Gulf of Mexico; Quintana

Location: Quintana Beach County Campground; Quintana, Texas 

all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

I pulled out of Jim Hogg Campground in a cold drizzling rain. It stopped long enough for me to empty my tanks but lasted long enough to give me the shivers. I towed in and out of this little rain front all the way to the coast. Luckily, I was able to arrive and set up camp before the rain reached Quintana.

I've known of this campground for some time now but have never been in a position to camp and check it out. I've known others who have camped here and said great things about it. So, we will see how it is since I'm registered for a nine day stay. That is really a super long stay for me when I'm traveling. 

I'm writing this post on Monday morning after arriving here Saturday afternoon. I have only been able to see the Gulf for just a short time due to rain and fog. Yeah, fog. It rolled in Saturday night and didn't start clearing until late Sunday afternoon. Looking out the window, it is foggy again this morning. It is suppose to get better by Wednesday, but me and the weather-people haven't been on the same page lately. 

Just a few pictures until I get a chance to do more exploring. 

This is still at Jim Hogg while sitting at the picnic table the afternoon before leaving.

Same time at the picnic table but looking back at the trees that I've been admiring since being here.

Still at the picnic table. I'm putting this picture here for two reasons. One: this is the same angle of Liberty that I took at Quintana which is posted later in this post. Second: to remember the old Hippie couple in the van. They have been here for the last few days. Today they have been listening to Crosby, Stilles, Nash and Young's Four Way Street album, 8-track, cassette, CD, ??? I knew every song, wow, it's been awhile.

It was an overcast day with on/off rain showers all the way. But traffic was light and the condition of the roads good.

That's a swarm of birds over the road. I'm assuming the grain silo on the left has something to do with it.

Just a few miles from Quintana and the coast. If you see a high bridge like that one ahead anywhere along the coast of Texas it can mean only one thing. The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).

Sure enough, the ICW. So little traffic, I was able to take this from the top of the bridge. Tugs working, working, working. This is just a small part of the 3,000 miles of the ICW.

Coming down from the bridge. The Gulf is in the distance but I turn left at the intersection.

All set up at Quintana. This is the same perspective as the picture above at Jim Hogg

That's Liberty from the road on the backside of the campground leading to the ship channel. Alongside the road is the local mosquito hatchery. I hope I leave before they come out to play.

As with most of Texas, you can drive right out on the beach if you want.

I had to see the Gulf when the fog lifted. This is a quick picture of it and I hope more to come during this stay. Also looking for a nice sunrise. 

If you are ever in this area, stop in at Sweet T's Diner in Freeport (nearby town). It is just a few miles from the campground. I've tried Reuben Sandwiches all over the country and this one, at this little diner is definitely in the top 5. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 

Longhorn Cavern State Park

Location: Jim Hogg Corps of Engineers Campground; Georgetown, Texas (Near Austin)

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

The weather has finally warmed up some with the temperatures predicted to be in the low 70's for the next couple of days. I'll try not to complain about the heat like I did the cold,,, maybe, maybe not. I was able to wander around the campground a little.

Lookie there, I found a bench. First one in a while.

Taken from one of the fishing docks. The campground is in the far distance.

The sky always looks great after a front comes through

Looking back at the lake while going to the parking lot.

Deer are everywhere around here. Those are some of the trees I've been trying to find the name.

Blackjack Oak??? Strangely, a lot of the local don't know

One of the reasons for coming here besides escaping the cold weather up north was to visit the Longhorn Caverns. They are part of a Texas State Park, but sadly, the park doesn't have a campground. I was interested to see how they compared to Carlsbad Caverns that I visited a year or so ago. I knew the entrance fee was higher for Longhorn than Carlsbad so my expectations were spiked a little.

The cavern was "supposedly" formed over 300 million years ago when the ground rose up thereby cracking the limestone. This cracking allowed water to begin dissolving the limestone which created the caverns. That is about as brief as I can make it, but again, it was "supposedly" created this way. There is always the "expanding earth theory" that can be used to explain things as well. 

The caverns are about an hour drive from the campground. It passes through the edge of the Texas Hill Country with its Oak and Cedar Trees. I haven't been able to find the name of the smaller and broader Oak trees. I've asked several people and all they say is it's an Oak Tree. Oh well, one of the good suggestions was a Blackjack Oak. I like that name and may just call them that and quit asking.

The beginning of the Texas Hill Country

This is a busy picture. The building in the background was built by the CCC in the 1930's, when they cleaned out the cavern.

My tour group going into the darkness

Looking up through one of the openings near the entrance.

There is a nice path throughout the cavern

They said this was naturally formed and was a million plus years old. 

Typical cavern

Some of the improvements to capture the water 

There were places where you had to bend over to keep from bumping your head

I caught up with the tour group again

Some places almost looked fake

Better duck your head

Stairways to the light and the Exit.

After getting back from the caverns, I went to the H-E-B grocery store. It has been a few years since I've been in one, and boy howdy I had forgotten how great they are. They have anything and everything you could want plus their prices are really great. I picked up a couple Chuck Eye Steaks for $5.00. I had them last night and they were tasty, tasty. I guess two of the main things for anyone passing through Texas to stop and see are a Buc'ees gas station and an H-E-B.

Moving day will be Saturday and of course they are saying rain with a few thunderstorms for both here and where I'm going. We will see how bad it gets and how much dodging I'll have to do. By the way, the next stop will be on the Gulf of Mexico at Quintana Beach County Campground in Freeport, Texas. I look forward to seeing the Gulf again, it's been way too long.

First decent sunrise I've seen in a long time. I hope to see more at the next campground.

 Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.  

Cold Weather near Austin, Texas

Location: Jim Hogg Corps of Engineers Campground; Georgetown, Texas (just north of Austin)

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

I hitched up Sunday morning in a freezing drizzle with the temperature dropping since the cold front moved through during the night. The weather people lied to me again when said it wouldn't pass through the Dallas area until later in the morning. I had plans to empty my tanks on the way out of East Fork Campground but the cold mist and poor condition of the dump station quickly changed my mind. I had arrived with empty tanks so the tanks were only about half full. The difference in weight had I have emptied my tanks would only have been about 200 pounds so I wasn't worried about the weight. Instead of emptying them, I added about a quart of fabric softener to the grey and black tanks to help clean them with the shaking during the travel. I would have used Calgon water softener instead of fabric softener but I have a hard time finding that stuff at Walmart. When I arrived at the new campground (Jim Hogg), I used their dump station to empty tanks before going to my campsite. The dump station was a 100% improvement over East Fork's. Someone needs to write a letter to the Corps to let them know about the deplorable condition of East Fork Campground. It is an embarrassment to all Engineers everywhere. 

A dreary looking Lake Ray Hubbard off of I-30

I was able to grab the cell phone to take this picture of the tree on the right. It stood out like a sore thumb, even in the misting rain.

The cold front followed me all the way to Georgetown. It warmed up a little bit along the way but only to the upper 30's. The wind increased during the day and by the time I was setting up camp, the wind chill was in the upper teens. I'll be here for 6 nights with the first 3 of those nights getting down to the mid 20's. Liberty is OK down to 25 degrees without having to do anything special to keep the water lines from freezing. Luckily, 24 degrees is the lowest predicted, so I'm pretty sure I'll be ok. I have only used the furnace in Liberty a couple of times over the last 5 years. Mostly I'll kick it on just to see if it still works, then turn it off. I use two 1,500 watt ceramic heaters to heat Liberty. One on low and the other on medium will keep the temperature inside about 25 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. One on high and the other on medium will warm it almost 35 degrees about the outside temperature. So with a predicted low of 24 degrees, I should be able to keep it a toasty, 60 degrees inside. Of course, the 30 mile an hour wind gusts straight out of the north, changes those calculations a little bit. But the campground looks great with about 3/4 of the sites occupied, so everything is OK.

Setting up camp at Jim Hogg Campground. I outran the rain so it was at least dry, but the north wind was a cutting type of wind. It got deep into my bones. 

Looking around the backside of Liberty

A view out my peep window. It's about an 8 inch by 11 inch window located at the highest point of Liberty. 

I haven't found a nice "thinking bench" in a while, but have see a few nice trees. 

A drive around the campground.

There are a couple of things I want to see around this area that I missed last time I was here in 2015. If the weather cooperates, I may see them, if not, oh well, it's a reason to return. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.    

Bush Library, Nasty Weather and Moving Day

East Fork Park (Corps of Engineers) Campground; Wylie (near Dallas), Texas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

Today is the sixth and final day here at East Fork. When I planned this trip, the weather was forecasted to be clear and partly sunny with the temperatures in the mid to upper 50's during the day and mid to upper 30's at night. For me, that is great weather. Tuesday was the only day they got the forecast right. The rest of time it has been very chilly, wet and breezy. One day it remained foggy all day with misting rain. A cold front is due to blow thru tomorrow morning with temperatures dropping to the low 20's tomorrow night. Luckily, I'll be about 200 miles south of here by then but even at that distance the low there will be in the upper 20's. It's not going to be a true Blue Norther, but maybe a half of one. It should be about 38 degrees while I'm hitching up tomorrow. But it's all good,,,,, You can't appreciate good weather if you don't have some crappy weather every now and then.

It's been difficult finding campgrounds again like it was last summer when I went north to the Great Lakes. I'm beginning to believe it is the new normal. There are so many people now a days who are living in their RV's fulltime in an RV park. That's good for the park owners and those permanent "campers", but it makes it hard for RV travelers to find campsites when moving around. When I was traveling a lot more frequently a few years ago, I always had reservations, but they were usually only about a week in advance. Even though I never saw a campground totally full and could have traveled without reservations, I felt comfortable knowing I had a place to stay at the end of tow. That has now changed. Finally, after hours of searching and changing directions of travel, I have reservations through the 15th. I don't think I like this new paradigm (wow, strange word). 

I rode the train back into Dallas yesterday. I went to the SMU campus to visit the George W. Bush Presidential Library. I've been to Reagan's and Hoover's libraries and thought they were great. Bush's, not so much. Maybe it was because his presidency is so recent. Security was super tight to get in the place. I had to take everything out of my pockets, remove my jacket, belt and hat before walking through a metal detector. I may have, but I don't remember doing that at Reagan's or Hoover's library. I asked the guards why security was so tight and they said it was because Bush was a wartime president and still alive. Hmmmm,,,, I hadn't thought about it but I guess his library would be a good symbolic target for some bad people. The high security didn't bother be too much and after passing through the metal detector, I remembered I had to do the same security check just to get to the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City back in 2014.

Some beams from the World Trade Center

I need to make this post and then head into to town to gas up for traveling tomorrow. I may even visit a fancy restaurant I heard about in town for some authentic, world renown Mexican food. I sure hope I can get in without reservations because some Taco Bell would be some good eating tonight.

Even with poor weather, there is a pretty picture to be found if we look for it. This picture is what will bring my memories back to this place years from now. It seems the weather will be what defined this campground.

 Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.  

JFK Assasination

Location: East Fork Park (Corps of Engineers Campground); Wylie, Texas : Near Dallas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

The freedom of full time RV'ing allow travelers to see many wondrous natural surroundings such as mountains, canyons, oceans and lakes. These are great and I've enjoyed many of them over the years. But for me, that freedom also includes man-made surroundings such as Washington D.C., the Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam just to name a few. This second freedom is what brought me to this campground. I searched for a campground that was close enough to downtown Dallas to where I could camp in a somewhat rural setting, but get downtown kind of quickly. At first I planned to stay in a State Park just south of town, but decided against that when I read reviews and official warnings about he campground being infested with Argentine Ants. I didn't need that problem, so I found this Corps of Engineers campground which is located about 13 miles from the end of the DART Red Line which is Dallas's light rail service. 

I made it from the campground to the train station in about 20 minutes and for $2.00 I was able to take the train downtown. The distance was 20 miles one way and took about 40 minutes. It is a very good way of seeing a lot of a place in a short time period. It was cheaper than driving plus I didn't have to worry about finding parking. 

Destination: West End Station, about 3 blocks from Dealey Plaza. I wanted to see the place where President Kennedy was assassinated. I wanted to see the Grassy Knoll, the School Book Depository, the Triple Underpass. I had seen all of these things in photographs and movies (Zapruder film) over the years but I wanted to put them all together. I wanted to see them all in relation to one another. But mostly I wanted answers.

I was disappointed in that I ended up with more questions than answers. To discuss all of the events surrounding the assassination would take way more space than this measly little blog, so I won't even try. I will make a few statements, ask a few questions and post some pictures. 

First the pictures:

This is looking back towards the 6th floor window of the School Book Depository where Oswald took his shots. The city has conveniently placed X's where Kennedy was located when he was shot.  

A closer view of the previous picture

This picture was taken while standing on the Grassy Knoll. It gives a perspective to the Book Depository and the locations of the shots.

When I took this picture, I was standing on the corner of Elm where the motorcade had just made the turn onto Elm. The School Book Depository is directly behind me at about 60 feet. I'm standing in line between the 6th floor window and the line of sight Oswald would have seen. The fatal shot was about 100 yards from Oswald. This also give a good view of where James Tague was standing when he was shot.

This is standing across Elm Street looking at the Grassy Knoll. The distance from the Grassy Knoll to the location of the fatal shot is about 50 yards. The white structure and wood fence are as they were in 1963. Directly behind the Grassy Knoll is a large parking lot and train yard, just as in 1963. 

This is a panoramic picture of the area. To my back is the triple underpass where the motorcade passed under when fleeing the scene. 

My first impression of the area was the size. In my mind, it had always appeared much larger. Perhaps that was my mind putting size to the place in relation to the size of the event (pretty deep uh?)

Everything surrounding the assassination is convoluted and complicated. There are literally a hundred or more conspiracy theories about what happened in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. The Warren Commission headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was supposed to answer all the questions and get to the bottom of who did what and how did they do it. Sadly, after 10 months of investigating, the commission issued their report and it left so many questions unanswered. That just left the door wide open for all the wild ideas people had as to what could have happened. I believe, the Warren Commission was the beginning of the distrust in the Deep State we hear about so much now. The 60's was a wild decade. Besides the assassinations of two Kennedy's, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, there was Vietnam, the Hippie movement and moon landings. It shouldn't be surprising that trying to understand what happened back then is dang near impossible. 

A couple of things make me go,,,"hmmm, I wonder?"

One "hmmmm" is the "magic bullet". Is it possible for a shot from the 6th floor of the School Book Depository to hit Kennedy in the back (about 5 1/2 inches below the collar of his jacket), come out his neck (between his adam's apple and the knot on his tie), then hit Governor Connally in his right ribs, come out his chest, then go through his wrist before finally coming to rest in the Governors thigh???? Then have the bullet found on a gurney that the Governor was on at the hospital. Oh and by the way, if that isn't enough of a "hmmmm", the bullet looked as if it was just removed from the cartridge (pristine condition). 

The reason for the "magic bullet" theory is there could only have been three shots fired. If there were four shots fired, then that would have meant more than one shooter which meant a conspiracy. That would have been bad news for the commission. The timeline of the number of shots and where they went goes like this (remember, 3 shots and 3 shots only or there is more than one shooter):

December of 1963: The FBI reported 3 shots. One hit Governor Connally causing all of his injuries, One hit Kennedy in the back and One hit Kennedy in the head (the fatal shot). Neat package tied with a bow.

Ut oh,,,,, in June of 1964 it is unexpectedly made public that private citizen, James Tague, was wounded while standing by the triple overpass. This was a problem since it meant a fourth bullet. They solved that problem by coming up with the path of the "magic bullet". Now they reported still only 3 shots with one hitting James Tague, one following the "magic bullet" path and one hitting Kennedy in the head. 

Another "hmmmm" that always bothered me was the fatal shot to Kennedy's head making his head go backwards when the commission says he was shot from the back. A shot from the Grassy Knoll would have been from the right/front side. And what was Jackie reaching for when she climbed backwards onto the trunk of the limousine. Some say she was reaching for parts of her husband. 

Another "hmmmm",,, the commission says after shooting the president, Oswald left the Book Depository and walked 2 1/2 miles in 45 minutes where he then shot Dallas Police Officier, J.D. Tippit. Tippit supposedly recognized Oswald from a description put out over the police radio of the Kennedy assassin. This description was issued less than an hour after the shots. After killing Tippit, he runs away from that murder scene, takes his jacket off along the way and throws it on the sidewalk. Finally ends up in a movie theater. I wonder where Oswald was originally going when he killed Tippit. To make a plan to kill the president, he sure didn't plan his escape very good.

"Hmmmm", I wonder why so many people at the scene of the assassination ran towards the Grassy Knoll after the shots. Many said they were going to where the shots came from.

"hmmm, I wonder why the commission never interviewed the four motorcycle policemen that were riding close by the limousine at the time of the assassination. 

"hmmmm", I wonder why both the government and Governor Connally's family refused to allow the coroner to remove the bullet fragments remaining in the Governor's body after his death??? I guess there may have been a problem if the weight of those fragments added to the weight of the previously found fragments was more than the weight of one bullet. That would mean a fourth bullet again,,,,ut oh.

"hmmmm", was Oswald a good enough shot to fire 3 shots in 8 seconds and hit a target that was angled downwards 13 degrees while traveling away from him and going downhill? Oh, and also do it with cheaply made Italian rifle with a 4 power scope. 

Too many questions. I don't think we will ever know what really happened back then. Maybe it was just one man that changed the direction of the country by firing three shots from a rifle.

Oh well, it was a nice day with the train ride and walking around the plaza. Well worth the trip here. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 

No Bad "Vibes" This Time

Location: East Fork Park (Corps of Engineers Campground); Near Dalles, Texas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 cell phone

Well there were no bad "vibes" that stopped me from pulling out this time. I woke up early on Monday and waited for them to show up. I looked around for them inside and outside of Liberty. None were to be found, so I got to work getting Liberty ready to go. Luckily, a lot of stuff had already been done last month before the bad "vibes" encouraged prompted suggested forced me to not leave as planned. Everything went well during the prepping and hitching. I went extra slow since it had been six months since I had hitched up. Even in 'grandpa speed', (wait a minute, I need to change that expression since I'm a grandpa). Even in 'great-grandpa speed' I was still able to finish everything and pull out at 9:00 am with a 220 mile tow ahead of me. The weather was great with the temperature in the 40's while hitching up and the low 60's when I got to my destination. It was a good traveling day. 

I headed west to a Corps of Engineers campground on Lavon Lake in the little town of Wylie, Texas. The nearest city that most people would recognize is Plano which is about 10 miles away. Oh, also Dallas is about 20 miles away. The campground is a little run down with potholes in the roads and places that hold water way too long. But even after dodging potholes, my campsite was level and dry. It is an electric/water only site. My surge guard told me the electricity was good and the water looked fine, but I chlorinated my fresh water tank, just to make sure. The other good part of the campground is the camp hosts. Very nice and efficient couple from Illinois who are full-time RV'ers.

I chose this campground to be as far away from Big Dallas but at the same time making it an easy trip into the big city. I plan to use Dallas's DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit). They have a series of light rail trains that criss-cross the Dallas area and outlying towns. One of their train stations is about 12 miles away in Plano. For $2.00, I can catch a train and ride it into downtown Dallas thereby avoided the busy traffic and parking problems downtown. When I visited Washington D.C. back in 2014, I used their train system the same way and it worked out great. My first trip downtown is to see Dealy Plaza where President Kennedy was assassinated. The train will get me within a couple of blocks of the plaza and it looks like the weather should be good walking weather. 

The rest of this post is pictures. I'll proof read this post after I publish it since I'm in a hurry to catch a train. 

Typical Louisiana four lane highway. I took this route to avoid some very rough sections of Interstate highway.

This picture is of those two "dark contrails" in the sky. Later on I saw a dark one with clear blue sky and a plane following it as it was putting out a white vapor trail. Being curious I googled "dark contrails" and it is suppose to be caused when a vapor trail in roughly lined up with the sun and you see the edge of it. Called an "Edge Shadow Contrail". I can't believe I've never seen one in my life. 

The tunnel effect of the trees along the edge of I-20.

If you leave the roadway, don't go into the median here, or you may be introduced to some trees.

Wispy clouds with a blue sky. Pretty.

This was on a two lane road after leaving the interstate. I could see this picture for a couple miles since it lined up with a straight section of the road and it was big enough to where you could make out a face. Sadly, the lettering explaining what the billboard was all about was too small for me to read it as I passed by at 50 mph. I have no idea what they were selling or saying. It's an eye catcher though.

Liberty set up but slides not out yet. That is the lake in the background.

Looking behind, toward the interior of the campground.

I liked this scraggly tree.

I passed this place on my way to the campground. It smelled great so after setting up camp, I went back to try it. I got some sausage, smoked turkey, potato salad and cole slaw. I was disappointed in all of it, include their bottled sauce. Oh well, perhaps my expectations were too high.

After getting back from eating and driving around a little bit, I walked around the campground and found this tree.

Looking back at Freedom and Liberty after walking a bit.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.