Port Lavaca

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Sun! Blue Sky! Amps Coming In!

The day started off really crappy, but the weather couldn’t be any better now! I’ve gained 16AH today and am still getting a good charge, so I will be ahead tonight.

I emailed AM Solar to ask them why my solar control monitor claims that I have a full charge when I know for sure that I do not. I was worried that the batteries would stop charging, but the battery monitor still sees the full amperage going back in, so I probably have a reporting glitch the same way I do with the volts on the battery monitor.

L and I went into town this afternoon to get shrimp for a traditional shrimp boil tonight. Mmmmm… sun, shrimp, beer, and ocean. This is the life!

We also detoured to the H.E.B. grocery store so I could check out their cat food selection since the Walmart didn’t carry Whiskas (!). Thankfully, I found my brood’s favoured food, and in the giant economical size to boot. What I bought them on Monday to tide us over hasn’t sat well with them at all and they were very happy when I opened that bad when I got home!

Finally, L took me to the post office so I could get my general delivery mail. Gina, your package hadn’t arrived yet. 🙁

It sure is nice to have someone else do the driving (and expend the fuel!). 🙂

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It’s… Green

I don’t know if it’s the weather or the fact that you can only walk around the beach so many times, but tonight I was hit with a case of cabin fever bad enough that I actually considered driving an hour to Victoria to catch a movie! Instead, I decided to go to Port Lavaca and have another meal at La antigua to get a firm grip on whether I really like it or not.

I’ve been criticized in the past for posting about restaurant outings, being told by folks that if they wanted to read a food blog, they would read a food blog. But to me, food and travel are intimately linked. And I think that a post about local cuisine and its effects on me will never be off topic.

Tonight, I decided to try something new, ‘enchiladas verdes’ with ‘green sauce.’ I asked the server what tornatillo was, not realising it was a typographical error on the menu and actually tomatillo (r + n does look like m). Her response of, “It’s green” would be hilarious to any classic Star Trek fan. She was able to confirm that it was not a very spicy dish. All right, let’s see if my taste buds do a happy dance.

The enchiladas were made with corn tortillas (which I am starting to really enjoy) filled with ‘fajita chicken’ and topped with green sauce, sour cream, and sliced avocado.

Well… the green sauce was full of chopped cilantro, which does not agree with me and which I think tastes vile. But cilantro is so trendy nowadays that it is in everything and I have more tolerance to it. Mixed with the tomatillos and other spices, I didn’t find the herb offensive at all. I didn’t scrape my plate clean of green sauce, but I would most certainly order this dish again. What a breakthrough!

But that’s not what made the meal so special for me though. I took one bite of the plain avocado topping my meal and I swear I heard angels sing. I finally understand what the fuss is all about! Wow! I would have gladly had just that fresh sweet avocado to cool the heat of my meal instead of the heavy sour cream, and I adore sour cream! I’ve always found avocado to be bland. I think it’s just because I’ve never had truly fresh locally grown avocado. This wasn’t bland at all. I should have stopped for avocados on the way home because I am going to be craving them in the next few days!

Yup, I like La antigua and I will have to go back at least one more time for green enchiladas!

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A Local Guide At Last

L and I drove into town this afternoon to buy fresh shrimp so he could show me how to do a shrimp broil. Surprise, surprise, the shrimp people decided not to open today! Dang! Our shrimp boil plans are postponed to Wednesday or Thursday.

We both had to go to Walmart anyway, so the trip into town wasn’t for naught (and it was really, really, really nice to have someone to carry the heavy jugs of water for me!).

L has been wintering down here on and off for 20 years, so he was able to point out a bunch of useful locations, including where to get my 30lb propane tank filled. I always forget how much propane the fridge needs, so my on board tank is just about empty. We’ll take my 30lber into town on shrimp day so I can hook it up.

Coming back into the beach, he pointed out something on the road into the village that made me groan: a laundromat! Dang! I didn’t have to drive to the laundromat in Port Lavaca!

He invited me to go to Galveston tomorrow for the Mardi Gras celebrations, but five hours in a vehicle with someone I just met doesn’t feel right, plus I have a big project due Wednesday morning. So I passed on that even though I was really tempted. And before anybody starts to get any ideas, he’s a much older widower with kids older than me! 😀

We both use a 150W panel to keep our rigs charged and he has the same problem as me keeping his laptop charged after so many grey days. His solution? The same as mine: charge the laptop in the truck (also a Ford Ranger) for a few hours a day. He says that he runs the engine for part of the time and then shuts it off, claiming that the draw from the computer battery is too small to drain the truck battery. I’m a little nervous to try that, but I just might… after moving the truck to the rig in such a way to make a boost possible if I need one! It takes two hours of truck running to full charge both my computer batteries. I did that this morning and will do that this evening.

We are beyond due for sun, but that won’t happen till Wednesday. *sighs* I’m sitting at about 70% battery capacity, so I am only running the fridge. L was an engineer for Boeing, so I’m going to ask him if he knows anything about solenoids and such. If so, I will wrangle his help to pull the RV battery, fix the solenoid, and get charging capacity back from my RV alternator. According to Harold Barre, that’s a very good method of getting the batteries to about 80%, and then you let the solar finish the charge gently so I know the effort and possible expense will be worthwhile.

Anyone know a good sun dance?

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A Strange Weather Day

I spent most of this afternoon at the McDonald’s in Port Lavaca until my Mac was fully charged. It was pretty pleasant until a teeming mass of high school kids came in and then the place just got too busy for me. The kids weren’t rowdy or anything and they took up the complete opposite corner of the restaurant, but their chatter filled the room completely. I was glad the laptop was just about charged so I could get out of there.

After the mega storm, the weather vacillated between sunny with white clouds and very overcast. It spit occasionally, but that was it.

I got home to discover I’d gotten 2% worth of charge and was sitting at a 88% battery capacity. Voltage readings were good, too, but that didn’t last of course. Voltage drops in the evening are crazy, I can’t even turn on two LED lights at the same time. I know my wiring and and connections are good so I’m wondering if the problem is the house wiring being too small.

I also now know that my fridge has to do with the low voltage readings I’m getting as it was OFF when I came in, probably because it was competing with the computer for voltage during the storm. I installed my thermometres and will make it a point to check the status of the fridge more regularly. All that to say, I got in and my voltage readings were 12.48 and as soon as the fridge kicked on, voltage dropped to 12.1. I just repeated the exercise, 11.7 with nothing on but the fridge, 12.3 with the fridge on. What a sneaky devil! It only consumes 0.5A, but it’s a voltage monster!

So maybe I don’t have as much of a problem as I thought this morning. That 12.3 reading is very close to what my battery monitor is saying right now. So my problem has to do with voltage drops. Anyone care to chime on that? And, again, all of my modifications were made with 1-gauge wiring in very short lengths. So my wire gauge and connections are NOT suspect!

At any rate, a good part of tonight was devoted to planning my trip!!! I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had time to think about it! Unfortunately, the weather isn’t looking to be great, so I’m not too motivated to set off at the crack of dawn tomorrow. The plan is to wander down to Port Aransas to check it out and scout out the boondocking opportunities. Then off to Corpus Christi for the latter part of the afternoon to see what it’s all about. Then off to a hotel near the border for the night. The weather is too iffy to count on sleeping in the truck and a looooooooooong shower would be so appreciated!

I wasn’t able to get a good enough deal on Priceline, so I booked through Hotwire, where I found the cheapest rate of all, $44.15 (including taxes and fees) at the La Copa Inn in Harlingen. Reviews for it are fair, so I’m optimistic. It’ll be a 40 minute drive to the border on Friday morning.

My appointment with the dentist is at 1PM. I have good directions and plenty of time to find him. I will be able to explore in the morning, have lunch, and get in line to cross back at a reasonable hour. I plan to do a cannonball run to home in the evening, unless I get a repeat of Tijuana and get stuck at the border for three plus hours.

Wow, it’s late (10:00 p.m., ha ha ha ha I can’t get used to my new schedule). I’ll update from my hotel tomorrow night.

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Amazon Prime Shipping To General Delivery

I get free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime. They ship with UPS and it’s always been my understanding that a courrier company won’t deliver to a post office. So I did a little research and found a post on an RV forum by a guy who seemed to have all the answers. He claimed to have often addressed packages along the lines of “1 Big Bus Parked At the Hot Springs” and never had a lost delivery! His tip for Amazon Prime shipping to general delivery made sense and I decided to try it.

This is the format:

Your name
GENERAL DELIVERY
The street address of the post office
City State Zip Code

I placed my order late Monday and got my delivery confirmation this morning. I let the storm pass and then headed into town (hauling both computers to charge them at McDonalds, an expense that will be categorized under electricity and not food! But I digress.)

I told the lady at the post office counter that I had a general delivery package from Amazon (the boxes are distinctive) from UPS. She said that UPS had passed, but the packages were not yet sorted. She was willing to go have a superficial glance at the pile (was it really that big?!), otherwise I would have to come back tomorrow. She was gone about two minutes and returned triumphantly holding my box. Yay!

Part of my order was thermometres for the refrigerator and freezer, recommended by Andy Baird. My near disaster made me realise I should be monitor such things. I also grabbed a cheap keyboard for my iPad. I want to see if such a thing really will make me use my iPad even more before I splurge on a good one.

Now that I know that I can get Amazon Prime orders shipped general delivery, I will be making use of this service more often. I did feel safer sending an order to reader Pam’s mom in Houston, however!