Our Thanksgiving Trip

I wrote this last Monday but we have been without Internet service all week so was unable to post until today.  It has been an interesting/exciting/depressing/expensive week.  I'll explain in a few days.

About our trip......

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the holiday in the woods at Martin Dies Jr. State Park. We left on the Sunday before Turkey Day and got home yesterday afternoon.

It was a great week and Connie and I really enjoyed our time away. I don’t think Sam enjoyed it quite as much as us. He had to be on a leash all week and that doesn’t sit well with him. He tried to chase an armadillo the first day and almost broke his neck.

My partners... The Boss and her shadow

We were almost completely alone the first part of the week but all that changed starting Tuesday night. By Thanksgiving morning the loop we were on was completely full except for two or three sites.

The people on one side of us were nice and very quiet even though they had two sites and lots of people. The people on the other side not so much. They also occupied two sites. At first there was one dog then there were three. None of them were on leashes. They wandered around, coming towards our site on occasion which always sent Sam running and barking. I don’t like hearing other people’s dogs barking so I won’t have mine doing it. When Sam tried to do what dogs do and defend his territory I had to put him in time out in the trailer.

Looking back on it I guess I should have complained to the park staff but I really don’t like doing that. I always expect people to follow the rules.  Stupid me thought they would see that their dogs were causing a problem and fix it.  If they did realize it they didn’t do anything about it. Next time I’ll just be an a-hole I guess.

Sam and Connie were up about six every morning. I like to sleep in a little when I don’t have any reason to get up early. No such luck with those two. We had coffee sitting outside each morning and planned our travels for the day. It was very pleasant sitting there looking at the lake and hearing the birds.

All bundled up on a cool morning

After breakfast each day we traveled around looking at properties for our future home base. Sam is a good road trip dog. He likes to sit on the back seat and look out the windows when we are on side roads or going slow. It almost seemed like he was as interested as us in checking out each area.

We saw lots of potential property. Some “possibles”, some “I don’t think so” and some “NO WAY IN HELL”. The absolute worst was about ten miles of dirt road into the woods. We crested a hill and came upon a little settlement of eight or ten shacks. All had trash and junked vehicles for lawn art. The people we saw all resembled each other. I don’t think they take kindly to strangers there. You could probably disappear real easy and your remains would never be found. We looked at each other and quickly turned around. I don’t think we will become residents of Whitetail Ridge anytime soon. I know the settlement name because the sign on one shack read “Whitetail Ridge VFD”.  I would have taken a picture but being unarmed I figured a quick escape was probably the smartest move.

We did see a few places that may need further consideration when we get a little closer to retirement. In the meantime we will continue exploring. I think the next area we will look at is further west, from Livingston to Conroe. Property there will probably be a little more expensive but you never know we may get lucky.

I don’t know how many miles we traveled in our exploring but we burned seventy-eight gallons of diesel not including the trips between the park and home.

Thursday Connie prepared a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Sam and I tried to help but we mostly just watched and taste tested. I was so full afterward I didn’t even build a campfire. We watched a movie and turned in early.  Every other night we had a campfire....

The weather was great for most of the week. We got a little rain Thanksgiving night but not enough to mess things up. Friday night it was supposed to get down to 28 degrees but I don’t think it got that low. There was heavy dew in the morning but no ice.

Sunday we woke up to a very cool trailer. It was about 50 degrees. The furnace had quit during the night. The blower comes on for about thirty seconds but the burner doesn’t ignite. I’m not sure what the cause is because I haven’t fooled with it yet. I hope it’s an easy fix.

I’m really having serious doubts about this trailer and by extension anything made by Keystone. Every time we go anywhere with it something breaks down. It really gets aggravating. I know the saying about RVs being rolling earthquakes but even that doesn’t excuse some of the things that have gone wrong. Poor quality and poor quality control explains all of it.

I don’t know when we will go camping again, probably after the new year. I hope we can steal away for a long weekend with the grand kids in January or February. Their schedules are so busy it’s hard to get a time when they are both available.

Here's a few pictures week took around our campsite...

Adios for now, enjoy life.

--Rod