Lake Conroe, TX

After our winter experience in San Antonio, we stayed at Lake Conroe for 2 weeks and fell in love with the area. This area quickly became one of the top two on our list for a place to buy a home.  The weather was great and the Thousand Trails park was awesome.

Sunset from the dog park.

Martha, the water dog.

Although we didn't see any armadillos while we were in Conroe, TX, we had to take this picture 

We went to the Whitley Vineyards in Montgomery and had a great time meeting people and making friends.  The people at the wine bar are part of the reason we fell in love with Conroe.  They made us feel like we had been friends for years.  They have entertainers on Thursday nights and on Sundays.  We went there 3 times and on one of the Thursdays they had a karaoke night, what fun!  We actually got up and sang.  Didn't clear out the bar but, that shows their stamina. LOL

Next to the winery, they had a Pioneer Museum. It was closed due to COVID, but you know Graham, he was able to get some pictures through the windows.  It would have been really nice to have toured the museum and learned about some of the history in the area.  

We also went to their newly built Margaritaville hotel for a beerfest.

We did a walking tour of downtown Conroe where they have benches that were painted by local artists.

Our good friends Bear and Susan contacted us and said they were in Huntsville to pick up a new puppy, so we took a drive up to see them.  We had a great time visiting and catching up on what we have been doing.  Graham was able to help train the puppy to walk on a leash while we were there.

While there, we visited the Huntsville Prison Museum.  Graham spoke with one of the Associate Directors (retired) from the Texas Prison System.  He compared the Texas system with the California prison system.  There are some big differences, as you can imagine.  If I ever go to prison I don't want it to be in Texas.  It was surprising how big Huntsville Prison is, right down to its own rodeo arena.  They don't hold the rodeos anymore but, for many years the public was invited to attend the Prison rodeo where only prisoners would compete.  
 

We also went to their Veterans Memorial. It was an interesting place as it had tons of photos and memorabilia from people who served in the different services and different wars.  It was probably one of the best war museums we have seen.

Back in Conroe, we went to Lone Star Flag Park to see all the different flags that have flown over Texas.

The flags tell the history of Texas independence from 1821 through 1839. 
The State transitioning from Mexico to the Republic of Texas. 
The Texas Navy flag, created in 1836, was interesting because
is was patterned like the American flag but with one lone star in the blue field.

Corpus Christi and San Antonio

We went back to Corpus Christi so that Cherie could go to her final orthopedic doctors appointment.  The doc said that she no longer needed to wear the brace and that she should start exercising the wrist.  Good news indeed.

The weather started to turn cold and Corpus Christi is always windy so we decided to shorten our stay and go to San Antonio early. We are staying at Fort Sam Houston Army Base.  They have very nice campsites here.  We got here before the storms and frigid weather hit.  So we have snow and sleet and it got down to about 8 degrees on Monday (2/15).  Too cold for the heat pumps in our RV to work, luckily, we have the fireplace and a portable heater. Extra blankets and sleeping with the dogs helped as well, lol.

We'll get to visit our good friends Lori and Alan Hernandez while we are here, which is always a good time.

Colorado Lake: Columbus, TX

 This is a nice and well run campground.  After one day, we were able to get a site with sewer although with only 30 amps.  That just means we need to watch how we use our electricity.

We have visited Columbus and went on a walking tour of their historic buildings, they had an app which told us all about each one.

Opera House

War Memorial building, used to be a water tank and pump for the city.

Courthouse

We also went to the Santa Claus museum which opened in 1990.  Most of the items in this collection were donation by Mary Elizabeth Hopkins. And later two other families added to the collection, the Luman and Hubenak families.

Santa who punished bad children.

Mary Elizabeth Hopkins, I think she looks like Mrs. Santa.

Good times visiting eclectic museums.

Lake Medina, TX

We are going to visit Thousand Trails campsites while in Texas.  Lake Medina was the first. This campsite needs a lot of work, the trees need trimming and the road are full of potholes. We were able to get a site with 30 amp and water, no sewer.  They claimed to have a honey truck and after being here for a few days we ordered a pump out.  They never came.  Cherie called the office and they said their truck had broken down.  A few days later, we went to the office and asked if the truck had been repaired and they indicated it had as they promised to pump us out the next day.  No such luck, again they never arrived.  This is not a campground we will be back to.  The only nice thing about this place is that it is a deer preserve.  The deer are so used to human contact that you can feed them right from your hand.  Every day and night there were over 20 dear around our campsite.  The dogs were not too happy though.  They wanted to go and play with the deer.

One night we took a ride out to a winery and then afterward we stopped in for dinner at the 4Way Roadhouse, they had a guy singing and playing guitar and during one of his songs, this guy (about 90 years old) came up and started playing the spoons.  It immediately had us thinking about Janette because her brother used to do the same thing.  

While here we visited many cities in the area, one being Kerrville and the other Fredericksburg. We had great German lunches at both.

We were also able to visit with our good friends Lori and Alan Hernandez. We took one day and visited the missions in the area.

We also enjoyed a few nights around the fire.

Christmas day 2020

 Well, for the most part, we had a very relaxing, nice Christmas day. We lounged in bed until we HAD to walk the dogs, lol; then after a nice walk along the beach, we came back to the RV and had a good brunch, waffles and bangers (Scottish breakfast sausages).  We made phone calls to friends to wish them a merry Christmas and then about 3:30ish decided it was time to walk the dogs again. We decided on a nice long walk to get our 10,000 steps in.  On our way back, Cherie was looking across the street and saying merry Christmas to some people when Martha (because she was tired) slowed down and Cherie tripped over her, landing hard on her left wrist.  Everyone asked if she was ok, and of course, she said she was. She found it difficult to get up, but was able to with help from Graham. He said, "I think you might have broken your wrist.". Cherie, of course, denied that could be the case.  " let's just get back to the RV and ice it," she says.

We get back and as she starts to ice it he, she feels the pain radiating her arm.  She says, I think we should go to the ER. Upon having X-Ray, they discover that it is indeed a broken wrist. Cherie's comment, "damn, I hate it when he is right.". The good thing is there is still time for an uplifting end to 2020.  

Corpus Christi, TX (Christmas Eve)

We stayed at Pio Pico for about 10 days visiting South Bay friends and family and then went up to Vista to stay at the Elks Lodge for 2 weeks.  While there, we had lots of dinners with our friend Janette and watched lots of Hallmark movies, which Janette and Cherie love (Graham puts up with them:)).  

We took a week to travel from Vista to Corpus Christi. We arrived yesterday and our next adventure has begun with us parked on the beach at NAS Corpus Christi.  We were greeted with tropical weather of 75 degrees and high humidity followed by a night of gale force winds of 35 to 40 knots and waves breaking over the seawall.  We brought two of our slides in to protect the awnings.  The winds finally calmed down today around noon. 

It is Christmas Eve and this afternoon we will decorate the RV, tonight we will attend Christmas Eve services at the Protestant Chapel on base.  We have not been to church since all of them were closed in March. 

Wrap up

 We stayed in Flagstaff for about 5 days to visit with our daughter, Danielle; and had a wonderful visit.

We arrived back in San Diego on November 24.  We traveled through 17 states and stayed at 38 campgrounds. What a trip!

Highlights were: Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Indiana (Amish Country & visiting Bob's nieces and nephew), Henry Ford Museum, Frankenmuth, visiting with Ninette and then Danielle.

Graham and I will soon be heading to Corpus Christi, Texas for Christmas and bringing in the New Year.  Despite COVID19, we traveled the country and met nice people and saw a lot of this great country.