This is all you get . ..

After spending all evening working on Nick’s website, I’m too tired to do a blog.

So this is all you get.

We went some places with Nick and Terry.

We saw some things with Nick and Terry.

We ate dinner at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood with Nick and Terry . . .

and Brandi, Lowell, and Landon.

Just remember, it’s Nick’s fault.

To make up for it, here’s a repost of our some of our visit to the California coast in 2010.

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Coastal Drive and More Elk…

Originally posted on May 14, 2010

Today we headed out about 9 am to drive around the Redwood National Forest area. We first came across the Tour Thru Tree, one of several trees that allowed you to drive your vehicle thru them. We decided to check it out later and kept moving.

Next we came to the town of Klamath and stopped for breakfast at the Klamath River Cafe. It turned out to be very good with really good coffee.

Then, heading north on US 101 we saw the place we’d been seeing signs for – Trees of Mystery, apparently the home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

They have a gondola sky ride above the trees, a trail thru the trees, and some other things. Another thing for a later visit.

We headed on up the road to Crescent City to scope out the place and do the Walmart thing. Coming back I stopped for gas and we headed back toward Klamath.

Seeing a sign for a coast trail we took a turn down the road and headed toward the ocean. The first thing we came across was a large herd of Elk just off the road, just laying around catching some rays.

Following the road along thru the forest we came across a lot of fog in the trees.

Coming back past the rig we dropped off our groceries and headed back out to make a Coastal Drive thru the Redwood National Park that we found out about in some brochures.

And it was a great drive. Most of the road was a narrow one-lane gravel road winding thru the trees right along the Pacific coast.

And we finally got a close up look at some big trees.

We got back to the rig about 3 pm and were in for the night.

A while later Jan cooked up a batch of her great Chicken Rice-A-Roni, along with some garlic French bread. For dessert we had some fresh cherries we got at a road side stand today.

Tomorrow we’re going to check out the Tour-thru Tree and the Trees of Mystery, and then drive back down south to the Avenue of the Giants for more big trees.

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Thought for the Day:

It’s easier to track the wolf in the snow than in his den.

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Monuments and Battleships . . .

Today started with a trip up to the Houston Ship Channel for lunch at Monument Inn. Located right on the Channel, where, along with really great seafood, you get a fascinating view of the large barges and ships coming up from Galveston Bay to the Port of Houston.

We were meeting Rudy Legett and his wife Caroline there for lunch. Rudy is an Aqua Hot Repair Technician, and one of the few that will come to your coach, rather than you having to take your coach to them.

We had a great time getting to know Rudy and Caroline, and hope to run into them on the road again soon.

Leaving Monument Inn, we stopped off right down the road to get some photos of the San Jacinto Monument, where Sam Houston surprised Santa Anna and his troops, and defeated the 1400 main force with only 900 Texans. Over 600 Mexicans were killed, and more than 700 were captured. Meanwhile, only 9 Texans were killed.

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Across the road from the Monument, lies the Battleship Texas, the only remaining dreadnaught battleship, and one of the few that served in both WWI and WWII.

The USS Texas fought at \the D-Day Landing in Europe, and the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the Pacific, and after being decommissioned in 1948, became the first US battleship to become a permanent museum.

Coming back to the RV park, I dropped everyone off and headed back into Clear Lake to work with a couple of clients.

Finally getting home about 5 pm, I napped for about an hour, before Jan and I when over to Nick and Terry’s for a while. After watching one of our favorite shows, The Big Bang Theory, we drove over to Dickinson to have a late dinner at Monterey’s Little Mexico.

We were happy to hear that Nick and Terry have decided to stay an extra day, so they won’t be leaving until Sunday morning. Yeah!

Tomorrow we’re all going to drive down to Galveston to show them the sights, and then tomorrow night we’re having dinner at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon.

Thought I’d repost our visit to Martha’s Vineyard in 2009.

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Thought for the Day:

“Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again!”

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Martha’s Vineyard…

Originally posted on August 5, 2009

Today we took the ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard to check out this famous island.

We sailed on the MV Island Home, a ferry that can carry up to 76 vehicles, including semi tractor trailers and big RV’s. But we didn’t take our rig, or our truck over. We just took ourselves.

The Island Home can also carry up to 1200 passengers, although we were probably only about half full. The trip takes about 45 minutes and was very comfortable. We even had a breakfast sandwich and coffee during the trip.

Our port on Martha’s Vineyard is called Vineyard Haven, and is one the two large ports on the island, the other being Oak Bluffs where a ferry also docks.

Getting off the ship we saw an Island Sightseeing bus so decided to jump on. Our tour lasted almost 3 hours and took us all around the island.

Our guide pointed out the many houses of the rich and famous. Ted Danson, Michael J. Fox, Doris Day, Diane Sawyer, and many others.

Our first stop was at a Aquinnah Indian area at Gay Head Cliffs. There were several small restaurants, gift shops, a lighthouse, and most importantly, restrooms.

GayHead Lighthouse

The Gay Head Cliffs are one of the many beautiful areas on Martha’s Vineyard, and supposedly, one of the best beaches.

Gay Head Cliffs

We didn’t get to visit the cliff area, but here’s a pretty pic from the Internet.

Moving on down the road, we passed The Field Gallery, an outside art gallery with some very strange art work.

Field Gallery

We ended our tour at Oak Bluffs, the other harbor on the Island.

Oak Bluffs Harbor

The town is very quaint, with many cute little houses left over from a 19th century Methodists camp meeting area.

Oak Bluffs Houses

These houses originally cost $400.00, but now can go for over $400,000.

After a VERY good meal of Mexican food at a place called Zapotec,

Zapotec

we checked out the Flying Horses arcade.

Flying Horses

As the sign says, it houses the America’s oldest carousel.

Carousel

It was built in 1876 and spent the first 20 years of its life at Coney Island in New York. Then in 1896 it was moved here to Oak Bluffs where it’s been ever since.

While we were waiting for the VTA bus to take us back to Vineyard Haven and our ferry home, I caught a shot of this beautiful stay-rigged schooner sailing offshore.

Schooner

It’s amazing to think that ships like this once sailed around the world.

We got back to our rig about 6:30 pm, tired, but having really enjoyed our day.

Tomorrow, a whale watching boat trip, we hope…

Stormy Weather . . .

Before Jan went to bed last night she put our brunch in the microwave. Not to cook, but to rise.

She was fixing some of the Galaxy Gourmet Croissants that our daughter Brandi gave us for Christmas. They were shipped to us frozen solid, and in plain and chocolate-filled favors. They come out of the box about the size of a Snicker bar, but after thawing and rising for about 9 hours, they look like this.

And boy, are they good! Flakey, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth good. They’ve been on Oprah’s Favorite Things List twice in the last few years.

About 11 am Jan and I headed over to Nick and Terry’s for croissants and coffee, and a bit of conversation and world-problem solving.

The other thing we did was watch the bad weather roll in. This photo was taken about 1 in the afternoon,

We kept getting warnings and watches for tornados in the area, but I guess they missed us.

I was supposed to go into a client’s office this afternoon, but when I called them to say I was going to stay home and be in tomorrow, they said that was fine because they were closing the office and going home. So that worked out well.

Later in the afternoon, it cleared up a little, but then around 4:30 the black clouds rolled back in and started spitting rain again. But on a brighter note, it’s supposed to be nicer tomorrow.

About 5 pm Nick and Terry came over and we all headed up the road to Stomp’s Burger Joint, our favorite local hamburger place. And I think it’s Nick and Terry’s favorite now too.

Pictured is my favorite burger, the Hog Wild. It has raw, unsliced bacon ground up and then cookded with the hamburger meat. It’s kind of an inside-out bacon cheeseburger.

And of course, you can’t forget their fabulous crispy, flakey, sweet onion rings.

After Stomp’s, we drove over to Lowell and Brandi’s to pick up Nick’s mail, and so he and Terry could meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon. Lowell’s sister Sherry was also there, but she’ll be in Oklahoma when we all get together Friday night.

Our last stop before heading home was a quick Wal-Mart fix for a few things. Then it was home for the evening.

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Thought for the Day:

Remember, a chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

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Nick and Terry–Day Two . . .

Our busy day started about 11am when we picked up Nick and Terry at their rig and headed into Houston for the day of shopping and sightseeing.

But our first stop was Katz’s Deli in the Montrose area. Jan and I have eaten here several times and wanted to share it with Nick and Terry. Katz’s is an authentic New York deli that was transported to Texas in 1979 and it’s been booming ever since.

They have Reubens literally 6 inches high, that are delicious, and at that size, really hard to wrap your mouth around.

Along with the fantastic Broccoli/Cheese Soup, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw, and Crunchy Kosher Dill Pickles, it was a meal made in Heaven. Well, maybe not, since the Jewish religion is somewhat ambivalent on the whole Heaven/Hell thing, but, anyway, it was really, really good.

Waddling out of Katz’s, we headed over to the Heights area to visit Penzeys Spices, a mecca of attraction for Jan and Terry. They have pretty much any spice or seasoning you can think of, in any size or variety.

Need 9 different kinds of cinnamon from 4 different countries? They’ve got it.

Need 6 different forms of vanilla? You’ve come to the right place.

Of course Nick and I just sat in the truck and read our Kindles while Jan and Terry spent our money.

Finally leaving Penzeys a few dollars poorer, we headed over to the Galleria area so we could introduce Terry to The Container Store.

Jan and I have been coming here for years, always fascinated by the many containers and gadgets they have. Pretty much any way to store any thing you can imagine.

We left The Container Store about 3:30, hoping to get ahead of the going-home traffic. And we made it, but just barely. As we came down off Beltway 8 onto I-45, we started seeing lights, police cars, and fire trucks.

Turns out, an SUV traveling at a high rate of speed on the feeder, had jumped the curb, flipped over, knocked over a light pole, and crashed into 4 or 5 new cars at a VW dealership, ending up upside down on top of the cars.

Bummer! I hate it when that happens.

Back in our area, we stopped off at Brandi’s to pick up Nick’s mail, and then drove over to Fry’s Electronics for what turned out to be a fruitful visit. Nick found a nice 1TB External Hard drive and Terry got her a Dyson Digital Vacuum.

Then Nick and I went across the street to Academy to look at some guns, but didn’t see anything we liked.

Since it was now about 5pm and everyone was finally hungry after our big lunch at Katz’s, we drove over to King Food, which was nearby. Jan and I were glad to see that Nick and Terry liked it as much as we do, and we had our usual great meal.

Finally, after a long, but fun, day, and a quick stop at a CVS, we were back home for the night.

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Thought for the Day:

All wiyht. Rho sritched mg kegtops awound?

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Nick’s Here . . .

and so is the bad weather.

It was bright and sunny all morning and then Nick and Terry showed up a little after 1pm.

And of course the clouds rolled in.

But we ignored the weather, just having a great time being back together with good friends. We haven’t seen Nick and Terry since the end of October so we had a lot of catching up to do.

So as soon as they were hooked up at the site, and settled up at the office, we headed out for lunch at Outrigger’s, one of our favorite local seafood places. It’s located underneath the Kemah Bridge on the Clear Lake Channel just off Galveston Bay, and part of the fun is watching the many birds around the area.

This pelican and egret seemed to be trying to stare each other down. They just stood like that for a good while.

As usual we spent a lot of time talking after we finished eating, just enjoying old friends.

On the way home we drove around the area, showing Nick and Terry some of the sights. Nick and I also checked out a nearby gun range, where we hope we’ll have time to go punch some holes in targets.

When we got back to the park they came over to our rig and we talked even more.

Hey, we have a lot to catch up on for the last three months!

Later, about 6:45 we all headed up to La Brisa, to meet our son Chris, his wife Linda, and our granddaughter Piper, for dinner.

After two hours of great food and conversation we called it a night and everyone headed home.

Tomorrow we’re heading into Houston for some shopping and eating, two of our favorite things.

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Thought for the Day:

“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment – that which they cannot anticipate.” – Sun Tzu

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Buzzers and Tabasco . . .

You can tell Nick’s on his way to Texas, and will be here tomorrow afternoon.

Note that it’s sunny tomorrow morning, but the rain is due in tomorrow afternoon, and then rain all next week.

But on Saturday, when he leaves, it’s sunny again. Funny how that works out.

But rain or no rain, we’re really looking forward to seeing them again for the few days they’ll be here.

Jan and I are big fans of dragons, and I recently found these two neat pictures on the Internet and wanted to share them.

I really like the Tabasco baby bottle. The way I like spicy hot food, I wonder if I had one of these.

On another note, the turn signal indicator on the rig does not make enough noise for me to hear it. Jan can hear it from the passenger seat, but due to too many gun shots and and playing loud bands, I can’t.

So today as I was going through one of the bins, I came across a little 12vdc buzzer unit and decided to fix the problem.

I removed the flasher unit (that’s the red box) from under the dashboard panel and made up a couple of spade lug jumpers. crimping the buzzer leads into the jumpers.

I then Gorilla Taped the buzzer (that’s the little black unit) to the side of the flasher unit.

Here’s another shot of the leads.

I then plugged the jumpers into the flasher socket and checked it out. Loud and Clear!

While I’m on a roll, I also want to do one as a ‘headlights on’ alarm. I’ve got the diodes, but I’ll have to look and see if I have another buzzer. If not, they’re only a couple of bucks.

Other than this, it was a pretty quiet day. Jan cleaned (company’s coming) and I worked on some projects outside. For lunch Jan heated up some delicious leftover Mexican. I think it was almost better than originally.

Then around 5pm, I headed over to my client’s office to do some stuff that’s easier done when no one’s on the network.

Jan and I are really looking forward to Nick and Terry getting here tomorrow, even with the weather they’re bringing.

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Thought for the Day:

“…. that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back–you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going."

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Landon and the Ostrich . . .

Brandi sent over some photos of Landon playing with the horsey we got him for Christmas. She says he gets on and off of it all by himself now.

He’s such a cutie!

Nick Russell called about 12:30 to double check the directions to our park. Unfortunately he will have to cross over two big bridges, so I guess we’ll be lucky if he shows up at all. They should be here Monday afternoon, staying for five nights. We’re really looking forward to it.

Jan and I left the rig about 2pm on our way up to Brandi’s, with a quick stop at O’Reilly Auto Parts for some electrical connectors.

Then, after playing with Landon for a few minutes, Brandi, Lowell, Jan and I headed up to The Woodlands about 3pm. They wanted to show us around the Woodlands Mall and take us to the Kirby’s Steakhouse for dinner.

And when I tell you this is a high-end steakhouse, how many places do you know that have Ostrich,

or a $120 Wagyu Beef steak on the menu?

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From the Fried Asparagus appetizer, to the fabulous steaks, and the Lobster Risotto, Garlic Mash Potatoes, and Sautéed Mushrooms sides, finishing up with Crème Brule with fresh berries, this was a meal to remember.

And somewhere there in the middle, we killed off a delicious bottle of Moscato d’Asti. And that’s all I’m saying about that.

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Even the bathrooms are high class.

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Afterwards we walked off dinner, sightseeing around the Woodlands Mall Outdoor Courtyard.

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The place even has a Tiffany’s. Lucky for Lowell and I it closed about 5 minutes before we got there.

Whew! Dodged a bullet there.

Unfortunately a few minutes later, Brandi and Jan came across a Baby Gap store, and about $150 later, we were again on our way. But I guess it was still better than Tiffany’s.

After a wonderful evening, we headed home, finally getting back to the rig a little before 10.

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Thought for the Day:

"The three most dangerous things in the world are a programmer with a soldering iron, a hardware type with a software patch and a user with an idea."

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Fat Albert and Red-Headed Lizards . . .

Did client stuff this afternoon before Jan and I headed to the Alvin Opry for the evening performance. On the way we stopped off at Monterey’s for soup and nachos.

On the way home we stopped off at Wal-Mart before getting back to the rig about 11:30pm.

Thought I’d repost some of our visit to Key West in 2008.

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Birthday Wishes and Key Largo Dreams

Originally posted on May 19, 2009

First off, Jan and I want to wish our son Christopher a Happy Birthday today.

Jan and I decided to explore back up the Keys today. We went all the way up to Key Largo and then back down to Key West. There were several places that we drove by on the way down that we wanted to take a closer look at.

Strangely enough, most of them seemed to be gift shops.

Lunch was at a small, but very good Chinese buffet restaurant in Marathon called Panda Cafe. Really good!

We drove in and out of several rainstorms both up and down the Keys. But it did produce some very pretty pictures. And the ‘Glades and Keys can certainly use the rain.

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One thing we got see on our trip today was ‘Fat Albert’ floating over Cudjoe Key.

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‘Fat Albert’ is a 175 foot long helium-filled blimp floating at 10,000 ft. It is tethered to a pickup truck at the small blimp base on Cudjoe Key.

It is used mainly by NORAD, and the radar it carries monitors suspected drug smuggling flights, fast boats smuggling Cubans, weather, any low flying plane and other potentially harmful activity.

It is also sometimes used to broadcast ‘TV Marti’, which consists of anti-Castro TV programs beamed toward Cuba.

After we got back we headed down into Key West for another dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. Just as good as last time.

And of course, a few more gift shops had to be visited.

Tomorrow will be our last full day in the Keys before we head north to West Palm Beach on Thursday. We’ve really enjoyed all the sights we’ve seen here in Southern Florida and the Keys.

Here’s a few pics…

Traveler’s Palm

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We also saw this interesting lizard while we were at Coral Castle.

Red-headed Agama

This one was about a foot long and I had never seen one like it.

A quick Google told me that it is a Red-headed Agama, native to Africa. It seems that some agamas being kept as pets had escaped and there are now a number of colonies thriving here in South Florida.

When they are in courting mode, the males are even more colorful.

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We’ve also seen a number of interesting signs.

Looks like this guy has his business plan mapped out.

Yes there are crocodiles in the Keys. The really scary part about this sign is that there is a 6 ft fence on both sides of the highway for the entire 6 miles. I’m not sure I want to think about crocodiles that can jump 6 ft fences.

And finally, like I needed another reason to eat more Key Lime Pie!

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Thought for the Day:

I wish life had an UNDO function.

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I Love The Internet . . .

We’ve reached the point where you can find the answer to just about any question, as long as someone, somewhere, knows it.

For example, when Jan and I got our pills refilled recently, we each had one prescription that was filled with a different looking pill than our previous refills. So, wanting to be sure that we got the correct prescriptions, my first thought was to make a trip back to Sam’s Club. My second thought to go to Google and type in “How to ID pills”

Turns out, there’s a App for that, or at least a website right here – Pill Identifier.

You just type in the 2 characters on one side and the 3 characters on the other like “IG 248”, and you have your answer, along with the manufacturer and any warnings.

And as it turns out, both of our prescriptions were correct.

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I left the rig about 1pm for an afternoon of client stuff. My first stop was Fry’s Electronics to look for the new computer and LCD monitor we talked about yesterday. They had a nice deal on a Dell that looks pretty good, so my next stop was to my clients to get the OK, and also do some set up work.

Since one of the computers I’ll be replacing runs the UPS shipping software, I’ll have to double check what it will take to move the database over to the new computer.

I also started downloading the 425 MB file for the 2012 version of the UPS software which took about 30 minutes. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll upgrade the old computer to the 2012 version before moving the database to the new computer. I’ll call UPS Tech Support tomorrow and see what they suggest.

As I was finishing up, my client decide he wanted another monitor for one of the new computers I installed last week, so that makes two I’ll need.

Finally leaving the office, I stopped back by Fry’s to pick up about $1100 of computer and monitors before heading back toward the rig.

On my way I checked the Gas Buddy app on my Droid to find the cheapest nearby gas. Found  a place right down the road for $3.15 which was a pretty good price. Then leaving the gas station I called ahead to Monterey’s Little Mexico for a pickup order of Tortilla Soup, Queso, and Chips to take home for supper. Sure does seem like we eat here a lot, doesn’t it.

On another note, while I was walking thru Fry’s I noticed a toy called “Geneactor”, some sort of action figure. That kind of rang a bell, but I just couldn’t place it. But on the way home, it hit me.

It reminded me of my very first computer, the Geniac. A little Googling and I found this. (Did I mention I love the Internet?)

It was a mechanical analog computer that I got for Christmas 1958 when I was 10 years old. It was made of a Masonite board and 6 Masonite wheels, along with a lot of wires, switches, and lights. I spent hours building and programming it, even writing my own programs, which on the Geniac, meant moving wires around.

But it started me on my career path. A year later  I had my ham radio license, and six years after that I was programming on a building-sized IBM 360 at Vanderbilt University using Fortran II and punch cards. I’m not sure that punch cards were all that big a step up from moving wires around, but the 360 certainly looked a lot cooler anyway.

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Thought for the Day:

“I can fix it. But if I can’t fix it, I can fix it so nobody can fix it.”

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Chicken Fajitas and Komodo Dragons . . .

Today was pretty straight forward, with not a lot really happening.

After doing some stuff around the rig, I headed out about 1pm up toward Clear Lake. My first stop was Fry’s Electronics where I was looking for some check printing software.

My client’s website takes checks online and uses the software to print out a check using the customer-supplied routing and account numbers. My client then deposits the check in his bank just like a regular check.

But since we upgraded his main machine to Win 7, the old DOS-based check printing program will no longer run, so I’m looking for a new program for him.

After finding something I hope will work, I drove over to my client’s for the afternoon.

But, by the time the afternoon was over, we had decided to replace the ornery computer with a new Win 7 model, thus taking care of all of our networking problems.

Works for me.

I headed home about 4:30, and then turned around and Jan and I headed up the road to La Brisa for a great dinner. Jan had the Chicken-Stuffed Avocado with Chicken Fajitas and a couple of Shrimp Brochettes, while I had a Trio Combo, with Beef Fajitas, Chicken Fajitas, and Ribs. As delicious as usual.

Since nothing much really happened today, I reposted some of our time in St. Augustine, FL in 2009.

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Tour Trains & Komodo Dragons…

Originally posted on June 8, 2009

Today Jan and I did ‘touristy’ stuff

We started off at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. This is probably the nicest small zoo we’ve been to. And believe me, we’ve been to a bunch of them.

They had some very unique displays including komodo dragons, the bird rookery, and the albino alligators.

Founded in 1893, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm is one of Florida’s oldest zoological attractions. In the early 1880s, two men began collecting alligators they found on Anastasia Island. These individuals, George Reddington and Felix Fire, were the founders of the St. Augustine Alligator Farm at South Beach.

In 1937, Reddington and Fire sold it to a pair of young business men in the community: W.I. Drysdale and F. Charles Usina. And the Drysdale family still owns the park today.

In 1989, The American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums extended accreditation to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, thereby elevating the institution to a select list of facilities throughout the nation recognized for the quality of their collections and the care afforded them.

The Alligator Farm is the only zoo to have all 23 species of the worlds’ crocodilians exhibited in individual habitats.

Here are some pics:

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These alligators are true albinos with pink eyes. They have no skin pigment.

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There are other white alligators, called leuistic alligators. Unlike albinos, leuistic alligators have pigment. It’s just a white pigment.

And they don’t have pink eyes. They have bright blues eyes. There are only about 12 known in the world, and they are all males.

Leuistic White Alligator

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We really enjoyed seeing the Komodo Dragon again. The last time we saw them was at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. in 1971.

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Reticulated Python

Northern Cassowary

This is ‘Gomek’. He was a 17 foot, 2000 pound Saltwater Crocodile who lived at the Alligator Farm. When he died, they had him stuffed and put back on display. He just doesn’t move around as much anymore.

Gomek – Tha Saltwater Crocodile

We really enjoyed The Rookery. This is a walk-thru area with nesting birds in some cases, just inches from the walkway.

Nesting Egrets

The Rookery

Wood Stork

Nesting Roseate Spoonbills

Stork Chicks

Nesting Tri-Colored Heron

Snowy Egret and Hungry Chicks

This is a fake dead zebra. It is used for the realistic feeding of the vultures and storks who regularly feed on carcasses.

"Dead" Zebra

Hooded Vultures

West African Crowned Crane

Black Swan

Blue and Gold Macaw

Indian Gharial Crocodile

The hand belongs to Christie. She goes into the pen to feed the alligators. And yes, that is a rat, a dead rat. Apparently, dead rats are alligator treats. The zoo buys them already dead. She said the rats are cheaper than chicken and the gators like them better.

Alligator Feeding Time

Feeding Skipper

He knows it’s here somewhere

Gulp!

All Gone!

Taste like Chicken!

Golden Lion Tamarin

After we left the Alligator Farm, we headed over to take the Old Town Trolley Tour. This is same tour company that we took in Key West. They also have tours in Savannah, Washington, D.C., Boston, and San Diego. We plan on taking this tour in all these cities as we visit them.

One of the places we passed thru on the tour was Magnolia Ave. Strangely enough, there are no magnolia trees on Magnolia Ave. Just some beautiful oaks trees in a canopy over the street.

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After our Trolley Tour, we drove down the road a ways to eat lunch again at the Oasis Restaurant. We ate here a couple of days ago and really enjoyed it. And it was close by.

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After lunch, we headed over to Walmart to pick up our prescriptions, and then it was on to Camping World to get some more parts for my new toad tail light setup.

After that, we stopped off for coffee before heading back to the coach.

All in all, an enjoyable day.

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Thought for the Day:

Whether you can hear it or not, The universe is laughing behind your back.

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