Life Changes in a Heartbeat

We left Lake Conroe, TX today, Monday, March 23. We had a great hookup and no problems as we headed down the road. We were about two hours from our destination in Louisiana when we came upon a construction zone on I-10. 

Eldy saw the construction zone, and moved over a lane to stay on I-10 and BAM! We were sideswiped by a truck. Eldy had to swerve to the right to avoid hitting any cars in the main lanes of traffic and we hit a few upright poles separating the concrete barrier zone from the main highway.  We never saw the truck that hit us, and so we pulled off the road to assess the damage. It was quite a lot. Frame damage to the RV, the propane door ripped off and disappeared, a stabilizer jack destroyed, the truck's bumper destroyed, severe dents and scrapes to both truck and RV, sidewall busted on the RV, and more.

The good news is we are ok, and the other driver is ok. No air bags deployed and nobody hurt. Unfortunately, our truck and RV are not ok....And now begins the insurance go around. We will have to cancel our summer plans but there were a number of great blessings despite today's bad accident. Nobody was hurt....we were able to steer off the road to avoid any other collisions. We are ok, just upset. The truck is drivable. The RV can still be towed. The propane tanks got dented but they didn't catch on fire. We got to our campground and the rig towed just fine and the side that was damaged that holds our biggest slide, still opened. Everything inside was shaken around but no damage on the inside. We couldn't get the bay door open to access water for the night, it was jammed, but together Sparky and Eldo managed to work it open. We have water, we have electric and hopefully good insurance--Progessive and Travelers. A huge thunderstorm came in AFTER we had unhooked and got settled in LA. We were blessed that we didn't have to drive in the deluge, or unhook with major lightning and heavy rain all around. Whew!

We are at a REALLY nice park for one night, Cajun Palms RV resort, in Henderson, LA, which is soon to become Camp Margaritaville, taken over by new owners. Big long site, cement pad, tons of activities planned for the future, lots of music and more. They have beautiful cabins for rental, brand new seasonal park models for sale, as well as over 400 hundred cement pad RV sites. The pool area is amazing! It's under renovation as well. There's a bar and restaurant on site, too.

They are putting in a fun water park on site. 

It's a VERY nice place to stay for more than just an overnight. There are lots of green spaces, ponds and lovely areas to walk. 

The staff was super friendly and helpful, and the man who guided us to our site even tried to help us find a way to get the bumper pulled back closer to the truck, but he wasn't able to.

While we were here for two days at Cajun Palms, we had an RV mobile tech come out and check our damaged rig for propane leaks. Our biggest concern was the lines may have been damaged. Fun in the Sun RV Repair came out, Dane was our technician and he did a terrific job of testing the gas lines, the connections and all things gas related to make sure we were good to continue to travel and even use our propane. He even dropped off some visqueen to cover our open propane tank doorway (the door ripped off in the accident) and didn't charge us.

It looks like we will slowly limp towards Indiana but faster than we had planned. We have a place to stay while the RV gets repaired, Eldy's son has told us we can stay with them, as long as it takes, bless his heart. It will probably take all summer to get the RV and the truck fixed, unless they total the RV. If you don't hear from us for awhile, just know that we are trying to get back to Indiana and get things fixed. We'll keep you posted!

Lake Conroe, TX and Family

 Weekend stop: Colorado River Thousand Trails, Columbus, TX.  Site: E-83, corner lot

We decided to press on from Davis Mountain State Park due to Sparky's worsening tooth troubles and seeing Sparky's daughter and grandson sooner, by skipping Lake Medina in Lakehills, TX and going straight to Colorado River in Columbus, TX for the weekend. Spring break is the same for everybody this year in the Houston area, so we wanted to be sure to be able to get a full hookup site over the weekend when break started. Sparky will try to find a dentist in the Spring, TX area when we arrive on Monday.

The drive to Colorado River was filled with bursting wildflower blooms of Texas bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush flowers. We started seeing them as soon as we turned on I-10 northeast outside of San Antonio. It was AMAZING....bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush (orange clusters) for miles and miles. Sometimes they were just alongside the road edges, then you would see entire fields of them. In all the times we have traveled this route between our membership parks, we have NEVER seen this wildflower profusion. We must have missed the blooming season every time. From farther away, they look much more orange in color. Here is what the beautiful little paintbrush looks like up close:

paintbrush and bluebonnets

When we got closer to Columbus, TX, the wildflowers increased. There is a field just a couple of miles from our RV park, right along TX 71. This field had mostly bluebonnets and phlox (the red flowers).

And inside the park, in the center of the great big field between the two levels of the RV park is their very own field of Texas Bluebonnets!  Here we were thinking we'd have to travel to Big Bend National Park, or Ennis, TX to see the Bluebonnet Trail and they were already here, ready and waiting for us. The white flower is a prickly poppy popping up here and there in the bluebonnet field at the RV park.

We spent the weekend catching up on our rest, especially the driver, (that's me, says E.) and doing chores like laundry and cleaning. (That's Sparky). She rode her bike all around the park for exercise and on the trails that wind around the park as well. There are bluebonnets blooming all around the trails, too. Quite the season for them and we are so happy we got to see it!

At Colorado River Thousand Trails RV Park

On to Lake Conroe, TX....where some of our family is....Sparky's daughter and grandson, to be precise. 

Lake Conroe, TX   Highs: all over the place--86, 70, 63, 76, 79, 52 (!)  Lows: 30's-60's  Site: G-83, back in

Lake Conroe could be THE gem in the Thousand Trails system, but there are negatives along with the positives, just like most Thousand Trails parks. But it's a great park for visiting Sparky's family. The park has added new sections, but about half of them are set aside for annuals or seasonals. If you are a transient like we are (moving from park to park about every two to three weeks) then your choice of a nice concrete level site in the new sections is very slim. Why don't we get an annual site? They are quite expensive, for one, especially in this area, and we are not ready to pick a park to stay put for about 6 months at a time just yet. 

This park has beautiful amenities which have been posted on this blog before--fantastic pool, (although unheated), great tennis, basketball and pickle ball courts, family oriented activities, and a terrific location to all points shopping and points of interest in Houston. They also have two new sections towards the lake--I and J. One of those is for the seasonal people, and the other one, about 15 sites will be for people needing short term stays. There is also a relatively new "B" section but surprisingly, even though the sites are concrete, they didn't do a very good job of making those sites level. Some have too steep an incline ramp up to the site, and others just plain aren't level. Here's a nice rig in the "B" section and he had to get his front end W-A-A-A-Y up with jack pads to get level. If you have a residential fridge like we do, if you are not level, you can damage the fridge. A lot of RVs will have a propane/electric switchable fridge so they don't have to worry so much about being perfectly level.

We got a site in G-section which is a back in, but it's very nice, with plenty of room around us. And we have a fire pit. We have not had a campfire due to dry conditions and county regulations in MANY places we have been this winter, so Sparky is excited that we can finally have one! Except we never did, haha. Every time we got ready to have one, it was either too hot or too rainy. Boy, it rains a LOT in the Spring/Tomball area in TX!

The only other sites that were available were in the buddy sites, where you share the living space outside, your door faces the door of your neighbor and your outdoor living space is very narrow.

It seems that Thousand Trails is gearing their parks towards people who pay for an annual site. Roads to the annual/seasonal sites are usually paved and newer. Here at Lake Conroe, the roads to the transient sites for the weekend campers or vacation campers are still very bad.

We are here for two weeks, so Sparky can see her daughter and grandson, who is growing like a weed. For the last couple of days, we've played baseball and family games. We went to a beautiful park called Burroughs Park, one of the nicest and biggest city parks in the area at 320 acres with a stocked 7 acre fishing lake, sports fields, 8 miles plus of hiking trails and more. It's off of Huffsmith Rd. in Tomball and it has the BIGGEST dog park ever! The playground facilities were fantastic, there are ponds there, too. It was really beautiful. The trails meander away from the active public areas, so it's a great place to walk through the woods. The Woodlands area of Houston is very pretty with lots of forests and trails, excellent shopping and of course, expensive homes.

Grandson is growing up so fast....He's a wonderful, smart young man and so polite. He says he'd like to go traveling with Grandma some day. Yay! 

Sparky found a good dentist at Spring Park Dentistry in Spring, TX. So far, it seems that her tooth problems are related to the crown being "high" and her bite being "off" so the crown was filed and polished a bit. The dentist, Dr. Ho, was very thorough in testing the bite pattern, as the previous dentist who did the crown, was not. The discomfort is still there, but because Sparky has been solely favoriting the opposite side for more than three weeks when chewing, the dentist said the crown nerves could be inflamed and irritated. Sparky wouldn't hesitate in a second going back there if the problems continue, which at this point, they are. She's going to give it a few more days, then back she will go. Beautiful office, modern equipment, super nice staff and two very good dentists. Very high reviews as well. Sparky went back a second and third time for bite adjustments and it's a little better. Always reluctant to have a bite adjusted so much it's not your original mouth any more! But with NO abcess, NO sign of infection, the roots all looking healthy, that was the only option for now.

What's on tap for the rest of the stay? Sparky's daughter and grandson are off on a short side trip during spring break, so we will take care of some necessary chores with the truck and rig, like treating the rubber seals around the slides, getting an oil change for the truck, cleaning the jack stems on the RV, laundry, the dentist, and anything else we can think of, maybe breakfast at First Watch on Sunday! Then when they get back--more visits! Sparky was going to kayak Lake Conroe, it's a really big lake, but again--too much wind, too much rain and not great kayaking conditions, so we will shoot for next time.

photo taken by grandson

One more week passed quickly in the Houston area, and now it's time to head out for Louisiana, Alabama, then Kentucky. Our plans are to end up this summer in the U.P. in Michigan. It was a great visit with family, and now we are off once again heading towards the midwest. 

Grandma got beat at Connect 4 too many times!

We are watching our travel weather closely as it seems bad storms are occurring more frequently than we've experienced in the past, at least they are on our route through the U.S.!  We'll see you down the road...Until next time....

                                        Sparky and Eldo

Time to Unplug at Davis Mountain State Park

After 50 plus miles of a harrowing drive along TX 118 to get to Davis Mountains State Park, we missed the entrance to the park, which was along a two lane highway with nowhere to turn around, at least at first. We drove right by it. The signage was facing in a forward direction away from the way we were going, and the GPS said it was the equestrian part of the park. The name threw us a bit. It turns out it was the right place to turn in and we missed it. It may be Texas, but it sure didn't have a big sign! Once we realized our mistake, Sparky said, oh--I'll call the park and see where we were supposed to turn. Uh, NOPE! No cell signal. Now what do we do? We decided to proceed ahead to the small town of Fort Davis, hoping we would get a signal there. We did. Sparky called, got the confirmation of the exit. We turned around in the little town of Fort Davis, right down the road a few miles and headed back and once again, we lost our cell service. Dang! We were now thinking we were not going to have any phone or Internet while we were there, and we were right.

We pulled into the state park and were given a nice long site, #24. Directions were given but even so, we went down the wrong side of the pull through loop circle, due to confusing signage, so back we went around in a circle and back to our site. We had some difficulty getting level, the ground was severely sloped but we are getting pretty good at deciding board placement under the jacks to compensate for uneven ground, and we finally got to where we felt comfortable putting our slides out and settling in. We were going to stay three nights. We ended up only staying two nights, not because we were unplugged and having Internet withdrawal symptoms (well, maybe a little, says E.) but because we had misfigured our mileage to the next park and needed to leave a day early.

courtesy of the internet-Montezuma quail

Sparky went right to exploring the grounds and saw a bunch of deer the first night. Signs and photos at the ranger station said you might see bobcats, Montezuma quail, or even aoudad sheep, also called Barbary sheep. Sparky was excited to hear that! They also have TWO wildlife/bird viewing stations and the ranger told us that Barbary sheep had been seen at one of them a few days before. We never saw the sheep nor the Montezuma quail (extremely shy) while we were there, but Barbary sheep look a lot like bighorn sheep. They have brownish horns that curve up and back but they don't curl around like bighorns. They were brought to Texas in the 1950's from Africa for exotic game hunting. They flourish in the West Texas desert and share habitat with the endangered bighorn sheep. Desert bighorns died out during the 1960's due to overhunting and disease spread from domestic sheep. Texas is trying to bring them back. Both kinds of sheep compete for the same resources. The aoudads are considered an invasive species, but they bring in so much money through hunting, that it's nearly impossible to reestablish the bighorn because the ranchers don't want the Barbary (aoudad) sheep herd culled.

courtesy of the internet-Barbary sheep

Acorn woodpecker

western scrub jay

Sparky spent some time at the birding stations. Without the internet or cell phone service, time to enjoy nature. There were a wide variety of birds at the feeders. Western scrub jays, several different kinds of woodpeckers--ladderback and acorn woodpeckers, sparrows and finches were flocking at the feeders.

chipping sparrow

some kind of warbler?

Sparky really wanted to see a pyrrhuloxia--a desert cardinal, but he didn't show up at the feeders. The ranger said that the best chance of seeing one was to go out on a certain trail. This is what they look like, courtesy of the internet.

pyrruloxia-desert cardinal

Agarita on the trail

Having visited the feeders several times, Sparky got out on one of the more challenging trails in the park--the Skyline Trail. It's 2.5 miles one way and quite steep, lots of loose rocks and very narrow. She did not go to the top, which has an outstanding 360 degree view of the valley below which would be a total of over 5 miles up and back, too much for a problematic bad sciatic nerve that kicks into high gear after hikes. 

CCC Lookout shelter

If you don't care to hike it, you can drive the road version of the Skyline. It's extremely narrow, twisty but WOW! Fantastic views along the way, historic stone structures, a built CCC rest/lookout area (built by the civilian conservation corps established in the '30's).

Eldy at the lookout CCC dwelling

The Skyline HIKING trail culminates in this view at the top also. 

Sparky was glad we decided to drive to the top rather than hike it. (Not that she couldn't, but she just wasn't up for a long hike today, explains Eldo.) He's so kind, isn't he? When you have to watch your feet CONSTANTLY and worry about slipping and sliding loose rock, that kind of hiking is just not as enjoyable sometimes.

While we were at the top of the scenic Skyline Drive, we saw this yucca plant with the biggest bloom coming out. Wish we could see it at the height of its glory....The biggest blooming time in the desert comes in about two to three weeks during late March through April and we miss it every time! (Sparky does not want to be where it's getting HOT, says E.) This yucca to the right is called a mojave yucca.  Although peak blooming desert cactus time is a ways off yet, we were able to see some of the blooms and what they looked like at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, a few miles outside of Fort Davis. The main building was very beautiful inside with lots of information and a little store inside. Admission was 6.50.

This non-profit organization has a botanical garden on site, a mining exhibit, and a cactus greenhouse at the back of the trails that meander through a tremendous variety of cactus, desert shrubs and trees, all labeled so you can learn about the terrific variety of desert plant life. Sparky never knew there were so many different kinds of oak trees in the southwest! The cactus greenhouse had all very small specimens or "starts" of every kind of cactus you could imagine. And LOTS of the little teeny, tiny ones were blooming prolifically. There weren't any cacti taller than about 8", most were smaller. 

If you can imagine gigantic or ordinary sized cactus with these blooms on them, it must be a fantastic spring display all over the southwest. It's hard to even imagine all the beauty of the blooms at approximately the same time. WOWZA!

We had a short two day stay in Davis Mountains State Park, but we highly recommend it for a great break from technology and an immersion into nature. There were several really great trails at the state park, deer walking around, and the possibilities of seeing many different kinds of birds and animals if you were to stay more than just a day or two. There were a couple of restaurants recommended by the desert institute, but we didn't get a chance to visit any of them. Just ask the locals, they know where the best eats are!

Next we are headed to Lake Medina Thousand Trails in Lakehills, TX tomorrow for two days. We will see some friends that we met two years ago, Ken and Donna Grenier. We  manage to hook up with lovely friends we have met since going out on the road with a little finagling of our schedules. It's so great to see nice friends again while on the road! 

A quick aside....we pulled into our overnight RV park this afternoon and got settled at the Stadium RV Park in Sonora, TX, a great overnight stop if you need one. We were welcomed by a true Texan, cowboy hat and all by the name of Mike. He met us at the front of the park, guided us in and we were settled in a VERY level gravel site. Water hoses and sewer connections provided at no extra charge. Great internet and cell service (yay!) and a super nice, friendly, funny host. 

We had no neighbors for awhile, then a fifth wheel pulled in and parked behind us. While Sparky was doing some stuff around outside, the neighbor came over and said, "You won't believe this, but you were our neighbors at Fort Davis State Park."  !!! What a coincidence! We talked to them for quite awhile and talked all things RV and travel schedules. Nice to meet you Ernie and Julie! Two E's and two J's....(Ernie and Julie, Eldon and Jeannie). We both leave tomorrow for other locations, but it just goes to show, it really is a small world and you can make new friends anywhere you go...RVing people are really friendly and outgoing, we have found. we enjoyed chatting with them very much and hope our paths cross down the road....You never know!

Bye for now.....

Traveling to Texas

 Traveling Day.... Tucson to Las Cruces NM via I-10, overnight stop at Sunny Acres RV Park, 

site 48    Highs:  70's to low 80's, lows: 40's

We had a good hitch up Monday morning. A good hitch up is when all the slides come in ok, the jacks come up as they are supposed to, and Sparky gets the hitch on the RV to the right height to match the connector in the truck, and the truck backs right into the hitch with a resounding "CLANK" which means it connected soundly. Our goal was about 265 miles of driving which sent us along I-10 to Las Cruces.  I-10 was TERRIBLE as far as quality of pavement. We really shook, rattled and rolled as we went along until we got out of Arizona.

Luckily, we called a couple of parks ahead of time before finding one that could take us. Normally, there are a lot of parks to choose from on our way, but because of bad weather conditions in California and in the northern areas of Arizona, RV traffic has dropped further south, and people are on the move in early March anyway to get towards their summer destinations. Snowbirds are thinking about heading north back home wherever that may be. So a couple of parks said, "Sorry--we're totally booked and we are busier than normal." 

We found Sunny Acres RV Park in Las Cruces could take us and our big rig, no problem. A back in site, which CAN be a problem in many snowbird RV parks--usually meaning tight quarters and tight maneuverability, was the only slot they had. After a very difficult last back in spot a couple of camgrounds ago, Sparky was nervous about directing Eldo in again. NO WORRIES!

Sunny Acres had PLENTY of room to maneuver, and plenty of room between their back in sites towards the back of the park. It's a small park, about 78 sites but very lovely. There are pull thrus, but not very many. There were a lot of seasonal people staying there. There are TREES, which means there is SHADE, and birds--LOTS of mourning doves or white winged doves and other nice things--a porch with rockers at the laundry/shower house, for one. You also get a picnic table that might be covered in bird poop, haha. Don't say you weren't warned about all the doves!

They even had a nice pickle ball court! 

site 48

We were only here for one night, but we would have loved to have stayed longer, it was more like staying in a real campground instead of the usual stone/gravel, concrete pad snowbird parking lot. Even though there were beautiful amenities galore at the last park, the Voyager in Tucson, the standard sites were very narrow, and we never enjoyed staying outside our rig at our site much while we were there. No view except for your neighbor's rig or truck.This place is different. It's also great to be near a large city, Las Cruces has a population of over 112,000, so plenty of things to see and do there. BUT--we will have to wait for a longer stay to explore Las Cruces on our next trip back out west for the winter.

The drive on I-10 was rough in the beginning, rough bumpy pavement. Once we got closer to El Paso, it smoothed out. The infrastructure in El Paso is really beautiful and helps make the drive a little more enjoyable. The bridges and overpasses are really something!

We were off the next morning for Davis Mountains State Park in Fort Davis, TX. The GPS route out of Las Cruces, NM had us take I-10 to TX 90 South. Shortly after getting on TX 90, our GPS warned us that 4.5 hours had been added to our trip! We had no idea how such a delay could occur...train derailment? Road blocked due to rock slide? Fatal accident? We turned around and headed back to I-10 East. The GPS had us take route 118 into the Davis Mountains and into the state park. Big mistake! That was 50+ miles of curvy, winding, steep, two lane highway and a white knuckle drive for Eldy. Davis Mountain State Park is up in elevation at about 5,200 feet, so we were climbing most of the way. Eldo was watching his engine temps all the way besides watching for oncoming cars. You can see the many switchbacks on the map below. We didn't know. We were just following the GPS! The better route--(the MUCH better route to coming into the state park from the north would have been to exit at Balmorhea and head south down highway 17). 

This will be our first state park in Texas. State parks can be problematic for RVs over 40 feet. Some states really know how to be ready for today's larger RVs and with Texas, everything is bigger, right? Davis Mountains State Park is big rig friendly. They have FULL hookups, 50 amp electric and sites can be up to 60 feet long, but they do have a curve to them. The sites are also not level. You are in a mountainous valley, after all. Some people had a dickens of a time trying to get their rigs level. this is a big NO-NO, to have any of your tires off the ground and no support under them. Yikes!

Being in a mountainous area, there was NO cell service and NO internet, unless you drove down the hill to the little town of Fort Davis where you could get a decent signal. To be fair to the park, they did have a little bit of internet on their wifi network, but it didn't last long and it would fade in and out. There was NO CELL SERVICE at all with our AT & T. If you rode around the park, the office said you might be able to pick up a little signal here or there, but we didn't try it, we thought we'd unplug for two days. It was harder than we thought it would be, but a great challenge.

site 24 

We got fairly lucky with leveling our rig, and Eldo was able to get our rig on somewhat of an even keel. It took us awhile to do it, however. At each pull thru site, there is a covered ramada for shade and a nice metal picnic table. There's lots to tell about Davis Mountain State Park and the nearby area, so Sparky will save that for her next post. See you in the park and on the trails!