Posts from the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Inks Lake State Park, TX

 

Burnet, TX (Elevation 1300’) — We arrived on Tuesday (March 7) and we’ll stay three nights. On Friday, we’ll travel to Pecan Grove RV Park in downtown Austin for SXSW.

Inks Lake State Park has outcrops of gneiss (pronounced “nice”) rock which is over a billion year old. Flirt enjoyed walking over a gneiss “island” in Inks Lake.

Inks Lake reminded us of some of the Wisconsin state parks we used to camp, particularly Devil’s Lake and High Cliffs.
However, there are noticeable differences in flora — Inks Lake has numerous Yucca and Pin Cushion cactus.

One of the most tourist-worthy places in the Texas state park is the Devil’s Waterhole, a small part of the lake surrounded by rock . . . think Wisconsin Dells.

Besides the geology, Inks Lake wildlife includes the mockingbird and the Great Egret.

Jan caught up on her watercolor painting . . .

On our first day at the park, a camping neighbor came over to warn us about a territorial bird who was trying to plug up our RV’s heater outlet. It seems that the bird attempts to remove all the potential nesting sites in it’s territory. Our heater outlet fit the bill.

So on Wednesday afternoon we put metal screening over the heater outlet and also over our water heater vents.

Campground Notes:

• Great views
• 50A electric and water hookups
• Cell coverage: Verizon 20+ Mbps
• 10 miles from Burnet which has grocery and other stores

Journey to SXSW – Home Stretch

Wally’s been bugging me to start planning my SXSW events, so since our cell coverage has been declining, we’ll summarize our remaining stops . . .

• March 5 – Saddleback Mountain RV Park, Balmorhea, TX (Elevation 3200’)
• March 6 – South Llano River State Park, Junction, TX (Elevation 1700’)
• March 7 thru 9 – Inks Lake State Park, Burnet, TX (Elevation 1300’)
• March 10 thru 19 – Pecan Grove RV Park, Austin, TX (Elevation 500’) – SXSW !!!

We’ll try to get more photos and stuff before we arrive in Austin.

So far we’re going to the

• Austin Music Awards on Sunday, March 12,
• a free cocktail hour hosted by Looking Forward with Madison on March 13 (simply an excuse to drink & eat free),
• KPOP Night Out – I’d really like to see  Yoonmirae and Hyolyn because she’s hot, she sings incredibly, and she’s hot.
• more coming

In the planning stages . . .

March 20 thru 23 – San Antonio
March 24 thru 31 – Port Aransas

Journey to SXSW – Part 4: A “Mullet” RV Campground

The 4th stop on our way to SXSW . . .

COACHLIGHT INN & RV PARK (Las Cruces, NM / Elevation 3900’)

MULLET Definition – “Business in the Front. Party in the Back”.

We’ve seen several RV parks like the Coachlight Inn — a formal hotel in the front and an RV park in the back.

We love the Coachlight!

 

Campground Notes:

• Funky (see photos below)
• Inexpensive ($20 a night)
• Located right off I10. Easy in, easy out.
• Couldn’t connect to the park’s WiFi.
• Cell coverage: Verizon 4G (10+ Mbps).

Campground Photos:

 

 

 

NEXT STOP: Balmorhea, TX

Journey to SXSW – Part 3: Benson & Tombstone, AZ

The 3rd stop on our way to SXSW . . .

COCHISE TERRANCE RV PARK (Elevation: 3600’) – By the way, almost every local business has “Cochise” in its name.

Campground Photos:

Campground Notes:

• A really, really, really nice campground. Modern facilities, friendly staff, well-planned sites, great dog walk through a wash, laundry, showers, pool, hot tub, . . . and they gave us free tickets to the campground dinner that night. Jeez! All for a whopping $25 per night (with Escapees discount).
• Beautiful views of the mountains and, of course, those superb AZ sunsets.
• However, like most RV parks, the WiFi was sketchy.
• Cell coverage: 4G (5 Mbps)

TOMBSTONE

On the advice of a fellow camper, we took an afternoon trip to Tombstone which is about 25 miles south of Benson, AZ.

We weren’t expecting much . . . some history mixed with Western schlock and expensive, bad food. You know – a tourist trap.

And we were so right, but we loved it because it was so over the top.

It all started when we bought tickets to a “gunfight” . . .

 

NEXT STOP – Las Cruces, NM

Journey to SXSW – Part 2: Boondocking @ Painted Rock Petroglyph Site

The 2nd stop in our trip to SXSW . . .

PAINTED ROCK PETROGLYPH SITE (Elevation 600’)

We thought it would be fun to boondock for one night. Boondocking is staying somewhere where there are no water, electric, or sewer hookups — for example, camping in a Walmart parking lot or in the middle of the desert (like Painted Rock). We camped in Site 30.

Jan and I made sure our motorhome’s on-board water tank was full and that our holding tanks were drained. We hoped we had enough juice in our batteries.

We didn’t.

After watching about an hour of TV, we watched our battery voltage drop and drop . . . 12.4, 12.3, . . . (11.9 volts is as low as you should go).

So we shut everything off, including power to our residential fridge, hoping for the best.

At 3:30 AM our AGS (Auto Generator Start) system started up. When battery voltage drops too low, our motorhome’s generator fires up automatically in order to recharge the batteries. However, we turned off our generator because the park doesn’t allow running them after 8 pm.

Then we went back to bed.

As luck would have it, when we woke up, we were able to recharge our batteries in short order.

We’d like to boondock again, but later rather than sooner.

Campground Notes:

• Bring plenty of water and electricity
• The desert landscape and night sky are beautiful
• Cell coverage: Verizon 4G speeds

Campground Photos (click to enlarge):

 

Next Stop — Benson, AZ