2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 146

Day 146, Friday, March 13, 2026 - Village Creek State Park, Lumberton, TX, - 241.3 Miles, 5,685 Miles for the Trip.

44°F overnight, 68°F at noon on the road, and the high for the day was 74°F.

Well, I survived driving through Houston. I've seen photos of "the largest number of lanes in the US" at Katy, just before Houston, and while I drove through it I only counted 7 on my side of I 10. Fairly heavy traffic at noon, but only one actual stop in lane. Lots of slow downs.

I arrived at the park around 2:30, signed in and found site 20. A back in, water & electric site on asphalt with a tent pad, grill/fire ring with benches, general purpose hook, and a picnic table. $20.00 per night including a $4.00 per night individual person charge. I'm here for 3 nights. The park is within horn distance of a railroad with lots of crossings, so lots of tooting. Otherwise, other than the typical kid noise, the park is quiet. Bathrooms are a short walk away.

Site 20

By the way, it was interesting making the reservation for this park. There is also a Village Creek State Park in Wynne, Arkansas. I've stayed there a bunch of times and when I looked it up to make the reservation for the one here in Texas my browser sent me there. I didn't pay attention, and made the reservation there. The problem is it is 700 miles from Palmetto State Park where I was last night to Village Creek State Park in Arkansas, far more than I'm willing to drive in a day. Eventually, I figured out what I did & fixed it well before the trip.

After setting up I headed to Walmart which is a little over 6 miles from the campground. Still lots of traffic, but I did manage to buy everything I needed plus lots of stuff I probably didn't really need. There is an advantage of traveling in a small trailer with a relatively small refrigerator - you do have to limit yourself. In any case I was back at the trailer at 4:30 and tossed a Better Goods Mushroom & Truffle pizza in the oven. I really like this pizza. The first one I had was a Safeway brand made in Italy but Walmart has copied it well, The only problem is the truffle part is mostly oil which makes it a bit too greasy for me. My solution is to blot the thing with a paper towel before cooking. 

Dinner was half of the pizza (although I cooked the whole thing). It made it back from Walmart still half frozen so I cooked it for a little less time than normal.

Until Next Time -

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 145

Day 145, Thursday, March 12, 2026 - Palmetto State Park, Gonzales, TX, Day 2 - 0 Miles, 5,443.7 Miles for the Trip.

50°F overnight, 50°F for my morning walk, 57°F at noon, and the high for the day was 65°F.

While it stayed warm for most of the night, by 6:00AM it was down to 50°F. It didn't warm up all that much throughout the day. After breakfast I spent some time on the internet reading. AT&T shows 53.05Mbps down & 2.69Mbps up, but often hangs up for longer than the speed indicates when opening a page. The Starlink Mini probably would not be any better since there is heavy tree cover in all directions from my site. Verizon is working with my phone for internet radio, but I didn't fire up the modem to check it.

I'm told this is Texas weather. 82°F yesterday but it doesn't feel like it is going to break 60°F today (it did - the high was 65°F). My weather app says 88°F for Sunday, although I'll be long gone by then.

I headed for the showers. 2 in the men's bathroom, one disabled equipped. I used the standard one. A bench and 4 hooks in the drying area, separated from the shower by a shower curtain. The drying room floor is 1/2" higher than the shower floor but some water gets under the shower curtain wetting the first foot of the floor. A 1" high pressure, low volume shower head with dual handles for the water. You only need the hot one since the fine spray cools off by the time it hits you. I never opened the cold water handle. A soap dish in the shower. Not the cleanest I've been in, but overall not too bad - a B that would do better with a standard shower head.

More outside reading trying to stay in the sun.

Dinner was an Amy's Enchilada with Spanish Rice & Beans Bowl.

Until Next Time -

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 144

Day 144, Wednesday, March 11, 2026 - Palmetto State Park, Gonzales, TX - 0187.4 Miles, 5,443.7 Miles for the Trip.

51°F overnight, 80°F at noon on the road, and the high for the day was 82°F. Still 80°F at 6:00.

A rather exciting night. First a tornado watch, then a tornado warning, then watching a lot of red on my radar app heading right at us. It slide by just to the west but dumped nickel sized hail, shut down my Starlink Mini, and heavy rain off & on until 11:00. I thought the wind knocked over the Mini tripod, but it was still standing in the morning. I guess the heavy rain shut it down. 

I met the campground owners on the way out and gave them the check for the two days & bag of pecans. Again greeted by name and welcomed back for next year.

I had a choice of taking I 10 through San Antonio or a bunch of state & farm roads that added about 45 minutes to the trip. I opted for the later, and drove through downtown Fredericksburg, an interesting town. 

I arrived at Palmetto State Park around 2:00. I'm in site 4, a back in water & electric site on asphalt with a fire ring, charcoal grill, hook & picnic table. I'm here for 2 nights at $21.00 per night including a $3.00 per night entry fee.

Site 4

After setting up I fired up the AC since it was 80°F in the trailer, got out my camp chair and sat outside and read. I finished Spoils of the Dead by Dana Stabenow and started Stephen King & Pete3r Straub's The Talisman. Since it is a 1984 copyright, I probably already read it, but it isn't in my database of read books so it was before 2000 which means I probably won't remember any of it.

Dinner was a chicken burger & a salad.

Until Next Time -

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 143

Day 143, Tuesday, March 10, 2026 - Pecan Valley RV Park & Farm, Junction, TX , Day 2 - 0 Miles, 5,256.3 Miles for the Trip.

63°F overnight, 66°F for my morning walk, 72°F at noon, and the high for the day was 83°F.

A very warm night; the electric heater never came on. Heavy clouds this morning, breaking up to partly cloudy by noon. During my walk I saw the park's herd of deer as well as chickens & goats. 

After breakfast I sat outside and read. I finished The Camp Bird Cafe by Chinle Miller. The writing is as bad as ever; no idea why I keep reading the series other than they are free from Amazon Prime. Anyhow, I started Spoils of the Dead by Dana Stabenow. Not one of the Shugak series, but about Alaska.

Around 1:00 the inside temperature hit 79°F so I closed up the windows, shut off the MAXX fan and fired up the AC set at 76°F. Quite a bit of wind, but still comfortable sitting outside. My weather app just let me know we are under a tornado watch until 10:00.

While sitting outside and on a walk I took a few photos of the livestock:

North Llano River

Still 83°F at 5:00.

Dinner was a Scott & Jon's Shrimp Alfredo Bowl.

Until Next Time -

2025-26 Trip to the Southwest, Day 142

Day 142, Monday, March 9, 2026 - Pecan Valley RV Park & Farm, Junction, TX - 186.1 Miles, 5,256.3 Miles for the Trip.

56°F overnight, 71°F at noon on the road, 74°F for an afternoon walk at Pecan Valley, and the high for the day was 74°F.

A warmer night with heavy clouds at 7:00AM. After breakfast I finished packing up the trailer, read for a bit, and was out of the park around 9:30. Stopped at a Loves in Sonora ($2.89 with $.10/Gallon discount) and arrived at the park at 1:30. Greeted by name as I arrived and escorted to site 5, a full hookup pull through on gravel with a picnic table & fire ring (although there is a burn ban so no fires). $50.00 per night for 2 nights. 1" side to side correction and I had to raise the tongue 1/2". I didn't unhook since there isn't really anywhere to go. Pecan Vally is about 7 miles from Junction, and there isn't all that much in Junction anyway. I bought my usual bag of candied pecans & they arrived at my site before I finished hooking up the utilities. The chickens & goats are wandering the RV park.

Site 5

The Guidos made our reservations for the Algonac rally in Algonac State Park in MI in September, and I made the reservations for the Dalewood Conservation campground in St Thomas, Ontario, our one night stop between the Algonac Rally & the Niagara Wine rally in Niagara Falls, Ontario. $76.00 per night Canadian which worked out to $56.20 US.

While there is a strong AT&T signal (4 bars) here at the park, it is unbearably slow so I dug out the Starlink Mini. The Mini shows 63.77Mbps down & 19.83Mbps up. While AT&T shows 104.34Mbps down & 24.27Mbps up, I don't believe it. It was so slow that I kept timing out on pages when making the reservations in Canada. I don't know if AT&T cheats on speed tests by Speedtest or not, but both tests were done with Speedtest on my laptop & no matter what it says, the Mini is much faster.

Maybe it was just a problem connecting to Canada, or temporary since now AT&T is working as expected.

I spent the afternoon sitting outside reading. I finished Dana Stabenow's Not The Ones Dead last night and started The Camp Bird Cafe by Chinie Miller. Miller's Bud Shumway series is not the best written one I've followed, but it is about an area of the west that I've visited and enjoy reading about.

Dinner was a Healthy Choice Sweet & Sour Chicken Bowl.

Until Next Time -