December 13, 2015 – Our RV Adventures

Daily Archives: December 13, 2015

December 13, 2015 Uncategorized

Called On Account Of . . .

Tornados, Rain, and Wind.

Well, our 10am departure for Galveston this morning was cancelled due to all the bad weather running around the area. But since our friend Linda is leaving Galveston tomorrow morning, driving to Dallas, we decided that we would meet in Conroe for lunch tomorrow instead. And that works for us since it’s about 20 miles closer for us on the round trip than Galveston.

But since I was already up about 9am, Jan took the opportunity to lure me out with the idea of breakfast at Schobel’s Restaurant over in Columbus, so we headed out about 9:30. With all the rain we had last night and early this morning, I was interested to see what the river crossing coming into the park would look like.

In fact, early this morning, a little after 5am, I listened to some of the loudest rain hitting the rig that I’ve ever heard. It seemed to be lashing the coach in sheets, over and over. But what was very unusual is that there was no horizontal wind rocking the coach like you would expect with this blowing rain, so it must have been coming down vertically.

And when we got to the bridge it was easy to see that all the rain had had an effect on the water level

Colorado River Flooded Crossing 1

Colorado River Flooded Crossing 2

Even though it was several inches deep over the bridge, our Dodge Dakota with its high clearance, made it across with no problems. But the way the river crossing looked here reminded Jan and I of the Little Blanco River crossing near the home of our late friend Gina’s house near Wimberley, TX.

Gina's River Crossing

Like a lot of these crossings in this area, the water is flowing over the bridge most of the year, but usually not deep enough to be a problem.

Little Blanco 2

But if you are careless enough to gun your SUV as you’re heading up the hill, you might find yourself suddenly sliding sideways off the road and into the creek due to the slick concrete. So, don’t do that.

Coming out after our really good breakfast at Schobel’s, I saw this very nice trike out in the parking lot. Nice looking V-8 engine.

Schobel's Trike 1

It’s hard to see clearly, but it seats3, with the driver sitting in the middle steering using regular bike handle bars, while the gear shift appears to be a standard auto stick shift. The two passengers sit on either side of the driver.

Schobel's Trike 2

Schobel's Trike 3

I think a setup like this makes more sense than the Polaris Slingshot reverse trike we saw at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails a couple of weeks ago.

Polaris Slingshot Conroe 2

While I guess the Slingshot is a little flashier, it’s certainly not very practical for inclement weather.

Slingshot Trike 1

Our next stops were the Wal-Mart and HEB right across the street for a few things. With the cold, rainy weather I decided to whip up a batch of my famous (well, Jan really likes it.) Chicken Tortilla Soup so we picked up what we needed that we didn’t already have at home.

Back at the rig, I got out the slow cooker and got to work. First up was to slice and then poach the chicken breasts in chicken broth. Adding salt and pepper, I let it go for a couple of hours, until the meat was done and tender enough to be pulled apart with a fork.

Tortilla Soup Chicken Breasts

Then I sliced up the jalapeno and Serrano peppers and dumped them in the cooker,

Tortilla Soup Jalapeno Peppers

along with a can of Rotel Habanero tomatoes, a can of Hunt’s diced tomatoes, a can of black beans, a package of frozen kernel corn, and half a package of frozen chopped onions.

Next I added some coarsely chopped cilantro,

Tortilla Soup Cilantro