Author: Roger Engdahl and Susan Green

We left Nacogdoches heading west towards Arizona. Texas is very big.  I am told it is almost 800 miles from NAC to the western border in a straight line but there are no straight line roads.  Se we set off thinking it would be nice to stop in the Texas Hill Country to see what this area was all about.  Other folks from NAC were going to be on the Guadalupe River north of New Braunfels so we figured that sounded good. We were a day ahead if ourselves so we looked at options and there is a Corps of Engineering campground about 15 miles from where we were going to end up so we went there.

 

The Canyon Lake reservoir controls the flow of the Guadalupe River.  This is the most popular tubing and rafting river in the area.  Folks were telling us that it is just packed in the summer.  But now it was very quiet.

The Lazy L&L campground is on a big turn in the river.  The family that owns the campground owns thousands of acres of ranch land and several miles of river frontage.  All of the river frontage is privately owned.  There are summer cabins that run from very modest to big “Southfork” like estates. Nothing in the way of zoning controls.

There really are very big hills in the Hill Country.  This area was ancient sea bed upthrust by tectonic plate action millions of years ago. It is a fairly large area of hills, at least half the size of Minnesota.  Since this area is only 20 miles from New Braunfels and maybe only 50 from San Antonio it is a very popular vacation destination.  The RV campsite at the Lazy L$L are all along the river.  There are some tent sites as well.  In the summer this entire field is said to be filled with some 500 tents on a busy tubing weekend.  This campground also has huge covered dance hall with live music on the weekends just to attract more people.

There only a single winding two lane road into this area.  It took us about a half hour to get to a big grocery store near New Braunfels.  That has to be a couple hours in the summer.

The folks we met there we intereting.  Several of them come here every year in February.  The same bunch (Susan calls them “Pods”) goes to Fredricksburg, TX in April when the flowers re blooming and to the mountains in NE New Mexico in the summer for 6-8 weeks when it is very hot in Texas.  It is a very social group.  A big coffee pot is on early and the menfolk gather for coffee early.  Many of them go shopping or to the store and then out for lunch almost every day. Late afternoon the lawn chairs are  gathered and circled, usually twenty or more, for a social hour.  One night when we were there  and someone ws leaving the next day they decided to have a pot luck upper. There were more than 40 people there and as is always the case, way too much food.

It was nice to get together with these folks. We are a bit more “doing-our-own-thing” types so this was at the edges of our experience.  But everywhere we have been on this trip we are running into very nice friendly people.

I came across this old bath tub.  I am pretty sure that was what it is.  Looks a bit nautical at this end. The other was round and sloped.  It was about 14 inches wide at the narrow end and about 4-1/2′ long.  It was tapered toward the other end but not that much wider.  A hundred years ago most people were much smaller than they are today.

After our stay in the Hlill Country it was time to continue west.  There are three routes across Texas.  The very southern route follows state and US highways. Two years ago when we came up from Big Bend we went that way.  It is bleak, dry, empty route.  Very long.  The other two,are in I10 through San Antonio ot I20 through Dallas.  The I20 route goes through Midland and Odessa where the oil fields ar busy, road constuction goes on for endless miles and traffic levels are high.  The I10 route was our choice.  From New Braunfels it takes two days to get to the other side of Texas. All three routes end up at El Paso.

The I10 choice leads through Fort Stockton for an overnight and then on towards El Paso.  It is a long boring drive but way better then the more southern route.

It was hilly for a while and then the wide open, very sparse West Texas view.  Some distant hills.  The on/off ramps are 20-50 miles apart.  There are no fences in most places along the sides of the interstate so where ever an on ramp or exit or cross over was needed the ranchers just made one of their own.  We could see cattle occasionally but not many.  An occasional oil well. Not much going on except traffice going by.

Our second day across Texas went through about 15 miles of stop and go construction in El Paso and then on to Demming, NM.  A very interesting stop.

More later.

Roger and Susan

Five weeks after leaving Hastings we are finally leaving Nacogdoches.  It has been a long visit but much has been done.

All the detail, pretty amazing.  They even clened the insides of all of the bay doors, painted the insides of the wheelwell, shined the wheels and shined up the tires.  Very nice work.  So we went back to Camp Foretravel.  We had a dinner date with three other Foretravel owners, all full timers.

The Millers have been at Xtreme for more than two months and more to go. They are a nice older couple, we guessed in the their 80’s. They have been on the road for 11 years.

 

Doug and Amanda. Almost 2 years into it.

John and Kathy in their now to them Foretravel, ready to hit the road for day one.

Susan and Roger off towards New Braunfels.

My cute weather girl!

And over to Canyon Lake Corps of Engineering Campground.  On the lake, 50 amp hookups, water, $13/night.

We are going to be at the Lazy L&L campground for three nights.  We know some other folks here. Just a few days to decompresss after a month in NAC.

And then towards AZ.

Roger and Susan

We finally finished at Xtreme this morning.  Three weeks and two days. Everything was done last night but they wanted to wait until this morning to reinstall the painted steps and the backup lights to give the new paint a bit more cure time.

New peepers.  Nice and bright!

And steps.

And a bright tail.

We saw a HFH ReStore in town.  I checked with the local affiliate and unfortunately they are not building anything right now o no hammer time.

Tonight we are having dinner with John and Kathy who have sold their home, bought a motorhome, the first one they have had, sold their cars and are buying another car suitable for towing and are setting off as recently retired full timers.  Dough and Amanda, also full timers are joining us as well.  We are going to Auntie Pasta’s, a great Italian place that we tried last week and wanted to go back.

Tomorrow AM we move to the detail shop for the full beauty spa treatment.  I should probably get the Jeep spiffed up too, or not.

We will actually start heading West on Sunday, about 200 miles to the Texas Hill Country.

More later,

Roger and Susan

We watched a bit of Super Bowl last night.  Our neighbors, Amanda and Doug brought chocolate cookies and milk.  They are 25 years younger than us and quite chatty and quite fun.  All of a sudden it was 2 in the A of M!  We were getting up early to get into painting.

Our coach looks small in the giant paint booth.  The newer coaches are two feet taller and nine feet longer.  The paint booth has great lighting.

Our walks frequently pass this school. They must have known we were coming. We were by there when we went to the University stadium to walk laps.  It was only 46° and mostly in the sun.

One lap around the mid-level is 0.4 miles.  Up and down the ramps to the upper level is the same as climbing three and a half stories and back down. A couple of those and my knees were hurting. 12,000 steps that day.

Priming first. Then some very, very fine sanding. And then paint, an exact match.  It is pretty amazing how they match colors and mix paint by weight, gram by gram, some of this color and some of that color.  It is quite an art. 

The paint booth has huge amounts of air moving out through filters to manage over spray. And it was close to 90° in there.  The painter said they mix catalysts and driers into the paint so that it sets and cures quickly.

Tomorrow the small repairs on the driver’s side get painted as well as the front step and facia and a small detail on the generator bay cover. They are promising an afternoon finish.  Likely a late afternoon finish and a wash.  They have an industrial sized water ionizer whose water is used to wash the coaches.   The water sheets off without leading any spots.  

We will probably stay here over night and then head to the Foretravel Factory to get a minor adjustment to the slide.  It is not sure that we cn get in there so we might wind up across the street at Motorhomes of Texas.  If none of that works out I will likely do it myself.

Then the beauty spa.

More as things unfold.

Roger and Susan

The end of this week was a busy one for Rance. He got the new tail/stop and turn light panels installed after making up a new wiring harneses.  Basically the same process as the front parts.  They are held in place with temporary metal clips and glued in with a structural urethane adhesive.  Then the joint is laid up with three layers of fiberglass and left to cure.  

In this picture you can se the reddish original body, the black urethane adhesive and the more greenish resin of the new parts and Rance adding layers of fiberglass and rein.

Gel coat is applied.  Last step is buffing. The painter primes all of the areas to be painted and the that is sanded with extraordinarily fine paper and the final paint is applied.  Both rear corners, the front generator bay hatch cover and the little touch ups on the driver’s side and the steps get painted.

The lower holes are for the backup lights which are now wired together with the lights on the sides to give a much wider lighted area when backing up.  

All of the lighting gets installed and adjusted after final paint.  We are still on schedule to be done on Tuesday the 3rd.

The folks staying here at Xtreme two coaches over, Doug and Amanda, are a really nice younger couple who are full timers. Doug does computer work from wherever he is and Amanda is a professional opera singer.  We have been out to dinner with them and have done the show and tell thing back and forth.  We were talking last night about where we have been.  Amanda is from St Louis and has a good friend with whom she went to school for two years in Italy.  Her friend’s family lives two doors down from our former house in St Paul.  Go figure.

Another week here. A day at the factory for a service bit and then a visit to the beauty spa for the coach.  Fluff and buff. We will be gleaming!

More later.

Roger and Susan

Coach

The front panels are installed and the generator cover fiberglass work is done.  Gel coal gets sprayed on and then sanded out and then polished.

Rance making magic happen.

We cut holes for the upper tail lights (Rance cut, i watched).

And put the high output LED light in.

In the single fixture tail, turn and brake lights.  We went out to check them at nights. Very bright!

I also installed a new wiping gasket just above the slide.  It sweeps water and debris off the top of the slide as it closes.

The folks at Xtreme are sticking to their completion date of 2/3.  I hope so.  

Jeep

We are trying to hunt down a water leak that gets the floor wet in heavy rain. So far we haven’t found it, more likely them.

While we are here we are trying to get some other tasks done. We installed new door gaskets on the two jeep doore (not the source of water).  The old ones were 17 years old and had holes in them.  

Tomorrow’s task is to finish installing the breakaway brake to the Jeeps towing set up.  This sets the brakes on the Jeep if the tow bar should fail.  Not even remotely likely but many states require them.

Walking.

We continue to try to walk everyday.  I got to about 12,500 steps on Monday.  Close to 10,000 most days.

Celebrate

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. 31 years of getting ready and then 8 more since we said we do! A nice dinner wil be a treat.

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That’s all.  More later.

Roger and Susan

The folks at Xtreme seem like they can do miracles.  And everybody knows it.  There about 10 people who work there and people come from all over the country to have them work miracles.  Most are scheduled, some are not.  There is another older full time couple here getting there coach repaired after a serious crash.  They have been here since the beginning of December and have a couple weeks or more left.  All unscheduled.  So our work is progressing, I hope we are on schedule, seems like maybe just a bit behind but it is hard to say.

Of all of the painted coaches we have seen, this one is far and away our favorite.

The new parts have been made and fit into the openings that were left after the old parts were removed. The parts are aligned and fixed in place with aluminum plates.  A gap is left, about 3/16″, that is filled with a structural urethane adhesive.  It sets up in an hour or so.

The area on either side of the joint is ground down about 1/8″ and feathered out in both directions. New resin is brushed on, glass mat is added, more resin brushed on and the rolled out to fully wet out the glass and get rid of any bubbles.

Sort of looks like whiskers.  One more layer of resin and glass and then it gets sanded out. Automotive body filler is added and the sanded out until it is smooth. And then they spray on gel coat. Rance, the fiberglass guy says they start with 320 grit paper and work up to 600 or more sanding out the gel coat.  Then it get polished.

The step is installed.  It is a much larger step area than the original. I think we will like it very much. It will get painted to match the coach. There are trim pieces that fit around the edges. Still away to go.  It is set up to slide put when the door is opened and close when the door is closed or to open when the engine is not running and close when it is.  A switch changes the way it works.

About six days left in the three week time estimate. It will be close.  

And then we have one day at Foretravel for a slide adjustment. And then two to three at the detail shop for a fluff and buff. So when we leave here is not yet know.  Sort of like doing a home renovation project.

There is an extensive recreational trail system here in Nacogdoches.  At the north end of town there is a forested area, maybe 40 acres, called Tucker’s Woods.  Paved trails wind around through different parts of the landscape.  There are oaks, maples and giant pine trees as wellas many others.  Along side small creeks there are ferns of all sorts.  Part if it is on a hill side anspd part a sometimes wet lowland.  At on side is the Piney Woods Native Plant Center.  There is quite a bit of imformation about which plants do well in different ares and how to make a fire safe defensive area around your home.  Thi area is also the home of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Demonstration Graden. In another month or so it will be lovely.

The Lanana River runs along one side of the Arboretum.  Across the river is the Mize Azalea Gradens.  These are about 40 acres of mostly azaleas and some camellias. Last time we were in Nacadoches the Azaleas are blooming.  This time there are just beginning.

We got our bikes out rode through all of the areas we had walked through.  For our first time out on the bikes it was a good ride.

Lots of art in the gardens.  This is a big raven on top of a pump are from an oil well.  The raven is made of old tires and found objects.  It stands about 4 ft tall.

There is a Children’ Garden in the same area.  There is a really nice gazebo with nicely done timber framing.

And more art.

The University has a big Forestry School.  The folks need to have a training center for tree climbing and such.

Pretty neat!  But not every day is a walk-out-side kind of day.  We had a couple of rainy days so off to the library where we found this nice quilt.  Is is a bed sized quilt.

So there is plenty, well almost plenty, to do while work proceeds. We keep meeting more Foretravel folks.  Two folks from the ForeForums web site drove up to Xtreme, got out and said, “We know who you are!”  Lots of fun.  They’re coming over tomorrow for cake and show and tell.  We met a couple from Illinois down here looking at Foretravels.  They are new retirees and want to buy a motor coach and go full time.  So we spent a good part of one day witl them and a couple other Foretravels folks helping them look.  They were focusing on a 2003 U320 40ft.  It had a nice floor plan, very well maintained and all that they were looking for including price.  They had it inspected, worked with the dealer (Motorhomes of Texas), ironed out the details and made the deal.  Yesterday they joined the Foretravel family.

Still more to come, later.

Roger and Susan

What Texans Think

Pretty quiet.

Between two building on the square is a garden of sorts.  There is a small fountain and several planting beds.  It memorializes the site of an archeological project to dig up old fire and trash pits that were found under the building that used to be here.  There were four excavations.  They found bones and the usual trash bits of all sorts, Spanish, English and French china, earthenware and porcelain pieces, old weapons and 18th century silver Spanish coins.. Some of it is on display.

This is one of the first fireproof buildings in NAC. Built of brick it has (still has) a riveted steel door and shutters. It is on one of the corners of the square.  It is now a lawyer’s office.

NAC is now the home of Stephen F Austin State University.  Its 13,000 students add to NACs 33,000 residents to make it a bigger than is seems like it should be city.  It sure seems like there are an awful lot of places to eat, every conceivable fast food place, dozens of TexMex food places and almost every other food group as well.  But we have not seen a Vietnamese place yet.

It seems pretty nice here.  A shop keeper told us that the summer is hot and very humid.  The folks we had lunch with last week asked about weather in Minnesota.  We said we had 2 days in the 90s last summer but normally about 14.  They measure the number of 90°+ days in months down here.

More to come.

Roger and Susan

Today was an every day day in Nacogdoches.  Just 30° in the morning but warming to over 60’s in the afternoon and then upper 60’s for the next several days. 

Lots of coaches for sale. Many brands.

A great lunch.  Great folks.

And then we went for a walk in another nice park in NAC. There are woods and gardens and riparian trails all through the city.  NAC is the home of the Stephen F Austin University.  There are schools of Nursing, Early Childhood Development and Forestry among athers.  Forestry is a big industry in this part of East Texas. It is very odd to see big logging trucks driving on the highway.

Today we went to a big park that had a Frisbee golf course, picnic pavillion, bike trails and a nice long trail along the Lanana river.  

Off we went down the trail for a mile and a half and then over a couple blocke and back through an historic district in old NAC.  There was a couple of really nice homes.

A mix of brick and frame homes, different styles, big lots and interesting landscapes. There is another house in another area that is a prairrie style.  Quite nice looking.

Susan found this sign.  Seems appropriate sometimes.

That’s it for today, more later.

Roger and Susan