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:
We’re back from the US Virgin Islands. It was a super-enjoyable trip, and we were sad to leave (it didn’t help that it’s freezing overnight where we are now in Texas). We want to spend more time in the Caribbean in the future.
We now resume our regularly scheduled posts of our travels before our vacation; I’ll do some posts about USVI when we get to them in the chronological sequence.
I won’t be posting on this blog for a week or so, as Jenn and I will be dropping off our coach for servicing, Paladin for boarding, and will be catching flights for the first time in years, heading to the US Virgin Islands to celebrate Jenn’s milestone birthday.
No doubt I’ll take lots of photos and will do some blog posts once we’re back, so you can look forward to that.
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.)
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.
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.
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:
Jenn and I have been homebodies over winter, what with having colds, and not feeling like exploring much. So I’m running low on blog posts.
Therefore, I’ve decided to switch from an everyday posting schedule to three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Don’t look so shocked:
I may do extra posts occasionally, and of course may increase the frequency again if I start to accumulate too many posts, but for now this seems a good pace.
The Thousand Trails campground was near a small town called Columbus in Texas. We drove though it to get some Whataburger drive-though, our first experience of that fast food chain.
Colorado River bridge:
Downtown Columbus:
Whataburger:
Not bad; we tried the Dr Pepper shake, which was interesting. The fries and burger were decent, but we’ve had better:
On another day, we went back to Whataburger for a second time, going inside this time:
After dinner we went across the road to the H-E-B grocery store, right next to the Walmart:
A fairly small store, and not as nice as others we’ve been in:
“If you hit this you’ll hit bridge”; a 14’ 6” bridge, which we went under on our way to the Thousand Trails (our coach is 12’ 7”):
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.
