WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - First Week at Buckhorn Creek, Lake of the Pines, Texas

 I have decided that I'm going to combine multiple days all into one post. This will be about our first week here at Buckhorn Creek Corps of Engineers park, located on Lake of the Pines near Jefferson, Texas.

Honestly, we are doing so much relaxing and resting and just enjoying this peaceful place, there's not really a whole lot going on to really write about.

 That's exactly as it should be.

After the weekend was over, there aren't too many people left in the park. I think there's about 5 or 6 campers total. Every day we see this gentleman bring his three dogs down to the shore. They romp around and splash in and out of the water a little bit and then head back up to the campground again. So that's about it for activity around us...

Our main activity for ourselves is to sit back in these lawn chairs with our cups of coffee and look out over the water. We are thinking of places we've been, places we'd like to go, and just enjoying this place by itself.  

The temperatures are up in the high 70s and one day it actually topped over to 82. The nights are down in the 60s or maybe the high 50s now. We are past the cold snap earlier in the week where we did have to put reflectix up in the windows overnight because it got down to 31°. Hopefully that weather is now past us.

We have noticed this great blue heron gingerly walking along the shore every day. He comes down into our cove and walks around looking for goodies under the water. Sometimes he holds his head sideways, kind of cocked, so he can look down with his eyes and see what's in the water. And then quick as a wink, his beak plunges down and he comes up with something good to eat. 

After a few days, I decided it would be good to fire up our Costway washer/spinner and do a few loads of laundry. This is just the greatest thing to bring along, because I honestly hate going to laundromats when we travel. 

Being here at one spot for two weeks, is a very good reason why we have it. Now we don't have to pull up stakes and leave to go somewhere for a laundromat. We can catch everything up right here in our very own campsite.

One of the best parts is that I don't have to sit somewhere for an hour and a half to two hours just to wash and dry some laundry. Instead, I toss in a load and crank the timer for 15 minutes. I can go enjoy a cup of coffee, and then I come back and crank it for another 15 minutes. Extra long wash. I can pull those clothes out and start a second load reusing the same wash water and soap. Once they are all done, I can hit the drain and refill it with rinse water. Pretty easy.  

The spinner on the right hand side can only take a few things at a time. But it spins them out so well that they are almost dry by the time you take them out. I hang up some under-things on hangers from the shower curtain rod, and other things go out on a wash line.

We grabbed this washing machine second hand off Marketplace, but you can get it on Amazon: 

https://a.co/d/0dQFTAg1

It's surprising how much you can get into the wash section on the left.  I would say about half of what a normal washing machine can handle. You don't want to get it too constricted because then the clothes don't move around freely during the agitation cycle.

Here's a tiny video clip showing how it works.

While the second batch was in washing, I decided to have some of my favorite bananas and yogurt with fresh raspberries on top! You can't do that while sitting at a laundromat...

When the second batch was completely finished, Steve hung up a clothesline for me and I was able to hang them out to dry. Some campgrounds have rules against clotheslines, luckily for us, this one doesn't. Otherwise I would just switch everything to hangers inside and hang it all in our bathroom or from the cabinet handles throughout the motor home.

We've been enjoying the sunsets here. Even though we are not over on the other side of the point actually seeing the sun set on the water... We do get the beautiful colors striations across the sky from this side of the bay.

It's been very quiet for sleeping. Every once in awhile we do hear a truck go by, but otherwise it's been peaceful. The big dam is nearby, and I think those trucks are shift workers coming to take over from the previous crew.  

When we wake up in the morning, Steve pops open the window shade and we look out at such a wonderful view. So much better than looking at the side of somebody else's camper where you're packed in like sardines at a private RV resort. That's not our kind of place.

Steve gets up and starts the coffee while Nick and I kind of roll around and I scratch his belly and we take it easy in the morning.  It's a pretty relaxing way to start the day.  When we travel, there are no "have to's" like chores at home.

During the first week, we really haven't gone anywhere or anything other than take a few walks and play with the dog. We are going to get out the bikes and take a ride around, and maybe even go down to the little convenience store about 3 miles away on the other side of the dam. We are getting low on eggs and milk. We called ahead to make sure they carry them and they said they are currently out of milk. But the new delivery truck should be there by Monday or Tuesday. So we will wait to take our journey then.

Mr Blue Heron came back and is wandering around looking for breakfast too!  The black ravens (or called buzzards around here?) are hoping to get a bite of his fish.  Nope. He ain't sharing.  

We've been fortunate to get day after day after day of blue sky. There are burn bans on in the area and everything is very dry. I know they are really hoping for some rain but it doesn't look like it will be coming until later next week.

The spotting planes for the fire crews are making loops overhead across this area. They've been going over daily checking to make sure nobody is being careless with fire or any spontaneous areas combusting into flame.  

Entire regions of East Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana are all ripe for fire danger at this time. Hopefully rains will come soon and help alleviate some of the dryness.

We are looking out at the beautiful crisp blue water and it's is lightly rippling in the breeze.  A few fishermen here and there troll on by in their boats.  We watched someone this morning catch a fish right out in front of us. 

In the evenings, we've kind of been taking turns cooking some of the dinners that we like. Steve decided that since we are in Texas, he would make his Mom's favorite recipe, a dish they called "Texas Hash".  Steve is a good cook, and I'm glad that we share the cooking duties.

He browns up hamburger and onion, then he adds a jar of my home canned stewed tomatoes. He cooks up some rice and mixes that in. He kind of lets it soak it up. He adds some spices, mainly salt and pepper and a little bit of Harvest Blend, similar to Mrs Dash. His finished casserole is kind of like a Spanish rice. But his family calls it "Texas Hash". While he's doing that, I get out the dishes and butter up a slice of bread to go along with it.

It's a simple meal, but very filling and hearty. Easy to make and a one-pot meal easy to clean up. 

Another one of the delicious items we made for an evening meal was our precious stash of seafood that we brought from Green Bay, Wisconsin. There is a fish market there that flies in fresh fish from all over and flash freezes it if you want to take it to transport back home.  We get salmon there as well as snow crab legs. The last time we were there they had halibut!  

(We fell in love with eating fresh halibut in Valdez, Alaska last Summer)

We brought along two precious pieces and decided it was time to cook them up.  We thawed them and Steve seasoned them up and put them on a lightly oiled piece of tin foil to put in our air fryer.  He sets it on "bake" mode, so it's like a mini-oven.

He set the air fryer out on a metal table outside so we wouldn't have the cooking smells and heat building up inside of the motorhome. It was a pretty hot day so it was nice to be able to have the option to cook outdoors. 

I pre-baked some potatoes in the microwave and added them for the last 10 minutes or so in the air fryer on a rack above the fish. 

Paired up with a couple of crunchy salads, our baked potatoes, and our big wedges of halibut made a fine feast. The fish is white and flaky and not oily at all. It's similar to salmon in texture. Very light and flaky and delicious. No oily fishy taste, not mushy, with more of a meaty seafood flavor.

They say food always taste better when you cook it outside. I don't know who "they" are, but we're not sharing our dinner with them tonight. Lol!

After dinner is done and the dishes are cleaned up, it's time to curl up and watch a little TV after dark. We are thankful that the Starlink works flawlessly here.  We are able to watch a few of our favorite channels on YouTube. Even an episode or two of Maine Cabin Masters. 

Nick curls up between us, quite content.

I think all three of us are quite content...

Here's the video that goes along with today's blog: 

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