2026-10-12 Arrived at Bastrop State Park

The projects were all done at home and I was off to Bastrop State Park. There is a Texas Ramblin' Roses rally but it doesn't start until Wednesday so there are a couple of days to relax. It's only an hour and a half drive and Dave was ready for me to leave so the A/C repairman could park in the driveway and finally get the air conditioner functioning again. I had to wait 30 minutes at the park before I could check in.

A few, well maybe 10 or 12 year ago there was a terrible fire in Bastrop and the surrounding area. Many of the old growth pine trees were lost. New trees were planted and have grown but trees take time.

The Houston Toad was almost extinct due to habitat loss but it looks like things are turning around.

My friends Carolyn Patin arrived early from Louisiana. Most of the pictures you will see in later posts were taken by her. Believe it or not, I only used a small portion of the pictures she actually took.

Teri Daughtry is here already too. She lives full time in her vintage trailer and is one of the hostesses for the upcoming rally.

Xena and I were set up and relaxing. Don't worry, she is on a leash. I could never catch her if she took off.

Elaine arrived and after some stress, got settled in her site. The hookups were on the wrong side but we managed to make it all work.

This is my site. I like the Copperas campground much better than the Piney Woods campground because Copperas has more of the old growth trees while the Piney Woods camping area has pull throughs that don't always work for motor homes because they are lower at the backend and dooleys don't lift so well.

Carolyn and I had dinner on the grill. Teri ate early and Elaine was worn out from backing in and setting up. A beautiful day in paradise.

 

2026-10-10 Home Again, RV Projects

 Before I left on the last trip, I ordered a new Anderson 3 way water valve. It arrived.

Dave watched several YouTube videos before he tackled the job and it actually looked much simpler the way he installed it. First he put plumbers tape on all the new valve connections. Then he unscrewed the front plate of the old one. He was able to hook up all the connections except one from the outside.

Then he went inside and hooked up the final connection. Voila, new water connection panel.

My toad was making all kinds of noise as you may remember from my previous posts. Dave and Steve pulled off the wheels and determined that it was probably a pressed in wheel bearing. They didn't have all the necessary tools to replace.it so they called a shop and it was off for the final fix. They were right.

Next up was replacing the two front hub caps I lost going and coming back from Albuquerque. I-40 is absolutely awful. You could lose a wheel in some of the potholes. We ordered a set of 4 hub caps because the price wasn't much more than just for the front two. The front ones went on real easy. These are lighter but better because they actually are bolted on rather then just pressed on.

The back ones were not so easy but Dave is not one to give up. He had to remove the two bolts and cut down the nuts on them so there were enough threads to attached the longer threaded piece.

He also had to drill a hole in the hubcap so a piece sticking out from the tire had a place to go.

Success. They look really nice but better yet, they should never come off unless we take them off.

Morgan was home from college for the weekend so it was time to paint some pumpkins. They picked a whole bunch of tiny ones this year.

We have some artists in the family. It was a nice weekend and I was glad to see all these projects done before I leave for the next trip.

2026-10-2 San Angelo State Park, Almost Home

 As we sat around our last night in Roswell, Elaine decided she was really ready to head home. When Jimmie was with us the plan was to spend two nights at Abilene State Park. We were going to spend one night somewhere on the road there. Anne and I decided that we would head further south as a shorter way home and arrive one day early. I started looking for an RV park that had pull throughs since it was just one night. Nothing came up at all. We finally decided we could make it all the way to San Angelo and the state park there had pull throughs. We each made a reservation.

I arrived at 4:15 PM and checked in. Anne arrived 16 minutes later and there was no one there to check her in on a Friday night. She came on through since she had already paid and reserved online. 

We sat outside with the dogs and had a glass of wine. It was nice to relax. 

Home tomorrow.

2026-10-1 Miniature Collectibles Museum, Roswell NM

 We arrived in Roswell on Tuesday and stayed at the Town and Country RV Park.

The park was fine with gravel pull through sites. 

Water connections were below ground which always makes it more challenging but I have a garden kneeler which helps. They had a pool which was already winterized, laundry and restrooms which we didn't use, and a couple dog parks. It was pretty quiet.

We did a drive through town to get the lay of the land. Unfortunately Jimmie had to leave early the next morning (Wednesday) to drive all the way to San Antonio due to a family emergency. 

Anne arrived about 1 pm as she was held up getting new tires when we drove in yesterday. She pulled into Jimmie's site since we were all in a row. Trainee at the office wasn't too thrilled because she had to change Anne's site number. I checked Anne's original site and she would never have been able to park there as the tree limbs were lower than her RV roof.

We headed into town because Anne was interested in seeing the Miniatures & Curious Collections Museum. Hey, these aren't cheap kids doll houses.

Some of these were very elaborate.

Do you recognize this from Harry Potter?

The merry-go-round actually works.

They had a little shop where you could buy miniatures pieces for you own miniature houses as well as a display of quilts and a special room where kids could touch and play with a range of miniatures.

2026-10-1 The Wild Weird Side of Roswell NM

Elaine, Anne, and I sat outside with the dogs for a while. Xena is a Dachshund, Tianna (far right) and Fannie (puppy) in the middle are both Yorkies.                                

                                    

We decided to check out what Roswell is most famous for before we headed home.

From a playground rocket........

....to a flying saucer.

The same theme is visible throughout the town.

Even McDonalds's is built like a flying saucer.

Little green men are everywhere.

Everyone wants to get in on the theme.

There is more than one museum dedicated to the subject.

One other thing we have been searching for is the elusive Bisochito, the state cookie of New Mexico. we have looked online and asked everywhere starting in Farmington. I don't think that many New Mexican are even aware they have a state cookie. Finally, we located them at a bakery in Roswell. Not overly impressed with them.

Roswell wants everyone to stay in touch.