A two-part video, with the route and photos, then a timelapse, of riding around Long Pine Key Campground within Everglades National Park.
ride
Thousand Trails Colorado River RV Campground
We stayed at Thousand Trails Colorado River RV Campground in Columbus, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A fairly large Thousand Trails campground, with a nice new area.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-01-11
- Check out: 2023-01-22
- 11 nights
- We were originally going to stay a week, but we extended it to simplify our travels
Weather:
- Mostly sunny, some fog, a little drizzle
- High temps ranging between 60-80°F, lows around 36-63°F
- Some wind, up to 28 MPH gusts
Noise:
- No road noise, occasional train noise
- Occasional neighbor noise
Site:
- #E81, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked next to coach
- Fairly level
- Medium site: about 65 feet long by about 43 feet wide
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Grass
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 50 PSI water, fairly conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, not very conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 94-106 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- AT&T: 78-102 Mbps down, 18-23 Mbps up, 32 ms ping
- Verizon: 80 Mbps down, 22 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster
- Pool
- Various planned activities
- Package delivery to office for $5 each
Our review on Campground Reviews:
New sites are worth it
We’ve stayed at several Thousand Trails campgrounds and they usually look like they need some TLC and updating. But not this one. They’ve built a nice new area with 50A pull-through sites and paved roads, which was very appreciated and worth the $3 premium fee. Our site in this area had a nice view of the fishing pond and a good walk to the river. We camped at Colorado River RV Campground in a Motorhome.
An interactive map of the RV park; our site was to the right of the big pond:
Campground map:
Being a Thousand Trials campground, we had to drive around looking for available sites, trying to find one we liked the look of. We really lucked out with our site, with a view of a pond, and a large grassy area in front:
We had a view of a pond (partially blocked by the next site). And nice sunsets:
Another sunset:
The pond from closer:
Colorado River:
I rode my bike around the campground:
An outdoor movie area:
Pecan trees:
Mini golf:
Cabins:
Swimming pool:
Closed sites, probably reserved for seasonal guests:
Someone had some sort of ladder thing:
Pond:
Bathrooms:
Jenn riding:
Some videos of riding around the campground:
Morning fog:
Stars:
The day before we left, the neighbor left, giving us a better view of the pond for a few hours, until someone else arrived:
Sunset:
Sunset and the pond out our window (and the new neighbor):
Thousand Trails campgrounds are often run down and cramped, and this one did have older sites like that, but the section we were in was very new and nice. It’s good to see them investing in improvements.
We’d definitely stay here again.
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
We explored the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.
We rode our bikes between the four missions, starting at Mission Concepcion in the north. Here’s the approximate route on an interactive map (we diverted from this a little; see the actual route in the video at the end):
Mission Concepcion:
Relief map:
This is still a functional church:
Riding on the river path:
Our next stop, Mission San Jose:
River:
Mission San Juan:
An art installation — Árbol de la Vida: Memorias y Voces de la Tierra:
Mission Espada:
Heading back along the river walk path:
Back at our truck:
Mission Concepcion:
A video of our riding route:
Palomino Campground at Caballo Lake State Park
We stayed at Palomino Campground in Caballo Lake State Park in Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico. (Campground Reviews listing.)
We do enjoy state parks, and lake views. Our specific site only had a glimpse of the lake, but still nice.
Dates:
- Check in: 2022-10-09
- Check out: 2022-10-15
- 6 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny
- High temps ranging between 67-77°F, lows around 49-53°F
- No significant wind
Noise:
- No road or train noise
Site:
- #2, pull through, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked beside coach
- Fairly level
- Smallish site: about 45 feet long by about 40 feet wide
- Full hookups:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 50 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connections, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
- Picnic table on concrete with shelter; no fire pit
- Partial lake view
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 12-25 Mbps down, 18-26 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- AT&T: 90 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 72 ms ping
- Verizon: no service
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster
- No pool
Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:
Picturesque and pleasant park
We stayed at Palomino, Site 2, and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were met by the camp hosts who helped get us centered on the site and chatted for a bit. The site was level and pretty big, with plenty of room outside of the picnic shelter to get settled in. The only downside to the setup in Palomino is that all the sites are backward, so you can’t enjoy the view of the lake if you have a motorhome. If you have a fiver with a rear window or a toy hauler with a “back deck” you’d get much more enjoyment of the view. The picnic shelters are also backward on the site, so you have to walk around the wall to get to the table. Weird, but not dealbreaker stuff by any means. We camped at Caballo Lake State Park in a Motorhome.
The park map online is not great, but does highlight our site:
Here’s an interactive map — tip, site 4 would be the best view of the lake (site 3, not shown above, is the camp host):
Our site:
A glimpse of the lake:
There were a number of birds in the area, and some liked to nibble dead bugs off our mirrors, which Paladin found super fascinating:
Utilities:
A lake view from the edge of the campground:
Other sites:
The camp host site, briefly vacant during changing of the host:
Bathrooms:
Dump station:
Cacti:
We got out our bikes to take a ride down to the lake and around the campsites:
Me on my bike:
Boat ramp:
Another campground; this one has power and water, but not sewer:
A video of the bike ride route:
Some sunsets:
Ride around Brookhollow RV Park
While staying at Brookhollow, I did a quick ride along the dike that wraps around the park.
The entrance:
Views from the dike path:
A video of the route:
I rearranged the contents of the bed of our truck. I previously had the bikes side-by-side, with the hammock and canopy tent on top:
Instead, I rearranged things so the bikes are front-to-back, with other stuff beside them:
This seems to be a better layout, as I can get the bikes out without having to remove other items, and vice versa.
Rides around Mt Hood Village
A quick post with a couple of videos from short rides around Mt Hood Village. No photos, other than embedded in the first video, since those I took appeared in my review of the campground.
As mentioned previously, I use Strava to track my rides, and Relive to convert the routes into 3D videos.
Here’s the first ride, by myself:
And the second ride, with Jenn:
Not overly exciting, but a handy way to explore large campgrounds.
Bike rides around Stub Stewart
Stub Stewart State Park was a great place to have a new bike, as it has a number of interesting places to ride, plus is in the middle of the 21-mile Banks-Vernonia State Trail.
One of the first places I rode was the Stub Hilltop area, which has a picnic shelter and tables, nice views, a disc golf course, and a mountain bike area:
I used Strava to track my ride, and Relive to convert the route into a 3D video:
The start of the disc golf course through the trees at the hilltop area:
I also rode along a very small portion of the Banks-Vernonia State Trail:
Ride video:
And another portion of the trail, with a nice bike repair station where the trail crosses the Stub entry road:
Ride video:
A short ride video around the campground:
Heading further towards Banks:
The trail crosses the Buxton Trestle, a 733-foot long, 80-foot high former rail bridge:
A rather green pond by the Buxton picnic area:
The picnic area below the Buxton Trestle:
Prison work crew doing landscaping:
Ride video:
A video of the first ride Jenn and I did together:
Another day, Jenn and I took a picnic lunch on our bikes to the Buxton Trestle:
Ride video:
Was this post interesting? I figure our exploring by bikes is not too different to exploring by hiking or driving, in terms of post topics, and may be of interest to some people.