A weeks worth of blog

Location, Houston, TX

To back up a few days or I should say, several days to catch up with the blog.

We left Texarkana, TX on Sunday, Sept 9th and drove to Greenville, TX in time for lunch with Bill and Marilyn, our daughter-in-law Diane’s parents. Shortly after we arrived the sky let loose and we had 3.5 inches of rain in an hour and a half. We watched as the water level rose towards the front door step and the streets flowed from curb to curb. It was quite exciting and ultimately caused us a lot of wet carpet in the bedroom as the slide seal on one side wasn’t working as it should. I turned on the AC and put a small fan on the wet area. Because of the humidity, the carpet smelled after 2 days so we spread a liberal coating of baking soda over it all. The AC, fan, and baking soda did the trick. What also helped was no rain for the last week.

On Monday Sept, 10th we drove to Dallas after lunch and visited the Kennedy museum at the Texas School Book Depository at Deally Plaza. I had been here shortly after the assassination but there was no memorial then. It was quite interesting to look back at that time.



The "X" marks the spot where Kennedy was shot.

We left Greenville on Tuesday and drove to New Braunfels, TX and camping on the Guadalupe River with son Tim, wife Diane and grandkids, Matthew 8 and Ivy 6. The river was way up because of the amount of water being released from Canyon Lake. Most campgrounds had some flooding and campsites were much smaller because of the high water. I had concerns about backing my trailer up to the water because of the soft ground. I did get stuck but managed to unhook the trailer and Tim poured gravel in my tracks and we did get the trailer parked.


Flooded campsites with raging river in the background.

On Thursday and Friday Tim’s family floated down the Comal River on inner tubes and Clyda and I acted as pickup drivers at the take out place. The Comal is a short river which goes through New Braunfels. It is also cold water as it comes from underground springs. On Thursday everyone was quite chilled when they reached the take out point after two and one half hours.

On Friday, Tim and Clyda floated the river while everyone else played in the water. Matthew and Ivy swim like fish.

On Saturday, Sept 15th we all went to Schlitterbahn which is a very large water park built in three sections. One admission price covers all the properties. We carried in our drinks and lunch and stashed them in a convenient place. After a liberal coating of sun screen, we floated the man made river which also has waves much like the ocean. It is only 3 feet deep so lots of people walk/swim the loop. It really is quit nice. There are three tall rides which drop from a large platform. The Black Knight is a 2 person tube ride inside a black pipe which Matthew and I did. We had a good ride. The Master Blaster is a 2 person tube ride which blasts you uphill with water jets. Hang on to your swim suit on this one as the water jets tend to “de-pants” you! The Wolf Pack slide is a raft slide with up to 4 persons in the raft. The more weight, the better the ride. Tim, Matthew and I had a great ride. We almost tipped the raft over while in a turn. The raft folded like a taco with Matthew on the high side. His eyes got real big for a few seconds.

On Sunday Sept 16th, the last day Schlitterbahn was open for this season, we did lots of rides in the older section of the park. Of course, there were much fewer people because traditionally the park sells this day to large groups. Most people don’t know the park is even open on Sunday. The kids spent most of the day in the water and swam the rivers like fish. It is a great family water park.

On Monday, Sept 17th we had a big breakfast of French Toast and packed up to leave. It is about 180 miles back to Houston and we arrived about 5:20 PM. For most of our previous stays at Traders Village we have a lousy campsite because our trailer was small and could be put anywhere. There are lots of live-in people here and at times the place could use a good cleaning out. This time however because of the larger rig, we got a premo site and for $14.95 a week, good Wi-Fi internet.

Today, Tues Sept 18th, we spent the morning cleaning the river sand and yuck out of the trailer. I removed stuff from the storage bay to dry it out. We have a leak from the shower when we fill the shower holding tank too full. This has only happened once before and that was last year in Texas also while camped for a week. I usually empty the tanks oftener but didn’t want to move it on Sunday just to dump the tank. I guess I will try to fix the problem for good this time.

We need a new vent cover for the roof vent in the kitchen and I need to replace the roof caulk around all the skylights. The one over the shower leaked during the last rains. Oh, the joys of owning an RV.