Because We Can - Fulltime RV'ing



 

What Did We Do Today?

Thursday May 26 Livingston, TX

On to Livingston Today

KarGard II

We were driving to Livingston today, but before we left the RV park we installed the KarGard II Deflector we had bought to protect the Cherokee. To quote Linda, "We didn't spend all that money to buy the Cherokee just to have the paint chipped because you didn't think we needed any kind of rock deflector." It is made by Blue Ox and designed to be mounted on the towbar. As we discovered, choosing a device like this isn't all that easy since there are a number of different products out there with different designs to provide towed vehicle protection.

Gard

We liked this one because it was permanently mounted, had a system to maintain it in place when making turns, was very easy to both deploy and store when needed, plus it was competitively priced with the other products. We had used a somewhat similar protector made by our friend Mark for trip to Alaska so we knew these types of protectors worked very well. The proof of course will be in the absence of any paint chips on the Cherokee. By fall we should have the answer to that question.

Open

The original route we wanted to take to Livingston had been decided last week. Then this week happened with colossal Texas sized rains falling on the places we had planned to visit, roads still flooded, and the result was our plans, if you could call them that for we had no reservations anywhere, changed. Then before we left this morning we checked the drivetexas website and learned there was a major accident on one the key roads we planned to take and it would be closed until 7 PM tonight. Guess you could say that all this just goes to prove that the adage, those that fail plan, plan to plan to fail, has never been more wrong. Go by the Seat of Your Pants Bob. Pulling Her Hair Out Linda the Planner. (That one almost deserves a, lol, but the Daily Journal never uses lol's so we won't go there, lol.) Tongue in Cheek Bob. Oh yes, the photo is of traffic approaching Houston from the west, since we were going to go around the west side of Houston it was going to be an easy drive.

Rain

Didn't I just mention Texas sized rain in the last paragraph? Well guess what fell from the sky just as we were approaching the area where we planned to skirt the Houston traffic. Guess who missed the turn and continued towards downtown Houston, a place where said person said he would never take his his RV after once before driving into the heart of Houston on one of the world's worst expressway (what a misnomer) systems.

Traffic

World's longest parking lot. World's worst drivers. Over used clichés but the perfect description of traffic and drivers in Houston. How does, brake lights to the right of them, brake lights to the left of them, brake lights to the front of them glowed and lit, horns to the back of them, horns to side of them blared and blasted, sound, because that is exactly what driving through the central area of Houston was like. Next time if Linda even suggests we drive near of Houston I will pull over and tell her to drive. Something tells me Houston will never again be a city we will ever be within 50 miles of. What can I say, I seem to have a mild dislike of driving in Houston. I wonder if you have to be crazy to live there? But then I have several cousins who live there. Does that make me crazy by association? Possibly Crazy Bob.

Mess

Arriving at the Escapees Care Center in Livingston we were greeted by the usual Escapee hugs. Then it was time to get situated in our site. Once we pulled up to it, the volunteers who were parked nearby all came out to see who the newest volunteers were. Much later, after having a great time learning about each other, we were situated in our spot for the next month. The temperature was way there, the humidity was even higher, so I went inside the coach for break before finishing the hookups. That was when the sticky area in front of the refrigerator morphed into this. "This" being a major mess in the refrigerator.

spots

Note the brown spots in the previous two photos? Somehow the lid came off a pint jar of Linda's special Carolina barbecue sauce, the result of which was Carolina Barbecue sauce over everything in the refrigerator. We are talking major cleanup here, as in all shelves and drawers out of the refrigerator and vinegar, sugar, pepper and spices barbecue gunk all over everything, including some that managed to find its way into the freezer.

Clean

Linda had been telling me for months that she couldn't get the produce drawers out of the refrigerator to clean them. Well guess what happened after the great barbecue spill of 2015? I managed to find a way to remove all the drawers. The refrigerator was returned to former nearly pristine condition and Linda was happy young lady. Life just doesn't get better than this. Ecstatic Bob.

 


 

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