I am way behind in my blogging. For this one, I am going to go back in time to just after my last post. The picture below, is from the second stop at Fort Stockton.
The big thing going on back then was the furniture run. We rented a trailer and made a big dash to Sacramento and back. Like all plans, it did not go completely as it was supposed to. The first day being the worst.
The first day was 600 miles, from Houston to Fort Stockton. It was supposed to be shorter than that, but construction in Houston and in Austin added miles. This leg of the trip led us through the most varying scenery of the whole trip. Houston is on the eastern side of Texas and near Louisiana so it gets a lot more rain. Houston is very green with lots of trees. I think I mentioned one of my earlier blogs that our new house has 50' pine trees. That's very common around here. Driving to Austin put us in central Texas which is all flat and farms and ranches. The trees are shorter and become more oaks than pines. Once we got past Austin, we were in Hill Country. As the name implies, there are lots of hills with limestone cliffs. The soil is very thin so the trees are shorter than down in the flat land. When we arrived in Fort Stockton for the end of day one, we were out of Hill Country and into the desert.
Fort Stockton is where we hit our biggest problems. We knew there was a storm warning but we thought it would just be rain. We checked in to the hotel and decided to go have dinner across the street at K-Bobs so we could eat before the bad weather hit. We were wrong, the bad weather hit while we were having dinner. The thunder storm had lots of hail, big hail.
The restaurant has a metal roof so once it started, it was too loud to hear any talking. One of the waitresses ran outside screaming about her car. She was right to be worried, but there was nothing anyone could do about any of the cars in the parking lot. Here is what our truck looked like after the storm.
Jan says it looks like the skin of an orange. According to the insurance adjuster, it is going to take $9,000 to fix it all. The roof and hood got the worst of it. The wind hit the passenger side so that had damage too. It also dinged up the rented trailer. Luckily, they said they would take care of it themselves. Dents do not affect the value of a rental trailer. We will have to wait until we get to Yuma to get the damage fixed though. We need the truck too much here in Houston (more on that in the next post).
Day 2 was a 504 mile desert trip to Tucson. The weather was much better for the rest of the trip. This drive was completely on Interstate 10. We made good time. The hotel there was crap. We made sure to not book that one again on the way back. There's not much to describe on this leg, we just saw desert. The only thing that changed was the types of cactus.
Day 3 was 475 miles of desert to Barstow. We crossed the border into California so we had to go through an inspection station. This was the first time I had ever been stopped and inspected. The inspector lady said that since we came from Texas, she had to look for fire ants in the trailer. It's true, there are a lot of fire ants in Texas. Right now, I have a fire ant nest here at the RV park. I always carry fire ant poison with me as we travel.
Barstow is a railroad town and the hotel was probably 50% booked up by railroad workers. They bring them in in shuttles in the afternoon and pick them up again in the morning. We booked this place because there was supposed to be a Cattleman's restaurant across the parking lot that we could walk to. Cattleman's did not survive Covid. It was closed. Instead of a steak dinner, we ate at a fast food burger joint called Barstow Burger. It was ok, but not a steakhouse.
Day 4 was 434 miles (mostly on Highway 99) to Suzanne's house. Thanks again for having us Suzanne! For anyone about to travel on 99, they have actually fixed most of the highway. We expected it to be the usual pothole filled mess, but we were surprised to make it to Sacramento without busting an axle.
Day 5 was spent at the storage unit. A couple of Lauren's friends came and helped us (Lauren is Suzanne's step daughter for those of you who don't know). It seemed like a good idea when we got the storage unit to get one on the second floor. We got the cheapest one we could because we knew it would be years before we would empty it. At least the place had an elevator.
Day 6 was the quick turn around and 432 miles back to Barstow. The mileage difference is because we stayed at a different hotel. One closer to the highway. I walked over to Panera Bread and took that back to the hotel for dinner. It was not one of our more exciting days.
Day 7 and back 492 miles to Tucson. It had been a long week of driving and I don't really remember much about this stop.
Day 8 and another 588 miles to Fort Stockton. It was much calmer this time. We ate again at K-Bobs across the street, but no hail this time. We did see Hail Damage Repair trucks and trailers in town. I guess they swoop in to fix things. We found out that the high school roof collapse because of the weight of the hail. They were saying it was the worst hail storm in Fort Stocktons history. It did not make me feel better to have witnessed history.
Day 9 and 589 miles to Houston. We slept in our own bed again.
Day 10 and I was up early to get the trailer to the storage unit to unload. I hired 2 guys from a moving company to help me unload the trailer. They had it unloaded in less than an hour. After that was done, I took the trailer back to the rental company. They last piece of the trip was to pick up Jan and then go get Brie from the kennel. Once we had Brie, the furniture run was done.
That was 10 days, 2,000 miles, storm damage, and high gas prices, but still 50% cheaper than renting a U-Haul truck for a one way trip from Sacramento to Houston.
Beer News:
I brewed a batch of American Ale before we left on the trip with the intention of trying to make half a batch of non-alcoholic beer. The beer fermented just fine while we were gone. I put 1 gallon in a growler and then I took the second gallon and attempted to remove the alcohol. The instructions sounded easy enough. You gradually bring the beer up to 173º-175º and hold it there for 30 minutes. That's harder to do than it sounds. You turn on the burner and keep stirring the beer so the bottom doesn't scorch. Once it gets to the temperature range you turn off the burner. Long story short, I could only keep the temps between 170º to 180º. I put it into another growler and put both growlers in the fridge to carbonate. After 4 days, I tried them both. The alcohol beer was fine. I am still drinking that batch. The non-alcohol batch was terrible. It tasted burnt. Jan said it tasted like coffee, not beer, very bitter.
When I try it again, I seem to have 2 options. I can try using a double boiler. This will keep the bottom of the pot from scorching the beer and smooth out the temperature swings. Another option is to get a sous vide cooker. That's probably the easier way to go, but it is the more expensive route.
I have lot's more news about the house too, but that will be my next blog.
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