Yes, we are still in Texas. It seems like we have been in this state forever. But it’s a big state. I also can’t believe it’s been over three weeks since I last put up the travel post with the details of the hail storm we experienced. So buckle in, there are lot of picture to follow. By the way, we had the Jeep damage appraised and it will cost $2500 to repair. Ugh. We’ll deal with that when we get home.
So yes, we’ve been bopping around Texas. We are having to deal with full campgrounds on the weekends. It’s prime camping season down here. Who knew? And since we don’t like to make reservations, we’ve been having to scramble a bit to find places to stay.
After leaving Del Rio, we went to a very nice RV Resort in Camp Wood, Texas. We would have loved to have stayed there for more than 2 day. But like Del Rio, we had no Verizon cell service. On top of that, the campground’s WiFi was out due to the same storm that damaged our Jeep. Trying to deal with two insurance claims with just Jim’s Tracfone (on AT&T) was too difficult. So we got a refund and moved on.
This was the most exciting thing we saw in Camp Wood. This RV pulled in one morning around 8:00 a.m. The didn’t even put their slides out. They just plugged in and went to bed. Hey Paul H., ever heard of these guys?
We next went a little south to Kerrville, Texas, in the middle of the Texas Hill Country. We had Verizon cell service again! Yay!!!! It was time to get some work done. But, again, we could only stay 2 days. The campground was booked up for the weekend.
The campground was on the Guadalupe River. Nice!
Every tree and power line had this funky moss hanging off it.
I was told by a quilting buddy to check out this quilt shop. I’m glad I did.
How true!
I drooled over these fabrics, but had no idea what to do with them. Very pretty…but large scale prints require some special treatment.
Knowing we had to move on again, we pulled out all our campground resources to figure where to go next. We finally hit upon an Escapees park west of San Antonio. Escapees is an RV Club we belong to. As members, we can stay in the parks that are owned by individual members (we were basically renting a spot belonging to a member that has pulled out already and headed north). Yay!!! We spent an enjoyable 10 days there. Everyone was super friendly. The place had a HUGE library, great laundry, excellent restaurants around, and cheap rates! Jim could have spent a month there devouring all the books in their library.
The Escapees RV Park in Hondo, Texas (west of San Antonio) ….our home for 10 days.
We explored the area a number of days.
Country roads and lots of farm land.
The gates in Texas require a special mention. It doesn’t matter how run down or small a property might be. They all seem to have big, fancy gates leading into their property.
Cows looking through this gate!
After dragging Janelle to the In-N-Out Burger in Tucson, she wanted us to try her new favorite, Whataburger!
Janelle’s new favorite burger place.
Jim thinks In-N-Out is better. I like them both equally. Janelle favors Whataburger.
While in the San Antonio area, we did visit The Alamo and the River Walk. I was totally disappointed by the Alamo. While I did learn some of the history of Texas, the Alamo itself was overrun with crowds. And the area around it was crassly commercial. Imagine the Canadian side of Niagara Falls…now remove the Falls and plunk down the Alamo. it’s about the same thing.
Outside of the Alamo.
Inside of the Alamo. Watch out for all the school kids.
A rare shot of the Alamo courtyard with no people in it.
The Riverwalk was very nice. But I’m not sure I would want to be there at the height of the tourist season. Still, it is a very cool concept.
The Riverwalk. Most places weren’t open yet.
Riverwalk
Towards the end of the Riverwalk, things are a little more sane as far as crowds go.
We also took a tour of the Toyota Texas Truck Plant. You would have thought you were going to visit Fort Knox! You had to make a reservation. Your name had to be vetted to make sure you weren’t a spy from a competing auto company. You couldn’t take in your cell phone or cameras. So all the pictures below I “borrowed” from the Internet. Finally, once on the tour, it went so fast, you really couldn’t figure out what was going on. I worked in an auto plant, I’ve seen them, but it’s been a number of years. This assembly plant is unique and both Jim and I would have liked to have understood what we were seeing a bit more. Oh well, not many auto plants offer tours anymore. So we should consider ourselves lucky.
The Toyota Texas Visitor’s Center
We all had to load onto these trams. They no longer require the hard hats and safety glasses. But we all had the headsets to listen to the tour guide.
Trucks coming off the line.
Over the Easter weekend, I headed over to College Station to spend it with Janelle. Jim opted to stay behind with his pile of library books and have Easter dinner with the Escapee members in the clubhouse. So, I left Saturday morning early and drove the 3.5 hours to College Station.
I accidentally ended up on the 130 toll road around San Antonio…empty on a Saturday morning. I’m sure I’ll be getting a bill in the mail when we get home. I now have my Google Maps set to avoid toll roads.
I was quite shocked to see the speed limit on this toll road was 85 miles per hour. Do they want people to kill themselves???
While in College Station, Janelle and I started packing up what we can for her upcoming move to Galveston.
We took some time off from packing boxes to do a wine tasting.
We also visited a local Veteran’s Park for a walk on Easter morning. This unique path has a strip of pavers every 15 feet to denote a year in history…all in chronological order.
The American Mile, a unique 1 mile walk.
1776 – when the mile walk starts.
This is how most years look….just one stripe of pavers.
A nice place to walk on an Easter morning.
I like how they represented the Civil War.
2012…I liked this year!
After a quick weekend visit, I left Janelle and returned to Jim.
Our time at the Escapees park was up. It was time to move further east. We stopped for fuel and saw another first. Birds where hanging out at the pumps. When a truck was parked, the birds would fly up to the truck grills and snatch out the fresh bugs caught in the grills Can anyone say “lunch?” And is that why they call them grills? 😉 I wasn’t fast enough on the camera to capture the birds in action. But in 40,000 miles, we had never seen this!
Lunch time for the birds…this one had just plucked out a nice juicy (and dead) bug. from the truck grill.
Then we happened upon a Buc-ee’s. I recalled the name from a podcast that occasionally discussed unusual restrooms. Buc-ee’s are Texas convenience stores/rest stops with up to 80 gas pumps and supposedly the cleanest restrooms ever. “Jim…stop…we have to check this out!”
Loved the big parking lot! We had no trouble finding a spot to park.
Inside the store…they have a little of everything.
The ladies’ bathroom…with art for sale.
Yup, it’s a clean stall!
What???? I think these are feeders the hunters use to fatten up the prey for hunting season. We saw these all over, just not in convenience stores…until now.
Add a little extra flavoring to your soft drink.
What to know more? I found this video online. And yes, we bought some beef jerky. It was yummy!
Moving on…finding a spot to stay was a challenge. The Army Corps of Engineers has put campgrounds around some of the reservoirs they are responsible for. Some campsites are reservable, some aren’t. We bet on being able to get a non-reservable site and staying there for a while. And that is how we ended up now camping on the edge of Granger Lake Reservoir, east of Austin, Texas. With Jim’s National Parks Pass for Seniors, we pay half price. $11 a night WITH electric and water is not bad!
Our $11 per night campsite, with electric and water. Not too shabby!
Granger Reservoir. Unfortunately, this is NOT the view from our campsite. All these campsites are on the lake and you really can’t see the lake (unless you want to climb up onto the top of your RV). We took this picture from the dam.
This cracked me up. Is that little tent to the right of the big tent an “outhouse” ? I wonder what kind of toilet is inside it?
The wildflowers outside our door. The park people say they are overdue to mow the grass. And they are. Still, I wonder how many wildflowers will be left after they do.
This is a little diner we found in Thorndale, Texas. Let’s try it for breakfast!
Breakfast! I have NEVER been served ice water in a mason jar before (beer for sure, but not water!). And my breakfast was the Migas Plate. That means they put tortilla chips in my eggs. Interesting.
We have seen all kinds of longhorn cattle. This one was unique, hanging on the diner wall!
We also checked out the small town of Taylor, Texas, right down the road from the campground.
While grocery shopping, I spotted this. A hogs head! Nope, I’m NOT buying that, even if it IS 79 cents a pound.
A beer flight for Jim at the Texas Beer Company.
And some real Texas BBQ to go with the beer!
I took a day trip to the Lad Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. They are dedicated to saving Texas wildflowers.
An aqueduct lined the entrance into the park.
There were lots of trails to walk along. It was a pleasant 72 degree day.
There’s an owl here?
Sure enough, there she is!
This path led to a geo-cache.
Which I found under a rock.
The famous Blue Bonnet. Unfortunately, we were here too late in the season to see fields full of them.
This wall was built to represent all the items in nature that have a spiral shape.
From the viewing tower on the grounds, you could view all of Austin.
Phew…that was a long blog post. Thanks for hanging in there. Tomorrow we pull out of here and head for College Station. We have reservations at an RV Park close to Janelle AND in Galveston. So we don’t have to worry about the weekend. Packing commences in earnest on Thursday. The big move should take place on Saturday. We are all very anxious to explore Galveston and see what it holds!
As always — thanks for sharing the pics, etc. Enjoy reading about al the things that you are doing and seeing. Our country really has a lot of “stuff” to see and do.
Interesting blog Corinne. You are getting very good at these!
Sometimes it’s not the famous sites of a city that are interesting. Sometimes it is the quirky things that happen and that you see! Thanks B.