Venture and the Truck Become Texans

The local Chevy dealer added mud flaps to our truck so it can pass state safety inspection. We took the truck to the inspection station we had used earlier for the trailer inspection. We left with the inspection stickers for both vehicles.

As soon as we had the stickers, we went to the county tax office and applied for titles, registration, license plates for the truck and trailer (a.k.a. Venture). That done, we went to the Department of Public Safety to get driver’s licenses. We were surprised to be told that we needed special licenses for heavy vehicles. The maximum gross weights of the truck and trailer add up to more than 26,000 pounds, which meant we need licenses that require a written test and driving test not needed for regular driver's licenses. Class A licenses require a written test and a driving test with the rig. We passed the test and scheduled driving tests for tomorrow.

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Escapees Tour

The Escapees gave us and other campers a tour of their headquarters building, including the mail handling facility. We got to see how our mail is received, sorted, and forwarded to us. All mail for Livingston arrives in town on a semi from Houston. The truck goes to the town post office to deliver mail for the town population. It then comes out to Rainbow's End to deliver twice as much mail to the Escapees mail facility. The number of people getting mail through the Escapees is twice the population of the rest of the town.

Paul and Dalya picked us up and drove to to the town of Onalaska for square dancing. The club Lake Livingston Levis and Lace was having their weekly class and dance. Dancing was mostly mainstream, with a couple of plus tips.

Earlier in the day we did our laundry and stopped at Red Barn (building supply place) and found out that they have treated lumber wide enough to support the full width of the tires that they are willing to cut for us to the sizes we need for leveling boards. Success at last.

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A Surprise Meeting

We took the trailer into town to get the state inspection The inspection facility didn’t have the needed certificate on hand, so we’ll have to go back later in the week to pick up the sticker.

We toured the Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees (CARE) facility that the Escapees have set up. CARE provided medical and other support for RVers living in their rigs. It’s amazing how much CARE can provide for the prices they charge. Their work is supported heavily by Escapees members—with both labor and money. Paul and Dalya Collins, fellow square dancers from Southern California, showed up for the same tour. Were we ever surprised to run into people we knew! Lee expects to be a CARE volunteer if we ever end up spending a block of time here.

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First Look at Rainbow's End

We traveled to Livingston, TX, today and checked into Rainbows End, the home RV park of the Escapees. After setting up the trailer we walked through much of the park grounds. It's a nice looking place carved out of the woods--very clean and well kept up. We noticed that people with deeded lots have done a lot of different things with them. Some people have just put tall shelters over their RVs and added a small building. Others have built full houses, like any residential lot. The deeded-lot area reminded me of North Muskegon and other areas near Muskegon where individual homes have been build off of roads that run through woods.

Reviewing our information on becoming Texans, we discovered that the state requires mud flaps on pickup trucks that have dual rear wheels. So we’ll have to get mud flaps before the truck will pass the safety inspection that the state of Texas requires for vehicle registration.

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Cajun Potluck

Today we moved from Somerville Lake to a resort near Washington, Texas. We put the address into our NAV system, which directed us to turn onto a county road. We soon realized it was a mistake, since the road was narrow, windy, and tree lined, but it wasn't going to be easy to turn around, especially since every driveway was blocked by a locked gate.

We got out to survey the situation, and a couple offered to let us use their driveway, but it had overhanging trees. They suggested the entry to a ranch farther up the road, so we continued on. We pulled into the ranch drive and started to maneuver to back out onto the road, but the drive was short and the road narrow. After an hour we had the rig perpendicular to the road, but then the right rear dually fender hit a post, which turned out to mark a culvert, so we had to reverse all our efforts. Meanwhile someone came along and told us that there was a Y in the road ahead that we could use to U-turn. So another lesson learned....

The resort had a Cajun Weekend on the schedule for the 26th, so we got to take part in a Cajun potluck dinner. We spent some time around the pool and walked the grounds. The people were friendly, and the park was attractive—it has a dock and pedal boats in a large pool. Activities include croquet and volleyball. It's a small park; only a few people live on the grounds. It's surrounded by woods, so it’s a restful place.
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Craftsman

The table we had bought for our living area has two drop leaves. For storage, the top rotates and the leaves fold down. Unfortunately the top came loose, probably because we were laying it on its side on the couch for travel. We tried gluing it, but with no long term success. Today we found a furniture making and repair shop and stopped to ask about getting our table repaired. The shop was small, but one of the two woodworkers did a very craftsmanlike job of reattaching our table top. "That won't come loose," he assured us--and he said there was no charge for the job. We tipped him happily.

The rest of the day was devoted to paperwork....
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Ice Cream and Miniature Horses

Today we toured the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham. The 45 minute tour included a film on the creamery history, looking down into two large rooms where ice cream was being made and packaged, and getting a free scoop of ice cream. Ken got Moolenium Crunch and Lee got chocolate with almonds. Lee tasted Ken's and decided she had a new favorite ice cream flavor. At the Blue Bell gift shop, we bought a Zeroll ice cream scoop, a bit of a splurge, but the best scoop we've ever had.

Then we visited the Monastery of St. Clare Miniature Horse Farm. Franciscan Poor Clare nuns raise miniature horses and sell ceramics to support themselves. We saw a foal that had just been born the day before.

The horses vary in size and color, but full grown are the size of large dogs. We also visited the chapel.
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Lake Somerville

Traveled from Kerrville, Texas, to Lake Somerville Marina and Campground outside of Somerville, Texas. The lake is a few miles north of Brenham, where we plan to tour Blue Bell Creamery and visit the miniature horses. Also expect to spend one of our days here catching up on work in the trailer.

Our campsite overlooks the lake, so we have a lovely view.
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Texas Hill Country

On the 19th we went from Sonora to Kerrville, Texas. Kerrville bills itself as being between the deserts of west Texas and the Texas hill country to the east. We’re thinking that the hill country may be a good place to put down roots when we decide, some day, to stop traveling full time. We saw the eastern part of the hill country a couple of years ago on a trip to the area around Austin. Now’s our chance to see some of the rest of it. Kerrville also is described as having the best weather in the world. (I guess folks here have never been to San Diego.)

We’re staying at Kerrville-Schreiner Park, run by the city. We have a pull-through site with full hookups for $21 a night. So far our average camping fee is running below $20 dollars. The campground is great! Lots of big shade trees. Lots of grass—which we haven’t seen much of in our trek across the deserts to get here. The sites are spread out enough that we feel like we have a lot of space to ourselves. The whole setting is very inviting. Makes me want to set out a chair and grab a book to read out in the fresh air.










There are a lot of deer here. We had some come to within a few feet of our picnic table. Sweetie tried to get acquainted, but the buck she approached thrust out its front legs at her in a very threatening way. Sweetie retreated quickly.









On the 21st we toured Fredericksburg. We sampled kolaches, German pastry with meat or fruit inside. And sampled wine at the Fredericksburg Winery. This is a boutique winery producing small-lots of select blends, varietals, and champagnes, with new releases almost every month. Their wines are available only from the winery. We bought three bottles: Dry Gewurztraminer, Zelebration, and Gewurztraminer. The yard in front of the local city government buildings is decorated by an interesting set of eagles carved from a single tree.









Today we had the truck tires rotated at the Chevy dealer in Kerrville and did some shopping.

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From Fort Davis to Sonora, Texas

Today was mainly a travel day. We arrived at the end of the afternoon at an RV park attached to the Caverns of Sonora, a cave developed privately as a tourist attraction. The Caverns are six or seven miles off the I-10, but it’s worth the drive. They’re in a rural setting right next to undeveloped land. Peacocks have the run of the place. As we sat eating dinner in the rig, we watched several deer munching away on their dinner. A couple of them came as close as 20 feet to our rig. Tomorrow we move on to the Texas hill country.

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Hiking and biking

Yesterday we drove to the Nature Conservancy property a few miles west of the observatory. We hiked for a couple of hours on a trail they have set up leading from the picnic area.

Today we biked to the park's Indian Lodge and around the campground. We found out that our legs are out of shape. We haven't been biking as much as we would like. Finished the day by driving into Fort Davis to pick up mail being forwarded by the Escapees mail service.

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The city of Fort Davis, Texas

Once again we used a library computer in Fort Davis to get email, because our wireless modem wasn't working. Then took a walking tour of historic Fort Davis, checking out a number of buildings build in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The architecture in some of the buildings was quite interesting. There was not much else of note.

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Fort Davis National Historic Site

We went into town today and changed some money at the Fort Davis bank. Then we visited the county library to get on the internet and check email. Later we visited the Chihuahuan Desert Botanical Garden. Only a few plants were blooming, and those had the usual small flowers typical of desert plants. We also visited the Fort Davis National Historic Site run by the National Park Service. We watched a video of the history of the park. Then we walked through the hospital, which has been partially restored. The fort commander’s house is restored and furnished. We also saw other officers’ quarters and a sample enlisted men’s barracks.

Lee visited some neighbors in the campground who are casual bird watchers. They have put out in front of their motor home a number of bird feeders, including a hummingbird feeder. Lee likes what they have done and wants to wants to think about getting some bird feeders herself.

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Davis Mountain Scenic Drive

Most of today was spent doing laundry, looking at a couple of historical buildings, and buying ice cream cones inn Fort Davis. Just before dinner we drove up a scenic drive that winds its way to a mountain top from the campground. This gave us some great views of the campground, the canyon and the city of Fort Davis.

Our trailer looked very small when we looked down on it from the outlook near the top. Back at the campground, we visited the campground’s interpretive center. The most interesting item there was a viewing window looking out on bird feeders and other items set up to lure birds in close.

We discovered that we could get cell service higher on the mountain.

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MacDonald Observatory

We devoted most of today to the McDonald Observatory. The observatory is located in the Davis Mountains but run by the University of Texas at Austin. We took in three programs. We started with solar viewing program and dome tours in the morning. In an auditorium we saw live on-screen views of what one of the telescopes was seeing on the sun. The moderator explained sun spots, promontories, and flares. Then we all moved outside where the moderator enlisted some of the audience to form a human model of planets circling the sun. He used this to give the best explanation of the ecliptic that we've ever seen. Then came tours of two of the satellite domes. We got to see how they open the domes and turn them to enable the telescopes to be pointed to the desired part of the sky. The second program started off the evening by describing and locating for us a number of constellations and significant stars. Immediately after that was the third program--a star party that included viewing Saturn and a number of stars through various small telescopes that had been set up outside the visitor's center.

McDonald Observatory's web site is http://mcdonaldobservatory.org.

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Arriving at Fort Davis and Davis Mountain State Park

We arrived today at the west Texas town of Fort Davis, where we bought groceries and walked around town for a bit. Then we moved on to Davis Mountain State Park, where we had reserved a campsite. When we arrived at the state park, there were already 8 rigs lined up to register. Before we were done registering, there were rigs backed up out onto the highway.
The state park was created in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps in a fairly steep canyon. The walls of the canyon are exposed igneous rock from volcanic activity that formed the Davis Mountains over 25 million years ago.

We had a little excitement while unhitching and setting up camp. After moving the rig into place, we noticed that a post was going to be in the way of one of the slides. We decided to move the rig forward a few feet, pulled up the landing gear, removed the chocks, and drove the truck forward—forgetting that we had already opened the jaws of the hitch. As the truck moved forward, the trailer slid down the hitch and landed on the rails of the bed of the truck. Fortunately, there was no damage beyond a very slight abrasion of the truck’s rail covers and a crack in the plastic part of one of the tie-downs. We had read that it's not a matter of if but when you will drop your trailer on your truck. Guess we got that one out of the way early. We're lucky we have a very tough truck and were moving very slowly.

The campground's best sites are its full hookup sites. We had a site with water and electricity but no sewer connection. We realized that sites like this are all back-in sites designed for motorhomes that could drive into the sites front-first. For 5^th-wheel trailers this puts the picnic table and useful living space on the wrong side of the rig. Oh, well!

Two mule deer walked through the edge of our campsite while we were eating dinner. They were having their dinner, too—munching on tree leaves as they went by.

Since the campground is in a rather deep valley, we had no cell phone service, which also meant no internet connection, since the Sprint modem depends on the Sprint network. Read more!

Balmorhea, Texas

On our way to Texas's Balmorhea State Park we dry camped for a night at another Escapees park. This one was in Deming, New Mexico. Dream catcher was not impressive. It had a strong resemblance to a gravel parking lot.

The state park was much more pleasant, with a lot of open space. We spent two nights there. The focal point of the park is a two-acre swimming pool created from the San Soloman Spring. The spring produces almost 20 million gallons of water a day. The park's cienega (defined as "desert marshland") is home to two small endangered desert fishes—the Pecos Gambusia and the Comanche Springs Pupfish. The pupfish occurs nowhere else in the world.

One issue here was the wind. The stead wind was bad at times; the gusts were worse. A gust blew the open rig door into Lee and almost knocked her off the steps. Our summary: it would be a great place to camp if it weren't for the wind.

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Benson, Arizona

Benson gave us another chance to check out an Escapees park. We stayed at the Saguaro Co-op for a week. It has a lot going for it. The park is on a slope overlooking a large valley. A major part the slope is terraced so that each row of camp sites looks over the rigs on the lower levels. Many of the leased sites have been landscaped, and many have structures of some sort on them. Even though most of the leased sites are fairly good size, we were aware of being with a lot of people. There's a community room available for square dancing, line dancing, reading, exercising, playing pool, etc. Lee was glad to see three pool tables there. We were surprised that there is no swimming pool, given how warm it is here.

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