Day 25, 26 - Visiting Friends + - TT

Thursday (Day 25) - Another walk around the park this morning. The weather was “brisk”. I think that’s the term. Windy with temperatures in the low 50s (°F). Lots of mud from yesterday’s rain so I avoided the trails. Even with the rain, the water level of the river looks like it dropped. 

We headed towards Houston on I-10. Lots of construction. Stopped at Petsmart and Jo-Ann with an opportunistic stop at Dick’s Sporting Goods before heading north to Cypress, TX, to visit with CCJon and his wife Amparo. He is another sidecar rider with lots of epic trips on a variety of two and three wheeled rigs and an incredible photographer. You can find him on his blog, Riding the Horizon, I had missed him on his Alaska trip on a Ural but caught up later at the MOA rally in Salem, OR. Then again on another trip to Alaska with his sidecar camper. Here the sidecar camper is now paired with a real beast of a bike. A Triumph Rocket III. With an engine much larger than some cars. Ready for more adventures.

They took us to Julio’s Cantina, a fantastic Mexican restaurant in the area. The food, company, and margarita were fabulous. Thank you for dinner and the wonderful visit. I'm looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow!

Friday (Day 26) - Another Apple virtual award for the new year. I’m not sure why these things motivate me to exercise but I guess I’m glad they do. I need the exercise. Today’s walk was around the circumference of the RV park and added 2.5 miles to my monthly total. The Apple (for me) goal for January is 56.7 miles. I’ve got 17.6 miles to date.

I have another test session later this afternoon but did manage to snag a jacuzzi slot for 1:00. I’m looking forward to that as it is only getting up into the low 50s (°F) today. But it is sunny with blue skies. It’s going to be cooler temperatures through the beginning of next week. 

Day 23, 24 - Columbus, TX - TT

Tuesday (Day 23) - Another 70°F day here at the TT campground. I was VE for another radio exam while sitting outside under the awning. The other VEs were from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Alaska. All have been experiencing freezing weather. At least I didn’t have green grass in the background. No virtual background needed for these Zoom sessions. I mentioned that I was going to be headed to the pool shortly.  Was that a bit much...

I went for a couple of bike rides today as well as another walk around the park. The walking is preparation for a virtual 5K race that I signed up for on April 15th. I figure that 5K is a reasonable goal given my current shape. 

Wednesday (Day 24) - The day started out warm but rain is in the forecast for this afternoon. I took a shorter walk today and picked up a time slot for the hot tub later this afternoon. I find it hard to pass up. This wagon is at the entrance to the park. I don’t know anything about it but I liked the metal wheels. 

There was another ham test this afternoon. I believe the group has administered over 400 remote tests so far with a failure rate of just under 10%. This compares with the failure rate of the paper based tests of 28%. 

The video below is a very short capture of the water running off the roof of the RV during the storm this afternoon.

Day 20, 21, 22 - Columbus, TX - TT

Saturday (Day 20) - An 240 mile driving day. Just about all of it on Texas state highways no interstate. We are at a TT park about an hour west of Houston.   There is no WiFi here at the park so we’ll be relying on Verizon only. I have some amateur radio exams scheduled but even when we had WiFi, I needed to switch to Verizon as it was more stable. 

This park has their hot tub open but you need to make an appointment as they are limiting access. Apparently it isn’t too busy as I nabbed a spot for 4:00pm. They clean between appointments. It was a relaxing drive and we were given a 50amp site when we arrived. The prior tenants left a couple of days early and those on the 50amp waiting list didn’t want to switch sites. It’s not that we need 50amp but it sure is convenient. 

Sunday (Day 21) - I walked down to the river this morning. The weather app indicated that it was much higher than normal due to the rainfall last week. I guess I expected the water to be a bit higher. It was really muddy which suggests that there was quite a bit of runoff. 

It hit 70°F today which is a nice change from last week. Hopefully we get some decent weather for a while.

Monday (Day 22) - Another late morning walk. This was on the trail following the perimeter of the TT park and was around 2.5miles. Not a lot but I haven’t been walking very much and it felt warm at 66°F. It’s supposed to hit 75°F today which is a nice change. 

This is the tent camping section of the park. The river is behind me and it’s around the bottom-center of the above map. 

There are quite a few deer in this park. And that seems to be the norm with these Texas campgrounds. I rode the bike around the same trail I had walked this morning. Much faster though the mud made for some slipping and sliding. I don’t think I picked up any thorns in the tires.

Day 19 - Hello 2021!

Friday (Day 19) - It still feels cold around here today though the forecast is for warmer temperatures. Last night, it dropped into the high 30s (°F) so I thought it would be a good idea to start the engine. One because of the ambient temperature and secondarily for my peace of mind. No surprises tomorrow morning when we get ready to leave. I did not run the block heater. The grid heater was on for about 30sec with the "Wait to Start" light lit. It cranked for about 10sec before starting. I've read that this is about normal though the Cummins engine in the truck starts up much easier than that. But, I'll take it. Normally at these temperatures, I would run the block heater for at least an hour or so as I will do tomorrow morning. I let the engine run for about 15 minutes while I was draining and flushing our holding tanks. The engine water temperature got up to 140°F. Not truly warmed up but easily long enough to build up air pressure in both air tanks.

Overnight, the heat pump kept the coach warm enough until around 3am. At that point, it was 65° in the living room. I switched to the propane furnace at that point and turned off the electric heater in the bedroom. I should have moved the electric heater to the living room at that point as the furnace still struggles when it's colder outside. This RV has only 2" walls and an unheated basement so not really designed for "extreme" environments. 70°F preferred.

So far, we have a few reservations made like the Albuquerque Balloon Festival in October and Fort Wilderness for sometime in December (I think). We do have some near term reservations nearer to Houston followed by several reservations in Harlingen, TX. I need to fly back to Fairbanks sometime in the beginning of March. Maybe from San Antonio, TX.