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.)
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Posts featuring the coach.
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.
Travel from Lockhart to Columbus, Texas
We drove our coach 87 miles, about two hours of driving, from Lockhart, Texas to Columbus, Texas.
The map route, heading south then east:
Our coach and truck when heading out of the state park, pausing to take out the trash:
Leaving the state park, the day use area:
Some of the trees are a little low; our antennas twanged on them:
Closed swimming pool:
Park visitor center:
Road works:
We took a suburban detour in Luling, Texas due to a closed road:
This rail crossing was a little concerning in a long coach:
Onramp to I-10:
Flatonia:
Schulenburg, halfway to everywhere… i.e. middle of nowhere?
Our exit was exit 695, but there wasn’t an offramp when coming from the west, so we needed to go past to exit 696:
… then double-back:
… to exit 695. With a totally reassuring evacuation sign:
Texas crossroads:
We needed to turn left across the highway:
Thousand Trails entrance:
A bridge:
Check in:
Our coach:
We stopped behind a Tiffin Phaeton; always nice to see another Tiffin:
Checking in at the welcome center:
Heading to the entrance gate:
At Thousand Trails parks, one can choose any available site (if not reserved for seasonal people). We went straight to section E, the newest section with nice 50-amp pull-through sites:
Micro-Air EasyTouchRV smart thermostats
Our motorhome was produced in 2017, during a time when Tiffin was slowly updating the technology. So it has a mixture of analog switches for some things (like cockpit shades), smart network-based controls using the Spyder multiplex wiring system, and non-integrated controls like the power management and heating/cooling.
Our coach has three rooftop AC units, plus AquaHot hydronic heating. More modern coaches integrate these into the Spyder touch panels, but in this vintage they are independently controlled via three thermostats like this one in the bedroom:
(Note that that Spyder touch panel at the bottom isn’t original; I upgraded it from a much inferior panel that came with the coach.)
While these thermostats were fine, they weren’t as convenient as they could be. (Shock, having to get off our butts to adjust them!)
I’ve been wanting to upgrade them, like I did with the Spyder panel, and I recently got around to that. I purchased one Micro-Air EasyTouchRV thermostat panel, the model compatible with our ACs (352C):
Here’s the old thermostat:
I pulled off the cover to unmount it via the two screws:
Pulling it away from the wall, I reached the three connectors for the wires:
The new panel comes with mount points that are screwed into the wall:
Hooking up the new unit was simply a matter of unplugging the old one and plugging in the new one (being careful to not let the wires drop inside the wall; there wasn’t a lot of slack).
Here’s the new unit mounted:
Much nicer:
Not only does it have a nicer display, it can be controlled remotely via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth via an app:
When using both cool and heat, one can set it to Away mode to have upper and lower limits, to keep the temperature within that range:
The upper and lower limits on the display:
I was satisfied with that experience, so I ordered two more units for the other thermostats:
The front and middle AC units are controlled by thermostats in a cupboard above the passenger chair (they have remote room sensors towards the front and middle on the ceiling, so being enclosed in a cupboard doesn’t affect their performance):
A closer look at the old front and middle thermostats:
With the covers removed:
Like with the bedroom one, easy enough to swap the plugs:
The new unit:
Here’s a look at the mount points for the new unit; they come with a spacer that is broken off once screwed into place:
The mount points before breaking the connector:
The wood is thick enough to hold the screw, but I still used the cap on the other side, to avoid wires rubbing on the protruding screw:
The new units installed:
So much nicer! Highly recommended.
Lockhart State Park
We stayed at Lockhart State Park in Lockhart, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice state park with a golf course view.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-01-02
- Check out: 2023-01-11
- 9 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny, some drizzle
- High temps ranging between 61-82°F, lows around 40-66°F
- Some wind, up to 25 MPH gusts
Noise:
- Distant road and train noise (only audible outside); some small plane noise
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #6, back-in, asphalt
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
- Not very level
- Large site: about 90 feet long by about 50 feet wide
- Picnic table on concrete patio with shelter
- Smoker, fire pit
- Grass
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 80 PSI water, conveniently located
- Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 12-24 Mbps down, 2-7 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- AT&T: 7 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- Verizon: 0.5 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 29 ms ping
- T-Mobile: no service
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster
- Golf course
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice golf course view
This was a well-maintained campground in a nice state park with a 9-hole golf course. We were in the full-hookup loop with a terrific view over the course and really enjoyed a nice, quiet stay. Our site was a bit unlevel front-to-back, but we got it level with a couple of extra blocks under the front levelers. The site was huge, with a nice covered picnic table and shade trees at the front, but with a good clear view of the sky at the back for the Starlink. We camped at Lockhart State Park in a Motorhome.
An interactive map of the RV park; our site was on the south side of the circle near the center of the map:
Park map sign:
Info sign:
Bathrooms:
Our site:
Lockhart is the “BBQ capital of Texas”, so of course each site has a smoker:
The utilities were conveniently positioned:
Cellular service was limited, so we broke out the Starlink Dishy again; it had an unobstructed view of the sky:
We also used our griddle, and ate several meals outside:
You may think “duh, don’t you always?” No, we don’t always use the griddle or eat outside, depending on the weather and other factors. We’re not camping, this is our life. We have a good kitchen and comfy dining table inside, sometimes that’s just easier. Similarly, almost all campsites come with a picnic table; this one has a nice shelter over it. But we hardly ever use them; our folding chairs and table are more comfortable.
A sunset between the trees:
Almost full moon above our coach:
I spent several days working outside; here I have a second screen magnetically mounted on my laptop:
Our last flower of the season on our Christmas cactus:
Another griddle dinner, with all sites occupied for the weekend:
Squirrel:
A not-great picture of a cardinal bird:
More cardinals:
Golf course view:
Other RVs:
One of the campers had what we assume is a catio — an outdoor run for a cat (or maybe another small animal):
Clear Fork Creek:
We do enjoy state parks. We’d be happy to come back here again.
Video: Corpus Christi, Texas to Lockhart, Texas motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 217 miles from Corpus Christi, Texas to Lockhart, Texas.