From the RGV to The Hill Country up to the Panhandle

I’m writing this from the KOA in San Angelo, Texas. We stopped here because of the cable television. We’ve been in Texas long enough now for Don to become a San Antonio Spurs fan. That’s NBA basketball in case you didn’t know. Then we stayed another day because it was too much effort to move. But today we will close the place up and move on up to Lubbock, Texas.

San Angelo is in the southern part of Texas Panhandle country. The land is getting flatter, with fewer trees and more arid than farther south. According to our neighbor who has lived many years here, this place has an ideal climate. It is far enough south to avoid the dust storms, tornados and blizzards that happen farther north in the panhandle. Days can get very warm but evenings cool off and the sun normally shines. Certainly while we’ve been here the weather has been great. But today we will go to Lubbock where the forecast is for much cooler weather today… only in the 60s but then it will warm up.

We left Palmdale, as planned, on March 29 and spent the night in Mission, Texas at the Wal-Mart during record heat for the area. This particular Wal-Mart is very popular among truck drivers so we were parked amongst them and we all ran our diesel generators in order to keep cool enough to sleep. Not a very pleasant experience. The next day, temperatures were right around 100 degrees. We dropped off the camper to be worked on at Border Engine and went back to McAllen to stock up on Costco purchases and Sprouts Farmers Market for granola ingredients. We went to Border Engine because they are an official Spartan chassis service center and we had some recall work to get done. They got it done by about 3:30 so we headed north in 100 degree weather, none too soon to leave the RGV (Rio Grande Valley).

Can't stay out of trouble even in storage!

We stayed at Country Side RV Park of South Texas in Falfurious TX, about 80 miles north. We were timing ourselves to meet up with brothers Ludwig and Dick in San Antonio.  We stayed there for 3 nights and I took a day to make granola. There was no cable except in the club house so we sat in their big comfortable furniture to watch the NCAA Final Four.  The most notable about this place was that the owners who took care of the place along with some of the winter residents really wanted us to make this our winter destination instead of Palmdale. We were not tempted. They are too far from the gulf of Mexico even though they are right next to a golf course.  I don’t think Sparky would do well there either. We left Sparky in Ray and Cyndi’s shed where he will stay until next December. We’ve had reports of some bad behavior. His mischief never ends even when he is in storage. Hopefully it will stop now that Ray and Cyndi have left Palmdale.

Winetasting in the Hill Country

On the River in San Antonio

We moved up to San Antonio on Sunday, 4/3 and stayed at Travelers World RV Resort which is the same place we stayed last year on our way south. We had just pulled into our site when I looked up and my two favorite bewhiskered brothers came walking down the street just in time to help us set up. Last time we were in San Antonio it was cold and rainy. This time we had perfect sunny weather and were able to cook and eat outside every night. Ludwig brought some wild rice picked from Rice Lake in Minnesota and we provided Red Snapper wild caught in the Gulf of Mexico and together we cooked up an amazing meal and ate at the picnic table. On Monday we toured the Alamo and took the obligatory boat tour of San Antonio’s famous River Walk.

Yes, the Blue Bonnets are as
beautiful as the Texans brag.

The State Capital

 It was nice enough after dinner to watch the Championship game on our outside TV. We made plans to spend another night in San Antonio but when I went to the park office, they told me that someone else had reserved our site.  Rather than move to another site, we decided to move. I found a place about 100 miles to the north near Buchanan Dam at Beachcombers RV Resort about 50 miles to the west of Austin so we moved up there. Texas Hill Country has a chain of about 5 lakes running from Buchanan Lake down to Lake Travis right outside of Austin. Needless to say, these lakes provide a lot of recreational opportunities for Austin residents. On Wednesday, we enjoyed wine tasting at 3 different wineries in the area and came home for steak dinner which we enjoyed with one of the bottles we purchased that day. Ludwig and Dick decided to leave on Thursday but before they left we all went to Austin to tour the capital building with them and learn a bit more about Texas history. We left them to find their way out of Austin at about 4:00 PM in Austin’s notoriously bad traffic up the I-35. They were needed back in Minnesota so Dick could get back to cooking for his daughter Colleen and her family who were reportedly getting hungry.

Beachcomber RV Resort - office & sty

We stayed a couple of more days at Beachcombers and found a good place to hike at a state park on the next lake down the chain and I got my laundry done. Then we came on up to San Angelo on Sunday.  It looks like today it will be warmer in Minnesota than it is in north Texas. Hang on to that weather for us because we will be there in a week or so.