Cataract Surgery Update and Lots More

Lake Conroe, TX.  Highs: 70's to low 80's, Lows: 40's-60's

Well-l-l-l...Sparky finally got her glasses after 6 weeks from the second eye surgery date. The far vision has improved somewhat with the glasses, but it's still an effort to try and focus on cars on the road. Sparky's vision has improved from total separate double vision of cars in front of her to sort of a ghosting image of cars, still sometimes double. Her eyes still struggle to make things clearer. Near vision prescription is incorrect, darn it, but because we are long gone from Indiana where the surgery was done, Sparky will have to get into an optometrist for another eye exam to get her bifocal glasses RX fine tuned. We are guessing that Sparky's vision continued to change after the prescription was set up at the one month surgery date so the glasses finalization is not quite right. To top it off, the doctor spotted the beginning of a "capsule" behind the lens of her right eye which will cause vision to gradually "cloud" until it can be lasered off, but that's a very simple and quick office visit. She hopes! Capsule formations are very common after cataract surgery, so Sparky is not too worried about that. We will have to wait till spring till we are back in the Elkhart area to have it done. It's just discouraging to continue to have visual acuity problems! On a more positive note, Eldy's eyes and prescription glasses are just fine! Yay! And he's the one who's blind in one eye!

Here's a little info about Thousand Trails Lake Conroe..It's very close to shopping , breweries, great restaurants, etc. in Conroe and the Woodlands. Easy exit off I-45 to get there. Its a BIG park, gated, with security, and getting bigger. The staff is super nice and very friendly and helpful. The park is currently under construction for new sites for both park models and RV sites. At present there are over 300 sites that vary in suitability for rigs of varying sizes. It is definitely big rig friendly. Many sites are shaded, many are not. The new section up front has fairly level concrete pads, yet some of the back in sites have a steep short ramp up to get into the site, making it difficult to get a longer rig level with all 4 wheels (or more) on the ground and/or bottoming out the rear end of the RV. The older sites towards the middle and back of the park are very unlevel so it can be difficult to level your rig. There is a big section in the middle near the tennis courts that are pull thru, but they are the kind where you are so close to your neighbor that both you and your neighbor's living areas face each other, so very little privacy. The interior roads are TERRIBLE, but we were told that all the roads will be improved once all the construction is well underway to being completed. We sure hope so!

Shower houses and bathrooms are very nice, above average for a campground.

You are charged 3.00 a day for 50 amp electric. Most people prefer 50 amp if you have two air conditioner units on an RV. We do, so we pay the extra so we don't have to worry about tripping a breaker. Many parks say if you are a 50 amp coach, you have to hook up to 50 amp service. They do NOT allow doggone converters. Those converters allow you to "downsize" your electric needs from 50 amps to 30 amps. What makes it worse is they allow smaller rigs that use 30 amp to stay in 50 amp sites, giving you fewer choices when you come in if you are a big rig. There is a beautiful pool (unheated) with really pretty seating areas around it.

There's a relatively new large laundry room. It's definitely a family friendly park, as there are LOTS of families who choose this park for a weekend destination or seasonal camping because of the pool, lots of activities for kids at the activity center, a nice basketball court, tennis courts, pickle ball courts and a small beach fronting Lake Conroe. 

new sections being added near the lake

There are  "tiny home" park model sections of the park and they are building another new park model section as well. A completion date has not been mentioned. Did we mention there is mini golf, a very nice playground, and a dog park there, too?

Near the Lyric Center, Houston

One of the activities that happened while we were here, was a visit to the Nutcracker Ballet in Houston, a Christmas present from Sparky's daughter. The ballet was held at the Wortham Center in downtown Houston. No photos allowed of the ballet performance, but the center itself was amazingly beautiful. There are several fine arts/theaters in the area all within blocks of each other.

The outside of the center has several photo op possibilities, so naturally we had to take advantage of that!

Sparky had never been to the ballet before, so it was quite a treat! The inside of the theater was gorgeous as well as the outside. Here we are ready to go inside the Wortham Center. Impressive door handles!

The entire outside of the building is very impressive as well.....

We went inside and there were wonderful treats awaiting you if you wanted to get a bite to eat, visit the popup souvenir shop, or just sit awhile and enjoy the sights and people around you before the performance. It was great to see most everyone very dressed up for the special occasion. Sparky had to try a bulgogi bowl which was absolutely delicious! (Beef, rice, seasonings, and veggies with cilantro. Yum!) They had cook while you wait pasta buffet, too, along with sandwiches and all kinds of drinks, but no food or beverages inside the theater itself. 

A beautiful holiday tree was on display and the crowds lined up to have a photo taken in front of it.....

We checked out the curtain just before the performance was about to start. Incredibly beautiful, is it not?

After spending 12 days here in Lake Conroe, TX and visiting Sparky's family, we are headed to Colorado River in Columbus, TX for about ten days. This is an on-the-way destination, making our way towards Tucson where we will be spending the Christmas holiday. We will see you down the road!

We Now Are In......Lake Conroe, TX

Lake Conroe, TX.   High: 81  Low: 68.  Site: G-57. FAST AT & T, FAST T-Mobile Hotspot

The Pinnacle has landed...In Lake Conroe, TX at the Thousand Trails Park Lake Conroe location. We love this park because: 1) It's a nice semi-wooded, shady park in the middle of civilization! (She means EVERY SINGLE STORE YOU WOULD WANT TO SHOP AT IS HERE NEARBY, within 10-30 minutes. Every single chain restaurant, specialty restaurants and every single craft store, it's all here, laughs Eldo.) Sparky is going to blow her food and discretionary spending budget within a very short period of time. (BUDGET???? She has a budget????? wonders an incredulous Eldo.) Uh, no comment. 2.) It's VERY close to Sparky's family, one daughter and grandson, who is growing up so fast. 3.) Sparky can still get some nice bike rides in on very wide residential sidewalks that run for miles near the TT park and go for a nice walk/short hike inside a small city park just down the road.

Now, the park itself has not the greatest interior roads...rutted gravel, with lots of potholes USUALLY, and the gravel sites for the RV's are not very level in a lot of sites, but we managed to get a decent one this time on the second try. The first try was in the new section which on first inspection looked terrific! Cement pads, wide lots, and highly desirable AFTER the summer months. (The concrete is HOT in the summer and you bake your rig and you on those sites in the summer.) The problem with some of the sites in there is that there is a pretty big concrete "ramp" up onto the concrete level pad. We started to back the fifth wheel up and very quickly Sparky realized the RV was going to bottom out on the inclined ramp, so she hollered at Eldy, "STOP! It's not going to work!" We pulled out of that section and started driving around the park. Thousand Trails doesn't assign you a spot, but sometimes they will name some spots that they think MIGHT be open. So you drive around towing your RV looking for a good site. And off we went. Thousand Trails has quite a few pull through sites, but they are the type that pair two sites together ("buddy" sites) so that when two units pull into their respective pull throughs,  their living areas are facing each other. So your front door faces their front door and the common area between the rigs has two picnic tables and the living area in the same "corridor" or space. 

It's a much tighter use of space and hopefully, you get nice neighbors because you'll be seeing a LOT of each other if you like to be outside. Normally, pull thru sites have the outdoor living areas all on the same side going all the way down the row, so you don't normally see your neighbor (unless you go over and talk to them) because they are using their living space on the opposite side of their rig just as you are using yours.  Hope that makes sense!

We found a decent site, a back in, and got leveled pretty quickly. (Your rig has to be level for the fridge/coolant to work properly). It has 4 landing jacks that come down and adjust up or down or from one side to the other side and from front to back to level the rig by pushing a button. If you've placed wooden blocks properly under the landing jacks, then two additional central stabilizing jacks come down to act as additional supports so you don't feel movement inside the rig when walking around. That's Sparky's job to place several wooden blocks in different combinations or the same number under each jack depending on how the rig is sitting on the site and if the site is level or unlevel.  If she has eyeballed it correctly, then ALL the jacks, all six of them come down. If she doesn't view the site and how the rig is sitting on it correctly, then the stabilizer jacks don't come down and we live with more movement inside than we like. And Eldy is one unhappy camper. That doesn't happen too often, thank goodness!

Thousand Trails Lake Conroe has a    beautiful big pool, (unheated, though), a nice laundry room,  nice showers/bathrooms and lots of great space to roam and play for families, nice cabins AND the beach down at the lake! It's a nice place!

What have we been doing for the weeks we have been here? A little bit of maintenance, among other things. We had our two air conditioners cleaned by 4 Girls Ranch maintenance service (next door to the park) and recommend them if you are in the park and need help with a problem in your rig. To no surprise to us, they told us that we had lots of Asian lady beetles up on top with quite a few stink bugs as well hiding out under the shroud cover of the AC. Yep, we are still vacuuming those little buggers every day and until now, have not wanted to use chemicals. BUT--the time has come! Those little buggers stink, and Sparky is tired of craning her neck and sucking them off the ceiling and screens with the heavy vacuum hose. We'll see if the spray works or not! Note: yes and no. The spray has a pleasant odor but you are not supposed to breathe it in. It took all afternoon with the fans blowing to air the rig out, and the ladybugs are still coming in, although not as many.  But the main thing is only SOME are dying, so Sparky is going to spray again, and we need try and get up on the roof to spray around the AC's to try and diminish the entry point interest they seem to have!

Grandson took this photo!

On another note...Christmas came and went. The park had some fun activities like a snowball fight with big fuzzy pom pom balls....Sparky and grandson had a great time!

Gotta love those special decorated cookies....

Gotta love a card game called Exploding Kittens......

Grandma sucks at Connect 4. Grandson won 5-1.

Sparky and Grandson are tied at Spiderman Monopoly, which is a cool game by the way.....

Eldo (Eldy) had a great time, too!

Eldy and his daughter Kristi

Eldo loves his pizza burgers, a family recipe that has LOTS of cheese in it and on it....

Eldo got to see his grandson's new car, too! Pretty snazzy!

The three weeks went by very quickly. It's almost time to go....We start planning in the next day or two for about an 1100 mile drive spread out over a few days to get to Tucson, Arizona, our next destination. We hope you have a blessed New Year and safe travels and visits wherever you are....

See you on the road again......

If You Don't Like the Weather...You Can Just....

 MOVE!!!! That's the nice thing about RVing...Well, we don't like the weather. Nope, not even Sparky. (WHA-A-A-T???? She's ready to move??? But Sparky, you LOVE LOVE LOVE the cold weather, and it might SN_ _ _. Sh-h-h-h-h..don't say the "S" word, Sparky might change her mind, says Eldo.)

Nah, she won't change her mind...It's cold and getting colder. Yes, Sparky has her winter coat, ear warmers and gloves and lots of cold weather clothes, but hey--her man has been suffering for months with far below normal temperatures and rain everywhere we've been--Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, S. Dakota (snow!), etc. etc. ENOUGH! says E. Let's move--SOUTH...After Sparky saw this week's arctic vortex heading towards Texas, she's ready to move further south. 

We thought temperatures would be reasonably around the fifties to sixties, even seventies, and yes, they have been, BUT NOT THIS WEEK and not for days in a row. TWELVE DEGREES AT NIGHT??? We are OUTTA here, three days early.

So, Sparky had her last grandson fix today. She helped with a one day home schooling break from regular school and thoroughly enjoyed working with her little grandson again for a few hours today. It's always hard to say goodbye to family, but we've had LOTS of time over the past couple of months in the Texas area where Sparky's daughter and grandson live, so it's been wonderful to be able to visit.

A few odds and ends and a bit of randomness...Sparky found a nice little park down the street from the Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Park for walking, if you don't want to walk on uneven, potholed gravel roads in the park. It's a little roadside rest area with one picnic table and a .5 walking trail that winds around a woods in the middle of a subdivision on both sides. Sparky walked almost daily once she found it, for three miles at a time. Music helps the monotony of doing the circle roundy/loop at the little park. Or talking to friends and family on the phone.

Check out the ranch gate entrances as you travel around Texas. We think it's sort of a status thing or just a matter of pride in their homes and ranches. Some are simple and elegant, others are ornate and FANCY. The gates are AMAZING and interesting! Most of them we are driving by too quickly to get a photo, but it would be very cool to assemble a bunch of photos of all the elaborate gates on ranches that can be seen in Texas and that mark the owner's property.

And on to pizza! (Sparky said this post was going to be random! laughs E.) Most of the pizza places deliver to your park site. Good luck to the poor drivers who come after dark. Even though the ranger station hands them a map, the site numbers are not illuminated, and it's super difficult to be found. (Ask us how we know, laughs E.) We ordered pizza one night and the pizza guy forgot to ask, and Sparky forgot to say, what number site we were at. The ranger station tells them about where to go in the park and Sparky gave him the site number after the fact, but the delivery guy was told the wrong section. An hour and a half later, Sparky and a wonderful neighbor next door, Nancy, were out in in the traffic lane, masked, waving our arms like crazy to the Papa John's driver, driving around lost, yelling, "OVER HERE, OVER HERE!" Bet that would make a driver nervous, seeing two masked women trying to wave him down. Well, maybe not now, during Covid. By the way, Nancy and Grif...hope you might be reading! (By the way, watch out when you get two retired school teachers RVing next to each other. They talk a mile a minute and could go forever! explains Eldo.) 

There's a First Watch at the Woodlands, a little bit of a drive-20 min., but great for a nice breakfast.   Sparky loves that place. Everybody masked up, spaced out and lots of hand sanitizer. And, we go very early. There are TONS of restaurants to choose from that aren't too far to drive if you hop on I-45. We just didn't enjoy all the traffic, which is for the most part, very well managed north of Houston. Watch out for the frontage road loop dee loops and U-turn lanes at the lights as you negotiate around the Houston area. They can be tricky for newbies to the area and to be in the right lane. (Ask spatially challenged Sparky how she knows, kids Eldo.)

There's an Amazon Hub Locker right next door at 4 Girls Ranch RV place, right next door to the park. If you want to order something on the smaller side, (Amazon has size restrictions on their website for hub lockers), you can pick the Amazon "Bicycle" Hub Locker in Conroe, TX and it arrives right next door to the Thousand Trails Park! (All their lockers have names). Easy to use, and fun! Contactless, you just have the locker scanner/reader scan your bar code on your phone, which comes in an announcement to you, and BAM! the locker door automatically swings open. (Sparky said BAM because the first time she used it, it almost hit her in the face, she was standing too close to the door. The doors open randomly so you don't know which one is going to open until it does.

When you are on I-45, check out the beautiful concrete detail on the bridges and overpasses north of Houston in the Conroe area. Beautiful concrete? Isn't that an oxymoron? Yes! Celery green inlays, pieced buttress supports, it's pretty, Sparky thinks. Couldn't get good photos, but they are definitely a step up from the usual boring all gray supports and bridges. 

We had ONE campfire...it was VERY windy the entire time we were here. Color flames courtesy of "sticks" or "cakes" that are sold at Camping World or Amazon. (Sparky is like a little kid with those things and would throw 2-3 sticks or packets on the fire if I let her, explains E.)

Now, where are we headed? Tomorrow, we are headed to the Rio Grande Valley for some Thousand Trails membership parks where the weather looks DECENTLY warm where we can stay for free again for three weeks at a time. Woo-hoo! More money in the budget for craft supplies....JUST KIDDING, Eldo! (No, she's not, retorts E. Good thing we have a mail forwarding service, she has to pay for shipping twice if she wants anything, besides the difficulty of timing a shipping delivery to the park directly depending on how long we are staying. That definitely helps cut down the flow of craft supplies..) Insert sad face emoji here, says Sparky. (Sparky is definitely ADHD, can you tell? laughs E.)

Bye, bye, Lake Conroe....Hello......Tropical Winds RV Park. We'll let you know how we like it in a few days... A new park/stop/area for us.