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By Katrina Kane, on August 29th, 2014 After my cruise back in April, I returned to the same gate. It was an odd time due to us being released from the gate while I was on the cruise and my 5th wheel ordered off the property. One of the support guys and the young fellow that was covering for me had to take everything in and close the trailer up per detailed instructions I left for them on how to do that in case this happened. My trailer was moved somewhere though I don’t know where. There was minor damage done to the trailer, something lost, some small things broken. There is always a chance of being released while on vacation which is one of the cons of gate guarding and of allowing someone else to stay in your RV. If you pull your RV off the gate for vacation, you have to wait for a new gate when you get back which can be awhile during the cooler months when there are more guards than gates. When I was ready to find my trailer and go back to work on another gate, we got recalled to the same gate again on the Calvert Ranch so back I went. The trailer had been moved for only a day (maybe less) before it was recalled. That’s the strange way the oil patch works.
I liked the Calvert Ranch. It was my second gate with cows. Cows are fun to watch and like to keep you on your toes. These cows were not at all afraid of me and were a bit mischievous. At any time I might step out and find my RV and truck surrounded by them. I had to watch out for them possibly trying to stomp or eat my electrical and water connections. If you leave your vehicle windows down, you may find your seat headrest eaten when you get back. More than once I saw a cow look at an approaching vehicle, purposely step out in front of it, and stand there smiling as they blocked traffic. Cows are not dumb by any means. Every day they came by and mooed at the other cows in the next pasture. The chatting would go on for quite awhile. One day, there was a lot of fun going in in the next pasture where all the calves and younger cows were playing. One of my cows decided he wanted in on that and went right through the wire fence at a point where the upper wire was sagging. Another day, the sun was shining and everything had turned green. The very short Spring down here had sprung. The cows were all trying to mount each other and I don’t just mean males on females. LOL. It was fun to watch. Gate guards get lots of entertainment from both the ranch animals and other local animals like road runners, turtles, coyotes, strays, etc.
 
Clouds, sunsets, and the moon also provide entertainment. Texas has great clouds. We often spend time looking up to see what shapes are in the sky today. I have seen ducks, rabbits, Mickey Mouse, naval ships, the starship Enterprise, and once a Klingon warship. EEK! We take pictures of the sunsets and moon to share on our Facebook group with each other in sort of a nightly competition. In some ways, we are like the angels on the beach at sunset or those who gather at the marina in Key West, FL. at dusk to share a heavenly experience. I like to take pictures of birds, wildflowers, trees, and cactus too.
  
Once a month we have separate luncheons for men and women (time away from working 24 hours a day with your spouse). I normally can’t attend them but had the chance to go to two of them while doing a 12 hr. guard job. Aside from the good food and not having to cook for a change, it’s good to talk to others who do the same job and live the same lifestyle. I got some good tips at the luncheons I attended and made some new friends. It’s always good to be able to put a face with the names I always see on Facebook.
Sometimes caterers come in to feed the crews. If a guard is lucky, they MAY get one of the catered meals after everyone else is fed. I have had gates with no catering, catering that made no effort to set aside a meal for me, and catering that almost always had a meal for me too. You learn to recognize them coming in but not to count on them. Quite often they come back out the gate very late so you are better off eating at a normal time and saving anything you get from them till tomorrow for lunch. Sometimes you get steak! One caterer seemed to only know how to cook pork. It was good but not day after day. My favorite was breaded catfish and shrimp with coleslaw.
I like to get to know the rancher and his/her family a bit if possible. It’s fun waving them in and chatting with them. I have made food for them on occasion and they sometimes bring me something special like the three plates of BBQ and desserts the wonderful family at the Calvert Ranch brought me on Easter this year.
It’s also fun decorating our gates for the holidays or wearing something goofy any time to make the oil workers smile. I like to give out cups of popcorn, slices of cake, candy, or muffins now and then.
  
Gates can go from good to bad to good in the blink of an eye depending on what activity is going on. There are various stages of work to go through before a well goes into production and even after that there can be high traffic for awhile. Sometimes we sit there waiting for work to start. That can go on for months! Traffic is minimal then with only planners and company men coming in. It increases a little when crews come in to get things ready to start. It increases a lot when the gravel trucks start rolling in to build the worksite or pad up. Texas is one big mud hole when it rains so lots of gravel is needed. Then the rig, crews, and all that is needed to support them is moved in as quickly as possible. Some crew will live onsite in trailers and bunkhouses. Office trailers are moved in too. As soon as everything is setup, it slows down to a nice rhythm. They may drill one hole or several holes. Eventually they finish drilling and they haul everything back out as fast as possible. Busy, busy, busy again. We may get a break in traffic days, weeks, or even months before the next phase starts or it may start immediately. Schedules here change all the time and you never know when you will be woken up in the night as the next crew and equipment move in or you get released, have to be out in 2 hours, and are out of work until the next gate. If they drop a tool down the well, things could come to a stop for awhile until they fish it out so traffic eases up while they fish. If there is a problem with the next site on the schedule, they may skip it and show up at your gate without warning to work your pad instead.
How hard a gate is also depends on many other things such as traffic, weather, whether you have to open and close the gate in between vehicles and if that is 24 hours or just at night. Working in pouring rain, mud, and 100+ temps sucks! Some gates are only open for 12 hours then you can close them and leave for awhile, some are shared with another guard so that each does 12 hours and then can leave if they want, some are active for only 12 hours but you must be there for 24 hours, and some are active 24 hours a day. Most involve living onsite in your RV at the gate with full utilities provided via a support trailer. Some now have guard shacks you have to drive to while living offsite and others require working out of your vehicle for 12 hours at a time day in and day out. YUCK! I’m currently on a gate where all I have to do is open my door and wave at them while watching to make sure they don’t hit my gate. Another guard at the entrance gate up the road logs them in and out. Thank goodness because the outside temp is 100 degrees.
 
That’s all a part of gate guarding!
By Katrina Kane, on July 17th, 2014 One thing RVers miss from home is a laundry line. Even if you don’t have a washer/dryer in your rig, occasionally you may need to wash out something in the sink, dry pool towels, etc. It’s nice to have a laundry line then but most campgrounds prohibit stringing one between trees. A few very snooty campgrounds forbid ALL outside laundry so be sure to check the rules. What to do then for the many campgrounds that allow racks? Camping World sells one that folds in and out and mounts on the RV or RV ladder. They also sell a bumper mount one and one that free stands outside or in the shower. Those are all good options.
  
For those of us that like to make our own, PVC pipes and fittings make building a laundry rack very easy. You can glue it all together permanently or glue only where absolutely necessary and leave the rest loose to break it down and store it. You can make it any size you like. In my travels, I have seen many different designs and studied them. Here are a few I saw:
  
If you have a hankering to make one for yourself, here are some specific plans I found on how to make a PVC ladder rack. Click here.
By Katrina Kane, on July 15th, 2014 I have finally joined the smartphone crowd. I have been putting it off for some time due to the cost of plans for them which frankly is obscene. How does anyone justify $130 a month just for a phone?! The cost of satellite TV is bad enough but then they hit you with that for a phone. OUCH! To add insult to injury, they charge for a plan then they charge to have a phone on the plan which, umm, is completely useless without a phone. Then they limit the plans severely so you can’t fully enjoy your phone without paying even more money out. They advertise hard and induce you to use smart phones for all kinds of things then they whine that you use it too much. What a great con these major rip-off artists are running!
It took me two years of searching through plans and patiently waiting for the right plan, right coverage, and right phone to come together. I made one slight misstep along the way with a Trac Phone. While they do have some decent phones, I for one won’t pay $500 for a PHONE no matter what it does. That is too much money to risk on something in my pocket every day. Phones tend to jump out of your hand to commit suicide on rocks, in any nearby water, etc. I bought one of their cheaper “sort of smart” LG phones only to find there aren’t any apps available for it in an app store though you can find a few java apps here and there to manually add to the phone. The plan cost was very cheap which I liked and it did allow me to browse the web in stores to research items, browse the web when I needed to find some place, and send email and texts for work. Don’t get me wrong. I do like the phone and the browsing but I wanted the apps too. If you don’t need apps, Trac Phone has great coverage on Verizon or AT&T depending on the model and it is very inexpensive with easy top up online or excellent automatic monthly top up. Mine also came with triple purchased minutes so that I had plenty of minutes for only $21 a month. Now that is what a phone plan ought to cost! The phone itself was only $99.
So why the need for apps? I’m a geocacher and there is an app for that so I can find geocaches anytime anywhere without having to load up my GPS with locations before I leave home. I travel a lot and need to be able to find campgrounds, overnight boondocking spots, and interesting places to visit on the go. I read only eBooks these days and don’t always have my Kindle with me but do always have my phone. I’m studying Spanish free through an online site and find it easier to study on my phone. I have friends and family I keep in touch with through social sites which have apps for that. I need to be able to find the cheapest gas in areas I am unfamiliar with. I have an app that turns my phone into a flashlight when needed. I can record any situations I get into for documentation or safety including a cop stop. There are many other things in my life that apps accommodate and then there is the fact I am working on an app of my own for one of my other websites and need to be able to test it.
 My new phone is a Motorola Moto G true Android smartphone with Consumer Cellular. Consumer Cellular has always had good plans and very good coverage nearly everywhere I have traveled with a plain jane phone of theirs. Unfortunately, they haven’t had much in the way of smart phones until they recently added the Moto G to their line and it is awesome! Not only does it do browsing and all the apps I need, it also is a decent size for reading books, plays mp3s, has GPS, has decent battery life, plays games, the sound quality is very good, it supports Square for taking credit card payments, supports Bluetooth, takes decent pictures and has a flash, makes movies and automatically uploads them, does Wi-Fi, and it takes voice commands. WOW! That is a whole lot of functionality in a $150 phone. On top of that, it allows me to set a limit on data so it shuts down automatically and notifies me before I go over. I can bypass it if I choose to, usually after I change my plan to finish out that month. Rather than wait for the phone to be mailed to me, I went to the nearest Sears store to pick it up then called Consumer Cellular to activate it. If you have a phone already which uses a sim card, you can just buy a new sim card from them to use their service.
Consumer Cellular plans also shine. First, there is no commitment. You pay them a $25 activation fee and that is the end of your commitment. No flipping 2 years to worry about. While you must choose your initial plans, you are allowed to change them up and down at any time before the month ends to save money and they send you notices when you use 80% and 100% so you can change your plan rather than incur overage charges. Their talk minutes plans are separate from their data and text plans so you can signup for exactly what you need and change them separately as needed. It’s not as cheap as Trac Phone but it is still much cheaper than the other big name companies. I’m paying between $50-$60 a month depending on how much I talk or use data. They also let you share with other family members for only $10 per additional line. To make the deal even sweeter, I gave them my AARP number which gets me a nice little discount every month.
I think having a smart phone along when traveling can be very helpful for RVers. There are many RVer and tourist specific apps as well as common apps we would use. Most apps are either free or less than$10. You can scan your multiple grocery reward cards with an app to use instead of the bulky cards. You can get coupon codes delivered to your phone. You can reserve a Red Box movie with it and save on rentals with special codes texted to you. You can shop online or get more info in box stores on products by scanning QR codes with it. You can reserve a campsite over the Internet with your phone. If you get in an accident, your insurance company app can help you file a report and get help. A smart phone can save you money and save your arse in many situations and heck, it is a lot of fun. Just don’t get too caught up playing Angry Birds or Hay Day. Both games are very addictive.
By Katrina Kane, on July 1st, 2014 As you may have noticed, while searching for America in my travels, I have also sought out the odd roadside attraction. I’m a big fan of the “World’s Greatest, Biggest, Longest, Whatever”. One of my favorite websites and books is Roadside America. To me, it just seems like a crime to pass up a shot to see the “World’s Largest Frying Pan”, “World’s Largest Peanut”, the largest Paul Bunyan statue, the Airstream or Cadillac ranches, the peach tower, a giant tire, a huge ball of string, an elephant you can live in or use as a bar, a castle built from old used newspaper printing plates, etc. There is usually some fascinating history attached to them and some interesting, if not odd or unusual, person behind them. With this in mind, I set out to find Popeye in Crystal City, TX nearby. I found Popeye, twice.
I first saw Popeye a year ago from a distance across from the H-E-B grocery store. He stands in a pavilion built on a spit of open land that divides the main thoroughfare from the side streets and old town stores. At the time, I was too busy to check him out but my curiosity finally got the better of me the other day so I Googled him. Popeye was the result of a contest in 1937. Being the “Spinach Growing Capital of the World”, Crystal City was looking for something to celebrate that and what better than the sailor who gets his strength by eating his spinach every day to promote it. I remember eating spinach as a kid only because Popeye ate it. The statue also honors the creator of Popeye, E.C. Segar who died under mysterious circumstances at only 38 years of age. Ah, but the statue I saw in the pavilion is not the original. It is a decoy. In a stroke of brilliance at a time when vandals and high school rivalries were damaging statues or making them disappear all together, the town had this copy made and put on display in a prominent place to lure them away from the true Popeye statue which stands in front of City Hall located two to three blocks away on a side street. I snapped pictures of both for you below.
 
Near the “fake” Popeye is a storefront boasting the Spinach Festival. Oh boy! Can’t wait for that!
I also spotted a closed down Popeye Buffet farther away and there is a Popeye Park about a mile away.
Just a few feet from the second Popeye statue pavilion is an old caboose as a reminder of the trains that used to run through town. The caboose door is always open and the city stores some Christmas decorations in it. I went inside it and found the “IYamWhatIYam” geocache hiding in a magnetic key box. Woohoo! I love combining the fun of a roadside attraction with the fun of geocaching! Score!
 
So that is how I spent my day searching for and finding Popeye in Crystal City, TX several times over.
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