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.
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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:
Govee smart thermometers
It can be nice to know what the temperature and humidity is around us, so I added some smart thermometer/hygrometer units to our coach.
To see the current and historical temperature and humidity outside, I added a sensor unit under a slide-out, attached via Command Strips:
I also wanted to monitor the temperature in the wet bay; it has a heater to prevent it getting too cold, since having our plumbing freeze up would be bad, but I wanted to keep an eye on it, just in case:
Those sensors don’t have displays, but for inside I wanted units that not only have sensors, but also display the current values. So I got a couple of units with e-ink displays; here’s the one in the living room, below the smoke detector:
And the one in the bedroom, between the smoke detector and thermostat (the big temperature on the thermostat is the set level):
All of these sensors feed data into the Govee Home app, which can show the current values on its home page (along with ugly seasonal graphics):
The same screen after the holiday season:
Tapping on one of the thermometers shows historical data, so I can see how the temperature and humidity have changed over time:
Fun fact: that higher humidity was when we were on the coast at Corpus Christi, and the lower humidity was inland at Lockhart; makes quite a difference. And yes, the temperature inside can vary greatly throughout the day; we tend not to run the AC or heaters except for uncomfortably hot or cold weather, preferring to open windows for fresh air when feasible. (Not a cost thing, since we typically don’t pay for electricity at campsites, but it’s quieter, and fresh air is nice.)
The two most frequently asked questions
In the various Tiffin motorhome online communities to which I belong, there are two questions that get asked pretty much weekly.
The first is: what is this unmarked red switch to the left of the driver seat?
Obviously it is the self destruct button. Or is it the passenger ejection seat switch?
No, seriously, the answer is that it is the switch for the mirror heaters. The side mirrors of the coach are heated, to clear them in cold weather. Something that we’ve never needed, since we try to stick with warm weather as much as possible.
Here’s a peek at the heater, from when I replaced the mirror glass on the driver-side mirror:
The second most frequently asked question is: what is this little thing on the ceiling?
Is it a microphone to spy on you?
No, the answer is: it is a temperature sensor for a thermostat. There are three of them inside the coach, which are each connected to a thermostat. That enables the thermostats to be positioned inside cupboards or on walls, but still sense the temperature in their respective regions.
The wet bay also has a sensor, but it is a bit different — a copper probe connected to the temperature dial, used to control the heating of the wet bay (frozen pipes would be bad):
Hopefully this helps some people who had wondered about those.
Improved tow bar pins
One of the essential components of towing our truck behind our motorhome is the air-powered brake controller, which presses on the brake pedal in the truck when the brake is applied in the coach, using its air braking system. The brake controller is secured to the truck via a D-pin, seen on the right of this picture:
When hooking up for a recent travel day, I noticed that the pin was missing; it must have not been secured and dropped out somewhere. I made do with a zip tie for that trip, and ordered a replacement from the manufacturer. While there, I saw that they had improved pins for the tow bar, too, so I also ordered that:
So now I have a spare brake controller pin, in case I lose it again. And the new tow bar pins are much easier to use. Here’s one of the pins that came with the tow bar; it just has a metal ring that has the locking linchpin attached; it can be difficult to pull out the tow bar pin when disconnecting, if the truck is at an angle:
In use:
Compare to the new tow bar pin; it has the same tethered linchpin, but the big red handle makes it much easier to pull out:
In use:
A huge improvement, highly recommended.
Video: Lockhart, Texas to Columbus, Texas motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 87 miles from Lockhart, Texas to Columbus, Texas.