Amici's and New Brake Pads for R2D2

Tom, Bob, Reet and Shirley at Pizza House in Clyde, TX, Nov 2007
Friday, November 6, I was very pleased that my back is much better this morning. I had a rough night due to gastrointestinal issues. I must have inadvertently eaten something I'm allergic to. Had to get up in the middle of the night and take something to settle my innards. Feeling great this morning. It's sunny and warm already. Low of 57-I like that! High gets to 83 later with 35% humidity. Dad said they only had a high of 62 yesterday in the St. Louis area. A few hundred miles south sure makes a difference. Perhaps that should be our travel motto.

I take a walk after breakfast and faithfully do my back stretches. I've had no drugs since 11:00 a.m. yesterday and I'm pain free. Maybe this was just a blip and not a full-blown attack. I worked on Good Sam pages for a bit. Logged on and discovered it does not take 30 days to "un-maxout" my photo upload. I guess they get their count of 150/month day by day. So I can upload 20 more photos. That means I can create pages on my Good Sam blog from 2007 for a few days and let my Earthlink journal for Jan 2009 rest for a bit. I'm so far behind it is daunting but it helps to switch back and forth. Not so boring to use two different sites and different tools. I found this photo from Nov 2007 of our Iowa RV friends, Tom and Shirley. We drove 80 miles to meet them for pizza near Abilene. By coincidence I had an email from them today and they hope to meet us in Bastrop this year in December as they move their 5th wheel from Houston to Abilene. They come down to Texas every year to visit their son and daughter.

I called my brother Mike and caught him driving up to Lake Texoma. We had a nice chat in spite of the wind blowing in my cell phone and making noise. I was outside to get better reception but the wind is blowing hard. Bob had thoughts of playing golf today (I was going to walk along as my back isn't up to it.) But the wind deterred him. I'm kind of glad. It's depressing to not be able to join in. The walk would have done me good though. I ended up walking around the campground three times today.

For one of today's projects, Bob fixes the sight glass on the water heater. Just one a million little things that need TLC when your home moves down the road. Then he gets out his new Rhino collapsible sewer hose kit that he bought yesterday. Our storage pipe for it underneath the RV is 47 inches long. This hose advertises being 45" long, when collapsed (it is 15 feet in length when stretched out.) But that is without the fittings and connections. So it won't fit. Back to the drawing board. He wanted to get a spare 10-foot hose extension anyway for those times when you need just a bit longer than a 15-foot hose. So he'll put that in our current storage pipe and add a longer PVC pipe like we did to our last RV.

We go to lunch around 12:30 at Amici's. We get our same waitress and she laughs and says "I won't have to leave before you're done today." She gives us a new table this time in the opposite corner. It is busy in here at lunch time. We finally try the Fried Ravioli appetizer (Toasted Ravioli for all of us St. Louis folks who know how perfect it is on The Hill!) It was scrumptious, but a cheese ravioli, not meat. I like how it was smothered with their big shreds of fresh Parmesan. I've seen chocolate curls that aren't that huge.

I finally try the manicotti. Two with marinara sauce and one with Alfredo, both stuffed with ricotta cheese. Bob has the Italian sausage and peppers. A real winner. We roll out with a 'go' box. Our waitress begged us to have dessert (Bob thought she was trying to give it to us free since our bread came late-they ran out) but I was too stuffed to let her talk me into it if you can believe that.

Across the street on the way home we get diesel and a paper. The guy inside at QT points to the headline of "Twelve Killed in Killeen" and says it is thirteen now and the guy who did it was shot but not killed so there will be the whole mess of a trial now. I feel so sorry for all of those families. And there are over 30 wounded. What a sad thing.

Back home we read the paper. I go for another walk. Bob unchains our bikes and works on my rear brake on R2D2 (Reet's Raleigh; Double Delight or Double Devil, depending on if I'm cycling uphill or downhill!) He puts the new brake pads and spring on that we bought in Warren but it still isn't stopping correctly. So he studies the mechanics and makes a few adjustments and it is working better than it has for a while. We'll let the pads wear in and adjust it again soon. We oil both chains with our new self-cleaning oil and treat ourselves to a piece of cake for a job well done. One way or the other I was going to get my dessert today. First I took a walk. All that bending over with the bikes got my back talking to me.

I worked the puzzles in the paper and we watched our recorded season premier of "V" and a couple of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I'm taking a break to blog and later we'll watch the new White Collar. We're kind of enjoying that. It's 7:30 p.m. and 71 degrees. I read Bob's cousin Patti's blog Osage Bluff Quilter and saw her recipe for fried turnips. I'm sending it to my Dad. That sounds right down his alley and it's turnip season.