Pedernales Falls

Greetings, followers of the Mosey'n Millers.

Since my last post we have moved to the location we will occupy for the month of March.  From Lake Corpus Christi we have come northwest into what is known as the “Hill Country” of Texas and specifically to Pedernales Falls State Park.

The Hill Country

This area is as different from southeast Texas as the Upper Peninsula is from south central Michigan.

We are surrounded by a beautiful, hilly landscape with very different birds, flowers, trees, scrub, and rivers than we experienced in January & February.



The state of Texas acquired what was formerly the Circle Bar Ranch from private owners in 1970 and opened Pedernales Falls State Park in 1971.

The 5,212-acre park sits along the banks of the scenic Pedernales River in Blanco County east of Johnson City and west of Austin.

Pedernales Falls

Note the people for size comparison

The actual Pedernales Falls are at the north end of the park.  Here, the river drops about 50 feet in elevation over a distance of 3,000 feet. Water cascades over tilted, layered stair steps of limestone.







Right now the river is low and people can walk all over the huge limestone slabs.  However, torrential rains here or anywhere up river can cause flash flooding that raises the water level 20 or more feet above current levels within minutes. Watch out!

At this time all of the river is flowing through this gap

We are again volunteers in this state park as we were at Lake Corpus Christi.  The jobs we are doing are also similar to what we have done before.




Darlene is working with a couple other women in a butterfly garden/bird viewing area.  I am with the maintenance department doing whatever needs to be done.

The garden and bird blinds

Our campsite. Lovin' it!!

As before, we receive a full hookup campsite and in this park, a Gator to get to the work sites and to use to explore the park.  You can see it in the first picture.  Our campsite isn't in the campground, but in a special area just for Park Hosts.  This park also provides 2 free washers and dryers for the use of the park hosts, a NICE perk.

Our specific campsite is every camper's dream spot.  It's spacious, picturesque, and private.  We could hardly ask for better if we were going to live here permanently.  What a blessing.








With mixed emotions, we see an end coming to our winter in Texas.  On April 1st we will set out for home.  No foolin'.  When we are traveling back to Indy, we keep you posted on what we hope will be a very beautiful and interesting 444 mile drive up the Natchez Trace Parkway.

It's big. What do you think it is?

Overweight Truck

When we arrived at Lake Corpus Christi and began our volunteering work you could tell by more than the calendar that it was winter. Most of the grasses were brown, few trees sported leaves, and although it was warm and comfortable, it just felt wintry.

Almost two months have passed, we are going to move to a new location next week, and most significantly it really feels like spring.





The days are noticeable longer, the sky is consistently less cloudy, trees are leafing and blossoming, and birds are singing mating songs. Oh, and you can currently buy tomatoes, lettuce and pepper plants in the big-box garden centers. It's spring in southeast Texas.

What have the Mosey'n Millers been doing for the last two months? Well, we have been fulfilling our 25 hours per week of volunteer commitment here in the park, of course. But we have also taken several “day trips” to surrounding areas to get a feel of the “Coastal Bend” area of Texas, which will be the subjects of future posts. Why haven't you read about them in our blog? Would you believe I haven't had time to write? Well that problem just got solved.

Both Darlene and the ER doctor told me I have to stay off my foot and not do anything but rest & heal for a week or so. WHAT? Well, I was out on the patio beside the trailer and wasn't looking at my feet when I moved our waste basket. I stepped with a foot half-on and half-off the patio edge which resulted in pronounced pain in my foot and an embarrassing face plant. Thankfully there are no broken bones, just a sprained foot (stretched & torn ligaments). Now I have a few days to sit with ice on my foot and a book (or cold beverage) in my hand watching the world go by. Sounds like retirement doesn't it? Now I have time to blog again.

Maybe the first order of business should be to discuss that over-weight truck I mentioned in a previous post. Our truck is a 2010 Ford F350 Super Duty powered by a 6.4 liter Powerstroke diesel engine. That means it has plenty of power to pull our 5^th wheel trailer. With the 20 inch tires it impresses people as a BIG truck. We love it. With the trailer hitched up the rig is pretty level and drives like a dream going down the road.

But, here's what we discovered when we had the whole rig weighed at an RV scale in Livingston, TX. All 8 wheels have acceptable weight loads. All 4 axles have acceptable weight loads. The trailer is well within its Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. The truck without the trailer hitched is within its Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. The truck and trailer hitched together are within the Gross Combined Weight Rating. HOWEVER, when the trailer is hitched onto the truck, the weight of the trailer pushing down into the truck bed (pin weight) puts the truck over its Gross Vehicle Weight Rating.

So What? … Well, there is little to no chance of being stopped and weighed and given a ticket of some sort, so why worry? Good question. True, some truck parts could experience greater than normal wear because of the overweight condition. True, in some extreme circumstance a bigger truck might be able to handle the trailer better than my current truck. But the real issue, I believe, is that if I were ever in a bad accident, some lawyer might argue that I am liable if he could verify that I was driving an overweight truck.

Hitched up my truck is overweight by enough that moving or removing a few items won't solve the problem. It seems that the only real solution to the problem is to get a smaller, lighter trailer :-( or a bigger truck with 4 wheels on the back instead of 2 ;-) . Another solution is to ignore the whole issue and go on happily driving my rig the way it is now.

However, if you are worried that I'm a little overweight and you're a little over-moneyed, you could by me a new truck and put your worries to rest. To that end, I've added the closing picture to help you with shopping for my new truck. Oh yea, THANKS!!!

That's all for now, but come back to read about DayTripping' and Supercamper to the Rescue.

Why Texas? Why Corpus Christi?

Morning sky in TX

After an outpouring of encouragement from our huge fan base demanding more posts about the exciting adventures of the Mosey'n Millers ......... OK, so one friend reminded me that I left her hanging and wanted more news. I am sitting down to write again.  But honestly, our lives aren't all that exciting at least compared to last winter. 

Our view of the lake from the campsite

You'll recall that last year the Mosey'n Millers traveled over 8,400 miles and saw 14 states on our winter adventure.  This winter we are trying an alternative.  We decided to come south to a warm place and just hang out.  Texas was our destination of choice because it offers such a wide variety of temperatures and settings.

Last winter we did a lot of “dry camping” (camping without electric, water or sewer hookups) because it is free or very low cost.  Unfortunately, there aren't too many places for that kind of camping until you get further west.  

As an alternative, we chose to do some work to cover the costs of our camping.  We became registered “Volunteers” in the Texas Parks and Wildlife system.  So in exchange for 25 hours of work that Darlene & I do, we get a campsite with hookups for free.
  

Using this model, we have become “Winter Texans” for January & February here at Lake Corpus Christi State Park and for the month of March at Pedernales Falls State Park. In April we will see what the weather is doing “up north” and start making travel plans to return to Indy.

One of the bobcats frequently see around the park

“So how's that working for you?” you ask. 

Well, we're liking it.  The travel model we used last year involved a lot of driving, buying fuel, setup & take down, etc.  It's really nice not to have to do all that every few days.  The down-side, of course, is that you're NOT seeing new sights every few days.  But we have our bikes to ride on the park roads, kayaks to paddle on the lake, there are trails to hike, fish to be caught, and new friends from all over the US and Canada to be enjoyed.  God is good and life is enjoyable.



And about the “work” we do as volunteers; it's not hard and it's a welcome break from all that relaxing & loafing.  The first couple weeks we were here I worked with another volunteer grooming trails in the park.  That was a prickly job, literally. Much of the brush and many of the branches that needed to be trimmed sported thorns.  Ouch!

My first job at LCC

After that project ran it's course, I was assigned to the picnic table detail.  The picnic tables in the campsites and day use areas all had wooden tops and seats.  New aluminum tops and seats were acquired and need to be installed. My job is to bring the old tables out of the park to the maintenance barn, exchange wood parts for aluminum, and return the finished tables to the park. Darlene or another volunteer help me.  We do this job Monday through Wednesday and another team does the same thing Friday through Sunday. Thus, I work 7 hours/day for 3 days and get 4 off.  If you do the math that's 21 hours and we need to volunteer for 25 hours.  Darlene makes up those 4 hours refilling the bird feeders in the bird viewing area and other odd jobs around the park.

Long fishing pier gets heavy use

Strong winds brought whitecaps on the lake

Crappie among several other species

All in all, we are really enjoying this “work” arrangement. The staff at LCC are great people. The park has plenty to offer. And the weather is WAY better than we would experience at home.  







From here we are are planning day trips to much of south Texas that is within about a 2 hour drive.  But those will be the subjects of other posts from us Mosey'n Millers.  All Ya'all come back often.  I promise to get better at posting more frequently.

Texas leaf-cutter ants harvest leaves to create mold underground.
They go up & down the tree by the thousands!!

The trip to Texas

First and apology.  We are in a park with little to no internet access.  I have my Verizon Jetpack, but it uses up a LOT of data to upload all the pictures in my posts.  Therefore I have waited until we could get to some free WiFi in Corpus to upload & post the blog.  Future posts will follow the same procedure, out of necessity.  Sorry for the time delay. :-)


Wow!  We woke up to 27 degrees this morning. Indiana? Nope. Lake Corpus Christi, TX.  But then if you are reading this blog almost anywhere else in the USA you probably had it worse.  We have sunshine and no sign of snow, rain, sleet or ice. God is good!

My first post of the winter had us ready to leave Indy and head south. So we made it. By God’s grace we had no mechanical problems and we even had pretty nice weather for the drive.  But let me tell you a little of the back-story.

We had planned to leave Indy within a couple days after Christmas. But since the weather was great, the trailer was packed, and the house was closed up and ready to be vacant for several months, we pulled out late on the morning of the 26th.  My personal goal was to get far enough south to escape freezing weather, Huntsville, AL. We reached our goal about supper time.  Since it was only an overnight stay, we accepted the hospitality of a Cabelas store.  Most Cabelas have free RV sites for transients as part of their layout.

We were up early and on the road by 8:30 the next morning.  It was windy and rainy, but the temps were very nice.  Our goal was less ambitious since we had gotten south far enough.  The route was down I-65 to Birmingham, then southwest on I-20.  We arrived at Little Black Creek Campground by about 4:30 and had a restful evening.  It was nice to be able to take on water in the trailer without fear for pipes freezing.  That makes traveling more civilized.

The morning of 12/28 was FOGGY.  As a matter of fact, there were fog warnings all across the south down to the Gulf.  We were again able to be on the road by 8:30 heading southwest on I-59 and then down to I-12 north of N'Orleans. After joining I-10 we cruised across Louisiana to the Lake Charles area.  When a Jeep with 2 girls pulled up next to me and honked, I hoped they might be hitting on me.  But they were only telling me that something was wrong on the back of my trailer.  I immediately pulled off and found a bolt had sheared on the bike rack and let Darlene's trike bump the road a little.  There was minimal damage because I had secured it up in case anything happened.  I fixed the slightly bent sprocket in a few minutes once we were in camp.

We dry-camped overnight in an abandoned parking lot in Lake Charles and walked down the street a few blocks to a GREAT seafood restaurant.  I had etoufee' that was out of this world! Darlene had great gumbo.  When in the south eat seafood!!

Thursday was an easy day.  We started out by 9:30 and got into the Rainbow's End Escapee campground about noon.  It was a beautiful day to get out and walk and enjoy not being in the cold & snow.

We were up & at'em fairly early because we had an appointment to have our rig weighed at the Escapees SmartWeight station in the park. The process went smoothly and was professionally done by a friendly weigh-master named Chris. However, the results she explained to me were NOT so great.  My trailer is not over weight. My truck is.  “What can I do about it?” was my question.  She answered with another question, “are you independently wealthy?”  I knew I was in trouble right then. But that will be the subject of a future post.

We left Livingston, TX after the weigh-in and headed south on TX 59 which will become I-69 someday.  Parts of the route are already under construction so there were plenty of slow places.  The slowest and most nerve wracking place was called Houston. We drove right through the middle of it north to south at about lunch hour. Not fun.

Lake Corpus Christi State Park was a welcome sight.  We got set up and settled in just in time to have supper. We had to take a less than desirable campsite for the weekend because the site we wanted was occupied. It was New Years weekend, after all. On Monday we moved to the site that we wanted and where we will sit for the next 2 months.  Why Texas? Why Lake Corpus Christi?  Come on back and read all about it in another post.

Because it was New Years weekend, Darlene's cousin and her husband (all for of us have been friends since high school) came down from Wimberly, TX. It was a most enjoyable weekend of visiting, walking, eating and having fun. We'll see them more during out time in Texas.

So now you know that we got from Indy to the Corpus Christi area safely.  However there are still a few unanswered questions.  I hope all ya'all will come back and keep up with the adventures of the Mosey'n Millers.