Miles and Miles of Texas

Since we had another day like yesterday (with a few more clouds) we actually got ourselves out of the house and practiced pickleball for an hour or so.  After lunch we hopped the bike for a tour around the area.  We started in the historic down town area of Columbus.  Once again we crossed the Colorado River.  

I included this because Duane remarked that between this bridge and the one in La Grange, there is no other way to cross this river except by boat or foot.

Columbus isn't to be outdone by La Grange when it comes to courthouses.

This sign and the next are the ones above.  Fee free to learn your Texas history by reading all of the signs. 

 Click on any picture to make them bigger.

 We cruised around the courthouse square reading and taking pix.

This is the building on the right above.  You can see from one into the other.

Across the street

(Courthouse on right)

Some of the old down town buildings

These next two buildings were a couple of blocks away

 In case you are wondering where the title of this blogs comes in, we left Columbus and rode about 30 miles in a circle north, then west, then south back to the rv park (which is about 5 miles from Columbus).  We saw spring everywhere--green grass, green trees, flowers.  The best were the smells--honeysuckle, and freshly cut grass.

These next three pix are just reminders of where we are.  Can you name them?

Not a very tough quiz today:  The Texas State Flower, the Texas State Flag, the Texas State Varmint.

Hope you had as much fun as we did,

Louise and Duane

More Goofiness

Since this was another beautiful sunny day, we decided to do laundry and to go to the store again!  Duane needed to get a prescription filled so we hopped the bike for the Wal-Mart Superstore in La Grange.  Not sure but I think this is the La Grange from the ZZ Top song.  The sun was hot, the breeze was cool, the sky was blue, the flowers blooming.

 In La Grange we crossed the Colorado River again.

The town was founded in 1858.  At that time it was common for a town to want to be known as a pleasant, safe, law-abiding place to live.  The founders would hire a renowned architect (the best they could afford) to design their courthouse as a statement to that effect.    

The original downtown area

We had a very pleasant ride, the first we attempted since we arrived here on Wednesday.  The wind on the previous two days has been rather fierce, but today it calmed to a pleasant breeze.  After we returned we relaxed a bit.  Duane has been reading Nick Russell's newest Big Lake book.  Nick is a full-time rver and publisher of the travel newspaper The Gypsy Journal.  He is also a pretty good who-dunnit writer.  We especially enjoy his Big Lake series.  I put away groceries and spent some time with Louis L'Amour--The Quick and The Dead.  After a bit we rousted ourselves to walk up the hill and bat around the pickleball for some exercise.  While we were there another couple showed up and we enjoyed a few games.  Unfortunately, they are leaving tomorrow.  O well.  

Since this entry is short I will include some information Duane found about the big cannon in the Quintana County RV Park.  It was part of the Temporary Harbor Defense Freeport during WWII.  There was another battery emplacement, 5 splinter-proof magazines, a plotting room, and a Battery Command Station.  Other structures included 46 six-man huts, 2 fifteen-man huts, a mess hall, supply room, recreation building, dayroom and a motor repair shed.  THD Freeport safeguarded the area's magnesium, sulfur, and petroleum industries and protected shipping from the Brazos River against attack from surface vessels and German U-Boats.  The Defense was constructed in 1942 and inactivated in 1944 because implementation of a convoy system along with aircraft reconnaissance eventually make the local defense works unnecessary.  

Be sure to tune in again tomorrow for more fun.

Louise and Duane

Such A Beautiful Day!

It was!  But not this morning.  A cold front blew in a thunderstorm or two and we woke to a chilly, windy, wet day.  We messed around in our jammies until 10 before the day started to look decent.  We decided to go outside and do something.  We jumped into the truck and headed for Katy, TX and the Costco.  We decided that the labyrinth of  a highway system that they have there is quite ridiculous.  The criss-cross of roads has an access road on each side, but the roads only go one way.  We missed our exit and had to go a couple of miles further before we could exit and turn around.  The architects of the roadway fiasco even messed up the u-turn lane.  When you exit in the u-turn lane you do it to get right back onto the highway.  At Katy, the u-turn lane has to yield to all traffic--including the left turning traffic that didn't use the u-turn lane!  Yeesh!  At last we got turned back around and found the Costco.  $300 later we exited with out 6 month supply of dark chocolates and some superfluous things like meat, health items, and a healthy alternative to soda.  After all that shopping (and the required grazing--you Costco and Sam's Club people know what I'm talkin about) we were hungry.  We went in search of a Texas Roadhouse and actually found it!  Unfortunately, it was one of those that opened at 4pm.  We settled for Firehouse Subs.  Back home we stopped at the entrance of the park for these pix of longhorns.  The heavy ones are on a Watusi (we think).  

After we got stuff put away and rested a bit, we decided to take a walk around the park and take some pictures of the amenities.

A pix of our house.  I think we already had one of these in an earlier blog, but this one shows the beautiful blue sky and green, green grass.

An extension  of the view past the truck.

One of the attractions of the park is its proximity to the Colorado River.  Today we saw this herd of cattle come down for a drink.

18 hole mini golf course among the pecan trees.  The little posts hold lights for night time games.  The greens were new and the course was in top notch condition.  

We think this used to be a basketball court.  Now it is a big fire circle with small grills around the perimeter.

New pickleball court

New basketball court with grass volleyball/badminton court behind it

Small but nice swimming pool--it was open, too.  In the building behind it were changing rooms, restrooms, showers and in the building on the right was a

hot tub.

Across the road we saw this herd of deer.  Another test--how many do you see?

Directly across from the deer is this activity building.  From left to right it houses a 4w/4d laundry, a work out room with a treadmill, a exercise bike, a tv and tape player, a nice library with the exercise cassettes for your workout, the office, and an all purpose room including jigsaw puzzles.

Ok, here's a hint to the quiz.

On the way back home we stopped to talk to some people with motorcycles by their truck.  We had a nice get acquainted chat and decided that before we leave on Wed. we are going on at least one ride together.  They also contacted a couple that they met in Lake Conroe Thousand Trails park, out next destination.  That couple are ready for us to arrive and ride with them.  We love rving bike riders!

 More fun next time,

Louise and Duane  

Moving Day

We had a nice day for traveling--bright overcast if a bit windy.  The wind blew us along for most of the way.  We took 6 around the west side of Houston.  Duane was trying to avoid the toll road, but probably spent the difference in fuel stopping at all of the lights.  The road is very developed with all kinds of businesses.  The towns we passed through weren't small.  As we full-timers say, though, its the journey--not the destination.  

This is a giant statue of Steven Austin.  This is Texas, you know.

Buc-ees is a chain fueling station/everything you will ever need store.  These signs start appearing about 170 miles out.  I think the signs are hilarious.  The stores are a wonder to behold.  If you are ever near a Buc-ees, do the tourist thing and stop in.  I can just about guarantee that you will find something you want!

We left the Quintana park at 8:15 and drove to a vehicle inspection station.  In Texas each of your vehicles (all types of trailers included) must be inspected before you can receive your new license sticker.  Every year.  A big pain for us travelers.  We drove to an inspection station to get the trailer inspected because we got an out of state waiver since we had to license it in December.  We had a limited time for the inspection once we reentered Texas.  Fortunately the inspector said that for new trailers the inspection is usually good for 2 years.  Yay!  We drove on to our next park.  

This park is quite a bit out of our way but we had not been here before and wanted to check it out.  We arrived about 12:30.  There was one 50 amp site left (all sites except annual rentals) are first come first served. We opted for a more level 30 amp site.  The park is nicely maintained with gravel parking and nice big grassy areas between sites.  The park is know to be frequented by this herd of deer.

How many can you see--there will be a test.

A view of the Colorado River--no relation to the Grand Canyon one.

This park is located just west of Columbus, TX.  The sites are nice and long too.

One of the local wise guys.

One of the local beauties.  This one is, of all things, a thistle!

We set ourselves up, relaxed while we ate lunch, then made a grocery run.  Since the local Wal-Mart is an older one with a small grocery section, we opted to get food at the H-E-B next door.  We found most of what we needed, but the Easter holiday coming up requires some extra provisions. We found the Whopper (malted milk) eggs, but our  ice cream selection was limited.  Duane is an ice cream piggy but I eat it a spoon at a time.  We found only gallons at the H-E_B.  We also needed the marshmallow peeps.  We ended up at the Wal-Mart anyway.  The good news is that we found pints of Blue Bell and each got our favorite flavor.  The peeps situation was getting desperate, however.  We perused the Easter candy section carefully but came up empty.Then we found separate displays at the ends of several shelving units.  Finally  Duane found the peeps!  Easter was saved! He selected his yellow bunnies and we left the store in triumph, secure in the knowledge that we could happily celebrate Easter in our customary style!

Our chores and the weather (intermittent mistiness and gusty wind) kept our explorations to a minimum today.  Hopefully tomorrow we can check out the pickleball court and maybe get in some practice.

See ya later--hopefully,

Louise and Duane

Test answer--there were seven deer in the picture.