TOUR AMERICA, 2020: LIVINGSTON, TEXAS, THE LONE STAR STATE

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

(We’ve Added Another New Home to our Link)

Home Is Where We Park It:  Rainbows End, Livingston, Texas

July 30, 2021

Temperature 95 Degrees

Travel Day

Here we go again.  Knowing we had another, by our standards, long travel day we decided to get on the road as early as possible.  We had packed 90% of everything away the night before as we usually do so it only took us 30 minutes to finish up when we got up.

By 7:45 am the slides were in, the jacks were up, the inverter was on, Elvira had come up to ride height and we were ready to rock and roll.  At 8 am we were on the road and on our way.  Thankfully, unlike previous days traffic today was very light on Texas 46.

Soon enough we were on Route 10 moving East.  This is by and large a great road.  There was some construction in spots, especially in the Houston area, but nothing that caused us any issues.  The only white knuckle moments I had were in several construction zones when they moved those concrete barriers right up against the the shoulder lines to the left and right.  One wrong move and I knew I was going to have a racing stripe down the right side. And this went on sometimes for miles.  Trust me, I breathed a big sigh of relief when we were pass that.

Once again toward the end of our trip we got turned around and headed in the wrong direction.  This time it was not my fault but the crazy GPS.  Thankfully, Barbara caught it quickly enough and it only cost us 10 minutes.

The sign we were looking for.  It marked the entrance to Rainbows End which is the Escapees Park we are going to call home for the next 10 plus days.  We had been on the road for a little over 5 hours and were really looking forward to getting parked and set up.

We checked in and off to our site we went.  But we couldn’t use it.  The 50 amp receptacle was partially melted and there was no way I was plugging into that.

We ended up moving one site over and so here we are.  Our site is gravel, reasonably level, FHU, but with not a shade tree in sight.  It is going to be hot, hot, hot for our entire stay.  This is definitely not my idea of an ideal place to call home but it will do.

Looking to the right.

Looking to the left.  I fell like we are in the middle of a football field, on the 50 yard line and they forgot to tell the rest of the team to show up.  I’m surprised at how empty this park is.  I mean where are all those new RV’ers everyone is talking about.

Across the street from us are some permanent residents.  Looking at the park map my guess is over 90% of the spaces here are deeded lots owned by permanent residents.

So we’re settled in.  The privacy screen and reflectix is on the front windshield.  Since the sun tracks down the passenger side of Elvira I also have reflectix in all of the windows on that side in an attempt to keep some of the heat out.  Our fans are set up where they are typically needed.  Now, as long as the two AC units continue to work we should be good to go.

This is not where we wanted to end up.  Not really.  We were planning on stopping in Houston to tour the Space Center.  However, with COVID-19 going wild in Houston we decided to bypass it this year.  We’re sure it will be there in the years to come.

That was our travel day on The Road of Retirement.  I’m getting much more relaxed driving Elvira.  Indeed, the more seat time I have and the more miles we travel together the more comfortable I become with the way Elvira handles the road.  Give me another year or two and we should be the best of friends.

Thanks for riding with us today.  We always appreciate your company and your comments.  Keep safe out there.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!