A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 101 miles from Lake Whitney, Texas to Dallas, Texas.
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Posts featuring the coach.
Travel from Lake Whitney to Dallas, Texas
We drove our coach 101 miles, a couple of hours of driving, from Lake Whitney, Texas to NIRVC in Dallas, Texas.
Here’s the map route, heading north:
Driving through Whitney, Texas on a rainy day:
A fancy courthouse in Hillsboro, Texas:
Low bridge (our coach is 12’ 7”):
Lunch stop at a Burger King within a TA Travel Center:
Lots of trucks on the rainy freeway:
Dallas, Texas:
Glad we were not going south; I-35E south was a parking lot:
Arriving at NIRVC:
Checking in:
Leaving our coach:
We left our coach at NIRVC in Dallas for a week, to get annual servicing of the engine, generator, Aqua-Hot hydronic heating, and a bunch of other maintenance and repairs.
Meanwhile, we headed to a hotel for the night, then flew to the US Virgin Islands; stay tuned for posts about that.
Replaced carbon monoxide detector
RVs all come with a carbon monoxide detector, sometimes called a propane detector. Our coach is all-electric, so doesn’t have any propane on board, but such a detector is still useful.
These detectors are usually rated for 60 months from sale, which is five years. Our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP is six years old, so it wasn’t surprising that the detector in our bedroom recently started to give an end-of-life beep and light flash… at 2 in the morning, of course.
So it was time to replace it.
I ordered another model from Amazon, not doing a very good job of checking for suitability; I hadn’t noticed that the original unit is flush mounted, so a surface mount wouldn’t work (especially being a little smaller, so wouldn’t cover the hole in the wall).
So then I did what I probably should have done, and ordered a replacement of the same model as original from the Tiffin Parts Store, part number 5060082.
Here’s the old carbon monoxide detector:
Unscrewed from the wall:
It has the manufacture date stamped on the back:
The new detector from Tiffin:
It was manufactured in November:
Some tools to replace it; I got out both the wire caps and heat shrink connectors:
I decided to use the heat shrink connectors; here they are connected and crimped:
And using the heat gun to shrink them:
All done:
The light was blinking when I first connected it, which confused me as not one of the listed statuses, but it was just a startup sequence; after a few minutes it was a steady green. I pressed the button to test it, and all was well. Done!
Lake Whitney State Park
We stayed at Lake Whitney State Park in Whitney, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
We enjoy stake parks, and this was another nice one.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-02-03
- Check out: 2023-02-08
- 5 nights
Weather:
- Some sunny days, a little drizzle
- High temps ranging between 52-70°F, lows around 31-52°F
- Some wind, up to 26 MPH gusts
Noise:
- No road noise or train noise
- No neighbor noise
Site:
- #17, pull-through, asphalt
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked beind coach
- Fairly level
- Large site: about 80 feet long by about 80 feet wide
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Grass & trees
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, inconveniently located
- 70 PSI water, inconveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 12-28 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up, 1,000 ms ping
- AT&T: 4 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- Verizon: 38-48 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Peaceful state park
We stayed for five nights in the horseshoe full hookup campground and really liked it. We were originally going to stay longer but adjusted our travel plans to avoid the ice storm that blew through the area in February. Stupid storm, I would have loved to stay here longer. Our site was a decent size pull-through with plenty of room for our 40′ motorhome and tow vehicle. The width of the site was incredibly large with a fire ring and concrete picnic table all nestled under mature trees with a view across a large grassland area. We camped at Lake Whitney State Park in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: About an hour’s drive to Waco to visit the Dr Pepper Museum and Waco Mammoth National Monument, both worth the trip.
An interactive map of the park:
The map; our site was in the Horseshoe Camping Loop in the lower-right corner of this map:
Our site:
The utilities were not very conveniently located, at the front of site:
The sewer was unthreaded, but someone had helpfully left a bungee there, which I used to secure the pipe:
A look at the utilities from the rear; the power cord was pretty much fully unwound:
Unwound power reel; unusual to need the full length of the cord:
Camp hosts cleaning the neighboring site:
Other sites:
I flew my drone to capture some aerial shots of our coach, site, the park, and the lake:
We’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Lake Conroe to Lake Whitney, Texas motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 196 miles from Lake Conroe to Lake Whitney, Texas. But unfortunately my dashcam stopped recording partway through, so this video is only the first part.
Travel from Lake Conroe to Lake Whitney, Texas
We drove our coach 196 miles, about four hours of driving, from Lake Conroe to Lake Whitney, Texas.
Here’s the map route, heading northwest (fun fact: the dots along the route were to change it from the recommended route, to try to stick to more major highways, since it had recently snowed):
We had a bit of rain, so of course when we brought in our slide-outs we had a stream of water pouring off the slide toppers:
A GIF of the water (and if you look closely, you can see the slide moving in):
Pulling out of our site:
On the (rather narrow) road out of the RV park:
A “stay alert, talk or text later” sign:
Paladin on the step cover:
A 67-foot tall statue of Sam Houston, south of Huntsville, Texas, where he lived:
We stopped at a rest area for lunch:
Parked behind another Tiffin:
Flooded trees:
Paladin expressing displeasure at the rough roads:
A big crane:
Bumpy road:
More flooded trees:
Bridge in a dip:
Horses:
Short wind turbines:
Mart, Texas:
At one point the road was so rough that the retaining bar and some internet stuff fell down:
City of West:
City of Whitney:
Entering Lake Whitney State Park:
Park HQ:
Campsites:
Arriving at our site:
Replaced more recessed lights
Back in November 2021 I replaced some malfunctioning recessed LED lights in the kitchen / galley of our coach.
The half bath also had three lights that weren’t working properly, either very dim or flashing. We have a couple of motion-activated lights in there, and generally don’t use the ceiling lights, so it hasn’t been a high priority. But I finally got around to fixing them.
Here’s one of the old lights, with the cover removed:
A replacement light:
I replaced the first of the three lights with wire nuts, as I had for the previous replacements, but for the second I thought I’d try heat shrink wire connectors, since that is what Tiffin used throughout the coach:
I got a hot air gun to use with those:
The replaced light, using those connectors, before heat shrinking:
Done:
The third light was trickier. The wires were very short; too short to use those connectors:
But I came across a cunning technique: putting a wire cap in the end of a drill, to get more reach and leverage in twisting them on:
It wasn’t easy, but I got them connected using that technique:
The replaced light mounted:
And with the cover on:
All three replaced lights (the ones that are off didn’t need repairing; only the three vanity lights):
I’m glad to have that repair finally done.
Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort
We stayed at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort in Willis, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Another large Thousand Trails campground, also with a nice new area.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-01-22
- Check out: 2023-02-03
- 12 nights
- We were going to stay 10 nights, but extended it to avoid bad weather
Weather:
- Some sunny days, a little drizzle, several days of thunderstorms
- High temps ranging between 52-69°F, lows around 33-57°F
- Some wind, up to 30 MPH gusts
Noise:
- No road noise or train noise
- A bunch of neighbor kids
Site:
- #B18, pull-through, concrete
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked beind coach
- Fairly level
- Medium site: about 75 feet long by about 40 feet wide
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Cement patio
- Grass
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 55 PSI water, conveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 0.5-6 Mbps down, 0.5-3 Mbps up, 50 ms ping (through modem; much faster directly)
- AT&T: 15-25 Mbps down, 17 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- Verizon: 22-26 Mbps down, 16 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 2-9 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster
- Pool
- Package delivery to office for $5 each
Our review on Campground Reviews:
New premium sites
They seem to have a focus on selling vacation homes here, but they’re still making an effort to add nicer amenities for camping, too. We stayed in one of the newer sections with concrete pads and 50A connections, which was nice. Some of the sites in section B were a bit steep for a larger class A and we watched more than one large 5th-wheel have a hard time backing up a driveway. Our pull-through site had a short driveway with a hill, but the pad itself was perfectly level. We camped at Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort in a Motorhome.
An interactive map of the RV park; our site was in the new section to the right of the entrance:
The campground map:
Our site was in a new section, with nicely paved roads and concrete sites; we managed to snag one of the best sites, a large pull-through:
Convenient water and power:
The sewer connection was threaded, but the thread seemed stripped, so I wasn’t able to screw my sewer pipe into it. So I added a water-filled weight over the top to make sure it didn’t pop out. Spilling sewage wouldn’t be ideal:
We used the griddle a few times:
Sunset:
A griddle kiwiburger (with pickled beets and egg):
There were several days of thunderstorms; here’s a screenshot from my weather app:
A couple of screenshots of the LightningMaps.org site, which shows recent lightning strikes, with circles for the thunder sound wavefronts:
A real-time GIF:
Rain:
A somewhat flooded road:
A fiver (fifth-wheel trailer) being backed into a site, almost scraping the rear and jacks — the sites have steep driveways:
Other sites:
In other sections:
New sites, not yet open:
Very close buddy sites; no thank you:
Bathrooms:
This Thousand Trails has several communities of permanent tiny homes; here are the Hidden Cove cottages:
The Reserve cottages:
New cottages just arrived for another expansion area:
Rental cabins:
The business office:
That’s were we went several times to pick up packages:
A food cart near the office:
Car wash and dump station:
Dog park:
Courts:
Lake Conroe boat ramp:
Lake docks:
We lucked out with our site. We’d stay here again, as they continue to expand the sites. Even the older sections weren’t too bad… other than the buddy sites!
Video: Columbus to Lake Conroe, Texas motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 132 miles from Columbus to Lake Conroe, Texas. (We took a detour to avoid an accident that closed a portion of the freeway.)
Travel from Columbus to Lake Conroe, Texas
We drove our coach 132 miles, about three hours of driving, from Columbus to Lake Conroe, Texas.
Here’s the map route, heading east then north — the route was a bit wacky as we saw that an accident had closed a portion of the freeway we were on, so we took a detour to avoid that:
Leaving the campground:
For the first part of the trip, Paladin sat on the steps, looking out the window:
Looking back across the pond towards the site we had:
A herd of deer:
Onramp to I-10:
Passing the town of Columbus:
We stopped for fuel at a brand-new Road Ranger station:
Due to roadworks, we had to drive on a frontage road for a few miles, before we found an ramp back onto I-10:
Oil containers:
We still haven’t checked out the super-popular and massive Buc-ees gas station:
Exit to TX-99:
A high overpass:
This is a toll road, but we have the “Freedom Pass” transponder in our coach via TSD Open Roads, so we should be covered — but this was the first time using it, so we’ll see!
We saw that an accident had occurred ahead on TX-99, so we took the exit to 290 to bypass it:
Exit to Sam Houston Tollway north:
Another high overpass:
A glimpse of downtown Houston in the distance:
Toll lanes:
Toll transponder readers; here’s hoping it works:
A third overpass:
Exit to FM-830:
The entrance to our destination, Thousand Trails Lake Conroe:
