You Never Know What You’ll See on the Road…

We said our “See ya’ laters” to our son and his family as we headed out of San Antonio back to Canyon Lake.It is not that far but with all the construction along the route, the trip was arduous. At least we had two more days at the lake before we would have to leave. This would give us time to unwind and give us the opportunity for a few more things we wanted to do.

We took one last drive down the old river road as the scenery was just too good to pass up. Something about the limestone cliffs and the artistically placed bald cypress trees which make this part of the Guadalupe River so very special. As things are greening up due to spring it was fun to see new wildflowers blooming every day.

We also found a short hike along the Guadeloupe River near the dam where the water discharges. There were quite a few wildflowers blooming there and a short but very scenic boardwalk where we paused to enjoy the springtime sights and sounds.

When our time at the lake was up, it was time to break camp to head east toward College Station, Texas, our former hometown where our RV dream and adventure was born. The drive over was uneventful which was great considering our last misadventure with our slide popping out on the highway in the middle of San Antonio.

Although it may have been uneventful,it did not mean it was uninteresting. At a stop light we encountered a truck full of what appeared to be plastic animals in the back of it! It was so odd to see and we had absolutely no idea what they might be used for. You just never know what you will see on the road.

As we neared College Station we began seeing lots of bluebonnets which pleased us both immensely. And finally we started seeing fields of the brilliant red Indian paintbrush as well. We could certainly tell we had left the area under severe drought and entered a much wetter environment.

We settled into one of our favorite parks at Holiday RV Park where Dan, the manager is just so helpful.  We were even able to acquire our favorite site which although is near the highway, it gives us shade and a nice expansive view.  We will stay a month (or more) to explore the many changes our growing hometown is experiencing, meet up with old friends, visit some favorite establishments and take care of some more eye surgery for yours truly.

NOTE: We are now in College Station, TX until May 11th…

Visiting and BBQ in San Antonio, TX

While at Canyon Lake we planned to spend some time with our son and his family in nearby San Antonio.. Last time we visited I was helping him build an outdoor kitchen and this time the plan was to do a little painting and replace a kitchen light fixture. Prior to leaving we had a couple of days to enjoy the hill country before we locked up the RV and headed to San Antonio to visit family.

We pulled up and were shocked to see how big our grandson had become. At 15 he now has a deeper voice as well. His sister has left home since we were last here and gave birth to a baby boy just a few months after our daughter gave us a granddaughter.

Happily she came for a visit giving us the opportunity to meet our first great-grandson who is quite energetic. At about 10 months old he is already trying to walk and has several teeth as well. It is really hard to believe that Sharon and I are now great grandparents… does this mean we are getting old? Nahhhh!

The first few days at their house we were able to paint the whole downstairs which is what they had hoped to accomplish.The kitchen was also painted and when I took out the old overhead light fixture it was apparent that an electrician was needed to move some wires and ensure everything was done to code. The good thing  was that since they were going to need an electrician they decided to go ahead and have all recessed lighting installed instead of a single overhead fixture. It sure looks a lot better that way.

It wasn’t all work as we also made time for playing down by the Riverwalk in the Pearl District. It is an area developed around the old Pearl Brewery from years gone by and replaced with a multitude of shops while also featuring food and drink establishments. It is really a quite active area and a great little place to visit in San Antonio. I also had to make time for some good rubs on the grand-dogs…

We also visited a few breweries in the greater San Antonio area. We found there are some pretty good breweries there. We had a lot of fun hanging out with our son who was able to take vacation the whole time we were there.  Our daughter in law had to work and Cameron was in school so the plan was to take care of dinner planning and after school snacks as a treat for them..

We mostly did dinners at the house where we were able to break in our son’s new smoker by smoking a brisket one day and a couple of pork butts another day. We froze a lot of the pulled pork so Sharon and I could take some home to break out in the future when we are both craving some good ol’ smoked Texas BBQ.

The week sped by and the mini vacation with family ended as we returned to the RV to enjoy a few days at Canyon Lake before moving on to College Station, our old hometown.  There we will spend a month visiting old friends, our favorite establishments and taking care of some medical appointments.

NOTE: We are now in College Station, TX until May 11th…

Canyon Lake and scenic drives abound…

With the slide issues behind us we were now able to enjoy our stay at Canyon Lake in the hill country of Texas. We have visited this park many other times including our extended stay when the Corps of Engineers closed down the park during the early Covid scare allowing us to hide out here for many weeks.

What makes this a special place to stay (besides the super low nightly rates for those of us over 65) is the turquoise blue lake and all the walks available inside the park seeing deer, birds and other wildlife. This park gets really crowded on the weekends but since they don’t allow any day use, the park is normally very quiet even on these crowded weekends.

There are lots of scenic hill country drives to take from this park and this time of year the wildflowers ae usually abundant. Not so, this year as the wildflowers have been sparse and the grass mostly brown because of the drought this year.

Our absolute favorite drive from our camp is down the Old River Road which creeps slowly alongside the Guadeloupe River on the way to the town of New Braunfels. When driving along the old river road there are several bridges crossing back and forth over this beautiful river making for some scenic views downstream. This river is very popular for fly fishermen and for toobers. What's a toober, you ask? It’s someone who uses and innertube or some other floating device to float down the river.

If we were to drive this road on a summer weekend it would be packed with mostly college aged kids and young families flocking to float their way down the river. One of the main reasons is that the temperature of the Guadeloupe River is constantly cool since all the water comes from the deeper waters of Canyon Lake as they let water out all year long.

Besides the river road we like to drive the countryside looking at wildflowers and checking out such destinations as Luckenbach, Austin, New Braunfels, San Marcos and Fredericksburg. There are also quite a few breweries located in this part of Texas with the Real Ale in Blanco and Rough Diamond Brewery in Spring Branch.

We won’t be able to drive to a lot of the places we normally visit here since we plan to spend a week at our son’s house visiting him and his family…

NOTE: We are now at Canyon Lake State Park until April 11th…

Repairing Bedroom Lippert Rail Slideout

It’s been a while since we blogged as we were visiting my son and his family in San Antonio, Texas. However, I wanted to continue where we left off on our last blog after our ordeal with the slide popping out on the highway in downtown San Antonio.

Once we settled in at one of our favorite campgrounds at Canyon Lake in central Texas I immediately started researching what could have possibly gone wrong with our passenger side bedroom slideout. Web searching yielded few clues other than I might need to replace the motor so I decided that I would go ahead and clear out everything under the bed to get a good look at the slide motor and rail assembly.

This slideout assembly was originally known as a power gear slide system. Power Gear was bought out and is now Lippert. Once I could see the slide system I searched the support documents on the Lippert Support site to see how to troubleshoot my issue.

Not finding any useful documentation I was now ready to talk with Lippert Support via a phone call. After considerable discussion the Lippert Support tech could offer no guaranteed solution so they recommended a full assembly replacement. As long time blog readers might recall I replaced a slide out motor in our large living room slide so I knew what it looked likes inside a motor gone bad.

The issue I was now facing was different. When I would engage the slide using the switch in the bedroom I could hear the motor spinning effortlessly so in my opinion the motor was working well. However there is an additional gear box attached to the motor which I assumed controlled a toothed gear on the rail of the bedroom slide.

 

The Lippert Support tech had no diagrams of this Power Gear system and even after I explained in detail that I thought my issue sounded like it had something to do between this add-on box to the slide motor and a possible toothed gear on the rail, he still suggested full assembly replacement.

I decided my next step was to take out the rail system to look at what was under the steel box and see if there was a toothed gear attached to the slide out motor box. Lo and behold once I took all the bolts out and was able to remove the rail system I had discovered my problem.

There it was in plain sight!!! There was indeed a toothed gear attached to the rail and that toothed gear had come loose from the shaft thus, it was not able to match the teeth on the rail which would make the slide go in and out (see inside the rail box in picture above with the centered gear reattached over the rail).

Once I was able to use an allen key to retighten the toothed gear on the shaft so it would be in alignment with the toothed bedroom slide rail as in the picture above, I assumed it would be good to go. Thirty minutes later with everything reassembled I tested it out.

Voila! We now have a bedroom slide working correctly again. Even better it cost nothing other than my time and effort to fix. Yet, another successful venture on the Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We are now at Canyon Lake State Park until April 11th…