Off to the Texas Hill Country

Leaving Lake Conroe, we headed due west to Medina Lake

just out of San Antonio. ..which is still showing

the devastating effects of the Texas drought. . .

We took this pic exactly one year ago. ..at the beginning of April 2011

and exactly one year later, April 2012. . .

the previous pics were taken on the south end of the lake near the dam.

Six miles north, where the Thousand Trails RV Park is in Lakehills, TX

the lake bed is so dry. . .the cows are grazing on it. 

That’s the Medina River you see in the center of the pic. . .

last year,  Dave caught about a 3 lb catfish,

from the bluff where he is now standing to take this pic. . .

It’s gonna take a lot of rain north of here to fill all this back up. . .

The fabulous thing about this park is the wildlife. . .

Texas jack rabbit in motion. . .

a mama hummingbird on her nest. . .the nest was about the size of a ping pong ball. . .

this pic is taken with an 800 zoom lens. . .could never have gotten it without that lens.

the aerial acrobatics of the scissor tailed flycatchers were amazing. . .

and so was Mama flycatchers nest building abilities. . .

Both weekends that we were at San Antonio,

we attended services at Hope Center,

where Nathan Scoggins is doing an incredible job as the pastor. . .

on Easter Sunday, the artist rendered this painting

as Rev. Scoggins brought the message

“A Portrait of Love”

While we were at Lake Medina, we also managed

to get our RV washed and waxed. . .

which makes me a very happy camper!

Next we are off to visit Dave’s Aunt and Uncle in Granbury TX. . .

My Incredible Luck–I Gotta Share

 

Since yesterday was our last day at Lake Conroe for a few months,

I wanted to make one more pass with the camera. . .I was really trying

to get a shot of a water moccasin that I had spotted at one of the ponds. . .

alas. . .no luck!  but. . .I did get this incredible shot

of this momma Mallard. . .she’s set her nest up right at the edge of the hot tub. . .

and then. . .the most incredible thing happened.

I had walked around to the “Bass Pond” and sat down at a picnic table. . .

because I could hear birds all in the edge of the brush, I had turned on the camera,

and was scanning with the high power lens to see if I could get a shot of one of them. . .

Lo and behold. . .this is what flew right into my view finder. . .

I just held down the button and started clicking. . .

I was thrilled. . .

One Last Hurrah. . .

Sunday we had visitors. . .

the awesome Austin. . .and big sis Mac . . .

that would be beautiful McKensie for short

if all the grands are grown up. . .adopt the great nieces and nephews!

along with Mom and Dad.

Austin was so exhausted from swimming. . .

walking down to the lake,  playing on the swings,

and having ice cream. . .

I’m surprised he stayed awake long enough to get this shot. . .

Since we won’t be back in Texas ‘til October,

and since we were so close. . .

on Monday we drove over to Cleveland to meet up with my cousins. 

I love getting together with them. . .I wish we had lived closer growing up,

I know we missed a lot of fun times.  So thankful for FB so we can stay in touch!

Today, in preparation for our trip to San Antonio tomorrow,

I’m adding magnetic latches to all the drawers and doors. . .

we’re hoping these will eliminate the need for the spring loaded

rods we’ve been using to hold the drawers closed.

and on a completely different subject. . .

this gives a whole new meaning to the term. . .

walking the dog.

The things you see in an RV park. . .LOL!

Evans Escapades: Winding Down at Lake Conroe

Yesterday, I headed out on my own for some shopping therapy. 

Since Dave was gone part of the week, he stayed home for some down time of his own. . .

 

As sometimes happens when we are parked in one place for a month, not much is happening. . .

so I have been going on walks to entertain myself. . .

the blackberries are blooming. . .

 

the honeysuckle are gorgeous. . .

ducks on the lake. . .I swear they were having a conversation.

my awesome grand. . .note the skeet in the background. . .that’s my girl!

Dad holding court at family reunion. . .my cousin seems amused!

and so it goes. . .heading to San Antonio next week. . .

 

See you down the road. . .

Full Time RV Living–Evans Escapades–Life in the Slow Lane

Other than the thunder rumbling overhead,

and the rain pounding on the roof,

it’s been very, very quiet around here,

It’s raining so hard, water is pouring

down the side of the window,

and standing in the streets.

I certainly hope it will all drain right

into Lake Conroe. . .which is still

down about four feet.

 

We’ve taken advantage of some down time

to get some projects done

We got rid of Dave’s sad and pathetic desk,

and our file cabinet, which had seen a

few too many rough roads,

and replaced it with this setup

which we designed for our space.

I completely decluttered my desk,

and the entertainment center,

painted the entire background black,

which allows all of the components to blend in.

Once I get my curtains hung, it will be complete.

Speaking of decluttering,

I’ve been cleaning out cabinets,

drawers, and pantries.

Here’s my collection of stuff

that needs to be dropped

off at Goodwill on our

next trip to town.

I have almost all of our music CD’s

copied to the computer. . .

Only a few boxes of vacation videos

and pictures to go. . .

Dave only has two classes left to teach

before we head to Colorado for the summer. . .

so we’ll just enjoy the redbuds blooming.

 

Next weekend is our annual family reunion. . .

Should be a great time seeing all the cousins,

aunts, and uncles. . .

 

I know a lot of you are heading back north,

Travel safely,

Janice

Evans Escapades–A Week in the Life

It’s been so great to be done with the repair shop, and to be back in our little RV home.
Since having the repairs done meant removing all the stereo components, etc. . .
we’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting everything back in order,
and doing “home improvements.”

I have one last chore for this round of improvements. . .
I am going to paint the background wall behind the entertainment center,
so that all the components blend in and disappear.
I’ll take a before and after pic, so you can see the difference. . .
and then we have one last major project. . .
to replace Dave’s desk before we call it done.

We have an “idea” of what we want done. . .so next week,
as we are moving the rig over to Conroe, we will stop in Brenham
to pick up the needed supplies. . .and then, of course
 once we are in Conroe, Home Depot, Lowes, Staples, etc. . .
are just around the corner. . .dangerous! Ha Ha. . .

As I’ve said before, we really, really enjoy the peacefulness here at Columbus. . .

we’re often asked by those who don’t RV. . .what do you do with yourself all day?. . .

but we always seem to have plenty going on. . .we have our morning devotion,

and then I catch up with everyone on emails, and facebook,

or work on writing projects that I have going on. . .

I love to cook. . .and now that I don’t need to rush to get a meal on the table,

I’m learning to enjoy the process as much as the end result

.  Growing up, I learned to cook everything from scratch. . .

so I am going back to my roots.  Here are some lovely home made

buttermilk biscuits that we enjoyed this morning with sausage gravy. . .yum!

In the afternoons, I sit outside with my Kindle, my binoculars,

and the camera, watch the birds. . .isn't this Cedar Waxwing just beautiful?

or the deer. . .and visit with the neighbors.

We did finally take a day last week to tour the pretty little historical town of

Columbus TX, which is the County Seat of Colorado County. . .

and has a beautiful Court House Square

including this gorgeous stained glass cupola inside the District Court Chambers. . .

I wrote a lot more about all the things we saw in Columbus on our RV’ing blog,

ReadyToGoFullTimeRVing.com, so if you would like to know more about
this lovely historic little town,

or see more pics, just click on the link. . .

Until our next adventure. . .safe travels,

Janice and Dave

Evans Escapades–Low Water Crossings

As we drove across the bridge into the Colorado River Preserve RV Park, 

a part of the Thousand Trails Membership System, in Columbus TX 

a couple of weeks ago, I commented to David, “well, I’ll bet this is  a low water crossing.” 

 Having had one of these on a mail route I delivered, 

I recognized that low dip in the road, with the little creek trickling under it. . .

Lo and behold, the following Wednesday, 

as we thought we were leaving the park, this was the scene.. .

After five inches of rain in two hours. . .and a huge tree from upstream blocking the culverts. . .

no one was leaving the park anytime soon. . .

it looks good here, it was almost to the top of the railing when we first arrived.  

At that point, we wouldn’t even consider taking our big truck across, 

much less a regular sized vehicle.

I told one guy, (on FaceBook,) who said we could go swimming. . .

no way, that looks like class five rapids!

Once the rain stopped, the guys at the park got out the trusty John Deere, 

to move the tree, and debris, and had us out of there in short order!  Good job guys. . .

Our resident Red Tailed Hawk that we’ve been watching, 

caught itself a squirrel when it made the mistake 

of running on the ground from one tree to the other.  

I had the camera out, trying to get a shot of it in flight, 

when all of this took place.  I was thrilled to get such an awesome pic!

Now that we’ve decided to keep the fifth wheel rather than purchasing a motor home, 

we’ve gotten started with the repairs it is going to need. . .

Our big living room slide has always needed an assist. 

It’s almost like they didn’t put in a quite big enough motor for all that weight.  

It used to be that Dave could just go out, and give it a push as I was pushing the button inside. . .

but a couple of trips ago, it started making a horrible sound, 

like gears grinding, or some such nonsense. . .so here is Dave with the crank bar.  

It’s like starting a Model A. . .he cranks away, I push the button and pray. . .

however, this is not even the worst of it.  

The kitchen slide opposite this one, has been hanging up in one corner. . .

but with a little assist from the trusty crank, would always just come right in.  

We’ve known it was somehow out of balance. . .

but after trips to three shops where they told us they just couldn’t see any problem. . .

that it was on all it’s rails. . .nothing was out of place. . .

we just accepted using the crank as part of our normal breakdown routine.

 

Well, ladies and gentlemen. . .after putting it in the shop this week, 

we find out that, yes, it is on it’s rails. . .

however, one of the rails has come loose from the frame, 

and in order to do the repair, they will need to 

completely remove the slide from the coach. . .oh Lord!

Not only will they remove the slide, they will remove both refrigerators from the slide, 

so, we emptied out both the fridges. . .

I’m much, much too cheap to let all that stuff go to waste. . .

Thankfully, I had been holding off on grocery shopping until we got to San Antonio. . .

so this stuff managed to fit into the hotel fridge. . .

I know, I know. . .we could have came and stayed with you. . .

there were any number of friends and family 

who would have been more than happy to have put us up. . .

but. . .we are soooo independent. . .

we keep weird hours. . .yada, yada, yada.  

A hotel room was so reasonable, and we were able to be right around the corner from the shop.  

That way, Mr. Dave pops in every day to check on progress!

AND. . .prayers going up, fingers crossed. . .

our service advisor says, upon closer inspection,

 they think they can make the repair WITHOUT removing the slide. . .

that sounds like really, really good news to me.

Keep us in your prayers that everything will go smoothly, 

and we will be back on track in short order.  

Regardless of the cost, having the repairs done 

is still way, way cheaper than a motor home payment. . .

well, at least that’s what I’m telling myself. . .

Safe travels,

Janice