June 11th - June 14th, 2024 New Blackstone Griddle - 75th Birthday Celebration - A Little Tile Work in Homer

Tuesday June 11th:

On Tuesday, for my birthday on June 12th, Kelly bought me a new Blackstone griddle plus a few accessories. When talking about getting one our original thought was to buy one that we could take with us in Homer when we travel. After looking at the size of them in the store, we decided that, even the smallest one, would not be convenient to carry in Homer. (He's just a little guy with very limited storage.) Traveling in him is a lot different than traveling in the fifth wheel with all of its storage areas.

For use at home Kelly bought a two-burner model with stand and hood that was on sale. We brought it home and assembled it. I had a full tank of LP in the garage so we then went through the process of seasoning the griddle. We are impressed with how well-made the unit is, including the legs and shelf.

Wednesday June 12th:

First thing in the morning I tried the griddle out making bacon, eggs, and toast. All were delicious. We both like breakfast.

After the griddle cooled down we moved it to a convenient spot on the deck for it to set. Kelly ordered a cover for it on Tuesday, because we will be leaving it outside, and it arrived on Wednesday! Crazy!  

For my birthday Adam, Annie, and Alexa made reservations for a steak dinner in St. Louis at  Kreis Steak House. Another set of grandparents watched the granddaughters so we could all visit as long as we wanted. We all met at the restaurant and had a very nice dinner after which the house brought me a slice of cheese cake with a lit sparkler on it. I learned you can't blow out a sparkler like you do a candle. LOL

After sharing the cheese cake Kelly and Alexa brought out presents for me! Unexpected. The nice steak dinner was clearly enough. It was compliments of Adam and Annie.  I was shocked that Kelly bought me a new iPad, in addition to the Blackstone griddle. Wow! Kelly and the girls had gotten me my current iPad when I was undergoing chemotherapy about six years ago. She decided it was time for an upgrade! They also gave me "Friendship Lamps". We will have one in all four households. You set one up in each household. When you touch your lamp the lamps light up in everyone else's home to show you are thinking about them. This is all done by wi-fi. This will be fun since our homes are all so spread out! I will wait until next week when the California gang are here in Perryville to set it up. The lamps come in a two pack. (You can't communicate with just one.) LOL 

Aaron Hampton (Alexa's friend) got me a box of "Mike n Ikes" and a t-shirt that reads: "RV There Yet". Love it.  I will wear it next week during our campout.

 

Lastly, the granddaughters made me a sign out of construction paper and pipe cleaners. Violet, the seven year old, made the one that says "I love you". Wren, the three year old, made the one that says "GPA". It was supposed to say "Grandpa" but after the size of her "G" they shortened it to "GPA". Love them. I'll post them on the fridge.

I must say I had a sensational birthday all around. Great presents and a great meal with Kelly, two out of three daughters, Adam, and Aaron. When I told Adam about the Blackstone griddle his eyes lit up. He loves to cook and is anxious to try it out when they are in Perryville in a couple of weeks. It will be fun to experiment with some cooking ideas he talked about.

Thursday:

While we were driving to St. Louis on Wednesday the repair shop called and told me that Homer was fixed. I picked him up this morning. The issue with the cruise control was a blown fuse that was a little burnt on one end. The mechanic indicated that other accessories may be on that fuse so I might watch for anything that could have caused it to get hot before blowing. With a fresh oil change, Homer is ready to roll to Lake Shelbyville next week for another club campout. It is going to be hot all week so I'm extremely glad Gary got the 110 volt AC issue fixed so we have air-conditioning.

For supper I made Tacos and a vegetable medley on the griddle. Both came out great. I'm learning.

Friday:

All of the peel and stick tile I put down in Homer years ago turned really yellow. I hate the looks of it. Here is what the old and new tile look like.

It was a lot of work to install the original tiles because I had to take the dinette seats lose, the seat belts lose, the couch lose, etc. A couple of years ago I purchased another box of tiles and replaced many of the yellowed tiles. The newer tiles do not seem to be yellowing as bad as the original tiles did. Tuesday I purchased another box of tile to replace more of the ugly yellow tiles running down the walkway in Homer.

 

Admittedly, these tiles are cheap. I thought maybe light yellowed them, even though Homer is in the shed half of each year. Upon taking some tiles up today I noticed that the tiles actually yellowed more under the dinette, where it is completely dark all of the time. I installed a full box of tile today down the main walkway. More clearly need to be replaced but I'm not going to buy any more until I see if these tiles yellow. The lot number changed a little so maybe they improved the tile to keep them from yellowing. Kelly said "fat chance". When purchasing this last box of tiles we talked about completely replacing the floor with an entirely different tile but that is a lot of work. First I'll see how this pans out. Keep your fingers crossed.

Homer is plugged up and the refrigerator is cooling down. Over the weekend we will load him up Homer for the club campout beginning on Monday at Lake Shelbyville, Illinois. It is going to be hot. We have a nice size fan to have blowing on us when we sit outside. We will keep Homer closed up with the AC on for good sleeping.