In late January, I was excited to start the next leg of my travels because I would be visiting parts of Texas I’d never seen before but before leaving the Dallas area, I wanted to have some service work done on the trailer. I was coming up on my one-year anniversary with it so it was prudent to get the brakes and suspension checked, the bearings greased and a few minor repairs. McClain’s RV, the dealer I bought it from, has several locations around Dallas and one is in Sanger, only a half hour drive from the ranch. The biggest bonus is the KOA campground behind it. I was able to stay there a few days and each morning, the dealer would come pick up the trailer to work on for the day while I managed to find things to do in the Sanger/Denton area each day to fill the time.

“Head ’em up, move ’em on”…time to leave the ranch.

My campsite at Sanger/Denton KOA, located right behind McClain’s RV for easy service.

Brock bringing my trailer back at the end of a day of service work at McClain’s RV.

On January 29, I left Sanger and went to Escapees Rainbow’s End RV Park in Livingston, north of Houston. Escapees is a club that has RV parks around the country and a couple of them offer RV weight analysis. I’m not a club member so I paid a little more for my site ($35/night instead of $25) but the SmartWeigh service is available to everyone and I paid $55 for my trailer. I came here specifically to have my trailer weighed because I had no idea if I was over my maximum weight capacity since I have everything I own in the world in my truck and trailer.

First, I brought my truck to the scale without the trailer and the woman (sorry, but I can’t remember her name) weighed it. Then I hitched the trailer and came back to have the truck weighed with the trailer weight on the hitch and the trailer, itself, weighed. She weighed each side and each axle separately to see how the weight is distributed. The end result is I’m about 300 pounds under my maximum weight for the trailer axles, tires, and suspension, which is pretty close. A full tank of water would bring me to my limit but I never carry a full tank of water. My truck is 2000 pounds below its maximum towing capacity and, of course, I knew I had more truck than I needed for this trailer but I did that on purpose. My trailer also measured 7 inches taller than the manufacturer’s specs stated. This is likely due to the difference when hitched to a truck and the differences from one truck to another. It’s very important to know your exact height when you encounter low overpasses.

 

My campsite at Escapees Rainbow’s End RV Park in Livingston, TX.

SmartWeigh is an RV weighing service available at three Escapees Parks in the U.S.

Weighing each trailer axle for weight distribution.

Measuring my height, which turned out to be 7 inches higher than the manufacturer specs.

Calculating the numbers.

I did the weighing on my way out of the campground and was then heading toward Padre Island, the barrier island off Corpus Christi with a one-night layover in Victoria, Texas. I stayed at Port A RV Park in Port Aransas at this time last year but left early to return to Dallas to buy my new trailer and truck so I came back for another couple weeks. It’s a very popular spot for snowbirds and I have some friends in the area to visit with. Twice now I’ve come here to go to the beach in the winter and both times I’ve been disappointed due to daily fog off the Gulf of Mexico.

My site for one night at Gateway to the Gulf RV Park in Victoria, Texas.

RV sites at Port A RV Park are pretty close but not nearly as bad as many other parks in this town.

Dinner with friends Gloria and Roger at Moby Dick’s in Port Aransas.

Foggy conditions prevented me from enjoying time on the beach.

To fill the time I should have been on the beach, I did a couple home improvement projects. One was to add carpet to the front of my island to give the cats something to scratch other than the upholstery. I bought two doormats in a color that went well with my decor and attached them to the face of the island using 3M Command Strips. The cats took to it pretty quickly and it also brightens the space by introducing a lighter color.

I added rugs to the face of my island to act as a scratch surface for the cats.

Cleo went for it immediately!

Another thing the girls like is sitting in front of the fireplace on chilly nights. Me, too!

Leaving the coast in mid-February I headed west and was excited to visit Big Bend National Park but needed to stop at a couple places along the way. I spent two nights at Quail Springs RV Park in Uvalde, which turned out to be a pleasant and shady little spot with absolutely nothing to do in the area. That happens sometimes.

My two-night stay at Quail Springs RV Park in Uvalde, Texas.

After that, I move to Del Rio for a four-night stay at Holiday Trav-L-Park. Here, I found several things to occupy my time. Nearby was Amistad National Recreation Area, a reservoir popular for fishing. Walking the trails here was my first introduction to the desert landscape of west Texas. It seems alien at first but it grows on you if you take the time to see the beauty in it. The reservoir straddles the U.S./Mexico border and is fed by the Rio Grande as the river passes through it on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

If you’re familiar with the TV miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” the scenes of the border town were filmed in Del Rio, Texas.

My campsite at Holiday Trav-L-Park.

You’ve heard of “Ladies who lunch” but I met “Ladies who drink.” There was a daily Happy Hour that rotated each day to a different trailer.

Amistad Reservoir in Del Rio, Texas.

Easy walking path though the desert landscape.

Lots of Prickly Pear cactus here.

This view from the edge doesn’t do it justice in that this spot is about 60 feet above the water.

Standing at the edge of the flat rock about 60 feet above the water.

One day I drove 50 miles west to the town of Langtry where Judge Roy Bean set himself up as the “Law West of the Pecos.” Apparently, he wasn’t a judge or even an actual Justice of the Peace; he was likely a notary public with a big personality. The buildings have been preserved in their original locations and open to the public for free. There’s also a desert botanical garden on site.

Judge Roy Bean’s saloon/law office, The Jersey Lilly and in the background is the Opera House he built with hopes of enticing singer Lillie Langtry to visit. She never did and the building was actually used as Bean’s home.

The Jersey Lilly interior.

Windmill in the botanical garden.

The view looking east from Langtry. The cliff on the right is the Rio Grande River and the Pecos River joins it just a few miles from here.

The Pecos River.

U.S.-90 runs close to the border here and the white sand roads that run along the side of the highway are used by Border Patrol agents.

Although U.S.-90 doesn’t cross the border, there is a border patrol checkpoint because of its close proximity to Mexico. I have come across these in several places in Texas and New Mexico. They rarely stop someone and I was always waved through.

On February 19, I moved to Big Bend National Park, staying 6 days at Rio Grande Village RV Park, the only campground in the park with full hookups—or any hookups for that matter. Most national parks have only primitive camping. In other words, no water, electric or sewer. Since I like my creature comforts, I was glad to see they had all the amenities I require. The trade-off for these luxury accommodations was the difficulty of backing into their sites. The two dozen full hook-up sites were installed in a former parking lot so the sites are perpendicular and directly opposite one another. Usually, back-in sites are on a diagonal and staggered, making it easy to maneuver the trailer. To back into these sites required an exhausting amount of work but luckily, I had help. As I returned to my truck after checking in at the office, a couple approached me with questions about my Reflection. When they heard I was about to pull into this difficult spot, the husband offered to guide me. Thanks, Ed!

The RV park is in a former car parking lot, making it extremely difficult to back into the sites.

It was a lot of work but I managed to back into my site at Rio Grande Village RV Park with help from a stranger named Ed.

I’m now going to tease you with a photo from the park but the rest will have to wait until my next post.

The narrow Rio Grande River snakes its way past the cliffs near Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park.

My 1200-mile route from the Whitesboro, TX to Big Bend National Park.

Next post: Big Bend National Park.

My name is Lindsay Reed and I’m a photographer and retired graphic artist with a passion for both lighthouses and road trips. I am living as a full-time solo RVer in my 33 foot Grand Design Reflection Fifth Wheel trailer (I spent my first two years in a 31 foot 2005 Coachmen Mirada motorhome) and plan to spend the next few years traveling the U.S. and Canada photographing not only lighthouses, but everything else there is to see in this wonderful land. I hope you enjoy my blog and will follow my adventures in the months and years ahead.