Gertrude Goes to Bay Landing Thousand Trails

First visit: August 2018
Length of stay: 2 nights
Location: Bridgeport, TX


We had heard some pretty bad things about this campground, so we were worried about staying here for an extended period of time. So we decided to split up our trip back to Lake Whitney as it was about halfway between Whitney and Texoma. 

The entrance coming in looked nice enough. Doug Smith had been transferred here and had been in the park for a little while before us. So there was some light joking upon our arrival courtesy of him. Ha! the road coming into was over a mile long and could have used some repair, as here were numerous potholes (but manageable so long as you kept your speed down). We were able to secure a 50 Amp FHU spot located right across the street from the activity center. The site didn't have any shade on it, but was more than long enough for Gertrude and the car.

We had arrived in time for an ice cream social/root beer floats at the activity center. All of the staff were VERY friendly and super helpful during our stay. There is a decently sized town very nearby where there was a large grocery store, several fast food restaurants, as well as some great mom & pop restaurants in the downtown area. 

We drove around the park to check it out and noticed something surprising. This park is great! I found that it is laid out quite nicely. There are not a lot of 50 Amp FHU sites, but if you're patient and willing to move when one comes available then you can usually get one for your stay. There are several 30 Amp sites in a larger area of the park. We didn't get in the lake while we stayed here, but Kyle did enjoy his morning walks around the park. There are cabins located lakeside in another part of the park somewhat away from the RV sites. The sales offices and member lounge are in their own building closer to the cabins. They have a great mini-golf course here with the cutest decorations throughout. There is a large pavilion near the lake that can be used for reunions or other large gatherings. 

The pool was small but nice. We tried out the "hot tub" but found it just to be a smaller somewhat warm tub instead. There is no lifeguard on duty, but it was a nice area to cook off on a hot Texas summer day!

On the weekends during their peak season, they have meals in the activity center/cafe. Everything was VERY reasonable priced and delicious! We played cards several times throughout our multiple stays in this park. It was also only 45 minutes from where our daughter was living at the time, so we could have her out to visit and participate in activities with us, as well. the recreation director at the time we were there was Jonathon and he was a great guy to hang out with and enjoy what the park had to offer us. When we first did our drive through, they were in the process of a Safari themed weekend with a hayride throughout the park. We drove through a wooded area and giggled to see stuffed animals nestled within the trees (lemurs, monkeys, lions). The ladies at the entrance of the path said they had to scare off the deer a couple of times as they were trying to make off with some of the stuffed animals. Ha!

In the end, we wondered if it was a reverse smear campaign at this park. Perhaps the poor reviews are to keep people out. Hmmm? We would definitely visit this park again if in the area. now that I have a kayak I'd love to get out on the lake and explore some more on my own! Have you been to this park? What did you think of it?

Happy adventuring friends! Hope to see you on the road!

Gertrude Goes to Lake Texoma Thousand Trails

First visit: August 2018
Length of stay: 2 weeks
Location: Gordonville, TX

We made our way from Lake Whitney North a bit to Lake Texoma Thousand Trails. There is a Walmart about 30 minutes away, near the Oklahoma/Texas border. About 20 minutes away is a small Brookshire Brothers grocery store. There weren't a lot of choices for dining out in the immediate area, but we DID find a great place for breakfast and lunch located inside a gas station Lucky Truck Stop & Cafe. All the food here was fresh and homemade, reasonably priced and super yummy! We had breakfast there one day, and lunch on our way out. 

When we first arrived at this location we checked in at the Welcome Center, as we'd done at many previous locations. They informed us that we could go to a parking lot inside the park to unhook the toad (the car we tow behind the motorhome). We proceeded to do so and before we'd begun the process to unhook, we were greeted by a friendly fellow on a golf cart that asked if we needed any help. He introduced himself as Doug Smith (you'll recognize the name from a previous post). He pointed us towards the optimal sites for shade, cell signal, and overall environment. The park provided WiFi was less than workable, so we just decided to hoist our cell signal booster antenna and rely on that for our internet needs.

The park operates on an interesting concept, it is first come first serve, as many Thousand Trails parks are in our experience. If you need a 50 Amp site, you find your site and then a representative of the park comes out and unlocks the power pole for you to hook up. Again, Doug helped us out and we were all set and ready to go in a FHU site. We were in a little cove of an area with about a dozen sites or so in a semi-circle off to one side of the park. There were several annual siteholders and a few transients around us. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming to their new temporary neighbors. The site itself was well shaded, mostly level, and roomy enough that we could put the slide out and our awning out without feeling like we were encroaching on our neighbors. Backing into the site wasn't too difficult, either. 

The park had a weekend breakfast cafe open for part of the time we were there that we enjoyed quite a bit. Part of our time here they had some pretty major power issues and a large section of the park was shut down from power. We managed it alright and didn't need to shorten our stay. We were invited to play cards (we learned Hand and Foot from Doug and his lovely wife, Lily) multiple nights. We ended up making quick friends with Doug and even meeting a few other couples during our visit here. 

They have an adult pool/hot tub as well as a family pool here. Due to the power concerns, the pools were shut down during part of our stay. If it had not been for this fact, I don't know if we would have ventured down to the beautiful lake that was accessible from one end of the park. The lake turned out to be very refreshing and a lovely break from the summer Texas heat. An evening activity we really enjoyed was going to the adult lounge and sitting on the rockers while taking in the sites and sounds around us.

Overall, I'd come back to this park if we were in the area again. Even with the power issues the park had, we were always treated with the upmost respect and helped at every turn by the staff working here. Below are some pictures we took during our stay here. 

Happy adventuring friends!! Hope to see you on the road!

Gertrude Goes to Lake Whitney Thousand Trails

First Visit: July 2018
Length of stay: 3 weeks
Location: Whitney, TX

We made our way from Mystic Quarry to Lake Whitney Thousand Trails Campground. This is near to where part of Kyle's family lives, so we thought we'd spend some time there visiting with family. It is also about an hour and a half from where our daughter lives, so that makes it convenient for visiting with her as well.

The park is close to Whitney, TX and there is a nice grocery store just a few miles up the road. The post office is near the downtown area, which is probably just 2 miles from where the grocery store is located. Walmart is about 30 minutes away in a nearby town. There are a number of restaurants in town that were very tasty! (Tres Hermanos Mexican Restaurant, Texas Great Country Cafe & Pie Pantry, Milano's Pizza)

This is an older park and does have a fair share of issues. We first found a 50 Amp FHU spot that didn't have the best of shade and was pretty warm, but then we decided to drive around a bit and scout out a better location that had more shade, as well as a stronger cell signal. We found a spot in the "D" section closer to the entrance of the park that suited our needs better and came available just a couple of days after we got there. The ladies in the office were very understanding and we got moved over there without any hassle at all. There was no payable park WiFi available, and the free WiFi was only available at the welcome center or adult lounge. This made getting a better cell signal a top priority, so Kyle's work could be done without complication. The site itself was fairly level, not too much had to be done to maintain such. There was plenty of room between sites so you didn't feel like you were right on top of your neighbor.

At the time they had a family pool and and adult pool/hot tub & lounge. We spent a couple of evenings at the pools and met some great folks in the park during our stay. They were both well maintained and very clean. The bathrooms nearby were also very well kept. The adult lounge was located upstairs and had a large table (14 chairs), a couple couches, a TV, piano, several jigsaw puzzles and a small wet bar area. The activity center near the family pool was not open when we were there, but did have a cafe/kitchen attached to it. 

They have a wide variety of activities available throughout the park. Such as:

• Horseshoes
• Outdoor Checkers
• Putt Putt Golf/Mini-Golf
• Volleyball Court
• Pickleball Courts
• Tennis Courts
• Basketball Courts
• Hiking Trails
• Lake Access
• Horse Trailer Parking/Horse Pen
• On-site laundry room (credit or debit card operated machines)

While staying at the park later in the year we purchased an inflatable kayak for me to have for some exercise and recreation. The lake access is towards the back of the property, about 30 ft from a parking area. I was able to set up & launch from there and enjoyed a great paddle on Lake Whitney in December 2018 (and never fell in/tipped over!!). 

While this park has limited 50 Amp FHU (full hook-ups), several annual siteholders (people whose RV stays on a site in the park year round and they pay a separate fee to "own" that particular site full-time and said site is not available to transient travelers), and several sites with bags over the pedestals denoting need for the electrical to be worked on to be operational; this is still a park we would visit again. The ease of access to family is a top reason we have been to this park several times over the year. We've been fortunate that the other times we have visited Lake Whitney Thousand Trails, we have gotten that same site in the "D" loop. 

Around Christmas, we even managed to rent a cabin while we were staying in the park for our kids to come down and spend a week with us for the holidays. They were smaller cabins (small kitchen, bedroom with full bed and bunk bed, full bathroom with shower, living/dining area with fold out couch, TV with cable, and BBQ grill with propane). Picture below is from their website and not a picture of the cabin the kids stayed in while visiting.

Due to our previous engagements in Texas, we decided to stay in the state and go about visiting all seven of the Thousand Trails parks in the state before headed outward at the end of the year, so the next several posts will reflect those travels.

Happy adventuring friends! Hope to see you on the road!

Gertrude Goes Into Planning Mode

While we were staying in Canyon Lake, TX we bought a membership into Thousand Trails. We weighed the pros and cons of a used membership, new membership, or just sticking with the camping pass (with a lot of help from RVLove's post about their experience). We ended up going with an Elite Connections new membership for us. We were living this full-time life and were excited to see if we could do this whilst staying in the system most, if not all, of the year. If you are thinking about a new membership, please don't hesitate to reach out to Doug Smith for advice. He is a Membership Specialist and all-around great guy! **No smarmy sales guy that will leave you with an ick feeling.**

We are just about a year later, since buying the membership, and we've only been out of the system a total of about a month. *We "moochdocked" at a friends' home for a few weeks then stayed in an park out of the system for about a week. I often get asked how I go about planning our trips and where we will be going. Since my official role is as navigator, I'm often in charge of taking care of this travel outlook. From time to time we have a certain event we'd like to attend in a region (i.e. Rockland Lobsterfest at the end of Summer). Below is a picture of my basic setup whilst I'm in the throws of this endeavor.

I have my calendar open to the time I need to account for, a pencil for marking the possible destinations in the calendar (they only go in ink once booked/confirmed online), a piece of paper with the outline of travel and approximate drive times between parks, my computer open with windows for the Thousand Trails website (for booking online), a map we made of all the parks in the system - shown below (and some personal places of interest), and Google maps to plan the approximate drive times.

I try to keep our drive times down to 5 hours or less, if possible. We always need backup plans of different parks we could stay in, just in case the first choice isn't available. I like to plan out at least 4 months in advance, and tend to get antsy when I don't have things in ink in the calendar for that window of time.

From time to time I am not able to book online, or I have other questions, so I will call the company's membership service line (keep in mind they are NOT open on weekends. I believe their hours are 7am-7pm EST Monday through Friday) and generally the folks on the phone are very helpful in getting me booked into the campgrounds I'm seeking and/or answering any questions we might have along the way.

When we get ready to move to a new campground, we use an RV specific GPS program called Sygic. It installs directly to a smartphone and has many features we haven't been able to find on the free GPS programs out there like Google Maps or Waze, for example. The feature we like the most if that you can program it with your RV's dimensions and it will be sure to avoid bridges/underpasses that are too short for your rig. No more low clearance panic attacks! Yay!! We can avoid unpaved roads, toll roads, and the like as well. Sygic will also take into account whether you have a gas or diesel engine and gas stations along the route that can accommodate your needs. We have had some scares and tricky maneuvering before getting this app because we didn't have any way of knowing the bridge heights until we were upon them. We call this GPS program "Emma".

That about wraps it up for how we figure out where we're going, when we're going, and how we plan to get there. Happy adventuring everyone! Hope to see you on the road!

Gertrude Goes to Mystic Quarry

First visit: June/July 2018
Length of stay: 1 month

After we'd fulfilled out obligations to family in the Houston area, we decided we wanted to spend a whole month near New Braunfels, TX. I'd done some research into RV parks in the area and happened upon Mystic Quarry The price was right for a month's stay (more reasonable by a few hundred dollars than most of the other places I'd checked in to for our adventure.

This resort, and I do use the word resort intentionally, is located in Canyon Lake, TX. We arrived under some duress, as we were experiencing some engine troubles where poor Gertrude would simply not start after being turned off. The folks there could not have been sweeter! They were ready to finagle a solution to get us into our spot using a tractor to push us there, but luckily she started up and Kyle was able to maneuver into our home base for the next few weeks without any troubles. Once there, we could take things apart, order the parts needed, and get her all fixed up. (Turned out to be the Idle Air Control valve that needed replacing.)

When we drove into the park we noticed cabins, tipis, bocce ball courts, swimming pool, hammocks, as well as the RV sites. I went in to greet the owners and saw a nicely stocked store with some basic needs, plenty of adult beverages in the cooler, ice cream in a freezer, and some great souvenirs. Then beside the check-in desk there was a beer TAP! Yep! You read that right, they had a choice of 2 different beers ON TAP! Naturally, that was a top priority for Kyle after the drama of Gertrude upon arriving and finding our site. The beers were VERY reasonably priced as well! (This became a regular pilgrimage in the afternoon for me to retrieve him a brewski..Ha!)

We explored around the park and found they had an observation deck tucked behind a couple of the cabins that we could sit up and enjoy the evenings and a cold beverage at the end of the day. On weekends there was a live band playing in the park. Another great perk was tubing the Guadalupe River. This activity was located a few miles from the park. We were able to pay for this excursion through the park itself and a bus would be called that would pick us up and take us down to the river, issue us our tubes, and then bring us back to the park after we'd finished our floating. I think we did this 3 or 4 times. Hehe!

Another reason we wanted to be in the area was due to its proximity to Schlitterbahn Waterpark. This has been a favorite destination of mine growing up and had become a great vacation spot for our whole family through the years. We ended up buying season passes and went almost daily for a few hours in the evenings after Kyle finished up with work. The drive was about 30 minutes from our RV Park to the waterpark. It being the end of the day, parking was usually easy to find close to the entrance and the crowds weren't bad either. 

We went to nearby Gruene, TX for dinner one night. We had both of the kiddos down for a stay and floated the river with them as well as trips to Schlitterbahn. Whitewater Amphitheater is a concert venue down the road and on concert nights Mystic Quarry would provide (for a fee) a shuttle to and from the venue so you didn't need to worry with fighting the crowds to park (or needing one of you to be the designated driver). 

We highly recommend this park, if you're in the area. The current owners acquired it several years ago and have gone above and beyond to make it a top notch place to stay! They also have tent camping opportunities. Check out their website for more information. Below are a few pictures I collected, some from their website. We would DEFINITELY revisit this resort if staying in the area again.

Gertrude Goes to Lake Conroe Thousand Trails

A little over a year ago we set out on a new adventure. My husband got a full-time remote working position in the tech field and we made the decision to travel full-time! We had a family wedding near Houston, TX so we decided to go to a Thousand Trails campground outside of Conroe, TX (as we still had a Camping Pass (Zone Pass) with the company.

We drove to the campground and were pleased to find that it is located pretty close to Interstate 10 and just outside of town. LOTS of shopping, dining, and grocery options. Check-in was pretty easy overall/ We arrived at the gate and were instructed of an area just inside the park where we could unhook the car from the motorhome. The map we received had the sites marked as either 30 Amp FHU, 30/50 Amp FHU, 50 Amp, Cabins, and Tent camping. Being that it was June, we definitely wanted 50 Amp, as the Texas heat will be relentless and both A/Cs will be getting their workouts! There is a $3/day charge for 50 amp, but this wasn't a dealbreaker and far more reasonable than paying retail for a park.

A few months before, they had completed a section right beside the ranger station that were outfitted with concrete pads and attached concrete patios. There was little to no shade in the area, so we went ahead and ventured further into the park. We found there to be a decent number of annual site holders within the park, but still plenty of available sites to choose from. We settled in for two weeks and explored the park. 

The pool and hot tub (I believe both were open until 10 pm daily) were somewhat central to the park and just a short walk to the cafe/activity center. The sales office and laundry were also nearby the cafe/activity center. How available machines were depended on when you visited the laundry facilities. The washers and dryers took both quarters or you could scan your debit or credit card. There wasn't a lot of room in the 2 laundry rooms for folding, one long table in each with a couple of chairs set up. The machines all worked well and usually only required one cycle of each to finish a standard sized load. There was always plenty of activity in the pool and activity center throughout the day. On weekends there was a snow-cone truck set up to provide some relief from the heat.

They have direct access to the lake with a sandy beach area where you could swim. There is also several boat slips in the cove next to the park. They had a small ramp where people could launch their own boats, also. Nearby this ramp, there was a great fish cleaning station. We didn't take advantage of the kayak rentals while there, but feel this would have been a wonderful location for such an activity!

The park overall is very clean and well kept. This is one of the premier parks for the company, so they seem to be making improvements all the time and really doing their best to "put their best foot forward." There were multiple bathroom and shower facilities located throughout the campground. There is pay for WiFi available in the park and it was very workable and we were even able to stream Netflix or the like. Both AT&T and Verizon had good connections in the area.

We will definitely stay here again for multiple reasons, one being that it is about an hour and a half from our son and my parents/sister.

Here are a couple more pictures from around the campground:

Gertrude Goes More Modern

The last post was a repeat, this one is ALL NEW! It has been about 5 years since the original "first" post and we've made a few changes.

Let me start with a rundown of the crew...

Kyle: he is the one that usually drives Gertrude and is an all-around handy-man around the place. He's worked on electrical problems, building, engine issues, plumbing, and more. He got a job in the tech world in Spring 2018 that is a full-time remote position.

Dorsey: (your narrator) I tend to handle navigation, prettying things up, cooking, cleaning, shopping, and general research. I do not have a traditional job right now, so I guess I'm "kind of" retired, though we like to say I act as Kyle's personal assistant.

Gertrude: the RV, motorhome

And that's it. Unfortunately, Daisy Mae, our sweet chihuahua passed away during the summer of 2015. We decided that perhaps this was a sign that we were meant to do the full-time RV life without a pet. Our daughter is living and working in North Texas. She has a precious cat (mix breed) named Batman that we lovingly refer to as the "grandkitten." Our son is out of the Navy and living/working in Central Texas while going to school.

Since Kyle got the full-time remote job we decided to hit the road and explore this beautiful country! Most of my posts will consist of campground reviews of the places we've stayed, but I'm going to try to include some of the fun things we've done along the way.

In the years since we sold the house and today, we worked on many different projects on Gertrude to make her more suited to our tastes and needs. Here is a brief slideshow of our before and after...keep in mind these improvements we made over the course of a few years. We changed the color scheme from pale green/beige to maroon/cream/gold in the main cabin and bedroom. The bathroom is done in white/gold/maroon. The kitchen is done in different shades of brown/cream/maroon.

Gertrude goes to the Bells

The first post of this blog is actually a repeat of a post I originally made a number of years ago when we first acquired our dear Gertrude..back in 2014....without further ado.

Let me begin by telling you who about Gertrude. She is a 36’ Georgie Boy Cruise Air Motorhome. Every rig needs a name, and Gertrude is hers. Why THAT name you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Years ago when my daughter was born my mother-in-law decided an appropriate nickname for said child was either Gertrude or Agnes. Neither are in any way a part of her name, nor are they family names. This tended to drive me crazy, but what’s a mother-in-law without a little bit of crazy mixed in. Ha!

We acquired Gertrude on Sunday, 4 May 2014 in Galveston, TX. She was born in 1999 and has had two foster families before us. She’s a strong woman with a v-10 gas powered heart. She’s modestly decorated (I’m sure that’ll change soon enough) with all kinds of bells and whistles (that we’re still discovering). She has a few minor issues that we need to work on, but nothing requiring major surgery.

While I’m at it, let me intrude Gertrude’s traveling companions. First there is Kyle, my husband. He’s a 40something guy from small town Texas. He went to school in Central Texas and graduated from Texas A&M University-College Station in 1995. Whoop!! Gig ‘em, Ags! He works in telecommunications. He enjoys being outside and traveling, namely hunting and hiking, or just relaxing with a cold beverage. I’m Dorsey, an ALMOST 40something gal from Texas also. I grew up around Bryan-College Station and Victoria, TX. I’m a homemaker and currently spend a lot of my time volunteering with a JROTC group in Wylie, TX. Kyle and I got together in 1994. Over the next few years, we had two kiddos, Joshua and Hannah. Joshua is currently in the U.S. Navy and stationed in Jacksonville, FL. Hannah is still in high school and is set to graduate June 2015 and go onto college. She wants to be a teacher/college professor eventually. Our four-legged traveling mate is Daisy Mae. She is a Chihuahua that was born in January of 2001.

Her maiden voyage as a member of the Bell family was taken on 8 May 2014 to Yegua Creek Park on Lake Somerville in Somerville, TX. The night before making camp at Somerville, we slept here with her parked in my uncle’s yard (he kept Gertrude for us until Mother’s Day weekend). We weren’t hooked up to any power or water for the first night. It was a little muggy, but we survived. The morning of the 8^th, I needed to take Daisy out for her morning constitutional. There are a lot of sticker-burs in my uncle’s yard and I couldn’t recall where I’d taken off my shoes the night before. So I just lowered Daisy (clad in her harness) onto the grass and I took a seat on the steps. Sitting there, I realized there was a growing need to free myself from some gas build-up. So I leaned a bit to the left and let ‘er rip. Within a matter of seconds I hear a loud *BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!* Kyle comes from the back bedroom wondering what I’ve done (“Woman, what did you DO?!?!”). I told him, “I don’t know!?!?” Then we realized, I’d set off the Gas Leak Detector located to the right of the steps. We both laughed and shrugged “Well, at least we know it works.” I guess it detects carbon monoxide, propane, AND methane. Ha!!

The grand plan with Gertrude is that when my daughter graduates from high school she is moving into an apartment with roommates. The husband and I are going to sell our sticks & bricks house and move into the motorhome full-time. Over the next 13 months will be spent preparing the house for sale and paring down our belongings to be able to fit into Gertrude. I, honestly, am looking forward to not having 3000 sq. ft. worth of stuff to keep up with/keep clean. There are NO plans to have a storage unit at all, if it won’t fit or one of the kids don’t want it (or can keep it) then it goes to someone else’s home.