Jan 15-19 2026 Lake Georgetown and Austin Volleyball Tournament

Wednesday was a little chaotic. Normally I have most everything ready to travel. We just had so much going on I had to load everything in one day. We also had been without cell service for two day because Verizion was having problems. About 2:00 pm I went to put my hitch on my truck and somehow I had misplaced the sleeve I needed. My truck is a 1 ton and has a 3 inch receiver so I need the sleeve to fit the trailer receiver. I headed to town hoping Tractor Supply would have one. I got about 4 miles down the road and it was shutdown due to a wreck. I could see it would be awhile so I turned around and went back thru Raywood to Liberty. Finally at Tractor Supply I got the only sleeve left that would fit my truck. I headed back home , took a chance that the wreck would be cleared up but nope still shut down. Turned around and went back the long way. Finally got everything hooked up and loaded except our cold goods. Thursday morning we got on the road about 9:30 am. Traffic was pretty good so it was an easy drive. We stopped in Giddings at the Dairy Queen for lunch, it has trailer parking in back so its easy. Filled the truck up with gas and headed on. We got to Jim Hogg Park on Lake Georgetown about 2:30 pm. It was our first time to stay here and it was really nice. We got a great spot right on the lake. Great spot for winter camping but would be hot in summer as no shade. There were not many folks here and they were mostly snowbirds. It was a beautiful day. Friday morning was pretty cold and the wind picked up pretty good. We stayed in camp all day. Susan did some sewing and Cooper and I took several walks around the park. Sammi"s volleyball games started on Saturday but we were in the evening wave so our first game didnt start till 4:00pm. They played poorly andonly won 1 game and lost two. We got home about 10:15 pm. Luckily our first game Sunday started about 11:30 so we didn't have to get there early. We played a little better and won both our games so we finished 3-2 for the weekend. We got back to cmap about 4:30. Got up Monday morning and headed home. Lots of traffic coming home but we made it. We go back in three weeks for another tournament.

Jan 2-5 2026 San Antonio Volleyball Tournament

 Friday morning we left for San Antonio. Sammi has her first  volleyball tournament of the year. Usually we take our trailer and stay in the area for awhile.  Since we were only going to stay 3 nights we opted to do a vrbo.  It was way to expensive for us to stay on the riverwalk plus we needed a pet friendly place for Cooper. I found a little cottage about 2 miles from the convention center.  Of course on the way we stopped in Luling so Susan could go to a quilt shop. We arrived in SA about 3:00.  Our little cottage turned out to be pretty nice , we had a small fenced yard and a driveway with a gate we could lock.  Our little neighbor was a safe place but you didn't"t have to go far for things to change.  For supper we headed out to a restaurant that got good reviews. As it turned out it was closed and I wasn't"t found of the location. It's been about 20 years since we had been to San Antonio, I had forgot how crazy the streets are, even my Google maps got confused.  I finally pulled over to figure out where I was , luckily across the street was a steakhouse and there were a lot of cars so I told Susan we will just eat here.  It turned out to be really good. Our car navigaton got us back home.  I reserved an Ubber for Saturday morning to get is to the convention center. Our first game was at 8:30 am.  This year our vb team is playing in the open division which is the top division. We knew this would tough as there would only be very good teams.  We finished 1-2 the first day. We played terrible the first game. After they they got on track and the rest of the games were very competitive.  We were so tired that evening when we got home we just door dashed Mexican food for supper I also ordered tacos so we would have breakfast the next morning.  Sunday the games were running behind and our 11:30 game didn't start till 12:15.  Won that in 3 sets. Our next game started pretty quick after that. We won in three sets but they were very close. We finished 3-2 for the weekend .  It was probably 4 when we got back  to our cottage. So glad we were staying another night because I was tired. We called another order in and we just chilled. Monday morning we left about 8. It was an easy drive home, couldn't believe we got thru Houston with light traffic.  Our next tournament is in Austin Jan 17,18,

July 26-28 Traveling Home

 We left on Saturday morning. We made a couple of stops and arrived in Amarillo around 2 pm. It was a smooth 100 degrees. Welcome back to Texas.  We got a nice shady spot with a pull thru si I didn't have to unhook.  The next morning we headed to Abilene State Park. Same as yesterday with a couple of stops and finally arrived about 1:00 pm. We had a fully shaded spot and the temperature was around 98. Monday morning we headed to Yeagua Park on Lake Somerville. We got there about 2:00 and it was 98 .  This is our last night on the road and we are ready to get home. About 6 hours of driving a day is all I can take anymore. My hip gets to aching, that's why we make so many stops. We had a good trip with no major issues.  Pretty sure its my last mountain trip pulling a trailer. Old age is catching up.  Short day in the morning, maybe 2 1/2 hours.

July 21-26 2025 La Veta Colorado

 I'm just going to group all the days together. I did not have good cell service in La Veta so it was too much trouble to do a daily blog. We left Around 8 on Monday.  It was eleven miles down the terrible washboard road to get to US 24.  It took us about 30 minutes and shook us to death. After that it was smooth sailing to La Veta.  We got set up. Its nice to have full hookups.  Our trailer looked like a bomb went off in it. There was stuff everywhere. One side of a shade came down. In my closet one end of the dow rod came off. Got that all fixed up and we went to our favorite store to get ice cream. We made a stop there every day. The weather was great every day. the mornings were about 50 and the highs were about 76. We made a few drives thru the mountains , so pretty.  One day we went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It"s a pretty interesting place. We took Cooper up to Cuchara to the dog bar so we could all eat together. He liked it but I put him back in the truck so I could eat.  He just couldn't settle down. It's our last week. I'm ready to head home but Im not looking forward to the heat.

July 19,20 2025 Our Last Two Days Boondocking

 Pretty much the same  routine so not much to write about.  Beautiful sunrises every morning. Susan sewed and Cooper and I piddled around.  Cooper loves it here because he can run loose and explore. On Sunday I went to the State Park and got a day pass.  I took our trash to put in the dumpsters and I filled my water bladder. The lake looked pretty and lots of folks on it. You not supposed to swim in it as the water is pretty cold. When I got back I loaded everything in my truck so we will be ready to roll in the morning.  We never got any rain but it was all around us. We did get a nice rainbow late in the evening.

July 18, 2025 Another Nice Day

It was another beautiful morning starting out about 47 degrees. As good daylight came I could see that some more campers had arrived sometime late yesterday evening.  I figured that as the weekend got closer there would be more people. We are at the last site before the road gets pretty rough. There are not many trailers past us but there are a few.  We decided to drive into Woodland Park .  There was a lot of traffic in town. On the way back we stopped in Divide and got ice cream.  There are about 4 forest service roads that take off from the main road heading to Eleven Mile State Park. You could see that a lot of campers were arriving. When we turned on our road there were new trailers along the way to ours. It's about 200 yards to our nearest

neighbor so its not bad. We pretty much just chilled the rest of the evening. There was rain showers all around us but we didn't get any rain. 

July 17, 2025 A Chilly Day

It was only about 49 when I got up this morning. Cooper slept in and didn't get up till Susan did about 7;15. It was nice outside as there was very little wind. I cooked bacon and fried eggs for breakfast. We decided to stay home today. The forecast was for some showers off and on. Cooper and I took a hike thru the open meadows. We did find a little elk sign but it was old. We did about a two mile circle and I was glad when we got the trailer back in sight.  Susan was doing some sewing work. Cooper and I drove down to the Eleven Mile Village store which is very small. He gave us the story on why the road is not paved anymore. According to him the county decided they could no longer repair the pavement so they put down 4 inches of gravel , mashed it down and then sprayed it.  It gets washboarded often and can get very rough. It's also dusty. He said the whole community is in an uproar about it and the county officials no longer answer his calls.  He said they do grade it at times but after one weekend all the traffic to the state park and lake traffic make it bad again. I finally got my ice cream and head home. It never really warmed up too much and the wind and light rain started around 2.  Temps stayed right around 60-65 all evening. Really didn't get much rain but it was big drops and cold.