October 2010 - Fredericksburg TX

We planned a trip to Fredericksburg TX about 70 miles from San Antonio.  Over the years, it has been one of our favorite places to visit.  It is a busy little touristy town that almost always has something going on but even people watching there can be fun.  This time DH was along for the ride.  Luckenbach TX was hosting a motorcycle rally over the weekend which is what drew his attention.  It is not far from Fredericksburg.  We've never had trouble getting an RV spot at Ladybird Johnson Park as long as we didn't come on a holiday weekend or at their very busiest time in the winter.  It has been a favorite of snowbirds for some time.  It came as a shock when the office wasn't sure they could fit us in for more than a night especially since the park was over half empty.  They claimed to have two huge groups coming in the next day, the Houston police and another group.  Anyway, we ended up staying the whole week but each day I had to go in and petition them to let us stay another night.  We do a lot of walking around the park with Willy, Gretchen, and Harley so I noticed that there were a minimum of 30 empty spots every single day.  The park is run by the city and everything is manual.  I think the staff who were just city clerk types were simply unable to juggle any of the sites around to make the best use of space but there were so many empty spots that juggling shouldn't even have been necessary.  The prices have gone for camping there but it seems that better site management would have done more to bring in revenue as we saw many, many RVers turned away because they were "full".  We like it because the park is quiet and situated in a pecan grove so there is nice shade always a bonus in Texas.  

It was an enjoyable week.  I drove DH over to the motorcycle rally two days in a row so I could do a few other things.  The second day I had a crock pot going with dinner and took the dogs out for a walk around the park.  When I came back, I couldn't get the deadbolt unlocked.  I called the RV dealership since we had already had the lock replaced once for the same problem.  They told me to call a locksmith and they would cover it so I headed over to the office to find a phone book.  I was really fortunate since there was only one locksmith and he had just returned from an out of town job.  He arrived about 10 minutes later and, after much effort, managed to pick the lock.  By then DH had already called me to come pick him up as it had started to rain so he found cover until I could get the lock taken care of.  We changed our route home to include another stop at the RV dealer to once again take care of the lock.  

As a side note, I later did a bunch of research online; found a thread on one of the RV forums which led back to a lockmaker.  Seems that the locks made in the last couple of years don't work the same as the old ones.  The old locks wouldn't release the key unless it was straight up and down.  The new ones are missing this safety feature and, if the locked is turned even a little sideways when the key comes out, the teeth inside shift out of place and you cannot open the deadlock.  Wouldn't you think that locksmiths and RV dealers would be up on issues like that?  Anyway, keep it in mind if you have a problem with a newer deadbolt.  Put the key in as far as it will go and gently tap the end of the key.  You should hear the teeth moving back into place one by one.  Then, be absolutely sure never to take the key out unless it is perpendicular to the ground.