Sunday, March 27, 2016

Leaving Betty’s for Texas…

image

Well the day did come for us to depart Betty’s RV Park. Without a doubt we had an absolute blast during our month long stay but it was time for us to go. Each time we shuffled sites there, it was always an adventure when we began to bring our slides in.  However, during our stay at Betty’s and after speaking with Tiffin Service Department, I had time to order and replace the slide solenoid.  Thankfully now all seems well (at least so far), I’ll pen a future blog about the repair but for now we are happy the slides seems to work properly again.

imageimage

We left Betty’s and traveled east on some back roads until we had no choice but to drive on Interstate 10. We tend to avoid highways as much as possible as I prefer to stick to the more scenic and interesting side roads. We drove only about 110 miles the first day out and chose to spend one night at one of my favorite boondocking spots in Louisiana. We pulled into the back parking lot of the Delta Downs Racetrack and Casino in VInton, Louisiana.

imageimage

I love this spot because we  are usually able to watch the ponies practicing each morning but on this stay they were resurfacing the track so we were not able to watch practice runs... bummer! We did go to the casino to gamble a bit and managed to lose about 7 dollars but we were served a few drinks so I call it a break even gambling excursion.

imageimageimageimage

After a pleasant night (we were the only RV in the lot) we left the next morning for the just over 150 mile trip to Huntsville State Park in Texas.When we drove across the Louisiana/Texas Border there was visible evidence of the major flooding that area experienced.  We saw lots of water in this part of Louisiana and Texas.

imageimage

We pulled into Huntsville State Park just south of Huntsville Texas and found a fairly level site to stay in for two nights. This is a beautiful state park but it has only has a few sites for large Motorhomes. We didn’t make a reservation but I had looked the day before and saw that there were over 50 sites to choose from. Upon arrival we unhooked the car and found a pull through site overlooking Lake Raven which was great for our stay.  For our stay we purchased the Texas State Park pass ($70) since we plan to stay at several more of the beautiful Texas State Parks utilizing free entry and 4 half price camping coupons. 

imageimage

Over our two night stay we mostly spent time hiking within the park. There were some nice trails in this large state park. The day we arrived we spent the afternoon hiking around 3.8 miles of trails near our campsite. The terrain is very hilly and the vegetation is typical of the forest found in the Southeastern Forest. A beautiful mixture of mature pines and hardwoods are found throughout the park. We thoroughly enjoyed communing with nature especially because of the vibrant spring green everywhere along the trails as well as some beautiful wildflowers.  We enjoyed our hike so much that the second day we hiked a 6.5 mile loop!

imageimage

It sure is great to be back in Texas and although we are now in College Station, Texas I am still a bit behind in the blog but soon hope to catch up…

4 comments:

  1. Really lovely pictures today Heyduke. Great shot of the pileated. Huntsville State Park looks beautiful. The flowers are so spring. Loved seeing them. I hope one day we will get to spend enough time in Texas to warrant buying the pass. Til then I guess I'll see Texas through your eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like you found another nice place to stop for a while. Enjoy the bluebonnets too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the flowers.

    We have marked down that boondocking site for future reference

    Did you know the full-timers word for travelling the back roads. Shunpiking.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Welcome back to breezy College Station! Hope you guys enjoy your stay here again.

    ReplyDelete