Home Sweet Home

The blog this trip seems to always be a few days behind, and this entry is no different.  We got home late Thursday afternoon and today is Sunday and I'm finally wrapping things up.  The thing is, once we get home, all the usual home stuff like grocery shopping, returning calls and paying bills starts up and the trip fades a bit.  Then there was that whole sump pump issue....but more about that later.

We left Texas and broke up the trip with a stop at a truly amazing state park in Louisiana called Poverty Point Reservoir.  The park was created when a waterway was dammed (damned?) in 2001 so it's pretty new with big, wide roads and lots of amenities.  We had a huge pull-thru site in a meadow with only 5 other sites and all of them were empty.  It was like we had a park to ourselves.  We happily could have stayed longer, but we were on our way home and people were expecting us.

Big cabins available for rent at Poverty Point - sort of like Tahiti in Louisiana

We crossed from Louisiana into Mississippi and picked up the Natchez Trace for the ride north to Tupelo.  It's the same route we took south a month earlier, but going the other direction.  It's a great ride, little trafficked and very scenic.  The roadsides were full of red and yellow flowers and the trees were almost totally leafed out.

Crossing the river on a nice, wide bridge

Driving the Natchez Trace

We spent the night in Tupelo at the great campground that welcomed us on the way down.  There's some comfort in repeating a route and knowing where to stop and where to eat.  There's less adventure that way, but when we're focused on getting home, it is nice.

Speaking of eating...back at the Neon Pig in Tupelo for great food and atmosphere

We got to Red Bay and checked in with Tiffin and started the packing process for coming home in the car.  We take all the food items out of Chuck and bring them home to discourage vermin from taking up residence while he's parked.  We also have a fair amount of dirty laundry, the computers, iPads, bikes and of course Beanie and his litter box and supplies.  Somehow we manage to completely fill the car every time.

Chuck and his brethren lined up at Tiffin

We got a late start out of Red Bay on Wednesday, and hadn't been able to find a room anywhere near Paducah or even Marion, IL.  There was a big quilt and fiber show and every room for 100 miles was booked so we reserved a room  for the night in Effingham, IL, about 7 hours away,.  We were about an hour out of Red Bay, near Corinth, MS when Beanie started to pitch a fit, yowling and meowing and generally acting out of character.  He rides in his big carrier, usually quietly, but something was bothering him.  Thinking he had failed to "go potty" when we told him to as we were packing up, we pulled over off the highway and unearthed his litter box from the back of the car, rearranged the back seat so it could sit next to him and let him out of his carrier.  He ignored it so we stuffed him back into his carrier, repacked the car and then realized that the hatch on the back wasn't latching.  Somehow the alignment was off and and the back of the car would not close and hold.  Crap.  We started digging around for rope or anything to secure it, coming up with a cat leash as our best alternative, but it wasn't a good alternative with the back full to the brim and bikes on the carrier on the back.  It was more like.potential disaster. 

Then we saw it....just 100 feet away.....an auto body shop.  They couldn't have been nicer.  Two guys, half an hour, some serious tools, raw muscle, ingenuity and couple of shims and the hatch latched.  They didn't want to take any money, claiming it was just "southern hospitality" but Robin slipped them a bill and we headed out,  Beanie was suddenly completely quiet.  Now, I'm not claiming that Beanie was doing his Lassie impression ("Timmy is in the well!"), but I'm pretty happy he made us stop and find the latch.  Even if it hadn't failed along the road, it would have really sucked to discover the problem at 9pm when we pulled into Effingham and unloaded at the hotel.

Prairie clover turning the roadsides pink in MS and AL

Thursday morning we were on our way for a quick 4 hour drive home.  The car was barely unpacked  when Robin heard a loud noise from the basement.  The sump pump had blown a hose clamp, luckily one in the sump so the water didn't go too far and it was an easy fix, but it was a reminder of the hazards of being gone for long periods of time.

Beanie and the the bags waiting outside the hotel in Effingham

So we're back into our routine now and planning the next trip.  Stay tuned.

Leaving Texas

Friday was our last day to tour the Hill Country so we put it to good use; we found another winery.  It was a beautiful day, a lovely setting, a nice woman pouring.   And yes, the wine tasted good also, so I think we showed restraint when we bought only two bottles. 

Event space at the winery

In our drives around the Lake Travis area, which is northwest of Austin, we kept encountering "Hamilton Pool Rd.".  Of course the inquisitive navigator had to know what the Hamilton Pool was so after some research and reading, she decided it was a "must see" site.  The location confounded all the GPS systems and the freebie winery map wasn't very helpful, but after a hour or two of roaming around, we found the county park containing Hamilton Pool.  The helpful gate guard told us that swimming was currently prohibited due to debris from the flash flood but took our money and told us we had one hour until the park closed. 

After parking the car, we headed down the trail.  The trail signs read, "steep grade" and "rocky trail" and "hike at your own risk".  What's the opposite of intrepid?  Your trepid travelers stopped about 1/3 of the way down the hill to consider our options.  The going had been slow.  Really uneven ground, loose rocks and bum knees were making this look like a not-so-great idea.  But the internet reviews and photos had been pretty cool.  What to do?  Give up? Turn back?  Ask Mikey, he'll eat anything.  Ask Katie, she'll go anywhere!  Yes, we agreed I'd take the camera ("If you drop it, don't bother coming back!") and continue the adventure.

On the trail

I scrambled my way down, and indeed, it was worth the trip.  A natural grotto carved out of the rock filled with spring water and runoff from nearby streams.  It was beautiful and cool because you could walk all the way around it and view it from all sides.   Hopefully the pictures below and captions give you some idea of this magical place.

The pool and overhang

Looking back towards the trail

 

 

 

 

Note the turtle on the flood debris. A bigger deterrent to swimming was the water moccasin floating near the turtle.

Note the people standing on the beach across the pool.

So after taking the photos, I clambered back up the hill, safely returned the camera and lived another day. 

We pulled out of the Austin area on Saturday morning and landed at a great KOA campground in Rusk, TX, only 150 miles west of Shreveport, LA.  We were both surprised by the beauty of northeast Texas - lots of hardwood trees and hills.  It honestly felt a little like "up north" Wisconsin.  The town of Rusk is famous(?) for the longest wooden footbridge in the world.  All 450' of it were initially constructed in the 1800's to keep ladies skirts out of the muck as they traveled from south Rust to downtown Rusk.  It's been rebuilt and restored and still functions today.

The Rusk footbridge

 

 

Dinner was our last Texas BBQ - ribs and brisket and all the fixins' and then we called it a night.  This morning we left Texas and drove across most of northern Louisiana to an amazing state park called Poverty Point.  More about that and photos next post.  It looks like we may be home by Thursday.  Please melt all the snow by then and have some flowers blooming.

See you soon.

Catching Up

Busy days and bad internet have kept me from updating you faithful readers for a while, but I'll try to catch you up to date.

It’s been a (happily) uneventful 5 or 6 days as we’ve continued to explore the Hill Country.  We spent a couple of nights in a nice private RV park outside Kerrville and another couple of nights in Inks Lake State Park near Lake LBJ and Lake Buchanan.  We then pointed Chuck’s nose north and east.  Eventually we'll work our way to Red Bay and home.  We are dragging our heels a bit though, we only drove 68 miles yesterday and are here on the north side of Austin, near Lake Travis, for 2 nights.

These lakes in this area are interesting.  They’re the result of dams across major rivers and in some cases are huge.  Yet, the effects of the drought are visible in low waterlines and sand bars sticking up in the middle of some lakes.  Even on the smaller rivers, dams and spillways are frequent and one property may be on the shores of a luxuriant lake, yet a quarter mile downstream the neighbor is facing a dry creek bed and between them is a dam.  Who controls the water and the history of all this keeps us wondering.  Some research may be in order when time and good internet access are more available.

Marble Falls, TX

Our favorite town so far is probably Comfort, TX, which is down the road from Welfare, TX.  There has to be a story there we haven't discovered yet.  Comfort is really small and really historic and its downtown very well preserved.  There’s good food there and a nice vibe.  We managed to eat two meals in one day there, we liked it so well. 

Original gas station, now authentic Italian wood-oven pizza place - lunch in Comfort.

 

The Plaid Goat-dinner in Comfort.  Note the neat fountain in the stock tank.

 There’s a memorial in town to the 65 German immigrants who chose to be “True to the Union” during  the civil war and were killed or driven out of town only to drown trying to cross the Rio Grande River.  Years later their families reburied them all together at the site of this memorial which is in German.  The 36-star American flag flies permanently at half-staff here.  Yes, I feel my people here.

"Treue Der Union" memorial in Comfort

1850's building restoration-downtown Comfort

West of Kerrville there are some dramatic hills, plateaus and gorges.  Also, it seems, a major industry is exotic game ranches where gazelles and antelope native to Africa and other places are raised and hunted.  I find it a bit disturbing….so called “canned hunts”, but it makes for interesting viewing through  the 12’ fences.

So yes, thoughts turn to home, but in the meantime, enjoy the Robin’s photos of the Hill Country.

By The River RV Park near Kerrville

Robin says gardening will be difficult here in Sunrise Beach, TX

View from the windshield in Kerrville.

West of Kerrville

 

 

 

 

 

Lizard seen, possibly a whip-tailed skink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoo...

…is oops spelled backwards, and we hope we’ve reversed our unlucky/inept trend.

After dropping the iPad (really Beanie knocked it on the floor but we try not to point fingers here in Chuck) and jamming a slide, we took a day off to tour more of the hill country including Fredericksburg, where we stumbled upon Der Kuchen Laden http://www.littlechef.com/  quite possibly the best kitchen supply store I’ve ever seen in North America…and I’ve seen a few.   Robin was circling the block waiting for me so I had to shop fast and despite the fact that I used to swear I don’t need any more kitchen stuff, outfitting Chuck has opened up new opportunities.  $50 and 20 minutes later I was done, and it’s well worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Thursday we girded our loins to try to fix the iPad.  Many on-line posts tout successes using guitar picks, jeweler’s screwdrivers and hairdryers.  We had none of those things but improvised and patiently worked away for about 2 hours until……

….crack!  Yep, cracked the screen.  Much dismay, sadness and depression.  More wine!  A quick search showed an Apple store in San Antonio, about 50 miles from our next stop so we made a plan, went for a bike ride, had a nice dinner and called it a night.

seen on our bike ride...he put his ears back and threatened to spit if we got any closer...llama drama

Dinner cooking at the old homestead

Friday at the crack of noon we left Blanco State Park.  It’s a lovely park and we hated to leave but the state parks fill up on the weekends and we hadn’t reserved it early enough to stay any longer.  Happily the damaged slide slid in without a problem.  That was a good omen.   

Chuck crossing the skinny little bridge leaving Blanco State Park

We drove about 90 miles southwest to a great private park in Kerrville, TX.  We have a riverfront doublewide site and are here for at least 3 nights.  

So after setting up Friday afternoon, we headed into San Antonio and the Apple store. 

Mecca!

 With much trepidation we approached the 12 year old tech (ok, she was probably older, but really, these are children working there), shamefacedly opened the case, showed her the cracked/shattered screen and, with quaver in our voice asked, “we had an oops, what are our options?”.  “Oh, no problem” she said, “we can replace it for $250”.  “The whole thing?”   “Yes, identical”.  Wow, that was pretty good.  Actually, really good.  Sure, it was $250 we hated to spend, but much better than buying a brand new one.  Somewhere Apple has a secret stash of 2^nd generation, probably refurbished iPads that they sell you when you break yours.  In 30 minutes we had re-created the old one using the iCloud and were out the door to a celebratory dinner.

YippeeSkippee. 

Happy Dinner

Wineries, State Parks and One Little Oops

We spent a day wandering around researching Texas wine.  Yes, they make wine in Texas.  After starting at a neat tasting room/gift shop in Wimberley, we hit the backroads, found a couple of wineries and had a few tastes.  None of the wines really knocked our socks off, but it was a nice way to spend the day.

View of vineyards from Driftwood Winery

neat looking squirrel at the winery

After 5 nights at the campground outside Dripping Springs, we had a travel day ahead.  Or at least a travel hour or two.  We made reservations at Blanco State Park, in Blanco, TX, just 25 miles from our site at Dripping Springs.  The only thing almost as good as long stays in one place are short travel days.  The morning got off to a rocky start we realized that during the night, Beanie had knocked my iPad to the floor and the impact dented the case enough that the volume icon is always on now and the volume button doesn’t work.  A quick Google search turned up many incidents of this and many successful repairs.  We decided to defer the job until later and packed up.

We were on the road at the crack of 11:15am.  Feeling pretty smug about our short drive and previous visit to Blanco, we eschewed all navigational aids and relying only on Google directions, promptly got lost in downtown Blanco.  Well , not really lost since it’s a very small town, but found ourselves parked on a side street unsure the route to park.  Finally, using the map on the park’s website, we got there, checked in and started getting settled.  We’ve done this enough now that the routine is pretty smooth.  Connect power and water.  Drop the jacks and level the coach.  Extend the slides one at a time.  Here comes the little oops….

Unnoticed, a drawer behind the big living room slide had come open while we were driving.  Hidden behind the slide while the slide was in, we didn’t see it and started extending the slide.  The slide caught the drawer, pulling it perpendicularly to its usual direction of travel until we heard a big crack and stopped the slide.  The drawer was jammed sideways, the slide frame was bent and piece of wooden trim inside the coach was halfway detached from the frame.  Worse yet, the slide was jammed against the drawer and could move neither forward nor back.  Crap.  Actually stronger language was used, but you get the drift.  After some study we were able take action.  Using brute force, the drawer was shoved back into its spot far enough that we could move the slide, especially after removing the drawer pull. 

Obstruction removed, we got the slide all the way and surveyed the damage.  The drawer is a goner.  The slide needs frame and trim repair.  But all seems functional.  

Rosebud Cafe in Blanco

We went into Blanco for a comforting lunch at the local café and then back to Chuck for naps and recovery.   

A beer flight-the important part of lunch

Not exactly the relaxing day we had hoped for, but, as always, it could have been worse.

Now we’ve planned a new route home via Red Bay, AL.  Our friends at Tiffin will surely have a spot for us and again we can leave Chuck for repairs.  Oh yeah, we still have to fix the iPad.  Every day is an adventure….whee!

Bridge over the Blanco River leading to our campsite.  Yes, we drove Chuck over it.  Whee!