2025-04-06 McCown Valley COE Park, Lake Whitney TX

Several of the women at the Granger Rally including my sister-in-law Elaine headed to McCown Valley COE on Lake Whitney after the rally. They planned to spend time there before going to the next rally in Glen Rose. Unfortunately, I had to head home for a week. The jacks on my RV were a little reluctant to go up when I left Granger which was a bit scary. I've never had a problem before but I had to take the RV in to have the caulking redone in the right color so I had the jacks checked as well. I thought maybe they were low on fluid after reading the manual. Texas Hill Country Coach RV checked them all out and did some minor maintenance on them while I was there. Everybody but my sister-in-law Elaine was scheduled to leave McCown Valley COE on Thursday or Friday but our reservation at Glen Rose didn't start until Sunday. I headed up there on Thursday morning. The drive was very relaxing after a challenging week and I saw bluebonnets along the way but had no opportunity to take photos.

The park at McCown has been around a while so, while the sites in our area in our section were pull-through, the half-circle shape was very small. Getting in the right spot to get level was somewhat of a challenge but I got it done.

Each site had a covered table and a fire pit.

Elaine was in the site right behind me.

Several other friends were right around us.

After the others left Friday morning, Elaine, Harley, and I decided to check out several of the other COE parks on the lake as well as the state park.

The state park was nice but no nicer than McCown Valley.

We saw wildlife too.

They were not moving.

We saw this neat place across the bridge. It was an event and wedding center.

The dam which, of course, is why the Corps of Engineers is on the lake.

Several of the small COE parks which had water but no electricity were actually free to stay at.

Harley decided to move his bed over to the passenger side of the RV for guard duty.

2025-03-23 Granger Lake TX TRR Rally

 Our March Texas Ramblin' Roses Rally was held at the Wilson H. Fox Corps of Engineers (COE) park on Granger Lake Near Taylor TX.  There are several COE parks around the lake. 

The sites were nice, well spaced out and many had trees. The gate was not staffed except on the weekend but there was a gate with a code going into the camping area. The burn ban was lifted so campfires were okay when the wind wasn't blowing. 

Ladderball was available for those that wanted to play.

The hostesses rented a group pavilion up on the hill for a whole game afternoon. They put up some tarps along one side to try to cut the strong winds. It was really blowing. Blowing balls into the egg carton was one of the team sports.

Next up was blowing air through a straw to get the ball into the cup.

There was also a game where you had to move a marshmallow from one cup to another by sucking on a straw to create suction.

We also did a treasure hunt in nearby Taylor. There was a list clues for places to find.

We met up with part of the group for lunch.

We also had evening entertainment from Lisa and Rita.

Saturday we went to a Farmers Market. It was really really small.

Not everyone was there for the group picture. Several ladies went to play bingo in nearby Granger but several couldn't tear themselves away in time to make it back.

Harley pulled his bed over in front of the driver's seat. Nobody was going to steal his RV while he was on duty, lol.

2025-02-13 San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site Museum

 We left Goliad on Monday and headed to Stephen F. Austin State Park to meet up with a friend who was camp hosting there. There was a pretty good size group of friends. Unfortunately, the beautiful weather disappeared and we were treated to drizzly winter weather. It put a damper on activities since there is no rally room. Teri rented a shelter but even with heaters, it was darn cold since there are only screens on the openings. We did take advantage of a lull in the drizzle to visit the San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site Museum.

There is a nice museum which commemorates the location and shares the stories of early settlers in this region where in 1823, Stephen F. Austin established a headquarters for his colony in Mexican Texas.

I should mention that they had an amazing wall size interactive display which was a map of the early town where you could touch the picture of each building and get a whole writeup on it. I've never seen such a great feature that covered a whole wall.

I was the only one of our group that braved the frigid weather to get some pictures of the "village" display outside.

It is definitely worth a visit if you are anywhere near. If you are staying at the state park, you get a coupon for reduced admission.