Homeward Bound

The States We Visited During Summer of 2019

Roger here...  The map above shows our summer homes.  Our target area was Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire; however, we saw so much more, and we visited with so many friends and family.

I will be honest.  I was dreading the long drive home from Duluth, Minnesota to Mission, Texas.  (The very top of the US to the very bottom -- D.)
I knew that there would be a lot of hours on the road as well as many overnight stops.  We were both pleasantly surprised by the stops along the way:  

Ellenburg, Minnesota....

The Crystal Springs RV Resort right next to the interstate was truly a surprise.  It is a developing RV community with great potential.

The formal landscaping
walkways near our site were especially well done.

After a long day of driving, it was a special treat to walk a few steps from our site to go on a relaxing one-mile hike around the resort's lake.  

We did not see bigfoot (or a moose) but we did walk through clouds of fresh monarch butterflies --- literally thousands.   (Dianne here -- they were obviously freshly hatched and feeding en masse on a large field of goldenrod, presumably to prepare for their long migration south.   I wonder if we'll see any of these same butterflies in Mission?)

America the Beautiful

Des Moines (Saylorville Lake)...

We stopped at a Corps of Engineers Campground just north of Des Moines, Iowa so that Dianne could do genealogy research at the Des Moines Library.  She did find some useful information, but not as much as she had hoped.

Iowa State Capital in Des Moines

Wallace State Park (Cameron, Missouri)...

Jim and Sue recommended that we stop at Wallace State Park (near I-35) in Missouri.  It was a great recommendation.  

We enjoyed a 3-mile hiking trail through the deep woods.  The trail head was directly across from our campsite.  We could easily have spent more time here.

Benbrook Lake (Corps of Engineers Park near Ft. Worth, Texas)....

After a nondescript overnight stop just south of 
Wichita, Kansas, we drove to the Fort Worth area.  

Along the way we made a short stop at Buc-ee's.  I stayed with the dogs in the parking lot while 
Dianne explored this gigantic convenience store.

She came out smiling.  




Our drive through the Dallas/Ft. Worth area was not fun, but that was to be expected.  We eventually arrived at the Bear Creek Corps of Engineers Campground on Benbrook Reservoir.

View of Benbrook Lake from our Site

The campground was not very well maintained.  The sites and the facilities were in desperate need of upgrades.  That being said, this was a beautiful and restful reprieve from the city traffic.

We stayed here nine years ago.  At that time the water level was so low that we could walk on the cracked, dry lake bottom.  The smell of decay was pervasive.  The water level is still low, but as you can see in the photo below, the former lake bottom is now covered by colorful rushes and shore plants.  Nature always finds a way.  Oh, and the odor was a thing of the past.

We were pretty much alone in our area of the park.  The quiet of the setting helped us to enjoy our site. 

The sunset during our one-night stay was spectacular. We love the big sky and the Texas sunsets.

Austin, Texas....

We spent the next night at the Lonestar RV 
Resort outside of Austin.  It was a nice park well away from the craziness of the city.  It was also only 12 miles from the Airstream dealership where we had scheduled an annual inspection.

A year ago, when we were in Austin, it was extremely wet with continual flash flood warnings.  As you can see from the photo, water was not a problem this time.

We managed to park our extremely small 
Airstream next to a mammoth Airstream.  Kind of funny.

A vehicle inspection is always a little stressful.  Our day began by spending a half an hour negotiating closed city roads next to the dealership.  We eventually stumbled onto an open back gate and weaved our way to the service area with a few minutes to spare.  

The inspection was supposed to be finished in three hours.  We had the dogs with us.  We survived by sitting under a tree in a nearby Cabela's parking lot.  Dianne and I took turns going into the store.  The time passed quickly for whichever person was in the store :-).  We then visited an HEB to get a few groceries and headed back to pick up the Airstream.  

It was almost ready, but the service department recommended that the bearings be repacked, another hour, but glad to have it done.  
It was also a relief that they found no other problems.


Time to fight the Austin streets and traffic again as we slowly progressed to Fredericksburg.  Ah!  
Fredericksburg!

Fredericksburg, Texas.....

 Our last stop before we arrived home in Mission, Texas was one of our very favorite places.  The hill country of Texas (just west of Austin and San Antonio) is so scenic and there are so many things to do.  The KOA east of town is quite close to the things we enjoy, and we are always able to find a shady quiet spot at the back of the campground.  We stayed three nights.  We loved seeing the donkeys in the photo below from the sitting area of our campsite.

They are actually grooming each other.

When reading about our stay in the Fredericksburg area, please keep in mind that our activities were spread over two days.  Too much fun in a single day no longer fits in our lifestyle :-)

We recently discovered the Fat Ass Ranch and Winery.  Some wineries are sophisticated and serene.  Some wineries are outrageous.  It is not difficult to guess which this one was.

The wine here is different than the wine that we usually drink.  That being said, it is actually pretty good.  We did a tasting here and bought a couple of bottles in the honky tonk tasting room.

On weekends trailer food is available outside next to the horse shoe courts.

Obviously, Dianne's arms are not long enough to take this selfie. ;-).

(Not one of my talents -- D.)

Our "go-to" winery for many years has been 
the Grape Creek Winery.  We are members of the wine club and needed to pick up the 3-bottle shipment that would have been delivered in the hot June weather (when we were not there).

As wine club members we get a free glass of wine with every visit in the "members only" section of the beautiful patio.

We had a tasty meal in the trattoria during our visit.

We have visited many wineries in the Fredericksburg area over the years.  There are countless wineries here. Since our last visit several more have popped up.  I wanted to try something new.  After doing some research, the Signor Winery seemed to fit the bill.  It did.

What a setting Signor Winery provided for enjoying a glass of wine.  The landscaping
was amazing.

Rather than do a tasting, we decided to have a glass of Sangiovese (Dianne's favorite wine).  It was outstanding.  We bought a couple of bottles.

We also enjoyed a delicious tray of cheeses, meats, jalapeño jelly, and olives.  

We have officially added this to our list of "must visit" wineries.



Our next stop was to buy fresh peaches from one of the orchards.  We always seemed to miss the peach season, but we lucked out this time.

The imposing Altstadt Brewery was another stop for us.  I had a glass of Alt beer.  Dianne had a glass of Chianti.  We both had delicious soft pretzels with cheese and mustard.  

We could not return to the RV park without ice cream.  We drove into Fredericksburg for a required stop at Clear River.  Yum!

Dianne's choice:  One scoop amaretto peach pecan, and one scoop pecan pie.

I could not end this post without a photo of the longhorns back at the Fredericksburg RV park.  Hey Y'all, we are back home in Texas!

We arrived home to a tropical jungle in the back yard.  It took us three days to clean up all the excess foliage.  Being away during the summer months in a subtropical climate results in quite a bit of sweat when we get back.  

Back home in Indiana we called this a brush pile.













This will be our last post until we travel again.  We are already planning next summer's adventures.

Dianne's Teensy-Weensy Trailer Tip:

One item that was indispensable this trip was the carrying/storage case I bought for my small 3-quart Instant Pot.  

Not only did it protect the Instant Pot from scratches and bumps, it also had enough storage in the top compartment for all the accessories...

And pockets to hold other items, including the electrical cord.   Handles made it easy to tote around.  

This brings an end to the trailer tips.   I originally thought I'd just do one blog with all the tips, but decided it might be better to string them out all summer, so I did.   Hope you enjoyed them!  -- D.

Pet Picture of the Day...

During our time in Fredericksburg, we stopped at Dogologie on Main Street.  Dianne insisted on buying clothes for our dogs.  After all, there are two weeks of chilliness in extreme south Texas.

Not needed for winter, but stylin' nonetheless

Ready for "Winter" Texas Style

Jasper Warned Us, But We Didn't Listen!!!

Hi all -- Dianne here.  From Sioux Falls, South Dakota we traveled halfway across southern Minnesota, then south on I-35 almost to Des Moines.  We wanted to check out another Corps of Engineers campground.    This time we made reservations at Prairie Flower Corps of Engineers  campground on Saylorville Lake, which is just north of Des Moines, Iowa.  Our site is VERY spacious, grassy, with a view of the

 lake and a tall grass prairie behind our site.   (Perfect for a little bird watching!)

Our intention was to take a three-day mini vacation before we head back to Indiana to slave in our sticks-and-bricks yard to keep it ready for sale.   

We'll explain our title "Jasper's Warning" a little later.  Actually, we had THREE warnings here in Iowa, which I'll describe  below.

Warning #1 is actually Chaplin's new reflex.   Early in our full-timing adventure, Chaplin had the unfortunate experience of being sound asleep on the

 couch underneath one of the overhead cabinets -- you know what comes next!   After being on the road for a while, it's common for things to leap out at you from the cabinets the first time they are opened.  Poor Chap got bonked on the head by a falling package of something-or-other.  Ever since then, even if he's SOUND ASLEEP, he leaps off the couch

 every time one of these overhead cabinets are opened.  Roger managed to capture it on the camera while we were in Iowa, so we thought we'd include it for you.   Note Chaplin's tail tucked firmly between his legs in the "scared to death" position.

Warning #2 was Jasper's warning.  I looked over at him and saw that he was on

 "high alert" looking out the window.  Here's what I saw when I checked to see what he was looking at.  Those of you who know whippets, know that they were used years ago

 to hunt rabbits.  That instinct is still very strong in our oldest son!!   His warning went unheeded, and here's what we found the next morning on our patio -- My parsley snipped off to nubbins

 and the stems and leaves laying on the ground.  Roger actually caught Mr. Bunny in the act and got a photo through the

 screen door.   If we'd been smart, we would have moved lemon tree and its associated herbs indoors after spotting the bunny rabbit!!   Oh well, the parsley was getting too big anyway, and Uncle Wiggily books were my favorite as a little child,

 so I have trouble being mad at bunny rabbits for doing what comes naturally to them.

Warning #3 was a bit more serious.  Sunday evening a batch of strong storms moved through the area.  We turned on the local Iowa weather station (using our batwing antenna -- don't dismantle those if you get a satellite!!).  The sky looked a little ominous 

earlier.  Watching the local weather, we saw that the conditions were deteriorating and the storm was headed our way.  We pulled in our slide-outs, stowed the satellite and batwing, put the cat in his carrier, the dogs in the car, and high-tailed it to the bath house to ride out the storm.   The sky looked really ominous, with a wall cloud and wispy rotations.  We met a couple already there (from Iowa -- they know to take these things seriously).  As we were entering the bath house, we heard the tornado warning sirens go off.  The other couple had their little dog with them, too, and luckily all four animals got along well and they didn't mind that we showed up with our menagerie.  

When we peeked out the door of the bath house, 

the wind and rain looked like we were in the middle of a car wash.   Then it started to hail.  I remember our new Iowa friends saying to us, "Welcome to Iowa in June."   

The hail luckily was small and did no damage.  When the all-clear sirens sounded, we went back home to find our motor home intact, and even a little cleaner than when we left!!  There was a small tree down at one of the camp sites, but I saw no other damage right here.   I checked the internet the next day for the report of the storm, and they did spot a tornado on the ground just west of here!!  There were reports of a trailer being blown across a parking lot, trees and power lines down, and more just to our west.  I think we were very lucky Sunday night!  We learned an important lesson: to take these things seriously, and not hesitate to vacate to the bath house or shelter.  We felt pretty safe in there, as it was a block building and seemed very sturdy.

Today was our last day here at Saylorville lake.  Yesterday was cold and rainy, so we stayed inside and read books and worked on our blog.  Today was a lovely day, sunny and low 70s.  We took the dogs for a 3 1/2 mile walk this morning down a bike trail next to the campground.  It was early, about 8:00 a.m., and the birds were in full song.  Wildflowers

 were blooming. 

 We saw a deer in the middle of the path.  It looked at us and promptly jumped into the woods, so I couldn't photograph it.  My boys were really excited about the deer, and got some good sniffing done when we reached the spot where we had seen it.  

The trail has an off-shoot 

(an abandoned road) which goes to the beach at Saylorville Lake.  Roger gives it the "ugliest beach"

 award, but I'm sure it feels good on a hot day.  There are large piles of dead wood piled here and there.  I know they had serious floods here last spring and wonder if these were remnants of that.  Anyway, during our stay, we had noticed fellow campers coming back from the beach laden down with firewood from these piles.  Since our plan today included a campfire, 

I had a lot of fun picking up an armful of kindling from the pile.  It did burn really well!  

Roger here...  Dianne was like a little kid at the pile of driftwood.  The pyro-queen was in her full glory.  If we had had a U-Haul, she would have loaded the entire pile into it to drag back to Indiana.  (She exhibits the same kind of behavior when she sees a rock that she likes - just like Lucy in the old movie, The Long, Long Trailer).

We spent a restful 

afternoon tending our campfire and bird watching (me and Charlie), reading (Roger), and sleeping (the dogs).  I saw several Baltimore orioles and a new-to-me Dickcissel.  There is also a bird house right next to our camp site in the prairie grass with a family of tree swallows in residence. 

  It was fun to watch their aerial acrobatics.

Tomorrow morning we break camp and make our way to the KOA in Mt. Comfort, Indiana for one night (Thursday).  We have an appointment early Friday morning to get new Bilstein shocks for the motor home.  From there we'll go back to Mounds State Park and spend our days working at our house in Pendleton.   You might not hear from us for a few days, as we'll be "working like dogs" in the yard.

  Unless, of course, we have something more interesting to write about than pulling weeds!