Lake Whitney

Arrived into the next Thousand Trails park on Dec. 1.  It was 75 on Sunday and a high of 45 on Monday, with a high wind chill factor.  We only travelled 135 miles, so we were set up by 4:00.  They were so accommodating that we were able to get a 50 amp site (the last one available that we could fit in) and parked the trailer in it's own site directly across from us.

We have experienced colder, wetter weather than we were hoping for, but again, nothing like in Washington – or many other places.  We keep hearing the further south we go, the warmer it will get. We were able to see Lake Whitney from the Thousand Trails property, but we had to ride our bicycles a couple of miles to the end of the property, down some gravel roads and through almost four wheeling type trails and then we were able to see the lake.  Nothing we could walk the kayaks too to explore the lake.

We spent a lot of time in camp, getting cards sent out and doing Christmas shopping for the great nieces and nephews.  We also scheduled haircuts in Whitney and did some shopping in town and in Waco.  We enjoy the small town services – they meet you at the door to welcome you and they wouldn’t even think of letting you carry out your own groceries – even if you tell them that we can get it.

I got a few of our Christmas decorations out on Sunday and then put the fiber optic tree up once we arrived.  It's great -- all decorations done in 1 hour or less!!!

Toured AT&T stadium – I didn’t get kicked off the tour when I told them that my team was the  Seahawks, but I decided against wearing my Seahawks attire.   On our VIP tour we were able to see the club areas, Jerry Jones Perch, a small suite, locker rooms for the Cowboys and Cheerleaders, Press Box, Interview Room, Area where Cowboys enter the field on game day, the area where they have standing room only on the end zones, and was able to walk across the field.  Maybe next time we are through the area, we will schedule time to attend a game.   We attended a game years ago at the Irving stadium, but haven't been to a game in the new stadium.  

We also went to Waco and toured The Texas Ranger Museum:  

The Suspension Bridge was the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi River  when it was completed in 1870.  It was originally built for cattle drives crossing the Brazos River on the Chisholm Trail.   

Visited a couple of wineries and had dinner at the Homestead Cafe and toured the gift barn.  This community is an intentional Christian agricultural and crafts community which blends Pentecostal and Anabaptist simplicity and accountability.  There are 43 Christian familes living together on a 500 acre farm north of Waco.  We were quite impressed with the food which was all home made from organic and locally grown foods, as well as the crafts we saw in the gift barn were very high quality. 

The two wineries we visited was the Waco Winery (previously Tehuacana Creek) and Valley Mills. Very enjoyable visits but both of the wineries are just getting started with their drier red wines.  

On Dec 20 we moved on to Georgetown, just north of Austin for 2 nights and then on Monday, Dec. 22 we will move to Lakehills, west of San Antonio to another Thousand Trails park. 

Point, Texas

We arrived (actually it felt like we blew in) into the Lake Tawakoni Thousand Trails Preserve on Nov. 10.  This preserve is near Point, TX, about 60 miles east of Dallas, kind of in the middle of no where. We were right on the lake, but with the drought in Texas, the water level was really low.  This was the first membership park that we’ve been able to stay at on our trip so it was nice to be able to utilize the membership – nightly rate for us is $2 a night.  

Fishing pier at campground  

Marina in campground.

Boat marina at Lake Tawakoni.

W. 

We had some really cold weather and a couple of days of rain, but overall the weather was not as bad as in other areas of the country and we were able to get out and about.  The three weeks goes by so fast, even if we are in camp, we are able to do a lot of walking, pickleball, bike riding, sewing, computer work, etc.  I finished my second sweater since being retired and just started a third. 

 

Played pickle ball til sunset. 

We visited quite a few towns around the area, starting with Canton, TX, which is where we found a visitor bureau.  We also found out that Rockwall, TX was our best area for shopping:  Costco, Best Buy, JoAnns fabrics, etc. 

We also visited some wineries in the area – one in Canton; Savannah Wine and Bistro, the San Martino winery in Rockwall and a real favorite was KE Cellars; Kiepersol outside of Tyler, TX.

San Martino

KE Cellars - on Kiepersol estate

We went to Tiger Creek Refuge center which is a cat rescue of abused animals that can not be released into the wild.  They had various breeds of cats and totaled about 39 at the time of our visit.  They are really working on increasing the size of pens for all their animals to give them a safe and varied lifestyle while in captivity.

We were close to friends where we enjoyed Thanksgiving and the Thursday night Seahawk win.  Craig was able to watch the Cowboys – but not an enjoyable outcome.  With the Kulikoff’s just moving to Texas, they invited three others that had recently moved to Texas from the Pacific Northwest and had a friend from New York, so there was a total of 8 for dinner.  Beautiful new home, good hospitality and great company.

Friday was my birthday, so Craig made reservations at a steak house called FourWinds outside of Wills Point.  The menu and wine list looked wonderful, but the atmosphere was even nicer than we were expecting when we arrived.   The restaurant was started by an ex-Cowboy linebacker for the ranchers in the area.  We had steak and lobster and it was wonderfully prepared – missed you Mother!!

Then on Saturday we attended First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX.  This tradition was started in 1850 where all the settlers would bring their trade items into the Courthouse square the first Monday of the month to watch court proceedings and take care of business.  The town of Canton has a population of about 35,000 and about 400,000 – 500,000 people come to town over the four-day event preceding the first Monday of every month.  This makes this one of the world’s largest flea markets, but luckily they featured everything from furniture, yard art, home decorations, holiday decorations, apparel, music instruments, food, produce, and antiques and used flea market type items.  We took the “girls” in their doggy ride pushing them like kids in a stroller, and they got lots of attention and we were all four exhausted when we got back.  They have seven different locations throughout town and we only made it to two of them, but still walked many miles to see the “stuff”.  Luckily no place to store “stuff” – so we came away with only a couple of small purchases.

Sunday was clean-up day and then on Monday, Dec. 1 we will be moving south of Dallas to another Thousand Trails park near Whitney, TX.

Little Rock, Arkansas

We enjoyed our time in North Little Rock, Arkansas.  Stayed in a downtown RV Park right on the Arkansas River.  We kayaked on the river a couple of times as the boat ramp was right outside of the park grounds.  Since there is a dam up river, the water was great with little current.  There was also 17 miles of bike trails we enjoyed, that took us across the river to Little Rock and then back across the river back to North Little Rock.  At first the noise from the freeways was a little much, but within a couple of days we were use to it and enjoying the location.

RV Park from the River

Razorback Submarine - took from the kayaks.  

We enjoyed going to the MacArthur Museum.  The building was built in 1840 and was the birthplace of General MacArthur.  

We also went to watch the sunset from the "big dam bridge".  It is the longest US pedestrian and bike bridge (4,226 feet) spanning the Arkansas River atop the Murray Dam, and is also a lock.

The view at night was also great as they kept changing the colors of the bridges at night.

On Tuesday it was raining so we went to the Clinton Presidential museum and the highlight of the  visit was the Chihuly exhibit throughout the museum.

Wednesday it was still raining so we drove to Benton for Lexie's spa day.  She is so patient on bath days and is such a pleasure to work with.  I love self wash pet locations!!!

And of course, here is how great she looked after her bath.  We took this at the West Mountain loop in the Hot Springs National Park along with her side kick Miss Kyna.  

We spent all day Thursday in the Hot Springs National Park.  

Location to fill water jugs with spring water.  

We toured the National Park Visitor Center which was a great museum of the Fordyce Bathhouse.  

Bath House Row - many of these are still open to the public for spas, soaks, massages, etc.

Hot Springs pool coming out of the ground
at 143 degrees.

We also toured the Arlington Hotel.

We then went up in the Hot Springs Mountain Tower which had great views.  

Promenade building which was the old Army Navy Hospital, where
they did rehab utilizing the hot springs.  Now it is used as
the Federal Career Training Facility.  

And lastly before heading back to North Little Rock we stopped and enjoyed world famous barbecue from McClards Bar B Q.  

On Friday we moved onto Texarkana, Texas.  We only spent three nights,  enjoying driving around the historic downtown district, visiting a Texas winery called Red Road Winery (finally found good wines again as our motorhome stock of Washington wines was dwindling down) and enjoyed driving around the Wright Patman Lake.

Site at Shady Pines RV Park in Texarkana

View from site - great little pond filled with fish.

As always, we saw a lot in the state of Arkansas but there are still places we would like to come back and visit such as; Ozarks, Buffalo River Natl Park and Crystal Bridges Art Museum.  

On Monday, Nov. 10 we are heading to our first Thousand Trails campground on this trip,  to Lake Tawakoni near Point, TX.