2020 Trip to Texas

[JEBar]

the plans for our 2020 trip to spend the winter in Texas are starting to fall into place .... frankly, posting our itinerary here allows me to be able to find it easily/quickly .... I'll update the opening post as more reservations are confirmed

1-4-20 ... Home to Heritage RV Park, Augusta, Ga https://www.heritagervpark.com/ .... projected 282 miles / 4 hr 14 min .... reserved on 11/15/19

1-5-20 ... fuel stop @ Pilot Travel Center #331 .... I-285 Exit 51 ... 2605 Bouldercrest Dr SE, Atlanta, GA 30316 .... 416 miles from home

1-5-20 ... Augusta to Sherling Lake RV Park, Greenville, AL https://www.greenvilleal.gov/310/Sherli ... Campground.... projected 339 mi / 4 h 46 min .... reserved on 11/15/19

1-6-20 .... fuel stop @ Pilot Travel Center # .... I-10 Exit 13 .... 6955 Theodore Dawes Road, Theodore, AL 36582 .... 342 miles from last fuel stop

1-6-20... Greenville to Baton Rouge KOA, Denham Springs, LA https://koa.com/campgrounds/baton-rouge/.... projected 314 mi / 4 h 26 min ... . reserved on

1-7-20... Denham Springs to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe, Willis Tx https://www.thousandtrails.com/texas/la ... ng-resort/.... projected 294 miles / 4 hr 25 min .... reserved on 9/27/19

1-28-20 .... Willis, TX to Colorado River Thousand Trails, Columbus, TX https://www.thousandtrails.com/texas/co ... ampground/ .... projected .... reserved on 9/27/19

2-18-20.... Columbus, TX to Bennett's RV Ranch, Granbury, Tx https://bennettsrv.com/rv-park.... reserved on 9/27/19

2-21-20 .... Granbury, TX to Whispering Oaks RV Park, Weimar, TX https://whisperingoaksrvpark.com/.... reserved on 9/27/19

2-25-20 .... Weimar, TX to Colorado River Thousand Trails, Columbus, TX (see link above) .... reserved on 9/27/19

3-3-20 .... to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe, Willis Tx (see link above) .... reserved on 9/27/19

3-19-20 .... Willis, TX to Baton Rouge KOA, Denham Springs, LA .... projected 294 mi / 4 h 25 min ... revised reservation on 3-17-20

3-20-20 .... Denham Springs to Montgomery South RV Park, Hope Hull, AL .... 339 mi / 4 h 50 min .... reserved on 3/18/20
take on fuel at a Love's Travel Center at exit .... approx 640 miles from last fueling

3-21-20 ....Hope Hull to Heritage RV Park, Augusta, Ga .... projected 308 mi / 4 h 27 min .... revised reservation on 3-17-20

3-22-20 .... Augusta, GA to HOME .... projected 282 miles / 4 hr 14 min

3-22-20 .... Fuel Stop @ SC I-95 Exit 90 .... Love's Truck Stop .... 1911 Highway 34W, Dillon, SC .... 490 miles from last fuel stop

[JEBar]

its been a good morning .. .. one during which a few significant pre-trip issues have been taken care of .... first, our camper's kitchen faucet has been properly tightened .... second, prefilters in our camper's RO (reverse osmosis) have been replaced .... third, our portable DISH satellite television system is fully operational .... yep, its been a good morning .... nothing major remaining on our pre-trip "To Do" list .... that said, something or several somethings are bound to popup ..

[JEBar]

we have three outings scheduled between now and Jan 4th when we are due to head to Texas .... two short, one long (600 mile round trip) .... this coming weekend is projected to have cold day and night temps ... we do plan to test the 3 Vornado heaters we take with us during winter trips .... we will also continue testing our camper's water heater that was repaired a few weeks ago while at Chesapeake .... the last time our truck and camper tires were aired up was in August in south Dakota .... temp as I recall was in the mid 80's ..... with the pressure in all 10 tires being low, when I turn on our Pressure Pro tire monitoring system, the alarm goes nuts .... one of the features of our Sportchassis is it has a good, high pressure air compressor .... naturally the air valves on 8 of the 10 tires were near or at the 6 o'clock position .... after finishing with them, we also aired up the tires on our Chevy truck and our daughter's camper .... one more item checked off of our pre-trip list

[JEBar]

received the picture below from one of wife's sisters-in-law .... the Jayco on the left is parked on the site where we spend our summers in Estelline, South Dakota .... 23 degrees out there as this is being typed ... forecasted high for tomorrow is 28, dropping to 10 tomorrow night .... we had our camper built to withstand such temps; in fact, we've camped from 8 to 114 degrees ....as noted above, we are due to be camping this weekend with our club and its supposed to be cold, high Friday 27, low Friday night 28

[JEBar]

we have three outings scheduled between now and Jan 4th when we are due to head to Texas .... two short, one long (600 mile round trip) ....

as is our norm, our absolute and final plans have changed .. .. we will still make the 600 mile trip over Thanksgiving but will not be taking the camper .... this elevates our two weekend outings with our club in importance .... they will be our last times to test all of our camper's system and truck's performance prior to pulling out for Texas

[JEBar]

they were right, its been a really cool day and we are set for a hard freeze tonight .... we arrive at Raleigh Oaks around 1PM and it took a while to get the camper's living area warmed up .... as practice for spending the winter in Texas, we are heating with electricity .... we learned early on that when plugging into our camper's wall outlets, if we run two portable heaters they must be set on LOW ... since then we have upgraded and/or modified our camper so that we can run those two plus two more if needed .... throw in the camper's OEM electric fireplace and we seldom need to use the propane furnace .... as this is being typed the temp has fallen to 36 and we can hear propane furnaces in campers around us .... so far our winter appliances are performing well .... in addition the repairs made a few weeks ago to the camper's electrical components in the water heater seem to be performing well .... that is most certainly a relief

[Mags]

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Have to read you got there safely.

they were right, its been a really cool day and we are set for a hard freeze tonight .... we arrive at Raleigh Oaks around 1PM and it took a while to get the camper's living area warmed up .... as practice for spending the winter in Texas, we are heating with electricity .... we learned early on that when plugging into our camper's wall outlets, if we run two portable heaters they must be set on LOW ... since then we have upgraded and/or modified our camper so that we can run those two plus two more if needed .... throw in the camper's OEM electric fireplace and we seldom need to use the propane furnace .... as this is being typed the temp has fallen to 36 and we can hear propane furnaces in campers around us .... so far our winter appliances are performing well .... in addition the repairs made a few weeks ago to the camper's electrical components in the water heater seem to be performing well .... that is most certainly a relief

[JEBar]

Have to read you got there safely.

thankfully we did .... we only had to cover about 30 miles so that wasn't bad at all

[Mags]

Guess you figured it out. Was supposed to be "Happy to read..."

Have to read you got there safely.

thankfully we did .... we only had to cover about 30 miles so that wasn't bad at all

[JEBar]

yep .... if spell check is as good as its cracked up to be, it would know what word I intended to use and make the correction ...

[JEBar]

with a strong arctic cold front due to roll in tomorrow, I took the time today to connect our camper to a 500 gallon propane tank .... test fired the propane furnace and will use it to heat the camper during the coming subfreezing temps .... a side benefit of doing so is testing the furnace prior to our winter trip .... in addition, we seldom heat water using propane so we will probably heat a tank to test that system .... so far, so good

[JEBar]

furnace test went well .... thermostat set on 44 degrees .... 2 nights in the low 20's .... high yesterday 40, high today in low 40's .... temp in the camper has held steady at 44 every time we've stepped in to check on things .... thermostat has once again been turned off, no subfreezing temps in the forecast for the next week or so .... tomorrow we plan to make the remaining reservations at the campgrounds where we plan to overnight on our way to Texas

[JEBar]

all campground reservations for our trip to Texas and back have now been made .... post 1 in this thread has been updated accordingly ... this will be our first major trip since switching to Dish satellite TV service .... we started using satellite TV service while traveling in a camper back in '03 .... it didn't take long to learn the wisdom of raising the issue of wanting a site with a clear view of the southern sky while booking a site .... we've found that the folks booking the sites almost always know which sites will work and which ones won't .... so far as we know, we may not need our portable satellite antenna during this trip to Texas

[JEBar]

another small item checked off of our pre-trip list .... that being to reinstall our vent cushion insulation pillows ===> https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Insulator- ... 197&sr=8-2 .... first picture shows the 14" X 14" living area powered vent .... our camper has 3 of these vents .... with only a thin plastic roof a great deal of heat can be lost .... the second and third show a vent cushion in place .... we've used the same cushions for several years .... the require no special installation, you simply push them into place, aluminum coated side up

double checked new Wally receiver and, so far, its doing fine

[JEBar]

with about 6 weeks left until we pull out for Texas, medical appointments seem to dominate our calendar .... with us on the road over half of the year and figuring in the holidays, Maureen has to schedule our physicals and other medical appoints into a pretty tight time frame ... vehicle safety inspections, servicing the Sportchassis, major tree trimming of both evergreen and hardwood trees are just part of the things on our pre-trip list that we have to take care of

[JEBar]

the morning has been spent checking more items off of the list : our day began with a breakfast meeting at a presentation by a local Audiologist designed for folks with hearing loss .... bottom line there, over the course of its projected life of the even medium level hearing equipment would end up costing a couple of thousand dollars a month .... second on the list, ended up being to get our second shingles shot .... third (after lunch), medical appointment with a Dermatologist, last, stop at Lowe's and try to find whole house water filter housing wrench to use with our camper's filter system ....

[JEBar]

another small but important pre-trip item checked off this morning .... that being renewing my NC Driver's License .... our rig requires a non-comerical Class-A License .... mine expires the end of December so getting a new one in hand well before we head for Texas .... NC allows holders of a standard Class-C driver's license with no traffic infractions to renew via the internet .... that option isn't available for holders of a Class-A so I had to spend the morning sitting in a DMV office .... it took some time but all went well and I have a temporary license to carry during the time it takes a new one to arrive in the mail

[JEBar]

another morning spent taking care of items on our pre-trip checklist .... Silverado state safety inspection, picking up some prescriptions, repairing the camper's free standing table, programming a replacement remote for the camper's entertainment center sound system .... in short, nothing major but things that had to be done

[JEBar]

it sure was cool outside this morning while I was rearranging our camper's basement storage area to accommodate our new collapsible cart .... its never required much of an effort to move things around so as to accommodate smaller items .... its been many a moon since we needed to make room for something that is bulky and heavy .... bottom line, it worked out but doing so required me to pack something that must be removed to get something else out .... oh well, its done ....

[JEBar]

our last full hookup camping prior to pulling out for Texas has come an gone .... all systems but the roof AC's were tested .... a few things still need to be taken care of : propane tanks need to be filled, both bulbs in one ceiling florescent fixture are out, need to replace water filter housing wrench , need to replace a couple of clear sewer fittings, the never ending reorganization and repacking of the basement continues, the truck is scheduled to be serviced on Tuesday, .... in short, the time between now and our departure grows smaller, hopefully the "to do" list will grow smaller at a faster pace