I spent a few hours working in my “office” in the morning, I ran down to town to mail some things, and to pick up a few more groceries and other sundries, including stopping at the park office to add two more nights to our stay, and to pick up a better trail map, which fortunately they had (though apparently the ranger found it on the internet at a moutain biking site, rather then anything they had produced themselves). Hubby spent the day washing the outside of the RV, finishing off the bulk of our spring cleaning (just have the outside of the windows to do at some point later). After being on our own here for the duration, we had two more horse trailers join us (obviously camping together). They didn’t have any dogs, but they quickly made friends with ours, little Billy was in his element as the social butterfly. Only spoke a few words to them, but they seemed nice enough. Weather forecast for tomorrow calls for temps in the 80’s and sunny, so a ride is planned, at last!
Archives for December 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010 – Recovery Day
Saturday, December 18, 2010 – More Spring Cleaning
Hubby finished off the carpet today, in the highest traffic part of the living room, while I scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom. Not exciting, I know, but necessary, and a great relief when it was finished. The carpet looks practically brand new! A fabulous job! It took us most of the day to finish up, though I took a little time to try to get some bookkeeping done. Vowed to have a day off tomorrow to recuperate!
Friday, December 17, 2010 – Busy Day
Did some more cleaning, Hubby started steam-cleaning the carpet with our new Bissell, which is doing a fantastic job! Hard work, though, as it’s been way too long since it’s last cleaning, and that was with a scrubber type cleaner and not a steam cleaner. So much dog hair! I spring-cleaned the bedroom while Hubby the carpet on the slide in the living room, the hall and the bedroom. Hard work! But so necessary after all of the dusty places we’ve been out west. Exhausted by the end of the day, but still have lots of work left to do tomorrow.
Thursday, December 16, 2010 – Clean Up Day
Decided that since it’s been almost a year since we’ve been on the road (hard to believe!), we had better do some “spring” cleaning. I had a few things to do in the office, including looking for a hoof practitioner, it’s long overdue to have a professional reshape the horses’ feet, though I’ve managed to keep them in pretty good shape over the year. Hubby needs to replace one of his mare’s boots, and we were looking at the new Easyboot Glove, which looks a lot easier to put on, but it needs a sure fit, so a trim is necessary to get a proper measurement. I bought a hand rasp that I’ve been using for the last six months, so hopefully I’ll be able to stay on top of it a little more once they’re done right. I found someone who does the Ramey method who’s almost directly on the way from here to our next destination (which has now changed from the Hill Country Recreation Area to the Parrie Haynes Recreation Area, because most of the Hill Country campgrounds are closed, and the only one open has almost no facilities). After spending most of the afternoon with the both of us cleaning, I ran into town to mail a letter and buy a small carpet steam cleaner (Simply Green by Bissell), the perfect size for an RV at a very reasonable price, and had great reviews on the internet. Settled in for the night when I got back, with lots on the to-do list for tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 – Ride Day at San Angelo State Park
Slept late, it’s nice to be someplace where it’s fairly quiet, even though the road isn’t that far away. Did a few things in the morning before saddling up and heading out around noon. The trail was mostly dirt and sand, so we didn’t have to put boots on, though there were a few rough spots along the way. It was mostly flat, apparently an old pecan orchard, though there were a few rises and washes to enjoy. The biggest problem was that the trail map they gave us used completely different names on them than the signs on the trails! Every intersection was a mystery! Had no idea where we were for at least an hour, guessing and navigating by instinct. Eventually we figured it out and got back to the road, which has a good dirt road that follows the main road, though safely inside the park fence. I guess the only thing we really needed to remember was the road was to the south and west, and the lake (which we never got to) was to the east and north. We also had some tall main power lines that helped keep us on track. It must be some kind of joke or something, that the trails are marked with names that aren’t on the map. Oh, well, no one said this was going to get boring!Tuesday, December 14, 2010 – Work Day
Spent the day getting caught up on work and recovering from the long busy day yesterday.
Monday, December 13, 2010 – Travel to San Angelo State Park
Got out early, out of the park by 8:15, picked up hay just up the road and headed out from there in less than half an hour. Headed straight north to Marta, where we stopped for breakfast at a little cafe (no fast food except Dairy Queen, so we decided we needed to take the time for a quick sit-down. Half an hour later we were on the road again, making excellent time. We stopped at Walmart for a few things, including gas for Hubby’s van (I had stopped earlier for diesel just south of town), and made it to the park headquarters by 3:30. Unfortunately, headquarters wasn’t where we needed to go, so we were re-directed to the South Entrance, where it took over 20 minutes just to register. Texas State Parks has the most confusing entrance fees I’ve ever seen. By the time you get done you think you’re being nickeled and dimed to death! An entrance fee (one waived for Hubby because we bought a Texas State Park Pass, but not for me because we were in separate vehicles), if we had been in the same vehicle we would have both got in free. Then we had to pay for two extra vehicle fees (one for the RV trailer, another for the van, but not for the horse trailer – go figure. Had we been a motor home instead of a truck pulling a trailer, we would have only been charged one extra vehicle fee). No senior discount until Hubby turns 80! And the list goes on. It was impossible to figure it out in the end. They also mentioned that we would get two nights free if we stayed for a week, which was a good possibility anyway. Finally, after we finished at the office, we were directed 8 miles up the road to the North Entrance, a locked gate that would get us to the horse camp. They marked the map wrong, so I missed the entrance and had to turn around. Finally we arrived at the campground, a nice little camp with 10 sites, all with water, electric and corrals for the horses. We picked out Site 7 because it was long enough for both vehicles (or should I say, all four), and a good sized pen (some were smaller), and it didn’t take long to get settled in. Hubby had no problem getting a satellite signal in between huge old pecan trees, and we got everything done before dark. Yeah!Sunday, December 12, 2010 – Rest and Preparation Day
Spent the day tending the horses, watching TV, hooking up the horse trailer, getting caught up the blog and generally relaxing for the bulk of the day in preparation for a very early start tomorrow morning. We took a short drive down to the shores of the Rio Grande, just to say we saw it. (That’s the pic, Hubby with the Rio Grande behind him.) It was rather disappointing, much smaller than we figured it would be, apparently Mexico has been draining a lot of it for agriculture (though I suspect there are just as many Americans upstream doing the same thing…) We’ve decided our next stop will be San Angelo State Park, which will be close to a six hour drive, and we’ve arranged to stop to pick up a few bales of hay from Terry, the owner of the RV park who also happens to grow hay, mostly alfalfa, but some mixed, which is what we want anyway. That should hold us over until we get to the Hill Country area, where I expect hay will be more readily available.
Saturday, December 11, 2010 – Ride Day near Big Bend
Slept late this morning, and after a late breakfast we saddled and booted up the horses and headed north out a dirt road behind the RV Park. It had some areas that were very rocky, and others that were sandy like a beach. We passed a number of junk piles, riding out until we reached a small rise that, once we were on top, could see it led directly into town, accounting for the reason why it had become the town’s unofficial landfill, and we turned around, looping around a ridge to the east before coming back to the RV park about 90 minutes later, just enough to give the horses some exercise without making them work too hard. They had worked up a sweat in the heat (this is the first time I’ve been able to ride in a sleeveless shirt in ages!), so we got out a hose and rinsed them down. That lasted about 5 minutes, when Hubby’s mare flopped down and did a half roll in the dirt, making her a muddy mess on one side. Well, at least she was cooler! Had another nice evening at Happy Hour, though the cigarette smoke was starting to bother me today, it seemed most of the group was smoking today, and not enough breeze to send it away. Got back as the sun set and relaxed for the rest of the night.