Movie Review: Captain Phillips - Sun., Oct. 13

Rain once again changes our plans to Volksmarch. The remnants of a tropical Pacific cyclone have made their way to south Texas. It looks like Oregon in winter outside, gray, gloomy and rainy. Luckily it's still warm, but not what we want to walk six miles in.

Plan B: see "Captain Phillips" with Tom Hanks. Excellent decision. If you've been boondocking or out of touch with current movies, time to catch up.

"Captain Phillips" is the true story of the Maersk Alabama's harrowing experience with Somali pirates. Tom Hanks is superb in his role as Captain Phillips. He had his crew follow orders to hide on the ship and gave them clues via radio on how to cripple part of the pirate crew. The movie provides suspense, thrills, intensity, and also mayhem on the part of the pirates.

The four main Somali pirate actors were chosen from Minneapolis' large Somali population. Barkhad Abdi, who plays Muse, decided to audition with three of his friends: Faysal Ahmed, Barkhad Abdirahman, and Mahat M. Ali. None of them had ever acted before. The result of casting the young Somalis adds a degree of authenticity to the supporting cast.

Bob and I both give this movie five out of five stars. If you want a movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat, see this one.

After the movie, we went to 54th Street Grille for dinner. Bob had chicken fajitas and I had Coyote Chicken. Good stuff. Here are a few pics.

Decor of 54th St. Grille

Bob waiting for dinner.

Bob took a good photo, don't you think?

This evening after laundry, we watched "60 Minutes" and "Amazing Race." Bob is now watching the Cowboys vs. Redskins.

Have a great week everyone. Travel Bug out.

Debugged - Sun., Aug. 18 & Mon., Aug. 19

No, I'm not changing my name from TravelBug, no our RV didn't have to be swept for bugs (a la spy novels), and no, Bob isn't bugging me; we had to use a bug fogger to de-bug our 5th wheel. Here's why...

It seems last year while we were gate guarding in South Texas we picked up some crazy ant hitchhikers, and then at McKinney Falls State Park we picked up some other small, fast, beetle-like bugs (I call them disintegrating bugs because when you smash them they disintegrate into little black specs), and I had to kill four spiders in our 5er on Saturday! Ewwwww. Anyway the time had come to do something about the little pests. (I could picture an ant farm in our walls. No, no, no!)

We made a stop at Home Depot and found the baddest bug fogger of the lot. Because we would have to evacuate our home and remove the kitties for a number of hours, and because Texas is so hot later in the day, we decided to get up at 4 a.m., put the kitties in carriers, start the fogger, do our laundry, and eat breakfast at Taco Cabana. We actually got out the door closer to 5:30 a.m.

After two hours of fogging the 5er, we had to go in and open all the windows, vents and doors on our rig to air it out. We turned on our fans and the air conditioner. Then we sat in the car and waited. Two hours later was the absolute earliest we could go back in. The directions said if we could still smell the fogger, to go back out until we couldn't smell it.

You guessed it...after two hours we could still smell it. So we waited another hour and a half, then re-entered. We left all the windows open with fans and air conditioners on. The cats seemed fine.

We left to see Blackfish, a documentary about a killer whale trainer's death at Sea World in Florida a few years ago. The movie tells the story of how killer whales come to be in the water parks. What a movie. We give it five stars.

If you see this movie, be aware it isn't sugar coated. The documentary is well researched and well told. Be prepared to hear about deaths of people and see bad injuries from other water parks throughout the years.

This movie will make you sad, and maybe mad, and maybe, just maybe, enough people will stop going to parks like Sea World and stop the demand for marine mammal shows (though I'm realistic enough to know that probably won't happen). You will be appalled at the small habitats the huge killer whales have to live in. The movie opened our eyes to what goes on behind the scenes. It's not pretty, but worth seeing.

Back at the 5er, I got to work washing countertops, cupboards, dishes, glasses, mugs, and silverware that had been exposed to the fogger. That took up the late afternoon. Plus we watched 60 Minutes.

Monday, Aug. 19:
Bob headed off at 7:30 a.m. to get routine lab tests before his physical this coming Thursday, then went to work. I got up and vacuumed the 5er, and replaced cardboard scratch pads in our cats' scratchers and replenished the catnip on them. ("Thank you very much," said the happy cats.) The rest of my day was to include scrubbing the floors and washing pots and pans which had also been exposed to the fogger.

The best laid plans and all that...at 9:00 a.m. I got a call from Snelling asking me if I could work this afternoon from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Why, yes, I could. So I finished vacuuming, ate breakfast, took a shower, and headed off to be a receptionist at State Farm for the rest of the day. My duties included answering the phone, taking messages, picking up the mail, and greeting customers. They liked me and requested to Snelling that I return for full days on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This evening I took Bob to dinner at 54th Street Grille at City Base. We had never been before and loved their menu! I had Coyote Chicken and Bob had a Maui Jim salad. The dinners were excellent and were served with warm honey wheat bread with honey butter. We'll be back to try out more items that's for sure. Here are a couple of photos of the interior.

Lots of ceiling decor at 54th Street Grille.

Bob after he just stuck his tongue out at me.

Wall decor at 54th Street Grille.

No signs of any ants since yesterday!!! However, I did kill one disintegrating bug since then.  : (

Travel Bug hopefully out of bugs in the rig. Good night.