Old Folks Home

 Arrived 11/22/2023         We were pleasantly surprised to find Henly RV Park much nicer than any of the RV Parks where we stayed getting here. Our site is large. We have a full hook-up. The bath house is great. We have a mail box, and so can get Amazon (and other) packages. There is a large laundry area. The park is very quiet. A very high percentage of people are staying long-term, and we look forward to meeting them. We put the RV towards the front of our site, so we have a large living area in the back. Our view is a country road, with the Hill County beyond.  Our site (the afternoon we got here) Our backyard view (taken on cloudy Thanksgiving morning) View from the front. View from the side.          We were thrilled to go to the Dripping Springs HEB and find all the things that we have missed or found sporadically   during the last year - pico de gallo, firehouse mix, Monterey Jack with Jalapeno Peppers Cracker Cuts...

 11/20/2023 to 11/22/2023       Valley View is a huge, flat parking lot divided up into RV spots 24 by 50 feet rectangles. It is actually a very nice RV park right off I-35.  We figured it was a good way to help us appreciate any of the differences we find at the Henly RV Park - our home for the next five months or so. Many of the places we've stayed on the way back to Texas have confirmed that we really like the contrasting state park life. We know we aren't going to find that life in a place where we can stay put long enough to have knee surgery Map of Valley View.  Annie's favorite spot by a little tree in the sea of concrete.            We didn't find any hiking close by. We went to several parks - Berry Springs about 10 miles south in Georgetown, and the Chalk Ridge Falls Park Trail about 10 miles north in Salado.  Interesting bridge. Waterfall (if you know where to look).  Lots of steps.    ...

 11/18/2023 to 11/20/2023         Really nice RV park just a couple of miles off I-35. It was very quiet. Mostly people are here long term. Just a few spaces for people like us who are passing through. We got some ideas about how to organize the small space outside (which we'll have at the Henly Park in Dripping Springs). No room for things like canopies or screen houses. Very different from the state park world we just left at Cedar Hill.  Picture from the website.  Hike/walk around the farm.  Must be the time of year for beautiful sunsets. Selfie Morning coffee spot

 11/16/2023 to 11/18/2023         It was great to be back at a familiar Texas State Park. The Kentucky park system is a close second to Texas, but Texas State Parks are still #1 in our experience so far. We had a huge site, with a path to the bathroom and a view of the lake through the trees across the street. We enjoyed the familiar Talala Trail.  Sunrise  Huge campsite View of lake from Talala Trail Artwork along the trail Trail map

 11/14/2023 to 11/16/2023         The Travel Time Campground is right off the interstate, just like our last site. But it was much quieter, for some reason. Also, a much homier feeling. Several ponds with fish and ducks, grass for our chairs/fire pit. Close to downtown Sulphur Springs, with restaurants, local attractions like a glass bathroom, Walmart.  Ducks beside our site.          We discovered that the Cooper Lake State Park - South Sulphur Unit - was about 30 minutes away. We went there for our afternoon hikes. Nice trails, lake, blue herons, bald eagles, deer.  View of Cooper Lake from the Bluestem Trail. Deer near the park entrance. 

 11/12/2023 to 11/14/2023         Probably the most interesting thing about the Sunrise RV Park was the field of cows that stared at us on our daily walk down a road between the interstate and a farm. The sunrise was not remarkable.           We had a full hook-up and just enough space to put out our chairs and propane firepit. We didn't have many vehicles around us during the day, but the place filled up at night. This site, just like the H&G park, is for people passing through and needing a place to stay the night, and also for people wanting to live and work in Texarkana long term. An added feature of this park was the constant sound of interstate traffic. I thought it might be a problem for sleeping, but turned out to work as well as any white noise.           We drove to Texas (< 10 miles) to look for coffee. We found Starbuck's Christmas blend, which turned out ok. Texarkana doesn...

11/10/2023 to 11/12/2023         North Basin RV Park definitely feels like a resort park. Flat sites with panoramic views of water. Wonderful sunsets and sunrises. Bathhouse that feels like a fancy hotel. Onsite laundry room. Even a color-coded trail system. Definitely a place to come back to in future travels. 

 11/6/2023 to 11/10/2023         The H&G RV Park in Hazen, Arkansas, is our first stop on our way back to Texas.  This park is quite a bit different from our normal state parks - just a parking spot with electricity and water and a dump site. No bathroom, picnic tables, firepits. But very good cell coverage and internet, so perfect for our current task of cancelling all the reservations we made for the next year or so. Also right off Interstate 40. Here is an aerial view (not current, but you get the gist) with an arrow pointing to our spot. We opened up onto a large field, without looking at any other RVs, so that was nice.           The people staying in the back-in sites (to the left in the picture) were all long term people, working in the area. The two pull through sites, which became three each night we were there, were mostly people just stopping off the Interstate for one night. Not sure how this place consiste...

 11/3/2023 to 11/6/2023         Village Creek is huge, beautiful park with two lakes and 33 miles of trails. Fall colors make the hiking gorgeous, if a little treacheous, with fallen leaves obscuring the roots and rocks. Here is a picture from one of our hikes around Lake Austell.           All of the camping sites were huge and far apart. Here is a picture of ours, showing just half of the site.           A section of the Trail of Tears goes through the park. It was a major route of Indian Removal of five tribes from the east to Indian Territory between 1830 and 1840.           The only drawback for us here was spotty to nonexistent cell service. We did have internet, but it was painfully slow. I found a place beside the tree in the picture below where I got two Verizon bars and could make phone calls.           This will be our only stat...

 10/25/2023 to 11/3/2023         We had a fun filled visit with the Coburns (Katie, Chad, Parker, Ryan, and John) this past  week. We celebrated John's 10th birthday with a Lake Travis Zipline Adventure. Our tour included 5 ziplines, with the last one greater than 1/2 mile.  Here are two pictures of our group - one sedate and one facing an imaginary danger.       Halloween was also great fun. We were very impressed with the boys' costume creativity.  Parker and his friends were all Scooby-Doo characters:     Ryan was a NERD.  The effect was striking:     John was an injured Construction Worker complete with a bloody stake through his heart:     Scott and I wore Walgreen's masks and were surprised that we actually scared some of the little kids as we gave out candy:           We left the RV at Fort Pillow State Park in Tennessee.  This was our first experience...