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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
I brushed him out, clipped his toenails, and told him he was very handsome. Do you think so?
He was not too happy with me...
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.
This really has been a wonderful spot to be camping for two weeks. Here's the YouTube that goes along with this blog post:
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
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