On to Austin

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After Livingston, our next stop was Austin, where very good friends from Lynnwood had moved. We stayed at a wonderful RV resort park in a community just north of Austin named Lakeway, and it turned out to be an excellent and lucky choice because it was very close to our friend’s home and we had an excellent time with them. It certainly is wonderful to reconnect with friends, even though time is always too short. But then, it gives very good reasons to return.

As we traveled from Livingston to Austin along lesser traveled highways, we noticed 2 things: There must be some unwritten regulation requiring 5 miles between Dollar General stores, if that much. Churches seem to be intermixed with them. For those who live in the northwest, this makes sense.

The foliage and terrain were so green, some forested, slightly rolling hills and valleys, some pastureland, all resembled Whidbey Island in Washington State. So lovely. Such a treat to see such color and variety down here in Texas. Amazingly, the temperatures are up there compared to what we were used to in Lynnwood, but we are now quite comfortable outside.

We had a shaded lot in a park with many trees; it was almost as if the trees were placed so everybody had a least one of their own. The site was long enough and wide enough to fit both our truck and a visitor’s vehicle in the gravel part, and we had a very nice, mowed grass area with a good picnic table. The laundry facility was huge, with many good washers and dryers, and a couple very large tables for folding our laundry. As you might expect, we have come to really appreciate these tables.

The park is one of a small chain of RV parks called “Sun Outdoors” and was very nice. There was a nice pool area with two small pools and a jacuzzi. There was also a nice little putting green of 5 holes, with chipping mats a short distance away, and Natalie and I took advantage of it a couple times. There were two Mexican restaurants just a short walk away from the park, and both were quite nice.

We find Mexican restaurants everywhere we go, and some don’t serve sour cream, only guacamole. Every restaurant serves their own version of enchiladas, and some are pretty good. Same with chalupa. It is tasty and a real pleasure to discover each version.

Among the many pleasures of this park were the birds. They’ve been with us all along since Yuma, but we notice them here, probably because they are quite plentiful and noticeable here. Natalie appreciates them, even to calling them “Texas roosters: We haven’t seen a chicken or a rooster as the rest of the country knows them, but the dawn is barely lit when the “rooster” doves start singing their hearts out. Soon a choir surrounds us. And the Mockingbirds won’t be outdone as they join in. Beautiful sounds. Grackles, though, are always off key

Lilacs are in bloom in our park, lavender and white are a very pleasant sight among all the trees and boxy RVs. There are white and yellow wildflowers all along the highways too. Adds joy to our journey. I do miss picking flowers for a bouquet. Our table space is too limited to have vases all over, but bud vases fit pretty well, and there’s an abundance of cute little flowers that fit just fine and make Natalie happy.

Not being around kids and their games anymore, Natalie was introduced to a thing called a “foam machine” at this park. For one children’s party the park had it going one day for the kid at the pool area. This mound of white foam, like dish soap bubbles, was so tall, daddies could stand in the middle of it. So, Natalie just had to participate as well; she walked around in the foam mound. The bubbles were absolutely weightless, you couldn’t feel them on the skin. And everyone, even the senior children, was giggling up a storm.

In Texas, everything is bigger so I believe flies are just oversized mosquitos. They really like to join us should we try to eat outside, but otherwise they leave us alone. We’ve been visited by other critter “scouts” who haven’t made it back home. Darn.

Ants seem to be the Texas welcoming committee. The whole regiment comes out to greet.

We also spent some time rearranging our RV, something that needs to be done periodically. Nice to learn again what we have and where it is!!

We spent one day touring the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, a huge, 3-story presentation of Texas history since before the explorers they used to teach about so many years ago. It is a very polished and well-done walk through a fairly broad-brush collection of Texas history - frontier, cowboy, music, all the way to outer space, and we spent a good long time enjoying the story and the artifacts. We don’t recall seeing some things we had seen before, such as stagecoach routes and the 6 flags over Texas, and the treatment of the Alamo and San Jacinto were a bit sparse. But we had the advantage of having visited museums focused exclusively on some of those things.

Here are just a few facts we learned from Bullock Museum:

- Texans have the right to think of their state as big. The state’s southmost and northernmost points, Brownsville and Texoma, are 877 miles apart, while the easternmost and westernmost points, Orange and El Paso, are 858 miles apart.

- San Antonio was the last major city in the United States to receive railroad service. The first passenger train arrived on February 16, 1877.

- The West 7th Bridge in Fort Worth is the first precast arch bridge in the world.

- The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Issac, remains the deadliest natural disaster in US history with over 6000 citizens killed and 3600 buildings destroyed.

- On March 18, 1937 a natural gas leak caused an explosion at the school in New London, killing hundreds of students and teachers. Because of that disaster, an odor is added to natural gas to warn people of a leak.

- Texas is so large seasons change at different times across the state, so cotton workers travel all over the state, from South Texas, then Central Texas and West Texas last.

- Texas leads the nation in the production of cattle, cotton, hay, sheep, goats, and mohair.



There is so much to see and do in Texas, it will take several drives through and around to see it all. This is the reason we are doing this life in this season. With so many fabulous places, fantastic people, we are still searching for THE place to settle and we haven’t found that place yet. But the list is fluid. So east we continue to go - next is Weatherford Texas to visit a cousin of Natalie’s.

Neither of us have many relatives left, so we try to stay connected. It is so great to lay eyes on their new home and hear their plans to make it their own. They are RVers too so they are a great resource to talk with and get new ideas. One thing about visiting relatives is they know where the best places to eat. We had fantastic BBQ and fish. And the BBQ restaurants go to great efforts to create character. Interesting to see their efforts. (Side note: it is amazing to Natalie that so far inland fish is so popular we find on almost every menu.)

Another area of interesting character is each RV park we visit. Weatherford’s office looked like it had been a church in its life but no, it had been used for weddings and conventions. The ceiling was so large that each fan blade was 12’ across and there are 2 such fans working. Pools and hot tubs are interesting features as well. This RV park has the hot tub above the pool so the overflow flowed over a rock waterfall into the pool below, warming the main pool. Several pools have hot tub and main pool connected some way. Very creative and each unique and memorable. Some RV parks have paved slots for our RVs others are gravel. Some slots are spacious some are tight. All parks try to be colorful with flowers and shrubs and trees. Then there are the kids play areas. Some RV parks have nothing more than a swing set, others have mini golf, swim pools, walking trails, horse shoe pits. Natalie’s favorites are pools and rocking chairs. So very country.

We have been on the road for a full year now. Praise the Lord we have had no mishaps, illness, horror stories, only good stories. God is with us on our journey. In 12 months, we have put over 11110 miles on our truck and our Arctic Fox has followed along for 6610 miles. (We leave it at the park for our sightseeing jaunts.) We plan to have that many miles on it at our second anniversary of travels. Keep in touch. Let us know when you get this.

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Comments

[Linda Rogers]

Latest Update 9-23-23
Wow! Over 11K miles on your truck! So much to see. I so enjoy your narratives. Keep safe as you continue your travels.

[Elaine D Lee]

WOW
vey interesting. You make me want to do this also.