Saturday - Getting my "El Fenix fix" and Groceries

I had wanted to go to El Fenix while we were in the DFW area... but the one near Lewisville has closed. When I looked at the locations, we thought that we would be closer when we were at the ILC, so we headed there for lunch on Saturday.

I suggested that Carl order "El Jefe" (https://www.elfenix.com/items/el-jefe - "3 enchiladas (cheese & onion with chile con queso, chicken with sour cream sauce, beef with chili con carne sauce), one beef tamale with ranchera sauce, one crispy beef taco, pico de gallo, rice & refried beans") and he thought it sounded good, so he ordered it... it came on two plates!

I got my favorite, Seasoned Chicken Quesadillas (the "seasoned chicken" is no longer a specific choice on the menu, but they will make it for you if you ask).

It seemed like it was less than 5 minutes before the waitress brought our order... a few minutes longer than that time, and...

... this is what Carl's two plates looked like! I think he liked it!

I enjoyed mine too, but I had a couple of sections of quesadilla to bring home with me!

In the same shopping center, there was a Winco. We needed groceries, so we decided to go there to see if we could get everything on our shopping list. We had gone to a Winco back in April, 2022, in Lancaster, CA -- I remembered it as being almost a ware-house like store, but all groceries. This seemed like a HUGE store -- and there were a LOT of people shopping there on Saturday. They have a large bulk food area that we browsed through.

Do any of my friends with bifocals do this? I wanted to see the "per ounce" information for this item that was on the bottom shelf, but there was no way that I could read it, so I took a picture so I could see it. Otherwise, I would have had to stand on my head (or do the calculation of how much per ounce in my head -- nah! that ain't happenin'!).

We are starting to think about cooking a turkey (we do love turkey leftovers!) so examined these. We got a turkey at Winco back in April of 2022 (that's how I know that we shopped there!). At that time, we had a coupon for a free turkey, but I noticed the pricing of them. I don't know whether the sign at that store was different from this one, but I thought it indicated that the turkey was $0.98 for the first pound, and then a higher cost for each additional pound (this says "Addtn'l $1.68LB") -- maybe I just misread it. This sign was more clear that you could only get the $0.98/LB for the first turkey and if you wanted to purchase more than one turkey, they would be at $1.68/LB.

We were able to get most everything on our list at Winco, and we had our bellies full from El Fenix!

Helping out

When we got to the ILC on Thursday, Lynda mentioned that we could help with cleaning some shelving in the dining hall. So, on Friday morning, after devotions in the Travis Building, we headed over to get started on cleaning.

We started by emptying one of the shelves and taking it outside. We had some Dawn Powerwash and were using hot water and brushes / scrubbers to try to get the sticky stuff (grease, maybe some adhesive too?) off. We weren't having a lot of success, so Carl asked if there might be a power washer that we could use. Susie called a person in facilities, and he brought one over.

With the power washer, we could scrub and then blast it...

... that seemed to work much better.

We then were doing shelves that are in one of the large walk-in refrigerators. We started with the back unit...

Again, scrub, use the power washer, and then dry it a little before returning it to the refrigerator.

The shelving in the refrigerator did not have the sticky stuff, but sometimes something had spilled so we had to clean between openings in the shelves -- a little more difficult on the plastic shelves.

We moved the contents of each shelving unit to another unit or onto a rolling cart before we could take it outside to wash.

To help us get the items back into the right places, we took a "before" picture that we could reference when we brought the cleaned shelving unit back in!

When we broke for lunch, there was a golf cart with an interesting occupant outside the dining room!

I think he may have been coming from the warehouse going somewhere else on campus!

We got one of the shelving units in the kitchen cleaned, and all of the shelving units in one of the refrigerators cleaned on Friday. We have about the same number of shelving units to complete next week!

Back to the ILC

I wrote that we were planning to go to NIRVC on Thursday for Texas State Inspection and installation of Rettrobands. Well, we were able to get the inspection completed, but, unfortunately, the date code on our tires indicated that they were too old for the Rettrobands to be installed -- too much opportunity for damage that could cause us issues further down the road. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be, at least at this time.

We had planned to spend 3 nights at NIRVC and then move to the International Linguistics Center on Sunday. But, since we were "done" at NIRVC before noon, I called the ILC and they said we could come on and check in on Thursday, so we did!

We got to our site and got Gracie parked by 12:45pm, and headed over to the dining hall for lunch. We got to see friends as soon as we arrived (my Hebrew professor and her husband were walking in the campground). At the dining hall, we asked if there were any tasks that we could do, and Lynda was so excited to consider how we could help -- before we finished lunch, she came out to the table where we were sitting and had some things for us to do!

We headed over to housing and paid for our stay, and then continued on up to the Center Director's office and checked in, getting our badges and catching up with friends along the way!

We walked through the quadrangle where we were married 44+ months ago!

Back in the campground - Gracie and the Jee-rage in our spot.

It feels like coming home!

Third brake light replacement

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we wanted to get Gracie's brake lights working before we took her to get her Texas state inspection done (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/09/keeping-things-working.html, https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/10/last-things-at-rally.html). Carl worked on the "third brake light" on Wednesday.

We had looked for a direct replacement for the center light that has several non-functioning LEDs, but the one we found was pretty pricey, so we decided to go with a different alternative that would be longer...

Preparing where the new light would be "stuck"

Planning for where it should go

The light came with sticky tape on the same side as the light -- it was intended to go on the inside of the back window of a car. So, we had automotive trim two-sided tape that we applied to the back.

Stuck into place

It may be hard to see in the picture, but it lights up nicely!

We took Gracie in to NIRVC on Thursday and she passed inspection with no difficulty -- and they actually inspected the lights, horns, windshield wipers, etc. -- unlike the other places where I had taken Miss Doozie when I was back in Texas in 2019.

Maintenance of the athletic fields

On our walk around the Lewisville Lake Park grounds on Wednesday, we walked out of the campground into the area where the athletic fields are located. The athletic fields are quite busy on the weekends, so the grounds crew works on the fields during the week to keep them ready for the teams on the weekend.

We had seen this machine being used last week, and wondered if it did the marking of the lines - so we walked over to look at it more closely.

The grounds keeper came over and talked with us quite a bit about it. It uses GPS to know exactly where to paint. I think he said that they just have to take it to two corners of the field, and then it will do all the lining needed. This was a soccer field, but it has the patterns for all sorts of field games -- cricket, baseball, field hockey, and many more that we don't recall right now! It can also paint special emblems (like a logo in the middle of the field) - just would require different paint colors to be loaded.

This was the tractor that the grounds keeper was using -- it has hydraulics for the steering and management of the equipment that it pulls.

The GPS "tower" that controlled the field painter.

Here is a video of the machine in operation (I don't think the embedded video is going to work...):

In case the embedded video does not work, I've posted it on YouTube too (https://youtu.be/p-tfJ76E7TM).

Trees coming down...

I had seen from a former neighbor's Facebook post that a large tree that had been in the yard of the house Dwayne and I lived in in Coppell was being removed, so we drove past on Tuesday...

It was a rainy day, so we didn't get great pictures... at this point, she was about half taken down.

Zoomed in -- the red arrow is pointing to the large part already cut off -- the other half is still there. This was a large pecan tree.

We had had an arborist come out to examine the tree when we lived there. It had a large hollow part at the base. The arborist said that it had been struck by lightning many years ago (and when he pointed it out we could see the damage up higher on the tree). At that time, he felt the tree was sound, but our neighbor shared with me that it has been prone to shedding large limbs and that isn't safe, so the current home owners decided to take it down.

This is a picture that shows the "Keebler Elf" hollow at the base.

Here are some more pictures that our former neighbor took on Wednesday:

 

You can really see the part that was hollow in this cross-section.

They also removed a big water oak in the back:

The water oak was already down when we went by on Tuesday. Dwayne provided significant iron supplements when we lived there.

It is a little sad to see these big trees have to come down. The weather in the Dallas area has been tough on growing things, especially this past summer, with seemingly endless 100+ degree days and no rain.

In the afternoon, Miss Kitty was getting time "at the movies" watching a video for cats from YouTube (this one was starring a rat!).

We were happy that we were getting rain -- Tuesday had a lot of good soaking rain - very much needed!

Meeting up with former co-workers

On Tuesday, we met up with some of my former co-workers for an IBM Lunch Bunch gathering.

We met up at Saltgrass Steak House...

Carl got tenderloin tips...

I got salad and soup, but I ended up letting Carl eat the soup... I couldn't finish them both!

Our crew at lunch!

It is fun getting together and sharing stories! We were sorry to miss several folks...

Indian Buffet!

Carl loves Indian food, and he loves buffets, so an Indian Buffet is pretty high on the must-do list! There is one just up the hill from the church we attend in Irving, so we went there after church on Sunday.

I think Carl particularly likes Indian buffets (not restaurants) because he knows by sight what foods he likes, but he doesn't necessarily know their names, so it is hard to order from a menu.

He tried using Google Lens to give him a description of a dish from the name of the item:

... but he has recently upgraded the operating system on his phone, and his camera was not working in the way he anticipated, so he got a picture rather than an explanation!

Regardless, he enjoyed his meal, and I enjoyed it because he did (and there was plenty of naan!).

Fixing a shade

One of our MCD shades had broken a few weeks ago -- the "day" shade (just darkening not black-out) had its internal spring break and so the fabric all wound down and wouldn't retract. Carl spoke with the MCD person who was at the Newmar Kountry Klub rally and the MCD guy indicated that if Carl sent him the specifics on the shade, he would send us a new spring.

You may recall that we have fixed two of the MCD shades before (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/10/repairing-shades.html), in October, 2020 -- including this one. We were actually surprised that the repair worked for as long as it did (3 years) -- gluing two pieces of plastic together that are subjected to a twisting (torsional) stress -- it just didn't seem likely that the repair would last for long.

Carl took the shade down...

... and got on YouTube to find out how to take the shade apart (yes, we did this 3 years ago, but we don't remember!). In fact, the lady that I contacted at MCD 3 years ago sent me links to all the needed videos:

Switch out Spring and Autostop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK84lKUf7nc

Disassemble MCD Shades

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3rVLdIfGBM

Gold Internal Adjustment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDfW0tL-Fto

I'm including them in this post because I'm more likely to find them again by looking up this post if I need to locate the information in the future.

Releasing the end of the shade to be able to get to the insides

Carl got all the information about the spring and shade so we can send it in to MCD.

I have to admit that I'm a little doubtful that they will really replace the spring for free since we called them back 3 years ago and they sent us a price list for the replacement parts -- but, the MCD guy who was at the Newmar Kountry Klub rally said that Carl could email him the information and he would provide the replacement part for free and ship it to us with no charge... so we will see!

In the meantime, we decided to go ahead and glue the spring again -- the repair lasted 3 years last time, if we get that much time from it again, it would be great!

Re-assembling

Installed again -- it is hard to get a picture of it because the head of the shade is way up under the valence box around the window -- but this documents that the shade is re-installed.

I don't think this breakage is due to the rattling of our home down the roads and byways of North America, but rather a poor choice in materials to make parts of the spring out of plastic. With the heat that our windows absorb, the plastic gets brittle, and over time and tension, I guess it is inevitable that it will eventually break. I don't know whether a replacement part would be made out of different materials or not... I would hope they might be, but, even though I think MCD is a good company, I honestly think it is unlikely!

Friday and Saturday getting together with friends

On Friday, we met up with Clif at Panera Bread for lunch and to get caught up...

It was a pretty sunshiny day -- nice to have blue skies, but not great for getting a great group selfie inside the restaurant!

On Saturday, we met friends Mark and Kathleen at one of our favorite Chicago-land restaurants, Portillo's, that has recently opened a location in The Colony - not far from us. Unfortunately we forgot to get a picture!

Picture or not, it is always good to meet up with friends!

Thursday visiting with friends

On Thursday, we had made plans to visit with Linda and Jim -- I had met Linda while we were volunteering at the ILC, and then we have met up with them on the road a few times as they are also RVing.

This time we remembered to get a picture as we took it as soon as we met up!

We met at a place called "Chicken 'N' Pickle" -- I was thinking its name reflected two types of food... but instead, it is an eating and game place... this is a picture of courts where folks were playing cornhole, but there were also Jenga sets there...

Just behind where we were seated there were pickleball courts -- they weren't in use while we were eating but folks were coming there and warming up to play as we finished our lunch.

We had a nice visit with Linda and Jim, catching up on what has been going on in our lives since we last saw them in Keystone, South Dakota, back in August of 2022 (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/08/trying-something-new.html).

Later in the day, we took a walk around the campground and Carl got this picture over Lake Lewisville -- it is actually looking east (even though it looks like a sunset view). I guess it is the "back side" of the sunset!

It is always fun to see friends!

Wednesday to the service center

We needed to get a Texas state inspection, and we wanted to get Rettrobands installed on Gracie, so we made an appointment to take her in to the service center in Lewisville on Wednesday. We had an appointment to drop her off at 9:30am... we were actually early getting there... the service writer took a photo of our insurance information (for the inspection), and told us that the Rettroband installation would probably take about 4 hours.

We also had an appointment to take Miss Kitty to the vet = we took her after we dropped off Gracie -- she was also dropped off (they don't seem to want to do appointments with the owners anymore, at least at Banfield), and we headed back to the service center to wait for whichever one finished first.

At the service center

When we got back from dropping Miss Kitty off, we walked along the outside of the service center looking for where Gracie was being serviced... we didn't see her in the shop anywhere. We stopped at an office and asked where she might be, and the service guy took us to the area behind the shop...

... Gracie was sitting in the lot still waiting to be taken in.

We got the call that Miss Kitty was ready to be released, so we went to pick her up... looked in the bays to see if Gracie was in any of the bays... she was not... she was still in the lot. We put Miss Kitty into Gracie so she would have access to food and water and her litter pan, and we returned to the waiting area. We had an appointment with our financial advisor at 2pm, so as we left, we drove by the service area... no Gracie... back to the lot -- yep, she was still in the lot waiting. Hmm, we got in a little after 9am, the service is supposed to take 4 hours... it was now 1pm... what's going on? But... we had an appointment, we were still certain that they were taking care of us...

... well, they weren't... we got back a little before 5pm, nothing had been done. We were, ahem, a little peeved, well, maybe a lot peeved! They wanted us to stay overnight in the lot and they would get to it on Thursday. We declined (we had other things going on). So, we re-scheduled to bring it in on next Thursday.

Meanwhile, back at the campground -- we found when we parked in the site we had been originally assigned that it did not have good 50A service (it did not work correctly), so we had arranged to move to a different site. By the time we got back in the afternoon (after 5pm), the office was closed for the night, so we parked in the new site...

... it is in a nice location.

You may be able to see a bathhouse right behind our rig (handy if we needed to use it, but we don't...). Unfortunately, this site is only available until Thursday (we were planning to stay until Saturday).

The "good" news is that we got to speak with a lady at the service center who could see that we were frustrated... she seems to have some responsibility for customer satisfaction and wanted to know how she could make it right. We've worked out with her to be able to get the work done on Thursday and then be able to stay in the service center's campground until Sunday. So it is working out for us, even though the various items (non-working 50A at the campground, service appointment not being completed) are frustrating. Many times there are things to be learned from these "little" challenges, so we're studying to see what we can learn!