Lake Conroe Thousand Trails RV Park

Lake Conroe   Highs: 57, 73, 63, 56, 65, 72, 71 Lows: 39, 48, 30, 32, 48, 51, 46.  Site: B66, new section

Lots of kids at Lake Conroe, lots of families

We are settled in at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails RV Park for three weeks. This is our chance to get our slide fixed, (it's not retracting properly and stops part way in,) see Sparky's daughter and grandson, visit with some old RVing acquaintances who live not too far away, and sit tight for awhile as we watch diesel prices climb to over 5.00 a gallon...sigh....It's gonna get worse before it gets better, so we will try to stay put longer and decrease our driving distances, doing all the obvious to save fuel strategies as much as we can. 

Lake Conroe has a new section, which is very nice...big concrete pads not too close to your neighbor, but they are so popular, it's hard to score one. With Thousand Trails, it's first come, first served when you arrive at the park. Timing is everything, get there too early and the people who are scheduled to leave haven't vacated a spot yet. Get there mid to late afternoon, and the prime spots are already taken. It depends on what day of the week you arrive as well. Usually arriving in the middle of the week like Wednesday or Thursday, bodes well for getting a decent spot. Likewise, leaving on a Monday or Tuesday for traveling is better than leaving on a Sunday, but we have done that before. Here is our site for three weeks. We back up to some woods, which is really nice.

Since this is an urban area, there are no great trails to hike or bike trails to ride close by to the park, unless you venture into the Woodlands area which has wonderful walking trails for their subdivisions, but you can ride out of the RV park, turn right on MP Clark Rd., and ride up and down hilly residential sidewalks towards Longmire Road to get an easy 12 mile ride if you go out and back. The Thousand Trails Rd. leading out of the park is a heart pumper, climbing up a ways to get to the intersection where you turn right at MP Clark Rd. and start down the residential sidewalks--unless you want to ride in the street. It's hilly in this area, so you can get a good workout. There is also a small county park on FM830 on the left side as you head towards interstate 45 where you can walk around in circles, haha. It's still a nice little park in the middle of suburbia for a little walk. The trail is about a half mile loop. Sparky just walks in circles and listens to music till she gets 3 miles in.

What is this? Anybody know?

There is also a state forest a couple of exits away--William Goodrich Jones State Forest with some really wide packed dirt trails which would be great for bike riding or just walking. The main trails are laid out in a grid fashion, the scenery just tall pines, not much else. These trails are shared with cyclers (almost none during the week) and horseback riders. (Sparky didn't see any the times she went). This state forest is home to the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, so if you are a birder, you might look for them. 

internet photo

We see that the interior roads are still bad in the park, full of potholes, some eroded and washed out portions, and there are some drainage issues near the new section due to new construction, but overall, the the park is beautiful. Big, massive pool, (unheated), nice restrooms, new laundry facility, and of course, access to Lake Conroe which is a really big nice lake. If you have kayaks, you can just launch right in the park down at the docks. Sparky might even rent a kayak while she's here and head out on the lake for the first time! 

The park is also heavily into putting in new small homes in a section called The Reserve. LOTS of them! 

The redbuds are in bloom.....A lovely sign of spring!

This park is close to every single type of store you could possibly need and amazing restaurants. Sparky met her daughter and grandson for lunch one day at Uncle Julio's, a terrific Mexican restaurant, on Grand Parkway in Conroe. Awesome food! Sparky's grandson is growing like a weed!

Sparky got in lots of hugs from her grandson while we were in the area. He's almost as tall as her!

And she got soundly trounced at Connect 4, a fun game to play with kids. Sparky just might have to find out how to be more of a challenge at this game and check out YouTube for strategies. (That's where you can find out how to solve the golf tee challenge at Cracker Barrel!) By the way, a really great movie for kids 7 and up to watch is The Adam Project. Just as soon as she can, she wants to watch it again, this time with her daughter and grandson. It's really great...It would have a lot of kid appeal to the young who are growing up on video games and smash 'em, bash 'em battles with the good guys and the bad guys, time travel quandaries for the older generation and the kid, Walter Scobell, who stars in the movie, is really really great. He talks too much, and his lines are so funny! It has a time travel element in it, and showcases family relationships with all that comes with a normal family struggling with some things. Sparky gives it a BIG thumbs up!

We met up with Janice and Dave Evans, former RVers who have since come off the road, for a nice lunch with friends of theirs, at Walls BBQ in Huntsville, TX. Then we surprised another couple whom we know from RVing, Jan and Greg White, who were at lunch with the Evans on another occasion!

Sparky is back in treatment temporarily here in the Conroe area for bad sciatic pain. It just doesn't quit. At some point, we will settle in an area for a more long term stay, maybe in Maine this summer, and get some consistent, more long term PT help. That's one disadvantage to traveling, if there is a medical issue and you are transient, it's tougher to get the issue resolved. Luckily, this problem is more of a persistent annoying problem, albeit painful, and not a serious, life changing problem as some encounter while out on the road full time.

On rainy days, which there are more of here in Texas than there are in Tucson, Sparky crafts---metal stamping, quilting, making jewelry and knitting. Here is a cabled headband Sparky knitted for some very cool days in March. She is also working on a pretty quilted and embroidered spring bee pillow cover, shown at left.

We got our slide fixed by 4 Girls Ranch RV maintenance, whose facility is right next door to the Thousand Trails park. Our big living room slide was going out ok, but then stopping part way when coming back in. The guys explained that it was a little out of kilter, they could tell by the decal strips not lining up and that the window gasket around the window at the side of the slide was pushing against the wall of the RV when trying to come in. That caused the slide to "stick" and stop. They jacked up the slide from underneath, and two guys pushed hard against the side of it, shifting it a half inch to the back of the rig, getting it back in alignment. They brought in 4 guys :-) to fix it because it's a big heavy slide, but it didn't take too long. They did a great job and the price was very reasonable!

Despite fuel prices, we still love doing what we do...traveling and seeing different parts of the country. We will hope and pray that fuel prices don't stop us from traveling, but we can always slow down and stay longer in an area. Sparky loves the different hiking and biking trails, and Eldo loves the change of scenery, atmosphere, and the freedom of traveling to different parks and parts of the country. It's a wonderful lifestyle, and still affordable despite the fuel price changes. However, campground prices are skyrocketing as well, as big companies are buying up smaller campgrounds to take advantage of the big increase in RV travelers. You have to plan carefully and think long term for booking reservations and use camping memberships to save money in order to be able to full time in an RV, that's for sure. So we do!

Our site at Lake Conroe in "B" section

So, that's it for now....Our next destination in three weeks is Mammoth Cave, KY and we will see you there!