Hammond, LA Day 2

Fuzzy Ragland Theater

Sally had an appointment with her Edward Jones rep, her nephew Kurt, and while she was in there I was out there doing retail therapy. My first stop was a Walgreens to see if I could get another Ponchatoula Green Wave sweatshirt to replace the one I bought last January because I had stained it. Striking out on that, I did buy some new heads for my electric toothbrush. Next, I headed over to the shopping center near where Sally was at. I bought the latest Jack Reacher book, a pair of shorts (it was 81° today) at Old Navy, and then hit up Foot Locker for some shorty socks because when I washed my new Reno Railroaders hoodie, it turned my white socks pink.

Never did get around to taking a new photo today, so I went back 5 years to date and picked this one for here and Instagram.

Hammond, LA

Sticker Pakage

Leg 3 on the way to Hammond for Turkey Day. Mission accomplished.

About a month ago, after a chance encounter, I designed a sticker to proudly display my new lifestyle. I tweaked it a little and turned it into a 3″ round sticker for the back window. I bought a pack of Avery stickers to print out some, eight to a page. They looked good, but after a couple days in the PNW weather, not so much. I coated my next attempt with some clear coat paint I had, but that lasted just a couple weeks before half melting into sadness. I needed to get some real vinyl ones made up, then promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward a bit, and while scrolling through Instagram, what should randomly1 appear but an ad for something called StickerApp. I clicked on it expecting to find out I would need to order 100 minimum for a couple hundred bucks, but instead I could get twenty-five for under $25 with free shipping. Their template was a breeze compared to the Avery one, and in minutes I’d PayPal-ed them the money. I had them shipped to Sally’s mom’s house here in Hammond, and they arrived ahead of me by only a couple of hours.

Now I have to wait a week and a half to stick one on the car because it is back in Santa Fe.

Palestine, TX

Downtown Palestine, TX


 
Leg 2 on the way to Hammond for Turkey Day.

Today’s drive was a lot prettier than yesterday and a little shorter. If your route happened to go through the middle of downtown Palestine, you’d see a lot of this because, as most larger Texas towns have done, there is a thriving section of national chain stores all along the bypass. All that is left in town are around a dozen churches, a half dozen “antique” stores, and a couple restaurants. There is the required large wall-sized mural with the town name with an uplifting saying to go with several art pieces.

We went downtown, hence the art piece photos above, to eat dinner at the Home Grill Steakhouse, and I can definitely recommend it for a good meal from its extensive menu.

Sweetwater, TX


 
Leg 1 on the way to Hammond for Turkey Day.

We didn’t stop except for a brief moment in Brownfield, TX, for a snack and a gas-up. Our original plan was to visit the National WASP Museum, but they close at 5:00pm, and we didn’t get to town until after 3:00. I figured we’d be in town around 2:00pm, but I forgot about losing an hour going to Central Time from Mountain Time. We can’t do it on the way back because they’ll be closed on the day we come this way. We’ll reschedule for a different trip.

I didn’t take the picture of the day until we stopped here in Sweetwater. I remember when Donna and I passed through in 2023, there was a big wind turbine blade right around the corner from the museum. Sally and I drove over after dinner at a place the desk clerk recommended. It is a regional chain called Skeet’s Texas Grill, and the food was excellent: chicken quesadilla for her and fish tacos for me.

Now That’s Italian 2

Fall New Mexico Skies

Tonight was dinner out; Santa Fe Sally and I met with Kevin and Beth (last seen in Las Vegas) to go for some Italian. The place used to be an indeterminate fast food place that has been converted into a nice sit-down place called Piccolino. It had a drive-thru that they still used. You ordered online, they gave an approximate time to arrive, you parked in the lot, and they then texted you to get in the drive-thru lane to pick it up.

I had the Lasagna Bolloco (chicken, green chile, provolone, mozzarella, and alfredo sauce), and it was fantastic. Even though it was more than enough food, Sally and I split a canoli for dessert, as both Beth and Kevin ordered desserts of their own. I don’t think I’ve had Italian food this good since stumbling onto Zanzos in Clarksville, GA, back in 2003.

I was kidding some above, as Aiken, SC, did have an excellent Italian place called Olive Oils that we would eat at every couple of months until it folded its tents…

There’s Something You Don’t See Every Day

telepoem booth

When I first noticed this in the lobby area of the Chavez Center while waiting for Santa Fe Sally to finish up her workout, I thought maybe it was an actual phone booth, but then I noticed that the word “phone” was misspelled as “poem.” Was it a joke? Or was that telepoem Spanish? I looked it up on the WWW, and lo and behold, it is a repurposed phone that has been converted into a jukebox-like device that lets you dial a number formatted like a phone number, and you get to hear a poem and have the old-school telephone experience.

Find one nearby on their website: http://www.telepoembooth.com/locations.html

Neue Scheibenwischerblätter

Yesterday I bought some new windshield wipers for the GTI. I checked for the sizes needed, and while we were at Walmart to pick up the Cerakote Headlight Renewal Kit for Sally’s 2002 RAV4, I grabbed the ones I needed for the VW. What I should have done first was see what kind of connection to the arms it was, but I didn’t, and when we got back and went to put the new ones on, the connection from blade to arm was something I’d never seen before.

This morning we took another trip to Walmart to return the wrong ones and stopped on the way back home at the local VW place to snag the right ones. While I was there, I also had them sell me a rear window wiper blade as well. The total for the three OEM blades at the dealer was just right around three times the cost of the $35 that they cost at Wally World.