WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - On the Road Again - Pat Mayse COE Park, TX

Awwwwww we have now been on the road for a whole month! Yep it was four degrees below zero when we left Wisconsin in search of warmer temperatures. And we found them. 

Sadly, it was time to leave this lovely campsite at Buckhorn Creek, Corps of Engineers Park on Lake of the Pines, Texas.

We took care of dumping our holding tanks and filling up our fresh water before leaving the campground. It's nice to be back on the road and looking for our next location. Although, Lake of the Pines is going to be one of our favorites! 

Now we are seeing more terrain that looks more like "Texas" from our past experiences. We are seeing cattle and we are seeing oil pumps and more wide open terrain.

It was a cloudy day, but at least it was not raining. We traveled in a north west direction heading to another Corps of Engineer Park.  

MOOOOOOOOOO!  These are not the dairy cows that we are used to seeing in Wisconsin.

We wandered our way up to Paris, Texas. We did an Aldi stop to get some of our favorites and do also stock up on fresh vegetables. Being that the previous two weeks we were in the same spot, we had run out of anything fresh in the crisper drawer. We didn't have much room for frozen vegetables either. All we had were canned vegetables. We really enjoyed the fresh produce from Aldi, and the prices sure are right for the budget.  

We swung by Walmart and picked up our newest prescriptions that we had on order for pickup. This is the first time we've ever done where we've ordered our refills online, and had it filled at a different store than we normally do back in Wisconsin. It worked!  

We drove out of Paris and headed for the East and West portions of the Mayse Lake Corps of Engineer campgrounds  

We had to actually drive right over the Mayse Dam! Yep, the road actually went right over the top of the dam. 

We could look out at the beautiful smooth serene water. 

No wind at all... (but wait till later in the week though!)

We drove through the East Mayse Lake campground and it really didn't impress us with any sites that we wanted. There were a few campers there, but there were plenty of sites available. So we drove back out to the main road and headed to the West Mayse Lake campground.  There are three different loops to this campground and we wanted to be right down by the water. 

Much to our amazement, in Loop B we found a campsite that actually had a big cement slab on it for parking on! None of the other sites had this at all. They were all kind of lumpy blacktop, and many of them were not level. It was probably the prettiest site that I could think in the entire park. There was water around us on all three sides and nobody else in the entire B Loop, except the host way up near the entry. 

How do we keep finding such excellent campsites???  Winner!!!

We were set up in our new digs in no time flat...

Just look at this. This is not one of those fake AI pictures that makes an arc. Note that the horizon in the background is straight. This is exactly how it looks when you stand at our campsite and the water was curved around us on all three sides with our own little private beach.

We could not believe our good fortune in being able to take this site for an entire week. Next week someone else has it reserved. These sites are $20 that include electric and water. But with our America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass we are getting it for $10 a night. Amazing!

Far across the lake, there's nothing but woods. There are no cottages, no noisy neighbors, only beautiful serene peaceful water surrounding us on all three sides.

We were all set up and Steve rolled out the awning. There was no wind (yet) and we were really enjoying the relaxing sunshine and the calling of birds.

I walked down along the beach. As long as you stayed in the sandy area it was fine. But if you got a little too close to the water's edge, the clay sucked you right into the muck and it clings to your shoes!

I had to let them completely dry before I could start scraping it off. It finally did come off the next day, but it took a while. LOL 

The sun started going down, and we could tell we were in for a real treat. From our vantage position we could see that we would be enjoying the morning sun rising on the left...  and also catching the sun setting on the right. What an amazing campsite.

Soon everything became an orange glow as the bright ball crept closer and closer to the horizon. Reflection off the water was almost blinding.

Here was as close as I could get with my cell phone for a photo. It was so bright.

And then, before you knew it, it slipped right behind the horizon and it was all gone. The orange streaks across the sky we're all that were left until sunrise the next morning.

But the trick was on us, the sun didn't come up the next morning. We had clouds all day long. The birds were singing and twittering around from branch to branch. Look at the beautiful bluebird! 

I think from its song, this is a red winged blackbird?

We basically were going to have a cloudy day. The temperature would be getting up to 80°. But it definitely was totally different than the day before. The winds were starting to kick up...

SUDDENLY the power went out! In the entire campground. No power.  

Steve walked up over to the host site. He was a brand new host and this was his first day on the job. He had actually only been on the job for a couple hours. He did have a phone number to call a ranger but couldn't get through on his cell phone. Limited signal.  We went back to our motorhome with the Starlink and used the Wi-Fi Calling feature. We got ahold of the ranger and he said it would be fixed in a couple hours. 

That was okay with us. We have propane to switch over for our refrigerator. Other people who rely on electric only for their refrigerator systems in newer RVs find themselves in a pickle in this type of situation. Our refrigerator operates on either propane or electric. 

We were okay, and we have plenty of battery power between our house batteries and the Bluetti power station to take care of our needs. So the Starlink can run, the computer can stay on, we can charge up our cell phones or any of our camera equipment. 

Just for grins, Steve decided to try out our new solar blanket that we had gotten for Christmas. This is from Renogy and it is 400 watts.  Here is a link: 

https://www.renogy.com/products/renogy-400w-solar-panel-blanket

.

We like it because it can fold up into a 16"x16" shape about 5" thick. If fits easily behind the love seat when not needed. 

He flipped it open, and hooked the cables up to our Bluetti power station. The Bluetti is equivalent to maybe two or three big lithium batteries.  We decided to not upgrade the motorhome house batteries to lithium. Instead, we opted for the Bluetti so we could use it in other applications besides just in our RV. It is portable and can come in our house in case of a power outage to operate things like our refrigerator, sump pump, or our Starlink.  We can also take it out anywhere and have instant 12 volt DC or 120 volt AC power with us. 

Now, back to the solar panel...

Even with the partly cloudy sky, this 400 watt panel was bringing in almost 300 watts of charging energy from the sky!  

Isn't that nice? The only thing we had running was the Starlink and that's what was drawing out 28 watts of power from our system.  

We also have a 320 watt solar  panel on the roof of the cargo trailer as well as two 100 watt flexible panels that we could hang from the awning if we wanted to. That would give us 920 watts total if we needed to charge everything up quickly. It's nice to have options.

In a few hours, the power did come back on. It flickered a few times. Once we were sure that it was steady, we turned back on our Progressive Industries power management device to make sure it was good clean power and not low browned out or high arcing.  That protects all the wiring inside of our motorhome.

While that was going on, I cut up a bunch of veggies and started my favorite Aldi casserole with Polska kielbasa sausage, Aldi canned sliced potatoes, and vegetables.  I didn't have any fresh green beans so I used canned ones. It's baked in the oven with some olive oil and spices. Soon it's a delicious warm filling the belly meal full of comfort food.

The second night we had an absolutely striking amazing sunset, better than the night before!!! The clouds in the foreground made a beautiful accent for the setting sun from behind.

As it was going down, I just snapped these photos with my cell phone. No AI, no editing, no touching up. Straight out of my Samsung cell phone. I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE HOW ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS THIS PHOTO IS!!!

(I think it's my favorite of the entire trip so far)

We relaxed again on our second evening and absolute peace and tranquility. The campground is so quiet we don't hear a thing. There's no traffic nearby, and I think the host left and went somewhere. Everything was totally silent.

The next morning, after coffee, I want to work on my shoes. I found a bamboo skewer in our drawer that worked really well for gouging out the dried bits of clay from the treads of my favorite slip-on shoes.  They look a heck of a lot better than they did the day before, that's for sure.

We had a full day of just relaxing and not doing much of anything. I didn't even haul out my sewing machine! I have a quilt that I'm working on, but for some reason I didn't even want to do that. I think it was the peacefulness of the campsite that just kept us sitting there and looking out at the water.

It was near dinner time, I made up a tray of fresh veggies and some dip. Steve hauled out the grill and made up some of our favorite brat patties from Salmons Meat Market in Luxemburg, Wisconsin.

Adding a pickle spear and some lettuce and tomato to our burgers, with thousand island dressing on mine, it completed our meal. Steve of course, needs a big wedge of sweet Vildalia onion on his. 

I made up a video to go along with today's blog...

The next blog and video will detail why we ended up sleeping in the dump station overnight??!!??

128 mi traveled today 

1,249 mi traveled so far

WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - 2ND Week at Buckhorn Creek Corps of Engineers - Lake of the Pines, TX

We are now on our second week in this most beautiful place... Buckhorn Creek Corps of Engineers campground situated on Lake of the Pines, Texas. This area of Northeast Texas is full of tall pine trees and actually has green grass and leaves budding out on shrubbery already at the end of February. This is exactly what we were looking for when we left Wisconsin three and a half weeks ago, at four degrees below zero!

Sadly, the rules at the Corps of Engineers only allow you to stay 14 days at a particular campground within the same "basin" or flowage. Some of the campgrounds may allow you to extend it an extra time, depending on the rangers discretion. This is to keep people from moving on in and setting up like a permanent resident. Also, only a few of the sites here have sewer hookups included. So it does mean that you do have to pull off the site after a period of time to dump your holding tanks. It's easy for us to pull in the slides, drive over and dump our tanks, and drive back and set up again. It's not such a labored process like it is with travel trailers or fifth wheels. It only takes us about 15 minutes.

This campsite is so pleasant with the wide open view of the water as well as this large lawn in front of us. Every day Steve takes Nick on his 100-ft long rope real and throws his toy for him. Nick zooms back and forth, usually the full hundred foot length - repeatedly - to return his toy to Steve. It really helps to wear him out and take the edge off his energy level. He has just turned 3 years old, but acts like a puppy.

I know it may be sound boring to some, but we have just been totally enjoying sitting here and looking out at the water. We watch the birds come and go, their songs filling the air. The springtime calls of birds is something that we don't hear all winter long in Wisconsin. I think the birds there are too cold to sing!!!

We also watch the fisherman come and go in their boats. This particular little craft drew some interest. It looks like one of those paddle boats with a little electric motor. It seems to be a little larger with seats on it that can rotate and all directions for fishing, without having to stand up. We have seen these guys come down and fish in our bay and then slowly work their way back out around the point. I'm not sure where they are camping or if they have a cabin nearby. It sure is a cute little boat though.

We watched them catch a couple fish and then work their way back out. What a pleasant way to spend an afternoon? 

The weather here has been exceptionally delightful. These are the types of temperatures we have been looking for.  The night time temps are just enough to kick on the heat and warm us up a bit. The electric mattress pad heaters take care of the rest. We are cozy all night long and by morning, ready to open the windows and make our coffee.  Some rain is forecast later in the week, which is desperately needed in this area. Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Louisiana are all in a drought. Some rain would be wonderful because the fire danger is so high.

This little guy is all worn out from playing with his toy. He now needs to sprawl across me and gaze lovingly at my face. Wondering if I'm going to get up and give him some treats. Spoiled brat.

We decided that since we were staying a second week, we needed to pick up some things from a little convenience store about 3 miles away. Round trip is just under 6 miles. Easily done on our bikes. It even means riding across the top of the dam on the road.

We decided not to take Nick or his little trailer because we didn't know if there were shoulders on the road that made it better for riding a bike. After our experience in Jonesboro riding on an urban city route, we wanted to be sure before we left what the roads would be like --- without taking Nick along.

It turned out they were okay, and really we could have taken him. But that's okay, we leave him behind in the motor home on his own. We pulled down all of the shades and we turn up the TV pretty loud to drown out any noises he might hear from outside. We have a Wi-Fi camera that we can peek on him and see what he's up to. It also has a temperature sensor on it that lets us know if for some reason the power were to go out and it were to get too hot inside. Both the security monitor camera and our Starlink operate off our 12 volt DC battery system, not the campsite post 120 AC Power.  Modern technology sure gives us peace of mind.

We made it to the little convenience store. It was our choice to either come here or pull up stakes in the motorhome and drive 12 miles over into Jefferson, Texas to a regular grocery store. So we took our chances and came here instead.  

Steve offered to take a picture of me! I don't often get many photos of myself because I'm always the one taking the pictures. So here I am, this little bicycle riding Granny...

We picked up our groceries, and then strapped them all carefully onto the panier bags on each side of my bike. Plus we had room for Steve's Modelo beer strapped to the center of my bike rack. His bike has a different carrying bag on his back rack that carries things like air compressor, spare bike tube, first aid kit and tool set. Because he carries those things, I get to carry the groceries! 

The store was convenient, but it definitely was not cheap!  But we were able to get a dozen eggs and some gallon jugs of drinking water as well as just a little quart of milk and a loaf of bread. The bread was $5.99 a loaf! It didn't even taste that good. We tossed in a big bag Doritos (which wasn't all that big) and Steve's 12 pack of beer. Ouch! $50 later we were ready to hit the road.

We pedaled on back to the park and put away all of our groceries. Everything made it, including the eggs. The road was a little bouncy but I did make a little video of it anyhow. If you watch the video clip at the end of this blog you can watch our little ride to the store and back. 

After we got back to the camper, a little guy was quite miffed that he didn't get to go along with us. He kept giving us the glare look and kept going over to his little cart and pawing at it, begging for a ride. 

So we did.

When we got back, there was one more neighbor had moved in down the road from us. But he was very, very quiet and just was worried about going fishing early in the morning. That's about the only sound we heard from him was his boat taking off from shore. Later on we spoke with him and it turns out he only lives 6 miles away. He comes here for 2 weeks at a time to relax and fish and enjoy the park before all of the summer people come.

Now that we had a dozen eggs, I boiled up two and made up some potato salad for dinner later on. Steve tossed a couple of our nice juicy hamburgers on the grill. With the fire ban on, they ask that we don't use charcoal grills or anything that could possibly be on the grass and catch fire. The little table top propane grill was okay up on the aluminum table, over our black topped area next to the camper.

While Steve was doing the grilling, I set the table. This is the beautiful tablecloth we bought when we were visiting in Mexico about 15 years ago. Our friend Mary had one just like it, and I had admired it. When we traveled into Mexico we found the same market where she had purchased hers and I bought one too. It makes me smile every time we use it. So bright and colorful with intricate designs woven into the yarns. It isn't stamped or printed. It's actually woven. 

I set out the buns and the pickles and the potato salad and even some of my precious pickled beets that we brought from home.

Topped it off with a glass of my "Two Buck Chuck" wine, Charles Shaw wine from Trader Joe's... Adding in such a beautiful view to have our dinner.  Like I said, we aren't asking for much out of this vacation getaway other than a nice warm place to sit and look at something pretty. We really found that here...

The evening started to cloud up a little bit. We were hoping maybe some rain was going to come overnight. (It didn't) It's made for an interesting sunset with the golden sun peeking out with the heavy gray clouds.

Then suddenly all the background burst into beautiful bright pink and even an edging of crimson along the horizon. What a great treat for an end to a beautiful day.

We spent the rest of our second week basically just doing our own fun stuff that we do. Taking some bike rides, with or without the dog. Did another two loads of laundry in our little portable washing machine. We cooked some creative meals, and took some nice naps. Later in the evenings, after dark, we usually head inside. Since the burn ban was on we couldn't have a campfire anyhow. We crank up the Starlink and we watch some YouTube favorite channels that we enjoy. Mostly traveling and camping, some homesteading. We cuddle up on the love seat with a bowl of popcorn. And the dog between us. 

One evening I made up a special meal. I took some pictures of it during the process. I put shredded chicken along with precooked rice and sauce and seasonings in flour tortillas. I spiced Steve's up more than mine. I didn't have any enchilada sauce, but I used up some leftover spaghetti sauce. Lol. 

Imagine being from Wisconsin and not being able to eat cheese??? I can no longer digest cheese properly, but we found this Violife brand that is a dairy free cheese substitute there's actually made from potato starch.  We can get it in either a Mexican shredded, mozzarella, or even in sliced American that tastes really good for a grilled cheese sandwich.

I sprinkled some of the shredded Violife cheese on the top of our enchiladas. Then I covered them with tin foil and popped them in the oven for half an hour.

Oh my, a rich and filling enchilada meal with a little side salad and some guacamole. 

I want to give a little shout out here to one of our granddaughters.  This is our 10-year-old Whitney. I think she's the only one of all of our grandchildren who actually reads my blogs, and watches my YouTube videos! She sends me silly little pictures that she takes of her cat and her 2 dogs. She also just got glasses...

Recently she has been writing me emails!

So a huge shout out with love and hugs to this sweet girl who takes the time to write to her Grandma Pfun! She is learning letter writing skills at school and I am so appreciative of each and every one that I get. 

Since we have unlimited water, and an outdoor shower, it was time to scrub up this little dog and get him smelling fresh and clean again. We have biodegradable dog shampoo and an outdoor shower on the side of the motor home. I laid our rubber floor mat down for him to stand on so I could scrub him up well from head to toe. Then rinse rinse rinse. With his long hair takes quite a while to get all of the soap out of him.

He was not too happy with me...

I brushed him out, clipped his toenails, and told him he was very handsome. Do you think so? 

We've been taking time on this trip to relax and look around instead of rush rush rush from one place to another. That might not appeal to some people who travel to get to places. 

To destinations. 

To sites. 

To tourist attractions. 

I think, for us, we need to slow down and smell the roses. Or the dandelions.

Almost every evening we were blessed with these beautiful sunsets. The colors are intense and we hang out long enough to watch the sun slip down over the far horizon behind the trees.

This really has been a wonderful spot to be camping for two weeks. Here's the YouTube that goes along with this blog post:

And this video is from the last few days on the campsite before we left. It has Nick getting his outdoor doggy spa bath! 

But now it's time to move on. Let's see where we are going, further down the road.

0 miles traveled today (other than the 6 miles traveled on our bicycles to the store and back)

1,121 miles traveled so far