Day 36, A Day of Errands

On Sunday, Mama and Daddy got their hair cut.  They used that app that Great Clips has where you can check-in online. Mama said the place was crowded when they got there and she felt a little bad moving ahead of the people that were waiting, but that is how it works.  She heard other people asking about it as she was getting her hair cut.  

They stopped at Petsmart to buy us more food.  Daddy said he thinks we are going over our food budget and we need to chip in on the air conditioning bill.  He is so funny.  LOL  We haven't seen the Petsmart here, so Mama took photos to show how classy it is.

You can see these if you look closely at the first photo.

Mama said she laughed and laughed the first time she saw it.  The inside is just normal, but the outside is so classy. 

They ate lunch at Pappas Seafood House.  As you may remember Mama is allergic to shellfish and she really doesn't care much for other fish.  She eats at seafood places with Daddy because she can always find something to eat.  She was surprised that she only had two choices yesterday.  One choice was a steak that was $35.  She thought that a a bit pricey for lunch.  She chose the Chicken Linguine Lafayette linguine tossed with grilled chicken breast, mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, garlic & extra virgin olive oil.  She said it was the best chicken she has ever tasted.  It almost tasted like a steak.  She brought some of it home for us and asked us if it was the best chicken we had ever tasted and we said it was.  What did she expect us to say?

It tasted much better than it looks in this photo.  This is the lunch portion.

They had mozzarella sticks as an appetizer.

The mozzarella sticks were huge!

They also had dinner salads and they were very large.  No pictures because Mama forgot to take some.

Dad had the Blackened Catfish with Pappardelle Mardi Gras
blackened catfish fillet with pasta ribbons tossed with shrimp, crawfish,
Andouille sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes & basil in a tomato cream sauce.  This is the lunch portion.

Dad said that he really liked the catfish.  Yes, Mama took the photo of his food even though he doesn't like that.  The portions were huge at this place, but the prices were on the high side.  Actually, Texas does seem to give huge portions of food.  They are not sure if they will go back even though it was so good.  Mama said she can't imagine the chicken being that good again and she would be disappointed.  She still wants to go back to Saltgrass and Willy's before we leave Houston.  Mama jokes that she is eating her way through Houston.


Mama called her bank to see about having a debit card sent here.  It is not going to happen.  The bank will only mail it to our home address and since our mail is being forwarded, it would just be sent back to the bank since it can't be forwarded.  They cannot mail it directly to us.  Dad's debit card is working, but Mama was hoping to get a back up one in case something happens to his. She will just have to be really careful with it.  She plans to use it at Walmart and that is all.  She will get cash when she makes purchases and she will pay cash everywhere else.


She asked the bank lady how the crooks use stolen credit card numbers and she said that they make new cards. The bank lady agreed with her in that the crooks used a skimmer at the restaurant and that is how they got our card numbers.  It happens all the time. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Likes When Mama Brings Home A Doggy Bag

Day 35, Touring Space Center Houston, Part 2

There are four space shuttles that have been retired and unfortunately, Houston has not been given any of them.  It really doesn't seem fair because according to the Space Center, the first word said on the moon was "Houston" and the last word was "Houston". Houston has been the mission control center for all missions.  Houston residents are bitter over not receiving a space shuttle according to the news.  However, this weekend had some residents very happy.  A replica of the space shuttle arrived.  It arrived by water and a big celebration was held. 

The space shuttle replica.  Since it is not a real one, people will be able to board it and touch things. They would not be able to do that if it was real.  It's new home will be at the Space Center.

Space Shuttle waiting for trip to Space Center.  It was taken down the street on Sunday.  It was supposed to take it 3 hours, but it ended up taking 6 hours.  Palm trees seemed to be more of a problem than expected.

 After touring the Space Center, the folks ate a restaurant that had very good reviews.  Unfortunately, Mama must have ordered the wrong thing, because she was not impressed by it.

This is Boondoggles Pub.

Inside Boondoggles Pub

Chicken Parmesan over Spaghetti

Mama ordered the Chicken Parmesan -Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast, topped with marinara, provolone and parmesan cheese, served over spaghetti.  She considered ordering the chicken fried ribeye because she had never heard of that, but thought it might be a waste of a nice ribeye.  She said her food was good, but she didn't really like the sauce on the spaghetti.  Dad had calzone.  He said it was okay.

Traffic was terrible coming home and they took an alternate route recommended by Tom Tom.  It took them about 1.5 hours.  After they got home, Dad surprised us by taking us to Sonic. The folks had ice cream, but Scout and I shared a hamburger.  Yum!

Scout thinks she is queen of the bed.

 The folks discovered on Friday that their debit card number was not stolen at the phone store as they suspected.  Dad received another call about his prescriptions being ready, but this time Mama checked the number and found it to be a store in St. Louis.  They believe the call was for the guy who used to have Dad's phone number.  Unfortunately, Dad received a call last night from his credit card company. His corporate Visa has also been stolen. It is being used in Pennsylvania.  The folks believe both cards were probably stolen at the same restaurant or at least they hope that is the case.  Dad's corporate card has been turned off and they will send him a new one. Hopefully, the crooks messed up by using a corporate credit card and are caught.   Mama is planning on using cash as much as possible from now on.  She will need to use a debit card to get cash though.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Tired Of These Crooks

Day 35, Touring Space Center Houston - Part 1

This post will be in two parts because we are having trouble adding photos.  They are getting out of order.  I may be talking too much today. LOL

Saturday the folks were tourists once again. This time they drove about an hour to tour Space Center Houston. Everything seems to be an hour from us no matter what direction we go.  Mama wasn't very excited about going, but Daddy kept telling her that they may have something special for Apollo 13 and since that mission was made into one of her favorite movies, she decided it might be okay.  Tickets are normally $22 a person, but she found out they were offering tickets half off if you ordered them last week, so that is what she did.

Space Center Houston is actually the official visitors center of NASA's Johnson Space center.  It seems to be geared towards kids, but there are things for adults.  There are several short films to watch and two different tram tours to take. One tram tour is to the Astronaut Training Facility and the other one is to Mission Control.  They both stop off at Saturn V Facility which is where a rocket is stored.  They chose the Mission Control tour as Mama was still hoping to see where Apollo 13 said "Houston, we have a problem."  Unfortunately, there are several mission controls and that is not the one they saw.  Everything takes about an hour to do, so you have to plan your time carefully around when the films are shown and the tours take place.  They followed the guide that said if you only have 3-4 hours, this is what you should do.  They were there for more like five hours.  Oh, they ate lunch there.  It was expensive, of course.  Dad had a hamburger that looked a little grey.  He said it was baked.  It was $8.  It came with fries.  Mama had chicken strips and fries and said it was fine.  It was also $8. 

Entrance to Space Center Houston

Inside Starship Gallery Museum

Space rover that astronauts used for training

Another shot of the space rover

This is a moon rock that you can touch.  There are only 8 in the world that people are allowed to touch. Mama said it was very smooth.  She washed her hands after touching it because she thought of all the germs that it must have on it.  LOL

More moon rocks.  They were behind glass.

 Mama and Daddy took the tour that included mission control.  Before you enter the Space Center, you have to go through security where they check your bags, etc.  You have to go through security again before you board the tram to see mission control.  Your picture is taken and Mama was not sure it was so much for security or if they want you to buy the photos.  They never really mention buying the photos though. They do not allow you to wear sunglasses in the photos.  You are also given a boarding pass for the tram and you have to give it back after you leave mission control.  Mama thought she lost hers and had a moment of panic.  Mama thought they would just drive you through the building to see mission control. Daddy said that was silly.  I think they were both surprised to have to climb 54 steps to reach mission control. They didn't tell anyone that before they arrived at the building.

This is Mission Control.  It was not being used though.

Another shot of Mission Control. They had TV screens that showed an active Mission Control center in the same building.

Cows along tour.  Not sure why they are there.  No comment was made about them.

Trees serve as a memorial to those astronauts that have been lost in space.

Saturn V rocket.  It was never used.

Rocket

Rocket on tour

Building that has mission control.

Day 34, We Are Staying In Houston For A While

The bank has credited all of our money back to our account.  All the pending transactions are gone, so it appears that everything is okay now. We will see tonight if Dad's debit card still works as they are going grocery shopping.  If it doesn't work, Mama will have to figure out how to get cash, but she will cross that bridge if she needs to do so.

We found out last night that we will be in Houston until July 20th.  We get to experience a real Houston summer.  It is going to be hot.  We are happy about it though because we will be able to save money since we won't be spending it on gasoline.  We also found out that Dad's trip to Washington DC has been postponed for 45-60 days.  Mama is somewhat happy about that.  She was not worried about staying here without Dad, but she was not thrilled about taking him to the airport and picking him up.  She was kind of looking forward to having a car for a few days though.  She could take Dad to work, but it seems silly to be on the road for four hours just to have the car to go shopping.  Hopefully, the next place we stay will be closer to Dad's work and we will have a car from time to time.  We have looked to see if there is anything closer here and there just isn't.

We did not have storms here yesterday.  In fact, it didn't rain at all.  It got kind of scary looking for a little while, but nothing happened.  There was a tornado warning for the next county, but not here.  When there are tornado warnings or severe storms at home, the TV stations break in and sometimes they stay on for hours reporting on it.  Yesterday, Mama was surprised that they broke in for maybe a minute and said there was a tornado warning and to take cover. That was it. LOL  It is so different at home.

It's very dry here.  The ground is all cracked. We do have grass, but we wanted you to see the cracked ground.

Our weather was so nice this morning.  Mama and I took three long walks because we wanted to take in the cool weather while it was here.  Mama is learning to live in the moment like I do.

Here I am on the dog walk this morning.  It's really long.  You can't even see the end in this photo. I walk the full length of it at least twice a day, but sometimes more.  It is shady in the morning.

Last night, Mama fixed Ham and Cheese Special. 
(3 T olive oil, 1 T garlic powder, 2 t Italian sng)
13 oz tube pizza dough
1 c shredded fiesta blend cheese
½ to 1 c cubed ham
(Butter, Ranch dressing)
Whisk together olive oil, garlic and Italian seasoning. Roll out pizza dough and brush with seasoned olive oil. Top with cheese and ham. Tightly roll up the dough to form a log. Slice into desired size pieces and brush with melted butter. Bake at 375° until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve with Ranch dressing for dipping

Mama's didn't turn out like it was supposed to.  She either put too much on the dough or pulled the dough too thin.  She ended up leaving it in a log and baking it that way.  It was not going to do well being cut in pieces.  It tasted good.  I know because I tried a few bites.

Tonight we are having marinated chicken.  Yum!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Having Fun In Texas

Days 32 & 33, More Banking Woes

Day 32

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day.  We did have a nice surprise.  It rained for 30 minutes. We have been on the road for 32 days and have only seen rain one other time.  We are in a drought here, so the rain was very exciting.

Rain as seen through our RV windshield

Dad came home and said "Did it rain here?"  Mama said it did for about a half hour.  Dad could tell because we still had a water puddle on the street, but the ground still looks as dry as can be.

Mama fixed sliders for dinner.  Sliders are just small hamburgers on small buns.  Mama thought they were good.  She used Hawaiian bread buns as per her recipe.  She thought they might be sweet, but they weren't.  She added onions and cheese to the burgers.

Day 33 - Today

Mama checked her bank account this morning and was shocked to see that the charges duplicated.  She called the bank and Kelly checked into it.  She said the charges went through last night, but the pre-authorized ones have not dropped off yet like they should.  She talked to her boss who said it is nothing to be alarmed about.  They will credit our account today for the money that was taken out last night and they will either force the others to drop off or will wait until they clear and then credit our account again.  Mama would prefer for them to force them to drop off and get this over with.  It's a good thing she checked it again today because we have bills that are being paid tomorrow and once again, our account is too low for those to clear due to this duplication of charges. Mama asked if they will try to find the crooks and Kelly said it is next to impossible.  The bank will charge the stores the money that was taken, but the crooks will probably get away with it. Mama told her she feels like she has been violated and it makes her very angry that people get away with stealing like this.  Kelly said she understood. She said they are a small bank and they have to deal with this from time to time, but the bigger banks really have it bad.

We are supposed to have storms today.  We like rain, but storms are scary in a motor home.  The weather man says the chance of tornadoes are pretty slim, so we hope he is correct.  Houston is close enough to the Gulf of Mexico that if a tropical storm or hurricane develop in the area, we will have to move inland.  I think we would be hit mainly with tornadoes and high winds, but I am not positive on that.  Nothing is out there right now, but the news here definitely pays attention to all the tropical storms when they develop.  I guess that is a way of life here.  It's something we don't have to worry about in Missouri.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Would Like To Catch The Crooks And Teach Them A Lesson