2018 Winter in Texas

[JEBar]

our itinerary for this year's winter in Texas is as follows .... should any forum members happen to be in any of the areas we plan to visit we would be delighted to link up ....

1-11-18 ... Home to Heritage RV Park, Augusta, Ga (http://www.heritagervpark.com/) .... projected 282 miles / 4 hr 14 min .... reserved on 12-14-17

1-12-18 ... Augusta to Sherling Lake RV Park, Greenville, AL (http://www.greenville-alabama.com/Defau ... rling+Lake) .... projected 339 mi / 4 h 46 min .... reserved on 12-14-17

1-13-18 ... Greenville to Baton Rouge KOA, Denham Springs, LA (https://koa.com/campgrounds/baton-rouge/) ..... projected 314 mi / 4 h 26 min ... . reserved on 10-15-07

1-14-18 ... Denham Springs to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe, Willis Tx (https://www.thousandtrails.com/texas/la ... ng-resort/) .... 294 mi / projected 4 h 46 min

1-14-18 to 1-29-18 ... at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Campground

1-29-18 ... Willis to Thousand Trails Colorado River Campground, Columbus, TX (https://www.thousandtrails.com/texas/co ... ampground/) .... projected 117 mi / 1 h 45 min

1-29-18 to 2-19-18 ... at Thousand Trails Colorado River Campground .... at this point we will be the furthest west .... projected 1,349 miles / 19 h 57 min from home .... historically supplementary running around adds hundreds of additional miles

2-19-18 ... back to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Campground .... projected 117 mi / 1 h 45 min

2-19-18 to 3-12-17 ... at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Campground

3-12-18 ....Lake Conroe.. to to Baton Rouge KOA, Denham Springs, LA.... 294 mi / 4 h 45 min .... reservation made

3-13-18 .... Denham Springs to Eagle's Landing RV Park, Holt, Florida (http://www.eagleslandingrvpark.com/index.html) .... 271 mi / 3 h 57 min

3-14-18 .... Holt, FL to Dreamland RV Park, Douglas, Ga (https://www.dreamlandparks.com/) .... 294 mi / 4 h 34 min

3-16-18 ....Douglas, Ga to Home .... 6 h 45 min / 433 miles

[CT_Shooter]

Happy Trails, Jim. Enjoy the winter and be safe.

[Sir Henry]

Have fun.

[JEBar]

day one is in the books .... no heavy rain but misty to the point that our camper and truck are as grimy from road spray as I have ever seen them .... it was 58 degrees when we pulled out of the yard and 74 when we pulled into tonight's campsite .... all in all, today'sdrive went well, 304..5 miles covered in 5 1/2 hrs ..... we filled our truck at the Latta, SC Flying J where we also filled the propane tank that we've been running off of since Thanksgiving .... light to medium light traffic today, no doubt that will end tomorrow because we have to drive through Atlanta .... the only real mechanical issue of the day came from having to pull over twice because our Pressure Pro tire monitoring system was going nuts showing high tire pressures .... we anticipated that probability because the tires were aired up during much cooler temps .... unless the temp goes way up or way down during this trip, we should be good to go .... tomorrow we gain an hour when we cross from the Eastern to the Central Time Zone .... I've already reset my Timex ...

[GFK]

I guess someone is retired. Have fun!! That is something that I have been speaking with my wife about. But, she seems to have a hard time thinking about trading in a house for a RV/camper. I have a hard time thinking about letting a house sit for months at a time not being used. She wants a place for the grandkids to visit a few weeks out of the year. I think the grandkids would enjoy summer trips on the road. Plus, we could save for a small cabin somewhere for when we are older. Everything is going back to dust anyway. Might as well do what you can, with what you got, while you can. Traveling seems fun. Who knows, I may have enough after the first month though. But, I would not mind finding out

[JEBar]

we are both retired .... I'd go full time in a heartbeat but my wife will not .... what has worked well for us for the last 10 or so years has been to spend about 6 months a year traveling .... Spring and Fall back home in NC .... summer at her home area in South Dakota .... winter in Texas .... that way we are home during the nicest parts of the year and on the road when its pretty dang hot or cold .... our daughter looks after our home while we are away, that works really well for us .... in addition, we have visited all of the lower 48 states .... one of our biggest regrets is we didn't (actually couldn't) travel more back when our kids were at home .... for us it has been a really good experience, we've met some really fine folks, made some really good friends and seen some really beautiful/interesting places

[GFK]

NC seems nice. That is where we are thinking about relocation to. For years, we would take Summer trips to the Smokey Mountain area. Yes, it would be crowded. But, it is a very relaxing area. Interesting enough, one Christmas trip started our yearly Summer trips. We were head through Tennessee, when ice on the roads forced us to spent a night somewhere. We ended up in Gatlinburg. The town was packed. It seemed like a lot of people was spending Christmas there. It was a nice town (Christian theme everywhere). It was where my wife educated me about the artist Thomas Kinkade (there was a studio that displayed his work there). The kids enjoyed town, so we start gong to that area about every year. They are older now, but the grandkids may like it. Unfortunately, our children are not currently at a point to watch our place. One is planning to start PA school, and the other one is still finding her way. So, we figure the best plan is one that does not rely on the kids for now. That is why relocating or RV/camper seem like decent options. But, relocating seems to have the lead for now.

[JEBar]

65 degrees with a heavy mist when we broke camp and left Augusta, GA this morning ..... the temp fell pretty steadily throughout the day, its 42 as this is being typed.... the mist turned to heavy rain that fell off and on during today's 5 hr, 355 mile drive .... with one exception, fairly light traffic .... the exception was going around Atlanta, enough said .... we are now in Sherling Lake Campground in Greenville. AL ===> http://www.greenville-alabama.com/Defau ... rling+Lake .... they are calling for it to get down to 29 tonight .... breaking camp in the morning is gonna be pretty dang cool .... topped off the truck's fuel tanks at a Pilot just south of Atlanta .... 8.9 mpg, the fuel we took on at Latta must have been B20 diesel .... our truck really doesn't like that blend ..

[JEBar]

day 3 .... following a 332.4 mile drive that took us 5 hrs 50 minutes we are once again setup at the Baton Rouge KOA .... at $55.70 (with our KOA discount) it is the most expensive CG we are scheduled to visit on this trip .... it is a mile off of I-12 and located at an almost perfect location that fits nicely into our daily travel limits .... its supposed to get down to 23 tonight, that's really cold for this part of the country .... while breaking camp this morning I broke our camper's Marinco 50 Amp 125V and 125/250V Power Inlet ===> https://www.amazon.com/Marinco-125V-250 ... P7TY5&th=1 .... while driving down I-12 I happened to see Steve's RV ===> http://www.stevesrv.com/ <=== and made a split second decision to exit stage right, that got my wife's attention .... not a good thing .. .. it turned out to be a nice mom and pop RV dealership .... I really appreciate their parts store, they had the exact replacement Power Inlet at half the price of Amazon ....the only question now is will I wire it into the camper or have a mobile tech come by and take care of it while we are at Conroe ..

[BigAl52]

I like south Texas. If I can get the wife out of her business this year who knows Jim I might be able to join you one day in Texas. Ive spent some time at Port Aransas and loved it. Ive also spent time on the gulf south of Houston that I liked. Happy Trails.

[JEBar]

Al, that would be great .. .. today's drive from Baton Rouge to Lake Conroe took 5.5 hrs and covered 308.2 miles .... as we are parked right now, we are 1,304.1 miles from home .... this CG is almost full, there weren't any sites available in the section where we normally park .... after 4 consecutive days of driving, we decided to hook up the utilities and let the rest of our setup go until tomorrow .... if the forecast is correct, tonight will be our first of the trip where it doesn't reach subfreezing temps .... big deal, they are calling for an overnight low of 33 .... its slated to be cool/cold all week with a major warmup on Saturday .... its all good, we are really happy to be back in Texas .

[JEBar]

day 1 at Conroe has been anything but relaxing .... a major cold front is on the way, one that is slated to bring several nights of subfreezing temps .... first on tap was a trip to Walmart to restock after 4 days on the road .... with rain/ice/snow on the way, I needed to replace the broken power inlet mentioned above .... having never messed with one of these power inlets, replacing it was a learning experience .... hopefully, the lessons learned will never be needed again ... ... also in prep for the coming cold, we prepared the camper's holding tanks and setup our deck .... once this front moves through we hope to complete our setup ...

[BrokenolMarine]

Holt, FL. I lived there once... as a kid in the late 60s. My stepfather's last name was Holt, so it was kinda funny. The town was so small then, I expected them to change the population on the sign. IIRC, this was the small town where I went to school in a big two story brick school house, but they just used two classrooms. K-6 was in one room taught by the principal's wife. 7-12 in another taught by the principal. His mom and aunt cooked the school lunches, his dad maintained the building. The food was great. I actually loved that school, because those folks loved every one of the kids, you could tell.

Stepdad was a member of IBEW, and they were building towers across Florida to carry power lines. He ran a crew. A prep crew moved ahead of them placing footings. We moved ever time his drive to tower sites got to be more than thirty to forty-five minutes. Too long a drive, we moved ahead of the power line path forty five minutes. I went to NINE schools that year.

[JEBar]

its cold and icy in Conroe ..... right now 27 degrees (it is supposed to drop all day) with some pretty strong wind gust .... conditions of the road is unclear and there is no way I have any interest whatsoever going down the steps to try and find out .... the record low for this date is 22 degrees and was set back in 1979 .... windchill shown in upper single to low double digits .... they are calling for it to get down to 17 degrees tonight .... our camper is pretty well covered with ice, pictures of a couple of windows are shown below

[JEBar]

yesterday we had a Vornado electric heater go down .... we take 3 of them when we travel during the winter .... one used in the camper's bedroom, one in the living area, and one in the "basement" storage area where it protects our tanks and other plumbing .... they come with a solid 5 year warranty .... later today we should receive an emailed return label .... a replacement heater should delivered by Amazon on Friday, we will use its box to send back the defective heater .... with it going down we had to run our camper's furnace last night and anticipate doing so again tonight .... the campground water is still off and I bet it will be down for most of tomorrow as well .... an ice maker water line in a Montana near us froze and burst .... that I know of, two other campers have had outdoor shower valves burst .... I suspect that when some folks who long term leases come back, the mobile repair crews will be busy .... we were able to leave the CG for a drive to Conroe's Walmart .... we picked up a couple of gallons of drinking water and a few other items that should take care of us for at least a couple of days .... thankfully, no more participation is in the forecast .... we have gotten word that snow is really coming down back home ....

[RetiredSeabee]

Yep it started this morning around 8 and dropped a couple of inches in two hours. By 5 pm we had 4 inches. It stopped for a couple hours then started up again.
The grocery stores are cleaned out of bread, milk, eggs, and toilet paper.

[JEBar]

its supposed to get down to 17 tonight at our location in Texas .... its supposed to get down to 15 tonight back at home in NC .... one of the reasons we choose to spend the winter in Texas is to get away for the cold back home .... yep and its working , we are supposed to be 2 degrees warmer tonight ..

[JEBar]

the temp has risen to 30 degrees and happiness is a working campground water system .. .. as a precaution that we hope we won't need, we have refilled the camper's fresh water tank .... my wife has the first load of laundry going and I suspect the washer and dryer will be running most all day .... under the old "It's a small world" category, we are in Texas and while I was out this morning working on getting the water hooked up, I spoke with a couple who live about 20 miles from us back in NC .. .. they are calling for it to get up to 43 with a Real Feel of 50 .. .. no plans to leave the campground today but do plan to deliver two of our Henry rifles and a couple of shotguns to a gunsmith tomorrow .... our Henry BBS 44 Mag and CCH 45-70 are going in for trigger work and the shotguns for recoil suppression .... I'm already looking forward to getting them back in a few weeks

[JEBar]

as noted, this morning we are taking 4 long guns to a Texas gunsmith we've come to rely on .... he needs to work his magic on two shotguns to help with reduction of felt recoil .... one of the shotguns is a youth model 20 ga pump that we gave to our oldest son back in 1989 .... our son wants it worked on to have it ready for his son (6 months old) .. .. actually, I think he is concerned about how many more years we will be able to come to Texas for the winter and wants to make sure it gets taken care of .. .. the Henry rifles travel with us everywhere we go, this will be their first time they won't be readily at hand since they were purchased .... in addition, we hope (as has become our tradition) to do some Christmas shopping for my wife .... looks like it should be a really good day ...

[JEBar]

I'm so happy to be able to say, its been a beautiful day in the neighborhood .. .. 74 degrees, put my jeans in the dirty clothes hamper and took a pair of shorts out of the closet .... per my wife's Fitbit watch our morning walk through the campground covered something over 3,500 steps .... in the late afteroon as we were grilling a South Dakota steak a series of showers passed through .... none dumped very much rain and passed quickly .... tomorrow we have to take a Vornado heater to the Willis UPS store to send it back for warranty repair .... gladly there isn't any really cold temp in the forecast but that most certainly can change .... I managed to get some knives sharpened today that I've been wanting to take care of for a good while .... I hope to get a some more sharpened over the next few days .... with the absence of freezing temps in the forecast, we added a water softener to our hookup .... that setup is now complete