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

Day 31 - (Continued) - Our Debit Card Number Was Stolen

We had excitement yesterday afternoon.  Mama logged into their checking account and saw four unauthorized charges.  They were in New York!  They were for Pathmark and CVS.  Mama immediately remembered a strange phone call that Dad received on Saturday.  It was an automatic call and he didn't listen to the whole thing.  He just said "our prescriptions are pending".  Well, for one thing, Dad doesn't order prescriptions and the second strange thing is that his phone number is newer and no one would have it.  Mama thought it was very odd, but then decided the message was probably for the person who had the number before him. Dad gets messages for him all the time. After seeing the charges, Mama immediately checked their online prescription service and nothing was pending.  She then called them and they said they have nothing to do with those companies.  She then called her bank.  They checked the account and said that they had just put a hold on it.  I guess they figured that something odd was going on since we had made charges in Texas and New York at the same time.  They told Mama that they were deactivating her debit card so no one could use it again.  Dad has a debit card and they said his will still work. We hope so because we will need to get cash from time to time. They said they would fax her a form to sign.  She spoke with the park manager who said it was fine to have them fax it here.  So, they faxed it here and then the park manager was nice enough to fax it back to the bank.  The bank said that they have to let the transactions go through and then they will put the money back in our account. The transactions are not due to go through until June 2nd.  We hope it goes as smoothly as they say it will.  Mama went ahead and transferred money from savings into checking because she has some bills that are being paid out this week and she would be bouncing them thanks to the crooks.  The crooks spent $364 of our money.  Mama thought and thought about how that phone call and the debit card theft were related and she figured it out.  They went to the phone store to renew Dad's pay as you go phone two weeks ago.  The machine said it no longer took credit cards, so they had to use Mama's debit card. That is the only time that Dad's phone number and Mama's debit card have been used together.  We don't know if the crooks have actually received whatever they bought with our money yet since the transactions are pending.  Luckily, Mama checks her bank account daily just to be sure everything is okay.  She has been using her debit card a lot because it is also a Visa card. She uses in restaurants as well as at the store.  She will get a new one whenever we return home. It just seems to be a lot of trouble to have one sent here.  The bank person was very nice and made the process very simple.  It's a smaller bank with just four locations.  I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

On a happier note, Mama thought the dinner last night was really, really good.  It was also a very easy meal to make.  Dad really liked it too, so it is definitely on our repeat list.  It is called Easy Ham And Au Gratins.
 Ingredients:
1½ c frozen potatoes, O’Brien, Ore Ida®
1 c cubed ham
1 c cut green beans, drained
10 oz can cream of potato soup
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
¼ c sour cream
Spray crock pot with cooking spray. Mix potatoes, ham, green beans, potato soup and cheese and cook on low in crock pot for 5 to 6 hours. Stir in sour cream before serving and cook until hot.

What could be easier than that?  Not much.  There are no photos.  It was good, but it didn't look "pretty" in photos.  LOL

Our weather has turned steamy this week.  It is very humid and we are actually having a rain shower right now. That was not predicted.  We have had one rain shower in the past five weeks.  We miss rain.  It has been cooling off quickly at night.  Our evening walks are usually quite pleasant.

Joey
The Greyhound Who Still Needs A Cowboy Hat

Days 30 & 31 Memorial Day And Today

We had a pretty quiet day yesterday.  Mama said it was Dad's day to rest, but by noon, she was ready to go somewhere.  They decided to go to Dollar Tree because she wanted to buy a muffin pan and some other things for the kitchen.  They also stopped by the Goodwill Select Store. Apparently, the select stores are an upgrade to other stores because the items were very nice, but they were priced about twice as much.  Mama saw a comforter that she thought would be nice for me, but they wanted too much money for it. Mama decided that she would just let me use the one that is in the Jeep.  You see, I have decided my favorite place is on the floor under the air conditioning vent.  It is between Mama and Dad, so what could be better?  Mama had been stacking a few blankets for me, but decided I needed more comfort.  You gotta love a Mama that doesn't want my body on a hard surface.

This is my favorite spot.  I have a comforter and a small blanket.  The pillow is there blocking that steel part that I banged my foot on last week.  This picture really makes me look pink and fat. I have been walking a lot and really not eating many treats.  It's really hard to hide fat when you are white.

This is Scout's favorite spot.  It's on the folk's bed under the AC vent.

The folks ate at Tailgaters Pub & Grill.   Mama had a rib eye sandwich and a salad.  Dad had a Bayou Po'Boy which is a blackened chicken breast topped with Andouille sausage, sauteed onion, cheddar cheese, creole mustard and served on a hoagie roll.  They had breaded mushrooms as an appetizer.  Mama said it was hard deciding what she wanted to eat.  She liked the rib eye sandwich, but should have added onions and mushrooms to it.  She would like to go back and try something else.  It is located really close to where we are staying.

Dad checked our electric usage and was shocked at our bill.  It is up to $95 after just two weeks.  Mama checked it after the first week and she thought it was only $17.  She either figured it wrong or we have been using a lot more.  We started keeping the blowers on our AC at night and we think that is the cause of the bill going up so much.  Keeping the blowers on has been helping us all sleep through the night because it is just a constant sound.  Dad got a fan out for their room last night and used that instead of the blower.  We are going to check our usage from yesterday until today to see how much we used. Most campgrounds make you pay for your own electric if you staying a month.  They give you a discounted site rate, but you have to pay your own electric bill.  We could pay a weekly rate and get the electricity for free, but it would end up costing us more.   Mama said it looks like we are paying as much for our RV electric as we do for our 1200 square foot house. Dad said it is because RVs are not insulated very well.  We have really been trying to conserve, so we are quite disappointed to see the bill be as high as it is.

Dad hung up the spice racks yesterday and Mama is very pleased with them.  She now has more room in the pantry and the spices are easy to reach.

The retired couple left yesterday.  They were really confused about how to disconnect everything.  They just starred at it.  We were headed over to help them when the park manage arrived.  He helped them.  We cannot understand how they were not shown how to do anything. Maybe they didn't pay attention?  We are not sure.  When we bought our travel trailer, the salesman showed us everything and gave us a DVD to watch.  We had another training session when we bought our motor home.  We hope they made it home okay. 

Day 31

This morning, Mama cleaned our carpet.  She tried to do it a few weeks ago, but realized she was missing a part to the SpotBot.  She found the part at a vacuum store this past weekend.  I didn't care much for the carpet cleaning, but it does look much better now.  It was getting really dirty.

Our dinner is in the slow cooker.  We are having Easy Ham and Au Gratins.  It looks like it will be good.  We will give a review of it tomorrow.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Stays Cool Under The AC Vent