Travel from Gordonville to Abilene, Texas

We drove our coach 244 miles, about four hours of driving, from Gordonville, Texas to Abilene, Texas.

Here’s the map route, heading south then west:

Map route

Leaving the Thousand Trails campground:

Leaving campground

A rather rough road:

Rough road

Onramp to I-35, and interesting clouds:

Onramp and interesting clouds

Denton, Texas, “the home of happiness“:

Denton, the home of happiness

Exit to I-35W:

Exit to I-35W

Sleepy Paladin:

Sleepy Paladin

We never did visit a Buc-ees:

Buc-ees

A big cloud by the side of the road; we thought it was a fire at first, but it appeared to be some roadworks thing:

Roadside cloud

There were a lot of roadworks; we don’t enjoy having a barrier so close to the edge of the lane, since our coach takes pretty much the whole lane:

Roadworks

Exit to I-820, marking the start of our westward migration:

Exit to I-820

Exit to I-30:

Exit to I-30

Exit 420; we didn’t take that exit, I just thought it was “nice” (unsurprisingly, the only sign was above the road):

Exit 420

We stopped for lunch at a truck stop:

At a truck stop

Lunch at the Iron Skillet Restaurant:

Iron Skillet Restaurant

We do enjoy breakfast for lunch:

Breakfast for lunch

Back to our coach:

Back to our coach

Truck foursome:

Trucks towing trucks

A very empty rest stop:

Rest stop

Wide loads:

Wide loads

Wide load

A rolling work convoy:

Work convoy

Another wide load:

Wide load

Our destination:

Our destination

Dryer magnets

The door on the dryer in our coach (yes, we have a washer and dryer) tends to swing closed when open. So I attached a couple of strong magnets to the cupboard and dryer doors to keep it open.

Here are the magnets I used:

Magnets

I attached them to the doors with Glue Dots:

Glue Dots

I do have magnets with self-adhesive backs, but they aren’t as powerful, and I need opposite polarities for each magnet so they stick together, so using the glue dots on the magnets works better:

Glue dot on magnet

A magnet on the dryer door:

Magnet on dryer

And a magnet on the enclosing cupboard door:

Magnet on door

They meet and hold the door open:

Door and dryer

Thousand Trails Lake Texoma RV Campground

We stayed at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma RV Campground in Gordonville, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Another Thousand Trails, more of the state park feel.

Dates:

Check in: 2023-02-16
Check out: 2023-02-23
7 nights

Weather:

Some sunny days
High temps ranging between 49-80°F, lows around 28-53°F
Some wind, up to 30 MPH gusts

Noise:

No road noise or train noise
No neighbor noise

Site:

#A43, pull-through, gravel
Buddy site, but on end so nobody facing us (other than the bathroom block)
Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
Not very level front to back or side to side; used blocks to help front jacks
Medium site: about 80 feet long by about 25 feet wide
Picnic table
Fire pit
Grass & trees

Utilities:

50 amp power, fairly conveniently located
75 PSI water, conveniently located (disconnected during sub-freezing nights)
Non-threaded sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 20-55 Mbps down, 1-6 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
T-Mobile: 13 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 28 ms ping
AT&T: 15 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 37 ms ping
Verizon: 10 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpster
Closed pools

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Older campground, needs some love

Unusually for a Thousand Trails park, the staff knew what sites were actually available and we were able to select one at check-in. We wanted a 50 amp pull-through but unfortunately, all the 50A pull-throughs are buddy sites. I hate buddy sites. We were lucky enough to get one on the end so our living area wasn’t directly on top of someone else, but it did open up to the bathroom block. Scenic! The site was not at all level front-to-back and we had to maneuver a bit to find the most level location. The roads here are more pothole than road, so maneuvering our coach to avoid the worst of them was interesting. If we’d been planning to stay longer, I would definitely get one of the back-in sites tucked in the trees. We camped at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma in a Motorhome.

An interactive map of the park:

The map:

Map

Our site:

Our site

Rather close to the neighbor:

Our site

Utilities; can’t get any better sewer placement:

Utilities

The view out the buddy-side window wasn’t exciting:

View out window

We used the griddle and ate outside for several meals:

Griddle

Time to add the Virgin Islands National Park sticker to the coach:

Virgin Islands National Park sticker

And Virgin Islands stickers and a pin on the board inside:

Virgin Islands stickers and pin

No, this isn’t another picture of our coach, but a neighboring Tiffin with a very similar paint scheme:

Neighbor RV

This is the 37AP floorplan, a bit smaller than ours:

37AP

On the other side of our site were bathrooms, but separated by some grass, so it wasn’t too bad:

Bathrooms

Other RVs:

Other RVs

More buddy sites:

Buddy sites

A murky but nice pond and island:

Pond

Pond bench

The activity center has a large covered area:

Activity center

Games

Activity pools:

Activity pools

Lodge:

Lodge

Lodge pool:

Lodge pool

Bridge:

Bridge

A corner of Lake Texoma:

Lake

Sunset:

Sunset

Not the fanciest campground, but not too bad. We’d probably opt for a back-in if we stay here again.

Video

Video: Dallas, Texas to Gordonville, Texas motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 76 miles from Dallas, Texas to Gordonville, Texas.

Travel from NIRVC in Dallas to Gordonville, Texas

We drove our coach 76 miles, a bit over an hour of driving, from NIRVC in Dallas, Texas to Gordonville, Texas.

Here’s the map route, heading north:

Map route

We picked up our coach from NIRVC in Dallas, where it had received its annual servicing while we were away:

NIRVC

Paladin sat in the steps for a while:

Paladin

Denton Buc-ees:

Denton Buc-ees

Gainsville:

Gainsville

Our destination, another Thousand Trails:

Thousand Trails

Registration

Video

Video: five Texas campgrounds timelapse

A timelapse of a few days from five different campgrounds in Texas:

Corpus Christi KOA Journey
Lockhart State Park
Thousand Trails Colorado River RV Campground
Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort
Lake Whitney State Park

Check out the Sinclair Trails blog for reviews of each.

Video

Video: Lake Whitney, Texas to Dallas, Texas motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 101 miles from Lake Whitney, Texas to Dallas, Texas.

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:

Map

Driving through Whitney, Texas on a rainy day:

Whitney, Texas

Rain

A fancy courthouse in Hillsboro, Texas:

Hillsboro, Texas

Low bridge (our coach is 12’ 7”):

Low bridge

Lunch stop at a Burger King within a TA Travel Center:

Lunch stop

Lots of trucks on the rainy freeway:

Trucks

Dallas, Texas:

Dallas, Texas

Glad we were not going south; I-35E south was a parking lot:

Dallas, Texas

Arriving at NIRVC:

NIRVC

Checking in:

NIRVC

Leaving our coach:

NIRVC

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:

Old carbon monoxide detector

Unscrewed from the wall:

Unscrewed from wall

It has the manufacture date stamped on the back:

Manufacture date

The new detector from Tiffin:

New detector

It was manufactured in November:

New detector

Some tools to replace it; I got out both the wire caps and heat shrink connectors:

New detector and tools

I decided to use the heat shrink connectors; here they are connected and crimped:

Wires connected

And using the heat gun to shrink them:

Heat gun

All done:

Replaced detector

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:

Map