Steps

Thursday 3810 steps 4 floors; to Lima
Friday 6640 steps 29 floors, Lima tour, flight to Sacred Valley
Saturday 10945 steps 101floors, Ollantaybo, Moray, salt pans
Sunday 9249 steps 188 floors, Machu Picchu
Monday 12817 steps 122 floors, Machu Picchu, to Sun Gate
Tuesday 11941 steps 50 floors, Cusco, Tamboachay, Saqsayhuman

Some floor counts are probably not correct and affected by changing altitude in a van on bumpy roads.

Aliases

Things are a bit slow so I figured I would post a micro-post

If I am on a the run try these aliases

1. Les Houches
2. Nick Kleben
3. Bubbles Jaillance (drag alias)

Rover repairs

This past weekend we had some pretty nice weather,  got some odds and ends done, was disappointed by the F1 race in Canada, watched some movies and had to do some work-work.

Current Blooms:

 Geranium cinereum 'alice'

 Sedum japonica senanense, not a fan of Sedum, but this works well in this tray. Needs a bit of weeding.

Land Rover Repairs:
Our Land Rover Lump, has been getting louder and louder even more so than normal. Lump is a diesel and has no noise insulation. I expected it was all of the exhaust pipes, but amazingly it was just the mid pipe. The mid pipe connects to the front pipe with 3 bolts and with 4 bolts to the muffler, there is a copper gasket at that point. After dowsing the bolts with penetrating oil and letting it set a bit, Gina was able to get 5 of the 7 nuts free. Stainless steel bolts and nuts had been used which helped a great deal. She applied more penetrating oil and let it sit overnight. The next day Gina was able to get the last 2 bolts started using vice-grips. After that it was just slapping in the new pipe and having Gunther fabricate a new hanger. It was a beautiful afternoon and I sat outside and drank a beer.

 Some muffler sealant was used at the cone connection, but probably wasn't needed. The old pipe's mating face was in very good shape.

 There is a copper gasket between the mid pipe and the muffler, provides a good seal and makes it easy to disconnect.

The clutch master(MC) or slave cylinder(SC) also seemed to be in need of repair, but upon further investigation it was determined that one of the master cylinder push rod lock-nuts had worked itself half an inch out of position. This meant that with a stroke of 1 3/8 inch, at most only about a two-thirds of the MC was being used to disengage the clutch. The bolt was tightened back up against the trunnion and things seemed fine on the test drive.

The Stars at Night

Visited San Antonio Texas over Memorial Day weekend, made a long weekend out of it. Only used 2 vacation days, my gal pal was there for a conference and I was just there for fun. Remembered to bring the fitbit tracker along, hope I do for the next trip, will be interesting to see how many flight we record. There was some rain and a tornado warning, but nothing that ruined our outings.

Sights:

Thursday, 12388 steps

Arrived at the hotel, went out for dinner and walked around a bit.

Friday, 13145 steps

• The Buckhorn Museum: The saloon exhibition was a bit cheasy but the Texas Ranger section was very interesting. The ticket taker all dressed in Western garb originally came from Clifton NJ, he got tired of shoveling snow.
• The Briscoe Western Art Museum: Yep, western art and a stage coach and a chuck wagon. Was $10 to get in and well worth the price.

Saturday, 5976 steps

• Visited the Alamo free admission
• Walked around the city

Sunday, 15103 steps
Planned to watch the F1 race in Monaco that morning, but the bad weather from the previous night took the channel I needed out of service. So I started sightseeing early.

• San Antonio Museum of Art Housed in an old Lone Star brewery building, had a very impressive and extensive collection of art from various times and regions of the world.
• Hop on Hop off Sightseeing bus [website]
• La Villita An area full of arts shops

Monday
Made it out of Texas before the floods in Howston, our flights connected there.

Meals:

Charlie wants a Burger: Had very good burgers there. The hostess had lots of different catch phrases intended to lure in customers.

BierGarten: No Hofbrau beer, so had to fall back to Paulaner, the bratwurst was good, the German potato salad was not. Sat at the bar, the bartender mentioned he wanted to move to NYC and I convinced(?) him that he should. Saw

Saltgrass Steak House: Our salads were pre-made but were very tasty and the dressing was good. I ordered a too large steak which was excellent, Chef had ribs which were good.

MadDogs British Pub: A British Pub where the wait staff wore kilts and served Irish Food. I had a pint of Boddingtons which was great, food was just OK. Chef's cottage pie was mediocre, my steak and ale pie was better than I expected.

Landry's Seafood: Salads fresh from the cooler, they must have been stacked, they were quite flat. I had a thin gumbo, salty dirty rice and forget my entree already. Chef had seared scallops.

The Country Line: We both had brisket smothered with BBQ sauce and I also had sausages which were quite good. The brisket was a little dry, the mashed garlic potatoes was very good

All of these restaurants were on the River Walk.

 The Flag of the Independent State of Texas flying over The Emily Morgen hotel

 Surprised to see this kind of detail on a building in San Antonio.

 The Tower of the Americas has an observation deck and a revolving restaurant.

 The Alamo

 The Long Barracks at the Alamo, part of the fort complex.

 Market Square A large outdoor plaza/bazaar west of the downtown area billed as the largest Mexican market in the US.

 The San Antonio river and one of the tour boats, some can be used as taxis.

 Another view of the river and the adjoining walks, this a bit further north (up river) near the San Antonio Museum of Art.

There was a tunnel built to allow excess water to bypasses the San Antonio downtown area in times of flood conditions. [further info here]