After our trip to Gatlinburg where we stayed in place for 3 weeks and in consideration of the “challenges” we had during our first outing where we moved to a new site (and usually a new state) each day, we’ve decided that the best way for us to approach these trips is for me to take RV and the animals out in advance and for Laura to fly out a few days later to meet up. If we move from place to place, we save the distance travel for the weekends. On the back end it works in reverse, Laura flies home and I follow a few days behind.
This method greatly reduces the stress for both of us. Laura, who works in a connected and team oriented environment, can avoid the worry about connectivity and road noise (not to mention motion-sickness and trying to make a mouse stay where she puts it) and I can not panic every time there’s a bump in the road or a stretch of no signal on a road in the middle of nowhere. It also gives me a chance to drive some of the more scenic routes that Laura wouldn’t enjoy for the above reasons.
The only downside other than the added airfare, is that although I get to see a few more places and have the pets to myself (this is a good thing?) it does make it feel like the vacation hasn’t started until we’re all together and that’s why this post is titled Pre-vacation.
The pre-vacation objective for this trip: get to Texas which I was able to do in four days. Day one was a short drive to re-acclimate the animals to RV life. They actually do very well on long trips, even up to 8 hours on the road, but I think it’s good to let them “get their road-legs” and used to my saying when they can poop instead of going as they please. So this first day was a short 5-1/2 hours to a really nice campsite outside Tallahassee, the Coe Landing Campground. Situated beside Lake Talquin about 15 minutes from downtown, Coe Landing has just a few spots and appears to exist to serve folks that want to use the boat launch next door and fish for largemouth bass. This time of year it was just me and a couple of other rigs and I was able to get a very picturesque site on the water:
We awoke to perfectly calm water and temperatures in the 30’s. Even in that cold there was a hardcore fisherman bundled in a heavy coat heading out onto the steaming lake. It was a pretty cool (no pun) sight but I didn’t think to get a photo.
The next day was a 7 hour drive to Lafayette Louisiana where we stayed at the convenient Lafayette KOA by the highway. Nothing to report here.
On Wednesday, after just six hours on the road, we made it to the Mystic Quarry Resort in Canyon Lake Texas. We’re in Texas! … deep in the heart of Texas … we’ve been in Texas for hours and we’re only half way through. It’s no wonder that they wanted to be their own country.
PS I’m mentioning the campground names because we’re going to start adding campground reviews to the blog. They’ll be on the menu somewhere… someday.
Also “The Cambridge Dictionary suggests that PS is the proper format in British English. The Cambridge Dictionary also says that P.S. (with periods after each letter) is the American English format.” I’m using the British version cause I can save two keystrokes and when you have re-compose, re-figure, and re-type as much as I do, every stoke counts 😜.
