Enjoying Texas (16th -25th March)
We hit the road north to the Colorado Bend State about 2h
north or Austin. http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/colorado-bend
As the weekend was over we decided to go to a service shop
to check out the engine failure codes.
After waiting for about 6 hours, around 3.30 pm we finally
hit the road north…, we paid about 600 USD to change 2 batteries and make the
oil change. The batteries have 875 CCA each which means you can run a small car
on it without gasJ. The sensor error apparently was trigged
because the battery did not have enough power for the controller. As the
accelerator did not react I tried to force it with pedal to the metal which
created more issues. This send more error messages to the system and that was
the reason the check engine light went on. We just hope that was it for this
incident and I am still in shock on how much oil that Truck needs. We were
wrong as we found out later.
Around 6pm after some shopping we arrived at the camp site
in the middle of nowhere…. No cell phone, no internet connection in 10 miles around
the park. This was to be a test for independent camping as the state park did
not have electricity or water hook up. The campground was right on the Colorado
River … really nice. The campers here were really different of what we had
experienced in the last 2 weeks. Tent camping, no power or water… so mainly
families with their kids enjoying the spring breaks going fishing, hiking, biking….
Having a camp fire in the evening…. Just the way we wanted to have our
vacations as kids….
The next day we wanted to do a 16 miles (24k) mountain bike
loop. According to the park rangers some areas were a bit bumpy, but I took
normal American instructions and thought it is going to be challenging. I was so
wrong…. The route was mainly a red trail for hikers, for bikes really difficult
to pass…. At some point they even stated… buckle up your bike….. But it was a
beautiful tour in between of oak trees and cactus going up and down the
streams…. We really enjoyed it.
Impressions from Colorado Bend State Park:
On Wednesday we decided to change plans. The original plan was going south towards Balmorea State park (Natural hot springs) and Big Bend National Park. But reviewing the map it was about a 700 miles detour as we wanted to see the Northern State Parks and from there to the west to Albuquerque, NM. The thing was we had no phone or internet connection in this area so we stopped in the next bigger town about 40 miles from the park @ Mc Donald’s (My favorite place L) to use their wifi connection to make the changes in the park reservations. It is unknown why Steffi does not like Mc Donald’s but that Big Mac was gone in no time. Robert really loves when his LTE connection goes south and Phone service stops . Verizon does not seem to be popular in Texas. Tomorrow we have to fill our first propane bottle. Unbelievable that thing ( 30 pounds ) was good for 2 weeks cooking, cooling and heating.
The plan was done … 2 nights in Abilene, middle of nowhere, center of Wild West and oil fields…. In a RV park to relax and organize our camper better then 4-5 nights in 2 state parks in northern Texas
Copper Breaks State park http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/copper-breaks and Palo Duro Canyon State park http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon. Our plan is to make intervals with internet connections bigger and only have 1 “all inclusive” stop per week. Meaning internet, laundry, hot shower, etc.
After some shopping in Abilene we arrived at the Buck Creek RV park http://www.buckcreekrvpark.com/. There were mainly permanent guests, mainly workers from oil related businesses in this park . We had our first challenge with water pressure…. So far we had all places with regular “home” pressure around 30-40 PSI. In this park we were told the pressure is 80 PSI so we should use a water regulator…… we did some tests but it was too risky so we decided to fill up our fresh water tanks and use those, without being connected. Next day we made “inventory” of our staff we would not use we put on storage on the roof of the camper and other stuff we took down…. So finally we had our camping table and chairs available and could mount the outside gas grill.
Enjoying grill and Abilene sunset:
The day after (Friday) we woke up with 50F and rain… so it was easy to hit the road again… north to the Copper Breaks State Park. Was kind in the middle of nowhere…. Miles and miles with poor vegetation, in any case watered farmland or some lonely cattle… The weather was still miserable and Steffi was still ill as she got a stomage flue the night before…. So it was an easy day without action…. The next day after the fog faded away the weather got better and we decided to do a mounting biking trail. In the State park office they said there are lots of good trails…. So we were looking forward to explore them. The trails were a lot of fun and we could use the mountain bikes for what they were built. The park is famous for there Longhorns and we were able to feed them.... but Robert didn't want to give the lady Longhorn a kiss as suggested by the Ranger :)
Impressions of Copper Break State Parks:
The following day we made our way to Amarillo were we visited the world famous Restaurant where you can eat a 72 oz (2kg!!) steak for free if you can manage to eat it in less the 1 hour otherwise it’s 72 $ J…. The record stands with a woman with 120 lbs (ca. 58kg) doing 2 steaks in less than 15 min. We have looked at some of the guys trying it and they did not look too good after half of the steak J Why would you really want to try it and make an ass out of yourself in front of hundreds of people?
On the road & The Big Texan Steak Ranch Amarillo:
We enjoyed a small steak and continued our trip after visiting Wal-Mart and the gas station to the Palo Duro State Park. Little grand canyon I should say. Also I should mention that our truck issue is still in existence and makes our life not any easier. We have to find a service station that can take care of it without taking our last money J Back to the state park… it is all you can image about 900 meter above sea level during the day warm and cold at night and it looks like the great canyon just smaller. The first evening we enjoyed a nice sunset on top of a mountain and the next two days we took the mountain bikes to explore the trails. By the way, it makes sense to take stuff with you to repair a flat tire or you end up as me who had to carry the bike for 2 hours downhill instead of enjoying the ride. Luckily some nice girls in their Truck took me back to the camp site so I saved myself another hour of walking . Life thought me a lesson I guess J Tomorrow its back to Amarillo.
Impressions of “Little Grand Canyon” – Palo Duro State Park:
Of course the truck started to give us problems again…. Luckily it was after we made it out of the canyon so after we went to a RV museum which showed RV’s from the 40’s to the 70’ s, really cool, we got a recommendation from an local working there where we could get the problem fixed. So we went there stayed for 3 hours spend 760$ for a new accelerator sensor ….. damn what happened to the good old accelerator wire…. Now only computer talk to each other and if one has a problem you are down or limp along… At 4:30pm it was fixed ( hopefully ), I picked Steffi up at the Wal-Mart next door and we went to a RV park enjoyed some time in the available Jacuzzi. The wind was so bad that I had to put the support legs of the camper down so we didn’t feel like on a boat. Tomorrow we are off to the Lake Meredith for 2 days but first we have to return to Wal-Mart were I bought the wrong tubes for my mountain bike. We also have to get the solar panel installed so we can finally stay in the wild for several days at the time.
RV Museum Amarillo
