Medina Lake RV Park, Lakehills TX 4/9/2013 - 4/16/2013

Our last park in Texas! 

 

We were scheduled to stay at Medina Lake for two weeks, but I didn't think Terry would last for two weeks.  It seems like when we are headed home he is ready to get there.  But, a week at this park was okay.

We got a spot right on the corner coming into the park, in a meadow with a big tree.  Whenever anyone asked where we were parked, they would say, "Oh, the spot with the big tree," even though there were lots of trees in the park, they knew right where we were.

 

The first thing people will tell you about this park is that there are lots of deer.  Boy, are they right!  We were parked in a meadow and there was another meadow across the street from us.  It seemed to be a major eating place for anywhere between 10-20 deer each morning and evening.

I walked out of the Journey with some shredded carrots and just stood there as they came up and ate out of my hands!

The second thing that everyone will tell you about this park is that the once beautiful lake has been dry for the last couple of years.  This is the boat ramp down into the lake.

These are some of the boat docks.

 

This small stream is what is left of the lake.  They say that a year of really good rain will fill it again and everyone is quite anxious for that to happen.

 

The park is split into two areas, about a mile from the entrance down to the lake.  The swimming pool and laundry room are on one end and the activity center and lake on the other end.  We rode our bikes back and forth at least once every day.  We got a kick out of this little "Rest Stop" they had at the half-way point.

The "Spettle House" had been moved up from the lake to the swimming pool area quite a few years ago.  The Spettle family, a big cattle family, owned it and the land that included the park and a lot of the land under Medina Lake.  It was built in 1853 and was a popular place for travelers to stop at.  The park used to use some of it, but it is all closed up right now.  I would liked to have seen inside of it.

Another pool too cold to swim in!  It is a large pool with the small end being 6' deep.  There was a pretty nice hot tub, but we never used it.

The laundry room and the fitness room were in these quaint little buildings.

 

 

 

Medina Lake is about 40 miles from San Antonio, where the Alamo is.  One day we went to see it.  This is the Church part of it--it was a mission, built in 1724, before being turned into a fort.  It is now entrusted to the care of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas for the care and maintenance, with no State funding--just donations and the proceeds from a gift shop.

During the Texas Revolution, Texas didn't have much of a chance in winning the fight at the Alamo in March, 1836.  It was a 13-day battle with Commander William B Travis and only 200 Texians against General Santa Anna's 2,000-man Mexican army.  All defenders were killed, including Jim Bowie and Davey Crockett.

 

The top story of the fort was taken down and the bottom story is all that remains.

While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize.  People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds--a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.  For this reason the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.  (Taken from the flyer!)

Another really fun place in San Antonio is the River Walk.   It is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath the streets of downtown San Antonio.

 

Today, the River Walk is an enormously successful special-case pedestrian street, one level down from the automobile street. The River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel sidewalks lined with restaurants and shops

 

One of the shops had a rain forest theme, with all of the animal seating along the bar/café.

We decided to take the little 45-minute boat tour along the 2 miles, instead of walking the whole way.  It is always a lot more interesting hearing a guide tell you about everything.

In September 1921, a disastrous flood along the San Antonio River took fifty lives.  Plans were then developed for flood control of the river. Among the plans was to build an upstream dam and bypass a prominent bend of the river in the Downtown area, then to pave over the bend, and create a storm sewer.  Work began on the Olmos Dam and bypass channel in 1926; however, it was successfully protested and the paved sewer option never happened. No major plans came into play until 1929, when San Antonio native and architect Robert Hugman submitted his plans for what would become the River Walk.  It was tested during the flood of 1946 and proved to be a success.

 

There are some fascinating buildings along the River Walk. This is the Arneson River Theater, an  outdoor performance theater with the stage on one side of the river . . .

. . . and the seating on the other side!

Many weddings are performed on the "Marriage Island."

One of the several ground-level bridges over the river.

This triangular-shaped building looks very flat from this viewpoint on the River Walk.

There are lots of sidewalk restaurants along the River.  I guess at night it is really lit up and lots of entertainment going on.

The windows of this  building was so close that I was able to take a picture of me taking a picture of our tour boat.  After the tour, we walked along the river, visited some shops, and found a great place to eat lunch before we headed back to camp.

There is an LDS Temple in San Antonio.  It is close to the area where we went to Church on Sunday, so we took time to drive over and see it.  It is really pretty.  The grounds were all locked up so we didn't get very good pictures.  This picture is actually of the back of the Temple.  The sessions were really kind of sporadic for the times, so we didn't get a chance to go through one.

 

There is a nice little miniature golf course by the activity center.  The deer really seem to enjoy it.  This one took off--apparently she didn't want her picture taken!  There was a craft sale at the activity center the Saturday we were there, so we set up Scentsy.  We only sold three bars, but two different ladies came and bought from our site, so we ended up selling four warmers and 16 bars!  We are working at cutting back the Scentsy inventory and going to just ordering from the catalog next season and see how things go.  We are a little tight for storage in the Journey!

 

Terry was out cleaning the front of the Journey when he had a curious visitor.

He tried to get them to come eat out of his hand, but I guess he wasn't wearing bright enough clothing because they wouldn't come to him.

He ended up throwing the carrots on the ground.  They got cleaned up pretty good.

 

Everyone said that Fredericksburg was a fun place to go, so the day before we left Texas we went there.  We drove through Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park.  It was nice.

 

Then in town we walked around the outside of the National Museum of the Pacific War Complex.  In the Memorial Courtyard there were many plaques on the walls and names on the bricks of people who fought in the war.  The museums highlighted George H. W. Bush and also Admiral Chester Nimitz who was Commander of the Pacific Fleet during WWII

 We walked up and down Main Street in Fredericksburg.  The town was settled in 1846 by immigrant families from Germany, and there is still a lot of German feeling in the area.

 

Main Street was filled by quaint little shops.  We even found a candy shop that sported M&Ms.

Our favorite shop was one that made all kinds of salsas, dips, spreads, jelly, and other stuff.  There were at least 10 different little rooms where you walked around three sides and sampled all of their wares--either with little crackers or pretzels.  I couldn't get Terry away from the bean and corn salsa--really yummy.  I kind of liked the garlic/spinach dip!

Our last stop was at a sidewalk café where they had the "Lonnie Lott Show" going on.  He was really good and the food was also good.  But, we were so full from all of the samples we had eaten that we took most of our lunch home in a doggie bag!  It turned out to be a really fun day.

 

This is a little sign as you leave the park.  If Arizona was not our next stop, I think we would have stayed another week.  But, we are getting close to home and are ready to head there.  We had several people we had met during the week stop by to tell us good-bye.  It is amazing that you can make new friends wherever you go, especially as RVers!

 

Lake Conroe RV Park, Willis TX 3/19/2013 - 4/9/2013

Lake Conroe is one of the largest lakes in Texas.  Our Thousand Trails park is on a little finger of it. The water was down so much that it was quite difficult for people to get in and out of their boats at the docks. 

 

Our neighbor had a boat and usually went out a couple of times a day--each time catching 6-10 catfish.  So, I guess, even with low water, the fishing was still good.

I don't know how we luck out by getting such good spots most of the time.  Everyone kept telling us we had one of the best spots in the park!

We only had a neighbor on one side of us and we were backed up to the swimming pool, with lots of nice shade around us. 

 

The pool was really nice, but was not heated--too cold for us to get in.  On the weekends, there were usually kids in it!  During the week, a pair of mallard ducks would fly in each morning and spend the day there!

The hot tub was the largest one we have seen.  It was so handy for us and we spent many evenings, just before bedtime, sitting in it.  We avoided it on Saturday night because they had a "hot tub social" at 10:00pm.  We would watch quite a few people going by our site carrying coolers full of their refreshments.  We didn't think we would fit in too well--they were mostly younger "week-enders" from the local area.  As the weather got warmer, the June bugs came out.  They can be as big as a quarter and look like a big, flying beetle.  They have sticky legs and like to hang on if they land on you!  Sometimes when we went to the hot tub, there would be about 100 of them on the top of the water.  We would use a skimmer and get them out, and then use a tennis racket to swoop them out as they landed.  Terry had a good time attacking them, but I stayed in a corner where there was no light so they wouldn't land on me!

 

I had my birthday while we were at Lake Conroe.  Terry bought me an M & M jacket.  (I am kind of an M & M addict!)  It is actually a NASCAR jacket for car #18, Kyle Busch.  Without me knowing, he has been looking for one to get me for several years.  Then, when he found it, there was a special 2-for-1 sale, so he got one, too--but not an M & M one.  You will see it on his birthday! 

We met some fun people--Juanita & Dickie.  They have a "classic" old 5th wheel.  It is called a Silver Streak and is a break-off of the Airstream brand.  It doesn't have any slides or anything and they seem to really like it.  They took us to some fun places to eat.  One was called Incredible Pizza.  It is in an old "Target" building and is a pizza buffet.  Every Tuesday is "Senior Day" and we both ate for $9.00, total.  There are several dining rooms.  One is the "Drive-In Theater" room.  It is quite dark and shows old movies on a big screen.  There is also a "sports" room, a "50's" room, and more.  Then, behind the eating area there are all kinds of video games (even some simulator rides), bumper cars, a really small bowling alley with small balls and pins, and even a small ice skating rink.  It was really fun.  We went there all three Tuesdays we were there.

 

Houston is only about 40 miles from our park so one day we went to the Huston Temple and went through a session.  It is a small temple, but is very beautiful.

 

This is the skyscape of Houston.  It was kind of smoggy that day.

 

Another day we went back to Houston to the Port of Houston, which is the largest US port in terms of foreign tonnage and second in overall tonnage shipped.  There is trade with 90 percent of the countries in the world in and out of this port. 

 

They had a great 90 minute boat tour of the port.  The Houston Ship Channel is a 52-mile, man-made wonder that connects Houston to the Gulf of Mexico.  It was a great tour--and it was free!

    One type of ship is a RO-RO ship, which stands for "roll on/roll off."  Wheeled cargo, including cars, trucks, trailers, and military vehicles, are transported on these ships.  Ferries are a type of RO-RO vessel, but usually travel a shorter distance.  The bigger ships can carry 6,000 or more vehicles.  The Navy keeps several RO-RO vessels in the port as a part of its military readiness plan.  You can see how big of an opening they have to load up their belly!

Panama had quite a few ships in port this day.

This is a general cargo ship that has their own cranes mounted on the ship to load and unload cargo.

These cranes are mounted on the port docks for ships that are not equipped with any way of loading their cargo.  The ship docked here is a container ship and will be loaded with box cars or other large containers.

This large cargo boat is being fueled by fuel barge, which is moved around by a tub boat.

There are oil refineries right along the port and tanker ships are filled up with the refined fuel to be taken overseas or to other ports along the US.

This container ship was from Africa.

The belly of this ship is actually being filled with grain.  When we passed by, it was a little difficult to breath because of the dust from the grain being dumped into it.  The big "silo" on the left is filled by the wheat farmers and then shipped all over the world. 

We met this big ship coming in and had to move over to let it go by.

Our tour guide said this ship was emptying it's bildge water.  By the time it gets filled with cargo, you won't be able to see any of the red bottom. 

There were several types of birds hanging around the port.  This is a brown pelican.  We also saw cormorants and sea gulls.

 

The water had a lot of trash in it.  The guide told us that if we should see anyone, anywhere in Houston, throwing trash along the street, to let them know that it will eventually end up in the port through the city's drainage system.  He sounded pretty disgusted about it.

This is why!  The trash was really thick in some areas where there were bridges or boats to stop the water flow and allowed the trash to gather. 

 It was kind of cool they way they wound the rope around these poles as a bumper for the tour boat.  It was a great tour, and any time I can be out on the water, I like it. 

 

Spring has really sprung in Texas.  A program was started some time ago by Lady-Bird Johnson to beautify the highways of Texas.  Wild flower seeds are planted along a lot of the roadsides and they are beautiful.

The state flower of Texas is the Blue Bonnet.  They are everywhere, especially along the roadsides.  There are usually red Indian Paint Brushes seen with them.  You see people stopped along the roadside taking pictures of kids or couples or others sitting amongst them.  So, here I am--sitting in the Blue Bonnets of Texas!

Russ & Louise, from Emmett, found us!  It was so good to see someone from home!  We had a great couple of days with them.  We watched General Conference and. in between, went to the flea market, sat in the hot tub, ate lots of food, and had a great visit.

 

This was our last Tuesday eating at Incredible Pizza, with Juanita & Dickie, and two other couples from the Park.  Bill was good enough to take this picture with his cell phone (since I forgot my camera) and then e-mailed it to me so I could put it on the BLOG.

Well, we are loading up our bikes and getting ready to make the move to our last park in Texas.  It was great getting to stay at Lake Conroe for three weeks, but it is time to "Get On the Road Again!"