Our RV Adventures

The drought certainly seems to be over in Texas. Well, at least in our small part of the Texas Hill Country. It started raining last night, and continued pretty much all day.

We headed over to Gina’s about 11:30 to meet up with her and her nephew Matt Jones. Gina wanted to get a new big screen TV and Matt had come over to help out with the purchase and setup.

Pretty quickly we headed into San Marcos with our first stop being lunch. Gina suggested we try Taste of China, a Chinese buffet right along I-35. Turned out to be pretty good, too. Good choice, Gina.

After lunch we drove right down the road to the local Wal-Mart so Gina could pick out her new big screen and a few other things as well.

She settled on a 55” Vizio, 1080P, 100,000 to 1 Contrast Ratio, with Internet and WiFi connections. In addition we also picked up a wall-mount kit as well.

Of course, by the time we were ready to head for home, the bottom dropped out in the rain department, and since we planned to take the TV home in the back of Matt’s pickup, this constituted a problem. But thinking ahead, Matt had also bought some cheap tarps and a roll of tape, so a little judicious wrapping took care of that problem.

Back at Gina’s, Matt and I worked on getting the TV up on the wall. And it went pretty smoothly, too. While I prepared the TV and fastened the brackets on the back, Matt screwed the wall mount to the studs using lag bolts. It isn’t coming down. Then all that was left was to lift the TV up and latch it to the wall mount.

Since Gina won’t have a cable connection to the new set for a couple of days, I went ahead and set up the WiFi connection for her so she can stream Netflix and Hulu movies on it in the meantime.

About 5:30, Matt headed home, and Jan, Gina, Gina’s daughter Sharelle, and I all headed over to Milagro’s, our favorite local Hill Country Tex-Mex place. You have to know to ask, but, besides the regular salsa, they also have a really hot habanero salsa. But it’s not just the hot part that I like, but it has such a wonderful smoky roasted taste.

Actually I think it’s my favorite part of eating there.

We got Gina and Sharelle home about 7:30, and then Jan and I drove back to the rig with it raining all the way. And it looks like it will be raining all day tomorrow, too.

But at least Sunday’s looking nice, so maybe Jan will have a chance to put out her deer corn finally.

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Thought for the Day:

“If you die in an elevator, be sure and push the UP button.” – Sam Levenson

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Well, today marks the beginning of our fifth year of full-time RV’ing. Actually it marks our fifth year of any kind of RV’ing, since we never part-time RV’ed at all.

I was up about 6:30 trying to remember all the things I’m supposed to do before we hit the road again. It’s amazing how much stuff you can forget in only three months.

We had planned to head out about 10:30 but that was not to be. Right after we got here in late November, the park repairman worked on our water faucet and tightened my hose splitter back on so tight I couldn’t get it off.

When I tried to loosen it with a wrench the PVC pipe started to bend. Not a good thing.

So I called the office and ask them to send the guy back with some wrenches. And of course, working together, we almost immediately had a 20 ft geyser of water spouting up from the pipe connection. And raining down on the electrical box. Oh, boy.

As it turns out, it didn’t break. The PVC elbow hadn’t been glued on properly and just came off. But at least I had someone to share the blame.

So, by the time we got this fixed, and then I got paid up at the office, we didn’t pull out of the park until about 11:30.

Leaving Galveston Bay RV Park is always hard to do. The beautiful sunrises,

sunsets.

the many birds,

are just a few of the reasons we come back to this park year after year.

But leaving the park, we didn’t go far, just about 9 miles down the road to Monterey’s Little Mexico in Dickinson. It’s a tradition for us to stop on our way out to town to have one last bowl of their Chicken Tortilla Soup before we leave the area.

Finally, by about 12:30 we were on our way to Canyon Lake, TX about 230 miles away to stay at the Lake Pointe RV Park there while we visit our friend Gina.

A few hours later we had our second traditional stop, at the Buc-ee’s off I-10 at the Luling exit. And we were surprised to see that, as big as it is with a huge building and 32 gas pumps, they’re adding a lot more parking and 32 more gas pumps.

How many places have you seen with 64 pumps| The manager said that, depending on the season, they get 2 to 6 tankers a day just to keep them stocked with fuel.

A little over an hour later we pull into Lake Pointe RV Park, got checked in, and set up.

This is our fifth time to stay here, and besides being a very nice park, and a cheap park ($12 a night with Passport America) Jan loves it for all the deer roaming the area.

They are everywhere, very tame, and will even eat out of your hand.

Even Mister has fun with them. When I had my back turned while setting up, he managed to pop the latch on the screen door and get out. When I realized he was loose, I started looking around and found him about 75 feet away, stalking a 4 point buck that was grazing on some corn that someone had put out. This is a cat that just doesn’t know his limitations.

About 6 we headed over to our friend Gina’s. She lives on a 600 acre cattle ranch nearby and feeds raccoons on her back porch.

Jan was happy to find that this trip was a 1 gate visit. You have to pass though three cattle gates to visit Gina, and depending on where the cows are grazing, 1, 2, or all 3 gates may be closed, and since Jan is in charge of getting out and opening and closing the gates (we took a vote and she lost), this means less work for her.

Picking up Gina, we drove over to the Italian Garden Cafe for a great Italian (of course) meal. It’s a must-stop place whenever we’re in the area.

Later, after dropping Gina off at her home, we headed back to rig to pretty much collapse. We’ve been on the go so much the last few weeks it’s relaxing to just get back on the road.

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Thought for the Day:

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods." H. L. Mencken

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