Tales From The Camping House: A New Beginning

We hope to recap our travels and keep family and friends updated on what's happening. We sold our house in April, 2011 and lived in our fifth wheel until we were finished with work and able to set out on October 1, 2011.

We began our journey 12 days ago. I didn't realize how quickly time flies and have yet to post anything. So, I am going to try to recap what's happened so far and then try to do a better job in keeping updated.

Our first stop was to see the kids and grandkids before we went further down the road.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

We arrived at McKinney Falls State Park by noon. The kids and grandkids came out to the campsite that evening. The girls had a great time running through the rv. Karli, our oldest granddaughter has always called our fifth wheel, Nonnie and Pawpaw's camping house,hence, the name of our blog was born. We cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken. The girls wanted S'mores but we couldn't have a campfire since there was a burn ban in place. So, we made them in the microwave. That worked for the girls. We all had a wonderful time!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Jim and I picked up the 3 girls and took them to play miniature golf. Daryl and Berkeley did pretty well holding their golf clubs. Karli kept trying to hold it like a broom and "sweep" the golf ball. Berkeley, the youngest, would not hit her golf ball until she checked the the hole where the ball was supposed to go. It was all so cute.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

We left Austin about 10:00 a.m Our next stop would be the Thousand Trails Colorado River in Columbus, Texas. We took Highway 71 driving through Bastrop. We have camped there numerous times and have many fond memories of our times there. It was extremely sad to see all the charred and blackened trees. We drove about 4 miles with nothing but burned trees on each side.

We arrived at the Thousand Trails and pretty much had the pick of any site we wanted. There were lots of pecan trees providing shade and green grass for the boys. We have two pugs named Rudy and Roscoe who are part of the family. We have been told we bought the fifth wheel so we could travel with them and there is probably a lot of truth to that.

Jim had some problems in Austin using the hydraulic jacks, but once we arrived in Columbus, he couldn't use them at all until he was hooked to the electricity. Luckily it was only the batteries, but they did take a chunk of the budget.

We just chilled the two days we were there.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Today, our destination was the Thousand Trails at Lake Conroe. We made it there without any incident and were all set up by 3:00. I was a little disappointed, I was expecting a lot of trees rather than the open area. However, it was convenient for the family reunion we were attending on Saturday. We purchased a zone pass from Thousand Trails this year to see how we like them. The beauty of it is we don't have to rejoin next year if we don't like it. We figure as long as we use it 30 nights, we will break even.

Friday, October 7, 2011

We decided to make the 26 mile trip to Huntsville to visit the Sam Houston Museum. Before we got there, we stopped at the Sam Houston statue. The statue is 67 feet tall on a 10 foot base and is located on I-45. We took the exit to the visitor's center there so we could have an up close and personal visit.

After the statue, we traveled on to the museum in Huntsville. We began by watching a short video on Sam Houston's life. After that, we drove the pickup around to the actual museum. It was divided into three parts, Sam Houston in Tennessee, Sam Houston as Statesman, Sam Houston in Texas. He had quite a career. He was Governor of Tennessee, U.S. Congrssman, Commander in Chief of the Texas army during the Texas Revolution, President of Texas, and Governor of Texas.

We then proceeded to tour the three homes on the museum grounds. It was a wonderful afternoon.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Today was Jim's family reunion in Conroe. It was good seeing members of the family. I have been working on both of our family trees online and was really excited to get more pictures to go woth family members. Jim has a cousin in Louisiana with boxes of old family pictures. We might be seeing a stop at her place in the future. :)
We couldn't believe we forgot to take pictures at the reunion.
After it was over, Jim's sister, Melinda, and her husband, Chris, came out to our fifth wheel before they made the trip back to New Braunfels.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

We left Conroe this morning. Our next destination was the Johnson Campground at Lake O' The Pines outside Jefferson, Texas. It was a long drive, 250 miles. We didn't get here until almost 4:00, but the drive was worth it. The campground is beautiful and our site is fantastic! It certainly has the "it" factor. We plan to spend the evening and tomorrow just enjoying this fabulous place!