We left San Angelo State Park driving west on state highway 87 to highway 71 heading to our destination, the small town of Llano, Texas, population 3200. Man that road to Llano was seriously beat up… There has been lot of oil activity in this area and the road has paid the price. Nonetheless, we pulled into Riverway RV Park unscathed.
We changed our original plan from going to the more remote South Llano River State Park to stay in Llano for three nights to see if we could find parts for our broken Thetford toilet. As full timers we really must have a working toilet on board!
Getting the toilet fixed hasn’t turn out to be an easy task. Once I had taken it out of the RV and disassembled it I discovered that two plastic pieces called the waste ball and the waste ball drive arm were broken. Of course no one had both of these parts but I was able to find them on Amazon and have ordered them to meet us at our next park in Fredericksburg. We move there today so hopefully by the end of the day we will have a working toilet again.
In the meantime we are more than glad we chose Riverway RV Park. It is a cool little park I found while perusing RV Park Reviews and was amazed at their score of 9.7. I was even more amazed when I discovered that they accept Passport America so this 9.7 park is only $15 per night with full hookups! To top it off the park is on the Llano River and has a small trail that we have enjoyed alongside the river. The owners (Texas Aggies) are so friendly as have been all our neighbors. Our view of the Llano River in our "front yard" along with the exceptionally nice,clean facilities have made our stay wonderful despite our toilet woes. This park lives up to its ratings for sure and we recommend it to anyone planning a stay in this area.
We did have some time to check out the small historic town of Llano, Texas. Our first discovery was a small place along the Llano River where some impromptu creativity had resulted in the creation of about a 100 artistic cairns. We noticed remnants of melted candles where some had apparently stayed during the night to meticulously construct their cairn. There were even other artistic displays scattered about making this spot rather interesting. It even inspired me to build a cairn. However, we found out later that these artistic creations were the remnants of the Llano Earth Art Festival that was held in here earlier in March.
We spent some time walking around the small town and soaking in the history of the old buildings remaining. Like many small rural towns in Texas this one shows the presence of decline and the beginnings of revitalization as some of the old boarded up buildings are being reborn into antique shops and small eateries. Most of the older part of town surrounds the stately courthouse building built in 1893.
Of course the Courthouse in Llano is really cool as so many of the courthouses are in Texas. Each county has a county seat where the courthouses were located and in Llano the original one had burned down but was rebuilt years later. We decided to check out the interior and were greeted by a friendly law enforcement officer who after chatting with us decided to give us a personal tour of the courthouse. He even showed us an old bank vault that was built to house the entire collection of legal records. Seeing the locking metal shutters around the windows indicated that it was built to withstand any future fires to protect the important documents. What a fun chat we had with this rather friendly fellow…
Llano has been a really nice stop especially since Spring is arriving as evidenced by warmer weather and the sighting of beautiful Texas wildflowers beginning to show their vibrant colors…
Been there, done that on the toilet issue. We're down in the Keys, so there aren't many options either. We have since learned to have spare parts for the toilet. I don't understand why they can't make a better RV toilet. Good luck with the repairs.
ReplyDeleteWe heard such horror stories about the Thetford causing water leak problems, we changed ours out for a Dometic 320. I never thought a toilet could be different, but it is much better and even has the wooden seat like a stick brick has.
ReplyDeleteI miss not seeing all those gorgeous blue bonnets.
ReplyDeleteLlano is a nice little town
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up on the park. We stayed at the State Park and enjoyed it also.
ReplyDeleteToilet issues...yuck!
Knock on wood we still have our original Thetford toilet and is now 16 years old. Took it apart a few years ago the slider was sticking, cleaned it up and lubed working better than it ever has.
ReplyDeleteWe love those Texas back roads and small towns!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed your blog entry regarding Llano. God speed.
ReplyDeleteWe drove to Llano from Fredericksburg a few years ago to eat at Cooper's BBQ. We actually went back a second time. Quite an experience for us as non-native Texans. We stopped on the way out of town to walk off our meal by walking around the cool courthouse. Nice little town.
ReplyDeleteMissing Texas already! Have fun in Fredericksburg, I enjoyed that area.
ReplyDeleteWe've had your issue with a toilet. Our solution was to get a metal drive arm. The tech said the plastic arms can not withstand the amount of use caused by full timers. So far, so good.
ReplyDeleteexactly the piece that broke on ours... didn't know you could get a metal one. Will have to look on the internet to see if I can find one of those!
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