Monday, December 8, 2014

We searched the ads and coupons and finally decided that the Grand Country Buffet would get our food business today.  I thought we had been there a few years ago with some friends from home but when we got inside nothing looked familiar.  The food was fabulous and hot for a buffet.  We glommed onto a little item called an Ozark Omelette.  It was a mixture of scrambled eggs, onions, green peppers and diced ham cooked in a mini-muffin tin.

On the way home we stopped at the office to check and see if the TV in the lodge would get ESPN on their cable.  They had Dish Network for a provider and it was horrendous.  Apparently the ESPN Channel was not one of those that they’re receiving.  At least we couldn’t find it after going through every channel manually.  I guess we’ll have to come up with something else to watch the Packer game tonight.  We’re only getting 2 channels on our digital box and nothing over the air.

After getting back home Sharon got to cleaning the motorhome and I got to dumping the ice cream.  We figured we’d be better off with clean tanks if we can take off tomorrow.  Actually we won’t be leaving until Wednesday after our DirecTV appointment tomorrow.

Long about 8 o’clock we found the Game Center on Packers.com which gave us the plays and results almost in real time.  It was no where near as good as watching the game live which we could have done if our satellite was working right.  At least it had the right outcome.  The Packers won another impressive victory.

The game got over just after 11 and it didn’t take long for the sleep to begin.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

We got such a good Breakfast yesterday at the Grand Country Buffet we decided to do it again.  There were enough selections on the buffet that we could eat another entirely different Breakfast.  I don’t know if either of us did that, but the meal was very good again.

After Breakfast we stopped at the Price Chopper grocery store and picked up a few things for the rest of the week.  Sharon cleaned out the fridge last night after Supper cause most everything was still in there from home.  We finished up the stuff that was still good and then tossed the rest.

By the time we got home we got an e-mail from DirecTV that said we could track our repairman who was coming sometime this afternoon, and estimate his arrival time.  We never did track him but got a phone call around 2 that said he’d be here within a half hour.

He worked on our problem for the next hour and finally determined that half of our LNB on the roof was dead.  He was a very nice guy named Chris and we were satisfied with his diagnosis by the time he left.

We got online and ordered a new LNB from Amazon.com and had it shipped to Denton, Texas which is just north of Dallas.  We’ll pick it up from General Delivery if everything works out just right.

We finally had TV with only one input, but TV never-the-less.  We had Lasagna for Supper tonight along with a salad and Garlic Bread.  It was quite good indeed, and a home-cooked meal.

We were content to watch our TV tonight even though we couldn’t record anything at the same time.  It was an inconvenience but at least we got to watch our regular programs.  We’re still not happy about the way the new box is projecting the picture on our TV.  Everybody is tall and skinny.  We stayed up until about 11 tonight before we just caved into bed and passed out.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

We were on the road this morning about 9:30 after we both ate a mini-Breakfast

and closed up shop.  We drove down the strip to get on the highway since we had been here for a few days and hadn’t taken any pictures.  Sharon got a chance to video a few clips as we left.

We had no incidents today good or bad as we cruised the rest of Missouri, Arkansas and then Oklahoma, only stopping long enough for a lunch at McD’s and a gas stop in Oklahoma.

We drove along looking for a campground in Oklahoma when we spotted an RV Park sign on the side of the road.  We decided to stop so we pulled in.  Whew!  What a piece of work this place is.  It’s right on a busy highway, with about 10 spaces for units, and we haven’t seen a person around, except the “manager.”  She’s about our age, a little disheveled, with more room for some more teeth to grow in.  She seems nice enough, however, and very helpful.  She wanted us to pull up to the office and plug in there, since we only wanted electric anyway.  That would prevent us from disconnecting the car.

We still haven’t settled our satellite TV problem yet and are waiting for the new LNB to arrive.  I decided not to put out the dish tonight because most of the shows are re-runs anyway.  We watched a couple of movies tonight called “Diplomatic Siege” and “Second Hand Lions.”   In between we watched “The Curse of Oak Island” that Sharon recorded last night while we were getting TV.

We went to bed about 11 tonight to the orchestrated sounds of highway traffic.  We both fell asleep after a fashion but didn’t sleep good at all.  I’m sure we’ll both feel it tomorrow.  Old people don’t recover as well as young people do during periods of sleep deprivation.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

After a lousy night, we attempted to get on the road about 8:30 this morning when we had a leveling jack that refused to come up.  We were parked on a bad list to Starboard last night and that may have been some of the problem.  We decided that after we got it up a couple of inches we’d just try to drive off it.  We were on our way shortly afterward and it retracted while we rode down the highway.  I had suspected it would do just that, and I was glad it did.

We were looking for a restaurant this morning for Breakfast and we found the “Waffle Shoppe” down the road a piece.  We figured they would have a similar menu to the Waffle House and we were wrong.  They did have a good Breakfast it was just a little pricier.

We didn’t make any other stops today until we got to our campground in Lewisville, a suburb of Dallas, TX.  We pulled into the Lewisville Lake Campground, a county park at the right price.  For Seniors they cut the $16 rate in half.  We paid $9 because we’re parked on a 50 amp site.  We also have free Wi-Fi for our use here.

Our intention was to get close to the George W. Bush Library as part of our Presidential Library sweep across the country.  We ended up about 20 miles away at our campground.  We are well positioned for our visit tomorrow.

I put out the portable dish the afternoon and I was actually close to the signal when I set it up in it’s final position.  I had to go out and tweak it just a hair.  I guess I’ve still got it.

Sharon made us an Impossible Taco Pie for Supper tonight and it was quite good indeed.  We had had it before, but tonight’s pie had salsa in it and I couldn’t stop eating it.  We only had a little bit left over, but enough for a lunch for us.

We had another night of uninterrupted single channel TV for the night and it worked out very well having east and west networks.  We were able to stay up until 11 before we called it quits for the night.

Friday, December 12, 2014

After Breakfast this morning we were off to the George W. Bush Library in Downtown Dallas.  We left about 9:30 to avoid most of the traffic and if the traffic had been any worse it would have been a real nightmare.  We arrived with the help of Jill in the GPS and got about paying the fare for going. $13 apiece admission and $7 for parking.

It was a very impressive display inside the building and we took about 2 hours to go through. 

After the Library we drove a little southwest of Dallas to Arlington to check out a burger place called Chop House Burgers that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network.  We each got a Chop House Burger and split an order of fries and onion rings.  The whole mess was absolutely delicious and we left sated to say the least.

After leaving Arlington, our GPS took us north of our campground to Denton and to pick up our LNB for the dish.  We had a little trouble since the tracking number was from UPS and we were checking at the Post Office.  We had requested that the package be sent to General Delivery and they had a different idea.  After a fashion we found the GPS warehouse but they were closed until 4:30 and it was only 3:30 at the time.  Sharon had to do some grocery shopping so we went the Kroger store and she took care of what she needed over the next few days.

We stopped to pick up the LNB after the shopping and then headed home.  The traffic was bumper to bumper by this time the whole distance back to the campground. (12 miles) It took us almost as long to get home as it did to get anywhere today.

By the time we got back I was too tired to climb up on the roof and replace the LNB.  Besides there’s no hurry to get it done since we do have TV, and we’ve got a couple of shows taped from last night.

By the time 11 rolled around we had had another long day.  Sharon caved before I did but we both started sawing logs after a few minutes.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

We left Lewisville this morning with the singular intention of driving just as far as we could today within reason.  We were so far behind the schedule that we set for ourselves that we have to do something.  We’ve already cut short some of our campground stays for the time being.  The only one we haven’t touched yet is our stay in Mesa.

We found gas this morning for $2.13 a gallon, and after we filled up, we watched as it went up as high as $2.59 before it started coming back down again.  As we drove we figured we were making wonderful time and wondered if we could make it as far as  Van Horn and to Chuy’s Restaurant.  As it got closer to Suppertime we decided to hold off on eating and see if we could actually get to Van Horn.

We actually made it to Chuy’s before it closed about 7:30.  The funny thing was the restaurant filled up after we got there.  Chuy’s is not a fine restaurant but a little Mexican joint with fabulous food. We had a fine Dinner and then we were back on the road when Sharon couldn’t decided on a suitable place to park for the night.  Thirty miles later and 539 miles in total and we were settled in for the night.  We had made it to Sierra Blanco and an empty parking lot near a train track that was busy all night.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

We woke up this morning with a little chill inside.  During the night our batteries got depleted and our furnace quit heating. It was about 5 in the morning and we just decided to get up and hit the road early since we were being awakened by the trains going by anyway.

We were only going as far as Deming, New Mexico today and after yesterday’s marathon we only had about 160 miles left today.  We kept a close eye on the gas prices all day and when we saw it just before El Paso for $2.18 we stopped and filled up again.  Driving through El Paso early on a Sunday morning was a real pleasure.  We’re usually here later on in the day and the traffic gets quite busy to say the least.

We were up so early this morning that we stopped in New Mexico for Breakfast at McDonald’s.  After that we were back on the road again and the next stop was Deming, NM at The Little Vineyard campground.  We arrived about 10:30 and got set up immediately even though it was before check-in time.

After we got settled in, I attempted to go up on the roof to change out the new LNB.  I couldn’t make it up the last two steps on the ladder.  My formerly broken leg wasn’t co-operating.  We tried to find someone from the office to come over but I guess the park handyman is an old guy that doesn’t do such things.  Sharon offered to go up and we had no other options.  While she was up there a neighbor saw her up there and came over and offered to help.  We graciously accepted his help and offered to pay him but he declined.  We sat around after the job was done and just chatted for awhile.  We found out they have a nice feed at the clubhouse tonight of Hamburgers and Hot Dogs with salads and Desserts.

Sharon took off with the laundry and I came in the house and took a shower fully intending to go to the clubhouse for the night meal.  Sharon was back and forth several times since the laundry was only about 25 yards from the coach.  After she got done we got ready and headed over to the clubhouse.  We thought the dinner was at 5 but it was at 5:30 instead.  So we sat and waited for Dave and Joyce to show up at 5:30.

We sat and ate and chatted for while before we left because the football game was on that Dave wanted to see.(Cowboys and Eagles)

We will see each other tomorrow when we go to the Si Senor Restaurant tomorrow at noon.

Me and the Mrs. Caved early again tonight having had another “long” day.  I think we’re still catching up from the day before.