Nov 1 - Nov 5, 2019 We found warm weather!

Nov 1
Leslie's back is much better now and we are ready to move on from Lubbock. It has been cold and frosty but the forecast is much better further south and east where we are headed. Leslie's daughter Sam is going to be in Austin Nov. 8 for a mini vacation so that is our goal destination. We had time in Lubbock to plan our route and book some stays between here and Austin and beyond. Leslie called for our stay in Harlingen, Texas at a place called Tropic Winds RV. The girl on the phone quoted us a "first time customer" price of $414/month plus power. That sounded really cheap to us which is fantastic. Through some of our own research and the fact that another Alberta blogger, link to blog, Dave McMeachan stayed there last winter we decided to call back and book it. The second girl quoted us over $600/month?? Leslie said that we were quoted the other price and after a couple of times on hold while she checked with her manager they honoured the first price! It's a great deal on what looks like a really nice RV park.
Back to today. We got packed up and on the road on a really nice day. It feels good to be in the sun again. We left Lubbock and headed south on highway 87. We'll be going through O'Donnell, Texas which is my sister's married name. We pulled off the highway and took a few pics in O'Donnell and shared them with my sister and her family. My nephew elected himself the new mayor lol.

O'Donnell, Texas. Kevin will be mayor soon haha.

Tried to get the water tower pic.

Big cotton gin outside of O'Donnell. 

Cotton and oil are the obvious industries.

We carried on through Lamesa and then turned a little east to Big Spring and the Hat Creek RV Park. There are two RV parks on this road and the GPS said we had arrived when we got to the first one. This one is Big Spring RV. DO NOT STAY HERE!

Don't even go here!

We pulled in and couldn't find an office of any kind and the  bumpy path through a bunch of garbage and old RV's dead ended with a loop just big enough to turn around. We were panicking a little that we had really messed up. Leslie called the office and the girl quickly informed us we had turned one road too soon. It has happened to others obviously. Phew! That place is a dump but we aren't staying there. Down the road and over a slight rise is Hat Creek RV, wayyy better than the other place. Paved roads with gravel sites and we got a big pull through with 50 amp full services. They allowed two nights at Passport America rate of $17.50/ night. It's nothing fancy and there is a lot of oilfield workers living here but it's clean and quiet. There is a cool looking state park here that we want to check out too. It's a day use area only or we would have tried staying there of course. For today we just did our setup and then a brief driving tour of the town. Quick stop at Walmart for a couple things and an air filter for the truck. I'll change that back at the rig.

Coming into Big Spring from the west.

Nov 2 - We took it easy in the morning and I worked on the blog while Leslie made breakfast. We are going to tour Big Spring State Park today and it should be great. Beautiful day with full sun and just a light wind. We parked on the top of the hill at the park and enjoyed a really nice 4k/2.5mi walk with Margaret. We noticed a war memorial from above and decide we would go there next. Margaret needed a lift for the last part of our walk. Too hot and too far for our old girl.

A little history of the area.

A map of our walk.

Big Spring from on top of the hill. What a view!

Picnic tables and some info signs.

Margaret needed a lift for a little bit.

War memorial from above.

Leslie telling me to go this way I think.

We left the park and turned in the direction of the war memorial. It was easy to find. There were many pictures of soldiers that were lost and names on the stones. Makes you stop and think with Remembrance Day coming soon.

Honouring the past.

Medivac chopper from Vietnam war.

It amazes us what you find in some of these small towns. That was an unexpected memorial to find.

We headed back into Big Spring and looked for some lunch. The Red Mesa Grill caught our eye and they had a shady parking spot for Margaret to stay in the truck while we eat.

Good stop in Big Spring.

It was nice and warm when we got back to the rig. We decided to get a couple chores done. Leslie defrosted the freezer while I vacuumed and did a couple things outside. We have to be very careful not to bring in thorns from the grass around here. We have all pulled these nasty big burrs out of our feet. They are about the size of a pea and they stick like crazy. Need gloves to get them out and they are sharp. Margaret is not a happy dog with those things stuck to her. We enjoyed a nice happy hour and chatted with our neighbours, Dave & Gail from Minnesota. They're leaving in the morning too. This was a good stop, not a destination stop but the state park was worth it.

Nov 3 - No big hurry this morning as we aren't going very far. We have booked into San Angelo State Park backing on to the reservoir. Looks nice in the pictures. It's $20/night plus the park fee. We'll check out a Texas State Park Pass to see if it will save us some money. It was an easy drive through some pretty flat country with lots of wind turbines and luckily not much wind. Nice travel day.

Straight roads and wind turbines.

Before long we exited the highway through the town of San Angelo and across the North Concho river. We arrived at the park gate just a couple miles from the edge of town. 

North Concho River

San Angelo State Park

The girl at the gate was really nice and helped us figure out that a park pass would pay back easily enough. Not only does it take care of the daily user fee but we get half off every second day we stay. Our provincial parks need to take some lessons from the state park system. The pass is $70 but has already saved us about $30 on this stay alone. It will pay back for sure. We carried on to our site backing onto the lake. What a view out our back window. Great spacing between sites and 50/30/20 power and water. There's a dump station on the way out. Great deal!

The view out our window.

Big long sites (#14) with covered tables and firepit/barbecue stand.

We did our setup and then wanted to get out for a walk on the trail through the trees across the road. It's a 3 mile trail and I'll use it for a run tomorrow but for now we'll take Margaret for a walk. She's not feeling great today for some reason and she just stopped walking. We took turns carrying her the rest of the way. Just too hot maybe? She's okay but has had enough walking I guess.

Stay on the trail!

Still walking so far.

Trail selfie.

Had enough walking for today, nap time.

We noticed a bunch of really large wasps buzzing around outside the rig when we got back. They weren't aggressive so we didn't worry much about them. We ended up killing wasps in our rig for a few weeks since. They got in through the seals somewhere, we're up to 17 now that we've killed. They're big suckers.

Everything is bigger in Texas!

We pulled out the lawn chairs and enjoyed happy hour out in the sun. This is more like it. Beautiful spot and relaxing in the sun.

Nov 4 - We both got out in the morning for a run/walk. Margaret is staying at the rig this morning. Good to see Leslie out walking around. Not entirely without pain but way better than before.

We turned on the AC for Margaret and headed to town for lunch and a driving/walking tour of San Angelo. The forecast high is 31C/88F and it's already pretty hot out. 

A big sheep, Leslie told me to stand there.

The money sheep, all pennies and a dollar saddle blanket.

From the late 1800's.

Beautiful church.

Peeking in the courtyard.

Sent this pic to Graham, bottom corner, The Man Store lol.

We're hungry so we googled a lunch stop, we decided on Zero One Ale House in the historic district. A fantastic stop! Great food and I ordered a flight of their beers which was really good. I tasted the stout but you need to ask Leslie how the rest of it was haha. 

Great stop downtown.

Enjoying a flight. Had a great burger too.

How's the stout Les?

We drove back to the rig and grabbed Margaret and then did a driving tour of the park.

Looking west.

Back towards the reservoir, our site would be on the right.

Great place and a beautiful sunset to send us off.

We would come back here in a heartbeat and if we didn't already have a place booked for tomorrow we would stay longer. Great place and very big rig friendly. Most of the sites are huge and the price is awesome.

Y'all come back.... yes we will.

Nov 5 - We sadly pulled out of the park around 10 am heading for Berry Springs RV in Georgetown, just north of Austin. We're taking 87 to Brady, then 71 to Llano, then 29 to Georgetown. They're narrower roads but it was a really nice drive.

This mural in Eden, Texas. Beautiful work.

We wished we had looked closer at the map because Buchannon Dam looked like a really nice stop. We can't take the rig up to the dam so all we got was a look at the water and some really nice places along the lake shore. Next time maybe. We found a large parking spot at a place called The Dam Grill. They were closing soon but we can get a quick lunch which is all we're after. It was really good food and the staff was super friendly. Well worth the stop if you ever go there.

Big rig friendly parking lot.

In the hallway to the bathrooms haha.

We're almost to Georgetown and you can tell the traffic is getting way heavier.

Traffic doesn't bother Margaret though, she doesn't much care what's going on outside the truck lol.

We gotta teach her to relax on the road. Lol.

We easily found Berry Springs RV and got set up in our site #59.

This is mostly a residential park but super clean and mostly pull throughs. The weird thing was the bird banger in the pecan trees at the back of the park. We thought somebody was shooting back there but figured out it was the banger. It stops at dusk. It's a P.A. park and they gave us the discount for one night and then the Good Sam discount for the other two nights. Pretty reasonable rates.

The really nice touch is a city park right across the road with a great trail system and duck ponds. There are some donkeys and goats along the back to check out too. Leslie noticed the park and put us in this RV Park because of it. Great place for a run/walk tomorrow. For today we just had a quick look and went back to the rig for happy hour and supper. It was a good day.

I'll post this and then start a new one to tell you how our time in Goeorgetown went. We're excited to see Sam and Richard on Saturday in Austin too! So good that their mini vacation meets up with us or did we meet up with them?? Either way we're looking forward to it.

Cheers everybody.