RV-Dreams Journal

Happy Halloween - (Steinhagen Lake, TX)

There is a downside to camping on a lake in the fall.  Before dawn, duck hunters start blasting away with their shotguns that can be heard three counties away.  Sheesh.

It was a cool, beautiful morning as the steam wafted off the lake.  Everything was calm and the water looked like smoky glass.

For this lovely Halloween day, I wore an orange T-shirt - not on purpose :) - and Linda made us jack-o-lantern pancakes.  :)

That was about the extent of the Halloween festivities around here.  Oh, except for the Halloween party in the Chat Room in the evening.  :)

I hadn't really intended to sit and watch football all day - it just sort of happened.  It was one of those "Because I can" kind of things.

Linda decided she wanted to bake some cookies, but she was missing some ingredients - oh, the horror!  :)

That called for a trip back to Jasper to the Walmart ... for her, not for me.  It was pretty clear I wasn't leaving the peaceful confines of our campsite.  :)

When she returned, she no longer felt like baking.  Dealing with all the sights and sounds and people of the "big city" can sap the child-like passion right out of you.  :)

I grilled a couple of bacon-wrapped filets during a halftime of one of the games.  While the steaks were cooking, I snapped some pictures of our little cove.

Though most of the trees aren't turning yet, the cypress along the waters' edge have a lovely orange tint that helps make it look like autumn.

The sun continued to sink ....

leaving this cypress silhouetted against the clear sky.

Linda cooked up a couple of side dishes and we had a nice Halloween dinner.  Rather than homemade cookies for dessert, we had mini-packets of M&Ms which she couldn't resist picking up at the store.  :)

I spent the rest of the evening flipping back and forth between football games and the World Series while Linda and several others enjoyed their virtual Halloween Party in the Chat Room.

It wasn't a particularly exciting day, but it was certainly a Happy Halloween for us .... with the emphasis on "Happy".  :)

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October Financial Summary

October 2009 Results

Campground Fees $690.40 (22.27 per day) - Budget $450.00

Our budget is based on camping for about $15 per night.  We were well over that in October mostly due to the nightly fee during the 2009 RV-Dreams Rally at Buckhorn Lake Resort.  We hold our rallies at nice RV parks with good rally facilities, but they are usually priced higher than places we would normally stay.  In this case, we stayed at Buckhorn nine nights and paid about twice what we would normally pay.  Of course, at the end of the year, we will likely classify those nine nights as a business expense.  :)

With that said, as we travel east there are far fewer wide open spaces for boondocking, so our average nightly rate will probably be up around $20 for the rest of the year. 

RV Clubs $0.00 - Budget $0.00

RV Insurance $0.00 - Budget $0.00

Propane $30.00 - Budget $20.00

Cell Phones $80.87 - Budget $90.00

Satellite Internet $0.00 - Budget $0.00

Note:  Satellite internet is not included in our regular expenses.  We classify it as a business expense.  We paid $798 in December 2008 for all of 2009. 

RV Taxes/Registration $0.00 - Budget $0.00

Satellite TV $84.34 - Budget $85.00

RV Maintenance $0.00 - Budget $50.00

Diesel $393.67 - Budget $350.00

We drove the truck 1,247 miles in September.  Most of that, 1,200 miles, was towing.  That's about 200 more miles a month than we like to travel when in full travel mode.  :)

Gas $193.88 - Budget $200.00

We drove the Jeep 1,814 miles in September.  Most of that, 1,235 was traveling and 579 was in local exploring. 

Truck Maintenance $0.00 - Budget $35.00

Jeep Maintenance $0.00 - Budget $20.00

Truck Insurance $0.00 - Budget $0.00

Jeep Insurance $0.00 - Budget $0.00

Truck Taxes/Registration $0.00 - Budget $0.00

Jeep Taxes/Registration $0.00 - Budget $0.00

Groceries & Dining Out $343.51 ($11.08 per day) - Budget $450.00

Our Groceries & Dining Out budget for 2009 is the same as for 2008.  It's based on $12 per day per month for groceries PLUS $90 for dining out.

We did pretty good in October.

Laundry, Clothing, Hair Care $204.98 - Budget $75.00

Laundry was only about $25 in October.  The rest of the expenses were for some jeans for Linda, a rare salon haircut for Linda, and her once-every-three-year trip to the store for .... uh, supportive undergarments.  :)

Entertainment $35.00 - Budget $200.00

One round of golf and a state park entrance fee.

Insurance - Health, Life, Umbrella, Etc. $154.66 - Budget $220.00

Budgeted for our health insurance to go up with the annual renewal.  However, the premiums were going up much more than budgeted.  So we changed plans and actually had a premium reduction with no loss in coverage.

Medical & Dental Expenses $93.22 - Budget $50.00

Had a few expenses associated with my sudden nosebleed episode right before the Rally.  I suspect we'll see much higher expenses when we get the hospital bill in the next month or so.

Miscellaneous $166.22 - Budget $150.00

Bought a new air compressor hose, some insecticide, and some insect repellant.  Also, made a $100 charitable contribution on the behalf of a nephew.  :)

Emergencies/Budget Cushion $0.00 - Budget $300.00

Totals $2,470.75 ($79.70 per day) for normal living expenses - Budget $2,445.00

Totals with Emergencies/Budget Cushion $2,470.75 - Budget $2,745.00.

It was a good month considering the large overages in Campground Fees and Laundry, Clothing, & Hair.

For the year, we are $2,202 under budget on normal living expenses and $4,395 under in total.

For a look at the numbers through October 2009, go to Our 2009 Actual Expenses. To see our budget month-by-month click on Our 2009 Budget.

On the business side, we had net profit of $4,032.  You can see the breakdown on the 2009 Business Financial Summary page.

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Laundry Day - (Steinhagen Lake, TX)

The rain finally stopped about 8:00 a.m.  It was about 25 degrees cooler than yesterday - low 50s.

I had the fireplace on and was in my recliner computing - doing the Journal and returning emails. 

Linda slept in ... and slept in ... and slept in.  I got up to get something to eat when I heard "What time is it?"  Ah, she had awakened.

"Noon", I said.  "No it's not", I heard back.  She followed up -  "What time is it really?"  "Okay, you're right, I'm sorry ... It's 11:53".  :)

Yep, she slept until almost noon.  Hadn't seen that before.  Ten, ten-thirty, maybe eleven, but not noon - not since our early twenties anyway.  :)

We were expecting the weather to remain bad throughout the day and it was still quite gray, so we hadn't made any plans other than going to town to do laundry at some point.  Even though it was noon, Linda still had her two-hour coffee time, so it was a pretty late start for laundry.

I did a quick online search and found a laundromat in Jasper, about ten miles away.  Since Jasper has a Super Walmart, a Lowe's, a few hotels, and quite a bit of retail, I figured there were probably a couple more laundries as well.

We loaded up the Jeep and searched for "laundry" on the GPS.  It gave us the same one I found online.  The GPS took us to the location, and we found where the former laundry used to be.  :)

We stopped at a gas station to fuel up and ask for directions to another laundry.  Okay, in the shopping area next to the Radio Shack.  We drove there - no laundry.  We asked a lady in the Radio Shack parking lot and got directions to another location.  It turned out to be a Best Western motel with "Laundry area" on the sign out front.

What the heck.  Linda asked if we could use the laundry - nope.  :)

We drove through the Walmart parking lot and I asked three ladies about a laundromat.  "They all closed here.  Ya gotta go to Kirbyville about 20 miles south."  Well, allrighty then.

We drove to Kirbyville.  The GPS took us to another closed laundromat location, but we happened to see one that was open as we drove by.  We backtracked to "Howdy's Washateria".

Howdy's had the attendant sitting right at the door chain-smoking and blowing the smoke back into the laundry.  There was no greeting of any kind, not even eye contact.  Half the washers and dryers were out of order and it was filthy.  It was the worst laundromat we've seen since we've been on the road.

Usually, they are not nearly as bad as folks on RV forums make them out to be.  But this one was.  :) 

I was supposed to run a couple of other errands and bring some dinner back, but there was no way I would leave Linda alone there and there was no way we would eat anything inside.

After getting the clothes in a triple-load washer, we walked a couple of doors down to a restaurant which was barely clean enough to eat.  But it wasn't the worst place we've seen.  :) 

I asked the waiter if there were any other laundromats in town and he said "no".  That's sorta what I suspected - otherwise we might have walked out of Howdy's.  :)

At the "cafe", my pot roast melt sandwich was actually pretty good.  Linda's chicken sandwich, on the other hand, not so much.

After quickly getting through dinner, we made it back to the laundromat just as the wash finished.  We threw everything in dryers as quickly as possible.  One of them wouldn't work and the attendant finally spoke.  "See the number 17 on that dryer?  You have to hit it on the number and it'll work."  And it did.  :)

We sat in the Jeep waiting for the dryers to finish.  Other people were also sitting in their cars rather than inside.  One nice guy went in to check on his washers and let us know our dryers were done.

It took a few more quarters to finish up.  We finally got out of there around 6:15.  The skies had cleared up and the sun was going down.  The colors were beautiful, and I was wishing we were back on the lake to see them.

By the time we got home, the best part of the sunset was over, but I took one quick shot from the fifth wheel steps anyway.

It was good to be home.

We are supposed to have a few days of bright blue skies, low humidity, and temps in the 70s.  We're looking forward to that.  :)

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Rained In - (Steinhagen Lake, TX)

We believed the weather dudes and dudettes when they said there would be a 100% chance of rain today.

We resigned ourselves to a day of looking out the windows.  Which, in our current spot, is not such a bad thing.  We watched kingfishers dive, herons and egrets stalk, grebes swim, eagles fly over ... - you get the picture.  :)

Our only real concern was whether or not we would get the thunderstorms and high winds predicted for the area.  Fortunately, those managed to avoid us for the most part.

But oh did we get rain.  It rained hard.  It rained soft.  It quit raining for five to ten minutes at a time and then would start again.  Our satellite internet connection was off and on all day.  Luckily, it was never off for an extended time and we got some work done.

I got all of our Campground Reviews updated and the locations posted on the Campground Reviews Map. 

That was quite a chore with all the stops between northern California and Kerrville, TX.  With us moving quickly and having so many issues along the way, I didn't feel like keeping up with it as we went.

But I hear through the grapevine that our readers like the reviews.  Also, we hear from quite a few folks that found our site because they stumbled on our campground reviews when surfing the net searching for campground information.  So, it's important I don't get too far behind.  :) 

Linda finalized food service for the 2010 RV-Dreams Rally and booked some entertainment for Saturday night fun.  With some local help from our reader Jerry, we've hooked up with some topnotch professionals that are working within our budget.  :)

Also, we're getting some great reports from folks that are personally visiting the Willow Tree Resort.  It's still five months away and we have to develop some new seminars, but most of the hard part is done.  We're going to enjoy our leisurely trip across the south and our winter in Florida, but we're already excited about the Rally.  :)

As for today, the heavy rain did reveal a leak.  We have some water seeping in on the kitchen floor.  Not a lot and it only comes in when the rain is at its heaviest, but it's enough to require a fix.  The hard part is figuring out where it's coming from - especially since it won't stop raining.  :)

Oh well.  We'll take care of that just like anything else that comes up.  It's all part of the deal.  :)

It looks like we've dodged the worst of the weather, but we still have another day of wetness.  Hopefully, it will end soon and we can get back outside and enjoy our beautiful surroundings .... other than just looking out the window.  :) 

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Campground Walk & Trip To Martin Dies State Park - (Steinhagen Lake, TX)

It was a cool morning, but I wanted to get out early.  So I took a walk just as Linda was getting up.

There was still a little fog remaining over the water.  I took some shots of the cypress trees poking out of the glassy water.

The above shot was from the edge of the lake at our site.  The following shot was taken from water's edge farther into the campground.

I just love cypress trees.  They create such a mystical look.

I continued on down the park road as the sun came up.  Its rays played in the mist.

And the dew combined with the sun to illuminate a forest of intricate spiderwebs.

Eventually, I came to the peninsula where the campground ends with more than half of the total campsites.

That's the section where there is still lots of standing water.

Even though there is a greater concentration of campsites, they are still long.  Check this one out.

That's a Class A motorhome and you could put another Class A or three other regular vehicles in there.  :)

As I walked around that loop, the birding was pretty good.  Unfortunately, I didn't take my binoculars.

On the way back, I got a shot of these two sites (Sites 23 & 24) which are off by themselves.

When I finally got back to the rig - it's a really long walk from one end of the campground to the other - Linda was still enjoying her morning coffee.

It was such a peaceful looking morning.  I took another shot out our back window.

With some bad weather on the way Thursday & Friday, I figured we ought to skip our usual day-after-travel-rest-day and go do some hiking or paddling since it was pretty today.  So we drove the few miles over to Martin Dies Jr. State Park.

The park is divided by Hwy 190 with the Hen House Ridge area to the south and the Walnut Ridge area to the north.  Both sides have camping, hiking trails, and paddling trails.

We paid our entrance fee and drove around the Hen House Ridge section.  We took a look at the campground.  It was okay, but we were certainly glad we ended up at the Sandy Creek COE park.

We decided not to hike or launch our boat on the Hen House Ridge side.  We drove over to the Walnut Ridge area where we again drove through the campground.

There are two enticing canoe trails and we decided to take one of them.  We got the Sea Eagle 330 inflated and ready to go.

Unfortunately, right after we got launched, clouds moved in fast and the wind really picked up.  We didn't want to take a chance on getting caught out there in bad weather, so we turned around after only getting a few hundred feet.  Bummer.  But we'll be back.  :)

Instead of heading home, we decided to take the short Island Trail.

We walked through the woods with our eyes peeled ... for anything.  :)  We did see two armadillos and a fleeting white-tailed deer.

After that hike, we did the Wildlife Trail which started with this boardwalk bridge.

At the crest of the bridge, we looked out over the lake.  Of course, the weather didn't look very threatening in that direction.  :)

The Wildlife Trail is about a mile and a half.  But we didn't see any wildlife other than a few frogs and lizards.

It wasn't exactly the day we had planned, but it was good to be out there in nature, and we practically had the whole state park to ourselves.

On the way back to the Jeep, I took one last shot.

And that was pretty much it for our day at the state park.  Linda is still having some shoulder pain, so we did pretty good considering that.

Back home, I took a bike ride as the clouds continued to get thicker and darker.  Linda relaxed and took a pretty good nap.

Now we're hunkered down for the predicted heavy rain and thunderstorms.  Hopefully, it won't be as bad as they say, but we'll be ready and at least we got in some good outdoor time today.  :)

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Got A Little "It Factor" Going - (Steinhagen Lake, TX)

It was still overcast when we got up.  Linda wasn't motivated to move ... at all.

But the rain held off and we got our soggy selves going.  We finally pulled out around noon for our short 100-mile drive.

The skies slowly cleared as we traveled.  The blue sky was great for our moods.

It was a really easy trip except the last five miles.  Then it got a little interesting.  :)

As we crossed the Hwy 190 causeway on Steinhagen Lake, we passed the Martin Dies Jr. State Park, our back-up plan.  Then I saw my turn onto a couny road - it was a little bit hidden.

I committed.  Uh oh.  The first part looked like mud with two large puddles on each side.  This is going to freak Linda out.  There it is - the walkie-talkie was beeping.  "Are you sure this is right?" the high-pitched voice queried.

I knew it was right, but I was hoping for a little more inviting county road.  I carefully continued while checking out the height of the limbs and hoping there was no one coming my way - there was no room for that.  :)

Fortunately, the road turned into pavement and we didn't meet anyone.  That road ended at another county road where I turned right.  This one seemed slightly better.

Before long we found what I was looking for - Sandy Creek COE Campground.  Now, there was still a problem.

There was a sign pointing to the main part of the campground, but there was water over the road.  Well, of course there was.

And it was moving pretty good.  I was already hearing "I don't want to take the trailer through there".  :)

With rain on the way later in the week, she was already resigned to the fact we were going to get flooded in and my hopes of staying at this place I carefull picked out were fading.  :)

Now there was a sign to the right pointing to some other campsites (35-44) where we wouldn't have to go through the water over the road.  I hopped in the Jeep and we took a look.

Wow.  Almost all those sites are on the lake and they have great views.  However, the dump station is in the other section and the lake is pretty high and fairly close to the sites already.  Linda was ... concerned.  Imagine that.

Back at the water crossing, I asked a couple of fishermen if it was safe to cross.  They said it was fine if we went slow.

Linda finally drove through in the Jeep, and we went to the main campground where we talked with a couple of the camphosts.  When Linda found there was another way out if the road we came in on flooded, she became willing to look at the rest of the campground.

We drove through and picked out a few sites.  What a great campground!  The sites are really long, paved, and most have wonderful views.

We pretty much had our choice of sites.  There are 78 sites and there were only nine taken - three by camphosts.  :)

Now one section on a nice peninsula was pretty wet.  There was a lot of standing water, so we opted out of that section.  Other sites were certainly nice, but some looked like they take the brunt of the wind off the lake.  We don't like wind.  :)

Ultimately, we settled on Site 12.  We went back and got the rig.  Linda was over her initial panic, and we pulled the fifth wheel through the water with no problems.

We backed into Site 12 being very careful not to hit the shelter over the picnic table.

We have great views out the back window ....

and the side window.

It was true "it factor".  Linda didn't want to go inside and set up - that's one of the signs for "it factor" status.  :)

We have a huge site.  Some sites have 50 amps, but most have 30 amps with water and no sewer.  Ours is a 30-amp site.

I think we may be here awhile.  :)

Linda went to settle up.  It's $16 a night for 30-amp sites and $18 for 50-amp sites.  Of course it's half of that for those that have the America The Beautiful federal senior pass.  :)

We got completely set up and, to our surprise, we even got satellite.  We were prepared to put out the manual T.V. dish and continue the cell phone tethering feature for internet.  Since we don't need it here, I called Verizon and cut off the tethering until we need it again.

We are so glad to have the manual T.V. dish and cell-phone-for- internet options.  It certainly expands our campsite selection abilities.

Later, we took bike rides around the campground.  We saw several deer and lots of birds, but it was pretty chilly this evening, so we didn't dilly-dally.

We went back to the rig, had a warm bowl of soup, and turned on the fireplace.  Life is very, very good.

Well, I made Linda nervous getting here, but she's happy now.  Man, do we love these COE campgrounds!  :)

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It Rained ... We Stayed - (New Waverly, TX)

We were mentally prepared to pack up and leave.  But when the storm came early this morning and we checked the weather for the rest of the day, we knew we weren't going anywhere.

When it let up a little around noon, we paid for another night.  Eventually, Linda made another post office run and picked up some milk.

It rained and rained and little ponds starting appearing around us.  Fortunately, none of them got too close.

Linda beaded and worked on Rally stuff, we both returned bunches of emails, and I worked on web pages.  And that was about it.

Maybe we'll move on tomorrow - maybe not.  :) 

Last Day At Cagle - (New Waverly, TX)

It was a much warmer morning.  A little more humid, but seventeen degrees warmer than yesterday's wake-up temp.

Linda's back/neck was feeling better.  That was good news.

Before we got too far into the day, we got an email from Andy.  He has a sticks and bricks in Dallas but lives in a 1993 Dolphin motorhome 10 months of the year.  Like us, he left the corporate world and a big income without "a future income source".

He has a website called MyOldRV.com and today wrote an entry called "Running The Traps" about the RV sites he visits daily.  We were honored to be mentioned.  :)

Also, during our recent Rally, we talked about knowing your RV's exact height including vent covers, air conditioners, etc.  RV-Dreamer Charles mentioned a website that might be helpful in discovering "low clearances" across the country.

Yesterday Charles sent this link:  America's Independent Truckers' Association - Low Clearances, Bridge Heights, and Below Normal Bridge Clearances.  The listings are by state and they include the statutory clearance levels for each state.  All clearances at or below the statutory limit are included.

Most states have a legal limit of 13'6" or 14'0" but there are a few exceptions.  Some states, like Kentucky, have a 13'6" limit on main trucker routes, but a 12'6" limit on other roads. 

Now, the website includes the disclaimer that the information is from third parties and they cannot guarantee it.  But it's certainly worth having in our travel planning arsenal along with the Mountain Directories for Truckers, RV & Motorhome Drivers.  :)

Linda double-checks all of my planned routes against the Mountain Directory.  :)

As the day went on, we got another email requesting a visit.  "Sure, we're not going anywhere."

Paul & Brenda drove an hour or so to meet us.  They have been full-timing since 1999, but have been sitting about four years as Paul has been working a contract job here in Texas.

They've had Air Stream trailers in the past but are now on their second motorhome.  And they are quite anxious to get back on the road when Paul's contract ends next February.

It's always interesting to talk with full-timers with that much experience.  The stories and advice are priceless.

And everyone has misadventures - like the can of "spray cheese" that fell out of a cabinet on a trip and got punctured when a slide was put out.  :)

As always, it was a pleasure to talk to our guests.  And we had spent a couple of hours before we knew it.  With hugs and handshakes, they departed.  With other full-timers, it's never "good-bye", just "see you down the road".  :)

Oops.  Forgot to get a picture - again.

By then, the campground was almost empty as the weekenders vacated.  The peacefulness was back.  As the day turned to dusk, I went down to the lake for one last sunset.

The sun had already hidden behind the clouds on the horizon by the time I got there.

Still, as it sank, there was little opening between the clouds and the treetops that created a lovely glow.

After getting a couple shots, I pedaled my bike back up the hill to our campsite where we started to mentally prepare for tomorrow's move.

I finally determined where we will stay, and I looked at some possible nature activities in the vicinity of our next couple of stops.

It's been very nice here at Cagle, but we're looking forward to continuing our slow journey east.  :)

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Linda Takin' It Easy - (New Waverly, TX)

It was 42 degrees when we got up.  That's the coldest it has been for us in quite some time.

I kicked on the fireplace.  Linda turned on the furnace and let it run for one cycle before it just about ran us out of the rig.  The thermostats on those things just aren't very good.  :)

She wakes up with less tolerance of the cold than me.  So she's always the one to turn on the furnace.  And she's always the first one throwing off blankets and clothes waiting for it to shut off on its own.  :)

I'm never sure if her accelerated heat is from her morning coffee, her morning session with her laptop, or her "personal summer"/"power surge" episodes.  Probably a combination.  :)

Alas, this morning she woke up with that tweaked neck/back thing that she gets.  She hasn't had one in quite some time and we were trying to think what may have caused it.

Usually, it's when she has lifted and carried something sort of heavy out away from her body.  Last time, it was caused by a big tray of hot cookies she was carrying at the Poma Ranch in the summer of 2008.

This time, all she could think of was that she held her laptop out away from her so I could see whatever video she might have been playing on it.  Not sure whether it was the dancing cockatoo someone had sent her, or the live feed of her nephew playing with his band in Miami. 

Anyway, she said it was not as painful as many of the other times.  And we've learned that it will go away fairly quickly if she takes it easy and limits her range of motion for a day or two.

She has a little problem with that.  I have no problem sitting like a lump for hours at a time, but it's a bit more difficult for her.

She had planned to make a breakfast casserole today.  So she did that around 11:00.  While the oven was hot, she decided to bake something else.  I nixed the strawberry cake in favor of - yeah, you guessed it - the much simpler walnut brownies.  :)

The baking didn't take too much out of her and she managed to rest most of the day.  I made the bed and cleaned the toilet.  We had company coming, and just like the ol' sticks & bricks, we had to spruce up.  :)

The bed-making elevates my blood pressure because I never do it "right".  "You didn't get the sheets tucked in all the way.  The comforter is too far over.  That's not how the pillows go.  Can't you see that pillow is upside down?"  Sheesh.

Now, cleaning the toilet is another story.  After my extensive experience this past summer, she knows I'm quite qualifed to do that.  I had a brief flashback, but other than that, the tiny little toilet closet was nothin'.

Our guests arrived around 1:00.  It was Tom & Donna ....

whom we'd met in January 2008 while we were volunteering down at the Brazoria National Wildlfie Refuge near Freeport, TX.

They live in Katy, TX and asked if they could make the hour and a half drive to see us here at the Cagle Recreation area.  "Sure, we're just enjoying our time here in the woods."

That's the thing about finding a campsite with the "it factor".  We love just hanging out and enjoying the surroundings.  We don't have the urge to go anywhere else.  In some places, we just want to get out and see and do things outside the campground.  But, when leaving the campground and driving a few miles seems like too much of a hassle, we know we've found a great spot.  :)

Tom & Donna are still "discussing" this full-timing thing.  She's ready to go, but he's still working and trying to figure out the proper time to retire so their finances are in order.

She's done some contract work in other states and towed their travel trailer around to use as her homebase.  Having done that a few times by herself, she talked about how much confidence it has given her and how she has learned to slow her driving pace - both with and without the trailer.

It was nice seeing them again.  After a couple of hours, we were all starting to yawn a little bit - it was afternoon nap time.  :)

They departed with the usual hugs knowing that we will meet again down the road.  :)

Linda & I went inside and it was only a few minutes before we were asleep in our recliners.  She had her microwavable neck warmer on, and I had the remote in my hand from flipping through the various college football games.  Dropping the remote is usually what wakes me up.  :)

Later we returned more emails.  One required a phone call.

We have reader who is in a battle with a campground.  More accurately, she's in a battle with the campground's insurance company over vet bills for her dog.  A campground employee put out gopher poison with strychnine.  After intense vet care, the dog is going to be okay, but I thought I would just pass along the info.

Those with dogs camping in areas with lots of gophers/moles may want to ask questions about any poisons being used.  I did a little checking and found that anything in a half mile radius of where the poison is used could be at risk.  The little critters have extensive underground burrow systems and they can carry the poison in their cheeks re-depositing it in areas beyond the "target area".

Just something to be aware of for those that haven't considered that particular issue.

Later we got an email saying the AVG Free virus protection was "blocking" the Journal.  I heard from two people that were using Firefox as the browser.  One had no problem when switching to Internet Explorer.  We use IE and have had no problems accessing the site (which we do several times a day).

I don't know if it is a browser issue, an AVG issue, or perhaps a Google Ad issue as suggested in the Forum.  I have little control over the Google Ads and they change frequently.  So, perhaps it is just a temporary problem - I'm hoping.  :)

We had a quiet evening of watching TV.  Linda remained still until bedtime.  Hopefully, she will feel better in the morning.

Well, that's about it for another day.  One more day and then we will be moving over to the Jasper-Sam Rayburn Reservoir-Steinhagen Lake area.  There are several Corps Of Engineers campgrounds over there - I just need to figure out which one has the most "it factor" potential.  :)

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In For The Weekend - (New Waverly, TX)

Well, true to our theory of travel, more people left the campground on Monday than on Sunday.  Still more left on Tuesday.  I'm starting to believe the best day to arrive in a new campground without reservations is on a Tuesday - we certainly would have had the most choices here.  :)

On Thursday, all the non-reservable sites filled up.  Most of them were taken by "scouts" - one person who did advance reconnaissance and threw up a tent to hold the site for the rest of the crew which arrived today.

Several RVers and tenters drove through Thursday evening and early today to find there are no more empty non-reservable sites.  Now, one thing they don't do a very good job of here is renting out the reservable sites for the nights they have not been reserved.

That was a big part of our job as camphosts at Arches National Park, but the camphosts here seem to prefer that no walk-ins ever take a reservable site even if it's not rented.  Most walk-ins understand they might have to move if the site gets reserved, but that's not "offered" here as a possibility.

Sure, it makes the job of the camphosts a lot easier, but it also restricts the ability of more people to camp here.  And, of course, that's easy revenue the Forest Service could be taking in.

Anyway, the "scout's" teams arrived today with lots more people.  Our quiet little abode's dynamic changed for the weekend as it often does in our favorite campgrounds.  We tend to spend a little more time inside where it's quieter during the day and let the weekenders have their fun.  :)

This morning, Linda worked on the 2010 Rally.  With the help of a reader in Myrtle Beach - Thanks Jerry! - she got in touch with a caterer and booked some entertainment for the Saturday night.  It's gonna be fun!  :)

Oh, we added a new page to our RV-Dreams Recipes.  It's called RV-Dreams Rally Favorites.  We added the winning recipe from the Chili Cook-Off at the 2009 Rally - Rod's Sandbar Chili.  Also, we added a Southern Pineapple Casserole and a dessert without a name that we now refer to as Faux Toffee.  :)

Those are the only ones we got, so if anyone picked up any other favorite recipes at the Rally let us know.  And since we just figured out this would be a good idea, let us know if there were any from the 2008 Rally to add.  :)

In addition, we had some requests for Linda's White Chili, so we added that to her Main Dish page.

Of course several more great recipes are in the RV-Dreams Family Favorites Cookbook.  So, if you own it, don't forget about it.  And if you don't have one, we have about 40 left.  :)

In the afternoon, Linda went to the post office.  Linda makes numerous trips to the post office in each town.  Invariably, right after she leaves the rig, we get an order for something else she has to mail.  :)

We have one last 2009 Rally T-shirt (XL) and she'll be happy to go to the post office again on Monday.  :)

Now, remember the brake problem saga on our way to the Rally?  I know it seems like forever ago after the "nosebleed incident" and the Rally itself.  :)

Well, Dexter charged us for the UPS overnight shipping that was supposed to have been waived.  The charge was during the Rally, so I didn't notice it until last weekend.  As you can imagine, I wasn't very happy about that, but we got the appropriate credit this week.  It was just a timing issue.

Today, I got a response from Tropical RV in Pahrump - the service center that misdiagnosed the problem in the first place.  I'm trying to collect the cost of the second brake drum and the $50 deductible I paid them on our extended warranty to NOT fix the problem.

Linda doesn't think we'll get anything out of them.  My first email was met with no response, but after my second email giving them a deadline before I retained a local attorney, they finally got back with me.  I impressed upon them all the documentation I have and how easy a case it would be for us to win - I already had a small claims "kit" on order from the local court.  :)

I scanned and emailed some documentation per their request, so maybe we can get a quick reimbursement without it costing either of us too much time or extra money.  If we can get that, the whole brake fiasco will not have been too costly ... except for the apparent elevation of my blood pressure.  :)

In the late afternoon, we went for a walk.  It's hard to call it "hiking" with such short trails and no elevation changes.  :)

There was just one section of a trail here in the Cagle Receation Area that we hadn't covered.  It went along the lake and looked pretty much like the rest of the trail.

It was another beautiful day, but it was quite a bit cooler than it had been.  A nice, crisp fall camping day with the high in the upper 60s.

The trail loop ended back at our camping loop.  This shot is from the entrance to the Sweetgum Loop.

We continued our walk past our rig ....

and on around the rest of the trails.  This is a shot of part of the Sycamore Loop.

We walked all the trails and it was just enough to take the chill off.  Later, while Linda was heating up dinner, I rode my bike back to the lake for the sunset.

The sun was shining through the pines creating an orange glow under the branches.

We can barely see that glow from our campsite, so I have to get back to the lakeshore to see the main event.

It's always worth the price of admission.  :)

We had our little dinner at the table while watching the activities of the other campers out the picture window.  The first night of arrival always seems frantic with lots of pent-up energy among the kids.  :)

We had a very relaxing evening.  And everything outside quieted down as we went off to bed.

Looking forward to the cool evening - great sleepin' weather.  Well, it is for those of us in RVs anyway.  :)

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