Tuesday - Friday, March 28th - 31st -

 Nothing to exciting happened Tuesday thru Thursday, we just enjoyed the campground. Actually Kelsey and the kids did go to Dallas and enjoyed a day at the zoo. One day we all went to Wills Point to look around and have lunch. It is an interesting little town.

Kelsey & the kids presented Kathy with a floral arrangement they made while walking thru the woods.

Friday - We all headed for Missouri. Kelsey and Lydia made it home safely. Kathy, Nolan & I were in the coach and we make it part way. We are spending the night at the RV Express 66 in Marshfield, MO, 453 miles from the campground. We got here at 7:10. Tomorrow we only have another 110 miles to go to reach Centertown.

The wind was BAD today. A lot of our route was north and northeast. The wind was out of the west and the coach was really a hand full at times. I drove about 180 miles today.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Monday, March 27th - Nothing Exciting

 The weather had cooled significantly. The overnight low was in the high 40's and the daytime high was in the low 70's.  There was some sun, but not a lot. We had a campfire going most of the day. I called about getting some firewood and it costs $1/piece. I'm way to cheap to pay that much so we did some woods cleaning. We didn't have to go far at all to drag up enough fallen branches to keep the fire going all day. (There is nothing in the campground "instructions" that prohibits picking up the fallen branches.) About dark a light rain started, but it didn't rain long.

There aren't many people at the campground. There are a lot of camper units on what must be monthly or seasonal sites. Nolan fished for awhile, but never got a bite. Kelsey took Lydia and Nolan to the activity center and they played a round (18 holes) of putt putt golf, played cards (Old Maid), basket ball and video games.

We always enjoy eating.

Kathy and I mostly vegged. We did do some walking.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday - March 24th, 25th & 26th - Lake Conroe & Lake Tawakoni

 Nothing much happened Friday. It rained just enough to to wet the pavement a few times but hardly enough to wash the salt off the coach and car. Below are some photos from around Lake Conroe.

Lots of stuff to enjoy.

On Saturday we drove 200 miles from Lake Conroe to Lake Tawakoni. We are about 60 miles east of Dallas. Along the way we saw this statue of Sam Houston.

Most of the trip we were on state highway 19. The pavement was mostly good and traffic was light. We arrived around 4:30 and Kelsey, Lydia & Nolan arrived a little after 9:00.

Lake Tawakoni

Breakfast

We attended church at Bull Creek Cowboy Church near Lone Creek, TX. It was awesome. 

At the Activity Center.

Weather has been great the past two days.

God is good. I pray the He blesses you and yours.

Thursday, March 23rd - Corpus Christi to Willis (Conroe)

Today is our youngest son Drew's birthday. He turned 51 today. Happy Birthday Drew!

It was a WINDY 280 miles from Corpus Christi to Lake Conroe. Kathy drove about 90 miles and then took a break while I drove the middle 110 miles before she finished up the drive. 20-35 mph winds battered us almost the entire distance. Thankfully the pavement surface was very good almost all the way.

When I checked out the beach before leaving there were a bunch of people out exercising (doing yoga?).

Leaving Padre Island.

We stopped for lunch at a rest area just east of Victoria.

I visited with a trucker and his wife who were parked next to us. He said his trailer was full of cotton bales. He was at his maximum legal load. He said the wind was pushing him all over the road. They were on their way back home to Jackson, TN, after dropping off the load of cotton. He said that by the time they arrived home they will have traveled 3,500 miles this week. 

Traffic was light until we hit Houston, then it was terrible. We had the option of taking the Sam Houston toll road around the city but I was to cheap to pay over $20 for tolls on top of the bother of having to stop at toll booths. If we had one of the EZ Pass units so that we didn't have to stop to pay tolls I'm sure it would have been better to pay the toll. It was about 2:30 when we went through. I can't imagine how bad it must be at rush hour, or if there is an accident.

Parked at Lake Conroe.

Pond with  fountain across the street from us.

This is a big place. Our site is under the black dot, below the pond, at the top middle of the photo.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Wednesday, March 22 - Fine Day at the Beach

 The overnight low was 70 and today's high was a mostly cloudy, breezy 84. 

This morning I went for a walk along the beach. I walked north. Apparently the beach is public for a mile north of the park/campground, then you run into a residential unit that blocks the beach. I think the public beach runs many miles to the south.

I don't know if you can read the text. The red flag is for "HEAVY SURF - DANGEROUS CURRENTS -STAY WITHIN WAIST DEEP WATER". The two flags below it are for "PRESENCE OF VENEMOUS MARINE LIFE" & "INDICATES AN ENVIRONMENTAL WARNING FOR AIR AND/OR WATER QUALITY".

The sand is firm. With a $12 permit you can drive out onto the beach, and up and down it for miles.

We drove down to the south end of Padre Island, not to be confused with the day we drove to the north end of South Padre Island. The end of the road was13 miles from the campground. From the point where the road ends at the south end of Padre Island to where it ends at the north end of South Padre Island is over 100 miles. I think its all a bird sanctuary. 

We had a picnic lunch on one of the tables at the Visitors Center, near the end of the road. Our view of the beach and Gulf during lunch.

On the drive south we saw a sign for a windsurfing are on the leeward side of the island. On the way north we out for a look. There were 15-20 people out wind surfing. Note the guy near the top left of the photo.

He was way  out from the shore and the water still wasn't up to his waist.

The people who were good at this just flew across the water. We couldn't tell guys from gals but there we saw gals on the shore in wet suits so I assume at least some of the people out on the water were women. Looks like this would take some great arm strength.

I hope the video plays for you.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Tuesday, March 21st - Not a Good Beach Day

 I don't think it hit 70 degrees today. It was windy and it misted rain on and off all day. The first photo below shows the closest we came to seeing the sun. Kathy did walk over to see the rough surf.

We drove over to the mainland, only a couple of miles, to buy groceries. I can't get over how people drive out on the sand, with water standing in pools everywhere, to go fishing. I looked at this photo right after I took it and was surprised at what I saw. I took the photo about 1PM. We could not see any sun yet the sun did show up in the photo.

We stopped and had lunch first. I had a breakfast plate and Kathy had a mushroom, swiss burger. Both our meals were good.

The H.E.B. grocery store has a cigar humidor. First time we have never seen one in a grocery store..

About 5PM I was walking some trash over to the dumpster, during a period of heavy mist, and saw this person riding a bicycle toward the beach, while carrying a surfboard.

Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be better.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Monday, March 20th - Moving Day

Travel Summary - Since leaving MO in early December we have put 4200 miles on the coach and 2500 miles on the Flex. We left MO 109 days ago.

We moved into the coach full time 10 months and 3 day ago.

Today we traveled from Lakewood RV Resort in Harlingen, TX to Padre Balli Campground in Corpus Christi, TX, 160 miles. Before leaving this morning I felt like I was directed to go find the campground manager and pray for him again. I told him I didn't know why I was called to pray for him, maybe the Lord was just teaching me to be obedient. As I was ready to leave he put his hand on my shoulder and told me that he is in the process of making some difficult decisions, and that he was strengthened knowing that the Lord was directing people to pray for him.

Overall route.

Bridge over to Padre Island.

Our site is the black dot. The water on the right is the Gulf.

The Border Patrol checkpoints always seem odd to us. This one was about 90 miles north of Brownsville, TX. ALL northbound traffic goes slowly through the checkpoint. The first check was a Border Patrol agent with a dog (sniffing for drugs?). Then it was into the shelter. The Agent on the left asked Kathy if everyone on board was a citizen. She said yes and he waved us through.

These folks weren't as lucky. It looked like the people from the van were in the chain link on the right.

We bought fuel in Kingsville, TX. We paid $3.69/gallon. It was the 2nd cheapest fuel so far on the trip.

We saw more windmills on the way. I could see 28 of them from the highway, but there were a lot more. Only 7 of the 28 were turning.

A big refinery on the outskirts of Corpus Christi . The is only about half of the complex.

The bridge to Padre Island.

Looking down from the bridge.

Parked at the campground.

It is damp and windy but we walked over and walked down the beach for a short distance. There were very few people still out at 4 PM. Someone had put a lot of work into this sand castle complex.

AT 10:30 the temperature is 64 and the wind is gusting hard enough to shake the coach. Hopefully tomorrow will be nice enough for us to comfortably spend some time in the beach.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.