Texas means Barbecue

Texas means Barbecue

We're sitting here in Texas waiting for our workamping job to begin the first of March. Not much going on just settling into our new 5^th. Wheel. That in itself is a fulltime job. Anyway, I got up this morning and while having my coffee I thought Hey we're in Texas, we need to have some BBQ.

So I get online and start searching for BBQ places here in Tomball, TX. After reading reviews I decide we will try out The Original Rib Tickler. No its not a comedy club, its a little place that holds maybe 50 people at a time. I know it was only the first place we went to so far but It had the best BBQ I have ever had. I think they could smoke a roll of paper towels and it would be tasty, not to mention finger licking awesome.

They had smoked beef, sausage, chicken, and pulled pork. I think they would smoke about any meat there is. Barb had a pulled pork sandwich on a bun bigger than my out stretched hand. It had to have had a quarter lb. of pork on it and some potato salad. I on the other hand had the beef brisket dinner. This consisted of a plate full of beef thinly sliced and smothered in a tangy sauce. I don't believe you can order BBQ without having a side of baked beans. They were just as good as the beef, and as anybody that knows me knows if they have mac-n-cheese. I'm going to have some. It was fantastic along with everything else.

AT the end of the serving line was a stack of napkins that were very much needed along with a big basket of the ever popular Wet Naps. Needless to say the Rib Tickler was the first of many (I hope) BBQ places we will be trying while we're here in Texas. As we stumble on to other barbecue joints I'll be sure to let you know about them. The Original Rib Tickler is located at 28930 St. Rd. 249 in Tomball, TX.

3 Days on the Road

3 Days on the Road

Well we did it. We left Woodstock, Georgia on Thursday the 19^th. And haven't looked back. Our first 2 nights we stayed in a campground not far from the dealer just in case. The first problem we had was the water hose froze, luckily we had the dealer fill the fresh water tank before we left so there was enough water for the 2 days we were there.

No major problems so on Saturday we headed for Alabama to see my sister before heading our way towards Texas and our first workamping job. The first day we over did it and drove for 3 hours, way too much for our first day. We found a nice little campground just north Mobile and stopped for the night. Sunday we were thinking of using a little rule I had heard about somewhere on the internet. The 2-2 rule. Drive 2 hours or 200 miles and stop for the day. We did just that and had plenty of daylight to set up our rig, square away a few things and have some dinner. I was able to plot out the next portion of our drive for Monday, getting us to Lake Charles, La. In about 2.5 hours. We'll see how that works.

We've learned quite a bit and I'm sure we'll continue to learn something every day of this new adventure. Just a few things learned already are. If a campground doesn't post the mileage from the interstate on their sign, plan on driving a good distance to get there and don't even think about looking for any signs saying campground ahead _____ miles. Or how about this Slow WAY down when going over railroad tracks. Some of those crossing are ROUGH, enough said. Don't expect other drivers to know, understand, or care what the word merge means. I believe most drivers thinks it means, you better get out of my way because I'm coming through and I'm talking on the phone so don't bother blowing the horn at me I'M RIGHT and you are wrong. But it might just be me.

I've heard it many many times from people on the road a lot longer than us but believe me when I say campground wifi is slow if at all. But its only been 3 days so we have so much more to learn.

But at least we haven't killed each other yet, That's a good thing . Right? Well tomorrow is another day of traveling and learning as we go.

Be Safe and I Hope to See You Down The Road.     

Happily Homeless

As I sit here writing this post we are at 6 days to go until we begin our fulltime life. I quit my job on Wednesday the 11^th. And closed on the house Thursday the 12^th. We moved into a extended stay hotel to wait for Southern RV to call and say our new Keystone Sprinter 269RLS has been delivered and checked out.

We've kept busy taking care of the boring things that have to be taken care of. BIG Tip #1, Set up your mail forwarding service a couple of months in advance. You don't actually start receiving mail there until you notify everybody. But get this done soon just in case there are any problems. We also bought roadside assistance and joined the Good Sam Club.

Big Tip #2, When shopping at Camping World be prepared to be bombarded with Can I sell you this and Can I sell you that. They have a quota to meet and they are ruthless. I've also heard you can expect to receive all kinds of worthless mail. So keep that in mind when you are setting up your mail forwarding service.

We decided to sell Barb's car instead of keeping it. Didn't want the extra cost of insurance and tags plus having to transfer the title. Don't forget to cancel the car insurance. I've been getting quotes for RV insurance for two weeks now and have decided on Blue Sky. I feel we got a real good deal, just got to make the call Monday and get that set up.

Big Tip #3, And I guess its to late now anyway but lets talk about health insurance. I waited until one day before the deadline for the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care). I guess I shouldn't have expected anybody to answer the phone after waiting an hour on hold. I finally got us set up with a HMO policy from BCBSTX. But I figured we're going to be working in Texas for eight months that will give us a chance to find a good affordable PPO somewhere. So for the time being I'm satisfied with the policy.

As I said at the start of this post we are 6 days away from starting our new adventure and I feel like a child just before Christmas who can't get to sleep because I might miss Santa Claus.

Safe Travels and I Hope to See You Down the Road