... in terms of the overall trip this week we moved all of about 100 kms.
Sunday was the day for us to go out and watch James and Melissa participate in a "cowboy action shooting" event. The event was at a rural farm not far from Columbus. We arrived a little after 10:00 AM and the shooting had already started. The participants are put into groups, posses, of about 6 people each. There are six stages where each person in each posse shoots at. Each stage has differently arranged targets and different rules for shooting sequences but all stages include 10 pistol shots, 10 rifle shots and at least 4 shotgun shots. Very loud! Eye and ear protection required! It was fun to follow and watch the posse in which James and Melissa were participants, although since it was "live ammo" we, as spectators, had to stand well back so it was difficult to get real good pics but we got a few...
The event lasted about 3 hours then we sat around and enjoyed the nice lunch James ordered up for us. Afterwards we went back over to the farm where James' Mom cooked up another delicious pie. James' family are pie loving folks and they make darn good ones. Over the course of two days we feasted on Cherry Cream Cheese pie, Pecan pie, Carrot cake and Apple pie (that was just the dessert side of things)... Late Sunday afternoon James and Melissa and James' Mom and Dad (Barbara and Sam) had to get ready to head back into Houston so we retired back to our trailer to do some laundry and just veg out. Sunday evening we decided to go up the road to a Mexican grill for some munchies and wine. While there all of a sudden a horrifically loud clatter occurred and folks rushed to the windows to see marble sized hail bouncing off the pavement (and the cars). The loud clatter was the sound of the hail hitting the metal roof of the restaurant. It was loud! Anyway, it didn't last too long and no apparent damage but it did continue raining for a bit. After the storm passed through we decided to hook up the trailer, to the car, as we planned to get up before daybreak and head into the Nissan dealer early to avoid heavy freeway commuter traffic as much as possible.
So Monday morning we were on the road before 6:30 AM and it took us a little over an hour to get to the dealer. Traffic wasn't actually as bad as we thought it could be. We found a good spot in the back of the dealer's lot to park the wee trailer then headed over to the service bay. It took several hours for the diagnosis and it wasn't pretty. Both catalytic converters were damaged as well as some rear axle links needed replacing (those should likely have been caught in our pre-trip service but what can you do). All in all it will cost north of $3K US$ so probably close to $5K C$ when all is said and done. We weighed our options...
- Do nothing and just drive on. Car is running fine but definitely having a drop in gas mileage. Some states have rather hefty fines (in the $10K range) for non-functioning catalytic converters. The "Check Engine Soon" light will be on all the time so if anything else goes awry we won't know about it.
- Just go back home and deal with it there. Lose the apartment rental in Brooklyn and the ball tickets we have already paid for.
- Suck it up and continue on.
For the afternoon we headed into Houston (the RV park is on the north west outskirts about 20 miles from downtown) and found a California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. After lunch we stopped in and hung out with James for a bit, before he had to head off to work. then over to the Galleria, the largest mall in Houston, where, after the car news, we decided we needed something to make sure we didn't get too bummed out so we made pedicure appointments (yes for both of us) at The Spa at Nordstrom. Should be nice. For dinner we went into Central Market and bought some take away.
Tuesday it was another up early day to get to the dealer by about 8:00 AM. Dropped the car off, got a loaner and left our car in their hands. Justin, the guy who looked after us Monday was off, but had left instructions for us to have a loaner and for the work on our car to be done Tuesday. David, Justin's replacement for the day, figured if all went well the car should be ready some time after 3:00 PM. He gave us the keys for a brand new Altima and off we went. First stop was Starbucks for coffee then we spent a good part of the day at Rice Village (around Rice University). For lunch we stopped in at Goode Company BBQ near the village, one of the first Texas BBQ places we ever visited and still a favorite. Nice brisket, ribs and sausages with the usual potato salad and slaw. Late afternoon and we had not had a call from the Nissan service guy so Brian calls them. GOOD GRIEF... they are still waiting on parts. So far they have done nothing on our vehicle. The guy says it will take 3-5 days to get the parts. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO "they'll be here in the morning"????? So the upshot is that we have to wait. At least the weather is decent, the RV park has an excellent pool and we have a good loaner vehicle. Brian called the RV park and extended our stay. For dinner James cooked up a pot of venison chili at their place. Delicious!!!
Wednesday was a slow day to start. Coffee followed by a swim at the RV park before heading into Houston for our pedicure appointments. Toes and feet now feel great :-)... Late afternoon we tried to track down why Brian's replacement VISA card has not arrived. Turns out the UPS guy didn't see Brian's name listed on the apartment mailbox so decided it must be the wrong place. Spent about an hour trying to find out how to get it re-delivered or if we could pick it up somewhere. UPS call center seemed to indicate that we could arrange to pick it up in Stafford, a suburb of Houston but won't know until tomorrow. He said they would call us first thing in the morning. Nice dinner with Melissa at Chuy's, a Tex-Mex kinda place, on Westheimer near their place.
Thursday was another lazy morning at the RV park. BUT... No call from UPS. It is now 6 days since the new card was requested. I, Brian, called Purolator in Canada to find out what they could do. Well... gobsmacked again!!!! UPS has requested that the package be returned to Canada AND once this request has been made it can't be undone! So I called VISA and after about a half hour of arguing convinced the agent to cancel that one and send a new one RUSH!!!!!!! DAMMIT!!!! This time we are having it sent to the RV park (the desk person says they do this all the time) and if we are lucky it might be here on Saturday otherwise we will have to wait here through Monday... oh well... still no word on the car so it looks like we'll be here through the weekend anyway :-( OH... later in the afternoon, Melissa calls to tell me that she got a call from UPS and they are arranging to have the parcel delivered or picked up... WHAT???? Anyway, it is too late now as VISA has cancelled the card in that package, so I don't care what they do with that one. What a GONG SHOW!!! For lunch Thursday we decided to try a different BBQ place in Houston. After looking on-line for info on the top joints in Houston we elect to try Gatlin's BBQ so off we went with our trusty GPS pointed to the address. Turned out to be a giant snark hunt. Apparently they are in a temporary place, which by all accounts is someone's backyard, and it is just a "food truck" with no seating or anything. We opted to skip that as we didn't feel like eating (potentially) messy bbq in the car. So we point the GPS to Ray's Real Pit BBQ Shack. Eventually we found it, an inner city hole in the wall type of place doing a booming business. Food was excellent (brisket was a bit dry), burnt rib ends (yummm), sausage, potato salad, cucumber salad, macaroni salad and a deep fried corn on the cob (very tasty). A big enough meal to last us the rest of the day. Back to the RV park to veg out and do some laundry.
The laundry room is in the rec building. Waiting for the laundry we hung out in the rec building. While there we noticed a woman, standing inside the door, peering out the window at something on the ground. Her husband was outside holding a small child's sand shove and gazing at something on the ground. She grabbed the door handle and said that no one could go out. Brian went over and looked out the door window to see a good sized snake coiled up on the mat. Turns out it was a water moccasin, very poisonous. The park manager came over and "took care of it". During the day we miss a call from the Nissan dealer.
Friday morning Justin, the Nissan dealer guy, called again, but this time I, Brian, caught the call... our car was ready Wednesday afternoon. I say that I thought they were waiting on parts that wouldn't arrive until Thursday or Friday. He says that on Tuesday morning David just asked the parts guy to check the "regular delivery" to see if our parts were there. No they weren't .... BUT... If he had of mentioned that Justin had requested a "rush" then the parts guy would have looked in a "different place" to see that they were there. When Justin came back in on Wednesday he was surprised to see that nothing had been done on our car, so got it going Wednesday morning and it was actually finished that afternoon but they were so busy that he didn't get around to trying to contact me until Thursday afternoon... Oh well... we did have a brand new Altima to drive around Houston for a few days. Nice car. Later Friday morning we picked up our car. We took it out on the freeway and drove a couple of hundred kilometers to help be sure that it was running good. It ran very good. So our plans are now to leave Houston Sunday morning. Back in Houston we went over and vegged out at James' place for the afternoon. That evening we treated James, Melissa and her friend Michelle at Chuy's for another excellent Tex-Mex dinner. We didn't think we would see Melissa again tomorrow as she had to work so we said our good byes for this trip.
Saturday we awoke to a raging thunderstorm and thought, for sure, that James' tail gate party before the Dynamo (MLS Soccer) game would possibly be cancelled but the skies cleared by noon and it was a beautiful day. We did a quick swim in the resort pool before heading into downtown Houston to watch James play the BBQ master for their tail gate party...
... we got there a couple of hours early but James already had a whack of ribs and some brisket going. We had a great visit and it was interesting to watch the action as the rest of the "Texian Army" (the Dynamo support group to which James and Melissa belong) arrived and started to set up the tents etc...
... We enjoyed chatting with some other members, the food was excellent etc etc etc but as we were not going to the game we said our good byes to James and left them all to their fun. Game result... Dynamo 4 - KC Sporting 4.
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