taco casserole with it.

We watched a few episodes of Homeland before we called it a night. We’re almost through season one and we are both really enjoying this Showtime series. At 2am, the storm woke me up. There was so much lightning that it was light outside with flashes of darkness. The rain was pouring down, mixed with hail for a while. The wind rocked our coach. I got up and looked everything over. It was a big storm but we were secure and dry.

Weather radar app with alerts and warnings

This morning the rain has stopped, but there’s a lot of standing water in the area. Donna’s friend, Kathy Palmer, and her husband were in an RV park in San Marcos, Texas – between San Antonio and Austin. Late last night, they were told to prepare for evacuation and ended up having to leave around midnight because the river was expected to flood their park. They were relocated to a Walmart parking lot along with about 50 other RVs. This morning, the Walmart lot is flooded and rigs are stranded there with water up to the axles.

The forecast says we’ll stay dry until the early afternoon today. If it pans out, we might head over to Fulton for a crawfish boil. We had a great time when we went to the crawfish festival in Heber City, Utah on Memorial Day weekend last year. We don’t know what this one will be like, but if it’s anything like Heber City, it will be fun.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Restaurants

Secret Caverns

On Familiar Grounds

Senior Olympics Experience

Cat Call

The Texas Mosey

Beale Street

Jumbo Shrimp

Key Allegro Island

Birds and Birthdays

Aransas Pass

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