The Trip Begins

Our rig at Rainbow's End RV camp Livingston TX

The restaurant we had lunch at in Livingston TX I think I waddled out the place after lunchand dessert, dessert was my fav bread pudding hmmm :)
Our happy little dog Spencer

So, Samantha comes in the door and states "We are leaving this cold is to much!!! I can't stand this weather! " Okay says I, let's start packing and sure enough just as we are packing the RV an ice and snow storm starts and the Real Estate Agent shows up with someone to look at the farm. I figure I better stay and see if there are any questions and sure enough there are. With all that we got a late start and in hind sight maybe should have waited till the next day to leave on the trip.

We got to Nashville just as the sun was going down and not knowing any better called the KOA in Nashville and booked a night. We were so green we didn't ask the price for one night. When I was told I was a bit taken aback $49. Then again we were near the the Grand Ol' Opery thingy and I guess it is a prime location.

My first time hooking up the utilities to the RV was shall we say interesting, the electricity was fine, the when I turned on the water I could hear this dripping sound so I walked around the RV and there was a flood of water leaking out of the passenger side rear under the where the bunk is located. All I could do was turn the water off and disconect the hose. It was a cold night and I didn't want a cold and wet RV to come back to. We set off to Camper's World and bought a portable LP heater and then went to dinner where the theme was Old Frontier Keel Boat decor.
Not very impressive with bare metal plates and cups and corn bread served in small skillets.
When we got back to the RV it was dark, cold and windy. Our first night on the road, no water, so no toilet, what a deal.

After the water line leak I was left wondering what else was going to break in the RV, not a good thought to take to bed on a dark, cold night.

The next day was a long day of driving and got us to Texarkana, where we stayed over night at the parking lot next to Wal-Mart. We did a little shopping and walked the dogs we had some dinner and made ready for our night at Wally World. Large trucks shared our part of the parking lot and in the night sometime another RV arrived. In the morning we walked the dogs fueled up and headed to Livingston Texas.

We got to Livingston TX and with the help of a clerk at a convenience store found our RV park. I wanted to visit the Escapees RV park in Livingston for some time, earlier I had become a member of the club and was excited about meeting other SKP's. The park was sort of a let down nothing special just a lot of very expensive RV's and gravel sites. We walked the dogs around and looked the place over. There were some nice features such as the place for those RV'rs who had hung up the keys to live in an assisted living area and the mail forwarding section. We got our mail box and found out that we needed our Social Security Cards before we could become Texans. I guess we will have to do that on another trip.

Our RV needed the interior water lines repaired and tune up, oil change, exhaust leak fixed and a few other minor things fixed. Wow the bill was astounding over $800 dollars. That kind of took my breath away. Still the old beast needs other work as well. But that will have to be later.

We drove around Livingston and got to know the place a little got to see the lake and the town. Kind of busy place lots of traffic for a little place.

The biggest disappointment was the SKP's, I had been told how friendly they were and to expect a hug when you meet them so I was braced for the friendly type of RV'rs. None where to be found at Livingston, our dogs got more attention then we ever did, some of the early walkers carried treats for dogs with them and offered the dog's they met a treat, that was nice of them. As for the other folks staying at the park it was like we were not good enough for them or something. We would wave and smile and sometimes even get a wave back, but no conversation or introduction or exchange what so ever, it felt strange there. We left for Houston and the bayou east of Houston. I don't feel like I belong to anything special and regret the money I spent on the membership, live and learn I guess.