HOUSTON MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Thursday, January 30, 2014 – Thursday is “get-in-free day” at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Shell Oil Company picks up the tab for the day. If you follow our blog you know this comes as “mixed blessings” in the Weaver Clan. Marsha simply loves museums, and Paul merely tolerates them.

Not very pretty on the outside.

The feature show at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH) is titled Roads of Arabia. It is an archaeology and history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is a display featuring the ancient trade routes of the Arabian Peninsula. Displayed are artifacts recently excavated from more than 10 sites throughout the peninsula. Many of the relics date back to 1 BC. This exhibit arrived in Houston in mid-December following its acclaimed U.S. debut at the Smithsonian Institute. It will be in Houston until March 9, 2014. Darn…no photos permitted in that area.

Permanent displays are also present featuring African Art, Asian Art, Pre-Columbian Art, Native American Art, Indonesian Gold, Korea Art, India Art, Japanese Art, China Art, and Art of the Islamic World. Marsha’s favorite by far was the enormous display on African treasurers.

N’Kambe Village Complex…Royal Palace Posts and Lintel. Africa
 

Democratic Republic of Congo…Male Helmet Mask

Pre-Columbian ballplayer and fan. 60-900 AD 

Indonesia

Head pieces…pure gold.
 

India

This one is for the ladies. How would we ever be able to cope with this?

Marsha said she will just stick to wearing her wedding ring.

The place was packed! Our normal procedure is to split-up and enjoy museums at our own pace. As you might imagine, Paul's pace is significantly faster than Marsha's. Surprisingly, Paul only had to wait about 30 minutes for Marsha after completing his tour. Thankfully, Marsha picked-up her pace a bit so we could beat the infamous “Houston rush-hour(s).”

Marsha highly recommends this Museum. There are numerous museums and tourist attractions in this area of Houston, so ya'll check back because Marsha is fixin' to see many more of these attractions in the coming weeks.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great time.

WARNING FROM MOTHER NATURE

Friday, January 24 – We haven't done much since our last post. Relaxing, enjoying the wonderful weather, and of course....wedding planning :-)

Paul finally found some time to do a little carving.

He carved a tree spirit in a cypress knee.

Carving tree spirits is one of Paul's favorite types of carving. He use to do quite a bit of chain saw carving and managed to carve many tree spirits in those days. He likes the creative freedom afforded with tree spirits. He doesn’t have to worry about someone looking at a carving and saying, “Well, that doesn't really look like a bear.” LOL

Finish product

This one hangs in the 5th wheel. It was done a long time ago.

The weather HAD been gorgeous here. We have been outside enjoying the warm sun and blue sky. Bella is really enjoying the outdoors. Fortunately for her, there are many birds for her to dream about capturing and even another cat across the bayou she keeps an eye on. Cats are funny!

 

But….Mother Nature sent us a warning blast of cold weather this morning....just to let us know she's still in charge. It was actually some freezing rain.

 

If you're familiar with Houston, you know most of the freeways are pretty much elevated highways. They don't do well with freezing rain…which leads to shutting them down…which leads to school closures. (Funny that our daughter, a school teacher in NE Ohio, experienced below zero temperatures this morning. Her school was open, and Houston schools were closed due to cold and freezing temperatures.....it was 30 degrees in Houston. What a hoot!) Many stores had delayed openings, and the Elks Lodge canceled Bingo! Golly! So.....we've been hibernating indoors today.

Back in the 60's on Saturday but another one day cold blast by Tuesday of next week. Can't complain though. Overall the weather has been spectacular here in Houston. One of our friends just warned Paul that he better be careful sitting out in the sun – skin cancer you know! So Mother Nature sent along a cold blast to send him indoors.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

A NITE OUT ON THE TOWN!

Thursday, January 23 - Our daughter, Carrie, treated us to a night out on the town on Saturday. We met a small group of Carrie's friends (eleven actually) at Chuey's Mexican Restaurant, in the Theater District of Houston. The place was packed....too packed! They are a well-known restaurant in Houston serving the typical huge plates of Mexican food at very reasonable prices. Guess that's why the place was packed.

After dinner we all rode a few blocks to the Music Box Theater.

This little theater is located among the bustling art galleries, theaters, and trendy restaurants in the Theater District of the Upper Kirby Avenue area Houston. If that sounds sophisticated and expensive to you, I think that was the intention when naming this area.

The theater was “sold out” which isn't surprising since ticket prices were a special 50% off. This is a small theater seating 150 people. The show was a “Year in Review” featuring highlights of songs from their 2013 shows.

The five singers sang show tunes, country, classical, oldies, and current top 40 selections. All-in-all, they did an excellent job and provided a very entertaining evening. We thought the Phantom of the Opera was their best selection. The show lasted about two hours with a 15 minute intermission at the mid-point.

At the late night hour of 10 p.m., it was time for us “older folks” to head home and let the younger crowd party the night away. There are certainly enough places for them to enjoy themselves in this part of town. Thanks, Carrie, for a wonderful dinner and night at the theater. We had a great time!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Hope you have a great day!

PAUL ALWAYS NEEDS TO BE DOING SOMETHING!

Friday, January 17, 2014 – One of the recurring issues with the Cameo 5^th wheel is the tendency for the curbside-slide motor to loosen and not function properly. It never fails that when you want to “hit-the-road” early in the morning, the slide doesn't come in properly.

There is a fix to this problem Paul found on the Cameo Forum. Use locktite on the motor mount bolts and install bearings on the motor shaft and gear shaft. That is the job Paul decided to tackle this morning.

There is an access panel to the motor via a zippered opening in the 5^th wheel under covering. After opening the area, Paul was able to stick his head up in the motor area .

He removed the motor bolts, applied the locktite, then re-installed the bolts. This acts almost like glue to keep the bolts from vibrating loose over time. It's not permanent, the bolts can be removed if necessary.

The roller bearings were ordered over the internet (about $30 for both). Paul installed the bearings on the motor shaft and gear shaft. He then used washers to fill the gaps between the bearing bases for a snug fit. Not too tight. You don't want the motor to be under pressure when opening or closing the slide.

Marsha was inside to operate the slide for testing. All seemed to work smoothly. But there was another issue Paul was trying to find a solution to. There was something that has been tearing the under cover that seals the bottom of the slideout.

Paul posted pictures along with questions concerning this problem on the Cameo forum. Fortunately, another Cameo owner experienced a similar problem and directed Paul to a solution. It seems a screw in the floor under the slide has a tendency to work loose and raise up. This then tears the under-covering as the slide moves in and out.

It’s difficult, but can you see the screw head protruding above the carpet in the above picture?  The problem is how to reach under the slide to tighten the screw. Impossible!

 

So Paul got out his trusty Moto-tool and ground the sucker off. That did it – no more tearing!

Marsha has been watching the Egrets flying around the bayou behind our campsite. She patiently waited for one to land nearby so she could get a picture. One finally decided to fulfill her wish and posed on the fence behind our RV. Judy, Travels With Emma, would be proud of her :-)

 

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

GOINGS ON HERE IN HOUSTON

Thursday, January 16, 2014 - Marsha has been super busy living the life of a “Wedding Planner.” Busy but Paul thinks she loves it! Kelly, the bride-to-be, is flying to Houston in early February so she, Marsha and her sister, Carrie, can do some planning and go dress shopping. That means Paul has been driving Marsha all over Houston to preview various dress shops.

The weather has returned to more seasonable temperatures with lows in the fifties and highs in the seventies...YES!

Rainbow after a quick shower.

We had a little excitement with our Verizon Jet Pack. We have automatic text messages sent when we use reach various levels of our 5G allotted data usage. We received a text the other day that we had reached the 50% level and just thirty minutes later, we received another text that we were at the 75% level. Then in another thirty minutes we were at the 90% level. YIKES!!

A quick call to Verizon netted us an additional 5G's of data (at no cost) until we could figure out what the heck was happening. We still haven't figured it out. We changed the pass word on the Jet Pack just incase someone here at the park broke the code. We did monitor usage daily. It might have been a malfunction in the Jet Pack or an unwanted automatic download. Picasa has been doing some downloads that have caused high data usage, but we don't think we were involved with that problem. Marsha read on Rick’s blog how to uninstalled the Auto-Backup To G+. She did that, so we are pretty sure that wasn’t the problem. She has both our computer set that any downloads and installs must first be approved by one of us. Very strange indeed.

Paul washed the RV and then put several coats of wax on the front. This area takes the most beating with smashed bugs while driving and it seems most of the rain water runs off this direction.

Looks like new!

While Paul was washing the 5^th wheel, Marsha took the truck and did laundry. This is the first time Marsha has ever driven the  “Big-Ass Truck”…her exact words, without having Paul along.  Of course, Marsha managed to get lost too! The Washateria, as Laundromats are called in this part of the country, is only about a mile down the same road we are camped on, but she managed to get lost....LOL.  

The campground here at the Elks Lodge remains FULL. This has us a little concerned. We were lucky to nab a spot this year, but what happens in the future? We've come to rely on the Elks Lodge as our “Houston Home.” We like being here for the holidays and will sure be disappointed if we get “shut out” in the future.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

WELL, HOW COLD DID IT GET WHERE YOU ARE?

January 7, 2014 – Here in Houston, TX, we survived a balmy 22 degrees this morning.

Not bad compared to our daughter back in NE Ohio who experienced -9 (-31 windchill).

It is bitterly cold in most of the nation. We heard on the Today Show that every state but Hawaii had below freezing temperatures this morning.

Paul stored the water hose last night and filled the holding tanks with fresh water. We even used the notoriously inefficient RV furnace in order to get a little heat in our wet bay to avoid freezing pipes.

So we're fairly snug in our Cameo 5^th wheel looking forward to a predicted high of 46 degrees this afternoon and highs in the 60's by Thursday.

Hope you survived the cold and will be enjoying warm temperatures in the near future.

Looking back a few days…We celebrated New Year’s Eve at the Elks Club. We shared the evening with several of our friends here in the campground.

Sandy and Leo

Us in our New Year Eve attire.

Even though it is cold, we have our daily visitor. What a beauty.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!