2-25-11 Friday Sam Houston Jones State Park LA

WOW, 2 days just flew by !! After I left ya'll the other night we heard  strange sounds coming from right outside the window, so Heather grabbed a flashlight and started looking around the campsite thru the window. Two rather large sets of eyes stared back !!!  What could THAT be??  Just a couple of racoons checking the campsite for scraps !! Really BIG racoons.. Later that night I stepped outside for some air and saw what I believed to be a fox running thru the camp.( heard a great story 'bout feeding the wildlife..little boy decided to break the rules,,sneeking food to the ducks at swamp edge, along came a 'gator and ate the duck !!! LOL Lol lol !! Oh well, I thought it was funny :) ) This morning we were visited by Mr. duck, he swims in back of the campsites looking for handouts several times a day. No alligators yet but I wouldn't be suprised to see a few in the swamp, during the day all the turtles come out to sun themselves.( my buddy Trapper would love this!) All the cypress trees are covered in Spanish Moss and it's beautiful and creepy at the same time. At night you can hear the frogs and other critters sing their songs. This morning I got tired of the limited TV via rabbit ears so I set up the satellite dish and now we've got 125+ channels of advertisements instead of 7, isn't technolgy wonderful??  Rained last night but the day was sunny and 75F. We cooked out over a bonfire and when it started to cool down we came in and watched commercials :) Met our Park hosts today and they are great people, from the mid-west. He's a retired Railroad worker and they've been camp hosting all over the USA.  That's something we're getting interested in so we picked up a lot of info from them.. The park certainly filled up this weekend, as a matter of fact people are still pulling in now (10:30 PM) ..We'd definately come back here , the park wi-fi works great and it's a great place to ride bikes and hike. there's miles of hiking trails and no big hills to wear me out. This Park even encourages you to colllect the downed wood for bonfires, that's something that was a big no-no in Texas ( even though their parks looked "ruff" from all the dead wood laying around).. Got to chat with some friends on FB tonite which I always enjoy.  We've decided to make a run for Mississippi to get to "our" Hollywood Casino in Bay St Louis and Magic River Campground where we stayed last fall..So we only will have 1 more Louisiana stop for 1 nite. Don't know if we'll update til then so REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie&Heather

2-23-11 Westlake Louisiana Sam Houston Jones State Park

We left Texas and crossed into Louisiana about noon today. Arrived in Sam Houston Jones State Park just North of Westlake LA at 1PM..It's wierd going from state to state, one wants checks and the next one doesn't..some welcome debit cards and...ya know..some honor the National Senior Pass and some don't..others give a discount to veterans and some don't..Ya gotta love diversification. (grin) Got another hour for happy hour, hmmmm, how to speed it up !! Hooked up the rig and got the bikes off the rack and explored the park and gathered some fire wood ( wouldn't let us do that in Texas Parks ) . It's beautiful !! Our site is about 100 steps to a bridge over the swamp and the rig is 60' from the water..Happy hour was upon us quickly so we met some neighbors from Florida and fed some squirrels nuts and put out some birdseed ( how do they find this stuff so fast? ) , started a campfire.. The weather is perfect for this, got up to 78F today ( ran the AC for awhile) and evening stayed comfy..started to hear frogs just before coming in and settleing down for the night..I asked Heather if she'd heard any alligators yet and suddenly she said it was time to go in ...HA-HA...We'll be here til Sunday A.M. and then move to ???? Hope all our friends are enjoying life like we are...so until next blog, REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie & Heather

2-21-11 Bay RV Park Beaumont TX

We been boogieing..stopped for 1 nite at Palacios TX and moved to San Leon, TX for 2 days..both these stops were just enroute outa Texas..Gotta take the time to do domestics then zoom-zoom again..We've seen enough of Texas (scrub brush and large farms and only half of the state speaks English)  and Louisiana's next..It actually is nice to be back to the oceanside..we enjoy the fresh air and the sound of the waves..Somehow or other the wind thru the brush and the sand blowing doesn't quite do it for us..We'll both be glad to get away from the sand burrs too..We hit the stores today and stocked up again so we're good to go once again..Gasoline down here for plus is running $3.09(Valero) to $3.29(Shell)..I'm sure glad we don't run diesel ($3.49)!!..we've noticed a lot of towns in TX with populations less than 1500..a lot of small businesses here have closed their doors and some towns are all but closed up..the peole here are friendly as long as they speak your language and that's sometimes not possible in any given small store.(kinda makes it tough to ask directions :) .. thank goodness we're carrying the internet (wonder how long it's gonna take for it to go Spanish...press 1 for English...LOL)..Looking forward to some "woodsy" camping with a bonfire, gotta work on that now, so until next time REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..luv ya'll..Charlie&Heather

Wed 2-16-11 Victoria TX, Dad's RV park

Weather = gorgeous 70's  I guess we really didn't know how "wild" this Victoria TX area was. It seem like such a safe place but yesterday we ran across Lions, Tigers, Snakes and other wildlife we didn't expect to see !! Our curious spirits decided to check out the Victoria Zoo..it was a 10 minute drive from the RV Park and was very interesting. The many animals there were displayed very well and the aviary's were stocked and they had 25 cent feed dispensers all over the park (the animals know the sound of them too!Got their attention with every spin of the handles)..it was fun feeding the birds but the Goats have wet tongues..YUK.  Peacocks were roaming freely and the monkeys were fun to watch. They had a few wet tanks stocked with alligators, eels, turtles and fish and they loved the free food. A bobcat den was a sight to see, beautiful animal..We got back to our campsite just in time for Happy Hour !! It stayed nice and warm last night and was already up to 65 in the morning. We've got 2 more days here then it's time to get back to the east coast of TX and oceanside time (which we love). Hope all our  friends stay warm and snuggly.REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie&Heather

2-12-11 , Victoria TX , Dad's RV Park

I can't believe how fast time is flying by..our last post was 2-5-11..WOW..we left Del Rio Tx on the 7th and drove a few hours til we arrived in Uvalde Tx, Garner State Park..it's in "hill country", really pretty drive withwinding roads up & down the mountains at times a little scary..the park was in a valley, surrounded by what Texans call "hills" but from this Michigan boys point of view they were mountains..nite time temps went down to 24F and I guess Texans are allergic to that 'cause we were practically the only one's in the park..saw some deer..phones and internet didn't work but the satellite dish was fine so we just hunkered down for 3 days and enjoyed the pristeen surroundings..we then went to Luling Tx, River bend RV Park..got caught up with laundry and pulled out the next morning to Victoria TX, Dad's RV Park..we'll be here for 7 days..this park in located in the south end of town and close to shopping..there's a restaurant adjoining the park too. The weather here is finally starting to behave itself and is going back up in the 70's this week :)  Heather and I scrubbed the rig today and it took the better part of the afternoon to finish.  We worked up a great thirst and happy hour is approaching,,YAHOO !!..As a matter of fact--let's go try the restaurant tonite !! Dinner was tasty We tried Texas toothpicks..anyone ever heard of them ?? They're fried jalepenos cut in strips like toothpicks...very unique and tasty..Hope all our friends and family are staying warm and cozy..REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Heather & Charlie

2-5-11 Del Rio Texas Buzzard Roost RV park

It was just a week ago we were running our AC in an 84F afternoon..Then the jet stream decided it was time to go South..BBBRRRR..it got down to 24F at night which is tough on the RV crowd..We unhooked our water line to avoid freezing it..the furnace kept us comfy but ran quite a bit..the nice thing about this park, Buzzard Roost RV, is it has a saloon attached, so we have some evening entertainment while we hunker down..Went there last nite and enjoyed & participated in a fun kaaoke gig..drifted back about midnight an slept in in the morning..We found our dump valves frozen up til noon but that fixed itself in the 40F weather in the afternoon...
We got a tip from the park owner about a Chinese buffet just a little ways down the road from the park so we took  a ride and found it and chowed down for $7 each...I hate buffets cause I eat too much..got back to our campsite and took a good, long geezer nap...this evening??? more fun at the saloon. I took my usual stroll thru the park checking license plates...no one from Michigan but a good mixture of mid-America..since the weather isn't supposed to warm up for a few days we decided to extend our stay here for 3 more days..gonna watch the Superbowl on Sunday at the saloon and then make up our minds where we go to from here..if it stays cold we may head back SE to find some warmer temperatures..Time will tell !! Hope everyone is warm & comfy..REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie & Heather