Louisiana into Texas

My camper is a Casita and the factory is in Rice TX.  I needed a couple of things for the camper, and headed there.

It was fun to see how these fiberglass trailers are made, pick up a cover for my A/C (mine had ripped) and a new jack (mine got bent in a little accident back in N. Carolina and was very hard to turn).

Driving across Texas, I saw a billboard for Buc-Ee's.  So when I needed gas, I stopped at one. (They are a chain through Texas, Louisiana and Florida.)  This is definitely a Texas-sized convenience store/gas station.  Where a Massachusetts gas station might have a dozen pumps, Buc-Ee's had at least 80, and they were all busy!  Plus you can see that the store is as big as a large grocery store.  Every department was huge:  there was a large area with gifts and clothing, long aisles of chips, sodas and candy bars, a section for jerky with 40 kinds, several varieties of hot brisket sandwiches being made and purchased non-stop, pizza and kolaches (Czech pastries traditionally made with fruit but here also with bacon, cheese or sausage).  It was truly an experience.  Apparently people drive for miles to fill up and eat at Buc-Ee's.

That night I stayed at a Walmart in Athens, TX.  In the morning, the car was dead again!  I was by now pretty anxious about the car, and familiar with the process.  I called my roadside assistance and arranged for the car to be towed to a Toyota dealer in the next city, and the camper to be towed to the nearest RV park 45 minutes away.  I was arranging to rent a car when the tow guys showed up.  Right away they knew what the trouble was!!  Turns out if you leave the cable between your car and camper connected when the car is turned off and the camper is using electricity, the camper will drain the electricity out of the car battery.  Neither of the Toyota dealers apparently knew this.  The tow guy jumped my battery, it held a charge, and I was good to go.  Whew!  So relieved I gave him a big hug.  That was an expensive lesson in RVing.  Altogether $1400 for 2 repairs and RV park fees while waiting to get the car fixed.  Soooo glad I know this now!

One important part of RVing is making sure the weight of the camper and all your stuff isn't too much for your car, camper or tires, and that the weight is evenly distributed.  To really be sure about this, the Escapees RV Club has developed a SmartWeigh system, where they can put a scale under each tire, weigh just the tow vehicle, and then the tow plus camper.  This is done at their RV Village in Livingston TX.  So that's where I went next.  Escapees has been around for a long time and its members are aging.  Everyone I saw at the RV Village was at least as old as I am.  Many of the RV's are clearly parked semi-permanently.  Again, I guess this is a relatively affordable second home.  Probably quite a few snowbirds who winter there in Texas.  It was a very pleasant and comfortable park to stay in.  And I was delighted to learn that all my weights are fine.  My car is rated to carry another 600#, the camper is close enough to balanced from side to side and none of the tires are carrying an excessive load (which can cause a blow out).  I'm still working on determining what I really do need to have with me and hope to divest more as I go along.  However, very glad to be assured that all this is working right.

Looking at the map of Texas, I noticed a place called Goose Island State Park, where they have The Big Tree.  Now and again, I see something on the map that is just too interesting not to visit.  So on to Goose Island!  It's on the Gulf coast, just north of Corpus Christie.  

The park is lovely, though there was severe damage from Hurricane Harvey which is just now getting repaired.  They should have the areas closer to the water back in service by September.  I walked out to that area at sunset.

The Gulf is very peaceful here -- the tide is only about 4" and mainly caused by wind.  In the area are many marshes, which of course attract birds.  

So I went on my first birdwatching walk.  The birders were kind and loaned me some binoculars, which do an amazing job of bringing the bird up close to see in much detail.  The birds move too fast for me to photograph them, though.  We saw so many different ones:  cormorants, pelicans, osprey (one was carrying a fish in his claws), eastern mockingbirds, herons, whistling ducks, kingfishers, turkey vultures, corbs, a rosie spoonbill and warblers.  My favorite were the Sandhill Cranes, who make quite a lovely racket with their song.

Quite a few birders on this walk, led by two volunteers who have bene coming to Good Island for years. 

The Big Tree is a Coastal Live Oak which is nearly 1000 years old.  The storms from the Gulf break its branches, so it is not tall.  However, the trunk is 34' around.  Think of all the times this tree has seen!

I was sorry they only had room for me to stay at Goose Island for one night.  I'll have to come back here again.