RICE UNIVERSITY

Monday, November 11 – Since we arrived in the Houston area, it has been nonstop visiting with our daughter, Carrie. She and her friends are always on the move.

Saturday found us at a beer festival. Even though the sign in the photo below says Hill Country, Houston is definitely not in Hill Country.

A small sample of Carrie's friends.

We spent the day in Houston on Monday visiting with Carrie. We spent the morning at her new apartment in Mid-Town Houston. She's right in the thick of things in the middle of a very exciting city. She's adapted well to big city living. Her apartment is very nice with plenty of parking, (Paul loves the ability to park his big ole' truck in a safe parking garage), an entertainment room, two pools, a computer area, two workout rooms, security systems, and cable TV all in a gated building.

After a short shopping trip, we returned to Carrie's apartment to park the truck. We then walked the two blocks to jump on the train ($1.25 for 4-hours of travel) to visit Rice University.

Rice University has a beautiful campus located right in the city of Houston.

Many of the buildings have the Rice mascot carved in the pillars.

Rice is a is a private research university located on a 295-acre campus. The university is situated near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. It has a gorgeous walking paths throughout the campus.

We did a pretty extensive walking tour of the campus seeing many of the 70 buildings, the beautiful grounds, and the athletic complex.

Lovett Hall

Herzstein Hall

Fondren Library

Rice Memorial Chapel

One of the many lounges in the Student Center

The Shepherd School of Music

Rice Stadium

After visiting the University, we walked around Rice Village, the entertainment/restaurant/bar section of campus.

Not too many campus can boost about having a violin shop.

Now this is unusual.

We even stopped for a cool beer and to talk with our other daughter, Kelly, back in Ohio, where they are getting ready for a couple inches of S@%W this evening.

The flowers are still blooming in this area. Carrie and Marsha just couldn't resist a photo op.

After a couple screw-ups trying to find the right train, (We had to get on and off the train a couple times before we were heading in the right direction.), we jumped off again in Mid-Town where we grabbed a lunch/dinner at Pho Sa'i Go'n, a Vietnamese Noodle House. Carrie tried her best to teach Marsha how to use chopsticks – all in vain! Paul just asked for a fork, and Marsha finally gave in and got a set of silverware too!

With the famous Houston rush hour(s) behind us, we then jumped in the truck about 6:30 to head back to the RV Park. Unfortunately, we caught up with the traffic backed up behind three accidents. Golly, it would be wonderful to do this driving twice a day, five days a week! We just took our time and eventually found our exit and the Forest Retreat RV Park. Good to be home!

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

REPAIR DAY!

Thursday, October 31 – With the rain finally slowing down (Houston area received over 4” of rain from this storm.), we prepared to haul the RV out to find replacement parts for the broken landing jack.

Paul ran down to the office to let them know we were pulling out but would return shortly. To our delight, one of the campground managers said he would take Paul to get the parts. Marsha was delighted she didn't have to close up the RV, and Bella was ecstatic she didn't have to get all nervous about traveling.

So with the girls smiling, Paul and Jack, one of the husband/wife management teams, headed to town to find a shear pin for the landing jack. They visited several hardware stores and found close to what they were looking for at a marine/boat repair shop. The only problem was the new shear pin was 1" long instead of 3/4” long.

Paul tried to cut off the shear pin using his hacksaw but it was just too difficult to do without a vise to hold it. So back to the campground office to ask for help. Jack took Paul down to the repair shop and gave him use of the bench grinder to shorten the shear pin.

Yes, Marsha yelled at me for cutting it this way.

Now, Paul need to remember how to re-assemble the jack. It's been two days since he tore it apart....short term memory, you know. Luckily for Paul, Marsha had the sense to take pictures of the innards of the jack as he disassembled it.

By consulting pictures on her cell phone, he was able to get things back together successfully.

Again with Marsha's help (I love this lady.), we re-installed the jack. Testing proved the thing was working as designed. So after two days sitting hooked-up, we finally are were able to setup here in the campground. YEAH!!!

In case you're wondering........total repair cost = $1.50. Lots of misery for a measly dollar and a half.....JEESH!…… And yes, Paul bought an extra shear pin as an emergency backup.

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

WE GOT CLOSE TO HOUSTON

Wednesday, October 30 – We are about 30 miles north of the heart of Houston on Rt. 59.

Traffic isn't any lighter since we were here back in March.

We are staying at Forest Retreat RV Park, in New Caney, TX.

The park has concrete sites, concrete streets, nice grass between the sites, 50 amp FHU's, some nice trees, and a beautiful club house. We are in site 122. We have a Maple tree, and it is turning colors. Marsha just stares out the window. This is the first "real" autumn colors we have seen.

We stayed here before, back in May of 2010. The WIFI is excellent. They offer free coffee all day and night and one bag of ice per day. It's a very nice campground and fairly well priced compared to other parks in the Houston area. But compared to the Elks lodge the price is high, but the amenities are better.

Looking right.

Looking left.

When we got ready to unhitch the truck, we were disappointed to find the left landing gear jack would not work. Remember, we knew it was acting up but hoped Paul had repaired it. “Not so fast, my friend.” It is out of commission! Well, after removing the jack from the 5^th wheel and figuring out how to dismantle it, Paul found an internal sheer pin broken.

Pointing at the sheer pin that is broken.

Of course, it was pouring down rain making repairs difficult, and now we were faced with the problem of how to get to a hardware store to buy parts. No bus service in the area, and the closest hardware is about five miles away. Paul asked the office workers if anyone was considering a Home Depot trip but didn't have any luck. So, I guess tomorrow morning we'll haul the RV with us to fetch repair parts.....JEESH!

The good news is Paul was able to locate the problem and is able to make repairs once parts are obtained. So check back and see how the fix turns out.

He needs to keep all the parts together.

One more splash of autumn for you.

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